Stripping Walleye at Walker Lake Hatchery

[schweady]

Today, I had the good fortune of spending a beautiful Monday morning watching the walleye egg stripping operation between Dead and Walker Lakes.

They set up nets to trap the walleye as they come into the river to spawn.

Plenty of males...

...and females on hand for today's event.

A pole is run under the net to concentrate the fish...

...and sorting takes place.

The ones not ripe enough to strip today are kept for tomorrow.

The eggs and sperm of the fish are stripped into a bowl. Here's a female giving up her eggs while a spent male is tossed back into the river.

The fragile eggs are gently mixed with a feather to fertilize as many as possible in the very short time available.

A thin clay mixture is added to the eggs to keep them from clumping together. (There's a natural stickiness of the eggs that keeps them stuck to the rocks in natural reproduction.)

Then, they're gently rinsed and put into tubs.

And finally taken to the hatchery house to hopefully grow up to be catchable fish.

A few more of today's fish to sort out and strip...

...while the boys wait patiently for some rough fish to smoke.

Alas, there aren't many sucker in today's run (the water temp was 53 degrees), mostly bullhead.

[Dbl]

Wow, what a great story with pictures. Thanks for documenting something we don't give much thought to. Nice work.

[Wayne Sieber]

Very cool - Thanks!

[Swimmer]

Great job of telling a cool story!

[Steve Foss]

Nice picture story, schweady. That's some good photojournalism.

[8-Ball]

Schweady- Thanks for the pics/story-very cool!

[fishonnopeoff]

Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Tasty Bullheads.

Not for me.

[Redline]

A fellow ISU fan!? I graduated from ISU this August! Are you on Cyclone Report at all?

[caseymcq]

Nice pics schweady.

I put up a similar post for the Pike River Hatchery on the Vermillion form. It was pretty cool to see this one and see the things they do a little differently and what they do the same. It is funny that the pic I posted with the hatchery full of jars looks nearly identical to yours.

[schweady]

Thanks, casey. It is just such a great way to welcome the spring season! For folks who'd like to compare operations, here's a quick link to casey's photos of the Pike River Hatchery on the Vermilion Forum.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Redline

Yeah I am Wineguy over on CR.

Go Clones!

[Redline]

Good deal, I am RedlineSi on CR. GO CYCLONES!