Curt Wagner is smiling this week, and for good reason.

Wagner is the fisheries management supervisor in the ODNR Division of Wildlife District 3 office in Akron. He joined the crews staffing the walleye netting and milking operation at Mosquito Lake this week, and is delighted with the evidence he sees regarding the reservoir’s walleye population.

“We are getting lots of eggs and lots of large females since Monday,” he said. “Plus, we’re seeing good numbers of 2- to 3-year-old fish in the 13- to 15-inch size range.”

That is good news for Mosquito Lake’s anglers and the walleye population. After a couple of years of low numbers of younger walleyes, the fisheries managers were concerned about the trend in low rates of survival of stocked fish.

The Division of Wildlife annually harvests eggs and sperm from walleyes captured in the nets placed in Mosquito Lake. The eggs are “milked” from female walleyes and fertilized back at the boat ramp. The fish are returned to the lake alive.

Wagner said much of this week’s production of fertilized eggs were transported to the Division of Wildlife hatchery in Senecaville. A portion of Thursday’s egg production also went to Hebron, where the eggs were fertilized with sauger sperm to breed the saugeye that are popular in many of Ohio’s reservoirs. Walleye eggs also go to the Grand Lake St. Mary’s hatchery.

“Pretty promising,” Wagner said in describing this week’s egg production and the evidence of a more balanced size distribution. “We have had issues with survival of stocked fish, so what we are seeing now means there must have been a year-class or two that did survive decently. The general size distribution of the fish is promising. We have fish coming up through to fill the age gap.

“Tuesday we handled almost 1,000 males, and Wednesday we had another 700 to 800 males. We’re not hanging our hat on it yet, but it’s pretty promising. I’m more optimistic about Mosquito today than I’ve been in a while.”

Wagner said that once the net crews collect 400 to 500 quarts of fertilized eggs from Mosquito, they will shift their efforts to the walleye runs in the Maumee and Sandusky rivers.

Wagner said that in addition to good numbers of 13- to 15-inch fish, the crew members are seeing lots of fish measuring well over 20 inches. He said the largest walleye this week was around 31 inches. The crews also see some big pike and flathead catfish, along with lots of crappies, bluegills and perch.

Walleyes can thrive in many of Ohio’s waterways. Wagner noted that saugers are explicitly river fish that realistically gain a maximum size of 16 or 17 inches. They are native to the Ohio River and used to be plentiful in the Maumee. Wagner said the Division of Wildlife is working to replenish the Lake Erie sauger population.

The division produces the walleye-sauger cross, known as saugeye, as a fish known to survive well and grow better in Ohio reservoirs than pure saugers.

“Saugeyes grow fast to edible sizes,” he said.

Back at Mosquito, meanwhile, the Division of Wildlife will stock the lake later this spring with Senacaville fry and 1.25- to 1.5-inch fingerlings. Wagner described the fry and fingerlings strategy as a one-two punch to maximize the survival numbers. Other fish from the Mosquito eggs will be stocked in Ladue, West Branch, Berlin, Milton and Pymatuning.

Saugeye with Mosquito DNA will be stocked in most of the Muskingum Watershed Conservation District lakes like Tappan, Clendenning, Leesville, Atwood, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, Charles Mill, and Senaca. Other saugeye stockings go to Chippewa, Clear Fork and Salt Fork.

Trib and Vindy columnist Jack Wollitz enjoys fishing Ohio waters from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.