Lake Pueblo produces record walleye spawn after COVID-19 aborted efforts

CPW’s“March Madness” shows promise for future fishing seasons

While college basketball fanssit glued totheirtelevisions each March, Colorado Parks and Wildife plays its own version of March Madness.” Without fanfare, bettingbrackts or “One Shining Moment” tribtes, CPW biologistsand voluneers head out at dawn, usually in reezing temperatures, to Front ange reservoirs andspend a

month capturing thousands of walleye and spawning them in a quest forColorado anglers’precious aquaticprize.

This March, CPW collected approximately130 million eggs–a slam dunk for anglersstatewide.

It’s particularly great news after last year’s disappointing, pandemic-shortened spawn produced only atiny fraction of theusual haul.

“Honestly,it’shardtobelieve what our team of aquatic biologists, other CPWstaff,and three volunteers were able to accomplish this year at Lake Pueblo State Park,” saidJosh Nehring, senior aquatic biologist forCPW’s Southeast Region.

“Weweren’t surewhat to expect. But we never expected to catch so many fish andproduce so many

eggs, so fast.

“It’sremarkable. And anglers ought to be thrilled because it’s going to mean great fishing in the coming years in Colorado.”

Most everyspring, CPW holds its March Madness at three state parks: Lake Pueblo, Cherry Creek and Chatfield.

There, three teams of aquatic

biologists deploy at dawn each day for most of the month,working even days aweek in sun, rain and ften snow,togill-net hundreds of walleye each day.

They strip thepopulargamefish, one slipperywalleye after another, of their milt and roe(spermand eggs) as the fish wriggle furiously in the biologists’ cold, wethands.

The eggsare fertilizedinaboathouse at Lake Pueblo, orona floating bargeatCherry Creek and Chatfield. Then thefertilized eggs –often illions aday –are sent to CPW hatcheries wherethey arehatched nd nurtured until the fryand finerlings areready to be stocked in waters across Colorado.

Typically the grueling routine is repeated daily until they’veproduced about 120million eggs. Only when the goal is reached can the madness end.

Why does CPW go to all the effort?

Because anglers love walleye for the valiant fight they put up on the end of aline andfor theway they taste at the endofafork. The walleye eggs also arevaluble as CPW’s hatchery stafftrade them to other states in exchange for desirable gamefish otherwise unavailable in Colorado.

The annualefforthas gone on since 1988atLakePueblo and, in ormal years, involves asmall rmy of CPWaquatic biologists, other staff and volunteers who typically

spend hours each day alongside thebiologists untangling dozens of nets –eachlonger than a footballfield –deployed eachafternoon and left overnight inthe lakes for the next morning’s catch.

Then, ayear ago, came COVID- 19 forcing asuddenstop to the spawningoperation.

One day into the 2020 walleye spawn, CPW aborted operations as the worldwide pandemic reached Colorado.

Anglers feared their prized catch

would quickly disappear without the human-assisted spawning operation. Sure,the walleye in the three lakes would still spawn without human interference. But the survivalrate of walleyeeggs spawned naturally in the lake can be as low as 10 percent while eggs gathered and fertilized by CPW aquatic biologists is typically as high as 80 percent.

“That’s why CPW and itspredecessor agencies beganspawning fish several decades ago,” Nehring

said. “And the modernoperation has helped boostwalleye populations and ensures great fishing for anglers.”

So therewas great pressure on CPW’s Team Walleye as itbegan operations this year.That pressure was made worse by the decision to limit participation to just acore group of biologists and only three longtime volunteers: Russ Dewey, Mark Elkins and Dan Frankowski.

Those three volunteers each have decades of experience – Frankowski first volunteered at the LakePueblo boathouse in1990 –and all were vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. And everyone woremasks forprotection. In afurther safety precaution, the net reefing operation was moved out of the cramped boathouse and into n open-air parking lot. It was astark contrast to past years when alarge supportstaff and larger team of volunteers rrived each morning beforedawn o expedite thespawn and to let he biologists concentrateon atchingand squeezing the fish. Perhaps the volunteers’ biggest ontribution is the choreof“reefng” thenets.

They drag 32 heavytubs, each holding a400-foot-longgill net, and start hours of reefing -- the process of untangling the massive nets.

The work startsbytakingone end of the longnet andtossingit over alarge plastic pipe hanging from the rafters of the boathouse. Then they stand and pull the 400-feetofnet over the tube, inch by inch, removing tree branches, debris and even old fishing lures, as they slowly and carefully place it into anew tub. Along the way they also make repairs to netting ripped by thedebris.

This year,however,the 14-member Team Walleye was responsible for most ofthe prep work, rinse stations, all the sorting and counting.

And with only three volunteers, the CPW Team Walleye biologists spent what would normally be their lunch hours standing in the parking lot reefing netssothey could take them backout on the lake to be set forthe nextmorning.

But as bad as 2020 was forTeam Walleye,the 2021 season was great. Nehring said the overall walleye catch at Lake Pueblo was among thebest in decades.

It took only afew days for the Pueblo team to blow past itsgoal of 40 million eggs. The walleye, and the eggs, just kept piling up.

This turned out to be especially important because CPW had decided in advance not to spawn at Chatfield thisyear and the effort

at Cherry Creek was partially held back duetoCOVID-19 concerns.

Carrie Tucker,aquatic biologist based in Pueblo, saidshe’d never seen so many walleye.

“It was an absolutely monster year,” Tuckersaid. “We’ve never gotten so many fish,day afterday. It was great to be back on the water.And it’s great to know our anglers aregoing to have alot of success catching fish this summer.”

The number of fish netted each day kept growing until Nehring, Tucker andthe teamspawned 156 female walleyes on March26. They weresosurprised they wrote the number on cardboardand

placed it in the rafters of the boathouse, noting it exceeded the previous recordof130 female walleye spawned in one day in 2019.

In all, Team Walleye beat the 2019 recordfor daily female spawns three times in 2021.

The box scoreshowed thatina quick 16 days, they hadproduced 90 million eggs from Lake Pueblo -- by far themajority ofCPW’s 2021 statewide total of 131 million eggs.

Theteam also ranupthe score by exceeding 9million eggs prouced on 3days. Their best was 9.8 million March 29.

They further stuffed the stat sheet by producing 6millionsterle “triploids.” The triploid is asterle walleye hybrid. CPW aquatic iologists like triploids because hey canbestocked in West Slope waters without fearofreproducing and competingwith native fish.

Another benefit of the record walleye spawn wasthe production of 32.4million saugeye. It’s a hybrid made from sauger milt from Nebraskaand Colorado walleye eggs.

The saugeye loves shallow water making it afavorite amongshore anglers.

In the college basketball March Madness,colorful confettifell on the winners as they cutdown the nets at the end of thetournament.

Only alight snow fellonTeam Walleye as the biologists folded up the lastnets on March31, ending PW’s version of March Madness.