(State) The Iowa DNR’s statewide walleye egg collection effort is getting started.
Netting will take place at the Iowa Great Lakes, Storm Lake, and Clear Lake. “This is an all hands on deck effort from the fisheries bureau. When the walleyes are spawning we have to get after them. Our walleye populations in the state of Iowa rely really heavily on stocking. The only naturally reproducing walleye population in the state that sustains any kind of level of angling pressure is the upper Mississippi River. Other than that we’re stalking a lot of walleyes in the state.”
Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes says anglers have a high preference for walleye. Hundreds of thousands of eggs are needed each year to keep populations healthy. “This time of year the walleyes come in to spawn and we try to intercept them to collect eggs for the hatcheries. We have a goal, for the two hatcheries that we use at Spirit Lake and Rathbun, all total we need to collect 1,600 quarts of eggs to fill those hatcheries.”
From that, they hope to produce 150 million walleye fry to use for stocking. Most will be introduced as fry, a small percentage will be grown to two inch fingerlings, and fewer yet will be raised to an eight inch fingerling. “The walleye fry, if you can get them to survive that’s your biggest bang for your buck. You can put a lot of them out there at very low cost. If they survive you are going to produce some good walleye fishing. The downside is some years they don’t do very well, but they years that they do, you’re glad that you included walleye fry in the stocking.”
Iowa trails only Minnesota as the top producers of walleye fry in the United States.
