Is Conn still stocking walleye or did they stop?

Has anyone even seen a live walleye out of cedar lake?

Nice, thanks for the info Steve.

Nope , Deadbird is the only one I have heard of getting any. Largefry reported a fish kill at the fall stocking there.

I have personally been on the shocking boat spring and fall last year, and we didn't shock a single one. That's not to say they were other areas than our loop. The deepest we shocked was about 8 feet. All of the bass fishing, and trolling for trout, I would think we'd get something? NOTHING! I think Deadbird found the needle in the haystack.

It's good to feel special! I just can't understand why there aren't more fish being caught. No way there's only two that made it a year, maybe they're hanging deep under the alewives.

I've been relatively successful on walleye over the years , one thing I've noticed is that I rarely catch any under about 16" . that seems to be the size where they get catchable . I can't say why , because you'll catch everything in the lake while targeting walleye . If the 6" perch are mauling you why wouldn't the small walleye ? Ice fishing seems to be when I catch any under 16" , smallest I've ever caught was maybe 12" . Haven't tried Cedar for them yet .

Those fish going into Zoar could definitely be better distributed in lakes without consumption advisories .

Some thoughts on the walleye issues.
Zoar is actually the only freshwater body in Ct. that has a verified population of reproducing walleye going back to walleye stocking in Lake Lillinonah during the 1940s. Our own RichZ has caught them in Zoar before the stocking program started. Zoar is a good candidate because it has cold water releases from Lilli and natural areas to spawn up river by the Lilli dam and down by the Pootatuck River mouth among some other spots. On a surface acre comparison, Zoar gets the same stocking rate as Squantz Pond and in any lake with herring, the herring will be the primary food source which is actually a problem for natural reproduction due to the herring's thiamin deficiency.
Regarding Cedar Lake, which I have never been to, there have been lakes that have been poor candidates for walleye stocking. Lake Housatonic was a failure. I have been on electro-shocking trips there where we only got a few walleye and a lot were stocked in there. I think the fact it is really a river system, not a true lake, had the walleye fingerlings going over the Derby dam into the lower Housatonic. In any case, it was taken off of the stocking list. Cedar Lake may have some kind of problem too but what is probably happening is that the walleye are feeding on herring in there and if there are a lot of herring then it does not take much for a walleye to fill up. Ten minutes in the morning, ten more at dusk and ten between the hours of 11pm and 2am and that is it for their daily feeding efforts. In the winter they just eat dead ones that are floating down to the bottom.
Electro-shocking is not a good indicator for walleye surveys except in the two week period in the early spring with water temps in the mid 40s when walleye are in shallow during their spawning activities. That is when you electro-shock for walleye. The rest of the year in a herring lake the walleye are on the bottom in 30' of water, or on the deeper side of drop-offs during the day and at dark they rise up into the thermocline to feed on herring schools or move shallow to get herring and juvenile perch, bluegill, small trout, etc. If they are shallow then they can be gotten by electro-shocking but in herring lakes they are often suspended or on the outside limits of a shocking boat.
As Ecur said, you rarely get small walleye. One reason is they are scarce. Squantz gets about 4,000 walleye a year whereas there are over 8,000 trout put in and there are probably tens of thousands of juvenile perch and bluegill in Squantz. So it is a numbers game. Like Ecur, when I have caught small walleye it usually was through the ice.
Finally, I have fished for walleye all over the U.S. and Canada and no matter the venue, you have to fish specifically for walleye to catch walleye. They don't tend to be an incidental catch much and when they are it is usually a bass fisherman throwing a big white spinner bait or a deep diving crank bait, something that might catch not only bass but also pike, big trout, or walleye.
For Cedar Lake, there is no significant structure to target like an offshore hump so I would target areas that are showing huge balls of herring or troll along the shore breaks in about 20' of water down 10' or out deeper and down 15' or more to stay in the thermocline after it sets up in late spring. I would troll jointed, lipped swimmers giving the rod tip some motion so the lure pulsates as it moves along. I like black tops with orange bottoms and sides about 4" long.
My personal choice though is to fish at dusk with live herring staying out with lights like a floating crappie light to draw in herring and fish my baits to the outside of the light cone. I fish until about mid-night to get one after dark flurry in along with the dusk bite that goes hard until the false sunset finally goes dark and then after about an hour that bite is over until a night bite starts. In the eastern district no bait shops carry live alewife herring so large Arkansas shiners, big killies/mummies, big golden shiners or any kind of big chub will work. In the spring the north end where Pattaconk Brook comes in would be a good place to try. From 10' into the brook mouth throw a slip bobber rig to get your baits away from the boat and up towards the brook mouth. Set the bobber-stop so your bait is about 2' off of the bottom and use two buckshot split shot to keep the live bait near the bottom so they don't swim up too high in the water column and out of the stike range of the cruising walleye. If there are herring out deeper, say 15' to 20', fish your baits down from half way to the bottom to all the way just off the bottom. You are in enough water to draw in herring with the crappie light and have enough vertical depth to keep the walleye from getting spooky unless you are banging things around. Walleye hate bright lights and noise.
There are other spots that would play out better in the summer. The walleye will move south to the deep section and spend their summer in that 30 to 40 foot area living on the bottom during the day and then suspending on herring balls during feeding hours. The mid-western shore has a ridge that drops down to 30' and the same contour exists in the southeastern corner dropping into 40' at the deepest point of the lake. The mid eastern section has some promising water also. In these two spots I would anchor up in 15' of water, cast one slip bobber in shallow or to the weed edge and the other straight down for deeper cruising walleye.
I would run sonar to find the herring concentrations. Cedar Lake is only 70 acres so the bait concentrations will not be hard to find. Walleye wander so in any given week an individual walleye could inhabit literally every good spot in the lake so finding the walleye will depend on finding the herring. Sonar is absolutely critical to either the stationary bait fishing or the trolling to keep on the same depth contour as you go around the lake. Speaking of lake size, walleye like large lakes which have pelagic bait fish like alewife herring, where they can wander, feed and have multiple stopping spots that appeal to them. Small lakes like Cedar Lake, Mt.Tom Pond, and Batterson Park Pond are not really good walleye stocking candidates. The best lake of all in Ct. would be Candlewood Lake but it would take nearly 100,000 walleye fry to cover the lake at the same density as Zoar or Squantz and we do not have the funds to do that.
Sorry for the long post, I get thinking and typing and the next thing I know I am over my bandwidth allowance. Good luck trying to find the walleye. If you have a successful trip let us know with a trip report.

