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Great pics, MNFISH.


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From Bob Lusk: Dr. Dave Willis passed away January 13, 2014. He continues to be a key part of our Pond Boss family...and always will be.
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Thanks Dave,
I knows it only one data point but what do you think? Is this the type of growth you would expect from a Midwest pond WE (length and girth)? Anything unusual?

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Mnfish -- what, put this thread back on topic? I'm not sure that is allowed? \:\)

Like you said, only one data point. A 6 incher going to 10 sounds good; an 8 incher going to 10 in a couple of months sounds ok. Just looking at him, he has good plumpness for a 10 incher.

We overstocked walleyes in a 22-acre pond here, and they were NEVER that plump! \:\)

We had walleyes at a lower density in a gravel pit here, and they did resemble your fish. I'd say you made a good start on the initial stocking.


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From Bob Lusk: Dr. Dave Willis passed away January 13, 2014. He continues to be a key part of our Pond Boss family...and always will be.
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Update for those following along. I have no pictures or data to share this month. I can not seem to catch any WE or YP out of Hubert. Currently, there are so many FH minnows of all sizes, I am thinking my original stocking may have been a bit light. I don't have any fish traps but I think I will set the under water camera up this weekend. Approximately 10 man hrs of fishing and one bite. I think I built an ecosystem thats great for the fish but no for the fishing. \:\)

Last edited by mnfish; 08/25/09 03:21 PM.
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What were you fishing with? Artificials or live bait?


Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:"
"She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."

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Used both live and artificial. Pan fish leaches with a plain hook and bobber. Also pitched 1/32oz white twister tails.
One interesting note. I can't prove it with pictures but I observed a few fish surface feeding. It could have been chasing the bait fish on or to the surface. Fun to watch.

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MNfish -- "light" on stocking may mean some nice fish much sooner. Remember that my overstocking rates didn't work too darn well.

Last time I saw walleyes surface feeding was on a Kansas reservoir when the big Hexagenia mayflies were hatching. The walleyes came up for those (as did white crappies, white bass, and channel catfish). The mayflies were thick!!


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mnfish, Try with the fat heads you've been feeding them with. They might think its an easy meal. Mine do...

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MNfish, what part of MN are you located? My ponds are also all dug into a bog (into the water table) so I do have stable water levels and a very similar situation to yours. This really works well doesn't it. Thanks for the comments, I am encouraged that perhaps a new walleye pond might just work. But first, I have to get it dug. No small task when it's a couple of acres.


Gotta get back to fishin!
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I know its not possible to show emotion thru a forum but let me just say I am completely stoked up. Fished Hubert Sat. using night crawlers under a bobber. It was a cloudy and breezy evening. Caught not one but two walleyes both almost exactly the same size (enter drum roll). Both identical size 11-7/8" and chuncky. Caught 3 perch as well. No pictures as I left the camera in the cabin.
This is very exciting to be able to grow these fish that fast.

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BZ- Located not too far out of Monticello. If WE's grow this fast with FH minnows and you have a good source I believe there are many pond management options.
I can't wait to stock WE's in my growout pond next spring. Its 1/4" the size of Hubert and loaded with FH's and BG's. Growth rate comparison will be interesting. I truely hope the We's don't recruit. They are easy to source up here and relatively not that expensive. Further more, a top line predator with good growth rates and no chance of over population would open a lot of management possiblilities, IMHO.

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Mn you keep us all posted, I am planning to add them to my YP pond next year to help eat the YOY, along with HSB and RES, should be real interesting.

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Just wanted to give a brief update on the WE/YP project. This winter was tough again on my ponds. I had some winter kill of both WE and YP. I found 7 WE and 4 YP after ice out. Under water camera along with some fishing have proved that a large portion of the YP are still alive. Not sure yet about the WE. The WE that were dead measured from 11-13". One intersting note is the pond is still swimming with lots and lots of FHM.

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Sorry to hear about the fish loss. Hopefully, some of the walleye pulled through and with less competition will pack on the pounds faster now for you...

