Trophy Walleye (pics included)

[Tyler Holm]

Sometimes you have to toot your own horn. Here goes…

I came back to Aberdeen for Easter weekend and absolutely had to fish. Between wedding plans and the Easter holiday, both Saturday and Sunday were completely booked. I had to work until 5:30 on Friday, so fishing plans/time looked dismal.

I decided to throw the rods in “just in case”, and then got to talking to one of my buddies and we came up with a brilliant plan. I was planning on getting in Aberdeen at 1:30ish Friday night/Sat AM. As soon as I arrived, we could head out fishing and forget about sleep. That’s what we did.

I got to Aberdeen at 1:30, dropped off the fiancé, met a few boys at the bar until 2:00 (only had 1 beer and then gave my buddies a ride home), then headed on a 50-80 mile trip to our fishing destination. My buddy Dave and I arrived at our fishing hole at 4:15am.

The area we fish is only 4-5 feet deep, with weeds on the bottom. We’ve found the best lure to use at this time of year was a Rapala long cast. X-Raps dove a little deep and got into the weeds. Any bottom bait was out of the question due to the weeds, and you needed something that would cast a mile as we normally hit fish at the tip of our cast. I decided on the perch color Rapala long cast.

On my second cast (4:30am) something large and in-charge slammed my lure. It hit with such force, that it surfaced just as I set the hook (2 FOW). I had no clue what it was, but I knew it was big. After a bit of a struggle, turning head-lamps on and finding the net, we got that baby on shore. A few quick pictures and weight, at it was returned to the water. 2 casts into the night and we had a 7.7lb eye that stretched 27” full of spawn. The full moon was out and we thought we were going to have a record breaking night. Well, it turns out that that was the only fish we caught and we fished until 7:15am.

Was it worth it? OH YEAH!

[PERCHJR]

Very nice Tyler, so spill it do I know where this "secret" destination is!!! Come on let a fellow South Dakota boy in on the hot spot!!! Anyways like I said before very nice fish!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[rundrave]

Tyler,

Great post! Great pics! And hats off for that baby being able to live to see another a day!

[Tyler Holm]

Perch,

Sorry for not being able to help on the destination. I don't think you would know of this body of water. It's over an hour drive from Aberdeen, but not in the direction you may think. From looking at the body of water, you wouldn't even know there were fish in there. It's privately owned as well.

Yep, the fish is alive and should be spawning in the next few weeks.

[Rost]

Tyler, that is awesome!

Since this post is about big fish maybe I'll have to share a few of my piggies from this spring... These two are also from two different lakes up north..

Here's a spawned out 26 inch eye...

Heres a 4.38 lb small mouth...

[Tyler Holm]

Very, Very, Very nice Rost.

Can't wait to get back there and fish with you on May 20th.

[PERCHJR]

It's cool Tyler, you are a smart fisherman never tell the truth!!! Have a good one!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[harvey lee]

Guys,they are some very nice fish.

[Dennis Steele]

Great story and pics guys!

Congratulations on the catches.

[Eyez]

Dang. I guess I should probably get fishing?

I did catch my first walleyes since last july this weekend though. Nothing as nice as those fish though. Nice pics guys.

Dusty