PIEDMONT — Walleyes native to the Black, St. Francis, Current and Eleven Point rivers are a specific genetic strain found nowhere else, and biologists with the Missouri Department of Conservation are working to preserve them.
“We’re trying to preserve the genetics of that strain,” said Fisheries Management Biologist Dave Knuth, who described the species as an offshoot of the eastern highlands subspecies. “In other parts of the state, a lot of our reservoirs like Stockton, Bull Shoals, Mark Twain ... those are all walleye that are a genetic mix of stuff that mostly came in from northern states. This guy has been here forever.”
“We’ve never found a lake strain in the Black River, but we check anyway. That’s why we don’t want to screw them up by stocking lake strain fish,” added Fisheries Management Biologist Paul Cieslewicz.
Each year, biologists conduct a walleye survey on the rivers to not only assess populations and growth, but also to provide brood stock for MDC’s warmwater hatchery at Chesapeake.
The survey is timed to coincide with the walleye spawn, which begins when the water temperature nears 50 degrees, typically in early to mid-March.
Using electrofishing equipment and gill nets, 31 males were collected from the Current River last week and sent to the hatchery.
On Monday, the team surveyed the Black River below the Clearwater Lake dam and in the Markham Spring area downstream.
“The river was a tad bit high, so they were not optimal conditions,” said Knuth.
Still, the team collected 14 adult females and seven males.
“From the Black River, we sent 10 females and seven males” to the hatchery, Cieslewicz said.
The females, which grow much faster and larger than the males, ranged in size from 4.5 pounds all the way up to a 14.25-pound specimen, which measured more than 30 inches long.
“That’s a giant walleye,” said Cieslewicz, who noted the species can live 10 years or more in the area’s rivers.
That fish alone, Cieslewicz said, could produce up to three quarts, or 300,000 eggs.
“That’s a lot of potential,” he said.
After the walleyes were caught, each was measured, weighed, tagged and a small portion of its tail fin clipped off for genetic testing before being placed in a special aerated tank mounted to a pickup truck, which took them overnight to the hatchery in Southwest Missouri.
At the hatchery, the fish will be spawned to create thousands more walleyes.
Since the walleyes are specific to the four local rivers, the fingerlings raised at the hatchery are stocked into them on a four-year rotation.
This year, Cieslewicz said, the Black River is expected to get 40,000 fingerlings.
“The Current, Black and Eleven Point we try to supplement every four years,” Cieslewicz said.
The St. Francis also is in that rotation, but walleyes there have not reproduced naturally since the Wappapello Lake dam was built.
“It’s purely a put-and-take. If we don’t stock the St. Francis, the walleye fishery goes away,” Cieslewicz said.
Any surplus fingerlings grown at the hatchery this year will go to the Current River, Knuth noted.
In addition, if more young fry are produced in the hatchery than it can hold in its rearing ponds, the extras will be sent to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
“You can only stock so many fry in ponds,” Knuth said. “If they have extra fry, they’ll send them down to Arkansas to rear, and they’ll stock them into those lower rivers.”
And it’s likely those fish still will end up back in Missouri because radio telemetry has shown walleyes in the system can travel great distances and between the four rivers.
“From our old tagging studies, we knew the fish moved and anglers would catch them from different rivers,” explained Cieslewicz. “We installed radio tags in a few fish and were mildly surprised that some stayed up by Clearwater Dam, some dropped down to the Hendrickson area, and quite a few took off to Arkansas.”
The eventual goal, both biologists said, is to manage the St. Francis, Black, Current and Eleven Point walleye fisheries as a single unit since they are all connected and the fish move between them.
Based on preliminary data from this week’s survey, Cieslewicz and Knuth think the local walleye population is in good shape, with a variety of year classes represented.
And, anglers have been catching them.
“We had a lot of reports this spring on the Black River of people catching fish,” Knuth said. “I think they did pretty well before the snow melt and the rivers came up.”
Given the uniqueness of the local walleye genetics, Cieslewicz recommends anglers keep the smaller males, which typically range up to 20 inches, and practice catch-and-release with the bigger females.
“Keep the males and release the females,” Cieslewicz said. “When I talk to guys, I tell them ‘if you get a big female, get a fiberglass mount.’”
Cieslewicz and Knuth both want to hear from anglers about their walleye questions or concerns and can be contacted at MDC’s Southeast Region Office at 573-290-5730, or by email at paul.cieslewicz@mdc.mo.gov or dave.knuth@mdc.mo.gov.