Nebraska Stockings

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission personnel from the North Platte Fish Hatchery recently stocked advanced-sized muskellunge in six Nebraska Lakes as part of the agency’s trophy fishery program.

Under the Commission’s current muskies stocking strategy, muskies hatched in the spring are held in hatchery ponds until the following year for stocking, instead of releasing them as fry or fingerlings the same year they are hatched. The extra months of captivity allow the muskies to grow to a much larger size, which significantly improves their survival rate in the wild.

Nebraska waters targeted for muskies receive alternating year stockings. This year, hatchery personnel produced more than 2,000 muskies that measured 12-14 inches for stocking in Enders Reservoir, Fremont Lakes Nos. 7 and 8, Wagon Train Lake, Calamus Reservoir and Zorinsky Lake.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission personnel from the North Platte Fish Hatchery also began stocking more than 15 million walleye fry this week in public reservoirs mostly in southwest Nebraska.

Walleye eggs collected at Merritt and Sherman reservoirs in March, along with eggs received from the Colorado Division of Wildlife, were hatched at the North Platte Fish Hatchery for spring stocking.

Enders Reservoir near Imperial received approximately 1.5 million fry. Medicine Creek Reservoir north of Cambridge received 2.65 million fry. More than 1.1 million fry were stocked in Red Willow Reservoir near McCook. Swanson Reservoir near Trenton received 2.6 million eggs and Harlan County Reservoir at Republican City received 7 million walleye fry. Desoto National Wildlife Refuge on the Missouri River received 700,000 fry and Willow Creek Reservoir near Pierce received a million fry.

Why does Enders need Musky

Looks like last year they stocked 660 14 inch Musky on 3-30-06 at Enders. I haven’t been down there for 15 years or more. Is there an over abundents of baitfish??

I am for it. I don’t think they hurt populations all that much. They get fished out pretty quick IMO. (BTW, I don’t always know what I’m talking about) Do you think muskies control carp populations though? That was always my theory for putting them in Calamus.

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…..Do you think muskies control carp populations though? That was always my theory for putting them in Calamus.

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Well if they do they aren’t working hard enough at the Calamus to get the work done. I think that they are a trophy fish that the GPC would like to get into as many sustainable lakes as possible. It is a means of getting more people into our state to fish.

Good fishin’
dj

You’re right about Calamus. I have never seen a lake with such a carp population. I would like to see a comparison study between the major lakes in Nebraska to see who has the most carp per capita. I guess if the ski’s did eat those things in Calamus, and preferred them, then we would be talking about an up and coming world record musky population. I’m talking 200 pounders and several of them

Baitfish are in check down there and the lake is horribly low. And a far as musky eating carp, the way Calamus looks, they must not If anybody can get an actual explaination on why they are stocking Musky at Enders, I sure would be interested in here what that person has to say

Hey Guys! I thought I’d chime in again. The reason for stocking muskies is so dang many people keep white bass/wipers/walleye for dinner. When(if) Enders comes back up it will have lots of flooded vegetation. Those shad and carp will take off fast! This time we will be prepared If you remember when Calamus was first impounded it was a great Northern Pike and LMB fishery. As the reservoir aged the ideal habitat disappears(unless there’s drawdown and vegetation reappears) For along time Calamus didn’t see “severe?” drawdown so the habitat silted over. During this time the walleye, white bass and wipers took off along with the carp. Now Calamus anglers are not known for “Selective Harvest” and again the predator base was too weak to over come the exploding carp population after a few years. Now with the muskies it will take awhile but hopefully we will see a decline in carp numbers. It takes just a long, long time and continuous stocking and hopefully most of those 40″ fish will be released back in safely. Cause and Effect results are hard to see. But as in the ever-lasting war against white perch at Branched Oak we are starting to see small changes.

Take Care and Screaming drags!!ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz!!

Andrew S.

Thanks Andrew.

If the possibility of vegitation being abundant again is the reason for stocking Musky then why is Harlan not 1st on the list of needy lakes As for the Pike up at Calamus, you are exactly right when you made the comment on the lack of catch and release there

Harlan will be back down at minimum pool later in the summer and will be that way for a few years. Stocking these muskies is not cheap and the biologists probably choose which lakes could benefit most from musky. These muskies are 12-14 inches when released and have been eating an expensive diet of live food instead of pellets at the hatchery. It’s expensive, but they have found that their survival rate is much higher when they don’t have to learn how to chase down prey once released.

Enders is in just as bad, if not worse shape, than Harlan is. I guess I am not following what you are saying Ben?

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I guess I am not following what you are saying Ben?

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I’m saying it’s expensive to put them in every lake. So there must be a reason they chose Enders and not Harlan.

OK this brings me back to the original question, why Enders? Does anybody know somebody who can answer this question?

Give Daryl Bauer a call at his office. 402-471-5005.