By Fort Peck Reservoir biologist Heath Headley
The weather has been very cooperative for us 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. This has been encouraging for walleye spawning activity.
Numbers of walleye captured per net have increased with the warming water temperatures. We’re continuing to see LOTS of male walleye (and some big ones up to 26 inches) along with some green (not ready to spawn) and ripe (releasing eggs) female walleye. Thanks to the increased numbers of ripe female walleye collected from the trap nets, we’ve been able to hold two, small egg-takes since the last update.
On Wednesday (April 9th) we collected 3 million walleye eggs and today (Friday) we collected 6 million more eggs. These two egg-takes brought our total to approximately 9 million eggs which means we’re on the board for 2025 season. However, it looks like a cold front is headed our way starting Saturday afternoon with winds forecasted to gust up to 40 mph on Sunday.
