WORCESTER — Solberg lake residents and volunteers with Walleyes for Tomorrow spent this past spring helping to ensure that the walleye population will be self-sustaining for their children and grandchildren.
Solberg lake is stocked by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources but adopting a more natural method to help the fish reproduce naturally and survive to adulthood is now the goal, said Jim Michler, a Solberg Lake resident and member of Walleyes for Tomorrow.
After placing fish gates in strategic areas of Solberg Lake in April, the volunteers squeezed and fertilized around 2,000,000 walleye eggs to place into an hatchery tanks until they hatched and then grew in aerated tanks until large enough to return to the lake in May, to areas of the lake where zooplankton levels are higher and away from shorelines where young fish are more vulnerable.
A healthy walleye population would be approximately four adult fish per acre, Michler said. Solberg lake is just under 900 acres and there should be around 3,500 adult walleye in the lake but is actually in decline.
“We’re at 1.5 fish per acre, and they want us at five fish per acre,” he said. “That’s why we’re doing this, trying to get those numbers back up where they were because the walleyes in northern Wisconsin have been decreasing. The lakes used to be naturally reproducing and kept a good, healthy walleye population, but then the natural reproduction took a nosedive to near zero about 15 years ago, give or take, on many lakes, all at the same time.”
Walleyes for Tomorrow started on the Lake Winnebago chain of lakes after poor spawning results reduced the area walleye population, according to their website. Fundraising led to building a portable trailer, boat and equipment. The effort was successful and the project grew to put the “Walleye Wagon” on loan in other areas of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where stocking fish alone is not sustainable
As an organization, Walleyes for Tomorrow has grown to 15 chapters including Price County.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources assisted Walleyes for Tomorrow in developing its vision and mission by providing the training guidelines to ensure the hatcheries are run correctly and have the optimum chance to succeed.
Beth Iczkowski, of Phillips, said she and the others took part in a training with Walleyes for Tomorrow Chairman Mike Arrowwood.
The DNR approved the mobile fish hatchery after verifying that Walleyes for Tomorrow trained the volunteers to use approved procedures.
This is the first year of a five-year project, according to Beth.
“So, this is all new to all of us,” she said. “A lot of people fish on this lake for walleye and we’re really down, depleting,” she said. “So it’ll be nice to see in the years to come how well this is going.”
For more information, visit walleyesfortomorrow.org.
Most Popular
Comments / 0