Walleye Spawn Update III, 4.7.21 by Fort Peck Reservoir Biologist, Heath Headley
By angelamontana

Posted: April 8, 2021

Photo: Fish culture specialist Ryan Lott with a nice northern pike

Wow… the weather we’ve experienced over the past few days have led to some very busy but productive days for the walleye spawning operation on Fort Peck Reservoir. Temperatures have warmed a bit more, and we’re still seeing water temperatures ranging from 49-52 degrees throughout our trap netting locations. These favorable temperatures have really kicked walleye spawning activity into high gear in terms of numbers and spawning condition of the walleye we’re capturing.

We’ve still been seeing good numbers of males and green female walleye, but we’re also seeing a bump in numbers of ripe female walleye captured. In fact, we had one EXTREMELY productive trap net that contained 21 green and 20 ripe female walleye in it, along with numerous males. Other trap nets are continuing to capture good numbers of walleye as well.

Thanks to the increase in ripe female walleye numbers, we’ve been able to hold three egg-takes since the last update:

• Monday- 4.8 million eggs
• Tuesday- 4.5 million eggs
• Wednesday- 4.5 million eggs
This should put us somewhere around 14 million eggs for the season thus far. Let’s hope we can keep this momentum going.

Stay tuned for more updates on trap net catches and up-to-date egg numbers!

There have been some pretty big fish come through the trap nets at the 2021 Fort Peck Walleye spawn so far this year as well, including:

Feature photo: Warden sergeant Todd Tryan with a nice walleye

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