LAKE GENEVA, Wis.–The guys stirring walleye eggs worked with wild turkey or Canada goose feathers during the claying and water-hardening portions of collection.
“We could use a paint brush,” said Brian Simon, the original behind the Walworth County chapter of Walleyes For Tomorrow’s portable trailer hatchery on the shores of Geneva Lake. “But [the feathers] are sturdy, flexible and they have natural oils to keep them supple in the water.”
That’s righteous.
On Monday, I watched the citizens’ walleye stocking program up close at the Covenant Harbor Bible Camp. The Wisconsin DNR certifies the hatchery each spring.
Simon gave me the rundown before the pandemonium of work.
Six fyke nets are set along traditional walleye spawning areas on the north shore. Those checking nets retrieve any ripe fish, but release females longer than 26 inches (two were 30-inchers Monday, said Jim Bloede) and extraneous fish (four muskies and lots of bass and panfish). Medium-sized females are used because they have the healthiest eggs.
On the pier, the front three blue tanks are for holding, the fourth is for recovery.
Once the boat returns and walleye are distributed to holding tanks, work begins.
A female was stripped, by Don Kautz with help from Ted Hartmann (see top photo). Then two males had their milt taken and stirred into the eggs.
The basin transferred to Joel Chic, who mixed eggs with water, then with bentonite clay to make sure the eggs didn’t stick together.
After a thorough rinse, they are put in Tupperware containers and water hardened for an hour. Simon and Chic feel the eggs to make sure they are the “consistency of a rubber ball.”
The walleye, meanwhile, had a tissue sample taken by “Little John” Sanberg, then were put in the holding tanks. Females are released on site, to reduce stress. Males are boated back to spawning areas.
Once hardened, the eggs were put in holding jars in the portable hatchery: 80 ounces of eggs, about 320,000, to a jar. The water flows in from Geneva Lake and back, removing waste and bringing oxygen.
“It works like a river system,” Simon said.
It is roughly 18 days from that point to hatching fry. The chapter has a remarkable 59 percent success rate in that span.
After the hatch, the fry swim over a spout in the jar, end up in holding tanks and are held a few days. Instead of release near shore, where most species are shallow in May and ready to eat, the fry are boated to deep water where there is fewer predators and plenty of zooplankton.
The program began in 2012 and 14.5 million fry were released in the first four years.
The chapter is less a club and more a loose-knit group with work done by volunteers and money raised by raffles (contact Simon at bsimon6@wi.rr.com).
“If somebody is walking the shore path and wants to help, we use them,” Simon said.
Nearly a dozen stopped while strolling in Monday’s gorgeous weather.
ILLINOIS TURKEYS: Early turkey harvest is off slightly: 2,263 birds first season, north zone, compared to 2,343 first season in 2015; while in the first two seasons in the south were 2,886 vs 2,859.
WILD THINGS: First reports of the small black morels come on sunny hillsides, primarily south of the city so far. The rains could lead to a spike in morels.
STRAY CAST: Adam LaRoche reminds me of mushrooms, not morels, but the white button ones grown in composted manure around Kennett Square, Pa.
