New Buck in the area!!

Too bad he felt the need to keep it, but it’s a nice fish.

With all the big fish getting caught and released this spring I wonder how many of them are personal bests for more than one guy?

great looking fish

Congrats to him……it will look good on the wall.

She’s a beUT!

Post a picture of the mount when it’s finished.

nice!

A great fish! Congrats to all

Nice fish.With all of these personal best posts I wonder how many of these are headed to the wall this year.Keep in mind I dont have a problem with people mounting fish but I hate to see all those eggs go to waste.But its perfectly legal and its up to you.I would hope most people would consider a replica as they are about the same price now and look great for many years.Then you can tell people that the real fish that is 20 some years old is still swiming and laying eggs.

Beautiful fish!

I would agree a replica is easier to care for.

great job

she’s a keeper

There is nothing wrong with a guy keeping a big pig once in his life.
Congrats on the big fish!

I wonder if it is possible to get a replica made of these huge pre-spawn pigs that are 28-30 inches, weighing 11-13lbs?

Also,
comment was made about the “waste” of eggs or loss of pre-spawn eggs. What is the true difference between taking a 15 inch walleye that will NEVER lay any eggs in her life, or a 30″ walleye killed in a “kill tournament” in the summer that will NEVER lay any eggs the following year. Or, taking a walleye when she is pregnant?

To me, it really seems the best time to harvest is taking an old adult female at the end of her life cycle, not a 15″ walleye that has the 5 year potential of dumping billions of eggs, right?

Just remember it is any anglers choice to keep any fish of legal size. Congrats on your mounter!

An 18 X 24 well framed picture is actually better than both. Really catches the moment. Wish I had done more picture taking and less keeping over the years. He sure looks happy, congrats.

Nice fish !

Nice fish Congrats

Give him a pat on the back. That is a beauty.

Great wall mount fish.. Hope I can get one lake that some day to put on my wall! That’s the only way to do it in my opinion!

Great fish! Good to see you on Saturday Mike!!

If anyone would prefer to see these fish go back in the water, please do not stick your heads into the fish cleaning shack at Everts. These are all legal fish and the DNR knows many are kept.

I disagree with Gary’s logic. My thought is that so few walleyes get to 10# (relative to the population as a whole) that they have a special place in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. I’ll leave it at that — I just wanted to express an alternative view to Gary’s reasonable logic.

I’m not saying the guy is a bad person for keeping the fish. And yes, it’s perfectly within his legal rights to keep 6 of those fish every day if he wants to. I really do hope he enjoys the mount (and I’ll feel a little bad if/when he reads this thread).

Regardless, the bottom line here is that if everyone kept his or her personal best we’d see far fewer big fish pics from Pool 4. Every big fish kept is one less big fish that will be caught again; it’s one less big fish that will get even bigger. And that’s a shame in my opinion when reproductions are so great these days.

http://www.laxreproduction.com/id8.html

http://www.fittantereplicas.com/walleye.shtml

Lastly, I think this site should take special care to promote catch & release because it really does help people catch these big fish. Look at all the personal best posts we’ve seen and try to argue that all those fish would have been caught without the combination of IDA and Dean @ Evert’s. That kind of increased exposure/educated pressure comes with an ethical responsibility to the resource, in my opinion. I do think this site does an awesome job of promoting C&R generally, but there is room for improvement.

John

great fish guys and congrats to you both!

sorry to see your report and post get hikaced guys keep the reports coming!

Not everybody is going to keep their pb. If I get a 10lb’r i’m going to keep it and get it mounted. It will be the only one I will ever get mounted. The chance of somebody going out everyday and keeping a limit of trophy fish is just not going to happen so we don’t need to worry about that. Those big fish get big for a reason so howmany more times do you think it will be caught towards the end of its life cycle?

I fish the wisconsin river where their is a slot in place. Everybody loads up on the eater sized fish all the time. I don’t understand how that is promoting a trophy fishery. In order for the 20 to 28 inch fish to become that size they have to be thrown back when they are in the 15 to 20 inch size right? The dnr is kind of burning the candle at both ends on that in my opinion. It would work if cpr was practiced on the Wisconsin but for the most part it is a catch, photo, and fry fishery. I’m a strong believer in cpr but I just don’t like it when somebody decides to keep a trophy fish they get bashed. Nothing will be changed by saying how disappointed you are on a fishing forum. A simple congrats is all that’s needed. As soon as my trolling batt is charged i’m going out to hopefully catch a limit of 10 to 12 pounders!

Nice walleye! Nothing wrong with keeping a big walleye like that to mount. I do support the idea of a replica over the real thing, but I would never hold it against anyone if they opt for the real thing. What I really like about replicas is that they last a lot longer and I think they look a lot better IMO. Not to mention the fish lives.

Congrats on the PB! That is a great fish.

Dont get all bent out of shape guys.Like I said I dont have a problem with people mounting fish and it is perfectly legal.However this looks to me like this is a banner year on the river for big fish and if I can get a few people to consider a replica maybe there will be some left for next year.And other than an upcoming tournament I dont even fish pool 4.

thats why i didnt put on my post what i did with my 10lb 5 oz

Awesome PB- Congrats!

forgot to say congrats on a beautiful fish coulda been worse coulda said you grilled it

Quote:

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forgot to say congrats on a beautiful fish coulda been worse coulda said you grilled it

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That’s the thing I don’t like to see….a 8+ lb fish being put into the belly. One thing to put it on the wall but I realize it’s legal and there choice regardless.

Nice fish

Very nice Fish! As for keeping the fish, that’s a personal choice that I believe is up to the angler. When someone harvests a fish of this caliber I believe they should have the money to mount it, not put it in the freezer for two years and then throw it away because it’s ruined. I have been fortunate enough to catch 2 walleye’s in my life that broke the 10lb mark, both of which were CPR’ed because I’m in college and cannot afford to mount them. When I’m out of school and making money (not taking out student loans ) I plan on getting replica’s made of both

Congratulation’s again on a GREAT fish!

Even though he is still on the small side, This is the first time i got a picture of him.(first 3 pics.) the others are of a regular smaller buck