Walleye Size

I have been out about 4 times since the walleye reopened on Aug 1st trolling the basin with cranks and leadcore. Half the time just me with one line. The other with someone else and running 2 lines. Aproxametly 40 walleyes caught and all of them between 18″ and 22″. Not one larger walleye. To me this is very unusual as this bite usually produces the bulk of my 24″ to 27″ walleyes for the year. Anyone else having simular results? Makes me wonder if there has been a old large fish die off this year.

It’s just the most dominant size and the most active eater. Some big fish have definitely died off the last couple of years. Still got several 24-28 pulling lead in August. Been a couple years now since the real large fish have dominated the lake.

Ripjiggen wrote:

It’s just the most dominant size and the most active eater. Some big fish have definitely died off the last couple of years. Still got several 24-28 pulling lead in August. Been a couple years now since the real large fish have dominated the lake.

I agree to this. It’s sort of unfortunate.

beardly wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ripjiggen wrote:</div>
It’s just the most dominant size and the most active eater. Some big fish have definitely died off the last couple of years. Still got several 24-28 pulling lead in August. Been a couple years now since the real large fish have dominated the lake.

I agree to this. It’s sort of unfortunate.

Or a life cycle fish don’t live forever.

In August I caught mostly smaller walleyes. I think the bigger issue is we should allow some harvest.

When walleye fishing this year, have yet to catch a 25″ which is the first time since starting to heavily fish this lake in 2013. Not even a 25″ while bass fishing. Most in that 18-22 as gizmoguy mentions but also some 8″ lately.

My parents trolled the main basin with lead core in August a couple times. It was extremely slow fishing but the fish they were able to catch were not dinks. They went twice and caught 7 fish in two outings. 5 of the fish were over 24 inches, the other two were smaller.

They mostly tournament fish so they’re looking for the biggest fish in the system and the main basin is often where they reside.

gimruis wrote:

They mostly tournament fish so they’re looking for the biggest fish in the system and the main basin is often where they reside.

If they are tournament anglers they should know the basin isn’t where most of the tournaments are won. The biggest fish in the system have proven to be shallower. Not always but in general.

Joe Scegura wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
They mostly tournament fish so they’re looking for the biggest fish in the system and the main basin is often where they reside.

If they are tournament anglers they should know the basin isn’t where most of the tournaments are won. The biggest fish in the system have proven to be shallower. Not always but in general.

I have to agree. Not saying there isn’t big fish in the basin because we all know that there is. That being said the two biggest walleyes caught in my boat out there this year (27,27.5) both came in early June pulling #11 floating raps close to shore in 10ft of water.
Later in June I had a 60+ fish day pulling spinners on gravel and out of all those fish we had 2 that touched 25″.
There is definitely less big fish out there right now.
My opinion is that a lot of them may have died from old age. Some of those bigger fish we were catching in years past were ancient old fish. If you’ve handled a lot of walleyes you can tell when you catch an old one. It’s entirely possible that the old age of these fish could be particularly contributing to the “skinny” walleyes too. Generally speaking old humans get skinnier as they age too. Either way it’s still a fun lake to fish and fortunately for us those 18-22″ fish will continue to grow larger.

Joe Scegura wrote:

If they are tournament anglers they should know the basin isn’t where most of the tournaments are won. The biggest fish in the system have proven to be shallower. Not always but in general.

Absolutely untrue. The large females mostly reside in deep water in mud flat country.

In August I guess it’s a moot point because 2 fish is a terrible day anyways and not really a pattern.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Scegura wrote:</div>
If they are tournament anglers they should know the basin isn’t where most of the tournaments are won. The biggest fish in the system have proven to be shallower. Not always but in general.

Absolutely untrue. The large females mostly reside in deep water in mud flat country.

In August I guess it’s a moot point because 2 fish is a terrible day anyways and not really a pattern.

Must be tough knowing everything

My boat has caught maybe 6 over 26″ all year, way down from previous years. As said above the old fish look different, a greyish green when they are coming up. The 22-24″ fish I am seeing are not that color, I believe they are younger fish. moving up. Seeing significantly wider range of sizes, hopefully this is a sign of a healthier fishery.

Joe Scegura wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
They mostly tournament fish so they’re looking for the biggest fish in the system and the main basin is often where they reside.

If they are tournament anglers they should know the basin isn’t where most of the tournaments are won.

Absolutely true.

I have fished many of them.

