Every spring, Manitoba Fisheries stocks lakes across the province with hundreds of thousands of one-day old walleye fry, and for the past four years they have partnered with the Mound Wildlife Association in the operation of a rearing pond located near Pilot Mound, to give the fry a better chance of survival before being placed into lake water.

The rearing pond allows one-day old walleye to grow four months without the threat of predators – thus increasing their survival rate when being introduced to the natural habitat of lakes in southern Manitoba.

September is the month when Manitoba Fisheries representatives work together with the group from Pilot Mound, as well as other local lake committee volunteers, to distribute the now 4-month-old walleye fingerlings.

Mound Wildlife Association President, Dustin Flannigan, says this past week of netting, counting and distributing the fingerlings brought surprising results.

“We’re seeing really good numbers so far!” shares Flannigan. “We’re on our second round of stocking back to the lakes that we’ve already been at.”

50,000 walleye fry were put into the rearing pond last May, which is the same amount as in Year 1 of the 4-project. Year 2 and 3 saw 100,000 fry placed into the rearing pond.

Flannigan says in the first year they saw approximately 5.4% survival rate of the 50,000 fry, followed by a 2.4% survival rate the following year of the 100,000 fry.

“The numbers were very similar in the first and second years, even using double the fry,” he adds.

“In the third year, the fingerlings were a lot bigger. We started with 100,000 fry but ended up with only 1,200-1,400 fingerlings by September, giving us a survival rate of about 1.2%. But some of them were up to 9 inches already at only 3 ½ months old.”

The group is expecting to see numbers triple by the time the rearing pond is drained and all the fingerlings are collected by early next week. It’s still under discussion why there is population sustainability when there has been a lack of rain and the water level was fairly low at the start of the spring season.

Flannigan has some theories. “We’re not seeing any minnows in the pond and I think there were less prey when the fry were younger. Everything has been a real surprise because when we put the fry in here we only had 2 ½ feet of water. It ended up filling up to about 14 feet deep by mid-summer. But, when we set the net we didn’t know what we were going to find. This is a pleasant surprise, by far!”

In reflecting on the past four years, he says they’ve seen the best results when they put 50,000-day-old fry into the rearing pond in spring. “I think we’ve found our magic number,” he explains. “Obviously, that will be dictated by Manitoba Fisheries, but I think they have been pleasantly surprised this year, as they were the first year.”

The present rearing pond location is under construction next year, so the Mound Wildlife group is looking at next year with a new plan. “We’ve got some other avenues we’re working on with Manitoba Fisheries to continue to have fingerlings to stock these lakes.”

This past week volunteers from Pilot Mound, Morden, Stephenfield, and Killarney helped with the extraction process, following the direction of Manitoba Fisheries, who recorded the size, weight and numbers of young fish that are placed into each lake. Fingerlings were distributed to local lakes such as Pelican Lake, Minnewasta Lake in Morden, Stephenfield Lake, Killarney Lake and Lake Max in the Turtle Mountains.

Flannigan says this is a perfect example of Manitoba Fisheries partnering with local communities to increase the sustainability of our natural resources.

“We’ve got a great group here and we all work well together,” he shares. “We’ve got great support and I think we can make a huge difference in Southern Manitoba with these fingerlings. We’re seeing good results at Stephenfield now. We’ve seen pictures of the odd walleye caught last year and that was only year-two of putting fingerling in there. Fisheries had tried numerous years before that with no success, but the fingerlings are really taking off!”

“It’s a new way to look at things,” he adds. “It’s not going to work in every application. There are a lot of lakes where the fry is still a good sustainable way with a lot less input.”

While the rearing ponds help to increase the population of freshwater fish in our lakes, Flannigan says there is still a responsibility for all anglers in keeping Manitoba’s fish population healthy.

“The biggest thing is respecting your limits. If the fish are under-sized put them back. If we keep fishing the way I see people fishing it’s not going to be sustainable in the future.”

“We’re just trying to make a difference and keep it sustainable for everybody.”

Final fingerling numbers will be released once the distribution process is complete.