It Is Time

[rps]

For the last week to ten days, my sources have reported the walleye are biting between Holiday Island and the Beaver dam. This should last another 4 to 6 weeks.

Please, take only one or two home per trip.

God bless.

[Devan S.]

7 hours ago, rps said:

Please, take only one or two home per trip.

Please consider less than that. This time of year makes me sick with Walleye....and the pressure and number of guides are through the roof and their all taking their 4 fish limit daily. I just will not hardly keep one from now until late April. If I do, I'll be really selective with an 18.25" male. 

[Ketchup]

Guides…..We beat the bass tournament chat to death here, but rarely mention the other, more devastating demon to a fishery, and those are the guides. Yeah i know some here make their living by doing so but there are guides for every species nowadays.  If you do the math on the number of fish taken by guides and their paid supporters it would be mind boggling, including bass. 

[Targa98]

There is nothing better to me than fresh walleye to eat. Now with that being said, I typically dont fish for them until April and even after that I might keep 10 a year or so. They rarely make it to my freezer. I have 0 problems with people keeping  walleye as long as we are smart about it and not taking big egg loaded females this time of year. I was at the docks about 3 weeks ago or so at Cape fair. I saw the biggest in person walleye ever and absolutely made me sick. I'd say it would have went close to if not over 10 lbs. There is no way I could have got 2 hands around the belly of that giant bc she was stuffed to the gills with eggs. Heart breaking really. This part is hard to say because it was not a guide but a by catch by a young gentleman in a Tourn. I will never bash the tourn guys bc I enjoy tournaments like the next guy but as a fisherman in general I would have liked to see that fish back in the lake after a few picture.

[DADAKOTA]

If they catch/keep them legally, who am I to say they can't release to grease? A lot of States make spawning fish off limits.  I'd have no problem closing the walleye and bass seasons during their spawning periods.  This would include a tourney ban during that time as well.  MDC won't do it as they like the $$$$ rolling into the State.

[rps]

When I lived on Tablerock, I rarely fished walleye before late April. February was too darn cold, and March was WW time.

I did keep and eat walleye, but I always obeyed the possession limit.

Last, Tablerock is primarily put and take for walleye. The rivers that feed the lake do not have the length of moving water to allow the eggs to hatch.

My comments about taking only 1 or 2 were aimed at sharing a finite resource.

[Champ188]

On 2/20/2023 at 7:33 AM, Ketchup said:

Guides…..We beat the bass tournament chat to death here, but rarely mention the other, more devastating demon to a fishery, and those are the guides. Yeah i know some here make their living by doing so but there are guides for every species nowadays.  If you do the math on the number of fish taken by guides and their paid supporters it would be mind boggling, including bass. 

Let's not paint all guides with the same brush. Bill Babler set the bar high long ago when he point-blank stated in his advertising materials that bass would not be kept aboard his boat. Pretty sure Beck had the same policy. Not so for lots of others, as is clearly evident in their marketing efforts. The ones who stand up for what they believe need not be stereotyped with the "Mr. Table Rocks" of the world.

[Ik314]

I’ve heard they’re all 17 inchers that can’t be kept anyway.  Everyone should save themselves the cold disappointment and stay home in the warmth 

[Ketchup]

4 hours ago, Champ188 said:

Let's not paint all guides with the same brush. Bill Babler set the bar high long ago when he point-blank stated in his advertising materials that bass would not be kept aboard his boat. Pretty sure Beck had the same policy. Not so for lots of others, as is clearly evident in their marketing efforts. The ones who stand up for what they believe need not be stereotyped with the "Mr. Table Rocks" of the world.

Good point, as it wasn’t my point to do so. With that said i am pretty confident in saying that every guide, including Bill, catches deep fish, and fish that are deep hooked that don’t survive, several outings a year. I know it’s the name of the game but in my original comment i was just doing math in my head of the fish taken out of a fishery in a years time by a single guide and his paid supporters. Now multiply that by how many trips they do a year, and multiply that by the amount of guides on the water daily and WOW. 

[FishnDave]

17 hours ago, rps said:

Last, Tablerock is primarily put and take for walleye. The rivers that feed the lake do not have the length of moving water to allow the eggs to hatch.

Are you thinking of Striped Bass spawning requirements in freshwater?  Walleyes have been successfully spawning in many lakes without major triubutaries since time immemorial, right?