Why Were the Walleye Numbers Way Down in 2024?

First: Spring Weather

The first three weeks in April were unusually warm. This caused an early ice-out. Then near the end of April it turned cold again with a couple of snow storms. Then came an unusual amount of heavy rain storms with unusually hot days in-between. It resulted in the following:

• The Walleyes spawned three weeks early

• The spring weather screwed up the May Fly Hatch. There are four species of May Flies in the lake. They usually hatch all at the same time, which is usually the week after the first full moon in June. This year they started hatching at the beginning of June and all four species took turns hatching a week apart from each other. This made June one long May Fly hatch. The Walleyes we did manage to catch had their stomachs stuffed with flies so they were not too interested in what we had to offer.

At the end of June the pine trees started to pollinate resulting in a week of yellow film on the lake. This forced the Walleyes away from shore where waves were pushing the pollen down deep. Fishing along rocky drop-offs and points did not work because the Walleyes were not there.

Second: Water Levels

Traditionally the water drops in Crotch very slowly and steadily. They let the dam out a little at a time to keep water levels down river high. As the water drops the Walleyes slowly make the transition from the weedy areas to the rocky shorelines and as the summer progresses they go deeper. By mid-July the Walleyes are usually 20' to 25' deep along shorelines, ridges, points and open water humps. This year they did not let water out slowly so in mid-June to mid-August we were catching them in 12' to 16' in the weedy areas.

Then the dreaded August 24th happened. They dropped the dam 6' and it took about three days for the water levels to drop 6'. This was an overwhelming shock to the Walleyes. Instead of making the transition to their usual summer depths and locations they disappeared into the depths of the lake. Most just sat on bottom in 50' to 60' and went into hibernation.

Why not fish deep?

If you bring a Walleye up to the surface from depths deeper than 35' you have killed it. They don't burp out air like Lake Trout do. Their air bladder expands and ruptures organs. Since there is a slot size in Crotch Lake killing a bunch of Walleyes so you can keep a couple in the slot is not responsible fish management. From August 26 to October 12 we got four Walleyes in the boat.

On the flip side the bass fishing was spectacular and knowing we did not have a good chance at catching Walleyes; I took people bass fishing.