Too much?

[redneckdan]

Never said it could handle the pressure. Said, it was very different from what MN offers and the lake is able to raise more and larger fish than what we have here...

[ClownColor]

Sickening & stupid. It could have been a great video but they have zero respect for those big fish.

lol...should they have placed them on the ice "gently" before letting them die a slow death on the ice? Should a "big" , trophy walleye be treated with more respect then a 8" sunnie? I'm not gonna sugar coat it, "if" i plan on keeping it fish, it gets tossed onto the ice no different then what those guys did. It's food at that point...nothing else.

[Hoey]

I fished Erie a couple times in 1986. If I recall correctly, the lake was just starting to come back from near death. Great to see it is doing well now.

[leechlake]

I'm not adverse to keeping fish either. I like eating walleyes and they are just a fish just like a cow is just a cow. 2-21 inch walleyes would feed my family just fine and if it were legal I'd rather do that than keep 8- 15 inchers if my wife was fishing with me. My dad cringed when I threw back large walleyes, back in his day a 29 incher ended up being dinner. Philosophies change but to me sometimes it seems we go a bit overboard. BTW that video is glutinous so we all have our limits.

[vern]

lol...should they have placed them on the ice "gently" before letting them die a slow death on the ice? Should a "big" , trophy walleye be treated with more respect then a 8" sunnie? I'm not gonna sugar coat it, "if" i plan on keeping it fish, it gets tossed onto the ice no different then what those guys did. It's food at that point...nothing else.

I never said anything about the way they threw all the 10 lb walleyes on the ice or in the bucket. In my opinion these "big" trophy walleyes should be released. They show zero respect for the fishery & it's total gluttony.

[Getanet]

I don't see how this is much different than when the crappie boom was happening on Red Lake. Folks were catching limits of crappies that would have been once-in-a-lifetime catches for most people on most lakes in MN. Was that gluttonous or was it just that the crappies there were huge?

The big difference to me is the sheer size of Eerie, there has to be thousand upon thousand of acres that people can't or won't ice fish.

I agree the video looks gluttonous. But I've also never fished a lake where catching walleyes of those size was a possibility, much less a regular occurrence.

[Genofish]

+1

[DTro]

URL is a good comparison, but why does the success of the trip always have to be based upon how many fish you can (legally) stuff into a bucket? What’s wrong with a little self control?

I see this video has been posted on another site and there was response from a local and it was refreshing to read his take on the whole thing:

This issue has bothered me since last winter. I spend 99% of my fishing time on Lake Erie, this includes winter and summer. I also have many friends who are Captains on Lake Erie and also many friends who fish it all the time that are not Captains. (RevPilot) I am in no way an expert or professional. Let me now tell you my issue with last winter and pretty much the walleye fishing in the summer also. I have not addressed this publicly because I to this day do not know if it’s my right to complain or not.

Last winter on Erie was crazy as you can tell by all the pics and videos. I spent many days on the ice on Erie last year. We were actually running about 15 miles out so that should tell you how thick the ice was. You could launch a snowmobile in Ohio and drive North and hit Canada without getting your feet wet. (Western Basin) Each time I would come off the ice and get to the parking lot, which looked like Walmart on Black Friday, I would actually get so mad my wife would have to calm me down. Ton’s of guys holding up all these big females and piles of females laying everywhere. I would almost become physically ill from being so worked up. My wife kept telling me, “Jeff, their limits are within the law, keep your mouth shut.” LOL She knew how mad and upset I was. My group I was with fished out butts off to catch a limit of 18″ fish. We caught so many large females that we simply lost count. My son actually caught this 31.5″er and it was his PB. I was so proud of him when he shoved her back down the hole.

I pride myself in saying that nobody in my group kept any large fish. Anything bigger than 22″ went down the hole. Did we make a difference in releasing those fish? I don’t know. I’m not educated enough to prove that we did. I know we “felt” better and “felt” like we were helping, but I am not a biologist so I can’t say for sure. Last year’s ice season still bothers me to this day. I am actually pleased that it will not happen again this year because there will not be ice like that again this year. The fish will be relatively safe until next spring.

