Pike River Hatchery

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The Pike River is now open below the dam and out as far as Pike Bay with an open channel also open to about half way to Duffy Island!

I am starting to see a few fish surfacing in the river in the evening, (probably suckers).

The fish traps are ready to be put out as far as I can tell. Won't be long now!

I will keep you posted on the progress there.

Cliff

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks as usual Cliff.

Reading about the hatchery is spring ritual, like seeing the trees bud and the birds return.

[guideman]

You would never know it's spring the way the snow is coming down right now. ')

"Ace"

[Cliff Wagenbach]

14 hours ago, guideman said:

You would never know it's spring the way the snow is coming down right now. ')

"Ace"

There is about 3" on my deck already!

Make that 6" this morning!

Cliff

[SkunkedAgain]

Lie to us, please

[guideman]

It's snowing again. Where is this thing called spring?

"Ace"

"It's just fishing man"

 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I saw the Hatchery crew working over there today. Getting ready I guess!

Cliff

[SkunkedAgain]

I wonder how the sucker catch will go this season.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

SA,

There is usually a very good sucker run at the hatchery.

It looks like they will probably get the nets in soon enough to get a good catch again this spring!

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Just returned from checking the progress at the hatchery.

They dropped the trap nets for the first time a couple of hours ago!

Said that they checked the holding net after about 1/2 hour and already had 3 or 4 walleyes in it!

River water is only about 34 degrees yet.

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Stopped at the hatchery this morning again.

They were milking the very first walleyes for the season!

So far they have netted and sold around 1,700 pounds of suckers.

They have been averaging around 400# to 800# of suckers per day now.

Cliff

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The walleye run is in full force now.

There are already about 300 quarts of eggs in the batteries and that does not include today's take!

Lots of big fish in the traps this morning. Even the males were larger then normal I think!

_____________________________________________________________________Talked to the Hatchery guys a few minutes ago and they think that tomorrow may be their last day of netting!

Cliff

Edited April 19, 2016 by Cliff Wagenbach

[gunner55]

Still netting over here as well, I talked to somebody that's on Little Cutfoot yesterday & they said that they were still manning the nets.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The walleye egg take is over already at the Pike River Hatchery!

They harvested around 700 quarts of eggs.

They will be pulling the nets tomorrow.

Cliff

 

[guideman]

I talked to one of the DNR crew at the Y today and he said it was the fastest egg take he's ever done.  Big numbers of 14 to 16" fish in Pike bay.  Sounds like good news for Walleye fishermen this season.

"Ace"

"It's just fishing man"

[neptune]

Anyone know the status of the hatchery? 

[delcecchi]

I saw on the lake association page that they, the lake association, were going to start selling suckers on Monday.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

I think that they put the trap nets in yesterday!

Should be fish in the trap this morning! They are probably not ready to spawn yet but it will not be long!

Cliff

[neptune]

I talked to a DNR guy at the y store this morning and he said they were operational but things would really get going later this week. I'll be bringing the kids by sometime today probably just to check it out.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Today was the first day of the sucker sales at the hatchery.

They had around 1,400 pounds in the trap yesterday. I saw quite a few trucks there this morning.

They also had caught around 600 smaller male walleyes yesterday!

Cliff

[dgdg]

It was a great morning to visit the hatchery.  Things were hopping.  Saw many, many good size walleyes.  If you need a little peak check out the video clip provided here:

 

http://everettbaylodge.com/lake-vermilion-walleye-hatchery-2017/

[Wheres_Walter]

darn that gives a fella hope!  Thanks for sharing dgdg

Edited April 14, 2017 by Wheres_Walter

[cartway]

Is the run done?

[gunner55]

They were done on Cutfoot on 4/20

[cartway]

Is the Vermilion egg capture complete?

[gunner55]

The video shown in the link posted above shows most of the fish they're handling going back because they're not ready or too green. The video was from 4/14 so I would bet they are done as that was 1 1/2 weeks ago. Cutfoot was done in less than a week. Cliff will be able to tell you for sure when then finished but I'd guess they were done by the end of last week. 

[Spearing Machine]

Yes, they are all done at the hatchery. Finished up two weeks ago this Saturday (4/15). Just waiting for eggs to ripen and hatch to go back out to area water bodies.

[trolloni]

They should not be  going  back to area waters or traded to  other dnr  districts they should go right back into LAKE VERMILLION !!!  Don't ya think its time the dnr   should start to listen  to the paying public, us ! [trappers, hunters,  fisherpeople ,boaters and snowmobilers ] 

[Cliff Wagenbach]

At least10% of all eggs hatched at the Pike River Hatchery are returned to Vermilion waters every year. According to DNR statistics that percentage is usually a much higher survival rate then if they had let the walleyes spawn naturally!

I consider that a good trade off!

Cliff

[TrueNorth]

Creel/lake surveys show Vermilion is very healthy and the DNR continues to use new technology.  It's only going to get better.  If we listened to arm-chair QB's, fishing would be as shi#TY as the West side.