Walleye Fecundity in Time and Space: A Four-Year Evaluation on Four Minnesota Lakes

Monitoring trends in fecundity has been used to evaluate changes in reproductive potential for many fish populations, but attempts to describe spatial and temporal differences in fecundity for walleye Sander vitreus populations have been comparatively rare. As part of larger study evaluating walleye recruitment patterns in Minnesota’s natural lakes, we estimated fecundity for more than 600 female walleye captured during annual fall gill-net surveys conducted on four lakes over a four-year period (2008-2011). Our objectives were to determine whether relationships between fecundity and female weight varied among and within lakes and to determine whether these differences were related to annual estimates of mature female biomass. Preliminary results suggest that fecundity relationships vary among at least some lakes, but we have observed little temporal variability within individual lakes.