Report from 11-27-10

[Dav&sons]

Fished Sat. night from 5-1:30 A.M. With my 2 sons Alex and Miles. Had the best night ever! This was my forth time fishing Little Bay and had spotty luck in the past. We only caught 12 fish but.....4 of them were over 10 pounds. By the end of the night we were throwing back 8-10 pounders because we allready had our three trophies. The big 3 were 30.5"-11lbs, 31" 12.2lbs, and 32"-13lbs. Thanks to Bay View Motel for the room. Thanks to Steve for showing us where and how to find 'em. All 3 fish are allready at the taxidermist. Keep Fishing ! Dave

[IM MuskyTime]

Those are some tanks. Great job! Love to see the die-hards get rewarded for sticking it out at the end of the open water season. Congrats.

[schmutzomatic 5000]

I must say those are some piggies.... Good show.. Nice to see you enjoying this beautiful resource with your son's. That's a true sportsman.... congrats..

[The fishing pawn]

Those looks like some nice spawning females, I bet they had a lot of premature eggs in them. Must have been the trip of your life to have 3 mounted. I probably would have too, if I didn't do or know a lot about walleye fishing.

[DooFighter]

Those looks like some nice spawning females, I bet they had a lot of premature eggs in them. Must have been the trip of your life to have 3 mounted. I probably would have too, if I didn't do or know a lot about walleye fishing.

This crap is uncalled for. Next you'll be blaming this guy and his boys for the decline of lbdn walleye fishery. This kind of pious attitude and thinly veiled jabs is why very few post reports here anymore and who could blame those who don't?

Dave, I enjoyed your pictures and am glad you were able to take home 3 wallhangers. Frankly I'd be just as happy for you if you took them home and ate them.

[duckiller2]

Hang them on the wall. I know I would. Hate to see them died on the bottom never to be enjoyed again. Good on ya. Come back and do it again :-)

[Hoosier]

this has got to be a trip of a lifetime! you have the rest of your lives to enjoy what you guys did as a family. and no one can take that away from you. CONGRATS!!!!!

[CrankYanker]

I hope I can hoist a few like that through the ice this year! Its gonna take me sitting in a warm shack before I go out on that bay again! You guys are troopers and were truly rewarded. Congrats

[tomjohn]

C-mon over to BBDN in the spring and I'll show ya hogs...I keep em to. Oh my...What have I typed? Now I wil be cut down like a dirty dog. Oh well...............

Tomjohn

[Dav&sons]

Wow, didn't mean to start an argument....I've been fishing with my boys for 20 year's. We do practice "catch and release". We fish walleye and musky all over Wisc. Mich. and Minnesota. We have never killed a fish we didn't eat. We released a 52" musky last year. These are the first fish we are having mounted. It was truly a "once in a lifetime" fishing trip. How many times can 3 guys each land a trophy fish in one outing. I don't believe we have hurt the fishery. Thanks for the support from most of you.

[tipup_time]

I would like to add my 2 cents about walleye management since this seems like an appropriate thread…First off, congrats to Dave and his sons.. If me and my kids had caught those fish.. They would be at the taxidermist. I just moved to the area from Bemidji, MN, and if you are not familiar with the place, it is in the middle of the best walleye habitat (not fishing) in the states.. Winnibigosish, Leech, Upper Red, Mille Lacs and Lake of the woods are all within 1.5 hours! I have fished them all and I can say that NONE of them offer the same opportunity that LBDN can..I say that having never fished LBDN but I have read numerous reports of multiple 10+ pounders a day.. I believe this is due to the different styles of management that Michigan and Minnesota have. The daily bag in mn is 6 walleye, and only 1 over 20. On the above mentioned lakes, there is a slot. 6 fish, 1 over 26 and the rest under 18. This is exactly the type of management that FISHING PAWN is referring to. I can tell you from experience that it DRASTICALLY reduces trophy potential and in some cases actually eliminates it. Furthurmore, you cannot fish walleye during the spawn in mn.. So ALL the spawners are allowed to spawn without harvest.. This creates a larger number of walleye, but it all but eliminates the potential to grow trophy fish. In all my time fishing mn, I know of a couple people who have caught a double digit walleye. I never have and am definatly looking forward to my first season on the ice at lbdn… In mn you can have a 50-60 fish day on upper red, but NONE of those fish will be any bigger than 25 inches.. Most are 10-20 and there is a slot so unless they are 18 and under you cant keep them..I would rather have a 5 fish day and a legitimate shot at a monster than catch 60 little walleyes! Now its probably a good thing that dave and his sons took those big fish out because that’s 3 fish that were full of eggs that didn’t need to be hatched..I dont think all big fish need to be eradicated, but i think the walleye fishery on lbdn is a good example of proper managment. that is my experience on the subject of walleye management because although mn has the habitat, the fishery doesn’t come close to lbdn… hopefully im not completely ignorant having only read about lbdn but ill let you know come iceup!

[Jighead]

My deepest and most sincere apologies for the post in regards to your trophy walleyes. I am new to the forum, and although not an excuse, thought what I said would come across as a laugh. I give you the biggest congradulations over your monster walleyes. You guys are seriously dedicated fishermen and local support to the Bay De Noc area and businesses. I guess I never thought my words would come across as so harsh and negative. I am proud of you for keeping those hogs. I was just trying to give you guys a little hell, just a common friendly goof between fisherman, nothing harsh meant. I am sure they were big spawners, and I could care less if they spawned. That just makes them all the bigger. The Bay De Noc area has plenty of walleye for everyone. You guys are some of the few people who can actually have something to really brag about. The fact that you were able to boat numbers of walleye this size is staggering. You should be a pro in my book. I just wanted to give some clarification to what I was talking about earlier, since I got booted. I have a better understanding now of what is legitimate to post on here. Again, I am sorry if I offended you in any way. The Bays are planted heavily with walleye, and being able to keep what you catch helps give the rest of the group to grow up into different size classes. tipup_time is right about the slot limits in MN, if we ever went that route it could be bad. Good luck to all. Sorry for being an idiot, I am sure many can agree.

[DWB4X4]

Those are definitely deserving of a trip to the taxidermist...what I need is to introduced to Steve and maybe he can teach me a couple of tricks so I can make the same kinda trip.

I caught my trophies during hard water last winter, looking forward to ice fishing again in 2011