Last Call for Walleyes

seeth07 said:
You are dragging your baits on the bottom then. 210' of lead with a spoon is 35' down and 270' of lead is 45' down. There isn't any data on how much deeper it goes when you put on a crank like a #7 flicker but probably gets you another 5'-10' down or so. So that setup you are fishing 40' to 55' down. Perhaps your amount of lead you think you have out is wrong?
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Nope. 30' per color. 7-9 colors. Hours and hours and lots of lost plugs, but I know exactly where I'm at.
 
Addicting said:
You have no idea. Several million walleye in a 24 mile stretch of river. There is zero chance that a Minnesota lake is better.
Click to expand...
The scenery sucks and so does the abundance of people.

Yes, it can be this good:
www.facebook.com

42K views · 8.8K reactions | The walleye fishing up here is unreal! #spruceislandcamp #walleyewednesday #canada #catchandrelease | Josh Teigen - Fishing & Hunting

The walleye fishing up here is unreal! #spruceislandcamp #walleyewednesday #canada #catchandrelease.
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

Edit: That video is from Canada I see now but its really not far from the US border and the fishing is exactly the same up there in that region of LOTW. Can do the same thing on Winnie, Leech, Red lake too.
 
seeth07 said:
You are dragging your baits on the bottom then. 210' of lead with a spoon is 35' down and 270' of lead is 45' down. There isn't any data on how much deeper it goes when you put on a crank like a #7 flicker but probably gets you another 5'-10' down or so. So that setup you are fishing 40' to 55' down. Perhaps your amount of lead you think you have out is wrong?
Click to expand...
Thought that was speed and diameter dependent? Could be speed trolling for summer fun.
 
mtmuley said:
Too bad there isn't "land owner" walleye permits. mtmuley
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There is here in WI - all of the water in WI has land owner permits because the water is 100% owned by the citizens of the state and you can get your landowner permit really easy by buying one from the WDNR every year. We don't even hurt the NR pockets too bad either - $20 resident compared to $55 NR. Not even triple the rate.
 
seeth07 said:
There is here in WI - all of the water in WI has land owner permits because the water is 100% owned by the citizens of the state and you can get your landowner permit really easy by buying one from the WDNR every year. We don't even hurt the NR pockets too bad either - $20 resident compared to $55 NR. Not even triple the rate.
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Hmm. Explains things. Thanks. mtmuley
 
R.K. said:
Thought that was speed and diameter dependent? Could be speed trolling for summer fun.
Click to expand...
2.2-3 mph. Speed changes your depth. It's the kind of thing that takes years and years and lots of money in tackle to figure out. Especially when you're not too smart, like me.
 
Addicting said:
You have no idea. Several million walleye in a 24 mile stretch of river. There is zero chance that a Minnesota lake is better.
Click to expand...
Have you ever fished lake of the woods? ;)

Look up some recent tournament results from LOTW. Guy's are averaging 30+ inch fish for their top 5.

The northern part of MN is a lot better of a place to hang out than Detroit anyway.
 
Congrats on the great time fishing with the Mrs.

Some of the best money I've spent was the Advanced GPS Minnkota.
 
warmer said:
2.2-3 mph. Speed changes your depth. It's the kind of thing that takes years and years and lots of money in tackle to figure out. Especially when you're not too smart, like me.
Click to expand...
Like I thought- hot temps, hot fish. Go fast, cover water, get big hits.
 
seeth07 said:
He should just go back to his hometown. Much closer and there is no better place in the states to go with walleye as the target

Actually I'm surprised she hasn't talked you into a fly in trip to Canada yet
Click to expand...
The hometown lakes are where she ended up with this walleye problem. When we married, she was just happy to fish, didn't matter the species. She loves to eat fish, so fishing was as much a utilitarian endeavor as it was pleasure.

My dear friend, @mn taxidermist, offered to take us to Red Lake, which was one of three "home lakes" for us; Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake being the other two. Well, the fishing on those two days was amazing, even with Dick's 14' Lund and a 15hp Evinrude. She was hooked, all pun intended. That was the summer just after we got married, so we were without a child and fishing was our pursuit. Yet, all she could talk about was walleyes on Red Lake.

Fast forward two years and we ended up in Montana, finally. By now, we had a one-year old in tow. Being on a potato soup and mac & cheese income, the idea of a boat to walleye fish seemed like something requiring a winning lottery ticket. We were relegated to trips to the Lower Madison, back when sculpins were legal bait, using our spinning gear to take home a couple brown trout each trip. That was our lot for the first three years we lived here. Bank fishing with spinners and live bait.

