bfishn

It varies a lot. Dam spawners often winter within a few miles, while river spawners may run 50 miles or more. The long runs are progressive though, spanning several weeks. Individual fish find others in certain staging locations, often hanging out there for several days before moving up to the next spot as a group. At this time they're still actively feeding, often roaming a mile or more each night in loose packs only to return to the staging area for the day. By the time they reach the pools near spawning riffles they feed much less often if at all. I think the most important tip I could share here is to focus on the pre-spawn. Around here, that's about 5-15 miles downstream from spawning sites, and 2-6 weeks before the spawn. Find those staging spots when they're occupied and you're in business. ...And when you do, for God sakes keep it to yourself. You found it. You earned it. Resist the all-to-human urge to show off. Back in the day you could ruin a spot by being overheard over bacon and eggs after a successful outing. Now you just tell a "buddy" and he posts it on the freakin' web from his cell phone as soon as you're out of sight. Remember this line from a popular Eagles song; "Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye"

I'd defer to MDC on that, but if Stockton walleye spawn success is like the WR chain, I'd say there's a very small successful recruitment rate. Cannibalism isn't really a factor in wide open, fertile lakes or rivers that have a good early zooplankton bloom like it was in my confined hatchery tanks. Walleye need live food from day 3 after hatching. Fry are super tiny, approx. 1/20th of an inch and only slightly bigger around than a good beard stubble; Obviously, the live food menu selection for something so small is pretty limited. Daphnia, some copepods, and a few other species of zooplankton are pretty much it for the first few weeks. If the weather, water conditions, and fertility don't combine just right to produce a healthy population of zooplankton by walleye day 3-5, most of them die. Then there's the white bass hatch that shortly follows, often in the same vicinity, and white bass fry are way bigger than walleye, and they want live food too. The few 'eyes that make it to an inch are then on the menu for yearling crappie, bluegill and bass. MDC and AGFC stockings that are successful are 1-2 inch fingerlings that they raised in ponds prepared specifically to produce boocoo zooplankton at the right time. As to moving water, walleye don't require that for a successful spawn like stripers do. Here on the southern edge of their range river spawners can have an advantage though. It all depends on the conditions each year. Stockton has a lot of 'eyes that never run the rivers though, spawning instead on the dam riprap and similar lake spots. Some of that is broodstock genetics, and a whole 'nother story.

I can't say about adult walleye, but fry will eat each other to extinction if that's all there is around. I hatched 10,000 in an experiment to raise some on a new specialized commercial fish feed. Only a few took the feed. They mostly preferred to eat each other. They did that until I released them in my pond 5 weeks later. There were only ~150 left.

I caught that one and 7 others over 10 lb in various locations in the White River basin. There's several opportunies available. There aren't a large number of monsters around... there never was. On the rare occasions they present themselves they do so en masse, and are understandably vulnerable. A few boats in the right place the right time could end any hopes of 10s for a long time. I pulled 30-40 all-nighters every year for 20 years to end up with what I'd call 6 or 7 really good nights. On average, I'd blank 2-3 nights to one night with one good walleye. It's out there if you want it bad enough.

I used to trap a lot of 'dads. The first really successful trap I had was a homemade one of 1/4" hardware cloth, tubular shape about 3ft long x 1ft diameter with entry cones in both ends. It had a sizable, hinged trap door about midway on the side for baiting and unloading. Found it at a flea market for $5. The builder had finished it nicely with galvanized sheet metal trim at all the raw edges and joints. After it got stolen I made more like it, with each successive one getting stolen at the rate of about two a year. Marked or not, if there's a telltale string or anything else visible it will get stolen. 1-1/2" round entries work well, and placement location is way more important than the type of bait. Run it at least daily, because if you get a mess they'll start eating each other after a few days.

Here's what a 15 looks like; To be honest, it weighed 14.98, but that was bled out. She tried to swallow a super rogue crossways and got both gills ripped. She was done for when I boated her. ... and that's all I got to say about that.

Haven't you heard that old, "only the names have been changed to protect the innocent"?

Deja Vu! I've got a nagging feeling that I have that article in print in a box of 1970s fishing mags...;-) (it's that well written John, TWO GOLD STARS ).

What are the odds of that happening?

I watched my Dad wrestle with the matter on his 320A NoMo farm from as early as I can remember till I flew the nest. It caused him no small amount of grief. In the early-mid 60s he let anyone hunt that wanted to. We maybe had 2-3 outings a year, gates got closed and quail got shared. by the late 60s a few more appeared, cousins, buddys, whatever of our neighbors. They asked and were permitted. Then someone must have written a piece in F&S about the really big deer in Macon county, and the floodgates opened. 5 trucks from parts unknown let themselves in before daylight one opening morning. Of course the gates were left open and our cattle were heading toward the highway. Dad blew a fuse. Then it was no access allowed. Period. Signs went up. Dad meant it. Pissed some people off. Softy that he was, after a year or two, Dad buckled in to our best neighbor. Life was better. Then some other neighbors jumped dad at the sale barn one day over "Why can Everrett go and we can't?" Dad said OK, go ahead. By the mid 70s the cousins and buddies started to reappear. Such is the cycle of life. The whole deal probably took a couple years of Dad's life in worry.

Nothing personal man, but I think anyone that enters a lock with 40-50 other boats fits the 'crazy' definition. :-)

Set ya up an offseason game camera on your traps. You won't believe the things you'll see...

I had lots of experience handling trout in frigid conditions when I was a trout farmer in the '90s. We shut down fishing activity in the winter, but maintained regular supply of our restaurant and fish market customers. Each customer had specific size requirements, so grading out the right fish for each batch required a fair amount of exposure to frigid air temps. I worried about frozen gills, but never experienced any mortality for that reason. I did however, have several fish that were exposed to sub-freezing air for 30 seconds or more then returned to the raceways that sustained eye damage. An opaque, white film was the telltale sign after a few days, and it was pretty obvious the affected fish were blind in one or both eyes.

Bluegill.

For sure.

Recent history reality check;

Get well soon!

The last plans sent thru the ADoH under the BP name were for the Little Rock store, so if there's anything in the works it's still in the budget/design/maybe phase.

I haven't been lately, but I recognize the symptoms. After the coming cool weekend, they should be piling up at all the major creek arm mouths in preparation for the push back the creeks. It's about to get real good...

Lunar gig boat.

Good eyes Quill. A little sleuthing in the FAA database yielded the following classics registered in Bentonville to the same LLC; 1944 NORTH AMERICAN/AERO CLASSICS P-51D MUSTANG (151JT) 1944 Fieseler Werke Fi-156-C7 Storch (1565F) 1944 Grumman F7F-3 TigerCat (7195C) 1945 VICKERS SUPERMARINE LTD SPITFIRE MK XVIII (969SM)

They're flown by some of the Walton boys out of the Bentonville airport. A P-51 for sure, among others. If you belong to the right crowd you can get an invite to ooh and ahh admiringly from the tarmac at their Friday evening wine soirees.

Cool! I make my own BBs too. Finding a local, cheap source of wire that was stiff enough to satisfy me was a challenge until I mowed over a little surveyor's flag one day. You can get a bundle of 100 at Home Depot for like $7. Yeah, they'll eventually rust, but I usually lose them way before that. If you have an old, torn-up cast net (and who doesn't?), strip the lead off for weights. Never again will I cringe or cry over losing a $2-3 BB.

That boat's often been in the right spot at the right time. All I question is the August part. 14s aren't caught every day, but it happens more often than you'd think. We just don't talk about it much...

Mine too. Have a copy of that one on the wall.