How many years does it take a walleye to get to 16 inches?

[BLACKJACK]

If you're looking at a stocking report and it says that they stocked 2 million walleye fry in 2002, how many years will it before they reach 16 inches? How about fingerlings? Figure an average lake in central Minnesota. Thanks.

[swampman]

Fry and fingerlings should be about the same as they are from the same year class. the fingerlings that are planted could run a little bigger in the fall than there spring stocked siblings because the ponds where alot of these are raised are more fertile than alot of lakes. I would agree with above post 3 maybe 4 years.

[IFallsRon]

According to the DNR, it generally takes three to four years for a walleye to grow to 14 inches in length (minimum length) and six to eight years for a walleye to reach 22 inches in length. A typical walleye can live 15 years and reach 20 lbs.

Walleye have been known to live as long as 26 years in cold northern waters, although a walleye over 15 years old is rare. How fast a walleye grows and how big it becomes is largely dependent upon the availability of food and the length of the growing season. In Canadian waters where there is a very short growing season and not much food a seven-year-old walleye may only weigh about two pounds. The same fish in a southern lake, with an eight- or nine-month growing season and abundant food, may grow to 15 pounds during that same seven-year period.

[widetrack]

Genetics plays more of a role in how big it eventually becomes.

Most walleyes will quit growing at 30-32 inches. Bigger then those are a genetic freak of nature.

[Insp Gadget]

I read somewhere in the paper in the article about the Mille Lacs slots that they are expecting the 2002 hatch to reach 14 inches late this summer or in fall. I would then guess about 3 years would get you 16.

Gadget

[merc]

Just read an article where the DNR stated the statewide average is four years for a walleye to get 15".

[davemeyer]

From what i have read, it is almost all about the latitude of the lake and the further north you go the slower they grow and the longer they live. I read the DNR report for my favorite lake in central minnesota and they said that they netted a walleye twenty years old only 28". I have caught a 31" and i have seen a picute of a 34" out of the same lake and I am sure that they are 20+ years old.

[Northlander]

Longer the more you go North. Lake Superior eyes grow real slow but live a long time.

[Gissert]

Sometimes it just comes down to the individual lake. Ottertail has slower growth rates for walleyes than most of the surrounding lakes.