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If you’re getting Target Walleye for the first time, a friend probably signed you up!
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Can you even imagine a 25-lb (41″) walleye?!
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Mabry Harper’s 1960 world record walldawg was a 41″ [!] behemoth that weighed 25 lbs!!!! Plucked outta Old Hickory Lake, TN – reservoir formed by the Old Hickory Lock and Dam on the Cumberland River – while fishing for catfish with 75-lb test:
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Apparently it’s controversial ‘cuz many think the fish doesn’t look 25 lbs in the original pic…. Gotta remember that back in the day they didn’t have wide-angle lenses (Go-Pros, etc) and maybe didn’t “long arm” as hard as today’s average Joe/Joette.
Here’s a couple other angles that maybe show just how big that freak o’ nature was – held up like a boss by Mabry’s wife:
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Get this: They ate it for supper! Every bit of it except its head:
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If you’ve got some time to kill, this is a super interesting write-up talking about how the fish was removed from the record books ‘cuz people thought there’s no way the fish could be 41″ long (based on Mabry’s hands in the pic). Was eventually reinstated when more evidence came forward backing the fish’s size.
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How some Mille Lacs locals feel about the new walleye regz….
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Was going to post the new Mille Lacs regs here, but there’s just too dang much 🥴 to fit in this email. Literally 5 different changes in one season…on one lake. Talkin’ slot limits, live-bait bans, night restrictions, temporary closures, you name it.
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The Mille Lacs Messenger reached out to a few businesses and fishing guides to get their reactions of the 2021 open-water walleye regs, and they didn’t hold back…. 😳 Anytime you talk about changing regs, folks get a little “passionate” (lol):
> Bill Eno of Twin Pines Resort: “The best thing we can say about this year’s regulations is we’ve seen worse. When Mother Nature is managed politically nobody wins.”
> Terry Thurmer of Terry’s Boat Harbor: “I think the new regulations are a joke. You look back at the Leech Lake and Red Lake restoration after 5 yrs they were able to keep fish and the economic impact for the area was huge. Mille Lacs restoration after 5 years is a complete failure. Mille Lacs businesses on the other hand have suffered covid-like shutdowns and huge reductions in customers for over 5 yrs because of smothering walleye restrictions, and unlike covid there is no economic restoration in sight. The Blue ribbon panel told the DNR to spread harvest over small, medium and large walleyes, yet they absolutely refuse to do so.”
> Kevin McQuoid of Mac’s Twin Bay Resort: “The positives are that now we have a harvest not only in the winter but also in the spring this year and hopefully again in the fall. I do wish that the regulations would be a little more consistent without so many changes seasonally and from season to season.”
> Matt Treno of Matt’s Fishing: “We are killing our tourism with complicated and confusing walleye regulations. I hear it year after year from my customers that the regulations here – compared to other fishing vacation areas in MN – make Mille Lacs Lake less attractive. This year with 5 regulation changes for walleyes in a single season, will certainly negatively affect our local tourism that the area desperately needs.”
> Brian Linne from Red Door Resort: “The ability to keep a slot walleye early season and again in the fall will likely provide a boost to our own reservations this summer and could put Mille Lacs back on the radar of additional anglers.”
I know a lot of folks are less than happy with all the restrictions (completely understandable!) but don’t let the ever-changing regz stop you from heading to Mille Lacs and catching a PILE of walleyes this summer:
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My 2 cents: Fishing’s about more than just filling your bucket. If you’re only in it for the meat, it’d be way cheaper to hit the grocery store. 🤷♂️
Don’t get me wrong…I like a fish dinner as much as the next guy/gal, but I’m just pumped to be able to #TargetWalleye on ‘The Big Pond’ again soon:
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The Mille Lacs walleye bite is almost always insane by central-MN standards. On most other lakes around these parts a GREAT day is catching 1 or maybe 2 fish. And Mille Lacs, well…
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Where the heck do all the walleyes go?!
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Shared a link to this quick 30-second video before but have had a lot of requests to bring it back. It’s an acoustic-telemetry study from 2016/2017 on Lake Erie that tracked walleye movements for an entire year. It’s always been a dream of mine to tag-and-release a bunch of fish to see where they disappear to throughout the season…so I always find this stuff fascinating:
[Heads-up there’s a little bar along the bottom with dates]
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Wish there was one of these for every lake.
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Sounds like ND is already missing big tourneys?
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In case you hadn’t heard, ND’s now requiring a 10% tournament permit fee – with no limit/cap to the amount – based on “gross receipts/entry fees of the tournament prize purse to be paid to them in order to secure the event permit.”
