I stocked a dozen walleye into my 1/8 acre pond a couple of years ago and they seem to have disappeared. The first year I stocked them I could go out with a spotlight at night and see them regularly in the shallows. I know they made it through all 4 seasons the first year but I have not seen any in months and am still yet to catch one. For those of you that have wallleye, is this common that they will be active in the shallows and them tend to move deeper over time or have my walleye likely died? I would have expected to find a few floaters if they all died.

depending on how deep it is they may have gone deeper or in a more comfort zone suspending in mid thermocline. The lake we belong to has been stocked regularly with lots of walleye fry and we do not see them only in the spring in the shallows. They may still be there, if your worried put in some more.

I stocked WE in my pond last spring and was pleasantly surprised to catch them pretty regularly this late summer and fall, They went from 3 to 4" in march to some 14 inchers in Oct. what I cant figure out however is where in the heck my BC went, I have not been able to catch one all summer, or any of my YP, which I am not surprised that I havent caught any, I dont know how, have never caught one in my life, but I consider myself pretty good at catching Crappie

I would love to add a few more but the fish hatchery is over 4 hours away so I'd hate to make the drive if they're still in there. My pond is 8 ft at the deepest. I never expected to see the walleye swimming around, but the fact that they did so regularly last year made me think that this was a normal occurrence. I do have yellow perch that I have stocked in my pond and catch from time to time. I used to catch them very regularly. They have grown really well, and I feel like they have similar water requirements as walleye. Hopefully I still have the walleye.

The 'traditional lore' is that walleye need deeper water and cooler temps and don't do well in shallow ponds. However you are in TN where you probably don't have as much risk for winterkill? Or do you have ice over for a long period of time?

Northern pond owners that have small ponds (say 1/2 acre or less) that are less than 10' deep are discouraged from trying walleye. But I know that folks on this forum and pretty much proven 'traditional lore' wrong over and over. I really would love to hear more about what walleye do in shallow ponds to survive/thrive.

WE were told the same thing about YP and YP do great in most every pond that they are tried in in the northern zones, even the shallow ones.

Most people who catch their stocker walleye say they tend to catch them on tiny jigs with little bits of grubs or curly tail rubber trailers on the jig heads. Maybe try fishing for them in low light conditions late in day?

Keep us posted!

No winter kill risk. A spring feeds my pond on the shallow end and my aerator keeps it from freezing over on the deep end. Only a couple weeks out of the year do we really get ice forming on the pond and it's not thick at all.. I've tried fishing for the walleye with all different kinds of live bait and lures but usually my hybrid bluegill or yellow perch hit whatever I'm throwing. Are the temperature / oxygen requirements much different for walleye vs yellow perch? I know yellow perch aren't thought of as a southern species but they have done great in my pond. Bottom line I would just love to know whether I still have walleye in there or not. I guess the only way to confirm this will be one day when I catch one. Appreciate the replies from everybody, their behavior has just perplexed me a bit.

WAE don't make themselves known as much as other species. YP can handle lower DO than WAE but YP don't seem to like higher temps-that WAE will be comfortable feeding in.
Assuming your fish died is just that, an assumption until you test net, or sample in some manner to confirm it. Fishing for either is by far most effective the last 30 minutes of daylight, especially right now.

https://imgur.com/dZNvqHZ

If we had a 'FREAK' category for being able to grow crazy large and very happy and healthy YP then you get the FREAK award !!

Oh to have our friend Cecil Baird back on the forum to post the monster YP he produced in his pond. I'm very biased to YP though. They are extremely hardy, just as fun for our kids to catch than any other panfish and fight pretty good as well. They clean up snails, bite on many different baits and can also do a reasonable job of handling the smaller crayfish population. They are also one of the best tasting panfish fish and sought after in our local restaurants. We are fortunate to be close to Lake MI where there are lots and lots of options to catch them. However the misunderstanding in MI still is that they only do well in a deep lake like Lake MI.

They also are very predictable when they lay eggs (and where) and that also allows the pondowner to control their reproduction very easily.

Thanks for your input about how they and Walleye are similar/different.

They are my favorite fish to catch out of my pond. I have grown some pretty good ones in my little 1/8 acre of water. I do not understand why people think that they are only a northern species when they can do very well in southern waters.

I think in this case where you obtain your original stockers plays a huge part in that. There are some strains in the SE part of US that seem to do very well.
I had a call from SC wanting me to ship some 1-2" YP and I said no, not gonna waste your money because from my climate to yours, I don't think they would thrive if they survive at all.
I do find that although my water temp rarely gets to 80, they plum disappear in the summer. The last week my water is in low to upper 40's and I'm tearing them up on Jigs.

We have a few walleye in our Perch pond up here in Ontario. The pond is very deep, 16 on one end and 12 on the other end. We have never seen or caught any of the walleye that are in our pond. They should be really large as they were stocked in 2015 and were already 18"s. We only put in 5 in our one acre pond. I think they are doing their job as the Perch are amazing. I think they just get well adapted to the pond and seem to be very elusive.

Dono,

I can't wait until a kid/grandkid finally hooks up on one of your monster walleyes while fishing for YP.

Please make sure you set the drags appropriately on their reels! I want to see a pic of the giant smile on a kid with a giant walleye.

That is kinda what I expected to happen with my walleye given that they by nature often hang in deeper water. I was just pleasantly surprised at how active they were hanging out in the shallows the first year, I would take friends and family up there with a spotlight and you could easily pick them out by seeing the glowing eyes swimming around. Hopefully mine are still in there and someone will hook into one one of these days.