It’s the third year for the Mound Wildlife Association to partner with Manitoba Fisheries to raise walleye fish fry from tiny specks of sand to some 6 inches long after living in their rearing pond for about 3 months.   

At the end of May, Fisheries released 100,000 walleye fry (just 1-day-old) into the Pilot Mound rearing pond at the end of May, and the Mound Wildlife committee is itching to see this year’s results, of numbers and size. 

Dustin Flanagan is the President of the local wildlife group with strong membership from the area.  The group has a keen interest in helping to stock lakes in southern Manitoba with young walleye that have been given a chance to grow, before being released into the wilds of any lake body where they are at the mercy of the next hungry fish to come along. 

What started out as an experiment three years ago, has turned into an annual project. Now in the month of September, they start to live-trap the young fish through a ‘catchment kettle’ for them to be caught, contained and then dispersed to lakes within a 100 km radius of Pilot Mound. 

Flanagan says they’re hoping for great results once again this year.  Just this past week they caught a fingerling that measured in at 7” which is fantastic for only 3 months.  He says the fry are free to eat throughout the summer with little stress from predators.  For the first 6-7 weeks of their lives, the fry feeds on zooplankton and after that on the natural food supply of critters, bugs and micro-plants that are in the pond. 

The first year some 5,000 walleye fingerlings were harvested from the rearing pond.  Flanagan says they’re hoping for much the same this year. “We don’t know what we’re going to be dealing with for numbers yet, but we’re hoping for between 2500-5000,” he explains.  “Size-wise, we’re expecting the fingerlings to be anywhere from 4-7 inches.” 

“Last year we harvested some in February and they were upwards of 9 inches.  This summer some were caught at the Goudney Reservoir with clipped fins that were stocked in here last year and they were 14 inches, and that was at just 1 year and 3 months of age.” 

Flanagan says there are numerous benefits to a rearing pond; less competition for food when they’re stocked into a body of water, better survival rate in the lake once released at a larger size and stage of life, plus healthier as they’ve been literally feasting for about three months. 

The Mound Wildlife Association built their catchment kettle themselves and raised money through local fundraising and grant money from the Manitoba Enhancement Fund.  As well, the Healthy Lake Committee of Ninette donated $10,000 to the rearing pond project at their most recent ice fishing derby at Pelican Lake last March.  

Flanagan is hoping more communities look at developing their own rearing pond to help Manitoba Fisheries stock local lakes with walleye that have a fighting chance of survival.  “For the third year in a row we’ve proven that it works, and we’d like to help other lake committees develop this kind of rearing pond in their area.  The more of these kinds of programs, the better off our fish populations will be in our Manitoba lakes.”