Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Fly Fishing & Other Fish Species Walleye pond progress.

As some know, I put Walleye in my pond recently. They are growing well. I decided to fish today, and harvest 3 for dinner. After a year of growing from 6-8", this is what I have so far.The fish I am holding, and the same one, by the ruler had a pretty good gape. It had the remnants of a 4"-5" green sunfish in it.

I have to edit this, as I believe I have caught myself in my own snafu. My statement about "A years growth of 6-8" may not be accurate at all. I did actually stock Walleye the previous fall. The fall of 2011. In the spring of 2012, I experienced a fish kill. The reason of the fish kill was never actually determined, I suspected it to be a chemical contamination due to a crop duster. I had thousands of dead bluegill, and a lot of yellow perch, and walleye. I did not do a count, and assumed by the guesstimates, that I lost all or at least most of the YP and WE stocking. By estimates on PB, I was lead to believe that probably only 10% of dead fish will actually float. The rest of the summer, I fished and never saw any signs of YP or WE. After re-stocking, I then immediately began catching YP again. That further lead me to believe that I had lost all of my original stocking.

So to sum it up, I may have actually been somewhat misleading about my actual growth rate. I guess we will never actually know. I apologize and it was never my intention to mislead anyone.

They sure do look fat and healthy to me.

Beautiful fish, thanks for posting the pics.
I'm really excited about the potential WE have for contributing to BG control, and after finding that some "bonus" WE my fish guy stocked 4 years ago are now 4lbs+, I'm going to stock a bunch more this fall.

Very nice looking fish. Tell us more about your pond again, size, depth, other species present, etc...

James:

Nice fish! Even nicer inventory rack.

The heck with the pond, I want to know about the machine inventory!! Shear - electric or hydraulic - what capacity?, bandsaw, what else??????

Very nice walleye for one year of growth in your pond, especially a Missouri pond. Can you provide a link to pervious PBoss discussions about your pond stocking information. How did you get the fish in the first picture to hold its fins extended out?. It looks like a taxidermy mount.

Probably the same stuff that George Belhan uses on his mohawk!

Bill I stroked that baby real nice! I listen real well! I was having drinks one night with 2 guys in Nebraska. You might say "I heard it through the "GRAPEVINE" It's amazing the secrets that are revealed with spirits! That's how I came up with my picture taking tactic. I don't think they even realized that info was being given out.I wish the King of PondBoss photography would have been here! I know more of his photography secrets, but am sworn to secrecy. I will dig up some of my previous posts. Just a friendly reminder Bill, you are my mentor on this project!

Esshup! Good eye! It's my brothers shop. He does steel fab, and he actually designed the bandsaw and sells them. I'll send you a link via private message.

I would like to call it to everyone's attention, I have unintentionally given some very inaccurate information. I have edited my original post, and for the sake of time and confusion, have included my "edit" here for all to see.

""""" I have to edit this, as I believe I have caught myself in my own snafu. My statement about "A years growth of 6-8" may not be accurate at all. I did actually stock Walleye the previous fall. The fall of 2011. In the spring of 2012, I experienced a fish kill. The reason of the fish kill was never actually determined, I suspected it to be a chemical contamination due to a crop duster. I had thousands of dead bluegill, and a lot of yellow perch, and walleye. I did not do a count, and assumed by the guesstimates, that I lost all or at least most of the YP and WE stocking. By estimates on PB, I was lead to believe that probably only 10% of dead fish will actually float. The rest of the summer, I fished and never saw any signs of YP or WE. After re-stocking, I then immediately began catching YP again. That further lead me to believe that I had lost all of my original stocking.

So to sum it up, I may have actually been somewhat misleading about my actual growth rate. I guess we will never actually know. I apologize and it was never my intention to mislead anyone."""""

James, the fish grew, and they look great. 'enuf said! You did good.

