(Storm Lake) The Iowa DNR has wrapped up their walleye egg collection efforts in Storm Lake.
Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes reports operations concluded on Friday. “We were out on the lake for seven nights.” Hayes says, “This walleye netting operation is kind of all hands on deck for the Fisheries section. We have a goal 140 million walleye fry. We need to either race fingerlings or advanced fingerlings or stock as fry. That takes 1,900 quarts of eggs.”
Weather dictates when and where eggs get collected. 200 quarts were gathered in Storm Lake. “Things never warmed up. The water temperatures backed up on us while we were here.” Hayes says, “Storm Lake is a shallow natural lake and gets wind swept pretty easy. The west wind which we had several nights kept us away from some of the best places to net. We had to net the west shore to avoid those white caps.”
Hayes says the Clear Lake location had better success with over 200 quarts of eggs.
