HOW MANY EGGS DO A WALLEYE LAY?

A female walleye on the larger size can lay about five hundred thousand eggs. However, not all these eggs will hatch, nor will all the fry live. The eggs and the fry are not taken care of by the male or female after spawning. The female lays the eggs and moves on her way. The eggs are like an adhesive and will stick to the area where the female lays them. Once the spawn is done, the eggs usually hatch anywhere from twelve to thirty days after the female has laid them. After the hatch and the fry’s have eaten the yolk left over from the hatch, they move onto zooplankton and fly larvae. After about sixty days, the walleye will start feeding on fish. The smaller walleye will grow in almost every water they are in because most waters have a size restriction. This helps keep the waters populated with walleye and the spawn continues. Since there are restrictions on sizes, you should always allow the female walleye to spawn. If you hook a female before she has laid her eggs, you need to carefully place her back in the water so that she can deposit the eggs. If anglers were to keep females during spawning, this could continue to lower the walleye populations in the waters. When you are fishing walleye during the spawn, make sure that the female has laid her eggs or turn her back into the water to spawn. Everyone has to make sure that we will always have walleye to fish in our favorite fishing holes year after year.