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FINGERLING FIGURES

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Fish are stocked each year in White Bear Lake by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. East Metro Area Fisheries, which manages 90 lakes and miles of rivers and streams, and is in charge of stocking White Bear Lake. So, how many fish are stocked each year?

2022 stocking report:

2021 stocking report:

2020 stocking report:

Where do the fingerlings come from?

Fertilized walleye eggs are transported to the St. Paul Hatchery from Pike River on Lake Vermillion. Walleye eggs hatch into fry in 14 to 22 days. Once hatched, the quarter-inch fry transfer to rearing ponds to grow into four to six-inch fingerlings. It takes until fall to grow to fingerling size.

Fertilized muskie eggs come from Lake Rebecca in Hennepin County. Lake Rebecca is stocked from the Leech Lake brood-strain of muskies. Once hatched in three weeks at the St. Paul Hatchery, muskie fry go to rearing ponds and grow to “fall fingerling” size by autumn. A DNR hatchery manager reports about 27% of muskie fry survive to fall. Survival rates vary depending upon pond stocking densities, summer heat and cold, forage for the fry to eat in the ponds and bird predators. Releasing fall fingerlings doesn’t always guarantee catching extra big fish in future years. DNR fish managers estimate 4 or 5% of the annual statewide walleye catch comes from stocked fish. The majority, or 95% of walleye caught, are still the result of natural reproduction.

Who pays for fish stocking?

Walleye stocking alone costs the DNR more than $3 million per year. Fishing license sales pays for a significant amount of the DNR’s stocking program. Anglers who purchase $5.75 walleye stamps, which are not required for walleye fishing, help pay for privately purchased fish for extra stocking. Trout anglers also purchase a $10.75 validation (required) and stamp. Proceeds of the trout stamp go toward stocking trout in the state. Trout are not stocked in White Bear Lake. There isn’t a muskie stamp, but muskie clubs and associations contribute toward stocking muskie as well.

If you catch a tagged muskie

Yellow “Floy” tags can be found on some of the stocked White Bear Lake muskies. Tags are near the dorsal fin and about an inch long. Anglers catching a tagged fish are asked to leave the tag on the fish, record its tag number, date, fish size and relay the information online at: https://apps.dnr. state.mn.us/tagged_fish_reporting

Jim Levitt, East Metro Area Fisheries assistant area supervisor says, “We do a follow up with anglers reporting tag information to tell them when we put it in (White Bear Lake), how big it was (when stocked), we give them a history of that fish.” Levitt reports tag information helps the DNR look at survival of stocked fish, which stocked fish are surviving better.

Anglers are encouraged to harvest only what they intend to use for White Bear Lake to maintain a quality fishery.

St. Paul Hatchery

The St. Paul Hatchery, established in 1877, was started as a holding, rearing and shipping station and was known as Willow Brook Hatchery. It originally had seven cold water ponds fed by springs. Two of the seven original ponds are still in use today. New wells were drilled in the 1940s and 1980s to feed water to the rearing ponds.

White Bear Lake’s fishery

Fish present in White Bear Lake include black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, sauger, smallmouth bass, tiger muskellunge, walleye, white bass, yellow bullhead, yellow perch, bowfin (dogfish), common carp, white sucker, banded killfish, blackchin shiner, blacknose shiner, bluntnose minnow, brook silverside, central mudminnow, golden shiner, Iowa darter, jonny darter, least darter, logperch, spotfin shiner, spottail shiner, tadpole madtom. ◼

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