Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Walleye

As a Minnesotan and someone who has been lurking on this forum for several years, I haven't seen many posts on Walleye and have read through them pretty voraciously. While Northern Pike, Muskellunge and Flathead catfish seem to be fish that are entirely unsuitable as primary species (see 3 northern pike in a 3 acre pond) in most contemporary ponds, Walleye have always seemed to me as one of those species that are on the edge of possible. So, for people who are interested in Walleye I wanted to put some things I have noticed about success with Walleye on this forum and in other areas on the internet onto one thread so others could hopefully benefit.

One. No LMB. This genuinely seems to be the biggest issue with Walleye, and SMB. Largemouth are voracious top end predators and when you introduce them into ponds, there simply isn't enough space for the two predators to co exist. I don't understand why Walleye aren't as dominant predators as bass, however there have been research papers showing that SMB dominate WE where they coexist. LMB are going to be even worse.

Two. Prey. This is the other big thing about WE that isn't discussed as much as it should be, and is something I wanted to bring up because of the different ways it has been discussed. When people have talked about WE doing badly and having skinny 15" WE in their ponds, they seem to be sunfish dominated. The gape size of WE and their predatory instincts seem to show that at larger sizes when they are more piscivorous they do badly when they can't choose suitable prey. I have seen several threads with pond owners on here with big WE (>20") and they all have YP in them. This is something that, in a WE pond I would be interested in fine-tuning. Yellow Perch, while forage, are also predators in their own right and I believe that this reduces available biomass within ponds. Golden Shiners, and Shad, where available to use would be preferable.

Temperatures/Reproduction. Temperature is an interesting point, because everyone associates WE with cold water with most famous fisheries being in Canada and the northern US. I myself, however was surprised that the world record WE was caught in Tennessee. These aren't warm water fish, however they aren't trout. Keeping them cool is important, however oxygen seems to be the other cause of mortality in ponds (second only to LMB). Reproduction on the other hand is something that I haven't been able to get much information on. As other more experienced posters have pointed out, Walleye even in large fisheries are often maintained by artificial stocking. I have seen some small dubious pieces of information on reproduction within small ponds, and while I wouldn't count on it, I do think there is some potential to supplement artificial stocking with small bits of natural reproduction. The big thing seems to be lots of gravel and large bits of rock, working on windswept shorelines. Pointedly, the people who say that they have had their walleye reproduce have a large percentage of rocky shoreline in their ponds. Additionally, I would like to point out one pond owner who noted successful reproduction in his WE after adding a source of flowing water during the spring spawning season. Anecdotal information that could possibly be helpful for those interested in ponds.

While WE seem to be more difficult to manage than LMB or Bluegill, I believe that there is potential for them within ponds that are managed specifically for trophy sized Walleye with large numbers of forage and no competing predators.

Welcome.

I love eating Walleye.

I can't argue with anything you've posted. My entire WE pond experience was having one show up in the initiial stocking of YP, never to be seen again.

Shad can't be used with Walleye for forage. Waters for WE are too cold for TFS to survive the winter. Gizzard Shad can survive the winter, but get too big for WE to eat the same year they are hatched.

University of Wisconsin Stevens Point has successfully raised and spawned generations of feed trained WE. Their brooders have never seen a live forage fish and were in the 8 pound range when I saw them. I was able to get some for 2 years in a row to stock in customers ponds but the jury is still out on how well they survive and grow. The feed trained WE can grow from hatching in Feb to 12" by late October when in an aquaculture setting. I will make some phone calls this summer to check up with the owners of the ponds that they were stocked in.

Saugeye do better in ponds than Walleye do.......... AND they prefer to eat panfish shaped fish like Crappie and Bluegill vs more fusiform shaped fish like YP.