Two others and myself were fishing Mille Lacs over the weekend , and we were debating over how many 30″ walleyes are in the pond. One of us thought there couldn’t be much more than 1,000, while two of us thought that number was low. The two of thought number was low, couldn’t really come up with a number but thought that 1,000 was well under.
Anyone have any thoughts?
-Drew
Great question… I’d have to say way less than 1,000 
It took me 39 years to get one 30.5″ last year. Lots just under. Wonder how many are cought each year?
Id bank on the count being around 100, or less.
We popped a couple monsters through the ice last year.
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We popped a couple monsters through the ice last year.
Yeah but who can really trust the guy in the 2nd pic?? Did you see him measure it?? 
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We popped a couple monsters through the ice last year.
Yeah but who can really trust the guy in the 2nd pic?? Did you see him measure it??
Agreed….
4
It’s funny how many dead 29″ers and 29.5″s
I’ll find floating while musky fishing.
An old timer that lives on the lake has showed me what Mille lacs used to be like back in the day. Had a mounted stringer of all walleyes over 11 lb and all caught in the same day.
There were also many other pictures of fish 30″ and up.
They just don’t seem to live long enough anymore on that lake to hit 30
The lake has alot of tournament fishing all season and based on weights not length I would say that the number of 30″ fish is very low.IMHO
I’ve never caught one that big on the lake, so I’m going to have to say there aren’t any in there. 
I don’t think there are any over 30″, In fact I am sure of it.
Otherwise I should have caught one by now
My guess would be 100s of them but none weigh over 5 or 6 pounds.
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It’s funny how many dead 29″ers and 29.5″s
I’ll find floating while musky fishing.
An old timer that lives on the lake has showed me what Mille lacs used to be like back in the day. Had a mounted stringer of all walleyes over 11 lb and all caught in the same day.
There were also many other pictures of fish 30″ and up.
They just don’t seem to live long enough anymore on that lake to hit 30
Wonder where they went ? Sounds like you found them on a stringer… them are dead walleyes too, might as well be floaters !!! A stringer full of 11 lbers taken in a day, that sure didn’t help the lake back in the good ol days 
Probably before they had “seasons” and they caught them at the creek mouth post spawn I have heard about them “good ol days”
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It’s funny how many dead 29″ers and 29.5″s
I’ll find floating while musky fishing.
An old timer that lives on the lake has showed me what Mille lacs used to be like back in the day. Had a mounted stringer of all walleyes over 11 lb and all caught in the same day.
There were also many other pictures of fish 30″ and up.
They just don’t seem to live long enough anymore on that lake to hit 30
LOL Your “old timer” must date back further than 100 years! In fact, walleyes ran much smaller on average 50 plus years ago and walleyes over 25″ were very scarce compared to the past 20 years( since the one over 20″ slot was implemented in ’84)
We go back 60 years here and know MOST avid guides/anglers NEVER caught a walleye in their lives close to 30″. Fish under 15″ caught were rare too– in most years–30-60 plus years ago. But if you got one 24-26″ long, you won the money 99 percent of the time–NO DOUBT–pre 80’s.
In the “old days”, I/we was there at least 50 plus years ago–every day–every year.
Now…to answer the question. Who knows? A VERY small percentage!! My boat landed one this year 31.5″. That’s the first one in my boat over 30″ in over 15 years……and the 7th one from Lake Mille Lacs I have had in my hands in the past 50 plus years–35-40,000 hours of fishing the lake later.
(there are tape-recorded conversations in hand of “old timers” from around 1910-1950, telling about how big the walleyes were then. Average size? ” around 2 to 2.5 lbs.”)
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An old timer that lives on the lake has showed me what Mille lacs used to be like back in the day. Had a mounted stringer of all walleyes over 11 lb and all caught in the same day.
I wonder if that is the same stringer mount that sat in the lobby/bar area of the old Lakeside resort? The one in a large glass enclosure.
-J.
Very seldom do I refer to my past as the “old days”, it just makes me feel,well,old!
When I stand next to an old timer, I just kind of start laughing because, well, I am starting to look Old! 
To all you old Timers
Some day that 30″er will be right in the palm of my wrinkled hands 
Nice to hear there’s another optimist around, Jeff. 
The mounts sitting in Johnson port side
I believe mid 80s it was possibly taken but don’t quotee on that. It was before the slots were there I know that
I agree very few. Less than 50? I have been keeping very accurate records since 2001 to date on walleyes we have caught on a spreadsheet. This includes water and air temps, bp, moon phase, time, wind, lures,speed, etc. I track every walleye from sept thru end of november. Lots of work, yes but the information is priceless. In that time span I have had 3 walleyes from 30″ to 30.5″ on my boat. One in 2010 and two last year a 30.25″ and my personal best a 30.5″. We are pretty hard core and like big crappie have seen many up to that 30 mark over the years but they seem to disappear once they hit that mark and I do not know why. The ones we caught were healthy fish?
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The mounts sitting in Johnson port side
I believe mid 80s it was possibly taken but don’t quotee on that. It was before the slots were there I know that
The golden stringer in portside, are not even 10 lb fish 
I only go back about 20 years and back in the early 90’s a BIG DEAL was a fish over 25″….
I wonder if the mount in question is the same one i saw up there this fall. I thought I saw it at hunter point but could have been somewhere else. The mount is 6 fish in a glass case all weighing over 10 pounds some of them over 12. That same mount is sitting at a resort on LOW with the date they were caught. I believe the mount was titled “One fine day”
It is not at Hunters. There is/was a golden stringer in portside… the 6 fish on that stringer, a couple are lucky to have been over 10 lbs. I would say mostly 9’s… nothing to sneeze at, but hardly 11 lbers…
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It is not at Hunters. There is/was a golden stringer in portside… the 6 fish on that stringer, a couple are lucky to have been over 10 lbs. I would say mostly 9’s… nothing to sneeze at, but hardly 11 lbers…
x2 on the Portside display. Not the one from the old Lakeside.
-J.
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