Should folks be releasing all those HUGE, egg-filled walleyes on Lake Erie? ????
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As an outsider looking in, it has always perplexed me seeing folks stuff their livewell with as many of THE BIGGEST Lake Erie walleyes as they legally can each trip. Like what in the world?!
It goes against everything I’ve ever seen/heard/learned about ‘selective harvest’ these last few decades here in central MN.
In-Fisherman proposed the concept of selective harvest in the late-80s. It encourages keeping more numerous smaller fish for the table while releasing less abundant larger fish to sustain good fishing.
Matt Foley agrees:
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Lol!
BUT...apparently Lake Erie is a whole different fishin’ world.
I recently came across a FB post from guide Lance Valentine who said he tracked down “a REAL look at keeping big pre-spawn females from the Detroit River and Lake Erie from someone who actually knows....”
That someone is Travis Hartman, who has been a fishery biologist with the OH DNR for close to 20 yrs and is currently the Lake Erie Fisheries Program Administrator for the OH Division of Wildlife, where he leads all of the state’s fisheries work on Lake Erie and also represents the State of OH on the Great Lake Fishery Commission’s Lake Erie Committee.
Lance posed the question:
Q: “With the number of walleye in Lake Erie how much does the harvest of 8-12lb females from the Detroit River and the Western Basin hurt the population?”
Here is Travis Hartman’s take:
You can apply this question to all areas; I don’t believe it is specific to the Detroit River. We really don’t believe, and don’t have a single scientific indication, that the number of females spawning (or lack thereof due to recreational fishing harvest) has ANY impact on the resulting year class. The 2003 year class is the best example, as we were hitting fairly “low” population numbers and got our biggest hatch ever.
We truly believe the real factor is survival of the fish that hatch, not how many eggs are laid or how many larvae hatch. We have enough hatching every year to have a mega-year class. We just need them to get transported to nursery areas by prevailing currents and need them to have food when their yolk sac is used up.
History says that prevailing inshore current flow when the fish hatch gives us big year classes, and prevailing offshore current flow at hatching gives us bad year classes. Timing of plankton hatches is critical, but if the newly hatched fry aren’t where the plankton is it doesn’t matter.
I will also default to my standard answer, which is “why does it matter if they are harvested in spring?” We harvest more females in the summer (about 6 to 1) than we ever do in the spring, especially young females. If we were getting bad year classes because of too few females we would have significantly changed harvest strategies years ago. It makes no difference if a female is harvested in July or the following March. She isn’t spawning either way.
I really wish that closing spring harvest would make a difference, but there is NO scientific data to prove that it would. We would close the spring to fishing today if we had any proof it would improve year classes. We learn new things every year, but many of the things that I outlined above stay consistent.
As a side note one small egg mat set on Locust Reef as part of an Ohio State research project had 14,000 fertilized, live eggs on it yesterday. The mat is simply a furnace filter in a frame. Can you imagine that? Think how many eggs are out there on the reef complex right now if one tiny egg mat caught 14,000 in about a week.
Wild! So basically it sounds like they have SO many walleyes in the system that it just doesn’t matter. What folks are keeping is a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction of a percent of the walleye population.
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I fish some 300-acre lakes around central MN that I swear only have like 17 walleys in ‘em ???? and I thought that number was more like 4 or 5 until I spent hundreds of hours snooping around it with FFS hahaha!
Btw we released everything we caught when I was just over at Lake Erie (video here w/ captain Ross Robertson). I totally get that me keeping a few walleyes might not have any impact on that fishery, but I just love putting those big girls back.
I actually caught my new length PB walleye on that trip with this 31-incher! And I wanted to release her to give someone else the chance to catch her when she’s even more bigger-er:
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Speaking of walleyes dropping eggs....
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You know the walleye spawn is on when.... ????
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Reminds me of that time Cheyenne DaSilva caught this egg-wagon during the walleye opener on the Winnipeg River. Here’s the moment she realized she was being doused in walleye gold LOL. Still one of the most hilarious pics I’ve ever seen so I had to bring it back to life:
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Congrats again on the catch ???? but sorry about your shoes!
Our walleye season in MN (excluding border waters) opens late enough that the females have already dropped the kids off at daycare for the most part.
But sometimes you can still catch a few males that are, um...pretty excited about the spring dance....
I took this next disturbing pic 11 yrs ago while fishing around 'opener' in northern MN. We were pitching hair jigs in 9-12' when I caught a male walleye I'm going to nickname Milt-on that had something against my boots. ????♂️
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Safe to say I took the hook out of the next couple while holding 'em over the side of the boat LOL. Moving on!
