Determination of the best method of stocking is left up to Johannes and the area fisheries manager. It often takes a long time to determine what works best and even that can be much science and a little bit of luck.

“We continually evaluate our stocking programs, and in some lakes, we’ve increased the amount stocked or changed the variety, and in other lakes, we’ve made reductions. We’ve done a number of studies for insight on how things work best,” he said.

Stocking Case Studies
A 100- to 300-acre bass and panfish lake is typically stocked every three years, enough to create an opportunity for anglers to catch walleyes.

“You’ll never have a dominant walleye population in a lake like that, but you can create the opportunity,” Johannes said.

A 3,000- to 5,000-acre lake may require stocking every other year to ensure good year-classes.

Why not stock every year?

Johannes said studies have found that lakes in that size range don’t respond as well when fish are stocked annually.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to create a population where you have walleyes year after year and they can suppress year-classes, which always concerns us,” he said.

Fisheries biology may be a science, but managing Minnesota’s walleye fishery is not a perfect science for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason, some argue, is that the fish are managed for the human population. Some anglers want to keep everything, some want to keep only small ones, while others want to keep a trophy or two. Putting enough fish into a lake is only part of the deal.

“As far as our budget goes, we’ve been fortunate that the legislature has provided money for stocking programs now and into the future,” Johannes said.

But decreasing fishing license sales may be a problem in the future because the revenues generated by licenses help fund stocking programs. The DNR is encouraging more people to become involved in angling and Johannes encouraged all Minnesota anglers to get out and introduce new people to fishing.

“Things are a lot different today than ever before and there’s a lot of competition for people’s time,” he said.

Slot Limits
Time was, a walleye smaller than 17 inches was thrown back to grow bigger, and ones longer than 28 inches were put on the wall as a trophy. Today, thanks to a more informed public, most of those trophies are being released, while many of the smaller ones are taken for the frying pan.

Protecting those in-between fish is a big challenge that the DNR is still trying to figure out. When medium-sized fish are completely protected, more strain is placed on smaller fish and the population is disrupted. Many anglers release nearly every fish they catch, while others keep a limit every opportunity they get. Thus, the need for size regulations and slot limits.