Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations O thou great Walleye, why did you have to die?

Had a perplexing chain of events happen to me this evening. Went fishing in my 4 acre pond here in central Iowa & caught the biggest WE to date - that being 3# 4oz (via a digital scale) - on a chartreuse grub. I was pumped when I got him to shore, as this WE was from my fall, 2012 stocking of 4"-6". This WE fought hard & tried to stay deep, but I didn't fight him too long since I had 12# line on. I bogo gripped him in the water, he was hooked in the lip, and the hook came out easy. I weighed him with the bogo, and quickly put him back in the water to fight another day. I rocked him in the water to get the water flowing through him, but he just laid there lazy. I thought that was kinda strange. Eventually after a minute or so, he splashed me with his tail and off he swam. Great I thought. So I continue to fish in the same spot, and about 5 minutes later I noticed a dorsal & tail fin at the surface out away from the shore. Then the fins go away and a little bit later, I see the upside down outline of a fish floating about 25-30' from shore. I immediately had a bad feeling that this was the WE that I had released. I got in the jon boat and rowed out to investigate. And sure enough, it was what I thought. My poor WE was giving up. I tried some more revival, but every time he rose back to the surface belly up. So instead of letting the snappers have a tasty WE meal, he came home with me & the fillets are now in my fridge. My stomach is happy, but my heart is a little broken over this.

Does anyone have any thoughts or reasons why this nice sized WE just gave up? My pond has an aeration system with 3 bubblers, & one of the bubblers is in the vicinity where I was fishing. So surely it couldn't be a DO problem, could it?

We've been having some cool nights as of late, so I am guessing that the pond is beginning its fall turnover. So don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

Are larger WE suspect to the same warm water "fight hard to the death" syndrome as larger HSB? And unless you have a high DO water revival tank/setup ready, they won't make it??

Regardless, I am saddened to lose one of my original WE stockers like this. If I had hooked him deep, I could understand the resulting belly-up float. But this WE was barely hooked, so no trauma there.

I am interested to hear everyone's comments & explanations for this. I am not a tried and tested WE fisherman, so have no idea if this was a normal event, a freak event, or something else. I would like to avoid this type of situation in the future & protect my original stockers, as one of my pond goals is to catch a 7# WE down the road.

I thank everyone in advance for your input and thoughts.

Brad

Sorry to hear about the loss, but well done on growing that fish! How deep is the pond? Getting hooked and struggling hard while being drug to the surface is surely stressful, what are your water temps?

I am no expert but I do fish walleye a lot. They do not fight much and will roll over fast. Like pulling in a log. Now my thoughts at first is this guy hyper ventilated on over oxygenated. Any chance that you can see bubbles on the rocks on the shore you pulled him into around your air station?

Pulling high oxygenated water back and forth over the gills of most any fish will kill it. It is better to let them just lay there and let them move the water.

Pike kill their food this way. They will grab it by the tail first and run with it quick. This stuns the prey then they flip it around and eat it head first.

When I was in collage I accidentally killed some of my uncles fish with high oxygenated water with the stress of cleaning the tank. It was a very bad day for the future of the fish business.

Cheers Don.

I think pond grown walleye are like HSB and do not take a lot of stress in warm water above 75F.

Thanks for all the good input. I take a lot of pride in my pond & am trying to have a diverse (has BG, RES, PE, CC, LMB, WE, HSB, HBC) & trophy fishery. Rainman has been to my pond, as I bought some large shiners & hybrid black crappie from him this past spring. So far, so good on the variety & things not getting out of control. I believe that the WE are keeping the LMB somewhat in check, as LMB can be caught - but one must work to get them. Caught a 2.5# LMB this summer, which was one of the original stockers from the fall of 2012, when they were stocked at 3-4".

The pond is fairly deep, with 20'-22' depths in places. In the area where I was fishing, there was a bubbler approximately 40' away to the pond center. There were no bubbles on the rip-rap rocks on the shore. I don't know the temp. I did do a secchi test before I fished last night, and had a 24" mark on that.

I will definitely keep it in mind about the "over-oxygenated" water in the future and not do the "revival" back and forth water strokes with WE in the future.

I am leaning towards Bill's take on it, in that pond grown WE don't take a lot of stress in water above 75F. That being said, I caught a 3# WE & several 1 1/2# WE in my pond this summer when the temps were likely fairly warm. All of those were released, and as far as I know none of those came to the surface with the belly-up swim.

So...I am going to hold off on WE fishing till the end of Sept which is when I will also focus on the HSB. Will switch my focus to LMB for the time being. Funny thing, the last time I focused on LMB was when I caught the prior 3# WE on a large chartreuse spinnerbait. Go figure, that is why I love fishing my pond, b/c it is anyone's guess as to what you might hook into when the bait or lure hits the water.