Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Walleye stocking in Oklahoma?

Hi! This is my first post here and i have one main question. I live about 35 Miles west of Tulsa and i have two very nice farm ponds. They are both around 60 years old. I am a huge Walleye fan, but have never caught one (fairly uncommon in Oklahoma as we all know) I found a fish farm here that has Walleye and im wanting to stock some in one of my ponds, but im not sure how well they would do.

The first pond is about 0.75 of an acre, the water is very clean and the depth is about 11-14ft.

The other pond is around 2 acres, its water is quite a bit siltier, the depth is 20-25ft. It has very nice cover and some good shade. It has a rock dropoff where the water goes from 8-10ft straight down to 20-25ft (it was a waterfall before the pond was there) It has no algae or moss growing which i believe is a sign of good oxygen.

I should also mention there are Bluegill, Redear, Black Crappie, Channel Cats (up to 10lbs) and Largemouth (up to 5lbs).

The guy at the fish farm said that they would not reproduce (which is fine, ill keep stocking them) and that if there were enough minnows and other baitfish that they would do ok against the large mouth bass etc. I would go with the larger 9-12in walleye definitely. I wouldnt want them to be bass snacks....haha

Does anyone here have any tips or pointers? I really want to catch me one! Thanks!

(And im considering getting an aerator (if necessary) , any tips on which ones are best would be great. Thanks again!)

Hey Jake, welcome to the forum!

I think the walleye would probably do better in the larger pond, but it's hard to tell for sure. Algae and moss growth has little if anything to do with good oxygen, so I wouldn't base the lack of them growing on that. I feel the larger pond would be a better candidate for the walleye as there is more room for biomass in it as well as deeper water refuge areas. Walleye don't like bright sunlight and will avoid it by taking cover in deeper water. Since you do not aerate your ponds, you will run into issues with a thermocline and a lack of DO below it. If you add the proper aeration system to your pond(s), this will open up the deeper water areas year round to your walleye as well as other fish and I think will be well worth your effort whether you decide to stock walleye or not. If you are not sure how to go about this, there are several members on here who sell and are very familiar with aeration systems. They can give you advise on the proper system, how to install it and start it up correctly.

Walleye rarely do overly well in ponds, they will survive but their growth rates are often very slow. Your idea of stocking the 9"-12" fish is well advised as small walleye are a favorite bass food because of their fusiform shape. Even at 12", a 20" bass could eat one. Going with the largest size you can will greatly increase their survival rates.

The fish farm advised you correctly that they would not reproduce(reproduction is possible, but EXTREMELY unlikely). Even if they did reproduce, the likelihood that any fry would survive to a harvestable size is even more remote.

If your sole goal is to add a bonus fish to your fishery, stocking walleye at 10-20 per acre is reasonable. Under average pond conditions, expect your walleye to put on around 2"-3" per year for the first couple years after you stock them and then their growth rate will drop dramatically to perhaps an inch per year there after topping out in the low 20" range with perhaps a large individual pushing 24". That would be a rare fish though... Expect the vast majority of your walleye to top out around 18"-20".

Do you have any forage species in your pond like golden shiners or threadfin shad? I ask this as walleye are not nearly as efficient as largemouth bass at feeding on sunfish like bluegill and redear. This means their growth rates will be less and they will not do as well if you don't have any shiners or shad for them to feed on.

Hopes this helps you out a bit... Keep posting, share some pictures and keep us updated on your progress!

Welcome to the forum Jake. Would love to hear what you end up doing and how successful you are. I have a buddy close to me who has 3 ponds on his property, all about the same size as yours, and I believe he's stocked walleye as well. I need to catch up with him anyway, so I'll give him a call and see what he's done, any mistakes he's made, and what seems to work best for him.

with CJ.

If you have electricity within 500 feet or so of the larger of the 2 ponds, I'd go with an electric powered aeration system.

Hi Guys! Thanks so much for the tips!

