Question regarding Ohio’s record walleye size vs. other state records.

There are a total of 17 states that have registered a state record Walleye bigger than what Lake Erie’s Ohio waters have produced. Of the states that border Ohio, the only one we trump in the state record size is Indiana. West Virginia’s Elk River has given up a larger walleye than Lake Erie at 18.97lbs.

With the abundance of forage fish and the vast area that Lake Erie has to offer, why is it that Lake Erie cannot produce a caught walleye that pushes the 20lb mark? Any thoughts regarding this?

~ Just a question that I have always pondered


The link below is to a list of other state record walleyes
http://www.walleyecentral.com/fish-records.shtml

Buc-Eye,

Not sure about the other states surrounding OH, but as for the walleye caught in the elk (and other parts of WV) these are a different strain of walleye, actually a river strain. They grow bigger faster and have larger eggs when spawning. You can probably do some searching and find out more, but they are different.

Wvguy71
That’s interesting… Looking at the list of records caught elsewhere, many are river or reservoir fish. I just googled “walleye strains” and it does appear that there is a variety of them out there. Thanks for the info!

Some of the posted records are out dated. Washington State record is now over 20.....big Columbia River fish.