Wabamun Lake report, Stocking walleye, tagging fish in Wabamun (pic heavy)

[BGSH]

After a hang over buddy text me to go to Wabamun, hit Wabamun early, fish and wildlife were there releasing 15 thousand 500 walleye fry, i mean very small guys, at least a couple hundred died well being pumped out, i call it a perch feast because the perch will eat them up before the pike even have a chance at them, i think this size of walleye being released is a total write off.

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Buddies 40 incher biggest of the year for him
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[dfrobert]

Nice gators. You say stocking Walleye in Wab is a waste? If the stocking succeeds in a healthy population of Walleye then you might be pleasantly suprised in the future. We used to C&R tons of Walleye in Lake Isle before it killed.

[BGSH]

Nice gators. You say stocking Walleye in Wab is a waste? If the stocking succeeds in a healthy population of Walleye then you might be pleasantly suprised in the future. We used to C&R tons of Walleye in Lake Isle before it killed.

Thanks.
I mean stocking walleye fry in Wabamun does not seem right, should maybe at least be as big as the perch so they have a chance.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Survival of the fittest boy. There's enough vegetation that they will find places to hide. No doubt though that day 1 will see a bunch eaten.

I hope 50% or more make it. I would love to see Wabamun a great pike....and....walleye fishery. Throw in some largemouth bass and smallies, maybe some bluegills and you got it made.

Nice pike btw!

[dfrobert]

Lac La Biche Walleye population has turned around due to stocking efforts and there is now a Walleye population that is spawning. There is also talks of an allowable Walleye harvest on Lac La Biche that should be coming down the pipe.

Heres hoping the Walleye in Wabamun make it and start to spawn.
The fishery would become even better.

[chriscosta]

I agree alot will be eaten but garunteed some will survive and no matter what big fish eat small fish its the rules and there aimt a lake out there worth stocking that has zero bigger fish so ya let them grow a bit before stocking is the best answer

[walking buffalo]

bgsh,


Do you think you are smarter than the fisheries biologists?

There is a proven reason behind their madness.

[jackrabbit000]

Awesome pics and fish.

[Drewski Canuck]

Apparently the attrition in overwintering is very high, as they fight and eat each other.

Adult walleye have been transplanted last year and this year, so there are adults of various sizes in Wab right now. Trick is to get them to want to spawn somewhere.

The reality is the 15 K put in are going to be alot better off than what comes from the eggs naturally, as a successful spawn in the wild results in only a hand full of adults from natural recruitment. 15 K is a pretty good jump start, and in following years, age classes will establish.

I can't recall ever seeing spot tail shiners in Wab, so I imagine it will be perch and whitefish fry as a forage base. Seems to be working for the big pike anyways.

Drewski

[waterninja]

those are some magnificant pike. i really get a kick out of how the same species can have such different colors and markings. great pics.
heard it was pretty windy on the big lake in a small boat. bet that cleared up your hangover. lol.

[Kim473]

Lac La Biche Walleye population has turned around due to stocking efforts and there is now a Walleye population that is spawning. There is also talks of an allowable Walleye harvest on Lac La Biche that should be coming down the pipe.

Heres hoping the Walleye in Wabamun make it and start to spawn.
The fishery would become even better.

LOL !! I guess if you stock about 50 million or more fish within 5 years in a lake, something will live. 16 million stocked in 2010 alone. 100,000 2011 and the big one, over 51 million stocked in 2009 in Lac La Biche.

And you wonder how they are turning the lake around. I guess there is a walleye population now. LOL

Just think, if half of those fish survived and 1/4 spawned with 100,000 eggs = 8 million X 100,000 = my calculator can't go that high. Why don't they open it now????

[Drewski Canuck]

LLB will be world class. It is big enough to spread fishing pressure over a huge area, like Lesser Slave, Utikima, Calling, etc. You need many age classes. If there is a drought and the river spawn fish don't reproduce for a year or two, there will be trouble. You need the year classes to survive a short term dowm cycle. I hope that the shoal spawn walleye take hold, as they are the ones that are less affected by drought conditions. LLB has lots of good gravel on eastward shores and points.

Anyways, Wab will give us another opportunity and is a heck of alot better choice for walleye than anywere else.

All the same, winterkill / summerkill lakes, like Isle should be opened to general regulations, as building a population only to have mother nature wipe it out, gives little utilization to the sport fishermen, which is what fisheries management should have as a goal.

Drewski

[slivers86]

that pike just got a little bit bigger after you released it.. those walleye fry are probably 60% gone already.

[chriscosta]

Apparently the attrition in overwintering is very high, as they fight and eat each other.

Adult walleye have been transplanted last year and this year, so there are adults of various sizes in Wab right now. Trick is to get them to want to spawn somewhere.

The reality is the 15 K put in are going to be alot better off than what comes from the eggs naturally, as a successful spawn in the wild results in only a hand full of adults from natural recruitment. 15 K is a pretty good jump start, and in following years, age classes will establish.

I can't recall ever seeing spot tail shiners in Wab, so I imagine it will be perch and whitefish fry as a forage base. Seems to be working for the big pike anyways.

Drewski

I saw spot tails in wab and even caught a bunch on my perch rig this winter I also saw a rainbow trout a few years ago on my cam all in winter believe mee or dont idc but I know what I saw

[NSRfishing]

Rainbow Trout?

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

Rainbow Trout?
Do you not read ?

He said the stocked 15,000 walleye fry .

[BGSH]

Rainbow Trout?

