Walter in Smallie water #2

I was way up a feeder creek(5+ miles) that runs into a river fishing Smallies when I got into a pack of walters in 2 seperate locations. Ended up with 10 small 10″ – 14″ walters all returned to the creek. This has happened before on this same creek over the years. My question is why is there never anything over 14″. I catch 4lb. smallies out of the same creek regularly with 2lb. smallies a normal occurence every outing. The creek never gets too warm is very clear and it has many holes that are 6ft+ year round, it is all sand and rock and has a ton of baitfish and crawdads. So, why wouldn’t a walleye that has reached 14″ in this environment stay there? They wouldn’t have much in the form of predators to deal with and would have an amazing forage base and a nice environment compared to the river. Seems like maybe this is just a nursery for the walleye and then they move on out to the river? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts and opinions on this.

The water is too clear? I’ve seen smaller walleyes stay in shallow water for a longer period of time for some reason. Recently I was on a very clear lake where I saw a ton of smaller walleyes in 10 FOW through the eyes of an UW camera. Moved out to 22 FOW and located all of the nicer fish. Have you been in this spot at the same time of year when you’ve found these smaller fish? Creeks may be totally different.

Good point on the water clarity, something that I hadn’t considered. Could have some impact on their sensitive eyes in the relatively shallow clear water.