Don P
Member
Registered: 05/03/07
Posts: 19804
Loc: CLINTON, CT
Originally Posted By: PDona
Buck, I always learn something when you join in the conversations! I've done a ton of trolling for trout around the 15-20 ft range this year so far and haven't caught one, yet. I'll definitely try the night time gig. Maybe we can get some boats together and end the war on this elusive creature?
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.
Buck, I always learn something when you join in the conversations! I've done a ton of trolling for trout around the 15-20 ft range this year so far and haven't caught one, yet. I'll definitely try the night time gig. Maybe we can get some boats together and end the war on this elusive creature?
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.
I was lucky enough to fish with Buck on Gardner at one of those! I also fished the Squantz one! Let's do a Cedar one!
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.
bk
Member
Registered: 06/06/01
Posts: 4255
Loc: Newtown
Originally Posted By: Buck
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.
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.