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

I ask this question before, but nobody answered. What kind of pond to raise walleye. Depth, gravel.

One with a pile of feed that has cool water. They are like wolves and will eat them self out of house and home if the pond is to small and they are over populated.

Don.

I have a three acre pond with a lot of rock structure. My main goal is nice perch and smallies, but I'd really like to have some nice walleye as well. From what I've read I'm going to hold off for several years and monitor the balance of my pond and if it appears I have a surplus of food I may give them a go. Bill Cody said they are eating machines...

I don't think walleye eat more food compared to a LMB or any other predator. Generally and basically it takes 10 lbs of forage to gain 1 pound of predator (fish biomass) regardless of the species. I don't think one specie of predator is more efficient at food conversion than another predator. LMB and HSB are pretty darn aggressive when it comes to eating food items compared to walleye which are relatively passive predators IMO. I've watched both types feed numerous times.

For raising walleye dissolved oxygen is more important than cool water temperature. Walleye will survive in 90F water as long as good oxygen is ALWAYS present. Eutrophication kills more walleye than warm water.

Bill said " I don't think one specie of predator is more efficient at food conversion than another predator."

There are slight differences and it changes with temp and species. Their conversion/requirements are different based on factors like temp , spawning and metabolic rate (energetics)but not an issue or even a factor that we can manipulate in a pond environment other than making food available and dealing with water quality (general survival requirements).

Feeding behavior or perceived feeding behavior likely has a lot to do with the adjectives applied to what and how certain predators feed.

Thanks to everybody.

Walleye do not really need depth over 10ft and gravel to survive. Walleye rarely produce young fish in a pond due to various reasons. More important to walleye growth and survival is minimal competition, lots of forage fish with an emphasis on soft rayed forage fish and good water circulation which maintains good oxygen during the warm season.

Mr. Cody has given me some good info on this site in the past. I have 5/8 - 3/4 acre pond about 1/2 is 10 - 17' deep. Have channel cats, BCP,WE, koi, perch, and,various bluegills. Removed LGB except 2 small ones unable to catch so far. Put big rock cobblestone 4 -8" for walleye spawning. I have a strong spring in bottom of pond, as well as a lot of wave action. Got at least a few young WE before doing that.
Unfortunately didn`t find this site, and keep good records of sizes of fish added, or removed. Have now added additional perch, and WE in 5 -7" range. All fish are fat, and healthy. Been catching big ones of each species. Got 14" BCP, and 2 21 - 23" walleye last weekend, about 3 -4#.
Seems to boil down to balancing predators to prey fish. I had too many predators they were all stunted. Bass got removed because they could not be caught. Don`t ask, lol. Have to figure how many #`s of fish can be removed per year for the table to keep stable.
Interesting observation, although I have some very large perch, and BCP, I never see eggs, or young. A friend 1/2 mile down the mountain roughly same type of pond swears they only stocked keeper WE 15" plus from a lake. I saw him catch a few fish under 9".

Lack of fish feeding on walleye eggs and fry help a lot in survival of walleye fry. I would try to remove all catfish but one. Reproducing channel catfish can easily create an overpopulation if LMB are not present.

I think I will do that. They have only reproduced 1 time since 1997 which I find strange. Even when I only had trout, and CC for around the first 5 - 6 years. I feed them table scraps, and dogfood once a week so pretty easy to do a head count. Thirteen keep showing up w/ 10 in the 24 - 28" range most around 5#.
I`m pretty psyched with how things are going. Took the LMB out, and the forage base has exploded. Huge shiners, white suckers, lots of FHM, small sunfish, etc. For the last 12 years if I put 10# of FHM in, by the next weekend I hardly saw 1 minnow, and that`s with a lot of cover.
Bill caught those big WE on a rubber frog on the surface over deep water the one came out of the water like a bass, lol.

We have only fished with top water frogs in the fall for Walleye. They work great in the fall when they are trying to fatten up for winter.

Cheers Don.

I think your walleye are reproducing every year, i.e. making fertilized eggs. It is just the eggs are not hatching or for the eggs that do hatch, the fry are not surviving until they are 7"-10" long.

I`m sure your right, maybe that`s why no CC, and YP, either. Although I saw my very first YP fingerling today, about 2 1/2". With no more LMB will see a lot more. Time to get rid of the CC. Thanks for the advise.

Today I can confirm I got a WE hatch. Saw a dozen 1.75 - 2.25" WE close to shore. Next weekend start trying to catch the CC out.

If your WE hatched in 2014 are 1.75"-2.25" on Aug 10 they are stunted. They should have been hatched before the YP and in a NY pond that would be around early - mid April. YP spawn in April in NY ponds. This puts the walleye 2014 year class at abt 122 days old and they should be close to 5" long assuming 1mm of average growth per day. New WE sold in Oct typically range in size from 5"-9" long and 170-180 days old (7": 5"-9"). The small fish you saw might not have been WE? Did you try and catch some?. WE will enter fish traps. Try a minnow trap.

I didn`t catch any,but they were only a foot from shore, and didn`t move for a long time. They could not be anything else, but they were thick compared to the few LMB that were spawned they were about 2" max.
Do you think they may have spawned later this year due to cold, and ice, and my spring? Pond still had ice in April. In the past on 90 degee day in August (hot summer) had 52 degree water temp at 17'. Water felt cold on the surface this weekend. My FHM 4", and GS 5-6" are very big so can`t understand why they would be stunted. The YP I saw a few weeks ago were around 2".

Some YP this spring spawned one day after ice left. Walleye could have spawned under the last few days of minimal ice cover depending on conditions. WE fingerlings should be at least 1" longer than the YP due to age difference. WE yolk fry start out 1-2 mm longer than YP fry. I considered them stunted because they should be larger than 2" if there was adequate food. Lack of feeding equals smaller fingerlings compared to same age fish with good foods.

I have no explanation Bill. Only saw 1 YP a few weeks ago. Tried to trap, or net WE. Didn`t get any, or see any. All the forage, and adult fish are growing great. If I have any interesting observations I will let you know.

Fish in some ponds just plain grow slow. Sometimes growth is faster or slower at certain sizes compared to other times. This is due mainly to different feeding habits when the fish are bigger vs smaller.