Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking walleye

jg74 & those interested - Many pondowners are "hung up" on wanting walleye to spawn in ponds. I think that ideally you do NOT want walleye to spawn in the small pond. Spawning walleye could easily create a situation where you run out of enough forage fish to maintain good growth for the up-and-coming youger walleye and the remaining adults. A pond with a sizable number of walleye per acre takes a lot of the PROPER type and SIZE distribution of forage fish. Walleye do not feed very well on sunfish types. Walleye are naturally adapted to prey on slender bodied preyfish. Having to utilize other types of fish and having to eat improper sizes of forage fish for food lowers their growth rates. With no walleye reproduction in a small pond you have much better control of the numbers of predators. GOOD FISH MANAGEMENT IS ALL ABOUT CONTROL. Knowing with a fair accuracy how many predators are in the pond, will make it easier to maintain proper forage fish densities to continuously produce optimum growth of the existing predators. Young walleye are not that expensive so one can restock the predators as they are needed based on current mortality rates (natural and harvest).

Postscript. Walleye, sauger, and their hybrid saugeye are all capable of producing viable spawn in the pond setting. Many think that since saugeye are a hybrid they will not produce offspring. Several studies have shown that saugeye spawn naturally and the young survive. I have saugeye in my pond. Desipte what is said in the fishing articles, I find them hard to catch in my pond situation where forage is ample. Saugers and Saugeye are raised at only the VERY rare hatchery if at all in the US and thus both types of fish as fingerlings or juveniles are very difficult to locate.