Indiana Lake Depths

Game fish · perch family

Walleye

Sander vitreus

Native to IndianaRecorded in 35 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a walleye in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Stocking
Natural reproduction is limited in Indiana; the DNR stocks walleye every year
Feeds
Deep water by day, shallow flats at night
Eats
Fish
Found over
Rock or gravel bottoms, drop-offs and points
Indiana records
Walleye: 14 lb 4 oz — Kankakee River, Lake County, 1974
Walleye: 14 lb 4 oz — Tippecanoe River, Pulaski County, 1977

Where walleye have been recorded

35 of the 186 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list walleye, across 16 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyBass Lake, Starke CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyCedar Lake, Lake CountyHardy Lake, Scott CountySylvan Lake, Noble CountyPine Lake, LaPorte CountyWinona Lake, Kosciusko CountyDewart Lake, Kosciusko CountyKokomo Reservoir, Howard CountyLake of the Woods, Marshall CountyHurshtown Reservoir, Allen CountyPike Lake, Kosciusko CountyLoon Lake, Whitley CountyWabee Lake, Kosciusko CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyWestwood Run Lake, Henry CountyWall Lake, LaGrange CountyLittle Turkey Lake, LaGrange CountyLake of the Woods, LaGrange CountyBixler Lake, Noble CountyIndiana Lake, Elkhart CountyFlint Lake, Porter CountyFish Lake, LaGrange CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyLawrence Lake, Marshall CountyRiddles Lake, St. Joseph CountySaugany Lake, LaPorte CountyRoyer Lake, LaGrange CountyBig Otter Lake, Steuben CountyHackleburg Lake, LaGrange CountyLoomis Lake, Porter CountyMcClish Lake, Steuben CountyHenry Lake, Steuben CountyPleasant Lake, Noble County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 35lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 19 to 1,913 acres (median 141) and from 13 to 93 ft deep (median 49 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
27 of 170 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
1.0 per net lift where found
Highest
4.0 per net lift
Method
fish per net lift (gill and trap nets)

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 23 lakes at a typical 4.0 per hour of electrofishing. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Loon Lake, Whitley 2021 4.0
  2. Pike Lake, Kosciusko 2016 4.0
  3. Wall Lake, LaGrange 2017 3.0
  4. Lake of the Woods, Marshall 2015–2024 2.9
  5. Lake Maxinkuckee, Marshall 2020 2.8
  6. Winona Lake, Kosciusko 2017–2020 2.8
  7. Kokomo Reservoir, Howard 2019 2.5
  8. Bass Lake, Starke 2018–2022 2.5
  9. Hurshtown Reservoir, Allen 2018 2.0
  10. Pretty Lake, LaGrange 2018 1.8

Fish per net lift (gill and trap nets), with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

Olive to gold, with large, cloudy eyes that gather light for night feeding. A member of the perch family.

Don’t confuse it with

Saugeye — A walleye × sauger hybrid the DNR stocks in a few lakes where it survives better than walleye.
Yellow perch — Bold dark vertical bars and no large canine teeth.

Life in an Indiana lake

Walleye prefer the deeper water of lakes and large rivers, moving onto shallow flats (5–10 ft) to feed at night. They school, so where you find one there are usually more.

Because walleye reproduce poorly in most Indiana waters, the DNR stocks walleye or hybrid walleye (saugeye) fry and fingerlings in several lakes and one river.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 35 lakes with walleye

Show every lake, by county

Allen County 1

Hurshtown Reservoir

Elkhart County 1

Indiana Lake

Henry County 1

Westwood Run Lake

Howard County 1

Kokomo Reservoir

Kosciusko County 4

Dewart Lake, Pike Lake, Wabee Lake, Winona Lake

LaGrange County 8

Fish Lake, Hackleburg Lake, Lake of the Woods, Little Turkey Lake, Pretty Lake, Royer Lake, Wall Lake, Westler Lake

LaPorte County 2

Pine Lake, Saugany Lake

Lake County 1

Cedar Lake

Marshall County 3

Lake Maxinkuckee, Lake of the Woods, Lawrence Lake

Noble County 3

Bixler Lake, Pleasant Lake, Sylvan Lake

Porter County 2

Flint Lake, Loomis Lake

Scott County 1

Hardy Lake

St. Joseph County 1

Riddles Lake

Starke County 1

Bass Lake

Steuben County 4

Big Otter Lake, Crooked Lake, Henry Lake, McClish Lake

Whitley County 1

Loon Lake

Sources

← All fish of Indiana