Can walleye live in a small pond or a small shallow lake?

They can survive there; they rarely sustain themselves. A walleye population is built for big, open water: adults roam, feed on schooling perch and minnows, and need wind-swept rock and gravel shoals or a flowing river to spawn on, where waves or current keep the scattered eggs clean and oxygenated. A small pond offers none of that, and a shallow one adds warm, oxygen-thin summers that a coolwater fish with a sweet spot of 18–22 °C (64–72 °F) tolerates badly. That is why walleye in small waters are almost always stocked fish maintained by more stocking — they may grow well for a while on a minnow or perch base, but they seldom reproduce. If a small lake does hold a natural population, look for the reason: an inflowing river, or a rocky, wind-exposed shore.

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