06-24-2011, 06:16 PM
In your opinion why were Walleye put in Salmon Dam in the first place? As fish go I would rate Walleye near bottom for the fight they put up. They do rank near the top for the table. If you think that they are a great fighting fish you need to try a 5 pound catfish.
You would be right over 4.5 million have been planted in the last 10 years. BUT in the last 20 years 16,024,080 have been planted. They are not being planted for a no harvest population. Walleye are being planted for a put and take not a put and grow. The F&G is already planting fish in there for the walleye to eat. If they all got to be BIG fish they would run out of feed and the population would crash. In my opinion the planting rates were cut in the second 10 years to blend better with the forage fish availability. It could be said that walleye wiped out Kokes, crappie, and for a while perch. The reduction in planting walleye might be one of the reasons we have a better perch population and a crappie population that seems to be holding on and maybe slightly improving. I am not saying every Walleye needs to be battered and fried in oil. I am saying that I don't think the current harvest affects that reservoir that much. Ice fishing is showing almost ZERO harvest. Again almost ZERO harvest happens until the water temp gets above 60 degrees. For a short time in the summer before the slime a lot of walleyes are caught and kept. The average fish last year was right at 14" maybe a little less. This year it looks like 16" to 18" is the new average. Maybe the lower planting rates and harvest is allowing more forage thus growing larger fish.
A lot goes into raising fish and I am no expert on Walleyes.
What I don't understand is the tournaments. They catch hundreds of fish and there has to be some mortality. They also dump them back into the lake but not where they came from. The stress of the tournaments could actually be doing more harm than the catch and keepers are doing. Ron
[signature]
You would be right over 4.5 million have been planted in the last 10 years. BUT in the last 20 years 16,024,080 have been planted. They are not being planted for a no harvest population. Walleye are being planted for a put and take not a put and grow. The F&G is already planting fish in there for the walleye to eat. If they all got to be BIG fish they would run out of feed and the population would crash. In my opinion the planting rates were cut in the second 10 years to blend better with the forage fish availability. It could be said that walleye wiped out Kokes, crappie, and for a while perch. The reduction in planting walleye might be one of the reasons we have a better perch population and a crappie population that seems to be holding on and maybe slightly improving. I am not saying every Walleye needs to be battered and fried in oil. I am saying that I don't think the current harvest affects that reservoir that much. Ice fishing is showing almost ZERO harvest. Again almost ZERO harvest happens until the water temp gets above 60 degrees. For a short time in the summer before the slime a lot of walleyes are caught and kept. The average fish last year was right at 14" maybe a little less. This year it looks like 16" to 18" is the new average. Maybe the lower planting rates and harvest is allowing more forage thus growing larger fish.
A lot goes into raising fish and I am no expert on Walleyes.
What I don't understand is the tournaments. They catch hundreds of fish and there has to be some mortality. They also dump them back into the lake but not where they came from. The stress of the tournaments could actually be doing more harm than the catch and keepers are doing. Ron
[signature]