Laramie -

The Laramie fisheries crew inspected two separate deliveries of walleye from the Garrison National Fish Hatchery in North Dakota before stocking them into lakes and reservoirs in southeast Wyoming.

The Game and Fish Department trades trout eggs for walleye from other states. Because the North Dakota walleye are raised in outdoor ponds, they must be verified to be free of invasive plants and animals, or “anything that’s not a walleye” before stocking in Wyoming waters.

So biologists sort through the shipment by running the fish over white boards before stocking them. The white boards make it easy to see anything that doesn’t belong. “Garrison Fish Hatchery does a really good job sending us clean fish, but we still need to go through them to ensure all good,” said Laramie Region Fisheries Supervisor Bobby Compton.

Once cleared, 400,000 fingerling walleye were stocked into Grayrocks Reservoir in June. In August, Hawk Springs Reservoir and Wheatland Reservoir #1 each received 40,000 walleye. These walleye were slightly larger than the ones stocked in Grayrocks with the hopes that survival rates would increase by stocking bigger fish.

- WGFD -