Eggs are stripped and fertilized at the lake, and the adults are released back into the reservoir. S.D. Some 60 million eggs are collected each year. Largemouth Bass Largemouth bass spawning begins in late May,and most activities take place in the 21 ponds scattered throughout the hatchery grounds. Largemouth bass are allowed to spawn naturally in the ponds. When bass fry hatch, many are transferred to ponds and grown to a fingerling size on natural food.
Advanced fingerlings have a better chance of survival in the wild.
The bluegill can be stocked as fingerlings or placed on a dry diet and stocked as advanced fingerlings. The crappie are drained from the pond in late fall when the water temperatures have cooled and stocked as advanced fingerlings. Duties Hatchery personnel perform a variety of tasks which keep the Valentine Hatchery in top operating condition to produce fish for Nebraska's lakes and reservoirs. Duties include fish health assessments, pond work, programming and monitoring feeding devices, net building and repair, monitoring water quality, administrative tasks and collecting data on fish production projects.