Crappie, 10-7

[MoCarp]

10 hours ago, straw hat said:

Hey MoCarp

I really liked your post and the comment on the river strain of walleye. I fully agree. I have had talked with some of the fishery biologists and they say they have no knowledge of them ever being stocked in Stockton and a couple said there was no such thing as river run walleye. That is quite remarkable because I worked on a river run walleye strain when I got my Master's in Fishery Biology. I have searched on the internet though and can find no reference to this bit of history. I am glad you mentioned it. I was beginning to think I was nuts (which I probably am!!)

There is a difference, I’d like to see more DNA work done....when Stockton was 1st impounded the walleye that lived in the river got huge...up until they started stocking current strain, a few monsters would show up 13 or 14 pounds...typically an accidental catch by a bass angler...about 8 pounds biggest I’ve heard in the last decade or two...fish are more bass shaped deeper heavier, the spawned earlier normally done by the Second week of February...powersite used to have the fish to challenge a world record late 90s early 2000s have not heard of a high teen in a number of years...wished they still has no BFing close to the dam...more than a few poached walleyes...bigger fish like the biggest common carp don’t hang around there anymore Back in the day took a 15 or better walleye to get attention....

[MoCarp]

5 hours ago, jdmidwest said:

I thought they were all "river strains".  That is where the walleye in this state came from, Mississippi or Missouri River drainages. The have been raised and stocked since then to replenish, but the brood stocks were caught from streams.

MDC Walleye River Program

Never gave it a thought about where the lake ones came from.

I remember some lake spawn northern walleyes were acquired from a northern state traded for turkeys if I remember back in the 80s to take advantage of more spawning habitat available....they found that shocking fish at the dam caused fish to abandon spawning and they then decided to stock mass quantities About then....I also think an effort to enhance LMB fishing like stocking copper nose bluegills more brush piles hurt the SMB fishery....smallies are not near as common as they were in the 80s

[straw hat]

Interesting conversation. First of all thanks to JD for the information on the MDC program. The interesting thing to me was that the Chesapeake hatchery walleyes are the Black River strain genetic strain which can be quite large. I have to assume that these are the strain that are in Stockton as I know that the stockings come from Chesapeake.  I am also glad to see MoCarps note on the northern lake strain variety introduced in the 80's. I am glad to see that it wasn't just my imagination. Thanks for the info guys.

[MrGiggles]

Do these different strains have a different coloration?

I've caught some that are lighter colored and splotchy, more like Sauger, and others that are very dark, like the one that got arrowed in MoCarp's photos. Maybe the older fish are darker, or it has something to do with water clarity, I don't know.

[MoCarp]

15 hours ago, MrGiggles said:

Do these different strains have a different coloration?

I've caught some that are lighter colored and splotchy, more like Sauger, and others that are very dark, like the one that got arrowed in MoCarp's photos. Maybe the older fish are darker, or it has something to do with water clarity, I don't know.

I think so...seems the northern strain has bigger heads as well...they act different...seem to use more wood cover and don’t school as heavy, but think that’s more a smaller recruiting YOY situation....

https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2018-08/missouri’s-weird-walleye

[MrGiggles]

8 hours ago, MoCarp said:

I think so...seems the northern strain has bigger heads as well...they act different...seem to use more wood cover and don’t school as heavy, but think that’s more a smaller recruiting YOY situation....

https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2018-08/missouri’s-weird-walleye

I think historically I have caught more of the lighter colored fish, but the 20+ inchers are pretty much always the dark ones. 

[terryj1024]

Back before they dammed up the Osage river basin, It used to have an amazing natural spawn  For walleye.  They would run out of the Missouri river into the Osage river basin to spawn. I wonder what What type of walleye Those are. And before the White River was dammed ,.What would that have been

[olfishead]

I'm Not sure of where the Broodstock walleye are collected now, but a few years ago, and for several on consecutive years, they were all collected below Truman Dam, which are lake of the Ozarks fish that originated from the Missouri River basin. I was never in favor of dropping the length limit on eyes from 18" to 15". The main reason for that was that eyes  (larger than 18") rarely showed up in angler's creel, so that stocking walleye was producing very few "take home fish" according to creel census information.  The options included 1. Lowering the LL  2. Stop stocking eyes. My opinion, at that time, was that a 16" LL would allow more fish to be harvested, a better quality fish and would better justify stockings. But, the Conservation Dept. was, and still is, committed to keeping regulations as simple and uniform as possible while keeping with the criteria of good biological science and public cost/benefit. So a 15" LL was implemented because it aligned with the existing 15" black bass LL, and met the above criteria. Although extensive surveys were done in the 70's, we still were uncertain where those fish were going, ie; natural mortality, illegal harvest, un-documented harvest, etc.  However,  I think nowadays anglers are much proficient at catching eyes than at that time. So, maybe it's time to re-evaluate this regulation and involve walleye anglers in this effort, similar the the Show-me Muskie project on the muskie lakes.

A little history,, sorry for the long post, Hope this helps.

[Lifes2Short]

Was back up again yesterday, 47 shorts and not one keeper crappie. It’s crazy what a difference one year can make.....I blame it on Covid, like I do everything else this year. 😳

[MOPanfisher]

Big fish are older, thus they are wearing masks so they don't cath covid, can't bite with a mask on.