Colby Mulder assisted with the delicate process of stirring the eggs during the fertilization process.
The walleye trap netting and egg collection effort is in full swing in the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir! Water surface temperatures have bumped up slightly to around 50-53 degrees throughout our trap netting locations. These are still VERY favorable for walleye spawning activity.
These warm and stable water temperatures have continued to push the walleye up shallow and into our trap nets. Once again, a large portion of the females we’ve been capturing have been ripe and releasing their eggs. In fact, we’ve been able to bring in over 100 ripe female walleye each day over the last two days.
However, we have observed a few more spent female walleye over the last couple of days as well. It’s likely this will be a very short and condensed walleye spawning season based on the large numbers of walleye we’re seeing all at once.
On Monday, we collected a little over 18 million eggs from 112 ripe female walleye. We also had another egg collection today (Tuesday) from 114 females which should give us close to another 15 million more eggs. These three egg collection efforts should put us a little over 50 million walleye eggs total thus far for the 2023 season. This has been an amazing amount of eggs collected in a very short period of time and quite unexpected considering the later than normal start.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Update by Fort Peck Reservoir Biologist Heath Headley
Feature photo: Colby, Will, and Selby Mulder doing some walleye wrangling. Thanks for the help!
38 teams competed with three teams each bringing in a jaw-dropping 110+pounds in the Tiber Walleye Tournament! Unofficially a U.S. walleye tournament 2-day record was reached! We’ll update you when we hear it’s official!
Think you know who runs Montana’s State Parks? Think again—the new MT Outdoor Podcast episode reveals the surprising nonprofit powering some of the coolest stuff behind the scenes. Check out this sneak peek!
In Montana, the BLM approved NorthWestern Energy’s proposal to construct the 74-mile Helena to Three Forks natural gas pipeline through an accelerated 14-day environmental review process, which is being used in response to the national energy emergency declared by President Donald J. Trump.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has established a new Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone in Hunting District 170 near Kalispell following the detection of CWD in whitetail deer at the Flathead County Landfill in October 2024.
The permit would authorize BHC to offer guided day-use hunts for big game such as antelope, bear, deer, elk, mountain lion, and moose, as well as upland game birds on BLM-managed parcels administered by the Butte and Dillon field offices.
On the morning of June 14, 2025, Wyoming Game and Fish Department personnel received a report that a cow moose had been shot in a confrontation with an angler on the North Tongue River in the Bighorn National Forest near Bear Lodge Resort. When game wardens responded, they found the moose deceased from her injuries.
