Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Spawning and Structure

I need info on walleye spawning and structure. I have a one acre pond in Wisconsin, 4-1 pitch, 10-29 depth down the center, some ledges, numerous christmas trees sank, 7 loads of field stone on a 10 foot ledge. Am i going in the right direction to insure that my walleye will spawn? We stocked the pond 3 years ago, walleye were 6 inches at the time, caught some 12,13 inchers this winter. Fish seem healthy, how do I insure that they will reproduce?

The walleye will definately spawn in your pond BUT will the eggs hatch and how many of the offspring will survive to be one year old? That is the really big question.

You have a good start at creating a good spawning grounds for walleye with the underwater area of field stones. However, I think that if you put the larger stones on a 10 ft deep ledge, the stone pile is possibly too deep for optimum hatching of walleye eggs.

Successful hatching of walleye eggs in lakes occurs on WINDSWEPT, rocky shallow shoreline areas THAT ARE SILT FREE. The WINDSWEPT areas are important because incoming waves circulate highly oxygen saturated water to and around the eggs that have settled among the rocks. SILT FREE areas are very important because when the incoming waves crash the shoreline, silt should NOT be resuspended during the turbulence. Resuspended silt will settle on unguarded eggs and eggs/embryos will smother and suffocate before hatching. These two requirements do not occur in very many walleye lakes in the States and it is why many nonCanadian shield lakes have to be regularly restocked with small walleyes to maintain a walleye fishery. Many walleye lakes in the States contain too much silt.

If some of your walleye eggs do hatch (hatch time abt 24-28days), the walleye fry have a "very steep hill to swim up" to get to be one year old. Plenty of the correct sized zooplankton needs to be present (7-8 days post hatch, 32d postspawn). Walleye fry will eat some phytoplankton and tiny zooplankton before all the yolk and oil are absorbed from the egg. At larval stage they start eating larger zooplankton at pre 1" size. As the larval walleye begin to develop a full compliment of fins and scales at sizes of 1"-2" they eat insect larvae and similar sized invertebrates. At 2" they are esentiall fully scaled and move out of the larval stage into the fingerling stage and ideally they should now begin to feed on small fish at about 2" and-or abt 85 days from spawning. Other species of fish fry may not be available yet in your pond for the fingerling walleye to survive on at this point in time. If fish fry are not available the walleye grow slower and this makes them even more vulnerable to predators due to their extended time spent as small fish.

Also remember back to when you got your fingerling walleye of 6" for stocking. Remember how slender their bodies were? Walleye stay very slender bodied and tubular shaped until they are 13" to 14" long and around 20months to 2.5 yr old. This is a very long time living as a slender, cigar shaped fish to avoid being eaten by 15" bass or another larger parent walleye.

Walleye have a very difficult life and very poor chance of survival up until they are about 10" to 14" long. Don't be suprised if you do not get much if any young walleye produced in your one acre pond. It can be done in ideal conditions, but it is quite rare to get it done on a consistant basis. I would plan on buying late stage fingerlings or better yet subadults (10"-12") to replace your harvested walleyes. I think if you also have bass in your pond, your chances of getting hatchling walleye to survive to subadult size is very low or rare. Bass love young walleye. Restocking walleye in a pond your size will not cost that much due to the pond's small size compared to the dollar value of the fish when they are harvestable adults.

I my opinion, your pond will be better balanced fish-wise and the resident walleye will have much better growth rates if walleye do not spawn successfully in your small pond. An overstocked number per acre of small walleye could easily become stunted at the 8"-12" size range in your small pond. I have seen this happen often in several overstocked ponds with walleye.

Commentary. I think the walleye that you already have in your pond are growing slowly compared to other waters with average to good walleye growth rates. If as you say, you stocked them at 6" long three years ago, they have now been in the pond 3 yrs (4yrs old) and should with average to good growth rates range from 16" to 21" long. Males will always be in the smaller size range than the females for each age group. As an example: 1 yr=6"(stockers), 2 yr=11-13", 3 yr= 13"-17", 4yr=15"-20". Sizes for fast growth rate will be a little longer for each age group. Slow growth of walleye, as with any other fish is due to the fish not getting enough of the correct sizes AND amounts of food at all times of the year. Food may be abundant but the fish maybe can not eat it, cannot catch it, it may be the wrong size, the abundant food items may only be available during certain times or seasons, or there may be too much competition with other fish for the better food items. If it is too long between meals and or the fish has to expend too much energy catching food compared to the amount consumed then slow growth results. Are there other predators in the pond with the walleyes? What are their forage fishes?

I know one guy who feeds walleyes live fatheads to get them to grow. He feeds 4lbs of fatheads for each pound of walleye. This is enough food to turn a .75lb walleye into a 2.5lb walleye in 120 days, or one summer.

If your walleye are happy and healthy the earliest the femals could spawn would be four yrs old. More likely 5 for females and 4 for males. Fish may not spawn untill 6 yrs if growth is moderate to slow.

Reproduction can be hampered by over abundant BG because of competition for zooplankton.

You may be better off buying more walleyes than to count on successful spawning.

Where did you get your fish?
Have you ever heard of oswald fisheries?