For the last two weeks, the fledgling chapter of the nonprofit Walleyes for Tomorrow has been collecting spawning walleyes from Geneva Lake to harvest their eggs and hand mix them with milt (for the uninitiated, that’s fish sperm).
A member of Walleyes For Tomorrow milks walleye eggs out of a fish on the lakeshore in Fontana.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
John Trossen uses a net to scoop a walleye out of a tank so it can be returned to Geneva Lake. Trossen and other members of Walleyes For Tomorrow were extracting eggs for a hatching operation they are running.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
After being extracted from the fish, the eggs are left to harden for an hour before being run through a strainer so that any clumps of eggs are broken up.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
A member of Walleyes For Tomorrow pours just some of the fish eggs that the group collected from fish in Geneva Lake. The group is running a fishery operation in the hope of increasing the number of the popular game fish in the lake.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
The sperm from several males sits atop eggs from a female walleye from Geneva Lake before they are gentley mixed in a effort to produce thousands of walleyes for the lake.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
A jar of fish eggs collected from Geneva Lake earlier this month have changed color which indicates that they will soon hatch and produce walleye fry that can be returned to the lake.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
Walleye For Tomorrow members Brian Simon, left, and Eric Parmalee extract eggs from a fish on the shore of Geneva Lake.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
A powerboat carrying fish netted by the Walleyes For Tomorrow group heads back out onto Lake Geneva to return the fish to the lake.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
Members of Walleyes For Tomorrow extract fish eggs in the parking lot of the Abbey Marina in Fontana. A small trailer nearby serves the group as a portable hatchery.
Photo By: Bill Olmsted
Tom Zinnecker adjusts the water flow into a new jar of fish eggs in the portable hatchery trailer of Walleyes For Tomorrow. The group is harveting walleye eggs in an effort to increase fish numbers in Geneva Lake.
