Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Overwintered Walleye Fingerling

Rowly - Hopefully Dr Dave W. will also give us his opinion on the better size of waleye to stock in your situation.

I agree with Cecil. The cross sectional size of an 8" walleye is barely larger than a fat cigar. Indeed a tasty morsel for a LMB. Walleye and LMB both inhabit bottom areas and should frequently encounter each other. I would not be as worried about predation losses of the 6"-8" walleye if you only had SMB in your pond. Large amounts of weed cover would be the only thing that could provide high survival rates for the 6"-8" walleye. The 4"-5" walleye have to grow to 8" before they begin to be relatively safe and then it is only relatively safe. I would expect at least 50%-70% losses of 6"-8"ers due to predation from 14"-16" LMB. Growing from 5"to 8" will take practically all summer in your lake; a long time to escape predation. If I had largemouths in my lake I would be stocking 10" to 12" walleye if you want a high percentage to survive.

Since you still have gravel operations going on at your place is there any chance that you can talk them into scooping out a small 1/4 to 1/3 acre pond for you. Maybe make it drainable. Raise minnows in it and each year or two plant some of those 4"-5" walleyes. Grow them to 10-12", seine them out and restock them in the bigger pond.