Pike River Hatchery

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I am starting this years hatchery reports today.

I just returned from the hatchery and Duane told me that they will be dropping the trap nets today!

They expect to have their first catch by tomorrow morning. Duane said that he expects the first fish to be suckers as is usual.

Cliff

[leech~~]

Do they have a live camera down to watch?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Do they have a live camera down to watch?

No.

Cliff

[NilesBayHusker]

Duane Williams said they pulled the net the AM. Very few fish. He thinks if it warms up a little, they should be running by this week-end.

[Bandit155]

Cliff, Who does a guy contact to find out when they will be selling suckers?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

You can contact the Lake Vermilion Sportsman Club or watch this forum. I will post as soon as I know when the sales start.

Cliff

[laker1]

Just curious,what is the cost for suckers?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I just came back from the hatchery.

They have about 1,200 pounds of suckers in the holding nets. The sucker sale will start tomorrow morning. The cost is $5 per. 100# and is on a first come - first serve basis.

There are now a little over 100 female walleyes in the holding traps. About 1/4 of them are already ripe and egg stripping will start tomorrow morning! The largest walleye in the trap was a whopping 31 inches, with quite a few more that were 27" to 28" fish!

They expect to get around 5 quarts of eggs from the first batch of fish.

Cliff

[NilesBayHusker]

Cliff,

As I won't be back up to the Lake for about a week, can you tell me how long the sucker sale lasts? Will I still be able to buy some suckers in a week to ten days from now?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

There is a good chance that there may still be suckers available in 10 days.

Cliff

[jkrash]

I never understood why they trap and sell the sucker instead of releasing them, seems like some of the larger predator fish are being denied their soft finned forage.

[dgdg]

For anyone who doesn't get a chance to visit the hatchery but is interested in seeing what the set up looks like, follow this link to see a video clip of the DNR operation in action.

http://everettbaylodge.com/lake-vermilion-walleye-hatchery-2015-sneak-peak-everett-bay-lodge/

[Cliff Wagenbach]

jkrash,

They trap and sell the suckers because they eat a huge amount of the walleye eggs that are deposited in the lake naturally. There is also a huge sucker population in the lake, still plenty of them for the pike and musky to eat!

They have been trapping and selling suckers for as long as I can remember and it has not seemed to affect the population of them.

Cliff

[laker1]

The sucker catch is a incidental catch,and for decades like almost a tradition, local people have been getting suckers to smoke or pickle.

Manny of the stripping stations just let them go.

[SkunkedAgain]

Do they run the hatchery all weekend as well? I'd like to bring my daughter over there on Saturday.

[chaffmj]

Well at least it was open yesterday because my wife and a few others went in the morning.

[laker1]

As long as the fish don't decide to take the weekend off,the fisheries crew will be working.

[monstermoose78]

Going to see the big ones is pretty cool!! I went every year I was in college. If you have the chance go.

[StillFishin']

So how many Big Girls are there compared to normals- say 15"-18". I think of a big one being 24" and up.

To expand on this maybe someone can make a guess on the inch size of the fish and the rough number they trap. For example:

12"-10 fish

13"-20 fish

14" 20 fish

24" 5 fish

30" 5 fish

etc.

Not being there I have no idea if they trap 100's or thousands.

Maybe they keep track of this but I'd sure be interested in what comes into they traps.

StillFishin'

[monstermoose78]

Lots of little males, but lots of fish over 24. When I say big I am talking 29 inches and up. I remember them showing off a fish that was pushing 35 inches. The guy said it would be close to state record fish.

[SkunkedAgain]

What time to they start and end typically?

[monstermoose78]

For times I would call the hatchery

[Cliff Wagenbach]

What time to they start and end typically?

They usually start stripping the walleyes around 7:30am. The hatchery is open 24/7 until the last eggs hatch.

They hope to be done stripping after this week end.

Cliff

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks for all of the help guys. My 3yr old and I got over there on Saturday morning to see some sucker sales, tour the Hatchery, and see them pull walleye out of the nets. Very cool and I'm glad that I finally got to see it after a few failed attempts in previous years.

As expected, they pulled out a whopper of a walleye for everyone to see. It was a BIG lady and as broad as a catfish!

[laker1]

Egg take total now?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

They have pulled the trap nets for the year at the hatchery.

Total egg take this year was 827 quarts.

There was a total of 3,416 male walleyes and 2,623 female walleyes trapped this spring.

Cliff

[Skibo]

How do all of those compare to past years?

[NilesBayHusker]

Cliff,

Thanks for the info. How does this compare to previous years?

Thx

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I believe the egg take and number of fish is around average. They could have taken more eggs but did not need them.

The average size of the females that I saw seemed to be larger then most years!

There were at least two fish over 31 inches this year.

Cliff

[CigarGuy]

They have pulled the trap nets for the year at the hatchery.

Total egg take this year was 827 quarts.

There was a total of 3,416 male walleyes and 2,623 female walleyes trapped this spring.

Cliff

Does any of this work benefit Lake Vermilion? Or, do they just take and not put back?