Walleye habitat

[subfish]

As a very occasional walleye fisherman,..(not great waters near me) I can remember being in Davenport Iowa watching guys catch them,..here the biologists talk about how Walleyes need clear highly oxygenated water. Well Ole Miss,.. at least 30 years ago used to look like coffee and cream most of the year. Very muddy with visability only an inch or two on a good day,..Are there different sub species that can live in these conditions or am i missing something?

[Dutchman]

There is a species that man made that can survive in waters that the walleye cannot. It's a cross between the walleye and the sauger. Their called saugeyes. They've tried them in the dakotas and I still catch a few every once in a while. Their readily identified buy the spots on their dorsal fins. Taste just as good..

[subfish]

I used to fish lower Lake Champlain for Sauger,...interesting that there seems to be a lot of them there Esp in Feb. ice fishing,..but I found that very good fisherman in the northern part of the lake never heard of sauger...its a huge lake but it seems that sauger must like their own habitat(?) or perhaps the occasional sauger caught is mistaken for a Walleye? I wonder if these crooses you mention ever happens in nature?

[night_eyes]

Saugeyes definately happen in nature. You can catch them on the Mississippi River. I dont know if i've personally caught one but i know people that have. Not exactly sure if i could identify one.

[Kevin/CO]

The interesting thing about Saugers is that well they can happen in nature and obviously do from reading the posts but they can't reproduce. In colorado we harvest walleye eggs for stocking, trading, and cross breeding to make saugeyes. From reading articles on this process it is evident that all saugeyes are sterile. I beleive that the reporductive proteins from both Saugers and 'eyes are cancled out in germation of the eggs.

[subfish]

Well,..what about the Miss/Iowa walleyes,...is there a reason they survive (seem to do very well as they were catch quite a few from the riverbanks) in those conditions?..Why do so many references say they need different habitats?

[Backwater Eddy]

Walleye are generally thought of as a clear Canadian watershed fish, and yes they do flourish there very well.

The walleye can be very adaptable to varying water clarity and turbidity although they do have a temperature preference range of 60-65 degrees.

They do very well in creeks, rivers, lakes and reservoirs if the food chain is healthy enough for them to prosper. Walleye are omnivorous and will eat just about anything so again this makes it very adaptable.

Along with there ability to migrate over large distances they manage to find there way into every nook and cranny of a river system and from lake to lake.

There hybrid cousins the Saugeye have become a favorite fish of the SDG&FD to transplant into larger sloughs newly formed by the wet cycle they are experiencing. They grow fast and can tolerate higher summer peak water temperatures than a walleye is there line of thinking. These large sloughs in SD have shown to be saugeye factories with great success overall.

Adaptable is the term I like to use in referring to the walleye family, if they can they will.

BE...><ND>

[subfish]

Thank you,...I guess I thought they had a very high requirement for 02,..thus the muddy water surprised me,..I think our lake in NY gets too warm and the lower levels have too low 02...I took several panfish and lowered them in a bait trap to 20feet on a hot summer day and they died faster than if they would have on the bottom of the boat..too bad,..I think the problem is too phosphorus from leaking septic tanks from houses near the lake,..perhaps lawns and farms upstream....