Walleyes from Lake O

JoePa · **Joined:** Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:22 am **Posts:** 47

I know that the bay contains two distinct groups of walleyes during a course of a year - the resident group and the migratory group that comes into the bay from Lake Ontario around the end of October - the walleyes spawn in the early spring usually around ice out - what I'm not sure is what happens to the fry and young walleyes that are from the migratory walleyes - do they eventually head out of the bay and into Lake O or do most of them stay in the bay becoming resident walleyes - thanks - Joe

Superdad · **Posted:** Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:47 pm

The MNR might be able to answer your question about what happens to the offspring of the spawn.

David aka Superdad

Swiftdeer · **Posted:** Mon Sep 26, 2016 7:49 am

Superdad is right. Connect with the folks at the Lake Ontario Management Unit over at the Glenora Fisheries Station. 613-476-2400 or http://www.infogo.gov.on.ca/infogo/#orgProfile/1199/en

They should be able to answer your question

DanElliot · **Joined:** Mon Apr 08, 2002 8:59 am **Posts:** 4329

Here's what I know, which aint much and others please feel free to correct this.
From my understanding, the fry stay in the bay and become part of the resident population. Once they grow to a size bigger than the resident population (on average 5-6 lbs) they then join the migratory walleye group. Also, in terms of the fry, the MNR have a yearly netting program to capture and count the fry which they refer to as "Young of the Year" (yoy).
Every year they use a net with a very fine mesh and basically trawl specific areas throughout the bay and count the yoy in each area that they have netted. The results indicate how successful or not the the spring spawning was. In some years they have found yoy in the east end of the bay and not the west end, others years the opposite and in some years yoy everywhere. In really bad years when the spawn was a bust they might not find any fry. Over the long term these results are graphed and you can see and understand the various population sizes of year classes. All of this information is available to the public at the following website. http://www.glfc.org/lakecom/loc/mgmt_unit/

JoePa · **Joined:** Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:22 am **Posts:** 47

Thanks for the info - I called up and this is what the guy said - the young walleyes will stay in the Bay until they are 2 to 3 years old - then they will migrate out into Lake Ontario to feed on the bait fish that are out there - a few of the big walleye will stay in the bay that's why occasionally you'll get a really big fish - so my take on this is if you are looking for fish to eat you are better with the resident fish - from my experience the really big one coming into the Bay aren't really that good eating - besides the females are loaded with eggs - Joe

Cjriggzzz · **Joined:** Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:40 am **Posts:** 24

The big girls do lay alot of eggs yes ! But I believe the walleye between 2-5lbs have a better success rate. Not as many eggs but more are likely to hatch ! So Iv been told

West Lake Willows · **Posted:** Thu Sep 29, 2016 12:49 pm

Cjriggzzz wrote:

The big girls do lay alot of eggs yes ! But I believe the walleye between 2-5lbs have a better success rate. Not as many eggs but more are likely to hatch ! So Iv been told

The big females have way more eggs so even with lower viability produce way more fry then smaller walleye. Also the eggs from mature walleye have higher lipid content and produce larger fry with better survival rate. So all in all mature walleye are much more valuable to the fishery then the juveniles.

Scott

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cjriggzzz · **Joined:** Mon Apr 04, 2016 7:40 am **Posts:** 24

Very interesting ! Goes to show we're always learning

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Walleyes from Lake O

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