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| Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota, near Garrison Dam (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
North
Dakota Game and Fish Department fisheries personnel, along with staff
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fish hatcheries, recently
completed stocking 9.8 million walleye fingerlings in 113 lakes across
the state.
Jerry
Weigel, fisheries production and development section leader for the
Game and Fish Department, said this year’s walleye goal required
exceptional production from nearly every hatchery pond in the state.
“Overall,
we were able to meet every request with Garrison Dam National Fish
Hatchery contributing 8.7 million fingerlings and Valley City National
Fish Hatchery 1.1 million fingerlings. On average the fish were some of
the largest in recent years,” Weigel said.
Stocking
goals for each water body can differ depending on need. Some of the
notable stockings include: Lake Sakakawea – 4 million; Stump Lake –
577,000; Lake Darling – 450,000; Devils Lake – 367,000; Heart Butte
Reservoir – 325,000; and Lake Ashtabula – 262,000.
“This year’s efforts finished in the top five of most waters stocked and most fingerlings stocked,” Weigel said.
Stocking
conditions were great, Weigel said, with lots of cool water given this
year’s season was a week earlier than normal. “We had all the fish
stocked before this recent hot spell set, which should help increase the
chances of good survival,” he added. “We’ll know more this fall when
crews check on survival rate of the stocked fish and determine the
amount of natural reproduction.”
