The Gaslyn Lake Walleye Rearing Ponds were created in 2012 with a grant from Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Advisory Council (WTCAC) and generous contributions from the St. Croix Tribal Council. At that time, two 0.5 surface acre ponds were created. They were put into first use in 2013. In 2014, two additional 0.5 surface acre ponds were created from funding supplied by the State of Wisconsin’s Walleye Initiative program. If fully utilized, these four ponds give the capacity to rear approximately 120,000 small fingerlings or up to, approximately, 15,000 large fingerlings annually. Small fingerlings are up to 2” in length and large fingerlings are generally 4” in length or larger.

Walleye fingerlings are priority stocked into public waterbodies which are utilized by St. Croix Tribal members during the spring treaty harvest time period. These waterbodies must be categorized as waterbodies that require stocking to enhance its ability to produce catchable size walleyes. In other words, lakes that do not have natural reproduction, or may have very limited natural reproduction, require supplemental stocking for that waterbody to have a harvestable population. St. Croix does not stock walleye fingerlings into waterbodies that are classified as natural reproduction, as those lakes have the ability to produce fingerlings on their own. It is always best if a waterbody can produce fingerlings on its own vs stocking.