| New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife | 
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A relative newcomer to
New Jersey's inland waters, walleyes are making a big
splash in
Swartswood Lake. Walleyes are considered a
coolwater fish, with temperature preferences between
those of coldwater fishes like trout, and warmwater
fishes such
as largemouthbass and sunfish. They also
like slightly turbid water conditions and rocky bottoms
with drop-offs. Over ten years ago the Division's Hackettstown
Hatchery began
successfully rearing this non-native gamefish for
introduction in the newly created Monksville Reservoir.
Later refinements in our hatchery production made it possible to expand our stocking efforts into other suitable waters including Swartswood Lake,
Lake Hopatcong, Greenwood Lake, Delaware River,
and Canistear Reservoir.
Since 1992, the Division
has been stocking walleye fry and fingerlings in Swartswood Lake, Sussex County. This 494 acre lake
not only has favorable walleye habitat, but also good
forage fish species like alewives (herring) and yellow
perch. Over the first seven years more than 165,000
walleyes were stocked, but anglers provided little
feedback regarding the walleye catch. Could it be that
the fishery just wasn't developing as expected or were
the walleyes simply outsmarting the anglers?
In the spring of 1999 we set out to
investigate the status of Swartswood's walleye
population. Our objective was A total of 242 walleyes - ranging in size from 11.7 to 24.3
inches - were caught, with the largest (a female laden
with eggs) weighing in at 6.3 lbs. Only thirteen of these
fish were captured more than once. This data yielded a
population estimate of approximately 2,000 walleyes over
12 inches, just what we had expected (and hoped) to find
in this lake.
So walleyes are alive and well in Swartswood Lake. As to the lack of feedback from anglers, I venture to say this good-fighting and fine-eating sportfish has either been elusive, or their catch is a closely guarded secret among successful anglers. So visit Swartswood Lake and try to unlock the secret to this lake's new and exciting fishery. |
to estimate the size of the
existing walleye population using a technique called
mark-recapture. Intensive sampling (using trap nets and
electrofishing at night) was conducted over a 13 day
period in late March-early April, when walleyes move into
shallow water in search of spawning sites. As walleyes
were captured they were examined and marked by clipping a
portion of their tail fin, then immediately released back
into the lake. At the conclusion of the sampling period
we applied a statistical procedure, based upon the number
of marked fish recaptured, to estimate the size of the
population.