Sorry CJ, just saw your question. It's 3 1/2 acres, springfed, built in 1977. Used to be a catfish pond for commercial dressed catfish. Max depth 15-16'. Heavy on sunfish: BG,GSF,OSS, Mongrel sunfish, and Golden shiners, CC. And have this summer seen at least one huge triploid Carp. No known LMB or Crappie. I forgot...Redears also. Give me a few minutes I'll probably think of something else. Oh yes, I also put in 150 SMB last November. Their growth rates are all over the board. The SMB went in at 3-4". I have caught them anywhere from 6-9".

+1

By "Mongrel Sunfish" I assume you're refering to HBG?

Thanks Esshup, but now I think I should change my screen name to Richard Cranium! I prefer getting good information and despise the thought of giving out bad information. I am pretty confused about this.If I did have survivors, why didn't I catch any last summer? Can Walleye be aged with body parts?

Yes YolkSac, I have seen all kinds of variants. That is one of the reasons I stocked WE heavy. I wanted to greatly reduce the sunfishes, with hopes of stocking some new genetic Bluegill someday. The numbers have diminished well, but still a long way to go.

Great plan, it'll be really interesting to see how it works. I have very little experience with catching WE in the wild-rare around here, and I've never really enjoyed sauger fishing, so I was surprised at how large the gape is on a 3-4lb fish. It looks to me as though WE might be able to take larger BG than an equal sized SMB, though this is completely subjective and I'd like to hear the opinions of others more familiar with both species.

WE can be aged via otolith.

Well done amigo...those WE looked chunky and healthy, who cares about growth rates! They obviously have found a forage base niche and are exploiting it. Keep the photos coming.

Oh yeah - beer batter and peanut oil for the WE? How did they taste?

From studies I have seen, when available WE will focus more on fusiform fish like shiners and minnows. However, if they are not available, spiny/rounded fish like BG will be eaten more. I have no doubt WE will eat smaller BG, especially when they are abundant. However, I don't think they make any better of a predator on BG than a SMB of similar size. I think you will also find, BG and WE tend to inhabit different areas of the pond at the same time in general. Again limiting WE predation on BG.

That certainly fits everything I've read. My pond doesn't have much in the way of fusiform forage, so they don't have much choice.
As I mentioned, I really only got excited about the WE as predators after catching some really nice [to me] fish that had obviously thrived on BG for several years. It got me thinking that they might be more useful in BG control than I had previously considered.

I've tried to assist the WE by:
1]Feeding over dropoffs, rockpiles, etc. in deeper water.
2]Positioning feeder to throw parallel to shoreline that drops off steeply.
3]Only feeding at dawn and dusk.

Thanks to TJ for these ideas. I'm not sure at this point whether it's due to a healthy SMB population with many year classes represented, some larger WE, feeder changes, or all three, but there has been a really noticible reduction in BG numbers and subsequent increase in BG size over the past year. I'm definitely going to add more WE this fall.

Cool Yolk - I too am noticing a significant impact on my BG population and I credit it to increased size of my apex predators finally able to utilize larger BG as forage [4-5"]. Ladder stocking is great idea for BG management so you always have a JR class ready to step up.

SMB and WE in TN pond...I love what you're doing down there. Can't wait to visit, amigo.

I think at least in part this has been done in the the past on at least some species, but it would be interesting to have a compilation of mouth gape at different sizes for different pond predators... Even if a fish has a big enough gape, I think some species are just more likely than others to target BG but even a species like this will almost certainly feed on a shiner or minnow before a BG if available.

Predator fish have been shown repeatedly to be excellent and maxing effort to energy in feeding. They will eat the easiest thing that will provide the max energy for the effort. The basic law of energetics. They know this instinctively and it is keenly related to gape size and mouth depth. This is how they survive and keep from starving to death.

Don't forget that there's Stoli Vanilla and Absolut Currant in the cupboard, just waiting for you.

Nice fish. That's encouraging as I just ordered WE that will be stocked in December. They will be the first predator in my pond. I'm hoping to see some fast growth with all the FHM I've got. I may be stocking a little light at 25 6-8" per acre. I also bought 25 2-3"SMB but don't expect great results from them. I figured this might be my best and only chance to try them though.