Area fishermen have been “wowed” by the great success of the Florida bass stocking program in Chickamauga Lake in recent years. The program has resulted in huge bass, and anglers across Tennessee are now clamoring for similar programs on their waters. There is another, less publicized fisheries experiment underway on Chickamauga Lake, however. Earlier this year, TWRA fisheries professionals stocked more than 322,000 walleye in the upper end of Chickamauga Lake.
Walleye is a freshwater “perciform” fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. They are first cousins to sauger, which were once plentiful in the Tennessee River. Walleye, however, have always been present in small numbers as well—and in fact, Old Hickory Lake north of Nashville lays claim to the world record walleye of 25 pounds, caught in 1960 by Mabry Harper.
Walleye and sauger look very similar. However, one major distinguishing feature is a distinctive white lower lobe on a walleye’s tail.
Just as Tennessee is the northernmost state where Florida bass can thrive, it seems that we are also the southernmost state where walleye might thrive. In the past decade or two, the once-plentiful sauger have been declining dramatically.
TWRA fisheries biologist Mike Jolley has studied the sauger decline.
“One main observation is that preferred water flows are not always available and [sauger] have a relatively short life span [three to five years], which puts more demand on consecutive year classes being available for natural reproduction,” he said.
Jolley has been promoting increased walleye stocking and said that, this year, TWRA warm water hatcheries were able to produce a large surplus of walleye fingerlings, hence the additional stocking in Chickamauga Lake.
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