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Hackettstown Hatchery Broodstock Collection 2005

by Craig Lemon
Hatchery Superintendent, and
Ed Washuta,
Fisheries Pathologist
May, 2005

The 2005 spring trap-netting season got off to a late start due to extended ice cover on most of the North Jersey brood stock lakes - but the late spring did not deter the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries staff or prevent a successful outcome to the annual brood stock collection program.

Farrington Lake northern pike
Crew Supervisor Ed Conley with Farrington Lake northern pike.
Click to enlarge

While ice cover remained on Budd Lake through most of March and delayed efforts to collect adult northern pike, the Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery staff set their sights further south on Farrington Lake, which has harbored some nice northerns in the past. In one week of trap-netting on Farrington (March 21-28), eight northern pike were captured, including a 14.4 pound female. Those fish produced enough eggs to give the hatchery a good start to the pike rearing season.

Heavy rains in late March removed enough of the ice from Budd Lake so that the Hackettstown Hatchery staff was able to get a boat on that lake on March 30. Navigating around some ice chunks, the hatchery brood stock collection crew set nets on Budd and collected fifty-six northerns in less than a week.

Because of the late start on Budd, most of the female pike caught there were spent (had already released their eggs); however, two ripe females provided enough eggs so that the hatchery was able to reach their northern pike quota between the two lakes (Farrington and Budd).

By the end of the first week in April, brood stock collection was in full swing. On April 4th while the Hackettstown Hatchery staff were pulling their nets from Budd Lake to complete the northern pike collection, a crew from the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries field office in Lebanon set their nets in Mercer Lake in an attempt to capture adult muskellunge.

The following day, April 5th, the Hackettstown crew was back out with their nets, this time to Swartswood Lake in pursuit of walleye brood stock.

Budd Lake northern pike
Volunteer Carly Serafin with Budd Lake northern pike.
Click to enlarge
The Lebanon staff had its second consecutive successful year at Mercer Lake collecting 30 adult muskellunge in five days (April 4-8). The size of Mercer's muskies continued to surprise biologists with the largest female weighing in at over 20 pounds. In addition to obtaining eggs for it's muskellunge rearing program, hatchery workers take advantage of the overlap between northern pike and muskellunge spawning seasons to create tiger muskies, a hybrid between the two species.
Swartswood Lake walleye
Fisheries Worker Amy Schweitzer with Swartswood Lake walleye.
Click to enlarge

The hatchery staff was pleasantly surprised with the size and quantity of walleyes captured at Swartswood Lake. Over 170 walleyes were caught in the trap nets, including 42 fish over five pounds and three over ten pounds. The largest walleye from Swartswood tipped the scales at 11.58 pounds and the longest measured 29 inches in length. An unusual twist to the walleye collecting effort at Swartswood resulted from the somewhat late start to the season. Prolonged ice cover on the lake allowed pre-spawn male walleyes to ascend the lake's tributaries before trap nets could be set.

Of the first 160 walleyes collected, 130 were females and only 30 were males. Most of the females were either ripe or within 1-2 days of releasing their eggs, a situation which required some quick action on the part of the hatchery's brood stock crew. To compensate for the imbalance between the sexes, the crew resorted to an alternate method to collect the extra males needed for spawning.

On April 8th, hatchery employees electrofished Neldon Brook, a major tributary to Swartswood Lake and in a short period of time were able to collect an additional 50 male walleyes. Overall size data collected from Swartswood Lake walleyes showed that fish collected in 2005 were larger than those collected in 2004, a trend observed over the past three years.

The final phase of the Hackettstown Hatchery's broodstock collection season involved muskellunge trapnetting in New Jersey's two premier musky lakes, Greenwood Lake and Echo Lake Reservoir. Between April 7th, when nets were first set in Greenwood Lake, and April 22nd, when the nets were removed from Echo, a total of thirty-one muskellunge were captured from the two lakes.
The hatchery crew's success in collecting muskies from Greenwood Lake in 2005 was notable in that eighteen fish were caught in just two days this spring. That compared to only ten muskies caught over a 23-day period in Greenwood during the spring of 2004. The size of muskellunge collected from both Greenwood and Echo was a reflection of the "trophy" quality of the fishing that they provide.

