Will the flood hurt the spawn?

Walleye were starting to drop last week, northerns and perch were ending the spawn, and the bass were feeding heavily right up until this nasty water came. It went from decently clear and normal to muddy as heck and now almost 2 feet over flood (projecting 5 feet over flood by sat). Will the walleye continue the spawn, just pause until the water stabilizes, or abort?
I would have to imagine the places they picked to spawn that had light current and sand/rock are now way strong current, it would blow the eggs downstream or the very least cover them with a bunch of silt wont it?

One of my few fav movie quotes…

“Life will find a way.”

From my armchair, I see flooding of timber ect better then no flooding for most fish. The slack(er) water in the flooded areas gives the youngsters better cover and more food.

Just remember that came from a catfish kinda guy.

Quite often, excellent walleye spawning success is achieved during the years with the largest spring floods.

Walleyes generally look for turbid water to spawn. The faster water is usually more oxygenated and actually prohibits silt from collecting on the bottom. Will it wash some eggs downstream, probably. However, I doubt its much different from other years. Tje eggs laid in the prime spot will hatch like they always do. Those laid in the mud will have the 50/50 chance they always do.

The only way I think it could hurt is if the water receded very quickly while it was still cold. We do not have optimal spawning temps – yet they are spawning anyway. The effect is that the eggs will take longer to develop and hatch. If it stops raining and stayed cold and the water receded – it potentially could leave some eggs high and dry. I don’t think that will be the case due to rain and snow melt from up north – it is likely to have high water for awhile yet.

Just wait until we warm up and all that snow up north comes down the pike. I don’t think we’ve seen the best yet.

Almost every spring rivers flood and relocate structure. when the river floods and moves sandbars and other structure, it is not gone just relocated. I am sure they will find a place. I think the phrase “This isn’t their first rodeo” applies here.

imo cold water could potentialy be the bigger factor of the spawns success, 35 degrees is along way from 46 and snowmelt isnt gonna help the warm up, we wont see air temps in the fiftys for 8 days here, yuck!

look what happened on Lake Oahe on South Dakota, walleye everywhere and they raised the limit to get some of them out of there.

Thought the increase in possession was due to the smelt population taking a dive. Something like 80% of the smelt got washed through the dam.

that may explain the control of walleye numbers with in a few miles of the dam, but smelt are not all the way up through the system. The numbers boomed due to an awesome year class brought about by the flooded cover. They say smelt were washed through so was everything else! So to cut to the chase there are record amounts of walleye with not a record amount of baitfish to feed on. Get up by Mobridge and there’s avereage baitfish, but a ton of 14-16 inch walleye.

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Thought the increase in possession was due to the smelt population taking a dive. Something like 80% of the smelt got washed through the dam.

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imo cold water could potentialy be the bigger factor of the spawns success, 35 degrees is along way from 46 and snowmelt isnt gonna help the warm up, we wont see air temps in the fiftys for 8 days here, yuck!

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I agree with you. Temps below 6C are detrimental to walleye embryos. Temps below 4C are generally considered lethal.

Thankfully, not all fish in the system spawn at exactly the same time.

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I agree with you. Temps below 6C are detrimental to walleye embryos. Temps below 4C are generally considered lethal.

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Am I in the Canadian thread??

lol…sorry. I was too lazy to do the conversion.

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lol…sorry. I was too lazy to do the conversion.

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We think alike BC I was too lazy to convert myself.

Every year this same question comes up, and all the armchair fisheries managers blab out their theories. The walleyes, and even the baby walleyes, will be fine.