Walleye age.

[trigger7mm]

Caught some walleye from the Battle River this morning and keep one that was just over 20”. This is the first walleye I have kept in probably 5 years. I watched a video that Gord Pyzer made on how to age a walleye by removing and drying a small bone in their cheek. I did this and it showed that a legal walleye, from the Battle River at least, proved to be 9 years old. Just thought you might find it interesting. Have a great weekend.

[swampy45]

That is pretty neat actually! I imagine there are a ton of factors that would change your findings around the province as well based on water temp, lake structure, available forage, etc.

[trigger7mm]

It’s easy to see how they grow quickly at first and then grow less and less as they get older. Very similar to the growth rings on a tree.

[DiabeticKripple]

I remember talking to a bio about this, and he said that on average in AB a walleye is 7 years old at 17” or 43cm, large enough to be taken out.

[Salavee]

Caught some walleye from the Battle River this morning and keep one that was just over 20”. This is the first walleye I have kept in probably 5 years. I watched a video that Gord Pyzer made on how to age a walleye by removing and drying a small bone in their cheek. I did this and it showed that a legal walleye, from the Battle River at least, proved to be 9 years old. Just thought you might find it interesting. Have a great weekend.


That plate in the cheek is called the Operculum. It's a great way to age Walleye... especially the varying annual growth rates.

[mlee]

The better question is how did it taste lol.
The walleye have been hitting hard in the battle the last week or so. I've actually found the majority I've been catching slightly bigger then normal this year. I'm used to catching about 25 14-16" fish for every 1 18-20" fish.....this year it's been a much closer ratio and have pulled out 3 over 20" so far....I havent kept a walleye out of the battle for years though.

[slough shark]

That’s pretty neat I’ll have to look into that one of these days, on a related question ive never fished the battle river before, are they more spread out or all concentrated in a few holes?

[graybeard]

This chart may assist....

http://wildernessnorth.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FishGrowthChart.pdf

Cheers,

[mlee]

That’s pretty neat I’ll have to look into that one of these days, on a related question ive never fished the battle river before, are they more spread out or all concentrated in a few holes?

This time of year once the water level has gone down they fill the holes. They definitely still move but find a deep hole on a bend with a back eddy and there are lots of evenings where you can catch 50+ fish in a couple hours. Most days I find the pike and goldeye bite until late afternoon early evening then the walleye start to hit hard around 7pm. Stay on a hole till after dark and there is a descent population of 2-3lb burbot as well that feed on the crayfish.
It really is a pretty decent fishery....and there are some big (6-8lb) walleye....but 95% are in that 2-3lb range.

[trigger7mm]

This chart may assist....

http://wildernessnorth.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FishGrowthChart.pdf

Cheers,

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.

[deschambault]

This is very interesting but you also need to know where it was developed. There are huge differences in age and weight depending on water temperature.

[Who Da Fisherman]

This is very interesting but you also need to know where it was developed. There are huge differences in age and weight depending on water temperature.

Correct, we pulled out a 27lb pike from a Southern Reservoir and F&W removed the bone so they could age the fish. They got back to us a couple of weeks later and the age of the pike was 12.5yrs old!
WDF

[pinelakeperch]

This makes me wish that the limits on the Bow were for 18 inch fish. I want to keep walleye, but I don't want to keep 20+ inch fish.