Do walleye shrink in the live well?

[hardwater fisherman]

I was watching a Canadian fishing show and it was said when put in a live well walleye will shrink a little bit.In the province I live in we have a slot size of 37cm to 50cm. That is roughly 14 1/2 to 21 inches. This morning I caught one just over 15 inches so I put it on a chain over the side of the boat. After a couple of hours when I was leaving I thought about what was said and I measured it again and it was just barely legal. It had shrunk a almost 1/2 an inch. Has anyone else ever noticed this?

 

[Grub54891]

That HAS to be why my fishing stories are never believed by anyone......:grumpy:

 

[gm280]

I had a live well in my first Bass Boat and never had to use it for a year or more. Then I caught a fish... :facepalm:

 

[dingbat]

The warmer the water the more shirkage you get.

In warm weather, everything goes on ice. Only use fish boxes once the water gets cold, ie 60 degrees or less.
Even then, nothing "close" goes in the box. Inspections are common with no room for error.

 

[WIMUSKY]

I thought cold......... Never mind.......

Tell the Game Warden the walleye shrunk as he writes a ticket.....

 

[hardwater fisherman]

It is the first time I have had to deal with a slot size. So I will be more aware.

 

[Teamster]

My experience from fishing tournaments is the walleye will be tensed up when caught and maybe get an extra 1/8th of an inch after it has been in the livewell and is a bit relaxed,..........

 

[hardwater fisherman]

My experience from fishing tournaments is the walleye will be tensed up when caught and maybe get an extra 1/8th of an inch after it has been in the livewell and is a bit relaxed,..........

That is what I thought would happen, but I have only checked the one time so I cant say for certain.

 

[82rude]

Wish I still had the picture.I have or had proof positive that a wally can shrink up to 1/2 its size when put in a live well for a period of time with a large pike!So I was going to tell any c.o. that stopped me I caught the pike but the pike caught the wally and im sure he doesn't have to follow any stinkin slot size,lol.Probably wouldn't of worked though,my brother was a little ticked off though,as it was his wally or was until my pike decided to have a snack.

 

[dingbat]

http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...aught_Walleyes

This study was initiated because law enforcement personnel needed to know if angler-caught
walleyes changed in length after capture and after freezing. We found that live-well-held walleyes did not significantly change length through 10 h postharvest.

However, walleyes placed on ice did decrease in total length. The amount of length change was related to water temperature, with the greatest decrease occurring for walleyes collected at colder water temperatures. The question then arises, ‘‘How much leeway do you give anglers?’’ Brousseau and Armstrong (1987) indicated that, given variation in the measuring technique, legal prosecution is more difficult near the limits of a protected slot length regulation. Enforcement personnel should take water temperature and condition of fish into account when deciding whether to write a citation, but in general, a 6-mm leeway should suffice for most situations.