CANYON FERRY AND FORT PECK 2013
Fort Peck
May 12, 2013
The weather has improved and water temperatures have finally
warmed in the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir. Water
surface temperatures throughout the trap netting area ranged
from 60 degrees in shallow areas of Nelson Creek to 50
degrees past McGuire Creek. Despite the increase in water
temperatures, walleye spawning activity hasn’t increased
much. Fewer walleye have been collected along with more
spent females. These indicators have signaled us the spawn
is coming to a close and it’s time to pull our trap nets for
the season.
In 2013, we noticed a greater number of small to
medium-sized walleye during the spawn compared to previous
years. Most of these fish ranged from 15 to 25 inches in
length which can be attributed to good growth and survival
over the last several years. This is due to an increase in
reservoir elevations that provided a greater amount of
habitat and forage fish. Anglers should be encouraged to
know we still captured some very large walleye during this
time. One of the largest females weighed was 15.3 pounds and
measured 33.2 inches.
We were able to hold a few more egg-takes since the last
update. However, we were only able to collect roughly a
million eggs each day. These small egg-takes will give us a
total of 40 million eggs for the 2013 season. While this
number is lower than other years, these eggs will give us
enough fry to stock all rearing ponds at the Fort Peck and
Miles City fish hatcheries. These ponds will provide walleye
fingerlings to meet the statewide stocking requests in 2013.
On behalf of the reservoir and hatchery staff, I would like
to thank all the volunteers who assisted with this year’s
effort. Best of luck fishing this summer!
Photo: Kimball Brost with a green female walleye.
May 5, 2013
The weather has started to warm again after a brief cold
spell rolled through the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir.
Water surface temperatures were back down to 45 degrees on
Wednesday but have slowly climbed back to 50 degrees
throughout our trap netting area as of today.
The number of walleye collected from the trap nets continues
to remain the same. There hasn’t been a large increase in
numbers of green or ripe female walleye collected from the
trap nets. Good numbers of male walleye are still present
though. We have also come across several spent female
(already released their eggs) during our trap netting
efforts. Green female walleye were ripening up in the
holding pens until the recent drop in water temperature.
The egg-taking effort has continued to produce small batches
of eggs on a daily basis. Since the last update, we have
collected 10 million more eggs. This brings the grand total
to approximately 34 million total for the season. We will
continue trap netting and egg-taking during the upcoming
week to see if some warmer temperatures bring in some more
walleye and hopefully collect a few more eggs.
Photo: Tom Rau with a green walleye and Bob Lipscomb with a
large northern pike.
April 29, 2013
The weather continues to cooperate in the Big Dry Arm of
Fort Peck Reservoir. Water surface temperatures have reached
53 degrees in the shallower areas and 46 degrees at some of
our trap nets further down the reservoir. However, the wind
continues to through a wrench in things by making it
difficult to check all of our trap nets.
The continued warming trend has spurred a bit of walleye
spawning activity. Some of the better trap nets are still
seeing close to 20 walleye per net, but we are now starting
to capture a few more females. Most of the females collected
continue to be green, but we are starting to see more ripe
females in the trap nets. We are also seeing more green
female walleye ripen up in the holding pens as result of the
warmer water temperatures.
Since the last update, we’ve been holding an egg-take each
day. Each egg-taking effort has resulted in three to four
million eggs per day. Today was the largest egg-take with 6
million more eggs collected. This will bring our grand total
to approximately 24 million eggs as of today. It looks like
we will see a slight drop in temperatures in the upcoming
days, but hopefully it doesn't damper the walleye spawning
activity too much.
Photos: Matt Baxter collecting eggs from a ripe female
walleye and Craig Russell with a green female walleye.
April 25, 2013
The weather has slowly started to improve on Fort Peck
Reservoir. Since Monday, we’ve been seeing a gradual warming
trend develop in the upper Big Dry Arm. Water surface
temperatures have finally approached 45 degrees in some of
the shallower areas. This has been the warmest water
temperature we've observed this year during the walleye
spawning operation.
With the warming temperatures, we are starting to see a few
more walleye in our trap nets. Some of our best trap nets
are containing close to twenty walleye with a majority of
them still being males. However, we are beginning to capture
a few more green females and occasionally some ripe female
walleyes.
Some of the green female walleye have finally ripened up
in our holding pens due to the warming water temperatures.
This allowed us to hold our second spawn of the season.
Today we collected nearly 5 million eggs from 39 females.
This will bring our total to 8 million eggs thus far. It
looks like the warming trend should continue for the next
few days so hopefully the walleye spawning activity will
pick up!
Photo: John Gregory and Chris Reiquam hoist a couple of
green female walleyes.
