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We’ll follow up next week with the ‘Full Scoop’ talking exactly how the top-3 pros caught ‘em better than the rest. Little details and specifics you won’t find anywhere else.
2. OH: Lake Erie walleye can’t swim anywhere...
...without being tracked 📍thx to the state’s walleye acoustic telemetry study:
> At this moment, there is a listening device placed every 7 to 15 kilometers along the lake bottom, plus some in Lake Huron for good measure. (Erie walleyes can move between the lakes via the Detroit River.) They receive pings from walleyes implanted with micro acoustic tags 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In other words, a tagged walleye can’t swim anywhere in Lake Erie without being tracked.
> It costs roughly $500K/year to keep this study up and running.... That’s for a combination of buying expensive equipment, paying staff, and running and maintaining a fleet of military-like research boats docked at HQ in Sandusky, the biggest of which measures 53 feet.
3. ID offers $1K for tagged Lake Pend Oreille walleye
> According to IDFG, their biologists have placed tiny tags on 60 walleye in Lake Pend Oreille, and whoever catches one will get $1,000.
> In addition to catching the tagged walleye, for every walleye head turned in, you will be entered into a monthly drawing for 10 rewards worth $100 each. The more heads you turn in, the more entries you can get.
They want ‘em gone since they’re “effective predators" and” can reduce the kokanee population without proper management.”
4. Survey shows first US fishing decline since 2021
Thought it had already declined since “the covid bump?”
Also says that an “estimated 57 million Americans, roughly 18% of the U.S. population, went fishing in 2025....” Which is pretty darn good! And that “total outings rose 3% to 918 million.”
5. ON: What’s behind Lake Erie’s steep yellow perch decline?
> The population is down by nearly 20% this year, according to the Ontario Commercial Fisheries Association – lows not seen since the mid-1990s.
> Vito Figliomeni...says the main culprit...is the rise in another fish a little higher on the Great Lakes' food chain.
> “We've had near-record walleye population since 2020. So when you look at the last 6 to 7 years, you've had sustained populations numbering in the 50 to 100 million walleye in Lake Erie.”
> Figliomeni says walleye’s main food source of smaller fish, such as rainbow smelt and emerald shiners have also been hit hard – fueling their appetite for perch.
> ...volatile temperature swings also wreak havoc with yellow perch.
6. SD: Walleye angler catches state record sunfish
Jack Backman's 1-lb pumpkinseed was suspended just 2' down in 14' (near a tree) and ate a 1/4-oz Northland tungsten jig with a full crawler.
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