Verbally bashing someone’s family member is what put me off on Joe’s comment, not the actual content of it. “They should know this” was something I took offense to, regardless of what I commented with after the fact. It was a smart ass remark that I didn’t care for.

grubson wrote:

There is definitely less big fish out there right now.
My opinion is that a lot of them may have died from old age. Some of those bigger fish we were catching in years past were ancient old fish. If you’ve handled a lot of walleyes you can tell when you catch an old one. It’s entirely possible that the old age of these fish could be particularly contributing to the “skinny” walleyes too. Generally speaking old humans get skinnier as they age too. Either way it’s still a fun lake to fish and fortunately for us those 18-22″ fish will continue to grow larger.

Kind of my same thoughts too. Seeing some of those malnourished walleyes they just looked old. And likely old males.

It’s to be expected though with harvest as limited as it’s been for quite some time.

I’m not really concerned there’s been a recent significant die off of large fish. Sure, some perish all the time but I have not seen any large dead walleyes floating or washing up on shore.

I could be wrong but I think there’s still plenty left out there.

Plenty of theories being tossed out like all the walleyes are starving and then now they’re not biting because of all the available forage.

joneser wrote:

I’m seeing what you guys are all seeing—a lot less big fish.

I think this is a positive development.

You can’t have room for the recruitment of young fish at the bottom…

…unless you clear way for them by taking out the overabundance of old fish at the top.

Less big fish = more forage = better recruitment of new year classes = more balanced age structure and healthier lake.

Once they start seeing more year classes coming up in good numbers and health who knows….maybe they’ll do something crazy and let you fry one up.

so wait, a lake goes in cycles?

joneser wrote:

I just had a much lengthier post written get deleted because I keep getting logged out.

Maybe take that as some kind of omen?

I never fish the basin or the mud so can’t comment on that. But what I do know is that for me, the majority of all my big fish have come from fall full moon fishing and I am super excited about the two full moons coming up in October. Maybe the fish caught this fall will give a better accounting of the fish population in general, however if there is an abundance of forage, maybe fall fishing won’t be all that great. Who knows but my boat will be on the water a lot this fall, starting with tonight and pretty much every week through Oct and into Nov. So far I am catching a few in 10 – 12′ on the rocks pulling SSR jointed at 2.1MPH. Color hasn’t mattered yet as catching on purpledecent, crawdad, and fire tiger.

I haven’t been up enough this summer to have an idea on anything currently going on, but I’ll just say anecdotal experiences mean nothing. Unless you are a guide fishing out there every day, you or I don’t have any idea what’s going on. There could be any number of explanations for a lack of large fish from the large fish feeding suspended on tullibee to a mass die off (although I doubt this as fish grow to 25 years old on ML, and I haven’t seen reports of masses washing up on shore).

BigWerm wrote:

There could be any number of explanations for a lack of large fish from the large fish feeding suspended on tullibee to a mass die off (although I doubt this as fish grow to 25 years old on ML, and I haven’t seen reports of masses washing up on shore).

You did edit your comment here.

And your edit is correct, no reports of walleye corpses piling up on shore.

We might expect fish to be doing different things this year than last, unless you can compare the conditions last year to this… I’d think water conditions are quite a bit different this year in comparison to last.

We learn this often on the river, how fish have tails and no mortgage. Throw Away the waypoints and use that depth finder as a fish finder.

Im sure im not helping, but I do consider conditions to be the largest driver of movement. Party on

Lemme know when the 10lbrs are biting- I’ll put my other rods down.

Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:

You did edit your comment here.

Yeah I wanted to remind everyone about this 25 year old fish, as it’s pertinent to this conversation.
http://www.technologicalangler.com/how-old-is-that-fish

I agree that the lack of catching big fish in the basin is puzzling. Those 18-22” fish are eating machines and aren’t afraid of any size crankbait, so I believe it’s a case of them winning the race to your bait.

To Joe’s point, I fished all but a couple tournaments out there this year. Every tournament was won(majority of the fish on their card) in 20’ or less with the fish actually hooked in less than 10’.

In years past though, tournaments in August are usually won in 25+ fow with a combination of structure and basin fishing.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:</div>
You did edit your comment here.

Yeah I wanted to remind everyone about this 25 year old fish, as it’s pertinent to this conversation.
http://www.technologicalangler.com/how-old-is-that-fish

insane, just a eating machine, taking up space and not growing.

Fife wrote:

I agree that the lack of catching big fish in the basin is puzzling. Those 18-22” fish are eating machines and aren’t afraid of any size crankbait, so I believe it’s a case of them winning the race to your bait.

To Joe’s point, I fished all but a couple tournaments out there this year. Every tournament was won(majority of the fish on their card) in 20’ or less with the fish actually hooked in less than 10’.

In years past though, tournaments in August are usually won in 25+ fow with a combination of structure and basin fishing.

