Wisconsin Nearly Quadrupled Large Walleye Fingerlings While Catch Rates Dropped With and Without Stocking

IHatchery Expansion

Large-Fingerling Stocking Nearly Quadrupled After 2013 While Catch Rates Dropped

The DNR's fish stocking totals show how big that bet was. The 2025 total reached 1,030,581 and was the highest in the series starting in 2005.

The DNR's lake-by-lake lists follow its own large-fingerling age class. Those lists show 11,205,134 large fingerlings stocked in 573 waters from 2013 to 2025, with the median lot averaging 7.0 inches. Geneva Lake in Walworth County led with 526,206, followed by Lake Mendota at 394,087, Lac Vieux Desert at 256,981 and Lac Courte Oreilles at 241,357.

IIComparing the Periods

Every Stocking Group Dropped in Percent and Walleye per Hour

We paired the stocking lists with creel surveys from the U.S. Geological Survey's creel survey catalog. Our match found 83 lakes with creel surveys in both periods, 1995 to 2012 before the push and 2016 to 2023 after it. The same lakes appear in both periods, and every group figure is the median across its lakes. Every rate measures walleye caught per hour of all fishing regardless of what anglers were after.

The 25 lakes stocked with 10 or more large fingerlings per acre in total from 2013 to 2019 had a median drop from 0.073 walleye per angler hour to 0.030. Just 6 of the 25 rose. The median on the 37 lakes with no walleye stocking of any size recorded from 2010 to 2025 dropped 33% from 0.269 to 0.179. Twelve of those 37 saw an increase. Fifteen lakes had walleye stocking on record from 2010 to 2025 but no large fingerlings from 2013 to 2019. Their median dropped the most, from 0.292 to 0.088. By percentage the heavily stocked median dropped more than the no-stocking median, 59% against 33%. Measured in walleye per angler hour the lakes with no walleye stocking recorded dropped more, 0.090 against 0.043. Their starting median was also much higher.

A few heavily stocked lakes had higher rates. Lake Chetac in Sawyer County rose from 0.058 to 0.121 walleye per angler hour after receiving 81,587 large fingerlings. Stone Lake in Washburn County rose from 0.057 to 0.245. Lac Vieux Desert in Vilas County received the most fish in this group with 102,540 from 2013 to 2019, while its rate dropped from 0.140 to 0.011.

The drop goes well beyond the stocked lakes. Among Wisconsin creel surveys in the catalog with 2,000 or more angler hours, the median ran 0.144 walleye per angler hour in 231 surveys from the 1990s and 0.058 in 127 surveys from 2016 to 2023.

IIIWaiting for Growth

2019-On Rerun Shows Both Groups' Median Catch Rates Falling on Thin Samples

Fingerlings stocked from 2013 on needed time to reach the creel, so we repeated the comparison using only 2019 to 2023 surveys for the after period. The rerun leaves 8 heavily stocked lakes and 22 lakes with no walleye stocking recorded. The stocked group has few lakes because 17 of its 25 had no catalog survey in those years. Seven of the 8 rely on a single later survey. Two of them had no walleye caught in their survey, Bond Lake and Buskey Bay in 2020. By percentage the heavily stocked median dropped 77%, from 0.077 to 0.018 walleye per angler hour. Just 2 of the 8 rose. The no-stocking median dropped 70%, from 0.253 to 0.076. Measured in walleye per angler hour the lakes with no walleye stocking recorded dropped more, 0.177 against 0.059. The heavily stocked median dropped more by percentage, and it dropped less in walleye per angler hour.

IVTracking Stocked Fish

Few Stocked Fingerlings Made It to Maturity

Wisconsin DNR biologists fin-clipped stocked walleye on five Bayfield and Douglas county lakes to track the fish. Their 2025 stocking evaluation found survival from stocking to maturity "ranged from a low of 0.17%" up "to a high of 1.04%." The evaluation also said that "Upper Eau Claire Lake had the lowest survival to maturity." On four lakes with some natural reproduction still present, the authors found "~25% of the adult age class analyzed came from stocking and ~75% came from natural reproduction."

The report is blunt about the result and says "Despite increased stocking, walleye populations in many of these northern Wisconsin lakes have not responded as hoped." It also names the backdrop and reports "In recent decades there has been an overall declining trend in walleye natural recruitment often leading to a decline in the adult abundance within these waters." And it points to the lake itself by stating "Environmental characteristics and presence or absence of walleye natural reproduction are likely influencing the survival of stocked fish in these lakes."

VComparing Without Controls

The Comparison Has No Controls and an Imperfect Yardstick

This comparison cannot tell us whether stocking worked or failed. The DNR says on its fish stocking page that fish managers consider "the amount of natural reproduction" among other factors. In eight of nine Wisconsin DNR printed creel reports from 2022 to 2024, the catalog's walleye catch for the same survey was about 2.1 times the DNR's printed total. Hours were about 1.11 times as high. USGS has corrected a Wisconsin error before and said effort figures "for records from the Wisconsin dataset were identified as containing an error which caused values to be inflated in the original release." The rates before and after use the same source. A steady proportional gap would cancel out in the percentage changes but would still scale the changes measured in walleye per angler hour. Only two checks are from the before period, and they do not match. Katherine Lake's 2001 survey had 1.2 times the DNR's printed walleye catch and Sand Lake's 2007 survey had 2.3 times. Some of the gap may therefore remain in each lake's change, and these rates should not be taken as the DNR's.

VIReading the List

A Stocking List Is Not a Fishing Forecast

Our read is that a lake's spot on the large-fingerling list tells you where the DNR is trying to rebuild walleye and little about where the fishing is good. Large-fingerling stocking came close to quadrupling while catch rates dropped on heavily stocked lakes and on lakes with no walleye stocking recorded. A few stocked lakes improved, including Chetac and Stone. Before trailering to a lake because it appears on the stocking list, check its latest DNR survey of adult walleye and its creel report.