Detroit Lakes At Tail End of Walleye Spawning Season

The walleye spawning project is wrapping up in Detroit Lakes.
 
The Minnesota DNR helps repopulate the lakes to keep anglers happy every year.

We stopped by the hatchery to see the different stages of a walleye’s life.
 
A few weeks ago in Detroit Lakes traps were set up to catch spawning walleyes.
 
“We started very early, fish responded in the area right around Easter, and we stopped taking eggs just a few days ago,” says Minnesota DNR Area Fisheries Specialist Mandy Erickson.
 
There are jars with fish in different stages of life.

It takes an average of 21 days for the eggs to hatch.

The walleye fry swimming out of its egg and heads to the top.

Even though this is earliest they’ve ever started the season, the ever-changing weather stretched it a lot longer than expected.

Instead of collecting eggs for nine days, it took 22 days.

This brings some challenges in the hatchery because its managing different stages of development.
 
Erickson explains, “This year, we had brand new eggs come and we had fish that were fully developed and hatching and ready to leave the hatchery at the same time.”
 
Once the walleyes hatch, the DNR comes to stock the fry or fingerling into body of waters like Little Floyd Lake.
 
“Today we put in 95,000. Even if we got 9,500 of those to survive, that’s still a lot of fish for anglers to take, especially on a lake this size,” says DNR Fisheries Area Supervisor Nathan Olson.
 
The hatchery is putting walleye into lakes that don’t have the natural habitat to support a self-sustained fishery.
 
Olson says, “We hope they survive, but we’re not always successful but hopefully if you stock year after year, you get a couple of good years in there so people can them home to have some good fish.”
 
Officials say that it does take a few years before the walleye fry will get big enough to catch.

But you can bet that they’re out there every year stocking the lakes.