from Lower Red Lake, Lake of the Woods and 

 Lake Erie (Deason, ms.) are compared in table 

 12. (Also see fig. 3.) Fish from Lower Red 

 Lake and Lake of the Woods grew more rapidly 

 (93 and 94 millimeters) during the first year 

 than in LaKe Erie . During the second year, Lake 

 Erie fish grew more rapidly than during their 

 first year in contrast to the Red Lake and Lake 

 of the Woods fish, which grew more slowly dur- 

 ing their second year than during the first. 

 Beyond the second year the growth increments 

 of Lake Erie fish were the largest in every year 

 but one (the fourth) and the increments of the 

 Red Lake fish were the smallest in every year 

 except the sixth . The grand average calculated 

 lengths of the Lake Erie walleyes were the 

 largest and those of the Red Lake fish the small- 

 est in all years beyond the second. 



Hart (1928) studied the growth of wall- 

 eyes from Lakes Nipigon and Abitibi, Ontario 

 by means of age determinations, but did not cal- 

 culate growth from scale measurements . The 

 average fork and converted total lengths and 

 weights of the Nipigon and Abitibi fish are com- 

 pared in table 13 with similar data from Lower 

 Red Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Lake Erie. 

 Lower Red Like fish averaged shorter and 

 lighter in most age groups than Lake Erie and 

 Lake of the Woods individuals . However, the 

 walleyes from Lakes Nipigon and Abitibi were 

 much slower growing than those from Lower Red 

 Lake during the period covered by the 1938 

 samples. 



A comparison of the growth of the Red 

 Lake walleye with average growth of the species 

 in Minnesota as determined by Eddy and Car- 

 lander (1939) in£a.cated that Red Lake fish grew 

 more slowly than the average except in the first 

 year of life during the years covered by data 

 collected in 1938 . 



Length -weight relation and coefficient 

 of condition 



Examination of the average values of 

 the coefficient of condition for the age groups 

 (table 10) as well as of the length -weight data 

 (not presented) revealed no large differences be- 

 tween sexes although males tended to be in 

 slightly better condition than the females of 



corresponding age. Accordingly, data for the 

 sexes were combined in the preparation of table 

 14. Each entry is the average for all fish with- 

 in a 5 -millimeter interval of standard length. 

 These data form the basis of the length -weight 

 curve in figure 4 which has been so constructed 

 that conversions of weight in ounces to weight in 

 grams and standard lengths in millimeters to 

 fork or total lengths in inches may be accomplished 

 readily. 



2/ 

 The coefficient of condition, K— is a 



measure of the relative heaviness of fish or 

 groups of fish. Large values of K indicate a 

 heavy, robust fish, while small values of K in- 

 dicate a slender, less stockily built individual. 

 The values of K of the Lower Red Lake walleye 

 exhibited no important or consistent changes 

 with increase in length beyond 172 millimeters, 

 standard length . The values do, however, tend 

 to be slightly higjier in the older fish (age -groups 

 rV-VI) than in the younger (age -groups O-IU). 

 (See table 10.) Very small and young individuals 

 apparently are quite slender as indicated by the 

 low K of the two smallest fish (standard lengths 

 of 89 and 116 millimeters). 



Maturity and sex ratio 



The size at maturity will vary some- 

 what in different populations . In this study a 

 fish is considered to be mature if the state of its 

 organs indicated that it would spawn the next 

 spring, regardless of whether it had spawned 

 before . 



Available data on maturity of Lower 

 Red Lake walleyes are presented in table 15, 

 which shows the number and percentage of mature 

 and immature individuals in each age group, and 

 in table 16, which shows the number of mature 

 and immature fish and the percentage of maturity 

 according to length with all age groups combined. 

 The youngest mature individuals occurred in 

 age -group II (in third summer) of the males and 

 in age-group III of the females. In each sex, the 

 youngest group with a majority of mature in- 

 dividuals was the IV group (93 percent of the 

 males and 69 percent of the females mature) 



^/ V - W X 10^/. W = weight in grams, 



— -^^^ — -rn — ^ L = standard length in mm . 



31 



