My buddy slept in Saturday morning – the final day of our up North trout trip.

I wake up every day by 5:30 because of my daily work schedule, so I decided to check out a warm water marshy area below a dam near our cabin hoping for pike or smallies.

Got there around 6:30 and locals were already fishing the grassy/firm areas near the parking area and dam – all with bobbers. I put on my waders and went down into the cattail fields about 50 yards down current and stepped to the edge where I could get at the open water.

Cast a few times with a Rap and got a bite and it felt pretty heavy and got it in to see that it was a walleye. A quick check of the regs revealed that the limit was 5 fish 15-20 inches and this one was probably 17-18. Made a basket out of my large trout net and kept the fish.





Foul hooked a crappie too…





Proceeded to fish till 8:00 and got 6 or 7 walleye...





...and then went back to the cabin to see if my buddy wanted to fish for some. He did and after cleanup and checkout, we were back in the cattails by 10:00.





Turned out to be a huge advantage to have waders and be down where we were as most of the people up by the dam were not getting anything and we were pulling them out at a fairly steady clip – clearly, they were hanging out down where we were.

He got maybe 7 or 8 walleye (2 on a fly) and a couple of solid if not huge pike (20-24) and I got another 10-12 walleye. Only 2 of my walleye were under 15 inches and the rest were comfortably 17-22 inches.









We threw back a lot of big fish and got some others to take home. All of the largest fish were released.

Obviously they were stacked below the dam and it was a right time, right place sorta thing. That said, being out a lot causes one to run into these things from time to time. You make your own "luck."


#8 clown X-rap was best in the morning and then a shallow Shadow Rap perch pattern when we went back. Bite was dying out by noon.

Was an absolute blast and funny that catching walleye was by far the highlight of the "trout" trip.



This was on my windshield when we got back to the van…





Lol.

Piss off. You want to worry about what eater fish people are keeping on opening day? Gonna be a long day for ya.

On TU paper too.

Great.

As if some (many?) don't already think that trout fishermen have a collective stick up their arse.

My buddy quipped that we should find him and put a walleye under his windshield wiper. The visual of that slayed me haha.


Don't like the regs? Petition the people who can change them.

Got something to say to me? Come say it.


Anyway… have never gotten into sustained walleye fishing like that outside of Canada and to get so many big ones made for a very special morning.

Honestly saved the trip.


Too fun and I've got some walleye in the freezer. Yum!


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Edited by user Tuesday, May 7, 2019 2:33:30 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Haha... or if he was at any bridge pool on any brook trout stream.

Maybe the critic with the TU stationery was one of the bobber guys up by the dam 😊

I am totally inconsistent. I seldom if ever keep trout, partly because keeping trout would require a creel, and one of my trout fishing goals is to reduce the amount of stuff that I'm carrying. On the other hand, legal Walleyes frequently wind up as fillets.

Haha. Yeah that thought crossed our minds as we could feel them watching us catch fish while their bobbers just floated in the current.

Waders can be the difference between catching fish and watching other people catch fish.

If he wasn’t there fishing for the walleye, not sure why he'd be there at all.






Lol. Exactly.

I have zero problem with people keeping fish to eat within the regs – including trout.

I wish people would release trophy sized fish, but that's a personal choice as long as it's legal.

If I ever feel the need to put a dead fish on my wall, I will pony up for a replica.

I don't understand why anyone would target walleye to fish for sport. I went out last night in an effort to wash away the bitter defeat of the recent trout fishing and got 7 browns from 15-19 inches. A solid night and much needed.

Even the 15 inch brown fought better than the largest walleye that I caught on Saturday.

I mean… I had a blast on Saturday – it really was fun and the best sustained walleye fishing I've ever encountered - but if I wasn't taking some home to eat, I wouldn't want to do that over and over.

Walleye are food.

Guy would have a better argument if it were smallies that we were keeping (which I wouldn't do), but even then it would be none of his business as long as they were legal.

Funny thing is that while it was my van with TU plates and a couple of trout stickers, he probably thought it was my buddy's as he was fly fishing for them at times.