North Dakota Game and Fish 
Audio News Release – May 14, 2008
Part 1: Pike and Walleye Spawning

The backside of May means fish spawning operations are wrapping up.

Hi, this is Doug Leier with your weekly North Dakota Game and Fish Department Outdoors Report.

Game and Fish and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fisheries crews have completed spring spawning
operations with more than enough northern pike and walleye eggs to meet state needs.

It was a spring of contrasts, as weather during the week for taking pike eggs was ideal, while
later in April during the walleye spawn, conditions were much worse.

In just six days, crews collected more than 20 million pike eggs from South Eckelson Lake in Barnes
County, Alkali Lake in Stutsman County and Lake Irvine in Ramsey County. With warm weather and little
or no wind, the quality of was great and North Dakota had enough surplus to also help out Montana
and South Dakota.

Walleye spawning operations took place in less than ideal circumstances, as snow, strong winds and cold
weather were the norm. More often than not, crews were running gear on days with extremely high winds
and a good spawning day was when winds were less than 20 miles per hour.

It took nearly three weeks to finish collecting walleye eggs from Alkaline Lake in Kidder County,
Antelope Lake in Pierce County, Lake Sakakawea and Devils Lake.

Despite the conditions, the goal of collecting 30 million walleye eggs was reached, though egg quality
is not looking as good as in past years.

Pike and walleye eggs were taken to federal fish hatcheries near Valley City and Riverdale, where the
eggs will hatch and the fry will be transferred to rearing ponds. When the fry have grown into
fingerlings of about 2 inches long, they will be distributed to state waters in June.

For more information on how these fish spawning efforts may affect your favorite fishery in years to
come, check out the May issue of North Dakota Outdoors magazine, now posted online at the Game and
Fish Department website at gf.nd.gov.

That’s this week’s North Dakota Game and Fish Department Outdoors Report. I’m biologist Doug Leier.