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SPRINGFIELD — Ice floated on the lake at the start and it covered the roads at the end, but the nine days of netting by the Ohio Division of Wildlife in between showed a strong walleye population in C.J. Brown Reservoir.
Debbie Walters, a fish biologist with the ODOW District 5 office in Xenia, said 883 walleyes were netted in those nine days. That’s almost double last year’s number (471 in 14 days), and also is more than the numbers from 2008 (558 in 18 days) and 2007 (719 in 11 days). The weather helped the catch.
“Everything was ideal, except for the last day. This was probably one of the best years, weather-wise, that we’ve had,” Walters said.
Many of those 883 were 13- and 14-inch fish, just below the legal keeper limit at the reservoir. Still, “we still saw really good numbers of 25- to 27-inch fish,” Walters said. The largest walleye was a 29-inch female that weighed 11½ pounds.
Walleye cannot breed naturally in C.J. Brown, but they try anyway. The ODOW sets nets each year to collect eggs from females to replace the natural reproduction, and the fry are born at the state’s fish hatcheries. In late May or June, walleye fingerlings will be stocked to maintain the population.
In 2008, more than 420,000 fingerlings were stocked in the reservoir. Those that survived are now the 13- and 14-inchers, Walters said.
While 883 is a big number, that doesn’t even count the other fish captured. Large white bass were plentiful in the nets this year, along with panfish and suckers. All the fish were released unharmed.
Walters said the goal was to collect 30 quarts of walleye eggs, and they ended up with over 45. The eggs were used for triploid (sterile) saugeye reproduction (a saugeye is the offspring of a female walleye and male sauger).
Fish hatchery specialists set up shop at the reservoir and put the fertilized eggs through a process to make the fry sterile. If the fry are confirmed sterile, they will be released in Grand Lake St. Marys.
C
ontact this reporter at (937) 328-0366 or bplasters@coxohio.com.
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