Apr 19, 2026
Fort Peck Walleye Spawn Update
026 Fort Peck Walleye Spawn Update III, April 18
By biologist Heath Headley
The cold front definitely made its presence known in the Big Dry Arm of Fort Peck Reservoir this past week. The gusty winds, nighttime temperatures in the low 20’s, and even a skiff of snow really cooled water temperatures down.
Water surface temperatures dropped back down to 41-45 degrees while checking our nets today...but, we managed to get our cold hands on a few walleye.
We still captured good numbers of male walleye, along with some green and ripe females. Because of the ripe female walleye captured, we were able to hold a small egg-take today and collect 5.3 million eggs.
This most recent egg-takes brought our total to roughly 23.9 million eggs so far. It looks like we have a warm spell headed our way in a couple days, so hopefully the walleye really get into the spawning mode as water temperatures rise!
