Giant walleye of ND, Dial in your line counter, Furry bluegills

Only place I’ve seen any info on this recent catch (Apr 27, 2023) was from a Rick Acker post on US 103.3’s site. She was just a hair under 35-inches!!! Chan Opp caught the behemoth on the Missouri River somewhere south of Bismarck/Mandan:

Surprisingly enough the fish only weighed just under 16 lbs. “Only” lol.

The current North Dakota state-record walleye is Jared Shypkoski’s 16-06 (33-incher) he caught in the “Cannonball” area of the Missouri River south of Bismarck on Mar 13, 2021:

I reached out to Jared at the time to confirm some deets and found out he caught it trolling about 1 hour before dark with a Smithwick Perfect 10 Rogue custom-painted by Team Ultimatum Customs in their “neon glow shad” color. He said they were running their baits in 3′ or less [!] when that freakazoid bit. Using Off Shore Tackle Planer Boards so they could run 4 rods off each side and of course not spook those skinny-water slobs. 🎯

These before-and-after livewell shots are WILD!

Another almost-state-record walleye was caught last year (early-Nov 2022) by Jeff Enzminger when he plucked this massive 34.5-incher 🤯 outta Lake Sakakawea:

Get this (from here):

> “Jeff had the fish weighed in Garrison where it came in at 16-07 which would’ve broken the current record by 1oz. However, the place in Garrison couldn’t certify the weight so Jeff was forced to wait until he got to 3B Meats in Bismarck.

> “…by the time they made it to Bismarck to weigh the fish, it came in at 16-03. It’s not uncommon for fish to lose some weight after they’ve been out of the water for a while.”

And you might remember the 16-09 caught outta the Heart River in Mandan on Apr 21, 2019 that was declared a new state record by G&F, but then later deemed foul hooked which disqualified the catch from a record:

Soooo all that being said…obviously North Dakota grows ‘em BIG! I don’t think it’s a matter of if a new ND state record walleye is caught 👀 I think it’s a matter of when….

Seems to happen on some sort of level each year. It happens when a portion of the lake starts to open-up…and then mother nature blasts heavy winds (we had a couple days with 40+ mph gusts to start the week) and stacks up mountains of ice as the remaining ice sheets gets pushed around.

Here’s Mille Lacs as of today thx to a satellite image from this site – as you can see it was blowing from the north:

This snap posted by Christina Maria and her crazy husband (lol) can help put it into perspective. Do NOT try this at home:

Guess it’s stacked as high as 25′ to 30’ 😳 in some areas!!! Few other recent pics from this Mille Lacs Lake FB group:

Luckily this year it sounds like it has mostly avoided cabins, lake homes, etc. But that’s definitely not the case every year – some years it pushes right up into folks’ living rooms. And you think your spring cleanup can be a mess….

WARNING: If you get queasy easy, you might wanna skip this next pic….

Saw this post by James Noles in the Lake and Pond Management Questions, Content, and Community FB group (which has a lot of really interesting stuff come thru, despite the fact that I’ll never own my own lake or pond lol). He pulled this bluegill from his southwest IN pond that had some nasty “uniqueness” going on about it:

I’ve only seen something slightly similar to it one other time, and that was from the dude over at KTFishing who caught a bluegill with this fluffy patch of fur. 🙅‍♂️ I’ll take a hard pass:

Btw KTFishing said he got an update from the MN DNR on that fish ^ and it appears to be something called “water mold” 🧐 which can happen when a fish gets injured and the wound is infected.

That or maybe these fellas fish the same secret pond lol:

This was shared on the Lindner’s Angling Edge Instagram page – it’s an awesome throwback snap of Ron and Al you definitely wouldn’t see nowadays…. #String’EmUp!

Get this: That’s the first-ever snap of a catch made on Lindy Rigs!

Some comments from Ron before he passed. 🙏

> Ron: “…we were trying to catch walleye, but bumped into a big school of bass instead…it was late in the year (3rd week of Sept). We had not put the Lindy Rig on the market yet (that would take another year) we just invented it and we were still experimenting with it.

