Will the records be broken?

Hi all,

Was online looking at the state record holders.

The state record Walleye is 17 lbs 8 ounces and was caught 5/13/1979 (seagull river, cook county). Was this a prespawn fish?

The state record northern is 45 lb. 12 ounces and was caught 5/16/1929 (basswood lake, Lake county).

The state record saugeye is 9 lb. 13.4 ounces and was caught 3/20/1999 (pool 4).

With lake-specific slot regulations and the popularity of catch and release one would have to believe some of these would fall in the near future. In addition, we as anglers have become much more effective than we were even 15 – 20 years ago.

Any opinions out there as to what lakes/rivers are top candidates? I would think Mille Lacs would have a chance at holding the record walleye and pike.

Seems to me that the Mississippi would be a probable place for any record to be broken with our ability to catch pre-spawn fish.

I gotta think pool 4 or Mille Lacs will kick out a record or two in the next decade. Although with the pics I keep seeing from pool 2 I could see it happening there as well.

Is there any evidence that these species of fish are capable of getting much bigger than the above records in our state/environment?

Do rivers have an advantage over lakes?

I love talking/reading about this stuff. Love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Scott

Although Mille Lacs has the ability to produce a world record fish, I just can’t see it ever happening especially in the years to come where Mille lacs is fished and netted so heavily. I don’t remember the last time I heard of a 33 inch fish coming out of there. It has potential but if the pressure stays on the lake I don’t think it would ever happen. My guess is that the next record is out of the big bodies of water such as erie or LOTW. But you never know

I don’t see the record walleye coming out of Mille Lacs either. I don’t believe the genetics are there. My pick for walleye would be Lake Pepin or Rainy River-Lake of the Woods or even possibly Seagull again. Keep in mind “on the scale” 13 pounders are very rare on Milly. Pepin kicks out 13-14 pounders every spring.

I do believe Mille has the potential to produce the next state record Small Mouth Bass, Musky and possibly Rock Bass.

The good old days seem to be here today!

I agree with Them I just don’t think Mille Lacs walleyes have the genes to get up to that size. I think the best chance for a new record will come off of one of the bodies of water that hav already been mentioned ( Rainy, Seagull, LOW or the River. I do think that the Muskie record will fallin the next couple of seasons from either Mille Lacs Vermillion or Tonka.

Mille holds the state record muskie……..It is just a matter of time and luck to the angler that gets her in the boat……

LOTW host 13lbers every year during the summer, like P4 does in the spring…….

However, to find a 45lb pike……..It is a bear to find 30lbers………I can’t imagine seeing a 45lb pike…….TO ME, a 46lb pike would be a much bigger prize than a 57lb muskie!!!!!

Good points on Mille. Hadn’t thought about the netting….

I find the “genetics” topic interesting. With the gene pool we have in our Minnesota lakes, fishing pressure aside, can they get any bigger before they die?

Hopefully one of us will personally find out!

Quote:

---

Although with the pics I keep seeing from pool 2 I could see it happening there as well.

---

Hopefully, there will never be a state record out of pool 2. That would mean the total catch and release law on walleye/sauger/bass/pike now in effect would have been changed…..

-J.

The next state record walleye will not come from Mille Lacs. I saw one close in the Park Rapids area, 17.5 I believe it was, that was in the summer of 1995. I happened to be staying at cabin on a little lake when the lady caught it.

Pool 4 could easily produce a state record with the Shad in that system.

Mille Lacs certainly has a good chance for Smallmouth and Muskie. The Rainly River also puts out Huge smallies in the spring, I wouldn’t be suprised to see it come from there.

Quote:

---

Good points on Mille. Hadn’t thought about the netting….

I find the “genetics” topic interesting. With the gene pool we have in our Minnesota lakes, fishing pressure aside, can they get any bigger before they die?

Hopefully one of us will personally find out!

---

The genetics are in Mille Lacs, but the right forage base to develope those genetics into records is missing.

The 2 biggest factors effecting fish development is forage, and growth season. Its amazing to think that a 5 year old fish on Mille Lacs is about 16-17″, but on Lake Erie, they’re about 10lbs.!!

Also, a few years ago a DNR officer was patrolling Cedar Creek one night during the spawn, and witnessed a female walleye that he measured with a stick while it sat in the water. It was the biggest walleye he had ever seen. He then measured the marks on the stick when he got either to his car or home, whichever, and that fish was just about 39″!!

