walleye

[bfishn]

 

Good to see you back PD! It seems like I read somewhere that a northern strain of lake walleye were introduced to Stockton back in the day, in hopes of creating lake spawning walleye that wouldn't require the yearly harvesting of eggs for stocking hatchery raised fish for eternity. I believe the thought was that the native river walleye didn't spawn successfully due to the change of their native spawning habitat as a result of damming the rivers. Over the years, maybe too many of the big native Sac River fish have been harvested and enjoyed as table fare, and the majority of the fish now shocked up for egg collection are more genetically linked to the non-native northern fish? I'm thinking maybe they just picked the wrong lakes to harvest those initial non-native stocked fish. Wonder what would have happened if the MDC would have initially collected fry from places that produce huge walleye like Lake Erie or The Bay of Quinte back in the day? Feel free to chime in here bfishin!

WM

+1 on having PD back!

I’ve not studied Stockton as much as the White River chain, but your thoughts are pretty close to mine on the subject. The existence of giant southern strain river walleyes has been debated in more than a few fisheries meetings, and has been the driver of world record dreams for many a walleye angler. I’ve spent a lot of years freezing my tail off chasing that rainbow myself. I saw one by my stern light one night that I’m sure would have been at the record mark if not way beyond. I’m not even going to say how long it was, because no one here would believe it. That fish and most of the 10+ lbers I’ve caught were from the boundary lakes (TR & BS) that are stocked by both MDC & AGFC. Up until the last ~15 years or so, AGFC strictly stocked TR & BS from Greers Ferry broodstock, the only isolated WR watershed reservoir that had never been stocked with non-native walleye. Nowdays the Charlie Craig Hatchery gathers eggs and stocks fingerlings from TR tribs too. MDC has historically stocked from multiple sources (some from northern states) in the same reservoirs. While natural recruitment here is considered poor at best, it only takes a few ‘furriners’ to muddy up the gene pool, and we’ve been stirring up that mud for more than 50 years now.

Kentucky is claiming some success with southern strain walleye obtained from a relatively overlooked tributary of the Cumberland. Time will tell.

Since we built dams and stocked non-native genetics decades before we had affordable methods to determine if there were genetic variances, the gene pool we have today is mostly a varied mix. I don’t believe we’ll ever really know if the legendary giant southern walleye of days gone by ever really existed or not.

That doesn’t stop me from believing in them. :-)

[Smithvillesteve]

Could you run that by me one more time?

[powerdive]

Thanks Mike and B. We discussed the genetics thing pretty well with a 300 or 400 post monster thread over on the Upper Bull forum about 4 years ago or so. That was a fun conversation.

Not sure I'm a believer in the "southern strain." Certainly it's not as big a deal as northern and Florida strain largemouths. Quebec's record is like 22-4. The Columbia River, various Western reservoirs, Lake Tobin in Saskatchewan, etc. have all produced fish around 20 lbs. I think environment has more to do with fish growth than genetics.

At any rate, Stockton is managed for put-n-take. With more fish being stocked, and more keepers being harvested due to increased angler interest and knowledge, it seems Stockton is developing a more traditional size range profile, with quite a few more fish in the 20's (inches) than there ever have been. To me, that's a good thing. If it keeps trending that way (and the forage base holds), we should see more 30 inchers show up as the years go by. Assuming the once-a-year meat hogs don't yank 'em all in February and March.

[Walcrabass]

Powerdive,

  Gotta say something on the size of the Walleye, or other fish for that matter. When you lower the length limit for a certain fish you also lower the PERCENTAGE of the fish over that previous length in the lake. Obviously with Walleye tasting so good when most people catch them that are legal length they are pulled from the lake and put into the frying pan. Hence that particular fish stops growing. ( Actually they shrink in the pan a little) This is all fine and dandy as it is legal.

 I am remembering back some 35 years when I fished for Walleye a lot more than I do today. The length limit was 18". I caught many, many, many fish over 20" and a bunch over 24". I also caught one that was 31.5". Along with that I have to say that I caught very few fish back then that would not measure the 18".

