willard

[PREDATOR]

It varys according to location and type of lake. Colder waters tend to grow the fish slower but they live longer too. Warmer waters grow them fast but thier life span is shortened. Food type and availability will also determine size of the fish. Nebraska has some impoundment lakes very similar to willard that hold bolth walleye and wipers as well. If I remember right, they have grown fish up to thirteen pounds in less than six years in some of those waters. I am not a biologist and dont know the differences between the ecology of the two lakes so I cant say they are capable of the exact same results. Lake cumberland grows some mosters. They get mixed in with the stripers and take 12 inch live bait minnows fished under floats. I think the thing you have to remember at willard is that in the beginning the stocking program wasnt as regular and as heavy as it is these past couple years. All the big wipers that went over six pounds took a while to get that big. But lets say for example that ten years ago they stocked 5,000 wipers. Just to see how they would do. Then the next year they brought in 5,000 more. By the time they were big enough to catch, there wasnt very many people fishing for them. Then they get big and those original fish start getting harvested. By the time those fish are five years old and quite a good size there is not a whole lot fo them left. we now have an agressive stocking program and plant about 500,000 of them a year. But we also have tripled the daily limit and the popularity of the fish has sky rocketed. Theres still a few of the old fish in there, but I believe that with good shad populations and heavy stocking programs that in another five years we will see more of the big fish survive long enough to get big. That is if anglers use good judgment in thier harvest.
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