CHERRY CREEK RESERVOIR, Colo. — On a cold beautiful spring morning on the Cherry Creek Reservoir, you will find all the locals’ birds, fish, fishermen and, for the last week, officials from Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Every spring when the water gets just warm enough, a team from CPW comes out to the reservoir to catch and spawn walleye.
“This is an annual event for us, where we take more than 100 million walleye eggs and fertilize them, then grow walleye to a very small size and then replant those back into our waters in Colorado and make more fish,” explained Kara Van Hoose, a CPW spokeswoman.
The crew sets up nets overnight to catch walleye and each morning come back to see what haul they can reel in.
“Once we get the nets out of the water we will go back to the Barge, we will sort these fish, then we will count them. We will sort them by male, female, whether or not they are ready to release their eggs,” Ben Swigle of CPW said.
Those not ready to release their eggs will have a short stay with CPW.
“If they are not ready to release their eggs they’re called green, and we will hold on to those fish for five to six days. If they still don’t release their eggs, we will send them back,” Swigle added.
CPW undertakes this endeavor every year after surveying fishermen on what fish they would like to see more of in Colorado waters.
“Walleye comes up in the Top 3 every single year. Behind trout (and) bass, its walleye. It’s something anglers tell us they would like to see more of,” Van Hoose said.
Not only do the anglers get to enjoy these fish, but CPW said it’s really cool hands-on science they get to perform.
“Because science is cool! What we are doing is helping fish create life,” Van Hoose told our Denver news partners.
The fish CPW grows from these outings will not only increase the enjoyment of our lakes, rivers, and reservoirs but also affects our economy, too.
“Fishing is a huge industry in Colorado, multi-million dollars. Brings in tourism, boosts the economy and is a great, great past time,” Van Hoose said.
For walleye to boost our economy they just need a little help from CPW.
“Walleye would do this one their own but they can’t do it in numbers like this,” she said. “I mean, this is our version of March Madness, from Day One to when we end, we will have fertilized over 119 million walleye eggs.”
