New PB Walleye

[Tywithay]

The spawn has started here in KS and I managed to catch my biggest eye to date. Measured in at 27" and 7.43lb. We don't grow 'em as big as you guys up north, but it's still a stud in my book.

[Finessegenics]

Really nice catch! Gotta say tho, your fingers look dangerously close to its mouth ?

[roadwarrior]

[TnRiver46]

 Nice one! I caught a 28” once that weighed about half as much as yours haha. It looked like a skinny snake 

[A-Jay]

Nice Walleye ~ 

Congrats

A-Jay

[gim]

6 hours ago, Tywithay said:

The spawn has started here in KS and I managed to catch my biggest eye to date. Measured in at 27" and 7.43lb. We don't grow 'em as big as you guys up north, but it's still a stud in my book.

 

Solid.  Did you catch it on the street?  I don't see any water in the photo.

[Darren.]

Chunky walleye! Nice!

[Bluebasser86]

On 3/26/2020 at 8:05 AM, gimruis said:

Solid.  Did you catch it on the street?  I don't see any water in the photo.

Nobody turns walleye loose here. Same thing with crappie. Everyone hammers them right before they spawn and then complains when the populations are down a few years later. A lot of times it gets blamed on blue cats eating the walleye, and smallmouth bass eating the crappie ?

 

OP, not talking about your fish specifically, that's just 1 fish and not going to throw the balance off any. I'd love to catch one that big, but like you said, they don't get that big here very often.

 

I know of guys who keep excessive numbers of fish during the spawn for no reason other than they can. Like they have to have a freezer full of fish to show people because a picture isn't enough. A fish or two doesn't hurt anything, take what you need when you earn the right by catching a keeper fish, but the tailgates covered with big female 'eyes and stringer upon stringer loaded with slab crappie that never got to spawn wears on me.

[soflabasser]

Congratulations on catching your new personal best walleye.

[slonezp]

Very nice.

[Tywithay]

15 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Nobody turns walleye loose here. Same thing with crappie. Everyone hammers them right before they spawn and then complains when the populations are down a few years later. A lot of times it gets blamed on blue cats eating the walleye, and smallmouth bass eating the crappie ?

 

OP, not talking about your fish specifically, that's just 1 fish and not going to throw the balance off any. I'd love to catch one that big, but like you said, they don't get that big here very often.

 

I know of guys who keep excessive numbers of fish during the spawn for no reason other than they can. Like they have to have a freezer full of fish to show people because a picture isn't enough. A fish or two doesn't hurt anything, take what you need when you earn the right by catching a keeper fish, but the tailgates covered with big female 'eyes and stringer upon stringer loaded with slab crappie that never got to spawn wears on me.

It gets bad around here this time of year, for sure. I'm actually excited when I see the wardens out checking stringers. It's just me and the old lady, so I'll harvest a couple fish to make a nice supper, but the guys filling the freezer make it tough on everyone. Most lakes have a limit of 2 over 21" and I've actually seen guys filet fish on the tailgate to hide them in a cooler and go back for more. It's sickening. 

[gim]

17 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Nobody turns walleye loose here. Same thing with crappie. Everyone hammers them right before they spawn and then complains when the populations are down a few years later.

Totally, I understand. It’s the same up here too. The explosive popularity in permanent wheel houses for ice fishing has put a substantial increase in pressure and harvest on walleye and panfish populations here. People park out there for days on end.  Walleye does have a closed season on inland waters here to protect spawning (so does bass), but crappie season is continuous. Most anglers here do not harvest walleyes larger than about 20 inches, as most bigger ones are released voluntarily, if it’s not required already.

[Bluebasser86]

5 hours ago, Tywithay said:

It gets bad around here this time of year, for sure. I'm actually excited when I see the wardens out checking stringers. It's just me and the old lady, so I'll harvest a couple fish to make a nice supper, but the guys filling the freezer make it tough on everyone. Most lakes have a limit of 2 over 21" and I've actually seen guys filet fish on the tailgate to hide them in a cooler and go back for more. It's sickening. 

