NWT Walleye Tournament at Red Wing 2024

I didn’t follow this tournament very closely, but it seemed like most boats were able to get their four-fish limit each day. And in late May with two guys in a boat and decent river conditions, that shouldn’t be too surprising. What I don’t understand is why the boats were only allowed to bring in one fish over 20″ and three under 20″. I can see why that would be the limit if there was just one angler in a boat since that is the personal limit on that stretch of river. But each boat had a pro and a co-angler, so why not allow a boat to weigh-in two over 20″? It’s like, “Let’s have a fishing tournament, but oh, by the way, you can’t weigh-in your best fish.” And why not allow like 4 or 5 under 20″ instead of three to help get some separation between the competitors. Seems goofy to me. Are they any state regulations on the tournaments that prohibit weighing-in two over 20″? I rather see a catch, photo, weigh, and release tournament like what was done at the Head-to-Head tournaments. And have a minimum weight of two pounds to prevent it from becoming a dink fest. In this tournament, I guy could have caught twenty-five, 24″ walleyes during the two days and got beat by a boat that only caught two 24″ and one 16″ fish total.

I watch the NWT on You Tube but don’t know what the rules are. What I see on TV is there are few people at the weigh-ins anyway. Mostly family and guys who were eliminated.

Why they can only weigh certain fish I don’t know.

I think it was to make it more competitive along with it being a no cull event. When the schedule was first announced for Red Wing it was also going to be limited to only Minnesota waters. Enough anglers scrutinized the NWT’s decision and that changed it to both minnesota and wisconsin waters.

Justin Laack wrote:

I think it was to make it more competitive along with it being a no cull event. When the schedule was first announced for Red Wing it was also going to be limited to only Minnesota waters. Enough anglers scrutinized the NWT’s decision and that changed it to both minnesota and wisconsin waters.

I don’t know how not being able to bring in two over 20″ makes it more competitive. Maybe every angler gets a participation trophy. I understand the no-cull rule since I think that’s general state fishing regulations.

I remember some discussions a while back about it only being Minnesota waters. That would really be weird on the river.

Boone,
the no cull is not a Minnesota reg. For walleyes fishing on the river as long as you only have 3 eyes in your livewell you can keep upgrading, its once you box number 4 you can no longer cull because you have your daily limit (mille lacs used to always have No Culling allowed when you read the regs, back in the day when a guy could keep a few). If they would have allowed 2 fish over 20″ 1 would have to have been from the pro and 1 from the co angler, since wisconsin doesn’t allow party fishing or culling. Yes being only limited to minnesota waters would be wierd.
If I remember right probably around 6yrs ago BASS had an event in la crosse, Brandon Paulinick got DQ’d after leading day 1 because he culled a fish while in wisconsin water, but thought he was on the minnesota side, he was about 50yds off of the line.

Thanks for the clarifications, Justin. I don’t fish tournaments so I’m not up on the details for culling, party fishing, Minnesota vs Wisconsin regulations, etc. It just seemed strange to me that they could only have four with one over 20″, but I I understand it a lot more now. I also understand the argument that it takes skill to get the “right” fish. But to me, allowing just four fish total with only one over 20″ seems lame. If the pros are skilled enough to catch the “right” fish, they should be skilled enough to put the co-angler on a fish over 20″.

boone wrote:

I also understand the argument that it takes skill to get the “right” fish.

Years ago before the popularity of CPR (catch, photo, release) in most walleye events, on a lake with a protected slot, you had to catch the right size fish to weigh in too. Remember all those years when Mille Lacs had a 2 inch keeper slot, something like 14-16 inches or 16-18 inches, and 1 over 28? During that era, you could not weigh in any fish outside of those parameters because you couldn’t legally place them in your live well for a weigh in. You could catch a hundred 25 inchers and your weight would still be zero. Other lakes were the same that had a narrow slot.

With the advent of CPR in most events now, slot restrictions are a thing of the past. You simply target the biggest fish you can find. The pandemic changed that because they didn’t want a group of people “gathering” at a weigh in. It was so popular, they simply kept doing it.

gimruis wrote:

With the advent of CPR in most events now, slot restrictions are a thing of the past. You simply target the biggest fish you can find.

Looking forward to this being the case in every tourney.

I agree. Not just walleye either.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
With the advent of CPR in most events now, slot restrictions are a thing of the past. You simply target the biggest fish you can find.

Looking forward to this being the case in every tourney.

100% agree

By far the best format for the conservation of fish.

I would like to see, using the CPR format, them shut public viewing of the weights down last half of day or so for the Tournaments that want to draw people to the weigh-ins.
Some of the bigger tournaments still need attendance for their sponsors. No draw for the event if it is on a tracker or app. I think the old MN Pro-AM bass tour pulled more people than MLF does now.