Stocking bigger walleye

[Lee Borgersen]

      Walleye initiative advocates bigger fish for stocking 
 
 
A few decades ago a lot of fishermen were able to recall fishing expeditions on Wisconsin’s big-game waters ending with fresh-caught walleye fillets frying on the range.

But lately lots of fishermen are saying those walleyes are harder to find and catch, and a generation is growing up not knowing a delicious experience.

 
 
Across the state, more and more anglers have complained the walleye numbers are falling as more and more lakes appear to be dominated by bass.

Well, who wants to live in a state with poor walleye fishing … not Wisconsinites. So this spring the state authorized in its biannual budget The Walleye Initiative – $8.2 million for infrastructure improvements, mostly for hatcheries, and $1.3 million for annual operating expenses, to grow lots of bigger walleyes, or extended walleyes, that have a better chance of survival when stocked.

 “I think we all realize the value of the tourism economy for the state, maybe us, even more so,” said John Gozdzialski, northern region director of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in Spooner. “It’s a big deal, and fishing is a big part of that, and northern Wisconsin’s waters have been known for walleye fishing, and due to a number of variables the walleye fisheries has not doing as well as it has done in the past. There has been a recognition that we need to get more walleyes out there into our waters up north.”

According to DNR data, Wisconsin ranks No. 2 in the nation for the number of fish licenses, 1.4 million, with only Florida issuing more. Wisconsin angling results in $2.7 billion to the economy, 30,000 jobs, and $196 million in state and local taxes.

The Walleye Initiative for the hatchery in Spooner will mean $1.75 million for improving the hatchery and more dollars to feed young walleyes minnows so they can grow to 6 to 8 inches, about the size of a large fish stick.

Higher success rate

Gary Lindenberger, northwest hatchery group leader for the DNR, said research over the years has shown a higher success rate releasing the larger walleyes versus tiny fingerlings, more than a 20 percent rate for extended versus less than 1 percent for fingerlings.

The trade-off is more feed, more minnows, more dollars to raise extended-growth walleyes.

“It’s less fish but it is bigger,” said Lindenberger. “You can stock lots of smaller fish, and it doesn’t cost you as much, but it is not returning the results like stocking larger fish.”

Gozdzialski added, “It’s the bang for the buck. Bigger fish, better return.”

It cost eight or nine times as much to raise the six- to eight-inch walleyes than the tiny fingerlings. To grow a walleye out to one pound in a hatchery, Lindenberger said, takes three pounds of minnows and those minnows are not cheap. So far this year, more than $160,000, or $10,000 a week, has been spent at the Spooner hatcher for minnows that are shipped from South Dakota and Arkansas. 

“The small fingerlings we can raise on bug life we develop in the rearing ponds,” Lindenberger said. “The larger fish have to be fed live forage, minnows, and that gets real expensive.”

A fish tank in the hatchery’s public viewing room has the six- to eight-inch walleyes and muskies with several smart small minnows floating near the surface to keep away from the larger fish.

Outside, in one large pond where the extended walleyes are being fed minnows, Neal Rosenberg, hatchery supervisor for the Gov. Tommy Thompson State Fish Hatchery, estimates 13,300 walleyes live and he expects by the time they are collected for restocking about 13,000 will have survived ordinary mortality issues and the birds above who also like fresh-caught walleye.

Doubling capacity

The Spooner hatcher has raised as many as 110,000 extended walleyes in the past, but this year that number will bump up to 250,000. Collectively, all the state DNR hatcheries are expected to grow 400,000 with future improvements raising estimates to 600,000.

In addition to the state hatcheries,  $2 million will be used for one-time funding via competitive grants to help tribal, municipal, and private hatcheries enhance their capabilities to grow walleyes, and $500,000 yearly will be used to buy extended-growth walleyes from private hatcheries, adding an additional 100,000 to 250,000 extended walleyes for stocking.

“It’s really about bringing all the various entities together to help improve the walleye fisheries,” said Gozdzialski. “We are all going to be working together, the state, the tribes and the private entities.”

The extended-growth walleye are only going to be stocked in lakes suitable for walleyes, Gozdzialski said, so the  public shouldn’t expect every lake to be stocked.

“That will be our hatchery managers work with our fish biologist to decide what lakes will get walleyes,” he said. “Not every pond, not every lake in Wisconsin will now have a bunch of walleyes in it.”

“Actually some lakes will still get fingerlings because they have done fine, some of the lakes in the eastern part of the region,” Lindenberger said. “Lake Superior, young fingerlings have done fantastic up there.”

Another $250,000 per year will be used to expand summer Tribal Youth Program in which Ojibwa youth work with DNR staff on natural resource projects such as attacking invasive species or creating fish habitat.

“It really bodes well for relationship between the DNR and tribe; it’s huge,” Gozdzialski said.

Improving Spooner’s hatchery

Lindenberger the Spooner hatchery was redesigned in 1997 to raise small fingerlings and not for the large number of extended-growth walleyes requiring a higher volume of flowing water for the larger fish. That’s where the $1.75 million comes in.

 “That’s a significant amount,” Gozdzialski said. “That’s almost a quarter of that amount ($8.2 million for infrastructure).

“A lot of it is not to increase production, but to protect the production we do have,” Lindenberger said. “We’ve got issues with our supply water coming from the flowage. If we get an exotic in there or some disease like VHS (viral hemorrhagic septicemia, a deadly infectious fish disease) we could be shut down for years, so what we need is a water disinfection system that will kill anything that will come through our waters.”

The DNR officials say it will take two to three years for the extended walleyes once released to grow to the legal length of 15 inches on most lakes.

“This is a long-term investment,” Gozdzialski said. “This is not a one-time fix all. It’s a long term investment.”

Lindenberger said biologist will study the extended-growth walleyes after they are released to learn what makes stocking successful.

Along the way, a lot of larger walleyes are to be grown in Spooner. 

“This year you could say we are the largest walleye facility in Wisconsin,” Rosenberg said.

“Maybe in the country,” Lindenberger added. “Numbers wise we wouldn’t be, but poundage we could be.”

Fishermen hope those Spooner-raised fish keep finding their way to local lakes for many memorable evenings featuring fresh-caught walleye fillets on the fare.