sent to the lakes to obtain walleye eggs . Only 

 a small quantity was secured. The first white- 

 fish eggs were collected during the fall of 1919. 

 Because of the untrained personnel employed in 

 1922, only 13 percent of the whitefish eggs 

 hatched. Experienced spawn collectors, sent 

 to the Red Lakes in 1923, succeeded in obtain- 

 ing 72,000,000 whitefish eggs that were shipped 

 to the French River and Duluth hatcheries on 

 Lake Superior for incubation. A loss of only 

 15 percent was reported (Surber, 1924) . 



A hatchery building was constructed at 

 Redby, adjacent to the Minnesota State Fisher- 

 ies buildings, in 1924. The water supply was 

 obtained by impounding the waters of Mud Creek. 

 The hatchery was equipped for incubation of the 

 eggs of walleyes, whitefish, and trout . Its 

 capacity in 1938 was 160 million eggs. The 

 cost of the construction of the hatchery and the 

 expenses of its operation in the years 1924-1928, 

 were defrayed from the profits of the Minnesota 

 State Fisheries. Over the period 1929-1938, a 

 share of the salaries of 2 employees and a por- 

 tion of the operating costs were borne by the 

 Red Lake Fisheries Association, although the 

 hatchery remained under the supervision of the 

 Minnesota Department of Conservation. 



Walleye 



Eggs of walleyes hatched at Redby were 

 obtained by the artificial spawning of ripe adults 

 captured in pound nets set in three principal 

 streams entered by spawning schools. Two of 

 the streams. Tamarack River and Shotley 

 Brook, flow into the eastern end of Upper Red 

 Lake. (See fig. 1.) The third stream, Black 

 Duck River, flows into the eastern end of Lower 

 Red Lake. After 1933 there was no impound- 

 ment and stripping of walleyes in Shotley Brook 

 (at least no records are available), as it proved 

 to be the least productive of the 3 localities, and 

 a more than adequate supply of eggs for the Red- 

 by and other hatcheries could be obtained readily 

 from Tamarack and Black Duck Rivers . 



The procedure of capturing walleyes was 

 to set a pound net in the stream with the tunnel 

 opening faced downstream and a wing extended 

 at an angle to each bank. Four "dummy" pound 

 nets, that is, cribs without tunnel or wings. 



constructed of the same kind of netting used for 

 the pound-net crib, were placed upstream from 

 the pound net to retain females not ready to be 

 stripped at time of capture. The pound net was 

 lifted each morning and the tunnel tied so no 

 fish could enter. Ripe fish were spawned at 

 once, and both males and females returned to 

 the river above the pound net so that they could 

 not re-enter it. Green females were placed in 

 the "dummy" nets until they ripened, when they 

 were spawned and released above the pound net . 

 Because of this method of operation, it was 

 possible to count the fish that ascended the 

 streams. During the late afternoon the pound - 

 net tunnel was untied and placed in position so 

 fish could enter. Each day's recorded catch of 

 male and female walleyes represented new ar- 

 rivals taken during one night's fishing. In some 

 years daily records were kept of males and fe- 

 males captured, females stripped, temperature 

 of water and air, and weather conditions . 



All available records of male and female 

 walleyes captured annually in 3 spawning streams 

 where egg-collecting stations were maintained 

 are shown in table 22 . The magnitude of the 

 spawning run in Tamarack River far exceeded 

 that in the other 2 streams. The consistently 

 strong predominance of males (19 males to 1 

 female) each year appeared to be characteristic 

 of spawning runs of walleyes in the Red Lakes . 



"Hie record of males and females cap- 

 tured does not provide a complete count of the 

 spawning populations in the streams, and there- 

 fore, cannot be used as an index of abundance. 

 Althou^ the streams were blockaded effectively, 

 fishing operations often were delayed until the 

 main spawning run had started or were sus- 

 pended before the close of the spawning season, 

 as in 1932, 1933, and 1938. As soon as suf- 

 ficient eggs for the Redby and other State 

 hatcheries had been secured, the pound nets 

 were removed. The collecting season did not 

 always coincide with the spawning season, since 

 in some years heavy runs were already underway 

 when pound nets were first set. May 8, however, 

 marks fairly well the termination of the normal 

 spawning period. 



Not only did the capacity of the hatcher - 

 ies limit the take of walleyes and eggs in certain 



51 



