Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Unclear about Walleye & ponds

I was wondering, do walleye breed in a small pond environment? I've read that they can be raised but I can't find anything on if they will breed.

I believe they need a source of running water and a rock, gravel base in order to spawn.

I spoke with a fellow who claims he has done it, he built a race way that emptied into his pond, lined it with gravel and pumps water to keep it moving. He lived in Ontario though and his water was always cold too. Everything I have been told though says you can't raise very many in a pond due to their high forage requirements. I'm still going to have some in my pond.

I stocked about (20) walleye into my pond about two years ago. At the time of stocking they were about 10-12" or so (I need to keep better notes & records).

It's only been this year that we've caught a few, and they might have been 12-14" or so. They really weren't "fat" so to speak, and there is a lot of forage in my pond.

Just going from what I've seen here on Pond Boss, I'm guessing there's a slim to none chance that you'd get recruitment in a pond.

That's not a negative though from a management perspective.

The claim is that they are difficult to catch sometimes makes it hard to monitor them in a pond also. It could be that only the smaller ones gave you some action Sunil, they are prone to do that in a lake as well, big fish aren't always the most active, and only feed on larger bait. What did you catch them on if you can remember?? You surely have aone or two that grew better than an inch a year in your forage rich environment. Did you purchase them that size or catch and carry? Inquiring minds.

Hopkins08- I can give you a MN story with walleye spawing in a pond environment. Most of what we had done was wrong so don't think for a moment I would recommend doing what we did. Anyway, when my neighbor (chuck) and I started to conctruct our ponds and being from Minnesota we both thought we needed walleyes. We stocked each of our respected ponds with some pretty good sized and numbers of walleyes. They ranged from 14"-24". These fish were caught from the wild and release into our ponds which we later found out was a no no here in MN. Anyway, 2 seaons after release Chucks pond (1/3acre) had hundreds of 3-5" walleys. My pond had zero reproduction. Chuck had done nothing special to his pond but his pond had more sand/gravel than mine. So, they will spawn...maybe.
One note outside of, "can they spawn", knowing what we know now neither of us would put walleyes in our ponds. Everything the fish experts on this forum tell you will come true with regards to walleyes(IMHO). At least that has been our experience. Chucks pond has some big walleyes, which we can't seem to catch, and all the small walleyes have since been eaten. My big pond that contained walleyes was killed last winter so I restarted without any walleys.
This is just one guys opinion.

Say mnfish, what other fish were in your pond for forage and sport?? Did you have a plan to manage them other than fishing or was that all you had planned? Prior to your winterkill had you seen any dead walleye of any size in your pond or Chuck's for that matter? Do you have any guess, thoughts, or speculation on how well they survived overall , like what percent lived after you stocked them, sort of how many did you harvest or find dead versus how many you put in the pond to begin with?

Hey JoeG -
1. Both of us had no real plan when we stocked our fish. We had no concept of biomass and pond limitations. I sure wish I had access to this forum back then.
2. We both had a mix of species. BG,YP,LMB,BC,CC along with forage minnows such as fatheads and mud minnows.
2. The winter kill I did to my pond was aeration related and had nothing to do with a MN winter. For 6 years the WE were doing just fine in my pond with the exception of no spawning.
3. The WE's in Chucks pond are still growing. We approximate his WE population at about 40 fish give or take. And to my knowledge Chuck has never seen a dead WE other than the ones he put on the cutting board.
4. The WE offspring are now past 18" as observed with underwater cameras and fishing.
5. We stocked 15-17 walleyes with the biggest at 24" (way too many, IMO) and never lost a one during transport or after stocking.

Note: One of our later goals was to raise big perch especially after seeing what Mr. Cecil Baird had accomplished. The problem with those big walleyes is they eat everything especially perch. For our goals the WE just don't provide the return on management investment.
The funny thing about the WE's in our ponds was everyone and I mean everyone we talked to said they would never make thru the first winter. Keep in mind the deepest spot in both ponds is about 6'. After the first winter we caught some in both ponds and continued to catch and see them on the cameras. Today when somebody asks us how the WE's did we tell them you were right none of them made it.

