Michigan > Ice Fishing Michigan
MDNR seeks walleye catch information for certain inland lakes in the sw region
wilsonmi:
The MDNR is seeking walleye catch information from Wabasis, Lincoln, Bills (Newago), Crystal (Montcalm County), Sessions, and Osterhaut Lakes. Fish length and any fin clip can help us determine age, growth rates and survival of these stocked fish. (click to enlarge poster below) Along with fisheries surveys, angler catches are used in the decision making process for continued stocking. When looking for a fin clip, one of the ventral fins will be completely or partially gone. Sometimes a portion may remain and often looks deformed or curled. Walleye in this part of the state typically reach legal size in 2 to 4 years so there is the potential for legal sized fish from plants as recent as 2016. Length and clip information from sub-legal fish from these lakes is also appreciated as long as they go back in the water :).
Other lakes that we are interested in hearing catch reports from are Duck Lake (Calhoun), Portage Lake (Jackson), Long, Palmer and Sand Lakes (St. Joseph), Clear, Diamond and Big Fish lakes (Cass), Paw Paw lake (Van Buren) and Selkirk Lake (Allegan). Walleye stocked in these lakes, with the exception of Sand lake, don't have fin clips, but have been stocked with fall fingerling walleye within the last 5 years. Some of these lakes listed above have been stocked with spring fingerling walleye for many years prior to switching to fall fingerling plants.
You can also pm me if you would like to report any walleye catches from these waters.
Thanks,
Mike Wilson
MDNR Fisheries
Plainwell
rusty spud:
bills lake Newaygo county?
wilsonmi:
--- Quote from: rusty spud on Feb 08, 2018, 06:51 PM ---bills lake Newaygo county?
--- End quote ---
yes
DR.SPECKLER:
i fish Selkirk more than any lake around and in the last 15 years ive caught 1 walleye that was 19" long.when I was younger In the 90s could remember not being able to keep 8" walleyes off my line.wonder why they don't take in the lake.i haven't hooked or seen one in 12 years.
wilsonmi:
--- Quote from: DR.SPECKLER on Feb 09, 2018, 07:08 AM ---i fish Selkirk more than any lake around and in the last 15 years ive caught 1 walleye that was 19" long.when I was younger In the 90s could remember not being able to keep 8" walleyes off my line.wonder why they don't take in the lake.i haven't hooked or seen one in 12 years.
--- End quote ---
Thank you for sharing your experience. I see there was a gap in stocking from 1991 to 1997, then in 1998 spring fingerlings and fall fingerlings were stocked. I would imagine that you were catching those small fish in the winter of 98/99. After that, a small amount of spring fingerlings have been stocked usually every other year until 2015 when we started putting some fall fingerlings in there. Hopefully some of these fall fish will start showing up in peoples catches. I'm not sure how many people target them or know there are some in there, but that is part of what this post is about. We seem to hear more about walleye being caught in our lakes from bass fisherman in the open water season than ice fishermen, but that isn't surprising since most walleye fishermen are pretty tight lipped. If our fall fish don't seem to be working in one lake, we can always discontinue the stocking.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version