Pike River Hatchery

[Silver Scale]

I just spoke with the DNR and they are looking at the middle of next week to start stripping walleyes. Of course this all depends on mother nature.

[vermilionwally]

Did they mention anything about whether or not Pike Bay will be open for the first week?

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Very good news!

The river is starting to open up again so they may be able to get their trap nets out soon.

Cliff

[Silver Scale]

They have not made a decision yet on whether Pike Bay will be off limits for opener.

[caseymcq]

Short-timer! What happened to the Arrowhead Chapter MI meeting? I am bummed that I won't get to make my annual donation.

Looks like Sunday the temps will be back above 50 so the river should be ready to go pretty quickly. I heard a rumor that they would be putting the nets out by the middle of next week possibly starting the stripping by the weekend.

[Silver Scale]

Arrowhead Chapter MI will not be having a walleye seminar this spring. If you still want to donate you can just send me a check.

[vermilionwally]

Did you guys get any snow up there from that storm we were supposed to have? We didnt get any down here.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Not even a flake of snow here!

Cliff

[Silver Scale]

DNR had walleyes in their nets this morning and will probably start stripping tomorrow. Good time to go view some big eyes.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

The guys at the hatchery said that they had a record walleye run yesterday!

The run this year will probably be very fast and heavy.

Cliff

[mbeyer]

The DNR does their thing with the walleye....how much natural spawning and reproduction occurs on Vermilion?

[shamrock7]

I don't have the exact numbers but they say that the amount that comes out at the hatchery doesn't even come close to the amount of in Lake spawning. I know that this thread may get a little interesting as some feel that the DNR should put all back in Vermilion and others agree that the much better hatch rate made possible with the hatchery, should be shared with those less fortunate lakes within the state. I myself would have to align with the latter.

[SkunkedAgain]

I wish the DNR would put a couple of walleye on my fish hook, then give a yank, and make me feel like I caught them all on my own.

[delcecchi]

years ago it was said that the hatchery put back approximately what those fish would have produced naturally. At the time it was like 40 million fry. And they had a lot extra for other things since jars work better than rivers for hatching walleye eggs.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Quote:

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years ago it was said that the hatchery put back approximately what those fish would have produced naturally. At the time it was like 40 million fry. And they had a lot extra for other things since jars work better than rivers for hatching walleye eggs.

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I believe that that is still the DNR's opinion as far as survival rate goes for walleye fry. Very few naturally hatched fry live very long in the wild!

The number of walleyes that spawn at the Pike River are estimated to be less then 10% of all of the spawning walleyes in Lake Vermilion.

Many walleyes still manage to get past the trap nets and do their thing naturally anyway!

Cliff

[muskieswen]

I am all for helping other lakes when we have the means of doing so, but I heard that a lot of the fry from the eggs taken from vermilion go to Red Lake. Hopefully the person who told me this was just yanking my chain to get a rise out of me. Maybe someone here could deliberate on this if they are in the know. To me it does not make sense to supply fish for a lake that gets heavily netted. Just my view point and again if some one would like to clear this up for me, please do so. Like I said, I think they were fooling around with me.

[Silver Scale]

To my knowledge Red Lake had two stockings of fish from the Pike River Hatchery. These fish were chosen as they are genetically the same. Fish from the Pike River also go to many other lakes. The Red Lake Band is no longer netting nor do they plan to in the future so that is no longer an issue.

[yukon]

Silver scale right. Red lake had two different years of stockings from vermilion. I believe that the hatcheries first responsibility is to put back the allotted amount back into the lake. If they are short on fry somewhere else gets missed

[Cliff Wagenbach]

As stated the Red Lake Band is not netting walleyes at this time. But there have already been discussions about starting netting again in the future!

Sure seems like a waste of walleye fry from Vermilion if that does happen!

Cliff

[wh1stler]

Quote:

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Sure seems like a waste of walleye fry from Vermilion if that does happen!

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Probably not. Most of the netted walleyes would not have been Pike River fry. They would be the descendants of Pike River fry.

Wh1stler

[SkunkedAgain]

For those of us not privileged enough to be up there, would anyone be kind enough to snap and post a few photos of the process? It would be pretty neat to see.

[Go2fish]

When I was at the hatchery last year, I believe the DNR said that nat reproduction is at about 3% that make it to the fry stage they get in the high 90's at the hatchery. From the hatchery they put back anywhere from 4-8% of the fry they get from Vermilion back into Vermilion so you are ahead either way. It definately is neat to go there and see all of the huge fish there, they had a 13lbr there the day before I was there.

Since 1998 there have been 161,931,000 fry stocked in Vermilion, in that same time there have been 119,124,900 put into Red. It aint for me to decide what they do with the fish they get out of Vermilion but they sure are making sure to put a lot of them back into Vermilion each year.

[vermilionwally]

Well it wouldnt be fair to us vermilion fisherman if they didnt put a good percent of them back into vermilion. It wouldnt make sense to not put any fry in im guessing it would also be more expensive for the hatchery to have to raise more if they didnt put some back into vermilion and they probably have a lot left over anyway. Has anyone heard anymore on whether Pike Bay will be open on the opener?

[TomWehler]

Well if their stirpping eggs now then they for sure will be done soon.

Two weeks to go for opener so most fish will be on their way to some place else.

MAYBE!

Ya just never know.

Hounds on the mend a week an looking good so maybe not miss my first opener.

Lots of IF's in there though...RATS!!!

No fish by my docks....EVER.

T.

[caseymcq]

Quote:

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For those of us not privileged enough to be up there, would anyone be kind enough to snap and post a few photos of the process? It would be pretty neat to see.

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I have something in the works and should be able to have some pics posted tomorrow evening.

[SkunkedAgain]

Aweseom, thanks caseymcq

[mrwalleye_13]

I am also interested in some pictures I have watched walleyes spawn in the creek by my house all of my life except now i can't....dang college! And because me and vermillion will be great friends in 16 some odd days, it would be nice to see some of the product i haven't seen since winter break.

[caseymcq]

Here are the pics:

This is the net they set out into the river to funnel the fish in and collect the spawners

The fish are put into a crib to be sorted for the "ripe" fish and "green" fish:

The "green" fish are set aside in a pen to "ripen"

If the "green" fish aren't ripe after four days they are put back into the river to run further up and spawn naturally.

The a ripe female's eggs are gathered in a bowl

Then milt is added

The eggs and milt are then mixed to promote fertilization

A little muck from the river is added and mixed in to coat the eggs and prevent them from sticking together in the hatchery jars.

The excess muck is then rinsed off.

The eggs are then placed in jars

The jars are continually fed fresh water from the river. The water temp is monitored and adjusted appropriately.

Once they hatch the fish will stay in a fry tank until they use up their egg yolk. Afterwards they are either stocked or brought to a rearing pond.

They do get other fish in the nets. Muskies, crappies, pout, a lot of suckers and the occasional bullhead.

This is one example of the great job the the Minnesota DNR fisheries staff is doing to improve the walleye fishing that a majority of us enjoy. This is part of what we are getting when we buy our liscenses.

[shamrock7]

Excellent post. For those that have never seen the operation, this post does an excellent job of giving you a start to finish of the operation. Thanks for taking the time to out this together.

[schweady]

Great post, casey. If folks would like to compare operations, I took a few pictures last Monday at the hatchery on the river between Dead and Walker Lakes in Ottertail County and posted them in the Photo Sharing forum.

Quite the rite of spring!