The Walleye ill be stocking wont be ready until October, the fish farm said they have the 3-6in ones now but the larger 9-12in ones wont be ready until then (i dont want to rush anything). When i put the Walleye in i plan on adding around 5lbs of shiners so there will be an abundant food source.

I would have had aeration by now but the Ponds are about 3/4 of a mile behind my house. Ive got 100 acres and the two ponds are about 1/4 of a mile apart. So i doubt electric aeration is possible. Are there any other aerator options that would work?

Jake, I might be wrong (correct me if i am) and other forum members might say so, but i think you should go ahead and put the shiners in. If they survive they should pull off a spawn or two by the time the walleye arrive.

Spoke to my buddy about walleye in his pond a short time ago. He had a devastating winter fish kill. His ponds are 20 feet deep, the one he was referring to being approximately 2 acres. And it sounds like he was fully expecting them to spawn successfully.

Anyway, I will be visiting with him over the next couple weeks and see if there are any suggestions he might have from one walleye pondmeister to another.

I went ahead and put around 6 1/2 lbs of minnows in today. Hopefully they will spawn but right when i put them in the Channel Cats were waiting! Haha. I also took some photos so you guys can get a better idea of what were looking at here. Ill try and post them tonight or tomorrow. Thanks again guys!

What species of "minnows" did you stock? If they are fathead minnows(FHM), they won't last much more than a couple weeks in a bass full of LMB. They do not handle predation well.

I would stock the shiners now rather than later. Give them a chance to pull off a spawn and possibly establish in your pond. 5 pounds may seem like a lot, but in a 2 acre pond with 5 pound bass and CC, most will be gone in short order. Most parts of OK, can support threadfin shad with winter kills only every few years. You may want to look into stocking threadfin shad into your 2 acre pond. It's kinda on the border for minimum size, but depending on fertility, they may work. Which brings up a question, do you fertilize your ponds?

They are just regular Shiners, large in size. A few died, (around 15-20) but the Catfish did not mind that at all.

Ill look into shad for sure.

As for fertilization, i have never fertilized it. What type(s) of fertilizer would you go with?

Heres a link to some photos:

http://img338.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=dsc00540l.jpg

Let me know if the link works or not...

Yep, link works Jake. Nice place.

For the shiners to have any chance of becoming a reproducing, regenerating forage fish, they will need a lot of weed cover to avoid predation. In my pond, they have survived in naiad, I believe, and American pond weeed.

But, I do stock about a hundred lbs. each year, and sometimes twice a year (sometimes mixing between fatheads and golden shiners). I do this mainly because when the fish truck comes, you might as well load up.

Regarding the walleyes, I put some (20) or so in my pond about 3-4 years ago. They were around 10-12 when stocked. I occasionally catch a walleye, and they might be 14-15" tops now. They are also not that fat even though there is plenty of forage in the pond.

I think your existing catfish and bass will put a hurt on any walleyes that you stock. Maybe plan on a predetermined mortality rate for the walleyes so you stock enough to enjoy them.

Often people comment how aggressive of a predator and fish eating "wolf" walleye are. Well in Sunil's pond catching 14"-15" WE after 3-4 yrs and being stocked at 10"-12" does not sound like a very aggressive predator to me. HOw can they be eating ample amounts of abundant forage (GS-FHM) and showing such slow growth? IME WE at 14"-15" tend to be slender bodied and they do not start to "bulk up" and get meaty until around 17"-18". Maybe others with WE can comment on this?

I think ya hit the nail on the head Bill.

What fish farm has them in Oklahoma?

Also do you have pictures of both of your ponds you can post?

Guys on this forum have mentioned that aerator hose can run a long way to a pond. You might be able to run electricity out, build a small shed for the aerator, and then run aeration tube the rest of the way to the pond(s).

FRIZ ran his air line 900' from his windmill to the diffusers. He's got an alcohol injector on the system, but the level didn't budge all winter and he didn't have a problem with frozen lines.