Several lakes on the Valentine Refuge experienced severe to moderate winterkill during the winter of 2022. Stocking of these lakes occurred during the
spring and fall of 2023 with bluegill, yellow perch, largemouth bass, and northern pike. Black crappie were stocked in 2024. Sampling in 2024 showed that most
of the these lakes were doing fair to good at this time but most of these stockings are still relatively small and need time to grow.
Watts, West Long, and Duck were lakes that experienced the most significant winterkill. Sampling showed good populations of yellow perch 4-8 inches,
bluegill 3-6 inches, and largemouth bass 8-10 inches. There were a few nicer fish sampled but abundance was very low.
Rice Lake sampling showed perch 4-8 inches with a few larger individuals, bluegill 3-6 with a few larger individuals, and a high abundance of
largemouth bass 12-17 inches.
Pelican Lake sampling caught perch 4-6 inches, bluegill 3-6 inches, crappie 8-10 inches, largemouth bass 8-10 inches and northern pike 14-28 inches
although abundance was low.
Hackberry sampling showed perch 4-9 inches, bluegill 3-6 inches, crappie 4-5 inches, bass 8-10 inches and a good abundance of northern pike up to 24 inches
but mostly in the 16-20 inch range.
Dewey- showed a very abundant perch population mostly 3-8 inches but some 11 inch perch, good crappie population up to 14 inches, some bigger bass
15-20 inches, bluegill 4-8 ½ inches, and pike abundance is definitely lower but did catch some pike in the spring ranging from 11 inches to 35 inches.
Clear-sampled a few pike from 18-34 inches, decent crappie population up to 11 inches. Low abundance of bluegill and perch.
Willow-did not get it sampled but I would assume similar to Clear at this time.
Merritt surveys looked very good for abundance and size structure of walleye this fall.