> “Brother Al was just back from Vietnam. The catch came from Lake George, WI…we were using 4” chubs.

> “What I like about the photo (it was before “catch and release”…we still were using stringers…no beards…and notice the antenna arms on the TV) it takes me back to the old days.”

How cool is that?!

But gotta admit the very first thing that came to my mind was…

Episode 43 – big thx to our friends at Sea Foam for making this video series possible! 👊 Hope you dig it:

1. OH: Greene/Wieland win Sandusky LEWT.

With 5 for 33.98 lbs. Looks like that “golden ticket” color WNC Reaper was putting in work. 💪 Congrats fellas!

2. MN’s Gov. seeks funds for DNR fish hatcheries

> Money to modernize the state’s fish hatcheries and other DNR facilities is being debated in legislature.

Including the state’s flagship hatchery near Pig’s Eye Lake that’s 129 years old…and looks like it’s 129 years old….

3. MN: Some more info on the lower Mississippi walleye strain.

4. G Juice for minnow care?! (video)

If you’re a tournament angler, you likely already use T-H Marine G-Juice in your livewell to help keep your fish alive and well before weigh-in…. But diehards have been secretly using it to keep their bait fresh and healthy too. A 1/2 oz treats a whole livewell…so obviously only need a tiny little snippet in your bait cooler.

5. Bait designer Isaac Payne now with Mustad/Livetarget.

> Payne’s previous career includes 2 yrs with House of Outdoors, where he was Director of Innovation and Design for the Bass Mafia and Googan Squad brands, and 3 yrs with Shimano North America, where he was Regional Sales Manager.

6. Huk owner hires 2 from Columbia Sportswear.

> Dean Rurak is Marolina’s new CEO while Bill Ferreira becomes senior VP of sales and merchandising.

7. Some leadership changes at Academy.

> Ken Hicks…chairman, president and CEO, will transition to executive chairman of Academy’s board of directors.

> Steve Lawrence, EVP and chief merchandising officer, will become CEO and a member of Academy’s board. Lawrence will continue to serve as CMO until a successor is appointed.

> Michael Mullican, EVP and CFO, will become company president….

8. Anything Possible Brands CEO retiring in Sept.

> John Weiss joined Anything Possible, the company behind the Proficiency, KidCasters and Perfection Lures, as CEO in 2021.

9. FishUSA has 15% off its entire Walleye Store today.

With promo code WALLEYE at checkout.

Btw I just saw that FishUSA has a whole bunch of exclusive colors in the Rapala Down Deep Husky Jerk and Walleye Nation Creation’s Boogie Shad – some nasty patterns!

10. Rapala has a new website that looks 🔥.

11. X2Power Batteries added 7 kayak bass’ers to its 2023 Pro Team.

12. Target Walleye apparel is 30% off this week!

Just a heads-up, the prices will be going down at least another 10% if inventory lasts…. These items won’t be available again once they’re gone:

How to calibrate your line-counter reels.

Trolling is all about putting a pattern together. The most efficient way to do that is to make sure all of your line-counter reels are reading exactly the same. Here’s how Fishing 411 TV’s Mark Romanack gets ’em spot on. It’s an older, blurry video…but the info is there:

“Double chins and double digits!”

– That’s guide Doug Wegner’s caption under this pic from his first night out in his new Lund 219 Pro-V GL (fiberglass) and said this 29.75-incher went 10.86 lbs on the Rapala Scale. 🔥 Awesome snap from outdoor-shooter Nolan Swinghamer:

Impressive, but I’d rather see triple chins and triple digits! 😅 The first half isn’t even hard.

That 10.86-lber from the quote above…well let’s just say those fellas had to scratch and claw their way out to get to it. Nolan Swinghamer brings the heat. 🥵 #Epic

National Professional Anglers Assoc. 

MN-FISH