walleye male female

I have not fished Mille Lacs much this year but…. I have caught very few walleyes over 23″ which were all nice chunky female walleyes. The few walleyes between 21″ and 23″ that have been caught and kept have all been male walleyes with a slimmer build. The walleyes that were caught between 18″ and 21″ had this same slim build which looked like male. 21″ – 23″ typically is considered large for a male walleye.

It seems a bit odd to me the ratio of male to female walleyes that I am catching. I would think that some of these 18″ – 23″ walleyes would be females with eggs. Maybe it happens to be the location that I am fishing but what are others seeing?

Same ratio as the bar I was in years ago. Sorry

wkw wrote:

Same ratio as the bar I was in years ago. Sorry

No sorry needed. Actually made me chuckle. And if you also brought up the size difference at the bar I might have even chuckled harder.

how are you making the sex determination? just based on the length/girth relationship?

I was told my a fisheries person that males rarely reach 24 inches.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

how are you making the sex determination? just based on the length/girth relationship?

Much of it is surely not scientific. The majority of the ones between 21 -23″ have been taken home and cut open. They were delicious but were all male. My non scientific approach on the rest were based off of girth in which females in this size structure discussed should have a fair portion of egg development already but the ones under 23″ shown none or possibly very little and I did not notice it..

Yes, I like to eat fish occasionally and prefer to keep smaller fish but the regulations are what they are…….

I found a ton of stuff on survival rates, and spawning temps, but couldn’t find anything on how long a walleye retains there eggs for. I have caught walleye in the fall with eggs though so I would think if they were female they would have some kind of eggs in them.

Riverrat wrote:

I found a ton of stuff on survival rates, and spawning temps, but couldn’t find anything on how long a walleye retains there eggs for. I have caught <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye in the fall with eggs though so I would think if they were female they would have some kind of eggs in them.

My thoughts also and curios what others might be seeing. I also watched a you tube video some time in the last week or so. Can’t remember whos video but it was on Mille Lacs fishing recently and the fish they caught based on the length and girth looked to mirror my experiences.

I’m not a scientist but I don’t think that basing sex purely off of the presence of eggs is accurate. I’d be curious to know if there’s another way to determine the sex of a walleye.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I was told my a fisheries person that males rarely reach 24 inches.

ya I get that part but using that methodology, you can’t sex any walleyes under 24″ with any degree of accuracy.

One site I just checked said if the fishes mouth is open when you pull it up its male, and if its closed its female. Another site said something about if you catch it on a musky plug its a male, and if you catch it on a bucktail jig its a female.. Every site does seem to agree that there isn’t really a way to be acccurate unless your getting some body fluids on you.

Many years ago I read a story written in the “Muskie Hunter” regarding the sexing of them by the anal pore. I don’t remember exactly all the details, but one sex was the normal pear-shaped opening and the other sex was in the shape of a keyhole. So I went to the local WDNR biologist here in the Minocqua area asking if this sexing could be done with walleyes… He told me that it was impossible to sex walleyes and that during spring fyke net surveys, the only evidence to sex was either via egg loss or milt excretion. However, they have noted that most walleyes here in northern WI over 17″ are egg producers and anything smaller most likely will be males. Noting that, I pretty much have utilized that for most all of my selective harvest. Now as mentioned on ML above, size limits don’t allow for very many alternatives to not keep anything other than females.

Walleyes for Tomorrow run their egg collection wagons up here at various lakes and on one such lake, they had collected all the eggs they needed and were unable to catch a male to get the milt to fertilize the eggs. Short story to this was they were unable to collect any milt from wither the WDNR or GLIFWC to be able to fertilize because of the VHS scare where they were not allowing any cross contamination from any other waters.

Mark

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

ya I get that part but using that methodology, you can’t sex any walleyes under 24″ with any degree of accuracy.

True

Once you get it in the boat and it starts telling you that you did it all wrong, well then.
It’s a female.

Yep, girth not a definitive way of determining but I have harvested 6 between 21″ and 23″ (several trips with my son) and all have been male which started the thought that this seems odd.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Once you get it in the boat and it starts telling you that you did it all wrong, well then.
It’s a female.

Was out this morning with a few buddies we ended up with 3 in the slot 2 we’re female and had eggs developing one was male. I thought it was odd the the eggs were not further along. Last year the week after opener we got 2 over 26 that were males. I know it is rare to get males that Large but mille lacs is its own animal.

^I don’t understand how people are determining walleye sex post-spawn???

It seems the odds of multiple fish over 26” being males would be similar to being struck by lightning on a sunny day, but I’m not biologist whatsoever.

The 2 we had were sperming all over the boat that is how we determined they were male

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Once you get it in the boat and it starts telling you that you did it all wrong, well then.
It’s a female.

speaking from experience are you????

michael keehr wrote:

The 2 we had were sperming all over the boat that is how we determined they were male

Probably one of the best ways! ;>)

Buffalo Fishhead