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With the rough muddy water conditions this year and water temps hovering around spawning temps. What will become of this years spawn? Or is it less about the spawn and more about the conditions in the following month that determine the survival rate of what actually hatches?
Survival rate will determine the success of the spawn, each year plenty of fry hatch but water conditions determine there survival.
Survival rate depends on current flow after the hatch. If we have inshore current flow that pushes the walleye fry inshore where there is lots of plankton to feed on we end up with a great hatch. this is what happened during the 03 spawn.
Also a good indicator is the colder the winter the more Shad die off. Shad compete with the Walleye fry for plankton. Less Shad in the early Spring = more Walleye fry survive.
We have a place at Green Cove since 2000 but in the last 2 years some students from OHIO ST rented the unit above us. If you are out fishing the reefs you will see the the BLACK Flags they are sample mats for the DNR which the students check on a regular basis. I talked to them last year and asked about the samples they said most of the eggs were dead. I thought with all the warm weather it would have the opposite. Well this year I saw them again this week, and asked again, and to my suprise the told me that they were hard pressed to find a dead egg on the mats. So lets hope for nice steady warmup for the plankton and without all the shad we might just have another superhatch on our hands. Lets just hope!!:D
i believe there is alot of factors that plays a major role in the spawn and survival. the water conditions and the weather during the spawn and then the water conditions and weather and the shad all play a major roll after the hatch. lets just all keep our fingers crossed this year that we have a good hatch and survival rate.
sherman