Buck...excellent post, informative and on point!

Lake Zoar?

Am I wrong but isn't that Lake Housatonic? Derby does not border Lake Zoar as far as I know.

We have had CTF Walkeye night events before...13 or so years ago....1 on Squantz and 1 on Gardner. I landed 1 small walleye during the Squantz event, and lost a big walleye at the Gardner event. I took my daughters to the Gardner night event when they were like 3 and 4 years old since I couldn't get a babysitter. Somewhere I have a pic of them konked out in their car seats in my truck when I got back in the truck to pull the boat out of the launch.

Bruce, Lake Housatonic was the first of the three Housy impoundments to get walleye fingerlings going back to the start of the program in the 90s but it was never proved to be successful during electro-shocking trips. Myself and RobertV fished it hard a few times and Robert did even more so and we could never pattern a reliable bite. We caught more and bigger walleye below the Derby dam at the confluence with the Naugy, that is why I offered the opinion that maybe we were losing the fingerlings over the Derby dam. Walleye will always move to active water flow, they are really a big river fish and in lakes will congregate in front of river mouths, outlets, dams, etc.
So a couple of years ago the Inland Fisheries group decided to try Lake Zoar since it had a history of successful walleye activity over the years. That is why Zoar is the focus now getting some 9,000 or more walleye fingerlings each Fall. Whether this will be successful or not remains to be seen.
The only walleye water that gets any publicity and feedback is Squantz Pond. The DEEP can't survey each of these waters every year so they rely on fishermen to give reports on sites like CTF. Walleye fishermen are more secretive than native brookie guys so getting info is hard. If you have good input then link in with Inland Fisheries and speak privately with Tim Barry, Bob Jacobs or Peter Aarrestad and let them know what is happening on your trips. Your input is very important to these biologists.

I would be in Paul. let me know when.... I will even Drag KT to his first CTF event (other than the swap meet)

I would be in for a "THE 1st Annual CTF Cedar Lake Elusive Walleye Round-Up"......after the event results we'll see if it's worth doing a 2nd annual.

Wanna Co-Plan as locals Paul?

Hi Bruce, actually right now, some of the first stocking have been caught this spring in the upper sections and were in the 18 inch range. Whether enough will make it to a fishable population like Squantz has been for many years still has to be evaluated but so far it appears it is doing better than Lake Housatonic did in its early years.
I am not tuned into what the herring population is in Lake Zoar but I know some are in there and will feed the walleye well. The problem is a total diet of herring affects the ability of the walleye to spawn successfully. Actually the eggs hatch but the fry only survive for about seven days until the egg sack is used up. They have a thiamin deficiency that has something to do with digestion or metabolism, kind of forget the details now but in any case, they can't survive.
Inland Fisheries did a study by stripping eggs from walleye in Squantz and having them fertilized with males captured from the same spawning reef and then hatched out the fry. I think it was Rowledge Trout Farm that did this for us but we may have done it at our own hatchery. In any case, the fry did not survive. That is why we buy fingerlings which have a fairly high survival rate for our walleye program.
Now Zoar also has a lot of river type chubs, minnows, banded killifish, etc. and tons of juvenile perch so there is lots of feed in there other than herring which is a difference between Zoar and Squantz. Plus Zoar had a surviving walleye population that were descendants of a 1940s stocking in Lilli so natural reproduction is a possibility and with the Pomperaug and Pootatuck Rivers and the stretch from the base of the dam downstream a half mile there is plenty of spawning areas for them to reproduce.
I think it can become a good fishery for walleye.

Yup cant wait to pick him for information down south