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Author Topic: MDNR seeks walleye catch information for certain inland lakes in the sw region  (Read 9070 times)

Offline wilsonmi

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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


Offline rusty spud

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bills lake Newaygo county?

Offline wilsonmi

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Offline DR.SPECKLER

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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.

Offline wilsonmi

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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.

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.

Offline Grunt

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Hey Mike - How come they don't plant walleyes in Gull Lake  ?

Offline steely456

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Goguac lake Calhoun county would be a Great Lake for Battle Creek area. Is there a way to propose plants or raise money for them?
It's easier to catch fish when your not on the computer

Offline wilsonmi

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Hey Mike - How come they don't plant walleyes in Gull Lake  ?

We generally don't stock walleye in lakes we stock trout in.  At the same time, we want to preserve the unique smelt fishery. 

Offline wilsonmi

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Goguac lake Calhoun county would be a Great Lake for Battle Creek area. Is there a way to propose plants or raise money for them?
We are already planning a complete lake survey on Goguac in 2019.  This will give us walleye suitability information and and a snapshot of fish community and size structure.  Then, some years down the road we can look at changes to the fishery after walleye stocking assuming we stock it.  As far as proposing plants or raising money, we currently are about maxed out with what we can produce for fall fingerlings so we can't add a lot of other lakes to that program.  Many lake associations get permits from us to purchase fall fingerlings on their own and some groups take donations to purchase them.  In many cases, we will partner with associations where they will purchase walleye one year and we will stock a couple years later and so on.  This makes our fish go farther so we can stock more waters.

Offline steely456

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Are all plants made public?  Like St.Mary's in Calhoun county is known to have walleye, but there is no records that I can find for plants.

Thanks
It's easier to catch fish when your not on the computer

Offline wilsonmi

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All plants are supposed to be made public as long as there are multiple owners on a lake or there are inlets or outlets.  Lake associations or individuals that want to stock lakes either with or without a public access are supposed to obtain a permit to do so.  This hasn't always happened in the past and we sometimes discover illegal stockings in our surveys.  Stocking fish can sometimes cause negative consequences for a fishery that can last forever.

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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I got me a walleye at Selkirk  lol.tiny little guy..this falls plant?


Offline wilsonmi

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Thanks for the reply.  It would be from this falls plant.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but it should have a right ventral fin clip.  That fish was probably one of the runts of the plant so to see it survive is a good sign.  I think the average size going in this fall was just under 6 inches.  There are bigger ones in there.

Offline sfw1960

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Hey Mike IDK if you can see it any better - but here's a direct link:

https://i.postimg.cc/fZ7JxFr1/CB5-F023-E-29-E5-4-F6-C-815-E-BB8-FF494-BC5-C.jpg

I know you usually use your phone, but I can't tell on a 23.6" display.

RAS
HB Helix Chirp DI GPS G2/XI 9 1521 on !CE sure is n!CE - Lose the Vex and get 4 KiloWatts of Vex-blinding 'Bird power, and "see ALL of what's down there"   >:D

Bringer OF the 'Bird ~ Robert

Offline steely456

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Is there a link to see results from Goguac lake or can you give a update?
It's easier to catch fish when your not on the computer

Offline wilsonmi

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The survey won't be written up until sometime later this year, but I should have the raw data in by sometime next week. 

 



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