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HESSEL - Nunn's Creek Fisheries Enhancement Facility employees are preparing for their annual walleye stocking, bringing their last few months of labor to fruition.
Each year since the late 1980s, the hatchery has been harvesting walleye eggs early in the spring, nurturing them into fingerlings to be released mid-summer.
According to Manager Greg Wright, the work is more of an art than science.
In April, Wright and six co-workers hit the local waters gathering the eggs to be hatched in early May. For a little more than three weeks the hatchery monitored the water and temperature to ensure the fry hatched.
Shortly after hatching, the fry were moved to rearing ponds located in Pickford where they will stay until around the end of June. During that time, which is also hands-off for employees except for a fertilizer applied weekly to stimulate production, the fry are on their own.
Up until the fry are 10 millimeters long, minnows threaten them, which means the rearing ponds need to be minnow-free. When the fry are 2 inches long, they'll turn to eating minnows.
While the stocking window always varies, Nunn's Creek staff estimates the fingerlings will go into the local waters around the end of June to early July. This year their efforts have successfully produced an estimated 3.5 million fry. How many they will end up with is still questionable, though.
"Fry counts are notoriously difficult," added Wright.
Stocking will take place in a variety of locations, which also change year-to-year.
In Bay Mills, 100,000 fingerlings will be stocked into the Back Bay. Depending on the food supply and conditions, it will take approximately four to six years for a "decent size" walleye, 17 to 20 inches, to come out of the Bay, according to Bay Mills fisheries technicians.
Raber Bay, Back Bay, Grand Traverse Bay and St. Mary's River sites are also included on the list for this year. The hatchery also works with the state to determine stocking sites. If any fingerlings are left over they may possibly be placed in Lake Superior by Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Nunn's Creek, located in Hessel, is just one of several tribal hatcheries that stock fish on and off reservation lakes. The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, on behalf of Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority, purchased the facility in 1987. It currently serves the Bay Mills Indian Community, Little Traverse Band of Odawa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, as well as Sault Tribe. Currently more than half-a-dozen tribal fish hatcheries are located in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. The facilities raise everything from sturgeon to brook trout.
