# Why are walleye not being stocked in WB?



## morrison.inc (Jun 8, 2010)

Ok so, walleyes produce naturally in west branch by themselves, not in massive numbers, but semi respectable. Walleye are a HUUUGE part of fishing in ohio! We live in the walleye capitol of the world after all. So heres my question... Why would ODNR choose to NOT stock this lake with walleye? Seems like a perfect candidate to me, but im no fish biologist. More people fish for eyes than musky (and im not trying to bash the ski's guys). I just dont get it. More food for the ski's which will make em fatter, and more fun for the walleye fisherman! That would be an awesome lake to target eyes in! So many holes, flats, and structure everywhere! 

Same goes for the stripers... Why on earth would you stop stocking them? If you put a game fish in a lake that can grow up to 50lbs, people WILL target that species. Just put enough of em in so thats its actually WORTH targeting them!!! Plus, stripers are tasty! I know guys that used to pick them up while trolling for musky in the late 90's. Thats makes it more fun to have a chance of catching multiple gamefish instead of the same thing over and over and over again. Which still can be fun, but if i pulled up a 20 or 30 lb striper while musky fishing, i would pretty satisfied also.


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

I was told recently by someone who's opinion I respect that they have begun stocking walleye at West Branch again. I know they stopped some years ago but he said they started doing it again. Anyone know if this is the case or was my friend mistaken?


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## steely123 (May 17, 2004)

I heard that as well. walleye r being stocked at WB again.


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

That's a fact,John,(All eyes),, there has been a restocking,program,(Walleye restocking),Which,, I HIGHLY approve of!!!! Love that lake!) at W.B. for the past 2 years now ... Maybe "Whaler",, will see this thread & give more info, He has a "line" with Phil Hillman,& knows a lot on the subject........ & W.B.,in general..Where 'ya at Jim??? ----->>>>>sonar<<<<<-----


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

Thanks Vince. That's the same report that I have heard. I used to fish WB quite a bit but slowly tapered off when the numbers of walleye got depleted. Now I hit Berlin a lot instead. WB also used to be good for striped bass and there were some real tanks in there. Probably still are??? I know it's a great musky lake. It's been a few years since I've fished there.


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

i think there are far more eyes in wb than people think, plus a variety of sizes i,ve seen at least a half doz. small 9-13 in eyes caught from shore this yr. plus bigger ones so it,s on the comeback which is a good thing ,i,m glad to see it..


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Walleye are being stocked at WB.(and thank goodness there is a 15" size limit on them) .
They stopped stocking stripers because the DNR said "there is no return on the effort and expense"!! People were catching them, but did not make it known! A classic case of "no news becomes BAD news "!! Also, they got very hard for the DNR to acquire. We targeted them in the early 90s and did fairly well. We 'd take any we wanted to keep over to WB Bait and get pics taken that ran in the Wretched Courier on Sunday but a couple pics were not enough to keep the program. There are likely very few, if any, remaining. They would have to be 20 years or so old. And yes, stripers are excellent eating.


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## jmay (Jun 12, 2012)

We caught 2 walleyes over 15inches while casting for crappie earlier this spring. I may do some trolling for them since the crappie have shut down!