I saw people trying to do that with trout last week. They launched a boat, one drove to the back of a cove to fish while the other drove the truck around to the same cove to bank fish with a big cooler. Neither of them were catching anything, but I know what was going on.

 

I don't get a chance to try to walk the bank for walleye very often, but I find plenty of short fish filleted when I do. I wish we had more wardens and they weren't spread so thin. The poaching in this state is unreal.

[bogfrog]

On 3/28/2020 at 2:43 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Nobody turns walleye loose here. Same thing with crappie. Everyone hammers them right before they spawn and then complains when the populations are down a few years later. A lot of times it gets blamed on blue cats eating the walleye, and smallmouth bass eating the crappie ?

 

OP, not talking about your fish specifically, that's just 1 fish and not going to throw the balance off any. I'd love to catch one that big, but like you said, they don't get that big here very often.

 

I know of guys who keep excessive numbers of fish during the spawn for no reason other than they can. Like they have to have a freezer full of fish to show people because a picture isn't enough. A fish or two doesn't hurt anything, take what you need when you earn the right by catching a keeper fish, but the tailgates covered with big female 'eyes and stringer upon stringer loaded with slab crappie that never got to spawn wears on me.

I cant begin to tell you how many times Ive seen a lake get developed with 100 cabins lining the shore and everyone taking a limit of walleye every day and suddenly the Muskys get blamed for depleting the walleye population they have co-existed with for thousands of years. It must be the sound of nail guns and air compressors that drive the muskys mad and cause them to change their forage habits and begin eating walleyes exclusively. Truth be known, walleyes eat far more muskys than muskys eat walleyes.

[Wildbillb]

Very nice walleye.  Did you catch it at night?  How did you catch it?

[Tywithay]

1 hour ago, Wildbillb said:

Very nice walleye.  Did you catch it at night?  How did you catch it?

Yeah, I caught it around 1 AM. I walked the dam at a local lake, throwing crankbaits. 

[Ogandrews]

I noticed a very similar thing when I lived in Iowa, and to an extent here in Minnesota too. It seems that the goal of every walleye fisherman in this state is to get their limit every time they are on the water. I don’t care how big the lake is that isn’t sustainable. Everyone wants to blame the low walleye numbers on musky eating them all but in reality it’s the people that are complaining about the muskies who are the ones destroying the populations. Every year or so they try to make new legislations to stop musky stocking in MN and change lakes that have them to have no limit on them to try to get them out of the lakes. Doesn’t matter that there are 20 or more lakes with walleye in them for every one lake with Muskies. I could go on for hours about how ridiculous of an idea this is.

[ABart61]

I come from a family of Walleye fisherman and I can tell you the mindset of some walleye fisherman is backwards. All they want to do is keep as much as they can. Then complain about walleye populations not being high enough. A proposed bill is in the Minnesota house that proposes lowering the daily limit to 4. I think they should lower it to 3 if not 2. Considering 75% of the walleye fisherman try to take home a daily limit everyday. 

[ABart61]

On 3/29/2020 at 2:51 AM, bogfrog said:

I cant begin to tell you how many times Ive seen a lake get developed with 100 cabins lining the shore and everyone taking a limit of walleye every day and suddenly the Muskys get blamed for depleting the walleye population they have co-existed with for thousands of years. It must be the sound of nail guns and air compressors that drive the muskys mad and cause them to change their forage habits and begin eating walleyes exclusively. Truth be known, walleyes eat far more muskys than muskys eat walleyes.

You hit it right on the money. I drive through the Brainerd area to go to a lake near Grand Rapids. I laugh everytime I go by the lakes. Docks beyond docks along the shore. Then I get on a walleye forum and guys complain about how the walleye population has gone down in those lakes. ?

