Central Maine Fishing Report: July 9, 2008
In the past month we’ve received disturbing news of anglers catching and releasing walleye in Long Pond. Walleye are a non-native fish species to Maine but are a very popular sport fish primarily in the Midwest and Canada.
The Belgrade Lakes did have an introduced population of walleye back in the 1940s but this population was thought to have been eliminated possibly through over harvesting. People discovered that large concentration of walleye were very susceptible to harvest during their annual spring spawning run. The eyes of walleye illuminate green at night when light is reflected. People took advantage of this fact by illuminating the fish with a flashlight and then spearing them in the shallows. This practice probably played a significant role in the demise of walleyes in the Belgrade Lakes.
During our 1996 routine fall trapnetting operation in Long Pond we captured a single walleye, this was the first walleye observed in Long Pond since the 1940s. The following 10 years we captured a total of 31 walleyes. These fish were all from the same cohort (all were spawned the same year). The first one caught was age 3 and we followed this cohort through age 12 in 2005. Since these fish were all from the same age class we believe they were illegally stocked. Until this summer we thought no natural reproduction from this illegal stocked fish had occurred but now it appears there may have been some limited reproduction.
The following table summarizes the size structure of the walleye trapnetted.
Age — Length (Inches) — Weight (lb.)
3 — 17.8 — 2.2
4 — 20.5 — 3.3
5 — 23.0 — 4.7
6 — 23.7 — 5.4
7 — 23.3 — 5.3
9 — 25.0 — 6.3
10 — 25.6 — 6.2
12 — 23.0 — 4.8
The fish caught this summer are approximately 16 inches in length which indicates that there’s either been another illegal stocking or the fish have reproduced naturally in the lake. We will be trapnetting Long Pond this fall and if we should catch any walleye we’ll try to determine the origin of these fish. In the meantime if anyone should catch a walleye please save the fish and contact the Sidney Regional Fisheries Office.