Brooding over Walleye Broodstocks

Today’s paper is from the AFS publication, North American Journal of Aquaculture.  It provides a benchmark regarding a topic near and dear to my heart – Walleye broodstock collections.  I have no accounting of how many hours I’ve spent lifting nets and handling Walleyes. There have been gorgeous sunsets, starry nights, howling winds and blizzards.  However, my days of required servitude to Walleyes are behind, any future such endeavors will occur voluntarily. 

I think this article provides some great baseline information.  I’ve spoken with the authors, too, about the original sources of these populations.  Since this population has been isolated for over 60 years, I asked if they have considered “refreshing” the genetics with new fish.  Iowa has started conducting some interesting comparisons between the Spirit Lake and Mississippi River Walleye strains here.

Age and length characteristics of female and male Walleye broodstock collected at a spawning operation – https://doi.org/10.1002/naaq.10355