near record walleye

[Duffman]

Here's another MN River monster, my buddy is a very tall drink of water and goes about 6'8" -6'9", even Northlander would be looking up at this dude. From the evidence provided, any guesses on weight?

[Bubbadust]

Alright, here's my guess about the crappie picture:

It looks like there is fishing line horizontally across the picture if you look close, possibly suspending the crappie in the air. Dark posed quite a ways behind it and they found the right angle from which to take the picture. Am I close or am I crazy???

[Guest]

BINGO!!

[Scott M]

Going back to the walleye. There are some monsters in there. I got a 33" Walleye about a quarter mile off the access adjacent to 7 Mile Creek Park. Had quite a bit of fight in her.

[thaJman]

What a JOKE!!! I can't believe the Outdoor News published this dump...on the front page nonetheless! If you read the article in the ON it says he or is son pulled a 36" eye out of the same spot last year. HAHAHAHA. I wonder how much the 36" weighed? 50 pounds?

What a bonehead.

[fishbouy]

ya it sure is a nice walleye!!!... but after fishing mille lacs for the last 5 years and catching some nice 27-28" walleye i have always found it hard to imagine a fish near 14lbs much less 17 lbs. I was lucky enough to catch a few pike in the 33-35" range this last summer and i thought those were huge. i however have turned some pics of 17" walleye into looking like a world class catch (just hold it in front of you as close to the camera as possible) i always carry a measuring tape with me and usually a camera in the car so i can get a picture to scale.

[MRWALLEYE2005]

I heard Al also claimed he caught a state record Smallmouth Bass last year weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces and then released it. Id guess that walleye is about 9-12 pounds, still a nice fish but hard to believe 16 pounds! I dont know about them Northland guys, they sure tell the stories.

[kato811]

guess ill just throw my scale away an put a pic up so everyone can tell me how much it weights LOL

[Ice-9]

I like fish pictures as much as anybody but there's a break here. A picture stands alone. If you're going to take pictures and release fish, you can't expect to get hard credit for the size of the fish; you get a different kind of credit for putting a fish back alive. If the angler in the photo caught a "near state record walleye" in my book he gets credit for a big walleye but nothing more. THe fact that this happened before--an 8-2 smallie?--makes it even more questionable. Why release an eight pound smallie? It's past reproductive age, probably in its last season, and literally worth more dead--as a state record, as a subject for the DNR guys to look at, as an icon of hope for all smallie anglers, yata yata--than it is alive. If the walleye weighs over 15 pounds all of the above also apply. Carefully and properly weighing a large fish, and taking good photographs, risks that fish's life anyway. I have a friend who released all big fish immediately and rarely took pictures because he got all the pleasure from the catching and found everything else hollow...and we were guides who stand to profit from the mojo of a big fish. I thought that was the purest way to play it...but I haven't found the guts to emulate him yet.

ice

[Cyberfish]

Ah the magic of a wide angle lens!

Heres a whale of an eye I got that shattered the state record! Unfortunatly I got her in Ontario, so back in the lake it went!

[musky hunter]

WOW! Beautiful fish. Congratulations on a great release.

[kato811]

im just curious how many of you have seen a 16 lb walleye or even a 14 lb one?

[gnfishn]

I was fortunate enough to witness up close the catching of what is the current Saskatchewan record walleye. That fish was 18.06 pounds. Looking at photos of both fish I gotta say I'm a little skeptical. ...but then I've never been to New Ulm! Plus it's real hard to judge fish size from pictures.

[FoolNFish]

I just gotta say...dat's wot too manee Schell's & kraut will do to yer, it'll screw up yor eyes so's ya cain't reed da scail rite!!!

[LocalGuide]

I have seen a 13lb walleye before. They are definitely a huge fish.

My personal best is a 29.5" eye that I caught when I was about 11. I still will never forget it, and it was CPR. I also didnt weight it either so I would figure it to be in the 9-10lb range (I dont think it would of been over 10lbs though).

I have seen about 7 (that I can think of right now) walleyes over 28" caught right in-front of me before. All the other ones I see are either pictures or mounts.

I believe that the walleye in that pic to be about 14 lbs, but I would say no more b/c I wasn't there and I didn't see that anyone else weighed it. Now I also know that Al did catch a 8lb smallie too. He said he didn't even think about keeping it since he releases almost everything he catches. Just goes to show why he didnt keep any of those fish.

Id say its just one of those things that the media blows out of proportions again.

[Granny]

The outdoor news ran another article on the fish. They say that when the guy measured the fish he held it up against the side of the boat where his tape was and not flat on the floor of his boat. They said measuring this fish laying flat "could" add 3"-4" to the fish.

Granny

[Mark Christianson]

I thought that article was just plain silly.

If the guy has measured fish before in that respect and knows that its not accurately measuring the fish, then why the heck report the length of the fish if you know its off by inches???

I smell something fishy about the claims around that fish, and its fishier smelling than before.

Still agree though, that its a beauty.