Walleyes for Tomorrow 2025

We netted walleyes starting last Monday through Thursday and as usual it was something that really opens your eyes. This spring it seemed like the walleyes were larger, we netted a lot of them in the 25”-30” range, 10lbs some of them. The spawn was over pretty quickly and now they need to grow into fry and then be released. It’s going to be warm up here for at least the next week so they will grow quickly. I only have one picture of a musky, one of 5 that came out the same net, 2 of them were 40”+.

Sounds like the Walleye population is getting healthier all the time with a lot of trophy Walleyes . Think your work is definitely contributing to the success. It is the second year of the Walleye slot change up here and it will be interesting to see if any changes can be noticed.

Those Muskies sure have a natural predator look. Is there a slot on your lake?

Skiroule, musky season opens 5/25, limit is one fish per day, 40” minimum. We do have a slot for walleye, 15” minimum up to 20, 3 fish limit, one over 24” can be kept, slot is 20”-24”, none. It was almost 80 degrees here today, cooler next two days, then warmer again. Buddies are coming up for spring fishing on Thursday. Been busy putting piers and shore stations in, just got back on Sunday night. It’s beautiful out there!

Yes, the weather the last few days has been incredible and it looks to continue for a while. If the forecast holds, we will be in the mid-high 80's next week.

That's a pretty generous slot and should make for some nice limits in the live well. As I think I've mentioned before, Ontario really tightened up the slot on Lake of the Woods last year. All Walleyes between 43 and 70 cm (16.9 and 27.6 in) must be released. If you have the Sportfishing license, you can have one fish over 27.6" in the boat. As it has been for years, the daily boat limit is 2 Walleyes per person. Because my wife and I have Sportfishing licenses, we can each have 4 Walleyes in possession at the cabin.

Is that because fishing pressure depleted the walleye population? Spearing?

pclark said:

Is that because fishing pressure depleted the walleye population? Spearing?

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I think Ontario is trying to be proactive in increasing the population mix of certain Walleye prime breeding size ranges. The Ontario DNR has been conducting non-stop boat surveys over the last few summers and they must see areas they would like to improve.

I personally like the idea. The old boat limit wasn't really a slot, you could keep one over 18" and one 18"/under. This took a lot of fish above 17" out of the lake and I would think these would be prime breeders. I know that in the last year, I released a lot of 18 - 19" fish so I saw that as a good sign.

Of course, this is a lake shared between Canada and the U.S. and the MN DNR has shown little interest in adjusting the limit and slot which allow more/bigger keepers so I guess we'll see how things go in the long haul.

Yes, those would be prime breeders, good to hear Ontario being proactive.