Grew up on the lake and even worked on it for 4 years. Never seen a walleye until I caught a fingerling the other day in a castnet trying to get bait. I know it was stocked way back in the day with them but thought they were too sensitive to the fluctuating temp to hold a substainable population. Anyone else have experience with walleye on Belton?

It might not have been a walley fingerling. More than likely it was a log perch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logperch

I caught one a loooong time ago fishing for catfish with nightcrawlers when I was a kid. I thought I caught a mutated species until the game warden told me what it was. I haven't heard or seen one caught since. That was back in the late 80's or early 90's. There's some type of small fish that lives under the rocks that looks very similar to a juvenile walleye but it's a different species and they don't get much bigger than 2-3 inches.

They were stocked in several lakes back in the 80's or so. We had them in Grapevine Lake, we caught several over a 5 yr period that were between 2 and 5 lbs. After that, I haven't seen or heard of any being caught. I think the water gets too hot or something and they never spawned successfully. Check out my link above, I'm pretty sure that's what you caught in your cast net. Those appear on a lot of lakes and almost every time someone thinks they netted a fingerling walleye.

More than likely a Log Perch. Walleye have not been stocked since 1974.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/belton/

they don't reproduce on their own in Texas (I guess they might in rare cases, but they don't even reproduce in Oklahoma or Kansas), so if it wasn't stocked this year it wasn't a walleye.

I get those in minnow traps Grapevine.

Educate me on what a "log perch" looks like.Haven't heard of one.Curious.

Sorry. I missed the reference at top of page.Now I know

Not true. Walleye reproduced in Meredith every year on their own, when it had water.

I think Elephant Buttes just over the state line in NM has a pretty good Walleye fishery.

Is Meredith in Colorado? It is a fact Walleye can't reproduce on their own in most areas down south. I'm not talking just Texas, but even colder places like Kansas, Kansas Fish & Game worked very hard to milk the Walleye from the lakes and then release the fry. So they spawn, just nothing makes it unless Fish & Game helps. However, I believe you are right that Meredith in the panhandle must have the altitude and colder weather for Walleye to do OK. They stocked it really good in 2000, but not since. So people caught 1-2 pound walleye in the years 2008+?

Meredith is dry now. It is 45 minutes north of Amarillo. It was 1st stocked in late 60`s with walleye and then again in 2000. We caught countless numbers of them from 70`s thru 90`s.

�Walleye:The walleye population has remained relatively stable and was reproducing during record low water levels. Walleye are the most popular sport fish in the reservoir and some reached 16 inches by age 2. http://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/lake_survey/pwd_rp_t3200_1335/2008.phtml


Meredith holds the Texas state record for walleye and smallmouth.

He also said "in come rare cases" geeze.

No, He said "some". Geeze.