ABOVE: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Area Fisheries Supervisor Ryan Doorenbos releases 50,000 newly-hatched walleye fry on Friday morning in Amber Lake in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT – Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials stocked the Fairmont chain of lakes with Walleye fry on Friday as the fishing opener is just one week away, on May 9.

Area Fisheries Supervisor Ryan Doorenbos said that the Fairmont chain of lakes has been a target for stocking with a good amount of regularity.

“We used to do a lot more fingerling stocking, but now we’ve transitioned to doing a little bit more fry stocking, and it seems to be working pretty good,” he said. “These fry we ended up stocking this year are from Lake Sarah, that we actually spawned this spring, in April. We bring those eggs up to the Waterville area office hatchery. Once they hatch, we pick up those fish and give them a ride to the ending spot, which in this case was the Fairmont chain.”

While weather conditions can cause variation in when fish are able to be stocked, Doorenbos said this is a pretty standard timeframe for them to deliver fry. Overall, he said the outlook for the Fairmont area looks pretty good for fishing this year.

“There’s lots of opportunities for all kinds of fishing to be done. You have a variety of species in the Fairmont chain, from top-of-the-line predator muskies, northern pike, walleye, channel catfish, bass. As you transition down to more like panfish, you have crappies, bluegills and perch. There’s lots of opportunities.”

Besides some of the fish, like crappies and yellow bass, getting a little bigger this year, Doorenbos said this outlook isn’t much different from what they saw last year.

Sommer Outdoors Owner Justin Sommer said that this year looks to be normal all around.

“Normal water levels, fish are responding as a normal season they would,” he said. “It should be a pretty decent opener.”

Right now, Sommer said enthusiasm levels are slightly down from where they have been in the past around this time.

“I think a lot of people have other things going on in life, and fishing isn’t quite a priority right now,” he said. “There is a few people looking forward to it.”

From his experience, Sommer gave his list of fish that will be most desired throughout the open season.

“I do think it’s going to be the typical yellow bass stuff,” he said. “We do have a really good population of pan fish coming up, both bluegills and crappies. Crappies are just getting to that decent size where most people would consider them a capable-sized fish. During the winter, they’re only eight to nine inches, where now they’re kind of pushing that nine to 10 inches.”

One condition Sommer said is different this year from last is the water temperature going into opening day.

“Last year, I believe the water was warmer going into the season,” he said. “Right now, we’ve had a pretty normal spring versus having a really warm spring where it normally heats up the water.”

For some species it won’t be an issue, but Sommer said this could have several impacts on species and locations.

“For walleyes, it’s not too much,” he said. “They’ve already spawned and done their thing. A lot of people don’t realize that the crappies, bluegills and bass don’t spawn until later in the year. It also depends on the lakes doing a thing called turning over, where the thermoclines in lakes will reverse, and that normally will push the fish from deeper into the shallow waters.”

Interestingly, the online system meant to go out for fishing licenses last year has not done so yet. This means, for the foreseeable future, Sommer still has his physical license machine, which can do the whole process right there, right away.

“I urge people to try to get in and get their licenses before the weekend opener,” he said. “Saves them and us a lot of time, because everybody is going to be trying to get licenses at the same time.”