By Fort Peck Reservoir biologist Heath Headley
In general, the weather has been pretty cooperative in the Big Dry Arm area of Fort Peck Reservoir. Water surface temperatures have been hovering around 49-51 degrees in some of the shallow areas while checking our trap nets today. Fortunately, the cold front that moved through the area since the last update wasn’t as severe as anticipated.
Numbers of walleye captured per net have remained steady for the most part with the favorable water temperatures. We’re continuing to see good numbers of male walleye but were beginning to capture more ripe (releasing eggs) female walleye in the trap nets. Thanks to the increased numbers of ripe female walleye collected from the trap nets, we’ve been able to hold an egg-take almost every day since the last update.
We were able to collect walleye eggs every day except last Sunday when it was extremely WINDY. Each egg-take day averaged 5 million eggs, giving us close to 20 million eggs in a relatively short time. These multiple egg collection efforts have quickly brought the total close to 30 million eggs. Based on the numbers of ripe female we’ve been capturing and the consistent egg-takes, there’s a good chance we could be wrapping things up in the near future.
Photo 1: Kolter and Kasen Berglee doing some heavy lifting on a smallmouth buffalo. Thanks for the great help guys!
Photo 2: Braxton Mitchell with dandy green female walleye captured in one of the trap nets.
Kolter and Kasen Berglee doing some heavy lifting on a smallmouth buffalo. Thanks for the great help guys!
Braxton Mitchell with dandy green female walleye captured in one of the trap nets.
