The people sueing the the four lake task force appealed all the way to the top! And it got threw out so now they can get working on Wixom Sanford , and secord lake Dam’s and getting the Lakes filled back up, so people can fish them again … See MoreSee Less

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We had tons of interest in our post about walleye egg collection efforts, and would like to address some of the more common comments received. Before we begin, a huge thank you to the people who are interested in the work the department does to ensure a balanced and thriving fishery. Now let’s dive in!

The Muskegon River walleye spawning run is comprised of approximately 40,000 fish. This is the biggest walleye spawning run of any Michigan rivers that flow into Lake Michigan. We take eggs from around 250 females, so we’re taking eggs from a very small percentage of the female walleye in the run. Each female walleye has lots of eggs (say 60,000ish) so there is no risk to the overall population from our egg take activities. Fisheries surveys tell us that we have a very healthy walleye population in the Muskegon system, even with decades of egg takes having been conducted there. We do see occasional natural reproduction in the Muskegon system, but much of the population comes from our stocking efforts. We do stock spring fingerling walleyes back into Muskegon Lake to offset the eggs harvested from the river – 766,819 spring fingerling walleyes in the past 9 years. Why not other rivers? As indicated above, the Muskegon River has more than enough fish to supply us with the needed eggs. Other rivers may not. The river is the appropriate size, depth, and access to allow us to actually do the egg take. Other rivers don’t have those characteristics. Maintaining a single egg take site also allows us to historical fish health data to ensure the broodstock are disease-free and reduces the risk of bringing in unwanted pathogens into our hatchery systems. We hope this provides additional insight into the egg collection process. Thanks again to the folks who chimed in on our previous post. We appreciate how engaged everyone is and hopefully many of you get to catch walleye for years to come! … See MoreSee Less