You think the video was bad, you should see it in the spring and summer. What I have learned about spring and summer fishing on Erie is that it is not about “catching a walleye”, it’s about catching your numbers. Nobody seems to look at how nice the fish are, they wanna look at numbers. “Did you get em’ all?” is heard on about every dock over there. Where my boat is docked they have a fish cleaning station and a 20yd roll off dumpster for scraps! 20YD!! Its usually always full.

But here’s the thing. It may make me angry and it does upset set me but if you actually think about it, it’s none of my business and I should probably keep my mouth shut. The State of Ohio sets the limits and everyone follows those limits. They are within their right to keep that many fish. Do you or I have the right to call them idiots? I don’t know the answer to that. The best answer I have been able to come up with is, “keeping that many walleye is not for me.” That’s the only thing I can tell myself that makes me feel a little better. Do I or my group make a difference by throwing large fish back and not always getting to the “number”? I doubt it, but I am hopeful it does make a difference.

[Getanet]

That guy did put a lot of thought into his reply, being sure to concede that he doesn't have the answers. But what was interesting, based on his comments, is it sounded like he fished Eerie pretty regularly and also kept limits of walleye, just not the large ones. It actually sounded like he had to really work hard to keep the big ones off the line and get to the smaller ones.

In terms of "filling the bucket" I think it just depends on everyone's ability to get out fishing. Guys who only keep enough for a meal, but get out often, aren't necessarily being better stewards of a lake than a guy who keeps his limit, but only gets out once or twice that winter. The guy with the bucket full though may get the stink eye from the guy who only kept enough for a meal for his Xth time that winter.

Obviously everyone needs to make their own calculations of what they should keep based on how much fishing they do, and how much fish they will actually eat and not just collect freezer burn.

[Alagnak]

For every boom there's eventually a bust. A guy can only ask himself- do I want to be part of creating that bust or not? Can only control your own actions. Some people are meat freaks, have no control, and have to kill 'A LIMIT'.

[bigblue]

I am 70 years old and have fished Erie all my life since I was a kid things got bad in the late fifties and sixties because of water pollution the lake has cleaned up and the fishing is nothing short of fantastic with jumbo perch, smallmouth bass, steelhead, lake and brown trout and a ton of walleye which will average 5 to 7 lbs with 10 pounders being common. I agree the video is not pretty but no laws were broken I personally only kill what I will eat that day. This is not a infertile glacial lake, Erie is a 100 plus mile fish factory . And the big ones do taste great you just have to cut the fillets down to cook them properly.The fishery is highly controlled and monitored by the DEC and MNR . I wish all you guys could come and try it .

[ClownColor]

I am 70 years old and have fished Erie all my life since I was a kid things got bad in the late fifties and sixties because of water pollution the lake has cleaned up and the fishing is nothing short of fantastic with jumbo perch, smallmouth bass, steelhead, lake and brown trout and a ton of walleye which will average 5 to 7 lbs with 10 pounders being common. I agree the video is not pretty but no laws were broken I personally only kill what I will eat that day. This is not a infertile glacial lake, Erie is a 100 plus mile fish factory . And the big ones do taste great you just have to cut the fillets down to cook them properly.The fishery is highly controlled and monitored by the DEC and MNR . I wish all you guys could come and try it .

I agree...It's funny listening to all the MN's here complain about the video and seeing these monster walleyes being taken, yet here in MN and everyones wise wisdoms, we can't manage any lakes. Obvisouly they are doing something right over there.

[superseal]

I personally couldn't watch the entire video. I related to his excitement but that's it. I can only hope the fishery can hold it's own. Regardless of the laws....as sportsmen we have to to the right thing. For what it's worth... Here's one of my rookie videos from last March.

[video:youtube]http://youtu.be/Bv6G-qXg71E