Question about walleye spawning location

I was talking with a buddy the other day about this topic. Initially started with Pool 2, but the conversation soon spilled over to pools 3 and 4. Growing up reading In-Fisherman, various walleye books, and watching walleyes shows on TV I always read/heard that walleye spawn in relatively shallow water over hard bottom consisting of rock, gravel, or cobble. It was explained this is the reason that shallow wind-swept lakes are such great habitat for the MN state fish, i.e. Mille Lacs, Leech, Winnie, LOW, Vermillion, and Red. I’ve read the telemetry reports for Pool 2 and Pool 4 after seeing them posted here (thanks BK I think). The studies were very in-depth and informative although after reading them I had a lot more questions. It seems a very large chunk of the sexually mature walleyes in Pool 2 swim up the Minnesota to spawn, although some do spawn beneath the ford dam, and perhaps Minnehaha Creek, although some years the creek seems to be little more than a trickle. Why do these fish head up the Minnesota River? I’ve heard there’s rock shoals in the MN and some very small creeks that the walleyes might spawn in. That being said if you’ve ever been to the upper part of pool 2 there are plenty of shallower rock/gravel places with flow where I’d imagine the walleyes could spawn and swim fifteen less miles. Are there reproductive advantages to spawning in the Minnesota vs. the Mississippi? By the time the spawn occurs the MN is as muddy as any river I’ve ever seen. Perhaps contradicting the information I’d previously read do walleyes run up the MN to spawn in flooded backwaters? Do they spawn in flooded backwaters on pool 4? I’ve heard some people say this before but I always thought eggs were spread in areas with some current to aerate them and prevent them from sinking in silt. Some springs there is a hot jigging bite down in Prescott at the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi, is this because walleye are staging there either before or after spawning in Lake St. Croix? This topic is something that I’ve been quite curious about, and I know I’m not the first one to have these questions.

Maybe they swim up the Minnesota far enough to avoid the muddy waters. Have heard farther up the river turns more to rock and gravel.

Taking a hiatus from my hiatus, perhaps I can get in one more post

Up until about 1900 seemed the fishing on the Upper Miss. was as good as it gets. Not to many records but going off journals and occasional fishing records from anglers showed good quantities of all species.

Then the mussels became depleted, button factories slowed down creating the next wave of human destruction, commercial fishing. Attached is a general trend, it represents just one segment of the river, but I think holds true for the whole. Add in the fact pollution could’ve been at it’s all time high during the early 20th century, there was very little gamefish left in the system.

How far removed are we from the Clean Water Act? How about fishing regs, limits, etc? Not all that far. Its my opinion most fish spawn where they had been born. Its their inate instinct that brings them back year after year. Now its not to say that the walleyes of pool 2 dont spawn in the upper reaches, just back in the day the ones that did never hatched due to pollution, or very little of them.

Think of the MN river back in 1930, how’d it look then? I’d imagine some of the towns we have now simply werent there, and the farming practices were considerably different than what they are now.

The walleyes that spawned up the MN survived, and over the course of decades became a very healthy population. I’ve heard and read many reports of good populations and big walleyes that not long ago were coming from the MN, only the last decade started to recede, greatly.

The Miss. started getting cleaner, shad populations and other bait fish came back, with most other gamefish extinct left a huge hole in the predator category, and with the walleye within unobstructed swimming distance on the MN, and special regs, only left nature to take her course.

If I may throw out another theory….

With present day farming practices, and the erosion/silt on the MN and consequemces that comes from, there will be a trend of more spawning walleyes in the upper reaches of pool 2. Just as fish left the pollution for better waters early in the century, they will return for the same reasons. With SAF lock shutting down this summer, will make for even less barge traffic and sediments suspended.

This is coming from a guy who hasnt touched either sections of river personally, so take it as an armchair biologist. Wife told me to take some time off and relax so half day been downloading old books, PDFs, etc on the subject, BC it greatly intrigues me as well.

Attachments:

1. 

   Screenshot_2014-12-29-02-00-54.png
   

Can’t speak to pools 2, 3, and 4, but I grew up in Wisconsin on the fox river, about 10 miles up river from the Winnebago. The Fox is a mud bottom with very few rocky sections. There was always a good walleye run and the fish mostly spawned in flooded marsh grass. If you hit the marshes with a spot light at night, there would be more eyes reflecting back at you than you could ever count. Flooded grass seems to work ok for spawning habitat based on the millions of walleye inhabiting Winnebago. It just needs some flow.

I’m not sure if you guys have read through this report from the MN DNR…but if you fish P4 it’s worth the time it takes to read it.

I think it answers many questions with facts obtained through radio tracking.

Pool 4 Radio Tracking~ Click Here

Looks like a broken link BK

Here is a link directly to that article on the MN DNR Website.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/fisheries/investigational_reports/481.pdf

Additionally for those that are interested here are two links to a large number of DNR technical reports available on the website with a little digging. They are often not written directly for public consumption and therefore use many technical terms and citations, but for those willing to dig there is a wealth of information about the fisheries in Minnesota and management efforts for everything from Bluegill to Muskie. The specific report linked above is number 481 on the top link below.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/fisheries/investigational_reports.html

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/fisheries/special_reports.html

Nick Schlesser – Large Lake Specialist Lake Pepin/Pool 4

Thanks Nick!

here on 16, we have the rock river. its mostly rock bottom and its shallow. in 1993 they did a study on walleye due to wanting to do some dredging. they found most of the walleye on this stretch of the river they tagged spawned in the rock river even through there was plenty of habitat available in the miss.

HND-I crossed that stretch of river on my way back up here Monday-have you been out, the river looks good!

Interesting! Like John mentioned, I fished the Fox/Wolf rivers my entire life. There are travelers (run from Bago up to the northern marshes), lake spawners – ones that never travel up, but spawn on the reefs and shorelines….and the confused ones that travel part way up and spawn wherever they feel like.

I started looking at this in other rivers systems that I fish, and find the same thing. Not all walleyes will spawn on one type of habitat. Some will hit the cattails/grass, some in the wood, and others on gravel. One of Natures’ insurance policies that we will always have some level of a year class.

rev,

been out a few times earlier in december and have done well. ice fishing will overtake priorities here for the next month or so but look forward to getting out late february.

here is the link to the P2 study. Very good read for what its worth. It is the only study that I could find on P2 walleyes and if anyone knows of another it would be cool to read.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/fisheries/investigational_reports/482.pdf

it shows a good # of fish going up the MN and the balance spawning between Minnehaha and L&D #1. They were not able to describe the features that these fish are spawning on but they do like to go up river.

there is one on p16 too if you google for it. even though its not a pool tons fish it still has great info on the spawning habits of walleyes and saugers.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDUQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpubstorage.sdstate.edu%2Fwfs%2F134-F.pdf&ei=1vi2VOLfFdOHsQTY_YGwCw&usg=AFQjCNFSke-y4nHZnVX3q-hcUoKhWjMojQ&sig2=xhfAkPceMlj1SBEOkkpDEA&bvm=bv.83640239,d.cWc&cad=rja

hnd, that’s an awesome read! I wish I’d read that while I still lived there…

Remember the results of that study here in two months(and yes, you can get in there depending on water levels).