Bull Shoals- Mdc Taking Walleye For Spawn 2013 - Video

[Phil Lilley]

Met AJ and his crew at the River Run ramp last night.  Shot this video with the GoPro.  Wasn't happy with the turnout... too dark.  But you can see what they do with the eggs and sperm.

 

Last Wednesday night they collected 150 males and 50 females but the females were on the small size so they had to come back and get another 30 females. 

 

Last week, the largest walleye sampled was 28-inch female that weighed 12 lbs 10 ounces.  Last night they had a 30-inch female (pic).

 

[Wayne SW/MO]

Were they able to get up near the dam? Did they take any back like they normally do or were they just milking those that were ready?

[Phil Lilley]

They put the ones they collected last Wednesday back in the lake yesterday at K-Dock ramp.

I assume they'll bring these back next week.

[fishinwrench]

The thing I'm a bit uneasy about....and of course it's not shown or mentioned, is the eventual release of brood stock that have been injected with "synthetic hormone inhancers" (or whatever it's more correctly named).

Makes me wonder how many frankenstien walleye have crossed peoples tongues ?

Is that safe?

[bfishn]

The thing I'm a bit uneasy about....and of course it's not shown or mentioned, is the eventual release of brood stock that have been injected with "synthetic hormone inhancers" (or whatever it's more correctly named).

Makes me wonder how many frankenstien walleye have crossed peoples tongues ?

Is that safe?

The use of hormone injections to force egg release is a common hatchery technique not limited to use on walleye. Extract taken from carp pituitary glands has been the substance of choice for years. It works very well, so I can't imagine why anyone would change to a synthetic, but I suppose it's possible. I've never seen a study that noted any lasting or harmful effects, and it has to be repeated the following year, so I presume it's processed and gone in a short time.

[Jerry Rapp]

so walleye are going to be turned into Carp? Think about what you just posted. Carp crap into Walleyes and other fish?

[bfishn]

(In anticipation of the next obvious questions).

"Why "force" egg release? The last spawner I caught spewed eggs all over my lap."

That fish had either already been on the spawning ground or at least visited it when the time and conditions were right, and that triggered her own hormones to kick in. Broodstock taken prior to that trigger and held in a hatchery setting won't release their eggs. That leaves surgical removal (killing the fish) or hormone injection to trigger release.

"Then why not go every night and take only the eggs from sows that are ready to give them until you have enough"?

Aside from the cost of repeated trips, there's a very good reason. Every day you take eggs you have to put them in a seperate incubation apparatus. For "fed" fish like trout, that's hugely inconvenient and time consuming as you have to treat each batch differently as each has a different hatch date. For carnivores like walleye released into plankton ponds at day 3, that isn't even an option. The fry you released three days ago would eat the fry you released today unless you have a separate pond for them.

Soo... in the interest of efficiency, broodstock are taken to the hatchery and all injected with carp pituitary hormones the same day. IIRC, ~36 hours later the sows can be stripped by hand. This puts all the eggs on the same hatch date, making life much easier for the workers (and cheaper for us), and giving the fry a much better survival rate.

[bfishn]

...Think about what you just posted....

I posted from experience. I've studied it, and I've done it. Hatcheries that take eggs from captive broodstock do it all the time. Trout, stripers, cats, you name it.

https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/87/

[Jerry Rapp]

unbelievable, in this day and age, you can shoot up walleye with carp crap. With all of the other environmental stuff going around, global warming, asian carp in the great lakes, zebra mussles, gobies, snail darters going extiinct, and you support shooting up walleye with carp extract is a good thing???????? There is no common sense left in the world.

[bfishn]

unbelievable, in this day and age, you can shoot up walleye with carp crap...

Would you feel better if they used salmon "crap"? (they have). Or maybe HCG? (human "crap"). It's been done.

What if a walleye ate a carp, pituitary glands and all (they do). Or walleye that live on shad (yuk)... is it OK for a shad to be digested and turned into more walleye, but injecting a few intramuscular CCs of carp hormone isn't?