# Walleye???



## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Just curious if anyone on hear has tried to stock walleye in a pond. We have a 3 acre pond. Average depth of 8ft. 14ft. at the deepest. Lots of rocks and boulders along the bottom. Pond is fed with 20 artesian springs. Have quite a few Perch that make it just fine in there. So that got us thinking. Could walleye make it in there? Water temp in the summer gets up to the low 80s high 70s. What do you guys think?


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## Doboy (Oct 13, 2008)

hello rod hawg,
Don't know for sure about your pond, but our sportsman club www.msacrystal.com has 5 small limestone strip quaries that we stock with just about everything!
We put in walleyes 10 or so years ago.
2 of the strips are 20' - 28' deep but they do get pretty warm, AND they are pits, which means that there is little to none water flow,,, some artesian inputs and one 6" siphon fill pipe, off a higher lake.
Not only are the large walleyes/ pikes/ (like sometimes 5#) alive & well 
but they are also spawning!!! Figerlings and hammer handles all over!!!
The board just WILL NOT STOCK MINNIES & or SHADS for bait! so they just don't have much girth. Still taste good! 
I'd say that as long as you keep the 'AIR' up during hot weather, & have some docks/ stumps/ trees for shade, that they just might live with all those spring water inputs that are +-56*.
If you go for it ,,,please let us know the outcome. I have other friends with 1 & 2 acre ponds that want to try the same thing. They were thinking sauger.


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Rod Hawg said:


> Just curious if anyone on hear has tried to stock walleye in a pond. We have a 3 acre pond. Average depth of 8ft. 14ft. at the deepest. Lots of rocks and boulders along the bottom. Pond is fed with 20 artesian springs. Have quite a few Perch that make it just fine in there. So that got us thinking. Could walleye make it in there? Water temp in the summer gets up to the low 80s high 70s. What do you guys think?


Try it!!! I have some in my pond and they have lived the last 4 years. My pond is 1/2 acre and 16' deep. People have told me they would't live but every year we catch them and they're bigger. My perch are doing great too.

I probably put 5lbs of minnows in the pond in the spring and another 10lbs in the fall to keep them healthy. The perch and all the other fish tear up the minnows also.

Good luck!!!


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Yeah. This pond has lots and lots of feed. Crappie, Golden Shiners, Perch, Giant Gills along with plenty of little Gills, and a few smaller Bass. It has around 20 underwater Christmas tree reefs that the Crappie and Perch hold off of. It doesn't have any docks but it does have some type of underwater pump we use to keep the oxygen up in the winter and summer. And it also has a large fountain out in the middle also. I've heard of walleye making it in deeper smaller ponds. This pond is quite large and pretty deep. The Perch due great also. So that keeps me confident. Gonna test how warm the water does get next year and see what happens. Might stock 10 smaller ones and see how they do. If they make it we'll stock it. If they die we won't.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Rod Hawg, as long as they are big enough that they don't get eaten, I don't see why your pond wouldn't keep walleye alive. 

Ideal temp range is 65-75 and they're tolerance range is 33-93 degrees.


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Yeah. They're used to be some huge catfish in there that we're the real predatory fish. Biggest one I got was 35in. 15lbs. They eventually just died off. Think of old age. They didn't reproduce and I caught only 1 all last year. The Bass are small. The Pan Fish have grown huge considering there aren't really any predatory fish. I'd rather have a abundant population of walleye than catfish anyday. How many would you stock???


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Small bass and big panfish hints at a predator overpopulation. Panfish tend to overpopulate before growing large so if this is true, lbs of walleye stocked would need to be offset in added forage and/or reduced predators. 10-20lbs per acre of walleye with the noted adjustments seems reasonable.


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Okay. There are a few large bass. But very few. I've only got one over 4lbs. in the last 5years. Lots of #s. Probably will take a few out this year. How big should the walleye be so they don't get eaten??? There is plenty of structure. Rock piles, Christmas trees, cattails for them to hide in.


