Number of walleye in a lake

[bullhead master]

I've recently been wondering how many walleye are in a lake like Red or Ottertail. I looked, but couldn't find any reports. Have there ever been population estimates? What's the biggest school of walleye you have ever seen under the ice?

[Fowlmouth]

17.2 million

[mxzfire]

Hmmm. I only counted 16.9

[ClownColor]

A buddy and I counted only 5.8 million one weekend. That was prespawn thou.

[bullhead master]

Haha you guys are funny. I finally found two studies that estimate an average of between 2.9 to 7.7 walleye/acre of lake. Therefore Upper Red Lake, being 48,000 acres, would most likely have between 1.39 million and 3.7 million walleye. However this study took place in Wisconsin so there would probably be a large percentage of error. Apparently some people don't know how to count

http://www.glifwc.org/Fisheries/Inland/awpe.html

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/fishing/documents/ceded/200506AnnualReport.pdf

[BobT]

It can vary so much from one body of water to another and even from one area of a given lake to another that trying to estimate the actual population of a particular species is next to impossible I suspect. Predation, food supply, water ph, oxygen content, depth, and cover are just a few variables that come to mind.

[CaptainMusky]

Correction. 48,000 acres is the size of the portion of Upper Red Lake accessible to non-native americans. All of Lower Red Lake and much of Upper Red are off limits. Upper Red is around 120,000 acres in totality.

[yoppdk]

Aren't any in Pokegama (G.R.) ... I know because I checked last weekend.

[ClownColor]

instead of all that math, one could simple visit MNDNR and search the "actual" lake for fish counts...