Maybe one fisherman’s report does not necessarily make it puzzling. Maybe fishing memories vs fishing reality. The big fish of five years ago were five years ago. Plenty of big fish but in my opinion the lake is getting more back in balance. Where five years ago it was pretty unbalanced. Too many big fish is not always a good thing. Sure it is fun but it only last so long.
To the comments about fish not washing up on shore they are not all dieing the same day week or month so you are not going to see a pile of fish on shore. There are plenty of big fish will continue to be plenty of big fish but the lake is not dominated by 27plus inch fish like it was. It happens to all great walleye lakes. There was year on lake Winnipeg where you could hardly catch a keeper size walleye. Happened to be about 7-8 years after a major flood on the red. Now you keep plenty of eaters and big fish mixed in. When the 2013 class gets a little older we will repeat the cycle again. It’s the largest year class of walleyes in the lake by far and are at a stage that they need to eat more than any other size to survive. It only makes sense that you will catch more of the largest year class in the lake than an older year class or two or three that are older. 30 years of fishing this body of water some years more often than guides fish it in a year. There are ebbs and flows sometimes with walleyes hatched sometimes with forage sometimes the pressure and sometimes they just don’t want to be caught.

Also agree with FBRM…I have plenty of fishing logs to prove that. I have caught fish the last two years in spots that I have never marked a fish. I have been blanked in spots that have always held fish. I think sometimes we have a lackluster day weekend and all of a sudden the lake has changed. Well in my experience the lake always changes just like every other lake.

Ripjiggen wrote:

To the comments about fish not washing up on shore they are not all dieing the same day week or month so you are not going to see a pile of fish on shore. There are plenty of big fish will continue to be plenty of big fish but the lake is not dominated by 27plus inch fish like it was. It happens to all great walleye lakes. There was year on lake Winnipeg where you could hardly catch a keeper size walleye. Happened to be about 7-8 years after a major flood on the red. Now you keep plenty of eaters and big fish mixed in. When the 2013 class gets a little older we will repeat the cycle again. It’s the largest year class of walleyes in the lake by far and are at a stage that they need to eat more than any other size to survive. It only makes sense that you will catch more of the largest year class in the lake than an older year class or two or three that are older. 30 years of fishing this body of water some years more often than guides fish it in a year. There are ebbs and flows sometimes with walleyes hatched sometimes with forage sometimes the pressure and sometimes they just don’t want to be caught.

Also agree with FBRM…I have plenty of fishing logs to prove that. I have caught fish the last two years in spots that I have never marked a fish. I have been blanked in spots that have always held fish. I think sometimes we have a lackluster day weekend and all of a sudden the lake has changed. Well in my experience the lake always changes just like every other lake.

The comments about “fish not washing up on shore” was to answer some of those asking or speculating that there may have been some kind of large or significant die off of big fish this year.

Which there has not been. Yes, there is and always will be some, but nothing sudden this year that wiped them out.

I agree too about your assessment on the 2013 year class continuing to dominate. This “swell” coming through the system is now in that 18-22″ size and represents the largest in overall #’s. So obviously it stands to reason they’d comprise the majority of fish caught.

Good overall insights you offered.

gimruis wrote:

Verbally bashing someone’s family member is what put me off on Joe’s comment, not the actual content of it. “They should know this” was something I took offense to, regardless of what I commented with after the fact. It was a smart ass remark that I didn’t care for.

Verbally bashing? WOW! I thought my comment was a tasteful FYI. People in tournaments talk so I guess I would assume they would know where the big fish get caught.

Please enlighten me as to how I could word it differently… Bashing? I take offense to that… I do however apologize if you took offense to my original factual comment.

AS far as the tournaments this year … 90% of the walleye tourneys have been won from one specific spot this year. The guys race to this spot and sit on it all day. Its off a rock hump in 20′ of water … in the south end of the lake.

The ML band has an acoustic transmitter study going on a whole bunch of species. It’s already produced some interesting findings. I found the attached trail of one <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye that was published already to be pretty interesting. Now in all fairness this <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye was caught and tagged in Garrison bay, so the notion that a walleye caught and tagged in say Cove Bay wouldn’t behave the same favoring the South end was used to refute this….I wouldn’t necessarily disagree that theory would have enough sound reasoning to it to warrant an experiment to test it before discounting it at all. Still, where this walleye travels to and the parts of the lake it uses, or doesn’t use, does make you wonder a little bit…..
[/quote]

Joneser… that a great tag line by the way! mind if i ask where you located the Band telemetry study info?

joneser wrote:

There was a write up in the Brainderd Dispatch that shared a handful of findings after the first year of the study. It’s still currently going so I don’t think a lot of data has been released yet.

Another interesting finding: How often large <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleyes would suspend at 10′ in 30′ of water. Very common going off what the acoustic transmitters were recording.

Not a secret to the lead core enthusiasts.