[gim]

7 hours ago, ABart61 said:

Docks beyond docks along the shore. Then I get on a walleye forum and guys complain about how the walleye population has gone down in those lakes.

The amount of docks on a lake really has no direct affect on how many walleyes (or other species) of fish a lake may or may not have.  There are other factors that dictate that, mainly the angling pressure, forage base, and the reproductive rate of a specific fish population.

8 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

Everyone wants to blame the low walleye numbers on musky eating them all but in reality it’s the people that are complaining about the muskies who are the ones destroying the populations. Every year or so they try to make new legislations to stop musky stocking in MN and change lakes that have them to have no limit on them to try to get them out of the lakes.

YES, this is correct!  A couple years ago a state rep in Otter Tail County even tried to pass legislation that would have declared "war on muskies" because he thought they were eating all the walleyes and panfish in the lakes there.  It is mind boggling to me how uneducated some people are on this sort of thing.

[ABart61]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

The amount of docks on a lake really has no direct affect on how many walleyes (or other species) of fish a lake may or may not have.  There are other factors that dictate that, mainly the angling pressure, forage base, and the reproductive rate of a specific fish population.

YES, this is correct!  A couple years ago a state rep in Otter Tail County even tried to pass legislation that would have declared "war on muskies" because he thought they were eating all the walleyes and panfish in the lakes there.  It is mind boggling to me how uneducated some people are on this sort of thing.

The docks just show the angling pressure those lakes have. I also forgot to mention the shrinking population of cisco and whitefish in a lot of Minnesota lakes

[bogfrog]

As the walleye populations decrease there are fewer of them feeding on musky fry, so the musky populations increase....often to the point that there is an unhealthy population. Years ago Butternut Laake in Wisconsin was a Class A musky lake with a fantastic population of nice walleye. Since the number of cabins doubled on the lake the walleye fishing has been terrible and the last tournament I fished on the lake yielded only 3 legal musky in two days. The guys who built nthose cabins must have some pull (dont they always?), because the DNR held a public meeting to discuss lowering the legal size on musky to 28"....a meeting they were lucky to escape from unharmed!

Even though public opinion was overwhelmingly against the 28" limit the legislature passed it days later. There are now nearly as many "For Sale" signs as there are docks.

[Tywithay]

18 hours ago, ABart61 said:

I come from a family of Walleye fisherman and I can tell you the mindset of some walleye fisherman is backwards. All they want to do is keep as much as they can. Then complain about walleye populations not being high enough. A proposed bill is in the Minnesota house that proposes lowering the daily limit to 4. I think they should lower it to 3 if not 2. Considering 75% of the walleye fisherman try to take home a daily limit everyday. 

The 2 main walleye lakes near me have a limit of 2 per day with a minimum of 21". There's years that it's tough to catch a keeper, but it has helped the population. Problem is, people still keep short fish, or far more than 2 per day.

[Ogandrews]

It’s a similar situation with pike in this state. People always complain about catching a lot of hammer handles but any time hey get a pike 30-35” or over they keep it. If you want a good size structure your shooting yourself in the foot by throwing back the small stunted fish and killing the ones with good genetics that can pass those genes on and make more fish. Pike fishing is my bread and butter so nothing makes me angrier than to see a trophy fish go to waste because people want a mount and think they need a skin mount instead of a replica. There are some absolutely incredible trophy pike fisheries here in the south part of the state, and a large part of it has to due with the fact that my county has strict size slots and a one fish limit on pike. It’s amazing how the fish keep getting bigger when you don’t kill them.

[Bluebasser86]

7 hours ago, Tywithay said:

The 2 main walleye lakes near me have a limit of 2 per day with a minimum of 21". There's years that it's tough to catch a keeper, but it has helped the population. Problem is, people still keep short fish, or far more than 2 per day.

Those are the same people that blame the blue cats for eating all the walleye too ? One lake I fish a lot they blame the smallmouth for eating all the crappie ? I'll bet crappie eat way more smallmouth fry than smallmouth are eating crappie.