The Department of Natural Resources wants anglers to know that DNR Fisheries Division personnel will be electro-fishing for walleye in the Muskegon River near Newaygo during the next couple of weeks to collect eggs for hatchery use.

Fisheries staffers will likely be on the river for a couple of days in late March and a couple more in early April, explained Southern Lake Michigan Management Unit Supervisor Jay Wesley. Most of the activity will occur upstream of Newaygo, below Croton Dam.

"We realize we will inconvenience some steelhead fishermen, but it is necessary if we're going to produce walleyes for stocking around the state," Wesley said. "We hope to achieve our goals within a few days so we'll interfere with fishermen as little as possible."

The Muskegon River is the DNR's only collection area for Lower Peninsula walleye since the DNR temporarily suspended taking eggs from Tittabawassee River fish following the discovery of Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia in the Michigan waters of Lake Huron. The DNR plans to collect some 13 million walleye eggs this year.

For the most part, the walleyes will be electro-shocked, netted, stripped of their milt and eggs and then released back into the river, though some will be kept to be examined as part of ongoing research projects.