Keeping 12" walleyes

[honker23]

5 years from will we be asking the question if keeping 10 inch walleyes is OK??

The fact is some people have a tough throwing fish back, until the law makes you. So I would like a state wide 14 inch min. jmo

[BrdHunter01]

i would like to know why you think its "ok?" im not a dnr officer but im pretty sure they do not have the intensions of stocking a lake for people to keep 12-13 inch eyes.... before they even have a chance to spawn.... what a waste of my (as a taxpayer, and purchaser of hunting and fishing licenses) money! rediculous!

I will NEVER buy a walleye stamp for people to catch and keep 12 inch walleyes! What a joke! Until a statewide min is set on all "stocked" lakes I will never pitch in money (walleye stamp) to support people keeping those tiny things. What a scam that is.... i waste enough money on hunting and fishing, i dont need to support peoples habbit of keeping stringers full of 12 in eyes that "I" and "every" sportmen and women pay for!

[JoshM]

there is meat on a 12 inch walleye? Do you have to deep fry the whole thing or what? crunchy , yummy. What in the world is wrong with people. I just love it too when I see people keeping those 50 cent piece crappies.

[JBMasterAngler]

I could see the problem with keeping little 'eyes on lakes where they actually do spawn...but in the majority of situations where walleyes are stocked, it's in lakes where they can't spawn, or the success rate is too poor to support a population...so basically it's "put and take".

So if you want to keep 12 inch walleyes in gervais lake here in st. paul, go for it! 12 inch 'eyes out of lake winni? I think not, let 'em grow to 15 or 16 inches.

[minnfish89]

A DNR official told me a couple years ago that keeping 12-13" fish on Winnie didnt hurt the lake at all biologically. Its easier and quicker for mother nature to replace a 12" fish rather than an 18" fish.

Here is an example from earlier in the post about Winnie

[andrew chadwick]

It is a FACT that walleye in some lakes don't grow much bigger than 15 inches. A prime example is island lake in duluth as was said earlier. A four year old fish in that lake is oly 14 inches, compared to 20 or so on most lakes. You might go out and fish all day and catch one fish over 14 inches, and 50 around 12-13. It all comes down to the lake. Some lakes, IE METRO LAKES don't have spawning areas and most fish are stocked.

I think keeping 13-15 inchers, and putting the rest back is the wisest thing to do for the fisheries.

[Quetico]

There are too many lakes people could list that for many reasons the 'eye dont ever get much over 15". So we put a state wide 14" minimum in place. Then suddenly we have a list of lakes with tons of lakes where you can only keep the biggest 'eyes in the lake. Thus forever keeping the size structure small.

[kg2]

Why is 12" the magic number? Why not smaller?

[JBone]

I like to Fon-do 8inchers!

[wahoohendoo]

big sandy is not a stocked lake. you can fish all year out their and only get a handful over 14-15". you can catch walleyes all day long and plenty of them but 90% of them will be 12". you might say a good year class is in the lake but it has been this way forever. i would like to see a expierimental min. or slot on the lake. i guess one is in the making as we speak for 2011-on.

[Muskiefool]

We found this on a stringer last year

its crazy what people will keep, I prefer the 16 inch fish I guess.

[Quetico]

Judging from the and in the pic, I'd call that 8-9". Definitely way too small to keep.

[BrdHunter01]

Doesn't the DNR stock walleyes only in lakes that have some naturaly reproducing walleyes? That could be wrong but what a waste of money if they stock lakes that have no potential to reproduce fish....

[Quetico]

BrdHunter- The DNR would be creating put-take walleye fisheries like they do with trout. The DNR regularly puts trout in lakes that have no potential to reproduce. The intention is to provide a fishing opportunity that is sustained by the DNR only.

[JBMasterAngler]

I would say the majority of lakes in the southern 1/3 of the state that are stocked with 'eyes are unable to produce natural fish.

[Muskiefool]

Heres the perch that was caught by the same people, I dont know if it was a joke but its not funny at all, I think that eye was about 8 inches and this fish was around 4-5.

[wolfman-k]

I believe we as sportsmen & women need to seriously rethink the "I need a limit" mentality! I would rether have catch & release rules before I allow myself to start keeping 12" walleyes! There must be a lot of resentment over the lack of smelting on the North Shore or something. This reminds me of a co-workier of mine from 25 years ago who would keep 'silver dollar' size sunnies. I asked him why? & he said he pickles them, so I said "oh yeah, gerkins!".

[mnguy152]

May be we should just stop this thread before someones feeling get hurt lol

[Quetico]

I would happily support a state wide minimum on 'eyes but I would want it set lower for those lakes that simply for whatever reason have stunted populations of 'eyes that few ever hit 14".

Set a state wide minimum at 10" and a 5 county metro min at 16" due to the increased pressure in the metro. Also to leave those lakes that have stunted populations in the metro as lakes simply loaded with eyes.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

sometimes between summer fall and winter there is a pretty fair difference between a 11 12 12.5 13 13.5 inch walleye... a 12.5 can be a resonable fillet and a 13 can be a skinny little cigar...

you have to use your best judgement

[BrdHunter01]

I think different slots on lakes is ridiculous. We already need a 500 page novel to keep track of all the different laws we already have. When will it end???? No wonder teens and young adults are not getting into fishing.... Who in the hll can keep up with all the laws now-a-days? Different slots for lake x, different limits for lake y, "oh we changed the slot mid season on lake z" and this is for just walleyes, don't even get me started on northerns..... We have 10,000 lakes here in this great state and some people are saying "we need to keep those 12 inchers, it needs to be a different slot on every lake".... Lets get real, after I read all the laws in my "new" 1000 page manual on Minnesota slot limits I can finally start fishing.... O wait the seasons over...

[waterbound]

To suggest that different lakes do not need different slots is to suggest that all lakes are alike, which is simply not the case. Some lakes recieve more pressure than others, some are managed for trophies, others are managed to encourage a population to recover, etc. Lake Kabetogama has a 17-28 inch protected slot and the average size of fish is much larger now than before the slot was introduced. To put a slot like that on small lake would prevent harvest of many of the fish because that lake might not even be able to produce fish over 28 inches. To eliminate the slot on Kabetogama would reduce the average size of the fish, which is not something desired (there were meetings to discuss the slot before it was created and it is doing exactly what it was wanted for). Slot limits are important on some fisheries for many different reasons and unnecessary on others. A lake with special regulations on it will have that information posted at the public boat launch, usually right next to the signs about any exotic species which may be in the lake. Sure, it can get a little complicated and the slots could use some adjusting but it should be no problem for anyone to know what they are on any given lake they visit.

[Quetico]

I completely agree waterbound.

[hulk]

nice discussion, personally when I want to eat fish I rather have a 12 inch crappie or perch, but if all I can put in the bucket is a 12 inch walleye (small in my opinion) It's going in the bucket, my opinions on stocking would probalby cause alot of disagreement, I'm not a big fan on walleye stocking unless it's use to supplement lakes that have natural ocurring spawning, and not even then so much,

I just have a tough time beleiving that that walleye's are worth so much time, money or the effort, why waste money on catch and take walleyes if they're not natural to a lake?

I understand it would cause a great deal of hardship to tourism and the resort and towns it's supports if it were to stop, I don't know if possible but I rather see some of the effort that is use to put walleyes in lakes that have no natural production be used to try and create lakes that would produce larger panfish,

now that I reread it, I think I may have gotten off the topic, anyways it's a nice discussion

[broken_line]

i love catching those small walleyes!! but i presonaly wont keep any thing smaller than 13.5 unless it has my hook in its belly and my fingers are frozen