Perch / Walleye / Northern relationship

[Pooch]

We were talking the other night about the relationship between available forage and walleye size. One guy mentioned he had read that Canadian lakes without jumbo perch rarely produce a really nice walleye.

One of the lakes we have fished for many years gives us alot of four to six pound fish but only one in the eight pound range has been caught. During the discussion we realized that we never catch any large perch on this lake either.

Is there a relationship? We have caught an occasional large Northern
(over fifteen pounds) but mostly catch northerns in the 30 to 40 inch range. Again, is there a relationship?

Your thoughts?

Pooch in cental Illinois

[McQ]

The availability of forage is very diverse when it comes to walleye in colder water. The more north you go the white fish and cisco enter the food chain. These protein rich forage fish are more of a staple to the walleye than most of us realize.

My personal observation would be that the shorter growing season has a lot more to do with walleye size than the type of forage available to them. A 10# walleye in the areas of Quebec I fish is about 20 years old, The natural life cycle probably has more to do with it

How would you explain the monster sizes reported from areas like the Bay of Quinte that not only feed on perch but white fish, ale wife, etc. out on Lake Ontario.

[Gord-oh]

The lake I am familiar with (NW Ontario)is large and has a diverse fish population. A few years back the MNR did a walleye survey (index netting) in September to determine the health of the fishery. The majority of walleyes were netted in depths of 25 feet or deeper.....most were feeding on ciscoes. I would guess that for a large part of the bigger walleye population the ciscoe is the primary forage fish. Perch are numerous but would not be classed as jumbo (although they are likely there as well)....my guess is the smaller perch represent a large part of the diet for smalller walleye ...mainly in the shallows. I have fished on this particular lake for many years and was actually amazed at the numbers of bigger walleye that seem to be everywhere.......mostly in the deeper sections of the lake though. Probably the hardest to fish for as well. I'm sure each lake is different but I would not draw any conclusions based on whether the lake has jumbo perch or not. I would think that the bigger and more diverse the lake is the better chances of having real trophy potential. Many fly-in type walleye lakes in our area are really only great numbers lakes....rarely any trophys. Lakes are small, generally shallow and only a few fish species....maybe too productive to generate those old, huge females.

[walleye chieftain]

i agree totally. not only is the forage season short but depending on the makeup of the forage population all kinds of factors could come into play. i think age and group balance is a factor too. interesting how some of lac's leasers seem to think they came tinker with their sizes by slotting-not that i argue the point, but if you start getting bigger and bigger fish at the high end of the age scale you could upset the competition at the other end. we fish a lake where anything over 6lbs is considered nice but we also catch 600+ walleyes a week. and they are aggressive on the bite-indicating a lot of competition in the school. and worms-not minnow type bait is all we're allowed in quebec.