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

West Branch is being managed as a Trophy Muskie Lake. Stripers eat like machines and were eating most of the baitfish in the lake and the Muskies were beginning to show this by becoming skinnier than they should have been at the lengths and ages they were. 
To keep this a trophy Muskie fishery with quality Muskies the state stopped stocking Stripers and Wipers. The shad population was way down so it had to be able to get back to good numbers.
I and some of my fishing friends began hounding the state to put a size limit on Walleyes out there as we discovered they were reproducing to a certain extent naturally. After two or three years of bugging Phil Hillman and doing creel census and electro shocking Phil and his fellow biologists finally saw that we knew what we were talking about. 
After submitting a proposal to the wildlife council to put a 15 inch minimum size limit on Walleye in West Branch they agreed and this past March a 15 inch size limit for Walleyes was imposed on West Branch. I personally think they should have a 15 inch size limit on Walleye in Mosquito also.
Along with the size limit 262,000 Walleye fingerlings were stocked to help supplemnet that species in West Branch. They didn't say they would be stocking more in the near future but they may.
To show how much Stripers eat, here is an example. While I was in the Navy my home port was Charleston South Carolina. When I had time off I would fish for Largmouth and learned how to catch Stripers there on Santee Cooper Reservoir. One day my buddy and I were catching Stripers using 10 inch live herring for bait which was standard practice in the Spring after the fish returned to the lake from spawning. I caught a 19 pounder which had four of those herring in its stomach and then took mine. So you can see how several thousand 15 or 20 pound Stripers could easily wipe out a lot of baitfish in a lake as small as West Branch. Think about all the other fish in the lake feeding too and your losing a terrific amount of baitfish.
Another reason the state lost interest in stocking Stripers here too was that back maybe twenty years ago commercial fishermen had nearly wiped out the Stripers in Cheapeake Bay. Chesapeake Bay is the largest Striper spwaning area on the east coast. To help rebuild the Striper population there the Feds asked the states that had Striper programs to hatch Stripers and send them for stocking in the Bay. Ohio was one of the states and did so. I don't know how many we sent but we were part of that program. I think most of those fish were hatched at the Senneca Hatchery. If you have any questions about this call Phil Hillman and ask him about it. 330-644-2293.
I have a book call Catching Freshwater Stripers by Pete Elkins. In it, it states that a school of Stripers will swim twenty miles in a day feeding in a freshwater lake. So you can get an idea of how many baitfish could be eaten by schools of Stripers in West Branch. I don't think many other species of game fish will do that in a fresh water lake like West Branch.


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

Great info Whaler! Didn't realize stripers covered that much water and ate quite so much. I just remember back in the late 80's and early 90's there were some real line peelers in there. It's kinda like snagging a jet ski! 
Do you happen to know the current state of striper activity in Seneca Lake? That also used to be an excellent striper fishery but haven't ventured down there in many years. I've been thinking a lot about doing some striper fishing lately. 
Also glad you had a hand in the 15" eye limit at WB. I myself would like it to become a state wide regulation including saugeye as well. Unless there is a reason as to why it would hurt that I'm not aware of? Eyes have very little meat on them until they reach 15" or 3 years anyways.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

It's supposed to be a 5 year trial program starting in 2010. It was delayed one year due to hatchery problems so last year was the first. I haven't heard if it was stocked this year or not.

My friend caught a 36" striper while muskie fishing with me two years ago. I know of another guy that caught a much larger one last year. It's hard to believe there are any left as they would have to have reproduced at some point or be over twenty years old. Makes me wonder how a striper that is only 36" is in there.


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

So they used to stock stripers AND wipers in there?


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

fishinnick said:


> So they used to stock stripers AND wipers in there?


Not together. When the state stopped the striper stocking, all the guys who were catching(and not reporting them) raised quite an outcry! To suave these guys, the state started stocking wipers-which were readily available and would not reproduce-and the state said they would be "just as good a game fish"(typically growing into the teens or more in weight!) as the stripers. They ARE NOT "just as good" as stripers-IMO!


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

All Eyes, I don't know the current status of stripers in Senneca but it was and probably still is used as the lake for brood stock for stripers in the hatchery there.

As for Saugeye in West Branch I had told Phil Hillman there were Saugeye in West Branch and that we were catching one now and then. He doubted me since they hadn't stocked any since 92 if I remember right. The night I went electro shocking with him for young of the year Walleye "he was amazed." His exact words were " I'm amazed." I asked why and while looking at the first six inch walleye we shocked up he said " there's Saugeye in this fish." I asked him how this could be as hybrids aren't supposed to reproduce and he said "they can back cross. A male Saugeye can back cross with a female Walleye." So there are things happenning in nature that even the "Experts" aren't aware of.

The last Striper I saw out there was in 2006 when I was fighting a 39 inch Muskie to the boat and a Striper about the same size was swimming next to it hoping to get the monster shad out of its mouth. The last Wiper I caught out there was about ten years ago on a chrome Hot N Tot.


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## johnboy111711 (Apr 7, 2004)

great informative thread. about 3 years ago I caught a saugeye from WB. it was around 20". struck me as strange that they hadn't stocked them in quite some time.