Of the eighteen muskies collected from Greenwood, six were over 40 inches long, with the biggest being 48 inches long and weighing 33.6 pounds. Five of the thirteen Echo Lake muskies exceeded the 40-inch mark; the longest was 49 inches and weighed 26.6 pounds.

Mercer Lake muskellunge
Fisheries Worker James Hartobey with Mercer Lake muskellunge.
Click to enlarge
Swartswood Lake walleye
Fisheries Pathologist Ed Washuta with a Swartswood walleye.
Click to enlarge

All adult muskies handled at the hatchery over the past several years have been tagged with orange streamer tags inserted near the base of the dorsal fin. The tags bear the message "CALL HACKETTSTOWN HATCHERY 908-852-4950" along with a tag number. Anglers who call in to report catching a tagged fish will be told when the fish was tagged as well as its length and weight at the time of tagging.

The purpose of the Hackettstown Hatchery's brook stock program is to provide the eggs from which fish are raised at the hatchery. All fish raised at the Hackettstown Hatchery are stocked in public waters throughout the state to provide recreational fishing for licensed anglers and their families. (See the Stocking Summaries for details.)

In 2005, Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries biologists have requested the Hackettstown Hatchery to produce the following:

24,520 northern pike fingerlings for stocking in:
Cranberry Lake (Sussex County), Pompton Lake (Passaic County), Spruce Run Reservoir (Hunterdon County), Pompton River, Budd Lake (Morris County), Farrington Lake (Middlesex County), Deal Lake (Monmouth County) Millstone River and the Passaic River.

2,864 tiger muskies for stocking in:
Furnace Lake (Warren County), Greenwood Lake (Passaic County), Lake Hopatcong (Morris County), Delaware & Raritan Canal and Little Swartswood Lake (Sussex County).

6,965 muskellunge for stocking in:
Greenwood Lake (Passaic County), Lake Hopatcong (Morris County), Manasquan Reservoir (Monmouth County), Carnegie Lake (Mercer County), Mercer Lake (Mercer County), Echo Lake Reservoir (Passaic County), Mountain Lake (Warren County), Monksville Reservoir (Passaic County), Shenandoah Lake (Ocean County), and Cooper River Lake (Camden County).

244,420 walleyes for stocking in:
Lake Hopatcong (Morris County), Swartswood Lake (Sussex County), Greenwood Lake (Passaic County), Canistear Reservoir (Sussex County), and Monksville Reservoir (Passaic County)

Below are summary tables of fish collected in Spring, 2005.

NORTHERN PIKE

WATER BODY

# DAYS NETS WERE SET

# FISH CAUGHT

AVERAGE LENGTH (INCHES)

LARGEST FISH (INCHES)

AVERAGE WEIGHT (POUNDS)

LARGEST FISH (POUNDS)

BUDD LAKE

5

56

20.9

34.4

2.36

9.1

FARRINGTON LAKE
6
8
23.3
37.5
4.13
14.4

MUSKELLUNGE

WATER BODY

# DAYS NETS WERE SET

# FISH CAUGHT

AVERAGE LENGTH (INCHES)

LARGEST FISH (INCHES)

AVERAGE WEIGHT (POUNDS)

LARGEST FISH (POUNDS)

ECHO LAKE RESERVOIR

9

13

39.5

49

15.8

28.9

GREENWOOD LAKE

2

18

37.2

48

15.5

33.6

MERCER LAKE

4

30

33.9

41.6

10.98

20.4

WALLEYE

WATER BODY

# DAYS NETS WERE SET

# FISH CAUGHT

AVERAGE LENGTH (INCHES)

LARGEST FISH (INCHES)

AVERAGE WEIGHT (POUNDS)

LARGEST FISH (POUNDS)

SWARTSWOOD LAKE

3

225

20.4

29

3.77

11.58

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Department of Environmental Protection
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Trenton, NJ 08625-0402

Last Updated: May 17, 2005