From my experience with WE in NW Ohio it is similar to what mnfish has stated. WE can live in relatively shallow northern waters if they don't winter kill or summer kill. Oxygen is more important to them than cold or cool temperatures. They will always spawn in a pond BUT the eggs will hatch and fry survive ONLY in ideal conditions which is very rare for a pond or small lake. WE eggs need to be laid in relatively clear water (clearer the better) and on clean bottoms preferrably rocky and wind swept. In these conditions the eggs stay clean, silt free and well oxygenated. Moving water seems to help keep silt off eggs and the eggs well oxygenated. Silt and suspended particles that settle on the eggs tends to suffocate the developing embryos. If the eggs land on relatively flat exposed gravel, or bare bottoms various predators eat the eggs before they hatch. Best hatch of WE eggs occurs over larger rock, windswept shorelines where eggs can drop down into rock crevices, get some protection from predators, and wave currents mix into the crevices to keep eggs oxygenated. Crayfish that live among rocks are big consumers of fish eggs, so ponds or lakes with even low crayfish populations have poor survival of WE eggs.

Once their eggs hatch which is rare in a pond, then a whole new set of conditions are required to get the fry growing. Newly hatched fry do not have well functioning paired fins at this time and can only swim primarily vertically; they move up and sink, move up and sink. This feature makes them very vulnerable to predation thus many fry are lost to predation. Functioning paired pelvic and pectoral fins for horizontal swimming develop after about 3-5 days post swim up. WE have a very narrow and cylindrical body until they are 12" long, thus many predator fish can eat a small walleye and the low percent that make it to fingerling stage struggle hard and long to get to the 12" size; few if any make it. Thus too many factors in a typical pond prevent successful recruitment of walleye. A pond that has WE recruitment is very rare indeed.

Thank-you much for all the information..we are in the process of building a new pond. Ideally we would like to stock with CC, Tilapia, & red ear sunfish...I am actually trying to find an ideal preditor fish and I would rather stay away from bass. Any ideas?

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions mnfish.

JoeG, I caught the walleyes on shiners or fatheads (can't remember which, but that's how I get down).

I had purchased the fish from my fish supplier. I'm not sure where he got them.

Bill, that's a wonderful write-up. Thanks!

Hopkins08 - For most situations the LM bass is the ideal predator fish especially if wide bodied forage fish are used. Since you are using CC it might be a good idea to use LMB as the predator. I have seen ponds become overpopulated with small CC when bass were not present to control them. I'm not sure how pellet feeding the CC would have changed the size structure and growth rate for the reproducing CC in these two ponds.

Bill- First of all thank-you for the info. If I do use LM bass do I need to be concerned with over population of them? That is my main concern. My family has been fishing a few ponds that haven't been fished for a while and the bass population is unbelievable and it is hard to catch anything else reguardless of the bait/lures, etc. How can we prevent this from happening? And won't it hurt the population of the other fish that we stock?

Ponds that become over run with LMB have been neglected. As you mention ponds that have LMB and receive little or no fishing that includes a least some bass harvest can easily become overpopulated with smallish bass. If one pays attention to what is going on in the pond and performs an annual harvest of at least a few LMB there should be no overpopulation problems. LMB are not as prolific as bgill, greensunfish or crappie. Plus they are carnivores and do eat a fair number of their own kind especially if the smaller bass are common or slightly over common. The advent of catch and release has caused too many pondowners with LMB to think they need to release all bass and not harvest any. This is not the case. If a pond is managed properly those fish including LMB that are annualy recruiting new individuals into the fishery should have some harvest of some of the individuals depending on the goal for the fishery. Without a resonable amount of harvest the pond based on its fertility (or pellet feeding) does not reach its full production potential. In many cases, 5 to 20 bass per acre per year is not a lot of fish to remove annually to keep the population on the correct path toward a goal.

I caught another invaluable moment at the PB conference to bend Bill Cody's ear at stocking my pond. He has been instumental with suggestions and recommendations to create our RES/YP/SMB population.
I focused the discussion on my likely inability to manually manage the potential of over-population by the YP and the possibility that the SMB will be unable to cover my fishing/culling shortcomings. He really caught me off guard when he blandly replied that we might have to introduce WE. It just seemed weird to have even considered that option, but it does sound cool. It was nice to know that there are further options.

Brettski - I am anxious to see if your pond has a successful spawn of SMB in 2009. I think the spawn should occur since the pond has a high abundance of forage fish and the pond is not a carrying capacity quite yet. I am sure you will keep us informed.
Bill