Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stunted walleye?

No real reason to ask other than curiosity...

I know what an over populated crappie pond looks like. Tons of 7in crappie that are cardboard thin. What would an over populated walleye pond look like (in the off chance that a stocking class had some successful spawns and they overpopulated)?

Best way to tell is look at the relative weight charts for them. There are RW charts for all the the species of fish in the Archives. The smaller WE to me always look too skinny.

For instance a 15" WAE should weigh 1.1# and a 15" YP should weigh 1.6#. I'm used to looking at YP and not WAE.

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.

You've got a lake, Jake!!! Over 10 acres....

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!

You guys are killin' me.. :-))
This is where Saugeye shine-where WAE grow less than expected in a pond/small lake impoundment.
We have stocked out around 3000 or so in Central KS in the private sector last fall.. The results will show the story that I am already aware of from years of state projects in small impoundments.
It's not snake oil, it's fact.

Snipe, I think we're dying to get these Saugeyes into someone's pond!!!!

They are in mine! Excited here! One year old, first Birthday should be about Today-ish.

Awesome, can't wait to hear about your experience with them!!

I tee it up, you knock it out of the ball park!

If they really thrive, maybe you should put them on the list for "Today's Birthdays"!

Me, me, me, pick me! haha. I have some localish lakes with DNR stocked Saugeye that I believe I will make my way to to bucket stock a couple. I have YP and SBS in my tiny pond, planning to add pure RES with my tilapia stocking this year since I added male YP this spring.

I am told by fish hatchery guys experienced with walleye that they very rarely get bigger than 5 lbs in pond habitats. A 5 lb walleye is a very nice fish when they are around 24-25 inches long. However IMO in pond habitats this takes probably numerous years of growth even with the presence of proper species and sizes of prey foods. And as snipe says WE may just have a propensity for some reason to thrive better in large impoundments.

My experience with WE from large and small waters is until they are 14" long the appearance of body shape and condition of WE is usually a slender fish that shows little if any plumpness and IMO very similar to the shape of a big fat Havana cigar.

As an experiment I looked up the length - weight of several WE and saugeye. Results are very similar for these two fish.
WE = 12" 0.62lbs, 13" 0.79lbs, 14" 1.01lbs, 15" 1.25lbs, 16" 1.54lbs, 17" 1.87lbs, 18" 2.24lbs, 19" 2.66lbs, 20" 3.13lbs
SUGR= 12" 0.58lbs, 13" 0.76lbs, 14" 0.96lbs,15" 1.21lbs, 16" 1.49lbs, 17" 1.81bs, 18" 2.19lbs, 19" 2.61lbs, 20" 3.08lbs.

This type of fish is thin bodied, thus they look skinny compared to bass. However experiences are showing their feeding habits and preference for food types are noticeably different.

Monday night, provided I get home safely, with my Grandson driving, SAE will be residing and earning their keep cleaning out SF in my two, two acre ponds. (Strong GSH population also ) I'll let you know the results. Both ponds have WE also, 3 years so far, the comparison will be informational. Thank you very much , Snipe !!!

You know where I stand on the saugeye idea (and that I desperately want to make a certain something happen)!

Hell yeah!!!!

A little fish porn...

Wow, what a beautiful fish!

They taste good, too.

That's a beautiful fish!
Now is that one of the SAE or is it straight WE? looks just like a WE to me.

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.

Notice the blotched molting between spines in dorsal fins? This is the indicator of Saugeye. This fish has taken the traits of the Sauger with the extremely dark patterns.
Most people "think" they are catching WAE.

My customers, that I've had opportunity to speak to, are excited , also excited to catch our WE. I'm pumped up , see you Monday morning, and the experiment shall begin. SAE vs WE in a small pond enviroment.

SE will wallup WE in midwestern fishery. I’ll wager Kenny’s house on it.

Boy yer puttin a lot of cash into that one! :-))