The next generation of walleye anglers is comin’ in hot. How hot?

First we saw 20-yr-old Dylan Nussbaum become the youngest NWT champ ever at the Devils Lake, ND event….

Now 21-yr-old Max Wilson took home the ‘dubyah’ at the NWT championship on Lake of the Woods with a 3-day barrel full o’ 45.83 lbs of walleye = mega bragging rights, $88,585 check and some serious hardware:

[Reminder: walleyes 19.5-28″ had to be released…allowed 1 over 28″ per day]

> Max: “I knew the wildcard in this tournament would be the ‘overs’. Each day I was kind of downtrodden and then, boom, it would happen right at the end.”

Ran to the Knights and Bridges area — near the CAN line, just south of the Garden Island complex — where BIG female walters were feeding on tullibees:

> “In the morning, they’d sit up closer to the [sharp, jagged rock structure] and then slide out into the abyss during the day. Were smaller fish on the bottom, but I was intentionally fishing above them.”

Fooled ’em running custom-painted #9 Rapala Deep Tail Dancers on leadcore at 2.4-2.6 mph. Baits were done up in the “Hail Mary” color by Viper Custom Tackle:

Ran 5-7 miles further north (near the islands) to catch his 4 biggest ‘unders’ each day pulling custom-painted #7 Berkley Flicker Shads (purple, chart and pink) on leadcore:

> “I could get a limit [of unders] within an hour every day up there. Bet we caught 75 fish [the last day] on a sand-mud flat in 15’…they’d position just off the bottom. Had a limit by 10:15 and only upgraded 1 time.

> “Knew I had a good day, but honestly didn’t think I had won. The anglers in front of me were just outstanding…Nick Schertz, Brett King and Robert Blosser…didn’t think I had enough to beat them.

> “It’s absolutely crazy to win this. Was great to see Dylan win the last one…so happy for him. It’s great to see the next generation showing up — really makes me happy.

Keep doing your thing, dude!

…NWT pros weren’t the only ones getting in on the action….

TW fan Bryan Mason managed to stick this 32.5″ [!] Lake of the Woods mud melon while the NWT derby was going on — congrats on the new PB!

Christ Peters and Scott Schultz landed this mega 32.25″ gravel lizard prefishing for the MTT championship happenin’ Sep 13-14 on Lake of the Woods. Fish like THIS will give ’em a solid crack at winning the $50K Skeeter boat package:

Good luck guys!

Always been a dream of mine to tag-n-release a bunch of fish to see where they disappear to (especially with burbot/eelpout since we just don’t know much about ’em yet, but any species would be amazing).

Came across a 2016/2017 acoustic-telemetry study that did just that on Lake Erie, tracking walleye movements for an entire year. Can watch the full 30-sec vid here, few screenshots below:

1. End of September-ish.

Check how scattered the fish are this time of year:

Start makin’ the push back towards the western basin:

3. January-ish.

Erie doesn’t always get fishable ice, but here’s how congregated the fish get when the rest of us are in the heart of the ice season:

4. End of February-ish.

Get absolutely STACKED up when the rest of us are hitting the late-ice bite:

Makes me think I need to focus waaaay more on hittin’ staging areas — closer to where they spawn — during the tail-end of the ice season.

Some re-spool the short sticks…others charge their flashers…this guy:

I’ll admit it: Starting to get ice on the brain (#NeverTooEarly). Was cruising ’round the interwebz and came across Jon Smith’s secret big-fish bait for northern MN gators: A…ugh…MarCum transducer puck?

Love how the fish refuses to give it back too.