Nowadays when I fish Stockton and catch a Walleye ( by accident as I don't fish for them anymore ) it is likely that it will fall between 14 and 17".

Please include in this logic Crappie and Bass. I believe we missed a perfect opportunity to raise the length on the Crappie to 11" and then on to 12" starting back about 5 years ago. There were plenty of 10+ inchers in the lake. Plenty of food too.

I understand they lowered the length on the Walleye as they thought too many were dying. Probably so as hot grease is pretty hard on them.

Just my personal observations.

Wallenheimer

 

 

 

[powerdive]

WCB, I arrived and started fishing Stockton in '98, so that's as far back as my experience can take me. However, just about everybody then told me that for years while the limit was 18", they caught tons of 17" but few over 18". That's about all I know on that, so if I've made some erroneous assumptions, I apologize. My walleye mentor was John Estes, a crotchety old lake rat and self-proclaimed walleye-hugger who refused to keep any caught eyes. He fished from a "tub," a big old Lund Tyee with an Evinrude, that he painted dull gray later on. That guy won quite a few walleye tourneys on Stockton...invented the Glyde Ryde suspensions for boat seats and marketed them to PWT pros...maybe you know him? John's had a stroke and can hardly ever get out fishing anymore, which just about sucks the life out of him. Pretty sad. Nobody ever loved Stockton walleyes more than he does.

[Moflash]

The lake is stocked with approx 150,000 to 300,000 fingerlings 1-2 inches on a annual basis now and in years past it was every other year.

Normal 1 year survival rate is 1%........So 1500 to 3000 make it to 1year in the lake.Fishing pressure has increased dramatically for Walleyes in Stockton lake along with the increase in Canadian Cormorants by the thousands on our lake(those large flocks of black birds that look like ducks that you see everywhere on the lake).The Cormorants gorge themselves on fish eggs and then target the fingerlings Walleye being their food of preference,these deep diving birds devour the future stock in large numbers.

If the stocking program is not increased to a realistic level the future of our Walleye population is in jeopardy.

[dan hufferd]

 

The lake is stocked with approx 150,000 to 300,000 fingerlings 1-2 inches on a annual basis now and in years past it was every other year.

Normal 1 year survival rate is 1%........So 1500 to 3000 make it to 1year in the lake.Fishing pressure has increased dramatically for Walleyes in Stockton lake along with the increase in Canadian Cormorants by the thousands on our lake(those large flocks of black birds that look like ducks that you see everywhere on the lake).The Cormorants gorge themselves on fish eggs and then target the fingerlings Walleye being their food of preference,these deep diving birds devour the future stock in large numbers.

If the stocking program is not increased to a realistic level the future of our Walleye population is in jeopardy.

I guess I will have to start shooting, comorants from the boat. Sounds like a good hillbilly sport...I wonder if they are good to eat??

[Walcrabass]

Moflash,

 

   How about we increase the DE-STOCKING of the Cormorants?? Other than something nice to see occasionally ( occasionally is the key word here ) I see them as a huge problem to small fish.

 

Wally

[Johnsfolly]

 

I guess I will have to start shooting, comorants from the boat. Sounds like a good hillbilly sport...I wander if they are good to eat??

 

 

Moflash,

 

   How about we increase the DE-STOCKING of the Cormorants?? Other than something nice to see occasionally ( occasionally is the key word here ) I see them as a huge problem to small fish.

 

Wally

You just need to train them to catch the walleye for you guys, then convince the MDC to lower the cormorant caught length limit to 3-4 inches and daily catch to 50 per day. Then you would just need about 30-40 fish to make a nice meal. 

[ckjacks]

Cormorants are the next snow geese. They are overpopulated and causing some major destruction at Reelfoot lake in TN. 

http://archive.commercialappeal.com/sports/outdoors/cormorants-killing-reelfoot-lakes-famed-cypress-trees-357b3ef6-02e7-5ac9-e053-0100007f3dd1-383525171.html