NO B.S.!!

Gary you’re right. Think about how tough it is to even get into double digits with Northerns. True 20# fish are very rare and that isn’t even half way to the record. I heard a fisheries biologist interviewd on the radio a few years ago. The moderator asked the guy why we don’t see more big Pike. The biologist said in his opinion almost every large body of water that has Northen Pike has at least several individuals in the 30 lb class. The problem is twofold: 1) Pike like to eat prey that is 1/4 to 1/3 their body length. Do the math, how many 20″ long Rapalas do you have? and 2) Big Pike ae very efficient predators. They don’t have to spend a lot of time hunting to fill their bellies. So the window of opportunity is small, maybe 1/2 an hour every few days.

I can see LMB, SMB, and Musky records being broken in the next few years but a 46 lb Northen would be astonishing event. Now where’s that 2 foot long 5-of-diamonds spoon of mine?

Rootski

I vouch for a situation like Jack D describes. One time in my life I witnessed a spawning area that was absolutely loaded with fish. They wouldn’t spook either. You could walk right up to the creek’s edge and stand and watch these monsters. This fish were some of the biggest walleyes I’d ever seen I was only 15 or so but still….Really a neat thing to see. I’ll never forget that.

I agree with the other’s here that don’t think the walleye record will ever be broken in Mille Lacs. Rarely ever do you hear or see a fish in the teens there. The musky and smallmouth though, there is a VERY good chance. Heck, there have been releases there that already may have challenged the record on Muskies if they had been kept.
I would think that the walleye record if it ever is broken will come out of another river. The Mississippi would have a good chance being that you can fish it during the pre-spawn when these babes are their fattest. Rainy-LOTW, also has a bunch of queen marys. I’ll throw the Minnesota River into the discussion also. There are plenty of fat hogs pulled from there every year into the teens.

if you’ve ever been over to the st. croix when the carp netters are pulling in the nets you would think about the st. croix river for record fish (and i don’t mean just walleyes)

I would think a lake would be more likely to give up record fish as they wouldn’t have to swim against the current their whole lives. Mendota here in Madison has a 40 inch limit and Ciscos as a forage base. That is a recipe for a monster right there.

I read about 6 or 7 years ago, while the DNR was milking walleyes in Vineland Bay, that they had a potential state record that they had netted. I want to say that it was 35+ inches long. I read the article in the Mille Lacs Messenger, and they even had a picture to go along with it. It was a pig, let me tell ya. I tried doing a search for it on google, but couldn’t come up with it. Bobber or Hooks, got any old messengers laying around !!!

big g

Quote:

---

I would think a lake would be more likely to give up record fish as they wouldn’t have to swim against the current their whole lives. Mendota here in Madison has a 40 inch limit and Ciscos as a forage base. That is a recipe for a monster right there.

---

I use to think the same thing Kev; But the English river, where it flows to the west, out of Lac Suel hosted a 51, 53, and a 57lb muskie, along with a 17lb walleye. On that specific stretch of water, they talk pounds, not inches with muskies……..Meaning they hook multiple 30s and a bunch of 40s each year (pounds, not inches) The 17lb walleye came out of the river system too…….I have suspicion that the rivers seem to provide better forage for food than your normal lake….The quality of forage is what will produce the pigs.

Jon,

Does that mean that a record fish can never be acknowledged out of a catch and release only fishery?

Man, I would think in this day and age with digital cameras, and scales etc. that there would be a way. Maybe not. I suppose it could always be disputed by someone without the actual fish in hand.

If there are only a few big 30lb+ northerns in a lake, good luck trying to find them let alone catching them. The records for most fish will come out of lakes/rivers that are consistently producing large fish near the record size. Those lakes or rivers already have a large number of near record fish and thus have a larger number of record fish. Or the fluke happens and someone pulls the one record sized fish out of a no-name lake. All we need is the conditions to all come together and have someone boat one of those record fish.

Many times I’ve heard of the big fish getting away because people weren’t prepared for ’em. You need to be more than a little lucky if you’re not specifically targetting the record size fish. Trying to catch a 44″+ northern or musky on medium tackle is very tough, but not impossible.