Used to be the same 10% fee but it was capped at $5,000. Their rationale for the elimination of the $5K cap was the belief that all tournaments – regardless of size – should pay the fixed rate of 10% as a matter of fairness.
The good news is those funds go “toward fisheries conservation projects such as boating access and other fishing infrastructure or educational fishing programs.”
The bad news is a bunch of big tourney platforms pulled ND stops off their tourney schedule this year because of the fee change.
One of those being the NWT where (if my algebrateria is right lol) ND Game & Fish would’ve snagged a $30K+ chunk of that now-rescheduled stop. I know Head2Head’s “Pro Walleye Series” originally had Stump Lake, ND on its 2021 schedule…but they also found an alternative outside of ND ‘cuz the new policy meant they would’ve had to pay nearly $10K just to show up. No doubt there’s some other big players that backed out….
I’m sure some locals are happy to keep “their lakes” to themselves – I mean no one likes added attention and fishing pressure – but think about the hit those local economies are taking…. One regular season NWT event brings roughly $250K+ of outside dollars into the local community (from angler’s hotels, gas, meals, gear, etc) where it revolves many times over. And no doubt you can expect more people and $$$ to make their way over to fish after watching the pros wallop on fish, and spitting out exactly how they caught ’em.
So now (from here):
> The ND Game and Fish Dept recently sent a letter to fishing tournament organizers across the state asking for their input on a “fisheries conservation fee” the agency assesses for fishing tournaments.
That letter proposed 3 options:
> Maintain the 10% conservation fee, a policy that would have generated $143,174, based on the number and size of tournaments held in 2019.
> Change the conservation fee to an administrative fee ranging from $50 to $250, depending on the number of boats, plus an additional $5 per boat. The option would have generated $54,530 based on 2019 tournaments.
> Reduce the conservation fee to 5% of entry/participation fees and add an additional fee of $5 per boat, which would have generated $86,792 if in effect in 2019.
The department is asking tourney organizers to respond to the 3 options by Apr 30, but said that “the input is only being gathered for informational purposes and doesn’t mean the straight 10% fee will be eliminated.”
Still can’t imagine they’d already be exploring different fee options unless they were missing the big shows. 🧐 Guess we’ll find out.
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Sprengel “tunes” his soft-plastics.
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Gotta bring this quick tip back because it’s 🎯.
We’ve all heard of tuning crankbaits, but have you ever seen anyone “tune” their soft-plastic swimbaits? Fishin’ jedi Korey Sprengel does because why wouldn’t he:
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Korey was nice enough to let folks in on the little secret at a Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited (MN) meeting. Says he can change the action of his Berkley Ripple Shads by stretching and massaging ’em to break up the salts and minerals in the bait = loosens up the plastic to make it a little more limp:
> A stiffer swimbait is going to have a tighter action…lot of times good for cleaner water ‘cuz it’s more natural.
> Dirtier situations…a wider [action] is going to move more water and make the bait roll more.
Also says he likes that loose-ified bait in cooler water ‘cuz he can work the bait slower yet still get the right amount of action out of its paddletail:
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Awesome stuff per usual. Thx much for sharing, dude!
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1. What’s Al Lindner been up to?
Well, some pretty Al-y things (lol) like sneaking over to ND and catching walleyes on a “hot pink” Rapala X-Rap. He said the water was a chilly 41-42°F so a slow pull-pause cadence was key to trigger bites:
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> “The fish will then be released back into the lake and the fertilized eggs will be taken immediately to the Fawn River Hatchery.
> “The plan is to stock muskies into Webster, Tippecanoe, Bruce and Skinner lakes as well as the Barbee Chain this fall.”
6. Pure Fishing sold the Plano hunting brands.
> Pure Fishing Inc. announced the close of its purchase of Plano Synergy Holdings Inc. As part of the closing…also announced it had closed the sale of Plano Synergy’s archery and hunting accessories brands to GSM Outdoors.
> Pure Fishing will retain ownership of the Plano and Frabill brands…will also retain ownership of Plano’s storage and fall storage business and its Creative Options and Caboodles brands.
> This strategic acquisition is the 3rd for Pure Fishing in 2 years under the ownership of private equity firm Sycamore Partners.
7. Q1 boat loans way up. 🚀
Highest in 6 yrs.
8. Garmin added Mercury Marine VesselView compatibility.
Engine data features “…across its ECHOMAP Ultra, ECHOMAP UHD and GPSMAP series multi-function displays (MFDs).”
9. Berkley limited-edition “HD Flash” colors are out.
Quick heads-up in case you missed ’em, ‘cuz I’m not sure how long these tasty patterns will be available in the Flicker lineup and Hit Stick:
> Berkley scientists have combined HD Tru Color and Flash technologies to give anglers a real match-the-hatch edge…with the new Limited-Edition Color Program.
