Final update on walleye stocking

I have received conformation from Silver Moon Springs Fish Hatchery that the fish for stocking this fall have been cleared by the veterinarian and are ready to be stocked. Our order of 250 of the ten inch average size walleyes is now set. Plans are to stock these in the lake very late in October, probably the last week, when the water temperature on the lake is near 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The fish will be delivered to our lake by Silver Moon Springs and we will deposit them in the lake at Sue Sazama's property. As before, we will take some of the fish in plastic pails to a number of spots around the lake to spread them out to help avoid loss to predation, although fish this size are less susceptible to this issue. Also, as  was the case the last time we stocked, we will not be fin clipping these fish due to concern of stressing the fish and increasing mortality.

I will only be given a one day notice of the stocking day so I do not plan to announce when it will take place. I will be present and if I had one other person we will be set to get them in the lake. I am planning on Sue Sazama for that help right now. We will take photographs for the the website and newsletter.

As of now, FOFL has collected enough money from donations to cover the entire cost of this stocking. Although no further donations are required, we are always willing to accept donations to cover other activities in the future.

With this stocking, we will have now placed a total of 750 seven-to-ten inch walleyes into Finger Lake over the past 5 years. Undoubtedly not all of these have survived, but hopefully this is adequate to jump start reestablishing our walleye population after the losses of the drought years. Keep in mind, the WDNR forecasts that we likely only have a sustainable adult walleye population of 150 fish in our lake historically. The WDNR wants us to hold off on further stocking after this to see if our efforts have paid off. 

On another topic, another part of our walleye recovery program is the tree drop project. The Association authorized the dropping of 15 shoreline trees into the lake at the 2019 annual meeting. These trees provide essential cover and habitat for juvenile fish thereby enhancing natural reproduction and maximizing the number of fish reaching adulthood. Last fall we dropped 9 trees into the lake, mostly on the west and south shores. We still plan to drop 6 more trees probably in 2021. At this point I do not have any trees selected for this effort so if you have a tree we could drop off the shoreline into the lake please let me know soon. We are looking for trees that are already leaning heavily toward the lake so we would be just hastening the tree falling into the lake.