Quote:

---

Does that mean that a record fish can never be acknowledged out of a catch and release only fishery?

---

All game fish on Pool 2 must be immediately released. Not sure how anyone would get around that rule. About 5-6 years ago we had a run of huge saugers going. We were putting 24 inch 4+ pounders in the boat just about every trip out that spring. We were certain that the state record sauger was catchable that year. We asked the DNR that year how we could handle that situation. Simple answer. No go!

-J.

7 years ago on pool 6 the dnr netted a 20+ lbs walleye while doing a survey. I hear talk that Lake Winona holds the state record Largemouth, shocked by Winona state during some class survey. We all know they are out there it’s just being in the right spot at the right time. It’s hard to say where the next record fish will come from.

Scott C-
Great topic, it is fun to read what all these good hooks have to say about issue like this!

I have a feeling that we will see more of what happened this year. (LM Bass record) Some small out of the way lake that a good hook finds. Think about it. We all have “That Lake”. The one that you won’t tell your best freind about. It’s only a matter of time that one of us hits that lake on the right day and jerks the big one. (Insert your species here.)

Anyone know what kind of lengths these record Northerns might be ? Last night, I told my daughter that I would catch a Pike this year that would be as long as she is tall. She said “Oh Yeah, bet you $100 you don’t”.. So of course not realizing how much she’s grown in the last year said “Ok, your on..” – We got out the tape measure. She’s 55 inches.. I know I’ll probably end up paying her but here’s to a season of 2006 of trying.

Might as well pay up now . I caught a pig of a Northern on the Pond the other year. 43.5″ I know not the biggest, but you better plan a Canadian trip or 50 to get that 55″

You’ve got a better chance to catch a 55″ muskie than you have to catch a northern that long…..but remember, a muskie technicaly is a “Pike” also!

A couple things, yes, the fish on Sag was full of spawn. Laws in place now ensure that it will not happen again, as they are protected until after the spawn.

I was present when the DNR were netting a Pool 3 spot for fish for the State Fair. I was fishing for pike at the time. They netted a pike that was absolutely huge! We were thinking sturgeon, or paddle fish or something. When They walked over by us, we asked them what it was. He said “That my friend would have been the next State record Northern Pike!” It was high 40’s in poundage. They took scale samples, and released the fish.

On a guide trip in 2003 on Mille Lacs I caught a 44″ and a 46″ pike within minutes of each other. Both were during the full moon during a snow storm in October! I have to find a way to get these pics off of a 3.5″ floppy!

Dodge boy,

It’s funny you mention pool 6. Pool 5a and pool 5 have kicked out some major walleyes the last couple of years. Each year they keep getting bigger. Pool 5 last year kicked out two walleyes that went over 15lbs; a 15.3 and a 15.7. Along with 3 fish that I heard about that went over 14. The 15.7 my dad weighed in at his bait store. It was huge……

Remember “Grumpier old Men” and they talk about Catfish hunter? There is a guy(old guy that has fished on pool 5 for 50+years) that comes in my dad’s bait store every year and talks about a walleye he see’s a couple times year in the shallows. He says it will go 20lbs. I’ve fished that spot but never have seen it yet.

Don’t rule out these lower pools…..DNR says there are some state record down this way..

I know a guide that picked up the state record walleye before she was weighed. He swears that when he picked her up at least 3ounces of eggs came out of her.She was caught on the opener. As stated earlier you can’t fish the Seagull river now until the first week in June. It doesn’t matter though, the next state record walley will come out of Sag,(Sag does have the genetics) and I’ll post pictures of her as soon as I catch her. Well after I make a few phone calls first.

i caught an estimated 44″ northern this fall throwing a jointed shad rap for bass. Fought like a big cat…wouldn’t fit in the net so Nick and i grabbed her( I had the head, he had the tail)and then bam with a very strong flip, she was out of our grip and back into the depths. It was the biggest northern i have ever seen. And i know it was well over 40 because i have caught a 39″ pike before and comparing the two is like comparing an elephant to a dog. I would say it was a good 23#s but dang i can’t imagine a walleye at 20#!

Gunflint is right about Sag…….I had a client who had a cabin on Sag. The state record was caught about 200 yards from their cabin. My client also had a 14lber out of there…….What I hear about Sag though, is that the population isn’t very high. Any truth to that?