Otisco Lake Fall Walleye Survey (2012)
Survey Number: 712018
Survey Dates: October 1 and 4, 2012
Fall night electrofishing was conducted along 3.7 miles of the Otisco Lake shoreline to determine the relative success of the 2012 stocking of 44,000 fifty-day walleye fingerlings. The lake level was very low due to the warm dry summer of 2012; it was approximately 3 foot below normal fall level. This made near shore sampling south of the causeway extremely difficult. Only nine Young-of-Year (YOY) walleye (161-205mm) were captured along with two adults (455 and 556mm). All of the walleye captured were caught south of the causeway, where the majority of the stocked walleye have been planted since 2002. Of the 44,000 stocked in June 2012, approximately 33,000 were stocked south of the causeway and 11,000 north of the causeway.
Using Serns' 1982 formula for estimating numbers of YOY walleye provides a population estimate of 374 in the south end of the lake below the causeway. If accurate this estimate represents only a 1.13% survival rate (based on the 33,000 stocked south of the causeway). All nine YOY walleye collected were sent to the Shackelton Point Biological station to check for OTC marking to determine if they were wild or hatchery fish.
Gamefish were the target species. Along with the walleye, six tiger musky (248-688mm), 16 smallmouth bass (100-397mm), and 50 largemouth bass (161-556mm) were collected.
