If you want to learn about a new type of forage connection, then here’s a good one for you…..

Back in October, many lakes received their annual walleye stockings. Many stockings succeed, others do not.

As my anglers and I launched that morning, we found several carcasses of deceased extended growth fingerling walleyes littered along the lake bottom. We counted maybe 40 or 50 of them in the blowhole alone.

These dead walleyes didn’t add up to me until we started catching BIG smallmouths all along a large flat a couple hundred yards from of the landing……. and some of them (to 21″) were puking out 6 and 7 inch walleyes.

I have never seen this feeding preference before, but these fish probably cannot differentiate between 6 inch perch and a 6 inch juvenile walleye…… We caught nearly 2 dozen smallmouths off that flat and it seemed as if each one was positioned to intercept all of those uneducated stocker walleyes that had been planted just prior. Fascinating, but probably not ideal for stocking success.

This is a forage preference and predation most common with largemouth bass, who are pests in this regard. But smallmouths? That’s a new one!!!!

Are these little stocker walleyes dumb? Or are these big smallmouths smart? If I was a 21 incher, I’d eat that vulnerable 7-inch stocker.

Word from the biologist:

So those were definitely some smart SMB taking advantage of our non-smart stocked walleye. We didn’t have any immediate mortalities at the time of stocking, but that seems to be normal….I think the stress from stocking has more of a delayed impact on them. I tend to believe there is a decent amount of mortality that happens right away on most stocking events….but normally we cant see them. I think the clear water, and the fact that they are stocked in the little lagoon makes them a little more visible. We did stock 8,394 walleye in there, so hopefully some make it. Our data shows that the walleye aren’t surviving to adulthood well out there, this is possibly part of the problem.

What this means is we’ve got to start throwing 6 to 8 inch swimbaits more.