We Need To Act Now! * March 2014

Critics of restocking often state reasons why restocking doesn’t work.  One reason given is that
Lake Nipissing is too large.  At ~87,000ha, Lake Nipissing is indeed a large lake.  It is shallow with an average depth of ~16’. Richly tannic from shield runoff, windswept and well oxygenated, highly fertile, with an abundance of spawning habitat, Lake Nipissing is ideal for walleye.  Given the present state of angling pressure, all our dwindling walleye population needs…is a little help. 

 When told by the MNR that Lake Nipissing was too large for successful restocking I started to investigate other regions in North America.  I found the story of Red Lake in Minnesota.  Red Lake is larger than Nipissing at ~115,000ha with both a commercial and sports fishery targeting the most sought after game fish in North America, the walleye (pickerel).  The Red Lake walleye population had been decimated and the DNR (the US version of the MNR) was asked to help bring the walleye population back.  I will give you a brief summary of how the DNR accomplished this.

A decision was made that an aggressive restocking program was the solution for Red Lake.  50 million walleye fry would be stocked into Red Lake each year.  Oxytetracycline, a chemical used in the US, was used to mark the stocked fry so an accurate analysis could be determined as to what percentage of year class were stocked vs natural.  (The use of this chemical is prohibited in Ontario).  

       The results were amazing! The 1999 and 2001 year classes were the strongest in over 20 years.  Stocked fry made up over 80% of the 1999 year class, over 50% of the 2001 year class, and over 80% of the 2003 year class.  Stocked walleye contributed to over 68% of the total walleye harvest in Red Lake.  The walleye population successfully returned to a self sustainable level with the one tool in the tool box our district refuses to consider, stocking.  We don’t have to wait until Lake Nipissing is devastated! We need to act now to ensure our fishery is around for our children.   Scott Nelson

We urge you to read the in-depth report on Red Lake’s success story, as well as other district’s restocking success stories, here on our website. We also urge you to become a member of the LNSA and support our efforts to not only continue restocking walleye here as we’ve done for decades, but to also convince our local MNR to allow  a more aggressive and much needed restocking initiative before it’s too late!