DULUTH, Minn. — The walleye population in the St. Louis River Estuary, roaming between the Fond du Lac dam on the river and sometimes far out into Lake Superior, is strong and growing.
That's the finding of an extensive walleye population survey conducted on the estuary in spring 2021 by Minnesota and Wisconsin department of natural resources fisheries crews with data crunched over the winter.
Preliminary survey numbers released to the News Tribune this week found the estuary population between 75,000 and 85,000 total walleyes. That's up roughly 70% from the most recent extensive survey, in 2015, which found just 41,000-52,000 walleyes in the population. The 2021 survey is more in line with the 1981 extensive survey that found a range between 69,000 and 84,000.