> …4 ultra-realistic HD Flash Series patterns including HD Flash Chubby, HD Flash Ghost Minnow, HD Flash Threadfin Shad, HD Flash Perch. Exclusively available through select retailers….
Pics don’t even do ’em justice, tho this shot from Mark Courts comes close:
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10. MN/WI: St. Louis River mercury levels thru the roof.
So much so that:
> Men should eat only 1 meal of large walleye per month while women under 50 and children should not eat any large walleye 20″ or longer from the river. Ever.
Scientists used “isotope ‘fingerprinting” to trace mercury in the fish all the way back to its source, differentiating old legacy mercury from new mercury falling from the sky. That new study found that “huge amounts of decades-old ‘legacy’ mercury pollution stored in the sediment is still getting into the fish.”
> “The new study found mercury in the St. Louis River estuary sediment was on average 10x higher than sediment from the Bad River, which scientists used for comparison in the study. Less than 100 miles away and subject to the same airborne mercury deposition patterns for new mercury, but not affected by historic onsite industrial or urban mercury sources, the Bad River served as the control for the research.
> “Scientists also found mercury levels in the walleye from the St. Louis River estuary were on average twice as high as those in Bad River fish. Moreover, 60% of the walleye and 50% of the northern pike tested from the St. Louis River had levels of mercury higher than federal guidelines for human consumption.”
11. MN: Upper Red Lake open-water regs announced.
3-walleye bag limit, with only 1 walleye longer than 17″ allowed.
12. IA Great Lakes walleye season opens May 1.
Spirit Lake, East and West Okoboji lakes.
13. One of the baits I’m gonna be giving a workout this year…
…is the Storm Largo Shad. It’s a soft swimbait that’s super durable 👀 which sorta sounds like an oxymoron…. Means you can catch a pile of fish on one swimbait but it’s soft enough to have tons of action: shimmy, roll and thump. Even has a “tail tendon” you can snip for a wider action.
Comes in some super realistic “live” patterns too, but here ’tis in “electric chicken” aka a dynamite walleye color when looking for reaction bites:
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I can talk about a bait’s action all day, but it almost means nothing until you can actually see it underwater. So props to the Wired2Fish crew for going above below and beyond, and getting you a fish-eye view look at it rigged on a VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jig Head:
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14. Dicks’ opens first outdoor/indoor sports experience store.
In Victor, NY. Pretty easy to click “add to cart” and buy online, so they’re trying something different to get folks in the door:
> In addition to 100,000 sq ft of traditional space, the sprawling complex also has a 17,000 sq ft outdoor sports field, running track, golfing bays, putting green, rock climbing wall, batting cage and a health and wellness centre.
15. Merc Racing has a new 200-hp 6-cyl motor.
> …expands its Apex Series of competition outboards with the introduction of the Mercury Racing 200 APX, a V6 4‑stroke model designed for…tunnel boat racing
> Rated at more than 200 hp, the 200 APX outboard offers racers a very durable powerhead and the latest in four‑stroke engine technology, while reducing exhaust emissions by 50% compared to the Mercury Racing 200 XS OptiMax model and by 90% compared to the legacy SST 120 model.
> The 200 APX is the first V6 four‑stroke outboard produced by Mercury Racing…raises the compression ratio from 10:1 to 11:1, increases peak RPM from 5800 to 6800, and fits a lightweight carbon fiber cowl that incorporates forced cold air induction. “…produces about 20% more torque than the 2‑stroke motor, but at a lower RPM.”
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Why Korey Sprengel super-glues his plastics.
Wire-keepers are great and all, but it’s amazing how much better a little super glue can be for keeping your plastics pinned. Korey puts a little dab on the hook shank before sliding his plastics up and says he can sometimes fish a half a day, or go thru 10-20 fish, before he even needs to mess with it again:
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The water’s still a little cold, but I have the sudden urge to dig my snorkel outta storage:
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I knew zander got big, but this is just ridiculous. Daniel Nilsson’s new PB went 10.8 kg and 93 cm = which is an outrageous 23.81 lbs and 36.61″ long. 🤯 Shot from @westinfishing on Insta:
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Pretty crazy to think that would NOT be a world record if it were a walleye. 🤯
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Sign up another fish-head!
If you’re forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we’ll take care of it! (We won’t sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
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Friends of Target Walleye
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Who is Target Walleye
Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Jay Kumar, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He’s in it now, but still can’t answer that question…. Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a “fishing degree” at the time…. Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com
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