Originally Posted by FishinRod
Originally Posted by gehajake
My WE in my pond grew prolifically the first yr, went from three inches to 14 in the first yr, I was impressed, then just sorta leveled off and have not progressed so much since, caught one 19 incher the second yr but mostly still around 1 lb, 15 inches is the norm.

And have had people say that is almost normal or expected in smaller ponds, 15A in my case. and they do have plenty of forage, they cant swim anywhere without bumping into BG.

There have been a few similar stories on Pond Boss over the years where the WE grew very rapidly at the start, and then slowed their growth significantly.

I assume there was something prolific in the pond for them to eat when they were small, but their dietary needs/preferences changed as they got larger?

I know they eat BG, but the WE do not seem to thrive on BG.

I wonder how they do in ponds with golden shiners or shad in huge quantities. I think the large, fat walleye in Canada feed on giant schools of alewives in the large lakes.

Anybody know about the walleye growth rate in our more southern U.S. ponds where they have threadfin and gizzard shad stocked to grow giant LMB? Might be interesting to hear about how the WE fare in those conditions despite the warm water?

Maybe the WE just do not like small ponds, but I would think gehajake's lake could grow some whoppers!

There should be a ton of GS in my pond er lake, I seldom see any of the grown ones but see a ton of he fry all around the edges all summer so they are reproducing and I pretty much overstocked them at the beginning, from a half a million estimated fry from Andersons before anything else was introduced, and they survived wonderfully, for weeks you could see literally clouds of the GS minnows around the brush.
and then later put another 60 lbs of them in when we stocked the BG and redear minnows along with 60 lbs of fatheads.

All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.