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Looks like “firetiger” is the hot color on the Menominee River! ????
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From Ed the Diver: “Went diving in the Menominee River [MI] today for about 20 minutes. I got face-to-face with a walleye, enjoyed the 35(ish) degree water and removed some fishing lures and line. Feels great to be back in my local river!"
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If you somehow haven’t heard of Ed the Diver yet, he scuba dives in popular fishing spots (Fox River, Menominee River, etc) and strikes gold scooping up snagged baits. He also picks up trash and overall leaves the water better than 1,000 of us combined ever could – which is equally as amazing.
Said he spent yesterday washing up 360 lures that he collected just from his last 3 dives! ????
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????️ "Hey Alexa - does anywhere near me offer scuba diving lessons?”
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Have you seen the Wolf River fishing rafts before?
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Just came across this neat news story talking about a floating community anchored out on the Wolf River, WI. They’re sorta like floating fish houses with beds, wood-burning stoves, cribbage of course, and they catch a bunch of walleyes using cane poles w/ 3-way rigs! ????
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Took me right down memory lane because I was super fortunate to be able to sneak out on one of these “floating fish houses” for an evening back in May 2018 (old video here). Still can’t thank all those guys enough – Mike, Luke, Pete, Jacob and Tom – for letting me in on such a unique experience, one I’ll never forget!
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Some interesting insight I learned along the way:
They get permission from the landowner to tie up to the tree and leave the rafts out for the spring walleye run. Placement is a pecking-order thing – it’s a tight-knit community so the guys that have been doing it the longest get the best spots.
Shacks set-up on the shallow side of the river while fish are running upstream to spawn...fish take the shallows upriver since there’s less current.
Move the shacks to deep holes in river bends for the post-spawn run. Big females will ride the current back down to the main lake...and they CRUISE. Have seen walleyes caught out of Winnebago that had been tagged approx 84-ish miles upriver in Schioctin just 24 hrs earlier!
Fishing-rafters use old-school bamboo cane poles [!] with Rapala Original Floaters on 3-way rigs with a 3- to 5-oz bell sinker. Cane poles ‘cuz of the forgiveness – fish clobber the baits.
Usually a night bite so they rig bells, reflective tape or a wiffle golf ball on the rod tip for a strike indicator.
Can run multiple lines in WI, so they’ll set one 2-3′ off bottom, another 4-5′ off, and the 3rd just a few feet under the surface. Don’t fall asleep ‘cuz a log or sturgeon will roll through and wipe everything out.
Some folks will occasionally run Off Shore Tackle Planer Boards (if they have the room) to take their rigs rigs out to the middle of the river. Imagine seeing that?!
Lot of folks keep a catch-tally on the wall: rumor has it the average raft lands 200 walleyes on the season and 20+ fish nights are possible when the bite is really on.
Hope the Wolf is treating all you river-rats well this spring! ????
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Conservation officer breaks down the top-10 most common fishing citations
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Fishing YouTuber Caleb Wistad just posted a great Q&A with WI DNR Conservation Warden Evan Fox talking about the 10 most common citations. Some regs are a little difficult to understand with their gray areas, so I always find it super interesting to hear explanations from folks who are in the know:
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Eric: “We came into this looking for the warmest water within the boundaries that we could fish. A lot got super dirty from the wind and rain. Pre-fishing we found a lot of fish, but smaller fish. I didn’t do anything in the river because I don’t like it.
“We drove around the whole shoreline Thursday, figuring out where the cleanest water was but also where it wasn’t super cold. In the middle of the week, water temperatures dropped about 4 degrees,” he said. They concentrated on the bay’s west side. And on Sunday, he said, they found temps at about 42, rising to 43.5 by day’s end. In other words, just enough to kickstart the post-spawners' appetites....
Eric said they caught ‘em casting up shallow with a 1-2 punch that included 3/8-oz purple/white Kalin's Google Eye Hair Jigs (left) and the new Reef Runner Flash Shad in the "unforgiven" color (right):
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Eric also said that new Reef Runner Flash Shad has a tighter action = takes a smaller lift to get the rattles going, and that it has a slower fall than similar lipless cranks which can be money in cold water.
I got to see it while at ICAST last summer, and sheesh did it ever throw out an insane amount of flash, in all different directions, thx to the little recessed mirrors being set at different angles. Imagine it underwater:
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2. Govert/Thostenson win AIM’s 'River Division' opener...
...on pools 10 and 11 of the Mississippi River. Zach Govert and Tyler Thostenson got it done old school during a TOUGH bite (high, debris-filled water with walleyes actively spawning so they could care less about eating).
