Good news for walleye anglers: state fish hatcheries have finished stocking the first of two waves of walleye to go out this year and the number of fish stocked far surpassed original estimates, state fisheries officials say.
Four state fish hatcheries equipped to grow ‘coolwater’ fish such as walleye and musky sent more than 2.3 million walleye out the door earlier this summer, 560,000 fish more than originally expected.
These fish were 1 to 3 inches long when they were transferred into their new homes. They are the ‘small fingerlings’ that DNR has traditionally stocked the most of because growing the fish to the ‘large fingerling’ size of 4 to 7 inches would cost significantly more and exceed hatchery capacity, according to Mike Staggs, DNR fisheries director.
This year is different. In September and October, DNR will be stocking hundreds of thousands of the large fingerlings, made possible by the recently passed state budget that provided DNR more money for stocking.
Normally, DNR would stock 3 to 4 million smaller walleye and 60,000 to 70,000 of the larger fingerling walleye. But the Wisconsin Walleye Initiative allows DNR to hold back more fish instead of stocking them at the smaller size, and give them extra growing time. As a result, DNR will be stocking more than 400,000 larger fingerling walleye this fall and will be planning to produce and stock even more in coming years.