As the lake sturgeon head out the door it’s time to see if all our hard worked paid off this summer in our ponds. Each year we raise many different species in our ponds including Walleye, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Perch, and Black Crappie.
In the spring, these ponds are either stocked with fry or parents to produce offspring. Ponds are then provided alfalfa to aid in zooplankton production for the offspring as a food source. The fish are then tested by fish health and then continue to grow where their food source may switch from zooplankton to worms, bugs, and minnows. Minnows are harvested out of our minnow pond each day where over 20 minnow traps are set to help feed and grow our fish. These ponds are then harvested in late September and early October. Once a pond is harvested the fish are brought inside to determine the number and weight of fish to see how they grew throughout the year. Some of these fish are set aside for mussel culture and the rest are picked up by different partners for stocking. These stockings allow for a multitude of different recreational fisheries within their perspective states. Now that ponds have been drained some will be left empty for the winter months and some will have fish in them over the winter. The ponds containing fish consist of adults used for our future offspring, fish kept for outreach events, fish for mussel culture, and Rainbow trout to continue growing until their stocking in the spring for recreational fishing. We look forward to our pond season next year and hope to continue producing successful pond rearing programs!
By: Jadon Motquin

staff netting fish