Fisheries

Growing Walleyes

We found the following facts from a blog site very interesting.

It stated that the adult female walleye will drop 50,000 to 300,000 eggs (average 175,000) in one night!

The fertilized eggs will drop between the rocks. There, predators will have great difficulty reaching them, so they can mature safely. Over 25% of all the eggs will hatch. Walleye do not stay over the eggs to protect them, instead they leave right after spawning is over.

Depending on water temperature, fry will emerge from the eggs after just one or two weeks. They will feed off the egg sac for a few days.

One in 1,000 fry will survive the spring and summer to reach fingerling size, and between 5% and 10% (7.5% average) of fingerlings will survive to catch able size.

So to recapitulate, if the average female drops 175,000 eggs on a rocky bottom, 43,750 eggs will hatch, 43 of them will survive to fingerling, and 3.2 of them will make it to catchable size.

Let's do all we can to protect this resource for future generations! !