Two trips in particular turned her from trout fishing, avowing to fish for nothing but walleyes. One trip was high water. I needed to get out to a rock, so I put Matthew on my back and started wading. Well, you know what happened next - I hit a slimy rock, down we both went, under water, in the cold of May. Mrs. Fin watching from shore was panicking. I stood up, current to my belly button, shaking water from Matthew's mouth, and somehow didn't lose any fishing gear in my trek back to shore. That ended what should have been a good day of fishing.

A couple months later we were a bit further upstream in a deeper hole that was always good for a few browns. Sure enough, they were cooperative. Some fly fisherman wedged in just down below me and was thrashing the water with something. When I gave the second brown trout the "lead pipe treatment" it was more than that fly fisherman could handle.

He marched over the proceeded to lecture me about my stupidity of killing trout. I just looked at him with the "Too bad" glance. I had fish to catch. Then the guy said something to the effect that raising young kids to kill fish was somehow bad parenting. That was it. Mrs. Fin was not going to let some overdressed Brad Pitt-wannabe tell her about parenting and raising her son to eat fish.

I had thought about kicking his ass, tossing him in the river, or snapping his fly rod that probably cost a week of pay for me. But, Mrs. Fin had this situation under control. I just stood there, smirking, almost laughing out loud, as some urbanite tourist fly fisherman got his ass handed to him by a stay-at-home mom. He left, hastily. She was so pissed, she made us pack up and head home.

Over grilled brown trout fillets that night, she pronounced that we were getting a boat. It would eliminate her worry of her son drowning in the current, with the aid of her husband. It would get her away from the Bozeman faux-fisherman who were mostly here to show off their new costumes. It would open up the reservoirs of central and eastern Montana to her true passion - walleyes.

I thought she was joking. Nope, she was dead serious. We'd be going to MN for my younger brother's wedding in June and she intended to pick up a new Lund Rebel, a 16' er, when we were back there. Sure enough, that's what she did. Its maiden voyage was on Lake of the Woods. We also fished Red Lake. She couldn't have been happier. Where the money came from, I don't know, but with five years of marriage under my belt, I had come to learn that you don't get in the way of this woman and her fishing.

That winter she went to a boat show. Terry, the original owner of Townsend Marine and another gold old boy from Northern MN, talked her into a 17' Lund Pro-V with a 60hp Yamaha. I told her we couldn't afford two boats. She instructed me to get the other one sold, even though less than a year old, before taking delivery on the new Pro-V in May. Ok. Sold!

Since then, it has been exclusively walleye fishing. There is nothing she gets more excited about. Our manner of parenting might have had some valid critique. Matthew never got a chance to play Little League, golf, bike riding, or other things kids do. He was stuck in a boat for 40-60 days each summer.

By the time he was eight, he was fishing his first walleye tournament with me. He could run a boat as good as most men. He picked up his mother's interest in experimenting, whether with lure colors, artificial baits, depths, speeds, you name it. The number of fish we stumbled into because of his curiosity it quite remarkable.

A few boats later, four different lake lots that were supposed to be our "fish camp," and a collection of trolling rods and crankbaits that floor most guys who walk into our shop, and Mrs. Fin feels like she's just getting started. My travel with shows, events, legislation, etc screws up a lot of our summers. She's politely informed me that next summer better have 30 days of walleye fishing, "or else." Not sure what "or else" would entail, but I don't intend to find out.

At times, most times, I thought we were crazy to spend so much of our scarce disposable income on fishing, boats, gas, gear, trips. Yet, looking back and seeing how much our family benefitted from being confined to a boat for days on end, I would advocate that more families spend chunks of their disposable income on similar "frivolities."

Fishing from dark to daylight was one of Mrs. Fin's favorite times to fish. Good fishing and not much competition.
34120015.JPG
Saugers are fair game, also.
34170034.JPG

When they fire me from this gig, you will find me in Northeast Montana, living the life of pleasure. For now, I gotta get this fish camp planned (and eventually finished) if I want to extend my hunting pass beyond this season.
 
Big Fin said:
The hometown lakes is where she ended up with this walleye problem. When we married, she was just happy to fish, didn't matter the species. She loves to eat fish, so fishing was as much a utilitarian endeavor as it was pleasure.

My dear friend, @mn taxidermist, offered to take us to Red Lake, which was one of three "home lakes" for us; Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake being the other two. Well, the fishing on those two days was amazing, even with Dick's 14' Lund and a 15hp Evinrude. She was hooked, all pun intended. That was the summer just after we got married, so we were without a child and fishing was our pursuit. Yet, all she could talk about was walleyes on Red Lake.

