Hee We are at Pueblo Reservoir, in the North Marina Cove, and we are spawning walleye.

what we're doing now.

We started out we are gathering our crews and heading out on two different boats We make a couple of trips in and out with the nets and the fish, haw!

and, we pull the walleye out of the nets, release all the other fish back into the reservoir, and then bring the walleye back to our boathouse, And, there we saw our walleye into males females.

Right.

The email.

And then the females are further split into rights and greens.

Right.

Means that the eggs are ready to come out of the bellies of the females.

And the, green means that the eggs are still, in the females, but not ready to come out.

Three.

We've been doing walleyes found at Public reservoir since about 1986, and, normally lasts anywhere between nine days to 24, 25 days until we meet our statewide Eagle, whic this year is 127 million eggs.

it's going to be a very, very hot, dry year.

We had the lowest snowpack o historical record in Colorado.

Water temperatures, normally when we start doing the spawning are around 38 degrees.

They've been 43 degrees but there are some places around the reservoir that the water temperature is up to 50 degrees, which is normally way past, what the water temperatures are when we finish our spawn at the end of March.

So I was concerned that, we were either going to miss the spawn or, not be able to collect enough eggs as it being only the second day of spawn.

It's too early to tell if we've, missed that peak, but based on the numbers we got yesterday and today, I think we'll be oka and be able to hit our A goal.

Man.

we start off, we we take female, we we dry the belly off.

Water actually activates the eggs.

So if you get the eggs wet before they have, the sperm comes into contact with them it can actually ruin the eggs.

We squeeze it.

Once we get maybe three sometimes four females spawned into a pan, we have this, white pan full of this, the substance that looks kind of like applesauce, but they're very tiny eggs, and they're tens of thousands of them.

A large female could have over 100,000 eggs.

once we have those eggs and we take a male, we dry them off as well.

And then we are, squeezing several males into the pan to get the sperm in contact with the eggs.

Once we have both gamete in the pan, then we're pouring a pitcher of water into the pan and starting the stirring and cleaning process.

walleye project is oriented towards reproducing the fish in Colorado.

They cannot naturally reproduce in Colorado with any good success.

So we, artificially spawn them, had them in the hatchery, then put them back in the lake.

They can't.

Mostl because of our water conditions.

We get a lot of wind.

The fish tend to lay their eggs in rocky areas.

The wind, the wave action.

Then we'll break the eggs.

So very little natural reproduction.

I think my first encounter, doing everything with all I saw was either 1989 or 1990. the, the the biggest thing that I have noticed is the production.

Well, well, when I first started this, we would get maybe, oh, 30, 30, 35 million eggs out of Pueblo Reservoir per year.

And right now, the last few years, but crossbreeding has increased the size, for one thing.

Or the fish what it says.

1009 and.

and the numbers.

And we are getting now, between 85 and 90 million eggs out of Pueblo Reservoir.

So over the years, we've gone from 30 to 90, Walleye are the second mos popular sport fish in Colorado.

Second only to trout.

providing these fis for the general public, provides increased harvest ability for those because a lot of people like to eat walleye.

a biologist, I have no idea what they do, but whatever they do, it's the right thing.

And it's paying off because it's a tremendous walleye fishery now.