insane ice fishing! lake erie walleyes: http://youtu.be/w8X1llsWFSk
All I can say is wow pig after pig, at the same time this fishery will be ruined fast at this rate . If this bunch of idiots can catch fish like this and get their limit of 10lb walleyes it won’t be long. Why do people need to keep everything they catch? 4 fish 38 lbs you really gonna eat 38lbs of fish? That being said what an amazing fishery
I saw this and was wondering if keeping bigger fish on such a massive fishery was more acceptable as well? I can’t imagine it being good by any means but maybe since it’s pretty much a freshwater ocean, it can sustain taking bigger fish. I personally wouldn’t keep fish that big one way or another but that is the only thing I can think of as far as keeping monsters like that. I’ve seen other Erie videos of the same thing. Curious to the reasoning behind keeping these huge fish as well.
I agree complete idiots. Fishery will go down hill quickly at that rate I would think. But yea wow pig after pig.
This is very common on Erie for both hard and soft water fishing. I have seen it over and over the times we have made trips to the Port Clinton/Oak Harbor area. I have heard that the growth rate for the fish in that fishery are much greater than what we are accustomed to in the fisheries in MN and WI. However, I am not saying it is true as I have not had any scientific evidence presented that would support this claim.
FDR
Last season we had ice we may never see again here on the western basin of Erie. Fishing was simply amazing . It’s one season I will never forget.
Here is an interesting article on Erie….
http://www.cleveland.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2014/03/ohios_walleye_yellow_perch_pop.html
I agree complete idiots. Fishery will go down hill quickly at that rate I would think. But yea wow pig after pig.
Yes, just use Mille Lacs as an example. 
The lake is also commercially fished for walleye if I am not mistaken so if the hook and line guys didnt keep tthose fish the commercial guys would. The numbers of fish taken from that lake are watched pretty closely . I know its hard to believe but those guys are not doing any damage to the lake at all with the crazy growth rates. But I agree with you guys. Why do you need to keep that many big fish. They cant taste very good and how many mounts does one need?
They cant taste very good and how many mounts does one need?
I disagree. Being a fast growth rate, the large fish will still be young and still maintain a good flavor. Most people like small fish because tge fish to seasoning ratio is very low.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>berryman wrote:</div>
I agree complete idiots. Fishery will go down hill quickly at that rate I would think. But yea wow pig after pig.Yes, just use Mille Lacs as an example.
biggil
can you explain the comparison of mille lacs to eire?? We here on mille lacs haven’t been able to keep more than 1 walleye over 28″ since the mid 80’s. I remember guys from work going to eire in the early 90’s and catching fish like that. Look at all the tournaments held on that lake annually. If a decline in quality and quantity of fish was going to happen, it would have by now.
This issue has bothered me since last winter. I spend 99% of my fishing time on Lake Erie, this includes winter and summer. I also have many friends who are Captains on Lake Erie and also many friends who fish it all the time that are not Captains. (RevPilot) I am in no way an expert or professional. Let me now tell you my issue with last winter and pretty much the walleye fishing in the summer also. I have not addressed this publicly because I to this day do not know if it’s my right to complain or not.
Last winter on Erie was crazy as you can tell by all the pics and videos. I spent many days on the ice on Erie last year. We were actually running about 15 miles out so that should tell you how thick the ice was. You could launch a snowmobile in Ohio and drive North and hit Canada without getting your feet wet. (Western Basin) Each time I would come off the ice and get to the parking lot, which looked like Walmart on Black Friday, I would actually get so mad my wife would have to calm me down. Ton’s of guys holding up all these big females and piles of females laying everywhere. I would almost become physically ill from being so worked up. My wife kept telling me, “Jeff, their limits are within the law, keep your mouth shut.” LOL She knew how mad and upset I was. My group I was with fished out butts off to catch a limit of 18″ fish. We caught so many large females that we simply lost count. My son actually caught this 31.5″er and it was his PB. I was so proud of him when he shoved her back down the hole.
I pride myself in saying that nobody in my group kept any large fish. Anything bigger than 22″ went down the hole. Did we make a difference in releasing those fish? I don’t know. I’m not educated enough to prove that we did. I know we “felt” better and “felt” like we were helping, but I am not a biologist so I can’t say for sure. Last year’s ice season still bothers me to this day. I am actually pleased that it will not happen again this year because there will not be ice like that again this year. The fish will be relatively safe until next spring.
You think the video was bad, you should see it in the spring and summer. What I have learned about spring and summer fishing on Erie is that it is not about “catching a walleye”, it’s about catching your numbers. Nobody seems to look at how nice the fish are, they wanna look at numbers. “Did you get em’ all?” is heard on about every dock over there. Where my boat is docked they have a fish cleaning station and a 20yd roll off dumpster for scraps! 20YD!! Its usually always full.