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## JShort (Sep 16, 2011)

You should go on pondboss.com and ask the question. They are pond managment experts. From what I've read you can have them in most ponds, but they won't get as big as lakes. The walleye should be bigger than 1/3 the length of your largest bass. So if you caught a 4 lber (around 20 inches?) they should be 10 in. or bigger. I would also recommend taking out some bass if they are skinny, and all crappie that you catch. Good luck.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

The 1/3 body length of the bass guideline applies more to bluegill and like bodied forage, 1/2 is safer given a walleyes slender shape...I'd push the stocking size toward 12"+

Don't get your hopes up too much on growth, walleye just aren't an ideal pond fish.


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Think they could get up to 5lbs with proper feed and pond size???


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Anything is possible with good management and enough time and money.

All systems have limitations but your job as a pond manager is adjust parameters within the system to meet your goals.

It's kinda like building a motor. A stock Chevy 350 or Ford 302 isn't going to make 1000HP just by adding 115 octane fuel. You're going to have to swap out some parts to do so, sacrificing fuel mileage and probably drivability and longevity. Well, I guess you could slap on a huge nitrous system and make a 1000hp....for a few seconds anyway. 

Oftentimes, these adjustments require compromise and sacrificing something to gain something.

Depending on how many 5 LB walleye you want. You might have to drastically reduce bass, crappie and perch, 300 pounds in a pond your size wouldn't be out of the question and this would be ongoing for at least several years and/or you may have to stock large amounts of forage. It will be challenging in a 3 acre pond with a lot of competing species, unless your goal is only a few 5lbers.


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

We had Channel Cats in there a couple years ago. They kinda died out. Stocked them when we dug the lake around 25 years ago. Anyway. We had 40 put in there and they were huge!!! Smallest fish I got we're 5lbs. and I got one at 15lbs. 35in. Now that they're out of there we we're thinkin of the walleye thing. The Bass have never done good but the Gills, Crappie, and Perch are huge. I got a 14in. Perch 2 years ago, a 14in. Crappie last summer on the fly rod, and a 13 1/4in. Gill 2 years ago. Lots of baitfish... Shiners and Fatheads and smaller gills and crappie.


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## StumpHawg (May 17, 2011)

Walleye and saugeye were a failure in my pond after years of trying. I would recomend only black crappie with bluegills and bass in a pond setting. Channel catfish ok but no shovelheads. Hope this helps because of my trials and errors. Good Luck


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

StumpHawg said:


> Walleye and saugeye were a failure in my pond after years of trying. I would recomend only black crappie with bluegills and bass in a pond setting. Channel catfish ok but no shovelheads. Hope this helps because of my trials and errors. Good Luck


 
Did you have Perch in your pond??? Just curious. We've had jumbos in ours for years. And they do great. We've pulled some 14s out of there before. Thought Walleye would make it if the Perch could


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## StumpHawg (May 17, 2011)

No, I never tried stocking perch.


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

We've got quite a bit of Perch in there. Thought the walleye could make it since the perch do so good


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Rod Hawg, the key to this is simply that walleye just don't do well in ponds and if you want to, be prepared for far more of an investment than just dumping some in. Attempts to grow them commercially in ponds has been unsuccessful with studies showing low survival rates (less than half at best usually far worse) and slow growth even when fed high quality high protein diets. Pellet feeding isn't really an option as once they've tasted fish they'd rather starve than eat artificial feed so It is likely that it would take many years for a walleye to reach 5lbs.

Walleye do not compete well with other species in most Ohio lakes, it will be far tougher in a pond. You have a lot of fish eaters, bass, crappie, perch and maybe some remaining catfish that will all be lined up at the trough before the walleye and the bluegill will be cleaning up the scraps.

You can possibly grow some nice walleyes but it will no doubt be challenging and the most practical approach likely will require sacrificing the existing fish population and starting from scratch and IMO the resulting pond simply won't be much fun to fish.

Here's a couple of links
http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/aquaculture/mn_walleye_culture

Scroll 1/4 of the way down this page for the OSU study
http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=58564


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## Rod Hawg (Jan 13, 2011)

Thanks for the pointers!!! We'd probably stock it in the fall


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