PIERRE, S.D. – This year’s walleye spawning campaign is finished. Game, Fish and Parks fisheries officials collected 84 million walleye eggs, surpassing the projected 80 million eggs needed to meet the 2005 walleye stocking needs. About half of the eggs came from northeast lakes and the other half from Lake Oahe.
According to Jerry Broughton, GFP hatchery manager for Blue Dog Fish Hatchery in Waubay, spawning this year was interesting and took longer than usual. "Collections started on April 7 in the northeast and didn’t finish on Lake Oahe until April 28," he said. "April was warm early in the month, but later on, when the spawn was occurring on Lake Oahe, the weather became unpleasant and challenging - strong winds and cold temperatures each day, along with the extremely low water levels and associated hazards, made for adverse spawning conditions. The crews definitely had some challenges to overcome."This year’s spawning operation was the first year that the department had walleye fry (recently hatched walleye) available at the same time that eggs were arriving. "Having both fry and eggs available simultaneously worked perfectly for the hatchery," Broughton said. "It provides for a longer-than-normal time frame for stocking, which should give us the opportunity to stock under the best available conditions for the fry to survive." Broughton noted that egg collecting could have continued on Lake Oahe for a while, but the goal of 80 million had been reached.
Another interesting note from this year’s campaign is that stocking needs relied heavily on eggs from Lake Oahe for the first time since 1998. "From 1999 through 2004, the majority of the walleye eggs collected came from northeast lakes or were obtained with help from other states," Broughton said. "Because of Lake Oahe’s good fish conditions from the 1980s through mid 1990s, nearly all of our eggs were supplied by Lake Oahe."-GFP-
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