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## mishmosh (Jul 22, 2007)

I don't know what all the fuss is about Musky. Stock them at the known Musky lakes like Leesville or Clear Fork but bring the stripers and walleye back to the other lakes. You want to talk about productivity? Most muskies of size are caught only ONCE. Scientists are studying the cause of this but I suspect that most eventually die shortly after a long struggle with a fisherman--even if you see it manage to swim off.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

mishmosh said:


> I don't know what all the fuss is about Musky. Stock them at the known Musky lakes like Leesville or Clear Fork but bring the stripers and walleye back to the other lakes. You want to talk about productivity? Most muskies of size are caught only ONCE. Scientists are studying the cause of this but I suspect that most eventually die shortly after a long struggle with a fisherman--even if you see it manage to swim off.


Well I think you are a little misinformed. I catch quite a few of them that have obviously been caught before and who knows how many not too obvious ones. Just a week ago I caught one that had a fresh mark on the opposite side of its jaw from where my lure was located. A lot of them die due to getting completely played out on walleye or bass gear though. It takes too long to land them with lighter gear. The ODNR is starting an extensive ten year tagging program to help find out just how many times a muskie is caught or what happens to them. Three lakes are also getting electronic chips put in the muskies with readers being provided to the five most successful fisherman on that particular lake in addition to a scanner that will detect any washing through the dam into the spillways.


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## mishmosh (Jul 22, 2007)

MadMac said:


> Well I think you are a little misinformed. I catch quite a few of them that have obviously been caught before and who knows how many not too obvious ones. Just a week ago I caught one that had a fresh mark on the opposite side of its jaw from where my lure was located. A lot of them die due to getting completely played out on walleye or bass gear though. It takes too long to land them with lighter gear. The ODNR is starting an extensive ten year tagging program to help find out just how many times a muskie is caught or what happens to them. Three lakes are also getting electronic chips put in the muskies with readers being provided to the five most successful fisherman on that particular lake in addition to a scanner that will detect any washing through the dam into the spillways.


I already read about the tagging and the single catch phenomenon:

Plain Dealer:
_
The Clear Fork Reservoir muskie fishing is rated at the top in Ohio, and might be even better if fisheries experts can figure out why muskies swimming here are seldom caught more than once. 

The muskie statistics at Clear Fork show only 13 percent of muskies were caught more than once. About 3 percent are caught three times. Only 1 percent were caught four times.

"We're starting a 10-year study in 2013, putting T-bar tags near the dorsal fin of every young muskie we'll put in Clear Fork," said fisheries biologist Kevin Page at the Inland Fisheries Unit in Hebron. "We release fish with the hope they'll be caught again and again by sport fishermen, so it's important for us to understand what's happening."

Muskies could be escaping over the Clear Fork Reservoir dam, or dying of stress after being caught and released during the hot summer months.

At the same time, fisheries experts will be inserting PIT (passive integrated responder) tags into the muskies being released at Alum Creek, Leesville and Salt Fork reservoirs. Special electronic units will be able to detect the small tags in the muscles of fish, whether they're kept by fishermen or if the muskies swim over the dam in their home lakes._


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

I had also read an article a couple of years ago (probably on here) about saugeye back-crossing and successfully reproducing. It made it sound like no one saw it coming. Interesting stuff. Thanks again for the great info!


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## fishinnick (Feb 19, 2011)

Definately interesting info. I wonder if hybrids could back cross with white bass?


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

To be able to immediately detect the half saugeye in a 6" specimen is knowing your stuff. There are so many variations of each species as far as coloration at certain times it's crazy. From walleye with dark blotches and bars to golden saugeye. What gives them away? Or rather what distinguishing feature immediately stands out that exposes the saugeye? 
The way I've always identified a saugeye is either simply by what body of water I am fishing, or the spots on the dorsal fin. Then again, I have seen spotted walleye dorsal fins also. They both have (or can have) the white spot on the tail as well. 
I'm not very up on the subject. I just know they both taste delicious! Probably read it on here before, but my memory is shot.


