Southern walleye fans could see better fishing for the fast-growing, hard-fighting Gulf Coast walleye—a genetically unique southern strain of Sander vitreus—thanks to collaborative restoration efforts by anglers and state, federal, and university biologists.

Native to the Deep South from Mississippi to northern Georgia, Gulf Coast walleyes are adapted to environmental conditions that would doom their northern cousins. Able to reach weights of 10 pounds in a decade or less on a rich diet of shad, the fish were revered by anglers for their sweet-tasting fillets. Once abundant in suitable southern habitat, they declined in much of the Mobile Basin in the 1970s and early ’80s during construction of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, which connected the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee watershed via a 234-mile network of navigation channels, locks, and dams. Changes in flow, siltation, and other habitat concerns are thought to have greatly reduced spawning success.

Today, however, the tide is turning. “The outlook is very good,” says Ricky Campbell, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Private John Allen National Fish Hatchery in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Campbell and the USFWS are working with biologists from Alabama, Mississippi, and Mississippi State University to research and restock the Tenn-Tom system. Federal hatchery broodstock were recently moved to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Park’s new state-of-the-art fish-rearing facility, the North Mississippi Fish Hatchery, where each year up to 100,000 fingerlings are produced. “Stocking these fish complements natural spawning, which may only produce a good year-class once every five years,” says Campbell.

Additionally, a budding broodstock program in Davis Lake, Mississippi, serves as a backup. “We stocked 2½-inch fingerlings in Davis in 2003, and some of those fish have already reached 7 pounds in weight,” says Campbell.

By reporting their catches, saving fin clips, and releasing large fish, anglers are playing a key role in the restoration of this unique strain of walleye. “Angler information is the best data we have,” says Campbell. “And the catch-and-release of broodfish helps us rebuild spawning stocks.” For more information or to report your catches, contact the USFWS hatchery at 662/842-1341.