The fish eggs are back in Cochin.
The hatchery run by the Lost Horse Creek Wildlife Federation is once again in operation and with more eggs than they've had there before.
According to the federation's president Brad Pattinson, the hatchery has acquired 450,000 walleye eggs, about 100,000 more than last year.
To accommodate the eggs, the hatchery has added a second hatching jar. One jar is about half full of eggs while the other is a quarter full.
The eggs survive on the running fresh water from nearby Lehman Creek, which is pumped into a tank and through the jars. The walleye eggs require running water in order to hatch, and also need oxygen in the water in order to survive.
Once they hatch, the fish swim out of the jars into a nearby tank, where they will stay for a few days before they are collected and transported to their final destination, the lake.
The federation collected the eggs May 15 from the annual spawn camp at Buffalo Pound Lake. The eggs had spent 12 days in the hatchery as of Wednesday night. While most were still in the jars, a number had already hatched.
A good number of tiny, translucent fish, only a couple of millimeters in size, could be seen swimming around in the big tank set up to collect the fish.
"I'll bet you there's two or three hundred there," said Pattinson. "It's so hard to tell."
By the weekend it was expected that the fish population in the tank would be bigger than the population of Saskatoon. Already, most of the yellow eggs in the jars had turned a dark colour, a good sign because it meant they were almost ready to hatch.
Last year, 80 per cent of the eggs hatched successfully, Pattinson said.
Pattinson expected this year's fish to be finished hatching by the weekend. The plan is for volunteers to collect the hatched fish and then transport them and release them into three lakes, including Larson Lake, Morin Lake and possibly a third one to be determined.
This marks the third year in a row the hatchery has been in operation. It was set up and funded on a modest budget by the Lost Horse Creek Wildlife Federation as a way to promote conservation and educate the public.
Two years ago, during their first year of operation, their hatchery acquired 280,000 eggs and the hatched fish were transported to Little Loon Lake. A year ago, Meeting Lake was the destination.
Depositing the eggs directly into the standing water in the lakes won't work because they need running water in order to hatch, something the hatchery is able to provide using the water at Lehman Creek.
Last year's hatch got off to a relatively late start on May 23, due in part to a late arrival of spring last year.
Conditions in the creek proved warmer than anticipated and that speeded up the hatching process. The fish developed quickly and hatched within seven days, which was too fast according to Pattinson, as they might not be as strong or healthy as they would be had the hatch lasted a week longer.
This year, they were able to acquire the eggs a little earlier and conditions have been just right for the most part, with water temperatures staying in the mid-teens Celsius.
There were some hairy moments at the hatchery Monday when a big storm rolled in and dumped significant rain at their location.
The impact of such a storm, Pattinson says, is to warm the water in the creek. "Any runoff into the lake warms it," he said.
Temperatures and conditions at the hatchery are closely monitored and logged by the about half-a-dozen volunteers who perform shifts there, including in the middle of the night. Their job is to make sure the water continues to flow and things are running properly, and to look out for the occasional minnow that has been known to get in and plug the water intake pipe.
But the actual temperature of the water is totally dependent on what conditions are in the creek itself.
Just a small rise in water temperature would be enough to speed up the hatching process. Pattinson said on Wednesday that a change of a degree or two might be enough to get most of the eggs hatching.
