Lake Champlain United - Forums

I agree with the opinions expressed, but a huge factor needed to bring the walleye back (the only one that will make a difference) is a serious stocking program. We all forget the millions of walleyes stocked back in the hey-days. Millions of walleyes are stocked in the current hot-spots (except remote canadian waters that lack the pressure) to keep up with the demand, even where slot limits and conservation is big. The State essentially stopped and only got back in after basically being shamed by the walleye association that showed stocking can make a difference.

Lots of factors in play when it comes to walleye - but if the state ramped up to put in even only 10X the numbers the association does, it would make a huge difference.

septageguy wrote:I agree with the opinions expressed, but a huge factor needed to bring the walleye back (the only one that will make a difference) is a serious stocking program. We all forget the millions of walleyes stocked back in the hey-days. Millions of walleyes are stocked in the current hot-spots (except remote canadian waters that lack the pressure) to keep up with the demand, even where slot limits and conservation is big. The State essentially stopped and only got back in after basically being shamed by the walleye association that showed stocking can make a difference.

Lots of factors in play when it comes to walleye - but if the state ramped up to put in even only 10X the numbers the association does, it would make a huge difference.

new york stocks lots of walleyes in ny but not lake champlain. i was told once that the fry were also eating by white perch and even eyes.

Trophy eyes are OLD...slow growers. 100 boats on each river starting from the season opener to when they leave the rivers puts a pretty big dent in the population IMO. I'm not convinced about whites eating their eggs. Everyone has heard of it, but are there any studies or proof? Eyes are also hard to raise...cannibals from very early on in the life cycles.

Ice fishermen introduced white perch on Moosehead years ago and biologists know that the perch feed on brook trout eggs. This has lead to a decline of trophy brook trout in the Lake. If they eat brookie eggs, it only stands to reason that they would eat walleye eggs.

C-Hawk wrote:Ice fishermen introduced white perch on Moosehead years ago and biologists know that the perch feed on brook trout eggs. This has lead to a decline of trophy brook trout in the Lake. If they eat brookie eggs, it only stands to reason that they would eat walleye eggs.

I've never once caught a white while targeting spawning lakers, which spray eggs randomly and each spawning site has 100's if not 1000's of fish spawning...if they did love to eat eggs, lake trout eggs would be the easiest to find. I think whites predating on fry and fingering is more of an issue then them eating eggs. I have only caught a number of whites in the Winooski while walleye fishing once like 8 years ago. Ever since then I only catch a few.

Intresting stuff Matt, but if you ever were to go to the Moosehead region and mention white perch to the well established fly crowd, be ready for an education.I think that brook trout are river and stream spawners and lake trout are lake spawners. Apples to oranges, I am only speculating comparing white perch to walleyes.

C-Hawk wrote:Intresting stuff Matt, but if you ever were to go to the Moosehead region and mention white perch to the well established fly crowd, be ready for an education.I think that brook trout are river and stream spawners and lake trout are lake spawners. Apples to oranges, I am only speculating comparing white perch to walleyes.

Maybe for some reason those fish have adapted to eating eggs. Brook trout spawn in lakes and rivers, not sure where the majority of the Moose brookies spawn, but I think whites eating fry and fingerling brookies is definitely happening over there. Egg eating may be happening too, but they think whites are eating young lakers over here which makes the most sense.

matt down where the walleyes spawn in south bay there are no cold water fish and an over abundance of white perch and when the white perch entered the lake suspiciously the walleye population started its decline and the stocking was cut out of walleyes. i personally helped stock walleyes down that way and we did it at night. we also used to catch lots of saugers at times but not anymore havent caught one since the 80,s .

i would think if the biologist were interest enough they could study the whits diet by collecting some at different times to see what they're eating. Not that you could do much about it. It would be interesting. When i clean my fish i love to see what's in their stomachs.

AS I MENTIONED BEFORE I HAVE A POND I WOULD DONATE THE USE OF FOR STOCKING WALLEYE FRY UNTIL THEY BECOME LARGE ENOUGH TO AVOID MOST PREDITORES.IF SOME IMTERESTED PEOPLE WOULD LIKE THE IDEA ,PLEASE REPLY

grandpa2h wrote:AS I MENTIONED BEFORE I HAVE A POND I WOULD DONATE THE USE OF FOR STOCKING WALLEYE FRY UNTIL THEY BECOME LARGE ENOUGH TO AVOID MOST PREDITORES.IF SOME IMTERESTED PEOPLE WOULD LIKE THE IDEA ,PLEASE REPLY

i dont think that will happen without a permit and im sure that would be hard to get if any. i would be great but cant see it happening. the st lawrence walleye association stocks walleye and raises them maybe you should contact them here in n.y. they are a great group.

This topic comes up every 3-4 years on the forum. What happened to the walleye's? We stopped fishing them in 1987 after a very successful run that began in 1980. Wasn't fun anymore going out and getting skunked 90% of the time after 1987 while targeting them after 8:30 pm July-August our favorite months from those days. I have fished them after dark about 15 times from 1987-2007 and the last time was 10 years ago I went out. We did catch as many fishing for salmon as we did targeting them up in the sea after dark those few times. In the early 1980's you would see 50 plus boats orbiting Jupiter at night in late June.

Old timers at that time thought it was the introduction of salmon and lake trout were causing the crash from the huge stringer days of the 1960's. They thought they were competing for the same food. Plenty of smelt in those days on the screen.

Some guys are doing well in the last 3-4 years well documented on Facebook. Will they ever come back to the numbers and frequency caught that we were accustomed to? I think nobody can say for sure that will ever happen again.

As I said in a poster earlier in this thread, I started fishing Champlain as a kid not for the cold water species but the warm water stuff (mainly because there wasn't really any), especially walleye. We mostly ice fished for them but it was the "right of spring" as Fishy 1 indicated that you fished Champlain come spring since it was such a fantastic fishery. However, the lack of reasonable limits which I believe was the biggest issue, plus what Fishy 1 indicated, there were people who are less than honest or ethical who pouched them too added to there down fall. It was bad enough the walleyes had take the legal pressure but then the non-legal aspect. This especially soared as there numbers started to dwindled and the demand kept up. This made the less than legal way look more enticing to some.
The introduction of electronics which were unheard of back when I was a kid made more people experts of sorts, if you will. People who had them could go on a lake they never been to before and "map" the lake in no time and actually see where the fish were and weren't, even with the what we now consider to be crude machines. Add that to, as Ron said, seeing flotillas of boats in one given area made it easier for the new comers and there electronic to find the fish. All of this plus the popularity of walleye added to pressure they simply couldn't compete with. It would take a massive stocking effort to bring back this once un paralleled fishery back in my opinion, which sadly, i think we all know neither state would invest in.

IF SOMEHOW THE TWO STATES GOT TOGETHER ,PUT IN A PROGRAM TO RAISE MAYBE FEWER WALLEYES PUT KEPT THEM UNTIL THEY REACHED A SIZE (6 OR 7 INCHES)AND THEN STOCKED THE SURVIVAL RATE WOULD BE MUCH LARGER AND NATURAL REPRODUCTION COULD START TO CLIMB IT WOULD TAKE TIME BUT YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWERE.

fishy1,do you remember the big walleye die-off back in the 70,s when there were walleyes dead all along the NY and Vt. shorelines?