Anglers may notice a large pair of antennas connected to a battery box and solar panel at Winchester Lake this year. This contraption is a radio telemetry receiver, and its purpose is to track radio tags, which were surgically implanted in tiger muskie stocked at Winchester Lake. 

The tags are equipped with a short antenna, a small battery supplying about 350 days of power, and a motion sensor that tells the receiver if the fish is alive or dead. Every 10 seconds the tags in the fish send out a radio frequency similar to your car's FM radio, that only the receiver sitting on the waters edge can pick up. 

The receiver then logs how many pings and the signal strength from each tag in its memory bank. These detections indicate which direction the fish is and how far away it is. Fisheries biologists will monitor the receiver and download the tracking data every other week throughout the study period.