But here’s the thing. It may make me angry and it does upset set me but if you actually think about it, it’s none of my business and I should probably keep my mouth shut. The State of Ohio sets the limits and everyone follows those limits. They are within their right to keep that many fish. Do you or I have the right to call them idiots? I don’t know the answer to that. The best answer I have been able to come up with is, “keeping that many walleye is not for me.” That’s the only thing I can tell myself that makes me feel a little better. Do I or my group make a difference by throwing large fish back and not always getting to the “number”? I doubt it, but I am hopeful it does make a difference.
No yellow perch, I catch and keep as many of those little sob’s as I can! LOL When it comes to eating fish, you can have those walleye. Them little golden nuggets are the best to eat in my opinion.
End of my rant………..Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Jeff
Kaleb.jpg
It is simply mind boggling to fully understand the eco system in Erie. Every bass tournament I have fished in Erie results in running into massive schools of walleyes. To the point that you pull up on a reef or hump and make 10 casts and land 7 or 8 eyes then pack up and leave.
Friends that live out there (coming from multiple states) all have said the same thing – the biologists recommend that sportsmen keep their catch. The predator base in Erie is so high that it could potentially deplete to forage base. I don’t live there, nor fish it on a regular basis, so I rely on locals I know to tell me what is going on.
Another factor that weighs heavily into that is the reproduction success. Hard to believe with the mass amount of gobies, but the hatch/survival rate is extremely high. Who knows what the next invasive species will bring to the great lakes, but at this time, Erie is just a fish factory.
I have heard the mentality their of the locals (lots of menonites)sp? is they fish for food. If your limit is say 6, they don’t want to keep 6 lbs of fish, they want 60 lbs. I guess I feel fortunate if I can sportfish, if I needed to feed some hungry mouths, more is better I guess.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>biggill wrote:</div>
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>berryman wrote:</div>
I agree complete idiots. Fishery will go down hill quickly at that rate I would think. But yea wow pig after pig.Yes, just use Mille Lacs as an example.
biggil
can you explain the comparison of mille lacs to eire?? We here on mille lacs haven’t been able to keep more than 1 walleye over 28″ since the mid 80’s. I remember guys from work going to eire in the early 90’s and catching fish like that. Look at all the tournaments held on that lake annually. If a decline in quality and quantity of fish was going to happen, it would have by now.
You misinterpreted my point. I think you should keep big walleyes. With Mille Lacs and Erie being complete opposites as far as management goes, you can see the obvious result. One fishery thrives while one crashes.
It’s my understanding that Erie had the same management philosophy as Millee Lacs has today. It crashed much the same.
Now a different management philosophy, and a much different result. You be the judge.
I get pissed when folks are keeping 11″ Walleyes on my local lake, I’d probably blow a gasket if I fished on Erie… It really comes down to greed and today’s problem of me,me,me and who the hell cares about anybody else attitude alot of people have…makes me sick…
“I disagree. Being a fast growth rate, the large fish will still be young and still maintain a good flavor. Most people like small fish because tge fish to seasoning ratio is very low”
I guess I was speaking more to the Thickness of the Fillet than the age of the Fish. Not sure how one would get the middle of a thicker fillet on a 30 inch fish cooked correctly before the outside starts to get over cooked.
I ran across this video a couple weeks ago and was upset after watching it. I assumed that the lake could endure it one way or another.
I think why it got under my skin so much is that here in MN & WI we covet that size Walleye and for many it’s the fish of a lifetime. I felt that these trophy size fish were being treated like five pound carp. Many anglers will never catch a ten LB’er and this guy is catching them at will and just throwing them on the ice or shoving them in buckets.
Between the guy seeming like kind of a jerk and the way the fish were being “disrespected” it was tough to watch.
That was crazy walleye fishing there! I don’t agree with keeping that many that big but the video with a lot of action on that big of fish was cool to see.
I agree with Belletaine… thing I didn’t like about the video was what seemed like a simple disrespect for the treasures they were catching. Like the toss the fish out to the camera as just another part they did a couple times.
I was really hoping to hear the guy go nuts, when he dropped his camera down the hole… but it never happened.
As far keeping the big fish, I would find it odd just because of the common practices here – but, everything I have ever read or seen on Lake Erie does suggest it is not a bad practice there, and even encouraged. They have to be doing something right.
I have never been there…. but it sure looks like a great time, less all the antics. Can’t imagine pulling fish that large through the ice, over and over again.
