DNR set to kick off annual walleye egg collection on Muskegon River

NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich,. (WPBN/WGTU) - - The DNR is about to begin the walleye egg collection on the Muskegon River in Newaygo County.

The collection happens around late March and early April every year.

The Muskegon River has the largest run of walleye from Lake Michigan to south of Green Bay.

The DNR collects nearly 26 million eggs from the walleye that run on the Muskegon.

The DNR begins this process in late March and early April, but the exact start date depends on the conditions of the water and fish.

"It's photoperiod as to when these fish run. It's flow. It's water temperature. When walleye make their run up the rivers, the spawning process doesn't last very long once the males and females are together in the river system," said Scott Heintzelman, Central Lake Michigan Unit Manager.

Officers will collect the fish through a process called electrofishing, which immobilizes the fish long enough for the DNR to collect the eggs. This does not harm the fish.

"We want to just stun them enough to where we can collect them, bring them back to the boat launch. They look at the rightness of the males and the females and put those in fish collection baskets right at the site,” said Heintzelman.

Once the nearly 26 million eggs are collected, they are sent to different hatcheries around the state. Including the Platte River State Fish Hatchery.

"We're kind of limited on our space for walleye eggs, and the right number for us is right around 4 million eggs received, and for us that should produce about 2 million walleye fry for subsequent use for fisheries management here in the state,” said Paul Stowe, Fish Culture Manager Platte River Hatchery.

The officers here place the eggs in specialized jars, where they pay close attention to the eggs and monitor their progress.

"These jars have water basically that goes down in a tube into the middle of the bottom of the jar. It upwells through the eggs so that constantly supplying fresh water and oxygen while removing waste metabolites and carbon dioxide and everything else. And those eggs are in those jars for about two weeks, and then they start to hatch a little bit over two weeks," said Stowe.

The fish are then sent to various small ponds and lakes to gather nutrients like plankton until they are stockable in rivers and lakes.