Zach Govert “Handlining was ideal for slow trolling our orange, jointed floating J7 Rapalas. We tried three-way rigs but kept getting ‘drive bys’ – fish that would hook up for a second and then not be there. Handlining enabled us to feel those light hitting fish”.
Closer look at that "gold fluorescent red" color #7 Jointed Rapala:
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Props for grinding it out, fellas!
3. SD: Lake Sharpe NWT, Pierre, Apr 24-25
4. WI: Biologists are electrofishing walleye on the Wolf River
Stun, tag and collect walleye data:
“The goal for the survey is to tag 1,000 individual female fish...on the way to the 1,000 females, we’ll typically handle between 2,000-3,000 males....”
5. IA: More $-tagged walleyes going into Clear Lake
6. MN: Walleye Alliance Spring Banquet is next week
Happening Thurs, Apr 24 at The Woods Event Center – can’t wait! They get an incredible turn out every year and it's always a blast chatting with other walleye-obsessed folks. ???? Big thx to all that help put on this fundraising event! Here's the agenda.
7. New Thill Sharp Shooter Float ????
Flies like a dart, literally:
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Haven't had the chance to try one yet, but word on the street (from folks who got to help test and design 'em) is that these are legit... Supposed to provide SUPER accurate casts – even when the wind is ripping – and supports up to 3/8 oz for getting presentations down to fish quickly.
Will definitely take one for a rip and let you know.
8. ID: Illegal introduction of walleye into Ririe Rez
9. CAN: Alberta has a new walleye trail
Called the Alberta Walleye Circuit. Believe its catch-photo-release and no FFS allowed. Kicks off May 9-10 on McGregor Reservoir/Lonesome Lake.
10. MN: 17th Minnesota Fishing Challenge is set for May 31
The event has raised nearly $6 million [!!!] for Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge campuses across the state. It is now the largest fundraising fishing tournament in North America, and it takes place on the Gull Lake chain of lakes each year.
The event is made up of up to 150 two-person teams. Several divisions offer the anglers an opportunity to fish for what they like to catch, they can enter panfish, walleyes, bass, pike, even rock bass, into the competition.
Anglers who enter the event raise funds among their family, friends and business associates. There are great prizes for fundraisers including a brand new Lund Boat loaded with Humminbird and Minn Kota electronics. In 2024, the event raised a record $620,000.
“Drug and alcohol addiction has derailed so many lives. When an addict is ready for help, we at MNTC do not want to turn them away. This is what the tournament is all about, funding the recovery and saving lives by helping people break free from the chains of addiction.”
11. MN: Sturgeon tournament benefits Take a Kid Fishing
Put on by Sportsman's Lodge.
12. TX: Heaviest freshwater fish ever landed on 2-lb test
A 153-lb alligator gar recently caught by world-record chaser Art Weston.
He's the only angler in IGFA history to accomplish a clean sweep of a single species: Art already has every men’s line-class record as well as the all-tackle world record for alligator gar. All caught in TX with guide Kirk Kirkland.
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One of the best ways to get feedback on the position/orientation of your 2D sonar transducer is to look at the shape and symmetry of your fish arches.
If this arch is symmetrical...its front and back tail extend approximately equally below the top of the arch – then the operating face of the transducer is approximately parallel to the bottom, and the beam is pointing basically straight down. This is optimal for most applications.
If the arch is not symmetrical, then the relative lengths of the two tails will tell you how to adjust the transducer to make it level. If the leading tail (the one on the left side of the arch) is lower than the trailing tail (the one on the right side of the arch), then the back of the transducer is lower than the front of the transducer.
If the trailing tail is lower than the leading tail, this means the front of the transducer is lower than the back. This is a situation that should be addressed as a transducer tipped this way can generate a lot of turbulence and bubbly water beneath the transducer, making it very hard to maintain a bottom lock at speed.
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Case you’re curious how to tell the difference between pre-spawn vs post-spawn walleyes...tourney pro Joe Okada has your back haha:
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If you’ve been hanging around here long enough, you’ve probably heard us call those big, pre-spawn females “egg cannons” before. This pic from Fort Peck Reservoir (MT) biologist Heath Headley is all you need to know for the why. ???? #BOOM
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Thanks SO much for reading! ???? Bunch more walleye-fishing goodness coming your way next week. Hope you have a great + safe weekend and maybe even sneak in a little fishing...or at least some garage time getting things ready. ????
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FRIENDS OF TARGET WALLEYE
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Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jay Kumar, Chris Philen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He's in it now, but still can't answer that question.... Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a "fishing degree" at the time.... Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com
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