Tonka

Ima 50+ year Tonka veteran- seeing something this year I’ve never seen & its lasted well over a month now, watched again yesterday afternoon.
Bout a month ago with the trolling motor I was scanning/searching old crappie haunts from years long past when all of a sudden I saw white fins suspended about 12 feet down, stopped over top of it to watch knowing it was a walleye. Within about 30 seconds I had a school of walleyes floating up from the bottom, had to be at least 20 of em, just sat there watching. I’ve since been out like half a dozen times & that area has been full of walleyes every time, are some bruisers in there, so cool to watch! Have my fingers crossed that they’ll stay around there another week.

That’s totally wild! Any theories on what they’re doing?? Are they chasing baitfish out there or do they seem fairly inactive??

A month ago I would answer with- yes, no, yes.

Today- yes, yes, no. And I’m fired up!

Lived on/fished that lake for a lotta years with walleye being the major focus, seeing this has rekindled a dead fire.

You’re not the only one to see this! There’s another guy reporting this exact same experience posting on LSF. You might want to get out there at midnight before that “other guy” gets there first!

That ‘Nordeaster guy’ in LSF came to his senses & followed the well beaten path outta there….

LSF died the day the owner decided to listen to the heat the natives were putting on LSF sponsors, that pretty much put the stop to netting talk, shortly after that gestapo staff member Thunder didn’t care to have truth spoken regarding Mille Lacs so wallyhntr had to be perm banned.

But yea, Nordeaster/Wally will be on Tonka with high hopes of seeing a glimmer of the good ole days…. Speaking of Nordeast, ahhhhhhh

Ah…yea, the good old days! Nordeast for you, Summit for me. The destination is is the same, we’re true Americans! BTW, I’m up here at my villa and saw a quite a collection of “native’s” gathered at the North Garrison access this afternoon. No idea what the pow-wow was about, maybe trying to find a ghost net?

Wallyhntr1 – I was already planning on hitting Tonka for the opener…your post has me really ready to get on the water. I fish Minnetonka occasionally, but have not chased walleyes that much, and certainly don’t have your type of experience. Do you have any general recommendations/thoughts that would increase the odds of success for the opener (not asking for specific spots or anything like that)?

Did you happen to catch any glimpse of the size of those fish you saw suspended? A lot of focus has been on restoring the Walleye population on Lake Minnetonka the last few years. A good buddy, Johnny Range started the Westonka Walleye Program which has been collecting private donations through fundraising, banquets, and the generosity of anglers who would love to see Walleye fishing “restored” on this metro lake. Each year we have raised between roughly $25k to $30k in donations, and every $20 raised stocks 10 Walleyes ranging from 8′ to 13″ in size (total of roughly 26,000 pounds since 2013). I have experienced an increase in the amount of Walleyes caught on Tonka, and I have had others tell me about the sightings they have experienced themselves. It will be interesting to see the results of the DNR lake survey this year, a lot of attention on that survey to see what the Walleye numbers have done since the last survey which was completed in September 2014.

clearly, yes. Most were in the 2-3 lb range but watched several in the 4-6lb range.