The outlook for walleye and saugeye fishing looks good for upcoming years after total of 28.3 million walleye fry, 529,404 walleye fingerlings, and 101,800 saugeye were found at various locations around Indiana this spring.
Stocking of these species is scheduled annually because they don’t reproduce naturally in most locations.
Fry were stocked at the end of April, while walleye and hybrid walleye fingerlings were stocked at the end of May and early this month.
Typically, walleye and hybrid will reach 14 inches two years after being stocked and 16 inches after three years.
This year was successful for egg collection, hating rates for fry, and fingerling production, meaning hatchery staff and biologists were able to fully stock all requested locations, including a few on the surplus list.
These lakes, with their counties in parentheses, were stocked as follows:
Walleye fry were stocked at Bass (Starke), Brookville (Franklin and Union), Eagle Creek (Marion), Mississinewa (Wabash), Monroe (Brown and Monroe), Patoka (Orange, Dubois, and Crawford).
Walleye fingerlings were stocked at Cagles Mill (Owen and Putnam), Freeman (Carroll), Kokomo Reservoir (Howard), Lake of the Woods (Marshall), Pike (Kosciusko), Prairie Creek Reservoir (Delaware), Shafer (White), Summit (Henry), and Oakdale Damn on Tippecanoe River (Carroll).
Saugeye fingerlings were stocked at Glenn Flint (Putnam), Huntingburg (Dubois), Koteewi Park (Hamilton), and Sullivan (Sullivan).
The statewide bag limit for walleye, sauger, and saugeye is six fish per day in combination.
For walleye, the minimum size limit is 14 inches for waters south of State Road 26 and 16 inches for waters north of State Road 26.
Lakes with walleye exceptions are Bass (Starke) and Wolf (Lake) where the minimum is 14 inches, Lake George (Steuben) where the minimum is 15 inches, and Wall (LaGrange) where the minimum is 16 inches with a two fish daily bag limit.
There’s no size limit on saugeye or sauger except on Huntingburg Lake (Dubois), Glenn Flint Lake (Putnam), and Sullivan Lake (Sullivan) where the minimum size limit is 14 inches.
Ohio River has a minimum size limit of 14 inches and a six fish combination limit per day for walleye, sauger, and saugeye.
To learn more about fishing for walleye at wildlife.IN.gov/fishing/walleye-fishing. For more information about fish stocking in Indiana visit in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/fishing/Indiana-fish-stocking/.
