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the smaller class fish (males) stay in and near higher contaminated areas far longer than the females. they are staged in there far longer and even the females migrate to the east in deeper and 'cleaner' waters, while a good population of the males never migrate back west. so what is the difference between eating a 2-5 pound male, and a 7-11 pound female. the pcb's are there regardless. better just leave them for me, ill eat them!
Here is about the best facts I have seen posted anywhere. Quote credited to Wakina on Walleye.com."Astronomical numbers""Once the 2003 hatch became mature adults there were roughly 35,000,000 adult breeders in lake Erie! Now assuming that only half of those adults were females of breeding age that would be roughly 17,500,000 mature females. The average number of eggs laid by a mature female is roughly 250,000. Please read the last post in this thread in the provided link as it is my source for the average number of eggs laid per mature female."http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...ic,1075.0.html"So with 17,500,000 females laying an average of 250,000 eggs each that would be a total of 4,375,000,000,000. That is (four trillion three hundred seventy five billion) eggs laid. If only 1% hatched, that would be 43,750,000,000 fry and if only 1% of those fry lived to maturity that would be 437,500,000 (four hundred thirty seven million five hundred thousand) walleyes that would have survived into adulthood. So since those numbers have not or were not ever realized there has to be more involved than the few thousand females taken just before and during the spawn as you can see those few thousand fish would have a very minor roll in the total overall egg production.Some more good reading based on 2003!"http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/discuss/...n.html#msg1644"One more link!"http://www.epa.gov/med/grosseile_sit...s/walleye.htmlFurthermore, yes I agree with most about the females. I spend quite a bit of time while being out there trying to catch 16 inch males. I have been very proud of the guys I have taken out and that have fished with me because the females have been CPR only. Does keeping these females have a dramatic impact on the fishery? I don't know. I do know that I won't be part of any decline due to keeping females.Call me crazy, but I think I would rather get into a hot perch bite out there right now over catching walleye!!!
One of my friends actually released the Indiana record Walleye 2 yrs ago it was just shy of 37" long and really fat,
wow that big in Indiana? that's impressive, that would probably be a 20+lb fish, other than those lies from Tennessee many years ago no walleye over 20lbs has ever been verified, Washington's state record at 19.3lb was 35" long
Stueben1,I would like to read the content of the links you provided but am getting "404 page not found" errrors when trying them. I tried to paste the link into a new window and same issue. Are they working for anyone else?
With all the freezers full of fish you have you must eat fish 4-5 times a week. For those people who say that the bigger fish taste great I am guessing that they don't get to eat the smaller eyes from different waters all that often. As far as the bigger fish go I would keep 1 to put on the wall and let the bigger ones go. Can't be as good eating. For the fishermen who doesn't have the opportunity to get other fish to fill the freezer, than chow down, and keep them all.
http://www.landbigfish.com/staterecords/fishrecords.cfm?ID=2 All of these states are lies that have fish over 20# as the record ?
I also don't think you can completly wipe out a yr class of erie eyes by keeping bigger ones just make them more rare compared to what it currently is. I really don't like the fact the US stocks the crap out of that lake so Canada nets them and sells them back to the US . Yes the maumee is a big female slaughter zone probably more then I want to know I've been there 1 time and don't even want to think about how many illegal caught fish are kept. Commercial fishing has the biggest impact and it would be interesting to see what would happen if it was eliminated but then again it worked great for the LM perch so who knows. I really have nothing against someone keeping a fish or 2 for the wall in trophy class and actually encourage them to do it they make great mounts and a 28"+ fish is an achievment. Its guys who keep 2 or 3 8+ lbs fish every trip for no other purpose then to eat them which I don't understand.
It was retarded big and would have crushed the record. He caught it on accident fishing for smallies with a tube jig. Its exact length was 36 3/4" we all thought he had a carp when we saw the giant bronze flashes until my friend saw the head. He just looked back and said it was a walleye and by the look in his face we knew it was a monster. My friends and I asked him 3 times are you sure you want to release it and to my suprise he did even after I told him it was several inches bigger then the current record. He just shrugged his shoulders and said I cant bring myself to kill a big fish like that. He's really big on catch and release and doesn't mount fish. Of course he was the only one on the boat that would of released it and of course thats who caught it. I have fished for walleyes in that same spot and have seen a good amount of 6-10s come from that area but nothing really over 10 until his now knowing that thing is in there I've been trying to get it myself . The sad part about the whole thing was that it was his first cast literally 3 cranks into it and it wasnt even his rod that should just be a crime.
Don't take this the wrong way, but with multiple witnesses, there has to be a picture to go along with the story.....
Why is everyone keeping these big females when they are clearly full if eggs. Anything over 5 pounds doesn't taste good (arguably anything over 3 from Erie). Replicas look better and last longer. These people bragging about the fishing this year will be the first to complain in a couple years when the 2003 class is fished out and the only person they have to blame is themselves and everyone else who thinks like them (if its legal ill keep it!) sow what you reap "sportsmen"
We took 1 pic of it it was a quick land, measure, pic, and release. My friend who netted it took the pic I will see if he can send it to me but I will have to be sneaky about it because if he knows its for internet purposes he will not give it to me. The area it was caught is not a known walleye location and only about 8 tight lipped guys fish it and the pic has all sorts of noticable landmarks in the background to those who live near it. I will have to chop out the background if it is posted to protect the spot. We have had other spots almost overrun with people after showing pics of other areas and word gets out so you can understand that we want to keep this spot to the anglers willing to try things on there own. Its not a spot with a lot of fish but the fish you do get are all toads. Ive never got one there under 7# but I chuck bigger baits than most usually very large cranks and swimbaits. The samllest i've seen has been around 3# caught on a normal walleye size jig so its a special walleye spot for an opportunity at big fish if you put time in fishing it. You will most likely be alone 98% of the time. The night I got that 7# was the last time I was there and that night a old timer that has fished it since before I was born landed 3 fish that night all 8-10#s, lucky bugger. He was the only other guy there too besides my friend. That old timer has been close to breaking the record several times according to my friends who fish there more but I've only seen fish landed up to 10# on days I'm there. No doubt the next record will probably come from this spot.
