Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations update on walleye pond and a question

Last year I stocked 100 6inch walleye in my sw mi pond-20 ft deep on one end and 15 on the other-spring feed. I stocked it with 50 gallons of FH and GS one month before I put the walley in in oct. I also put in about 30 p0erch (transplanted from my other pond). This spring I added another 30 lbs of FH. You guys said you wanted an update so here it is with a silly question (please remember that he walleye were 6 inches when I put them in)
Yesterday I threw out a silver spinnerbait-one that rattles through the water-I caught 9 walleyes on about 15 casts. I was really excited-good looking healthy fish-so here is the silly question. One fo them was about 8 inches -all the rest were about 5 inches long-smaller than anything I put in-one was actually just probably about 4 inches long-so did those last year walleyes spawn?? Were they even old enough to do so?? I was told that walleyes will not spawn in a pond-I have a few rocks in the pond but nothing that would make you think of it as a spawning area-I do have a spring in the pond so the water is fairly cool-no areator though......so did my walley shrink??? where did the small ones come from. Thanks guys for putting up with me asking these crazy quesitons but it really has me perplexed.
Dave

Interesting question, DaveJ. I look forward to seeing what input you get. Have you seen any other fish? Any bigger fish?

Are you 100% sure none of the walleye were in the 4" to 5" range when you stocked them? Walleyes typically reach spawning size around 15"+ at 2 or 3 years of age. The odds of the walleye even spawning in your pond is slim, them growing from 6" to 15"+ from Oct to when they would spawn in the spring is even slimmer, then have YOY walleye reach 4" to 5" by this time of year in your part of the country is pretty unlikely as well in my best educated guess... Could you have mistook some YOY YP for walleye? Could a neighbor have stocked some walleye without your knowledge? When you go fishing again, could you take photos of some of your fish to post?

Somethings definitely don't add up.
Please do some more fishing, tape measure, photos, catch rates,
Stocking date, etc. Very very interesting. I have some comments and theories but
Will wait for additional info.

Very interesting question here Dave. Please provide those updates that Travis and Nate asked for when you get a chance. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Thanks guys.

I will take some pictures if I catch some more today. I know they are all definitely walleye. You could already see their teeth growing. My neighbors would definitely not stock any...they would definitely eat them but not stock...I guess it is possible as I stocked them that some of the smaller oneswere around that size but the ones I remember putting in seemed larger than that- I will try and post some pictures tomorrow. Hey I guess the good news is that they are alive!!

Any signs of FHM or GSH in the pond still? That was my biggest concern was your walleye would eat all their forage up before they could get to spring and spawn... Any sign the few YP you stocked spawned?

I also agree with CJ and Nate. Often a group of 6" walleye for stocking will contain some in the 5" and maybe even a few 4" long. Are you measuring the 4"-5" WE or estimaing the lenghts? At least you know they are surviving. Often initial growth of WE in ponds can be slow until water warms to 65-70F range. Inflow from springs may keep overall water a little cooler and could slow young WE growth rates. FHM are starting to spawn now in MI. YOY FHM will provide lots of 1" minnows for the WE this summer. By fall expect to be catching some larger WE. Return and report their size then. Some of the larger and more aggressive WE that you stocked may be 6.5"-7" and they are focused feeding on FHM and you are not catching them.

Folks,

I have not seen any of my minnows-I am hoping some are still in there-what are your predictions on their survival?? I stocked 30 lbs of FHS about 3 weeks ago-could the walleye eaten all of them before they had a chance to spawn??

Get yourself a fish trap to monitor the presence of minnows. Paint trap a drab color. Often they will enter a trap to avoid predaton. Refresh my memory how big is the pond?

In theory FHM at 1.75" and 30 lbs is around 10,000 minnows divided by 100 WE is around 100 FHM per WE. If we assume each 6" WE eats 2 FHM per day then your 30 lbs should last about 40-50 days. 3 FHM per day then about 30 days, 5/day then 20 days. You might have a few too many WE per acre. Look into golden shiners, some other forage fish or a forage fish combination that grows a little larger than FHM.

When a predator is eating a fish that is smaller than optimum size for the predator size then growth rate suffers due to amount of energy expended compared to energy gain. As the WE grow and to get good growth one should have larger sized forage available. Female WE will grow a little faster than the males.

I have seen walleye in the 6" range eat 5+ minnows per day in an aquarium. You also stocked YP, they too will be eating your FHM. Hopefully they spawned this spring and their YOY are adding to the WE's food source...

I will be very interested to hear more about this pond and what could have been done differently to better establish the forage base. I suppose given more time you would have established the fatheads and golden shiners better then allowed the perch to establish and spawn then add the walleye.

I am still waiting for some pics, measurements, and catch rate before commenting. Very curious.