Fast forward two years and we ended up in Montana, finally. By now, we had a one-year old in tow. Being on a potato soup and mac & cheese income, the idea of a boat to walleye fish seemed like something requiring a winning lottery ticket. We were relegated to trips to the Lower Madison, back when sculpins were legal bait, using our spinning gear to take home a couple brown trout each trip. That was our lot for the first three years we lived here. Bank fishing with spinners and live bait.

Two trips in particular turned her from trout fishing, avowing to fish for nothing but walleyes. One trip was high water. I needed to get out to a rock, so I put Matthew on my back and started wading. Well, you know what happened next - I hit a slimy rock, down we both went, under water, in the cold of May. Mrs. Fin watching from shore was panicking. I stood up, current to my belly button, shaking water from Matthew's mouth, and somehow didn't lose any fishing gear in my trek back to shore. That ended what should have been a good day of fishing.

A couple months later we were a bit further upstream in a deeper hole that was always good for a few browns. Sure enough, they were cooperative. Some fly fisherman wedged in just down below me and was thrashing the water with something. When I gave the second brown trout the "lead pipe treatment" it was more than that fly fisherman could handle.

He marched over the proceeded to lecture me about my stupidity of killing trout. I just looked at him with the "Too bad" glance. I had fish to catch. Then the guy said something to the effect that raising young kids to kill fish was somehow bad parenting. That was it. Mrs. Fin was not going to let some overdressed Brad Pitt-wannabe tell her about parenting and raising her son to eat fish.

I had thought about kicking his ass, tossing him in the river, or snapping his fly rod that probably cost a week of pay for me. But, Mrs. Fin had this situation under control. I just stood there, smirking, almost laughing out loud, as some urbanite tourist fly fisherman got his ass handed to him by a stay-at-home mom. He left, hastily. She was so pissed, she made us pack up and head home.

Over grille brown trout fillets that night, she pronounced that we were getting a boat. It would eliminate her worry of her son drowning in the current, with the aid of her husband. It would get her away from the Bozeman faux-fisherman who were mostly here to show off their new costumes. It would open up the reservoirs of central and eastern Montana to her true passion - walleyes.

I thought she was joking. Nope, she was dead serious. We'd be going to MN for my younger brother's wedding in June and she intended to pick up a new Lund Rebel, a 16' er, when we were back there. Sure enough, that's what she did. Its maiden voyage was on Lake of the Woods. We also fished Red Lake. She couldn't have been happier. Where the money came from, I don't know, but with five years of marriage under my belt, I had come to learn that you don't get in the way of this woman and her fishing.

That winter she went to a boat show. Terry, the original owner of Townsend Marine and another gold old boy from Northern MN, talked her into a 17' Lund Pro-V with a 60hp Yamaha. I told her we couldn't afford two boats. She instructed me to get the other one sold, even though less than a year old, before taking delivery on the new Pro-V in May. Ok. Sold!

Since then, it has been exclusively walleye fishing. There is nothing she gets more excited about. Our manner of parenting might have had some valid critique. Matthew never got a chance to play Little League, golf, bike riding, or other things kids do. He was stuck in a boat for 40-60 days each summer.

By the time he was eight, he was fishing his first walleye tournament with me. He could run a boat as good as most men. He picked up his mother's interest in experimenting, whether with lure colors, artificial baits, depths, speeds, you name it. The number of fish we stumbled into because of his curiosity it quite remarkable.

A few boats later, four different lake lots that were supposed to be our "fish camp," and a collection of trolling rods and crankbaits that floor most guys who walk into our shop, and Mrs. Fin feels like she's just getting started. My travel with shows, events, legislation, etc screws up a lot of our summers. She's politely informed me that next summer better have 30 days of walleye fishing, "or else." Not sure what "or else" would entail, but I don't intend to find out.

At times, most times, I thought we were crazy to spend so much of our scarce disposable income on fishing, boats, gas, gear, trips. Yet, looking back and seeing how much our family benefitted from being confined to a boat for days on end, I would advocate that more families spend chunks of their disposable income on similar "frivolities."

Fishing from dark to daylight was one of Mrs. Fin's favorite times to fish. Good fishing and not much competition.
View attachment 384626
Saugers are fair game, also.
View attachment 384627

When they fire me from this gig, you will find me in Northeast Montana, living the life of pleasure. For now, I gotta get this fish camp planned (and eventually finished) if I want to extend my hunting pass beyond this season.
Click to expand...
Is that a button down shirt under the jeans jacket? Asking for a friend.
Love the fishing history!!!
 
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