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Sounds like you need to address why you are having issues in the winter. Maybe your pond is too shallow, or you need to get the snow off the ice better, or you need some shallow water aeration. YP and WE are very hardy winter fish so you should not have much in the way of losses


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Bill Cody has asked for an update on my WE/ YP pond experiment. I am sorry for not provinding an update on my experiment. I sometimes forget that my failures can provide some potental valuabe information to others.

First of all, I believe my goal was achieveable. And I would have loved to let this experiment run out 5 years to see what type of growth rates could have been achieved. It was going fine with the exception of the one winter kill(Aeration inadequacy). I just couldn't let the experiment run long enough to gain any good data. I was so restrictive on the fishing that I felt the trade off was too much. So I simply quit and went in another direction.

The one bit of knowledge I did gain that may help others when deciding to stcok WE. First, WE get hook smart very fast, especially if lots of forage present. Second and most importantly, kids and WE don't go together if you want a catch and release program eek. Can you say deep hooked! With 40 stocked and 2 killed in one evening, 5% reduction in population.

To date, I still have YP but didn't see a WE in the 2011 season and didn't stock any more. As mentioned in another post I have completely switched gears and stocked BCP with the YP. I'm trying to build and maintain a BCP fishery with sustained 10"-12", 1/2 to 1lb BCP.

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mnfish- thanks for the update. Good information. We are interested in how this fishery develops. Keep us updated. You may have to resort to some SMB or LMB to keep a balance of good growing fish. I doubt WE will be very good at preying on BCP.

I harvest every WE that I catch in my pond and replace the numbers removed. Willis and Cromwell in PBoss Mag suggest stocking some walleye 10-20/ac every yr or two to maintain a good size range of predators.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/18/12 01:40 PM.

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Mnfish - Kid fishing is one of my top priorities. Did you remove the barbs on the hooks? If not, would easy removal of the hook have allowed your WE to survive, or were they goners by the time the kids got them on the bank?

Thanks.

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Any chance in re-starting this thread?

I would also love to try the YP - WE experiment, although all of the way south into Kansas.

I have an oxbow pond beside a stream that runs all year long. I think(?) I can expand this to about 2.5 acres and set up the piping so the volume of the pond will be exchanged in about 24 hours.

I will get a lot more grow days than Mnfish got during his experiment. However, instead of getting a winter-kill like Mnfist, I will be close to the top of the temperature limit for YP and WE. The water in the pond will be coming from the flowing stream, so it should be highly oxygenated even during the hottest days of the year.

Any thoughts from the fish management guys?

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Stream inflow will provide lots of contamination from wild fish living in the stream. This could cause numerous management issues. IMO WE and YP should survive okay in KS ponds that are 14-18 ft deep. Depth will benefit in drought and reducing winterkill. IMO a more important issue than expanding the size is isolating it from the stream and reducing tree leaf inputs. You don't even want flood water entering and contaminating the hopefully balanced fishery. Smallmouth are also an option in your area.

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The majority of the time I set the kids up with a simple hook and bobber rig. Long shanked hooks baited with minnows that were trapped from the ponds. My problem was the hooks always seemed to get deep throated.

If I had a hatchery source that was close to me and the MN permiting was faster, I would have continued with the WE and done a put and take. I would have "over stocked" each spring knowing that x number would be removed or killed.

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Mnfish - Thanks for the advice.

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Bill - I am very worried about wild fish contamination from the stream no matter what type of fish I choose to stock and manage.

I am still in the planning stage of a fairly unique pond design, so I think I will start a new thread in the Questions & Observations forum.

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When a pond receives wild fish contamination, I think the best predator to be dominant in the pond is LMB. There was a fairly recent article in PBoss magazine about a great fishery that had great LMB angling and the pond received wild fish from periodic stream events. I will search for the article and hopefully report back here. IMO WE would not be the predator of choice to control perodic events of wild fish contamination.


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Bill - I started a new thread in Questions & Observations.

So far; you, Sunil, and TJ have said that contamination is inevitable. I am sometimes a little slow on the uptake, but I think I am starting to sense a trend. wink

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