# ND walleye stocking



## gator_getter (Sep 7, 2008)

I wish ND would raise the young walleye up to 6 - 8 inches as SD and MN do in some of their lakes before stocking them. Would be interesting to try in some of our smaller lakes.

I am not an expert and maybe this isn't the answer. Just wondering what you guys thought. I have spoke extensively with NDGF on this subject.


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## hammerhead (Dec 22, 2004)

gator_getter said:


> I have spoke extensively with NDGF on this subject.


 If you have you know their take on this subject. Raising walleye to 6 or 8 inches would not be to cost effective in my opinion. It would take a year or so to reach this length. Then you would have to worry about winter kill in the rearing ponds. Takes a lot more food to keep 100,000 6 inch fish alive than it takes to keep 100,000 fry or fingerling's alive.


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## Old Hunter (Mar 8, 2002)

Minnesota had rearing ponds for walleyes, not sure if they still do. They were great for feeding the cormorants.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

SD puts walleye fry in rearing ponds in the spring and then nets them out in fall. The sloughs are so fertile that they grow more than most would believe in one summer. Whatever they don't net in the couple days of trying are left. Some ponds winter kill, some don't. But they never come back and try to re-net then again. NE SD has some of the best walleye fishing anywhere so I would guess it seems to be working.


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## airforcehobit (Aug 6, 2008)

Minn still uses stocking ponds I have a couple by my Dads house up the north shore. two of them we got the go ahead from the DNR to fish them because they had to many adults it was a very small pond 20 acres but it had some great walleye in it. they were super fat and super golden


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

I know in many species, if hatched fry are released into the wild, they have a better chance of survival than yearlings who were raised in captivity for a year and then released. The fry rely on natural instinct to survive, whereas the yearlings think they're still in a pond, where their instincts were dulled and they become easier prey. Ultimately, it comes down to the cost per fish survived.

If you look at the majority of MN stockings, they are predominantly fry compared to yearlings/fingerlings. It is probably comparable to ND's ratio, maybe a few percentage points lower, but then there are a lot more waters that are stocked in MN as well.

Then again, ND has a $1 Billion surplus...I'm sure there's a lot of great fisheries projects that could help with.


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## ScrotieMcBoogerballs (Mar 23, 2010)

njsimonson said:


> Then again, ND has a $1 Billion surplus...I'm sure there's a lot of great fisheries projects that could help with.


 :rock:


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## gator_getter (Sep 7, 2008)

A few years back the ND Game and Fish Dept decided it was not worthwhile to stock walleye in Lake Sakakawea. In return many of our smaller lakes reaped the benefit of these walleye fingerlings being stocked in them instead. Now with the increase of water in the big lake once again the stocking of Lake Sakakawea will continue, thus reducing the amount of fingerlings being stocked in our smaller lakes.


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