First will come northern pike, followed a couple of weeks later by walleye, with other species mixed in.

It’s an almost overwhelming assignment, considering the state has roughly twice as many lakes that hold fish populations, and twice as many lakes on the stocking list, as it did 20 years ago.

“We now manage about 420 waters and 391,000 acres, excluding the Missouri River System,” Jerry Weigel, Game and Fish production and development supervisor said. “In the last five years alone we have stocked more than 48 million walleye fingerlings in the state, in addition to salmon, trout, pike, bass and panfish.”

This year, about 152 waters are scheduled to receive walleye fingerlings and another 44 or so will get northern pike.

While the Game and Fish Department, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates two federal fish hatcheries in North Dakota has the capability to stock millions of fish in the state, in a perfect world that wouldn’t be necessary.