DNR preparing to stock walleye in Devil Track Lake this fall

The summer is a busy time of year in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Grand Marais area fisheries department. The team is actively engaged in conducting a multitude of fish surveys, on Lake Superior and various inland lakes and streams.

Recently, in late July, the DNR concluded its annual walleye recruitment survey on Devil Track Lake, but the findings were rather discouraging.

The standardized survey of twelve locations spread across the lake using fyke nets is designed to index recruitment for young of the year walleye. The survey aims to have 2.2 young of the year walleye caught per net.

“If we reach that level of recruitment, we feel the naturally reproducing population can continue, and we do not need to stock on top of that,” said EJ Isaac, the DNR area fisheries supervisor in Grand Marais.

After checking and pulling the twelve fyke nets in Devil Track Lake over two days, the fyke nets did contain a handful of fish species, including smallmouth bass and yellow perch, with only a handful of walleye found in the nets.

“It looks like the last two years in a row, we were below that threshold,” Isaac said. “So the survey says natural recruitment is low. And thus, we will likely continue with our contingency stocking plan, and we are looking at stocking fall fingerling walleye.”

Isaac said there may be a variety of reasons why the walleye population is not having a strong natural recruitment, including low adult walleye numbers, slower growth rates, or high predation from other fish like smallmouth bass.

“Smallmouth bass have been doing largely pretty well in area lakes, and Devil Track Lake is no different,” he said. “We’re noticing more and more smallmouth bass, and those smaller smallmouth bass definitely would prey upon young of the year.”

The DNR last stocked Devil Track Lake in 2021 with 1248.6 pounds of fingerling walleye.

Isaac explained the DNR will look at restocking Devil Track Lake this fall in late October. The DNR uses a formula for how many pounds of walleye fingerlings to stock based on per acre of littoral habitat. “So it’d be about 1200 pounds of walleye fingerlings that would be added to the lake as a whole this fall. Our goal is to help the walleye population reach a level capable of natural recruitment and provide anglers with more walleye to catch.”

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with EJ Isaac, the DNR area fisheries supervisor in Grand Marais about the 2023 walleye survey on Devil Track Lake. Audio from the interview is below.

Pictures from the 2023 walleye survey below:

Kalli Hawkins August 4, 2023