Walleye Stocking Program
Walleyes are one of the most sought-after sportfish in Alberta. However, Alberta has relatively few waterbodies that support walleyes, and the province’s cool climate results in a slow growth rate. As a result, walleyes require special management considerations to ensure sustainable populations can be maintained for future generations.
Walleye stocking is one management tool that can provide additional angling opportunities.
Why we Stock Walleyes
Stocking walleyes in Alberta is not new. From the 1980s to the early 2000’s, Alberta used walleye stocking to re-establish collapsed or extirpated (locally extinct) populations and create new self-sustaining populations in lakes and reservoirs with the goal of providing sustainable angling opportunities. In other very specific cases, such as in Wabamun Lake, stocking was used in 2010 to 2014 to re-establish the walleye population following extirpation. Between 2006 and 2011, extensive stocking was also used in Lac La Biche for fishery restoration.
Alberta has also used walleye stocking to enhance existing native populations; however, natural recruitment is more often successful in combination with conservation measures, since natural populations of walleye are able to produce enough small fish to replace themselves most of the time, provided habitat is not limited and harvest is carefully managed.
In 2021, walleye stocking re-commenced across numerous waterbodies in Alberta, with a focused goal of providing additional fishing opportunities. Stockings are waterbody specific: some are intended to supplement existing populations that are unable to produce enough young fish, while others are intended to create angling and harvest opportunities.
How Walleye Stocking Occurs
Unlike trout stocking, a brood stock of walleye is not available. Instead, in the spring, a spawn camp is set up on a lake that contains a healthy walleye population. Walleyes are captured in the spring using live traps.
Once the eggs are collected and fertilized on site, the fish are returned safely back to the lake to spawn again in the spring.
Walleyes lay approximately 25,000 eggs each! As an example, if the Walleye Stocking Program is targeting 6 million eggs, then eggs need to be collected from approximately 240 mature female walleyes. Compared to the number of mature female walleye in most lakes, this is a very small percentage of fish.
The fertilized eggs are transported to the Cold Lake Fish Hatchery for hatching and rearing. Walleyes can be stocked as fry or fingerlings (ranging from the size of an eyelash to 15 cm). Due to their voracious nature, if left in rearing tanks or ponds in a hatchery, walleyes will eat each other. This behavior results in reduced survival at the hatchery, and fewer fry to be stocked.
Walleye Spawn Camps
Three walleye spawn camps are set up in the spring. Each spawn camp supports stocking in various regions of the province to ensure fish with appropriate genetics are stocked within their natural region. The walleye stocking program began in 2021 in southern Alberta and in 2024 within the northern part the province.
Eggs will be collected from healthy donor populations specific to major watersheds in the province, including:
- Lac Ste Anne (Saskatchewan watershed)
- Rock Island Lake (Athabasca watershed)
- Ethel Lake (Beaver River watershed)
Egg collections have little impact on walleye populations
The number of eggs collected from donor waterbodies represents a very small fraction of the total number of eggs produced in each lake and has little impact on walleye populations in these waters. For example:
Lac Ste Anne has a surface area of 5,540 hectares and contains more than 32,000 adult female walleyes based on the 2022 Fall Index Netting assessment. Staff will need to spawn roughly 400 adult female walleyes, which is approximately 1% of the entire adult female population.
Rock Island Lake has a surface area of 1,926 hectares and contains more than 14,000 adult female walleyes based on the 2023 Fall Index Netting assessment. Staff will need to spawn roughly 200 adult females in 2024, which is approximately 1.5% of the entire adult female population.
Ethel Lake has a surface area of 490 hectares and contains more than 2,500 adult female walleyes based on the 2022 Fall Index Netting assessment. Staff will need to spawn roughly 100 adult females in 2024, which is approximately 4% of the entire female population.
Adult walleyes are returned to the lake to spawn in future years.
Where Walleyes are Stocked
Fisheries staff use standard fisheries protocols, such as Fall Index Netting, to determine the size, age, and number of fish living in a lake and reservoir to determine which lakes and reservoirs should be stocked. Significant considerations when deciding where to stock walleyes include:
- genetic integrity of walleye populations
- risk of transferring diseases to the recipient waterbody
Disease testing is undertaken prior to stocking walleyes in Alberta waterbodies.
Stocking walleyes into Alberta lakes and reservoirs can offer the potential to create more angling harvest opportunities of walleyes, although there is always uncertainty with regard to success. Since reservoirs are largely managed for agricultural irrigation, fluctuating water levels can influence the success of a walleye population.
How many walleyes are stocked
The number of walleye fry stocked per waterbody is calculated based on:
- area of a given waterbody
- how many fish it can support, with consideration to habitat (oxygen, water depth, food source)
- estimation of how many walleyes survive from fertilization to fry within the hatchery
Survival at each stage of their early life history is highly variable, and is impacted by egg quality, and self-predation.
For an up-to-date listing of where walleyes have been stocked, visit:
Harvest Opportunities
A successful walleye stocking event should result in walleyes reaching a catchable size in 4 to 5 years. Water temperatures and food availability influence growth rates – walleyes in southern Alberta tend to grow faster than walleyes in northern parts of the province.
Success is never guaranteed and will depend upon many factors, including:
- egg quality
- habitat
- stocking rate
- water quality
- predation
- availability of food.
Fisheries Management is committed to review this program to support its success. Survival of walleyes stocked in 2021 and 2022 have been observed in multiple southern waterbodies in 2023.
Monitoring and evaluation of stocking success will continue, and findings will inform future stocking strategies.
All new harvest opportunities will be communicated to anglers through the annual Sportfishing Regulations:
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Updated: Apr 23, 2024