April 22, 2013
Well, the weather hasn’t improved much on Fort Peck
Reservoir. The daytime high was around 37 degrees with wind
gusts to 35 miles per hour on Sunday. As a result, were
unable to check all of our trap nets. Much of our equipment
that got wet froze on Sunday night. When we returned on
Monday, we were greeted to layers of ice on and in the
boats. Even the simple task of unloading a boat becomes a
bit more difficult when it gets froze to the trailer bunks!
Water surface temperatures in the upper Big Dry Arm area
warmed slightly to 42 degrees on Sunday but decreased to 40
degrees on Monday. We are seeing a few more walleyes in the
trap nets but it still isn’t a runaway. Most of the walleye
collected continue to be males but there have been a few
more green females collected over the last few days. This is
good news as we are now holding close to 80 green females in
the holding pens. However, we really need some warmer water
temperatures so they will release their eggs.
We have also been able to collect 3 to 4 ripe female walleye
per day which allowed us to hold our first walleye egg-take
for 2013. We ended up spawning 20 females which gave us
close to 3 million eggs on Sunday. Let’s hope the weather
forecast starts to warm in the upcoming days and stays
there!
Photo: David Simpson with a green female walleye.
April 20th
The 2013 walleye spawning operation is officially
underway on Fort Peck Reservoir. However, it appears Mother
Nature still has her own agenda. The Fort Peck area received
almost 7 inches of snow over the weekend and daytime
temperatures have only been in the low 40's and down into
the 20's at night. Reservoir elevations are approximately 13
feet lower than they were at this time last year. This means
we are having to relocate many of our trap net locations.
Water surface temperatures are 38-39F in the upper Big Dry
Arm. As you can imagine, walleye spawning activity is pretty
slow. We have been capturing a decent number of males but
only a few females thus far. The female walleye are still
really green and not ready to release their eggs yet. The
colder water temperatures have actually been very conducive
to northern pike spawning activity. Some trap nets have had
upwards of 40 northern pike per net with both both green and
ripe (releasing eggs) female pike. This definitely a sign
that things are still early.
It looks like there is a slight warming trend in the
forecast so let’s hope the weather eventually cooperates and
the walleye spawning activity picks up.
Photos: Trap net and Joe Wiles with a Burbot
Canyon Ferry
5/22/2013
The 2013 Canyon Ferry Reservoir walleye spawning survey officially came to a close on May 8th. The survey was marked by many tough days battling traps in extreme weather, which meant many days of setting and resetting traps. FWP crews tagged 338 walleye this spring, down from 448 in 2012, with fish averaging 14.9-inches. There were 24 females (7%) sampled, with the largest at 24.6-inches and 6.5-pounds. Over half of the ‘new’ walleye were captured from April 26th to 28th (55%), just after the full moon period, and another large portion of the catch occurred in April during an early warming trend. Considering how many days traps were pushed to shore to avoid weather, we captured quite a few walleye. Ten total northern pike were sampled in 2013 which averaged 38.4-inches and 17.4-pounds.
Please contact me if you have any question or are interested in volunteering at any time during the summer months. Thanks.
Photo Caption: Technician Chris Hurley with a 6.5-pound burbot captured on the south end of Canyon Ferry Reservoir.
4/29/2013
Foul weather continues to make the spring walleye spawning
survey on Canyon Ferry Reservoir very interesting. Traps
have only fished a handful of days since the last report due
to inclement weather. However, conditions reached optimal
spawning conditions (48-52°F) for a few days late last week
and crews were able to tag nearly 150 walleye, which pushes
the spring total to just over 250 walleye sampled. Some
mid-20 inch female walleye continue to cruise the shoreline
and most of the females are either green or ripe. Look for
fish to continue cruising shorelines throughout the
reservoir for the next couple weeks and FWP staff is
planning to run traps into early May. Over 1,200 rainbows
have been sampled this spring and only one more northern
pike to report since the last update.
If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering
for a day during the field season, give me a call at
495-3263.
Photo Caption: FWP Fisheries Technician Chris Hurley with a
24.2-inch green female walleye near Pond 1 on Canyon Ferry
Reservoir.
April 15th
The annual spring spawning survey on Canyon Ferry Reservoir
is underway and battling mother nature seems to be the only
constant thus far. Three trap nets were launched, two on the
east shore at standard locations and one on the west shore,
during the week of April 3rd and traps have been monitored
at least three days weekly over the past two weeks. Rainbow
trout numbers in the traps have been at or above average,
but cool water temperatures and wind have slowed the walleye
spawn thus far. Just over 100 walleye have been captured as
of April 15th and the majority of the catch have been ripe
males. Only a few green females have been captured to date,
but look for that to change with the forecast calling for
warmer temperatures and a full moon on the horizon. The most
interesting capture this spring has been the presence of 8
northern pike larger than 10-pounds.
If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering
for a day during the field season, give me a call at
495-3263.
Photo Caption: Fisheries technician Chris Hurley with a
22.5-pound northern pike captured on the south end of Canyon
Ferry Reservoir.