Yea they put millions of Cutthroats in lake Wabamun, they are trying to feed those pike, give them a good diet, Pike and Cutthroat trout get along great with each other :budo: haha


In all seriousness though i was standing with around 12 of the residents who live along the lake and they were upset on how small of walleye were released into wabamun, just past the docks when swimming i saw 5-6 inch perch, not just two of them, thousands of them and then beyond the perch you get the pike so if these very small little month old walleye fry make it past the first dock out to the weeds i will be surprised, that being said you never know though if one month old walleye fry can make it in lake Wabamun, hopefully we will know in a few years.

I wish srd,f$w would tag pike, walleye, and perch in the lake to track there movement and spawning habitat locations for the sake of lake Wabamun walleye and to see how the pike are feeding and spawing, that would be a great education tool and very cool to see the findings.

Cheers.
Shawn H.

[BGSH]

those are some magnificant pike. i really get a kick out of how the same species can have such different colors and markings. great pics.
heard it was pretty windy on the big lake in a small boat. bet that cleared up your hangover. lol.

It was so windy out but it was fun going up and down those huge waves in a 12 foot aluminum boat, we landed 47 pike, it was very slow but good to see the weeds are now full grown and still growing :)

[Willowtrail]

I saw spot tails in wab and even caught a bunch on my perch rig this winter I also saw a rainbow trout a few years ago on my cam all in winter believe mee or dont idc but I know what I saw

Do you not read ?

He said the stocked 15,000 walleye fry .

I read and I saw what NSR is talking about. Why all the short jabs lately?

[BGSH]

I read and I saw what NSR is talking about. Why all the short jabs lately?

haha hey willowtrail what's up, well this would not have happened if NSRfisher would have quoted chriscosta , by the way wicked walleye pics good stuff.

[seahawkfisher]

walleye will go canibalistic if you keep them in captivity much bigger than that in large numbers. If they waited for 2 weeks from now, they would be releasing 9000 walleye instead of 15500.
cheers

[Kim473]

Why don't they stock it like they do LLB? A few million at a time! Think they may be fixing the lakes in that area to someday pull from one lake and put into another. Like they did from Isle to Wab a few years back. Sounds like a good idea to me. Wish they would do that with perch tho and not just the walleye. Seems that we are losing all the perch lakes. I would sooner have a feed of perch rather than a feed of walleye.

[Penner]

I mean stocking walleye fry in Wabamun does not seem right, should maybe at least be as big as the perch so they have a chance.

It’s very difficult and very costly to rear and raise Walleye unlike trout. Firstly Walleye are raised and held in outdoor ponds not indoor tanks unlike Trout. Walleye feed exclusively on zooplankton, insects, and other fish. Its almost impossible to feed them artificial food again unlike Trout. And as several others have already mentioned Walleye will turn cannibalistic when the roughly reach “fry” size.

Why don't they stock it like they do LLB? A few million at a time!

As of note the survival rate to the first year is expected to likely be less than 1%. So the 16 million Walleye dumped Lac La Biche only equates to 160,000 yearlings. The mortality continues on after the first year also.

The primary goal is to establish a self-sustaining population. Stock firstly to re-establish population and then hope the Walleye begin to reproduce on their own in the lake. If the Walleye don’t figure out where and how to spawn in Wabumum on their own, SRD would have to stock millions of Walleye each year just to keep pace for a put & take Walleye fishery. With SRD’s current budget this is nowhere near being viable when they can get a 10:1 return on Trout stocking compared to Walleye stocking.

SRD will need to regulate the crap out of Lac La Biche and if spawning is successful hopefully also for Wabumum. And we will all have 2 additional Walleye go to lakes.

Lac La Biche should be a beauty if history of the lake has anything to do with it. At one time is was supposed to be one heck of a Walleye producer.

[Alberta Bigbore]

I saw spot tails in wab and even caught a bunch on my perch rig this winter I also saw a rainbow trout a few years ago on my cam all in winter believe mee or dont idc but I know what I saw

ive caught spot tail shiners in wabby and devils lake. As for a rainbow... Maybe someone thought it would be fun to keep one from East Pit and put it in there. Lol

[BigA]

Nice pike bgsh. You always seem to find those big females. Congrats.

[Speckle55]

Yea they put millions of Cutthroats in lake Wabamun, they are trying to feed those pike, give them a good diet, Pike and Cutthroat trout get along great with each other :budo: haha


In all seriousness though i was standing with around 12 of the residents who live along the lake and they were upset on how small of walleye were released into wabamun, just past the docks when swimming i saw 5-6 inch perch, not just two of them, thousands of them and then beyond the perch you get the pike so if these very small little month old walleye fry make it past the first dock out to the weeds i will be surprised, that being said you never know though if one month old walleye fry can make it in lake Wabamun, hopefully we will know in a few years.

I wish srd,f$w would tag pike, walleye, and perch in the lake to track there movement and spawning habitat locations for the sake of lake Wabamun walleye and to see how the pike are feeding and spawing, that would be a great education tool and very cool to see the findings.Cheers.
Shawn H.

Hey Shawn .. there has been some studys done on Wabamun ask your local CO bio or U of A .. also on Jerry Hennings Atlas of Alberta lakes( Wab Page 12) he shows some big Spear fished Pike 36# and he lists Wabamun at 40# Pike and 8# Walleye(years ago) .. what SRD is trying to do is reintroduce Walleye and they know it make take alot of stocking to do that but the lake has that potental to produce 8# ..now that is not the biggest record Walleye caught as the locals etc have some nicer eyes being caught years ago and the Pike were and still are huge if you get the right Pike .. the 20 to 30# ers used to spawn near the exhaust from the plant and would be there in that area most of the winter months and you could see them if you happen to be in the restricted area:sEm_oops2: had some insider friends..

all in all Wabamun is the best lake in the Edmonton area and has been for years for Pike and used to be Walleye and Lake Whites too... imo

Food for Thought
David:)