Annual Spring Walleye Spawn Underway At Fort Peck Lake

The annual walleye trap netting and egg-taking operation will soon be underway on Fort Peck Reservoir. However, similar to 2020, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will conduct the spawn without volunteers due to COVID-19 guidelines. FWPs’ top priority is the health and safety of the public and its employees. Much like last year, the spawn will be conducted by FWP Region 6 staff.

Despite a limited workforce in 2020, FWP crews were able to secure a good amount of eggs in a short amount of time. Although weather conditions on the front end of the spawn were unseasonably cold, a gradual warming trend followed which triggered a very successful spawn. Trap nets were fished from April 8-18, and water temperatures warmed into the upper 40’s which is near the ideal spawning temperature. This resulted in high catch rates of walleye that triggered them into spawning mode.

A couple things stood out during the 2020 trap netting and egg-taking effort. There were a broad range of walleye sizes collected with stronger numbers of walleye in the 24 to 27-inch length category. Based on walleye age and growth information, these fish are products of the high-water year in 2011. Anglers may recall some large walleye were caught last summer and two new record tournament weights were set in 2020. In addition, these larger fish were in very healthy condition thanks to a large abundance of cisco for them to eat. One noteworthy fish was a green female walleye that measured 26.3 inches and weighed 9.5 pounds.

Thanks to a combination of productive trap netting efforts, favorable water temperatures, and a little bit of luck, a total of 69 million walleye eggs were collected in 2020. This provided plenty of eggs to maximize walleye fingerling production at the Fort Peck and Miles City State Fish Hatcheries along with good numbers of fry. Fort Peck Reservoir received roughly 33 million fry and 4.2 million fingerlings in 2020 because of these efforts and several other walleye waters were also stocked in Montana.

FWP staff will strive to collect enough eggs in 2021 to ensure all rearing ponds at Fort Peck and Miles City fish hatcheries are stocked with walleye fry for fingerling production. As always, weather variables will influence how efficient the egg collection effort is. We apologize to our volunteers and will miss seeing all the folks that annually help with this effort once again. Hopefully we’ll all be able to reunite in the very near future.

Even though volunteers won’t be able to participate in 2021, folks interested in the trap netting and egg-taking efforts will be able to keep track on the walleye spawning activity and progress. There will be posting frequent updates about the walleye spawn to the Region 6 FWP Facebook page and the Walleyes Unlimited website. Updates will include current trap net and egg-take efforts, data on fish and eggs collected, along with photos and videos.