why lake has stunted northerns

[leechlake]

My folks have had a place near Walker for 50 years. I'm 38 and for my whole life catching snake after snake is no problem. 1-1/2- 2 pounders make up 90% plus of the catch. Rarely over the years do you ever catch anything over about 5 pounds. There are some walleyes (that average 3 pounds or so and I've caught many over 26", along with 14" plus crappies)and crappies, but the "stunted" northern population is gigantic. Is this due to the gene pool of the northerns? If it were a food issue I wouldn't expect the walleyes to be so much bigger than an average lake or for the crappies to be so much bigger than average also.

[river rat316]

Stunted northerns happen when there arent any larger Northerns left in the lake to control the population, Large Northerns are the main predator for small northerns, when there arent enough of em around (the large ones) then the small ones are way to aggressive and eat out there food base, walleyes wouldn't be as greatly affected buy this because they generally live in different areas, the best thing you could do is harvest all the one to 2.5 pounders you can and leave the bigger ones in the lake, if everyone did this than eventually the size base would grow.