Pymatuning article on Walleye population

Thanks for the article. Good to know.

Ahhh No wonder why the numbers are so low, they went to Pymatuning in Butler County!!!  I guess the biologists don't check their own reports?? 

I talked with Dr. Austen personally a few weeks ago, and he said the same thing as the Ohio report.  The zooplankton that they need has virtually dissapeared, they are not sure why yet but that is the focus of all the research now.  Without it they will not have a viable walleye population.

and after 129.5 million fry/fingers in 16 years, nice try, but that's not helping the walleye numbers either...  It's not a problem that can be fixed guys, it's the irreversible effects of biology.  Pymatuning just doesn't have what it takes to support the walleye fishery you guys believe it can anymore.  It used to, but it sure can't anymore, unless you get rid of all of the other fish that are removing the zooplankton.  From the Journal of American Fisheries Science..."Our results demonstrate the importance of zooplankton abundance and size composition for survival and growth of larval walleyes."  If there are too many fish feeding on one source of food, the one that is less aggressive loses, and it just happens to be walleye in this lake.  The only way I could see a better survival rate for walleye in Pymatuning would be if the fish they stocked were large enough to survive on other sources of food. 

Rumor has it that fingerlings are being stocked this year instead of fry Dealin' in an attempt to do what you are correctly suggesting.

I am still not sure I buy this zooplankton b.s. entirely because if you think about it, even the species that naturally reproduce in the lake: bass, sunfish, perch, crappies, etc. ALL feed on zooplankton at some point in there life cycle, especially when young.  If the perch are "booming" as the article states and the rest of these populations are in good shape, how are they getting to maturity?

IT'S THE ALEWIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Stock the S&%T out of hybrid striped bass (wipers) for a few years to DECIMATE the younger Alewife population and then quit stocking them.  They are a sterile cross and, ergo, do not reproduce.  Once the adult stocks die...
 
NO MORE HYBRIDS to compete with other high end predators for biomass.
 

 

Wonder why the crappie, largemouth, and smallmouth populations are doing good and walleye are not?
 
I've said this before, Pymie has turned into a better bass lake than walleye lake. I don't target walleyes much anymore but in my teenage years I fished it with a friend and his dad, it was not uncommon to catch 50-75 walleyes in a day but very few were legal.
 
The bass population is awesome, don't bass fry rely on the same forage as walleye fry?

Used to catch them at the dam this time of year.  0. Catch all the fish at the spillway then what?

i'm with you matt.  if anything, the explosion of alewifes are probably feeding also on the zoo and phytoplankton.

lol.

Thanks for the ZP lesson Musky. 
 
However, I am still confused.  The majority of walleyes in the lake were artificially introduced (stocked) in the lake and therefore the PFBC and to what degree Ohio is responsible for stockings control the date of entry into the watershed.  If they are so interested in increasing the walleye population, couldn't they just hold the fry/fingerlings longer for the eyes to predate a different type of ZP???

rapala 111 you are correct about the alewife problen the feed primarily on plankton. back home in ct we had 6 lakes that had awesome kokanee salmon fishing throughout the 70s and 80s then some bucket biologist introduced alewives into 5 of the 6 lakes well guess what happend in 3 years the salmon population CRASHED!!!!!! alewives sure they are great forage but, if a species feeds primarily on plankton throughout there life like kokanee,or like walleye at the fry stage only disastarous results will occur,on the bright side though the ct state record brown was broken 5 times in 4 years.

yeah 11 without alewives in the lake the walleye would possibly eat a lions share of the plankton needed for that particular growth cycle,then on to a fish diet but that fry -plankton ratio for walleye i believe is very criucial.

Problem with holding fry is money, they get expensive to feed in a hurry.  Here is some cool stuff.......
 
"

What are the stages of the walleye?

Lead a discussion of the life stages of the walleye. 1. Egg.

a. Walleye eggs are 1.8 to 2.5 diameter, and readily stick to each other and to any object when

they are freshly spawned.

b. A large female can produce over 50,000 eggs each season.

c. The time it takes the eggs to hatch is temperature dependent. They may takeover three weeks at

7°C as little a 10 days at 15°C.

2. Larvae.

a. The larvae of waleye are 5.5-7.5 mm long when they hatch. They begin feeding between the 5th

and 10th day post-hatch and will starve by 14 days post-hatch if food is not available, unless the

temperature is below 50°F

b. The larvae eat copepods and cladocerans, types of zooplankton (and brine shrimp and some

formulated feeds when cultured intensively in the nursery) during the first few weeks following

stocking. They also have a tendency to eat each other when less than 20 days old.

c. Larval walleye are phototactic meaning they swim towards light. This may facilitate inflation of the

gas bladder as Iarvae must gulp air from the surface to inflate their gas bladder during their first

week post-hatch.

3. Juvenile (fingering).

a. The juvenile stage is defined as the stage of life after the fish resembles the adult but prior to

sexual maturity.

b. For walleye fingerlings to be stocked at high densities and cultured to food size, they must be

trained to eat artificial feed. Research is being done on this very important aspect of walleye

culture. The success of this research has been increasing rapidly.
 
 
In an interesting side note, my dad got to stock muskies with pfbc on pymy last year.  He said that if the let the fry out in open water the seagulls hammered  at leas 75% of them almost instantly because they stayed on the surface for a long time after being released.  The only thing they could do was put them in the lilly pads, which most of the other stocking boats were not doing.

Good job and good to hear.

4 million fry will be stocked this year and 600,000 fingerlings was the target,they no how many fry, they must grow the fry to fingerling size so lets hope they reach their goal. I fished the spillway a few times this year and saw three eyes that where not legal,most fish where 18 or 19 inch min. and several where real pigs,pymy is a big lake and all the eyes don't migrate to the spillway,I waded a island last week and got eyes on raps and cleo's after dark,the numbers are way down but the fish are big,just not as many,get rid of the alewifes,and carp and stock,stock,and stock some more (all fingerlings)