# Walleye fingerlings wild or stocked?



## Erik (Jan 17, 2000)

While fishing the Ausable yesterday I came across a spot where there were several thousand maybe more, Walleye minnows "fingerlings". 
They were swimming in the shallows in a rocky gravely type area. Huge schools of them lined up all the way down the bank. 
Does anyone know,
did the DNR release them recently or are these natural?


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## Bucket-Back (Feb 8, 2004)

Doubt they are natural, most walleyes in the Midwest come from the Muskegon river


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## Erik (Jan 17, 2000)

I searched the DNR fish stocking data base records for Walleyes since 2015 and I am not seeing that they released any walleye fingerlings into the lower Ausable. I could be wrong. Just that I was not able to find it. 
The area where I found these is not near a boat launch or road crossing like where they usually dump fish.


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

The DNR doesn't stock walleye fingerlings much, too expensive and fry are a better bang for their buck. If they did do it for some reason you can find out from one of these people.
https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-350-79136_79236_80245_80708-460804--,00.html

I'm sure they'd be excited to hear about a good nat repo year class, too.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

The Ausable has had pretty good spawning runs of Walleyes for a few years now. Years ago, there were hardly any Walleyes in that river. Now they are there year-round, and there is definitely a decent spawning run. I would imagine those fish are naturally spawned. Glad to hear they are around. The lower river is pretty much like a lake, right now, so they have plenty of places to forage.


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## jampg (Jan 27, 2007)

Are you sure the were Walleye? I saw the same thing but more than likely a minnow of some type.


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Isn’t it about time for the shiner run? Could be shiners in there and walleye feeding on them. Would be a lot of fish.


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## tdduckman (Jan 17, 2001)

Fall fingerlings are 4-7 inches at this point and are easy to identify as walleyes. 


TD


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## kzoofisher (Mar 6, 2011)

Sure. What I'm saying is there could be a mix of walleye and shiners making it seem like more 'eyes than it was. Fish do get harder to ID the further away they are.


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## Erik (Jan 17, 2000)

They were pretty close. Looked like tiny walleyes. 3 to 5 inches. I've been seeing lots of minows and these looked different.
I was sitting on the bank with my feet/boots in the water, tying up my line. They came slowly swimming up the edge of the bank in a school. A long line of them stretching down the edge of the bank. I sat there still trying to see what they were and the bigger ones had dark bands on their sides like tiny walleyes. 
Seemed weird they would be schooled up in a big bunch like that I suppose. Guess I don't know much about the life cycle of walleyes. But they looked like tiny walleyes so I never really gave it much thought as to otherwise. Could be mistaken I suppose.
They were on a gravel ledge on the edge of the river in about 1 ft of water. 
It was at the boy scouts if anyone wants to check it out.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

I am guessing they were Gizzard Shad. The Ausable gets a good run of them about this time every year.


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## andyotto (Sep 11, 2003)

Fishndude said:


> I am guessing they were Gizzard Shad. The Ausable gets a good run of them about this time every year.


This is true and there have been a ton of them out there this year. I think it would be tough to mistake walleye fingerlings with shad though if you got a good look at them.


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## Fishndude (Feb 22, 2003)

Agreed. But I wasn't looking at them. I've seen the Shad migrating into, and schooling up in the A, though. And it looks just like what was described. 

I wouldn't think Minnows would school with yearling Walleyes. Walleyes eat a ton of Minnows, of all sorts.


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## Ausable_Drifter (May 20, 2014)

Funny this was brought up. On October 10 I was bleeding a fish and caught what I thought was a bunch of walleye fingerlings in my headlamp on the A. I am almost positive they were Walleye but I could be wrong and could be some other type of minnow, def., not a shad. Probably not a logperch or stickleback, I was convinced Walleye. I took a picture though and here it is.


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## mfs686 (Mar 15, 2007)

There has been an increase of natural reproduction all over Lake Huron since the Alewife crash. I talked to a fisheries biologist when I was helping him tag walleye on the Titt. years ago. He told me the fish are spreading out all over the lake. As stated earlier a walleye fingerling should be between 4 and 7 inches. A first year walleye will grow up to ten inches in the first year. Young of the year perch are about the size of a #9 Rapala right now. 

There is no stocking of walleye on Lake Huron, that ended years ago when the population in Saginaw Bay exploded in the 2000's.


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## Big Skip (Sep 1, 2010)

Man if you zoom in it almost looks like a goby? Big head, eyes close to top of snout

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk


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## tdduckman (Jan 17, 2001)

That is a Walleye I stock thousands of fall fingerlings on my lake annually and that is what they look like. Not a Goby, shiner or shad. That is a walleye.


TD


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## tdduckman (Jan 17, 2001)




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## Big Skip (Sep 1, 2010)

Cute little buggers

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## piscatorial warrior (Sep 14, 2011)

Ausable_Drifter said:


> Funny this was brought up. On October 10 I was bleeding a fish and caught what I thought was a bunch of walleye fingerlings in my headlamp on the A. I am almost positive they were Walleye but I could be wrong and could be some other type of minnow, def., not a shad. Probably not a logperch or stickleback, I was convinced Walleye. I took a picture though and here it is.
> View attachment 594833


That sure looks like a Walleye to me.


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