---

After a series of winter meetings, representatives from the Child, Girl and Woman Lake Property Owners Association have achieved an agreement with the DNR's Walker Fisheries Office to stock walleye fingerlings if specific performance criteria are not met regarding the walleye population in the lake.

The first provision of the plan requires a capture rate greater than 2.0 age 1 walleyes per net in the annual fall gill net assessment. This capture rate will be corrected for size differences, since walleyes from two separate year classes could contain the same number of fish, but if fish from one year class grow very fast compared to the other they become susceptible to the gill nets at a faster rate. The faster growing year class will appear to be more abundant because they have become more vulnerable to being caught, not because they are more abundant.

The second provision of the plan requires a capture rate greater than 6.3 fish per hour of young-of-the-year (YOY) walleye that are 5.5 inches or greater in length. The larger the YOY are in the fall increases their prospects for better survival during their first winter and ultimately establishing an average or relatively strong year class.[[In-content Ad]]

The plan states that in any year where the gill net catch rate of age 1 walleye is less than or equal to 2.0 fish per net, a decision on walleye fingerling stocking will be made based upon that year's fall electrofishing results. If the electrofishing catch rate of YOY walleye that are 5.5 inches or longer is less than or equal to 6.3 fish per hour, a contingency stocking of walleye fingerlings will occur at a rate of one pound of fingerlings per littoral acre. There are 1953 littoral acres in Woman Lake. The fingerlings shall come from walleye eggs taken from Woman Lake and will be on hand annually. The DNR will be responsible for rearing and marking the fingerlings. These fingerlings shall be of a size range of 15-35 fingerlings per pound which is consistent with the DNR's 2010 draft stocking guidelines for medium fingerlings. At an average size of 25 per pound a total of 48,825 fingerlings would be stocked.

The purpose of the contingency stocking is to bolster the current year class of walleye when two consecutive weak year classes have been observed in the fall assessments. The current plan will be in effect from 2011-2015 and will be reviewed at that time.

---