Why treat your fish like cr*p? would you go the the store and buy a peice of steak and treat it like that then eat it? I just dont get some guys
Living in Northern IN I value a legal walleye as much as anyone. I am also lucky enough to get a guided trip on Erie 1 to 2 times a year. Obviously the goal is to get a limit however our average size in the fall is 20-22″ fat walleye. The captain we use has not showed any problems keeping fish up to 28″ but those have not been the norm. at the same time under the ice last year he put back every big female that wasn’t bleeding.
I agree that maybe not the most respectful way to treat fish, but Erie is a completely different animal than any other walleye fishery on the planet. First time I went, I was in shock as well. Couldn’t believe the amount of big fish being kept. Changed my perspective pretty quick first time I talked to a C.O. out there though… We had just come in from fishing with a limit of nice fish. Some of which, I kind of cringed at keeping, but my buddies who’d been there assured me it was all good. Anways, we got checked at the landing and I said to the C.O., “you know, I didn’t really want to keep those big ones, but my buds said it’s no big deal, what do you think?” He just looked at me and laughed “Buddy, the group I checked before you had a 5 man limit with out a single digit fish in the bunch” “I see tons of groups like that every day” “But when we all add up our numbers at the end of the year, what you guys harvest literally isn’t a drop in the bucket compared to what the commercial fisherman take”
After that, I stopped feeling bad about it. And, erie is the only place ive been where a ten pounder tastes just as good as a five. Dead serious. It’s just not like any other walleye fishery on the planet.
Belletaine hit the nail on the head for me. Yeah you can’t stop people from keeping legal limits and the size of their legal limits, but the complete unnecessary disrespect for the fish was just very sickening to see. No true sportsman should treat any fish like that whether its going to be dinner or returned to the water. meh
That is insane fishing. Hard to believe how many giants were caught there.
I don’t know enough about the fishery to comment. It seems wrong, but it might not be. I agree with the others though, those guys seem like a bunch of… dorks, to say it nicely. I wouldn’t be throwing those fish around like that, and the over the top antics aren’t my style, but anyway…
One thing that didn’t look like that much fun was the amount of people. I live in Hayward, WI, and it’s almost rare to share a spot with another person, much less 100 or 1000 others. If a person wanted to make a trip over there, is it possible to get away from the crowds, or is it like that everywhere?
It is great that so many sportsmen follow the commom wisdom of releaseing the big females and keeping the smaller “eaters”. This practice is probably necessary for most of the waters we fish but not always and not every where. I made a few trips to Port Clinton area back when the limit was 10 fish with no possession limit. A DNR officer approached our group while we were cleaning fish on one of those trips and I asked how they could allow those limits. His reply was that there were many great year classes in the system and they were worried about the perch population due to high walleye predation on the perch. He also noted that high percentages of every year class die due to natural causes so the resource may as well be utilized by sportsmen taking home their limits. He said the population is monitered and limits would be adjusted as needed. Every fishery is impacted by natural conditions and by fishing pressure. In lake Erie natural conditions have been good enough to allow liberal catch limits that most other fisheries could not support.
As stated above it’s a completely different fishery than we have over here in Minnesota and Wisconsin. One thing I just don’t understand is how many ten pound fish does a guy need? I’m all for keeping fish but that’s just ridiculous. I think it would be cool to experience that kind of ice fishing but im with the majority as in I would have a hard time not freaking out on some people over there. One thing we need to consider is that might be normal for Lake Erie ice fishing….
How many people go to Lake Michigan and come back home with 50 pounds or more of salmon and trout.
That’s ok but its not ok in this situation?
What was that idle being worshiped in that 10 comandment movie. A golden goat head or something like that. 
As stated above it’s a completely different fishery than we have over here in Minnesota and Wisconsin. One thing I just don’t understand is how many ten pound fish does a guy need? I’m all for keeping fish but that’s just ridiculous. I think it would be cool to experience that kind of ice fishing but im with the majority as in I would have a hard time not freaking out on some people over there. One thing we need to consider is that might be normal for Lake Erie ice fishing….
I actually don’t believe that the fisheries are all that different. I really believe that restrictive slot limits will hurt most fisheries. Case in point, Mille Lacs.
Every time an imbalance was noticed, the DNR imposed more restrictive slots. Resulting in a more severe imbalance. I really believe taking a well calculated balance of large and small fish is the answer. Case in point, Lake Erie.
How many people go to Lake Michigan and come back home with 50 pounds or more of salmon and trout.
That’s ok but its not ok in this situation?What was that idle being worshiped in that 10 comandment movie. A golden goat head or something like that.
I think that’s kind of apples and oranges, Salmon, as a species is a larger fish. A ten pound King doesn’t turn heads like a ten pound Walleye does.
You can’t compare that to our lakes erie’s walleye population is huge. If i’m not mistaken that is where most of the commercial walleye come from.
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