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## Whaler (Nov 16, 2004)

Mishmosh apparently you haven't been very well informed on Muskies in West Branch. West Branch IS one of the KNOWN MUSKIE LAKES ! West Branch is one of what was nine of the KNOWN MUSKIE LAKES in Ohio. I was on the executive board of The Ohio huskie Muskie Club so I know a little bit of what the plans are for Muskies in Ohio. West Branch is definitely a KNOWN MUSKIE LAKE.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

Yeah, I don't know who wrote that article you (Mishmosh) pasted from the Plain Dealer but Clear Fork is not the top muskie lake in Ohio. It's usually Leesville. WB is third or fourth most of the time.


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## heidlers (May 24, 2010)

MadMac said:


> Yeah, I don't know who wrote that article you (Mishmosh) pasted from the Plain Dealer but Clear Fork is not the top muskie lake in Ohio. It's usually Leesville. WB is third or fourth most of the time.


Steve, while I agree with you regarding WB, Leesville, etc., the article Mishmosh referred to was front page of the Sports/GreatOutdoors section of the CPD on 6/16/12. Actually have it sitting in front of me as I type....adjacent article was also a big plug for Fred Lederer & Ziggie Obidzinski (Ziggie Lures)


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

This is a picture of some walleye my dad and I caught at West Branch a few years ago. Notice the bite mark on the walleye at the top of the picture. That particular walleye was 19" long. The bite mark was close to 5" at its' widest point. 

I looked at ODNR's website for their rankings of Musky lakes here in Ohio. Surprising to me is the fact that West Branch wasn't ranked in the top 6 (their rankings only go to 6) of reported musky catches over the past 5 years. I assume they are averaging the catches to arrive at their rankings, so West Branch may have cracked the top 6 for one of those years. And of course those are for reported catches. I know I've personally caught quite a few musky while bass fishing at West Branch that I have never reported. One was a 44" beauty. I also know there is, or was one in there better than 50". I raised her up by the north corner of the dam about 5 years ago while throwing crankbaits for smallies. (there's nothing like watching a log follow your crankbait back to the boat lol) I got a real good look at her as she lay about 5 feet from the boat for close to a minute before she drifted back out of sight. I didn't put the "big eye" on her either..... this fish was a behemoth.........far bigger than the 44" fish that I caught.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

This is the 44" fish I caught. I got her on a spinnerbait while using heavy bass tackle so I got her in pretty quick, but I'm sad to say that I dropped her while trying to hold it to get the picture taken. That's why you can see the blood by her gills. I released the fish and she swam off pretty quickly and with a lot of power so I assume it survived. At least I pray that it did. I no longer have pictures taken while holding a musky. If I take a picture, I take it of them in the water. I'm just not experienced enough in holding a fish that big without being afraid of hurting it.


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## MadMac (May 2, 2005)

Bassme, there are some real hogs in WB but they are smart. I caught a 51" in 2010 and two 50" or more were caught last year. I know of one this year so far.

Heidlers, I'm not saying the article wasn't printed at all. I'm saying that just because it was in the paper doesn't make it true. I don't have the time to go back five years but here are the stats from last year taken from the MAL.

Leesville - 614 caught with 4 50" or over.
WB - 396 caught with 2 50" or over.
Alum - 273 caught with 0 50".
Piedmont- 218 caught with 2 50" or over.
Clear Fork - 70 caught with 0 50".

I have seen the ODNR's rankings and I believe they got it screwed up some how. Probably have a clerk or web guy that doesn't know any better doing it. Trust me, if Clear Fork was one of the best in the state I would know about it. lol


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## sonar (Mar 20, 2005)

For your info,Guys,,& don't take me wrong,I'm not "cutti'n anyones smarts here,but,, YOU WOULD BE WISE,,, to take Steve's postings to heart,, he knows about W.B.'s Muskies,if only as one the of best authorities out there,,He puts his dedicated time in there,along with a few others that have just recently posted here,, on this thread,&,take advantage of the knowledge that is being given..........I think anyone who catches as many BIG fish as he does,might be worth a 'lil more careful look??IMO.......... ----->>>>>sonar<<<<<-----


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## LindyRigger (Apr 13, 2004)

Agree with you Sonar.
LindyRigger


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