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walleye fingerling production,

hi my name is greg lipscomb, i,m a retired, fisheries biologist , i have managed fish farms in mn, ar, tx, & mo, i raised over 50 million lbs of fish that went to market. i never raised a fish i couldn't sell ! markets that i supplied, fillet market, salmon & trout mn. catfish ar., i shipped live fish all over the us and Canada. when i was in ar, i managed 2 fish farms and was a consultant for a 1400/a catfish farm.while in ar.i raised tilapia,big head carp, grass carp, and hybrid striped bass. i had production ponds in excess of 20,000/lbs/acre! we also shipped hsb live to tiwain 750/f/lb,over 1 million, for 4/y

i have raised walleye in mn, ar. & mo. they are a very hard fish to culture, because they are so cannibalistic!! in mn. we used fathead minnow ponds, we stocked the fry,and in the fall we would set up flank net, with a wing, copper the center of the pond, moving out ward. the copper irritated the fish and they ran for the shallows, where they hit the wing on the trap and got funneled into the traps ! it is back breaking work, lifting 8' 10' foot traps full of fish into the live well, in the boat ! we got 1.00 @ for a 8" to 10" fingerling,

when i was in ar. i tryed to raise walleye, i found out real quick the water was to hot ! i was going to feed them out on minnows, till i put a pencil to it! at 3.00/lb for the minnow the minnows was worth more than the walleye. considering it takes 5/lbs to put a lb of wt on, wet to wet conversion! i did raise some really nice 1.5 to2 lb hsb, the problem in the spring,even though they were hybrids, they did know it, they ran the shore line trying to spawn, which attracted every fish eating bird in the county!!! i lost 4/a of them. i had the best luck raising walleye in mo.i got my fry out of mn. problem, i was 6/w behind mother nature in mo. stocked the fry,seined them in 6/w 2" graded them, re stocked them, back out in minnow ponds, seined the ponds in the fall, when it worked it worked good, but some yrs, the water was to hot and we couldn't sein, grade, restock, in the fall we only got a hand full back! 1.5 pounders, they ate all their brothers and sisters. we did a sug-eye production one yr that did real well. well i have talked to much, but i have all this experience, if i can help any one please drop me a line, i'm retired greg

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Permalink Reply by Layne allen on January 3, 2014 at 5:04pm

Greg, I learned to love walleye in ND where we would ice fish for them but out here in Washington I am called a "killer" by the catch and release crowd. Now I got no problem with catch and release but I eat what I fish for.....

With that long lead in... I am looking into using walleye for aquaponics but find little on how to break them to pellet food and possible breed them. Any suggestions would be welcome.