It is November 8th and I’ve been catching legal slot limit walleye in a off shut of the Wisconsin River. They been biting any and all times of the day. I’ve been fishing her for only three years, but every year this time, including right now, all the walleye seem to be in spawn. The mails are full and the females egg sacks are round and very soft like they are ready to spawn. So are the crappie and perch I am catching. I was under the impression Walleye only spawned one a year. So what’s the real story? Thank you for your reply. Larry

Hi, Larry. This is a tough one. Larry, the walleye spawn occurs once a year. It happens each year, early in the spring. The majority of gonadal recrudescence in mature male walleye happens very early in the spring time, usually during the time of year you see the dogwood blooming beginning in April. I have never heard of a phenomena like you are mentioning, and you are saying it is occurring in the perch and crappie too? If I were you, I would take a water sample to be analyzed along with both a male and female sample fish. I know there have been studies where a spawn has been induced by injecting the fish with type of dihydroxyprogesterone, a maturational steroid, in conjunction with other human hormones and environmental changes to advance the normal spawn by as much as twelve weeks, but I have never experienced or heard of this extra spawn or late spawn before. I know that there is often a false spawn where the walleye move in the same pattern and even act similarly to the spawn in November, but I have never heard of the biological changes indicating spawn like tendencies before. If you find out more about this, please post again! This is very interesting!