I am told by fish hatchery guys experienced with walleye that they very rarely get bigger than 5 lbs in pond habitats. A 5 lb walleye is a very nice fish when they are around 24-25 inches long. However IMO in pond habitats this takes probably numerous years of growth even with the presence of proper species and sizes of prey foods. And as snipe says WE may just have a propensity for some reason to thrive better in large impoundments.
My experience with WE from large and small waters is until they are 14" long the appearance of body shape and condition of WE is usually a slender fish that shows little if any plumpness and IMO very similar to the shape of a big fat Havana cigar.
As an experiment I looked up the length - weight of several WE and saugeye. Results are very similar for these two fish.
WE = 12" 0.62lbs, 13" 0.79lbs, 14" 1.01lbs, 15" 1.25lbs, 16" 1.54lbs, 17" 1.87lbs, 18" 2.24lbs, 19" 2.66lbs, 20" 3.13lbs
SUGR= 12" 0.58lbs, 13" 0.76lbs, 14" 0.96lbs,15" 1.21lbs, 16" 1.49lbs, 17" 1.81bs, 18" 2.19lbs, 19" 2.61lbs, 20" 3.08lbs.
This type of fish is thin bodied, thus they look skinny compared to bass. However experiences are showing their feeding habits and preference for food types are noticeably different.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 04/05/24 08:24 PM.
