Unpopular Opinions

Unpopular opinions can be kind of fun… What are some fishing/hunting/outdoors opinions you have that seem to go contrary to popular belief? I’ll start with a few:

– I don’t think vexilars are that special. Sure they make nice units and were a pioneer in terms of ice fishing electronics. But the other brands have made up the ground in the last 10 years and I don’t think vexilar has anything that sets themselves apart anymore, and I’d even argue vexilar has been passed up by garmin/lowrance/humminbird.

– as cool as panoptix/livescope are, I think it’s going to do more bad than good in the long run

– I don’t get the draw for bass fishing in MN with all of the other species we have

– most youtube fishing channels are just boring clones of eachother (with the exception of like 3-4 channels).

I will bite—

Nothing is Epic…

When you see the guy with his 1ton pulling the 24′ IC with a side by side in the back just realize he is living paycheck to paycheck making payments. (same with summer toys) –No reason to envy, be happy with what you have and can afford.–

Everything you see is marketing to get you to buy stuff, product pimping. Learn to use the gear you already have.

Walleye isn’t all that great to eat.

-Evinrude outboards aren’t all garbage. This site is pretty quick to bash the G2’s, but I’ve fished with a lot of people that love them or ridden on tritoons that they push extremely well – even better than equivalent 4 strokes. (No, I don’t own an Evinrude).

-Fishing shows on TV are boring. Most are fishing bites that have been relayed to them via their vast networking. Kudos to them for having that established, but it’s ultimately unrealistic for most. I can’t stand the advertisements and product pushing though.

-Baseball on TV is hard to watch. It’s such a gauntlet of time between action that my mind instantly switches to thinking about where else I could be getting something accomplished. Baseball was made for the radio, not the TV.

-TUCR rods are nice, but not worth the price. There are some small custom rod builders who can get you a rod that’s equally as sensitive for a fraction of the cost.

-Perch are the best eating fresh water fish, followed closely by Northern Pike from cold water, and THEN walleye.

Walleyes are one of the lamest fish to catch, and they arnt that great to eat either. They just transform in to what ever you put on them. 90 percent of the time they reel in like a wet sock or clump of weeds.

The idea that as sportsman we should have tunnel vision and only care about what happens pertaining to our sport. (Hunting or fishing)

This is a fun topic. Here are the first few that came into my head:

–Lower the walleye limit to 2 per person with with a slot of: 1 or both 14″-18″, 1 between 18″-22″, 1 over 28″ allowed if someone wants to mount a trophy. (possession limits would be double)
– It should be legal, but I would never consider keeping a trophy fish
– You should be allowed to fish with 2 lines in the summer in MN
– Walleye season should stay the same in MN as it has always been. (this may be popular, but have seem more chatter about keeping it open all year)
– I purposely fish a very generous distance away from other anglers (summer and winter). I dont even care if they are on fish and I am not, it should be a common courtesy (with exceptions for the big 6 lakes on holiday weekends)
– Love ice fishing but have no interest in owning a Wheel house
– Pike spearing is fun and generally a net good for the lake

Looking forward to seeing what others have to say.

Fishing for pike is more fun that fishing for walleye, catching pike is way more fun than catching walleye, and eating pike is just as good as eating walleye.

Also, as I type this my 3 1/2 year-old and 1 1/2 year-old are playing in this room, and they both have lifetime angling licenses already…so my unpopular opinion is that you can put almost any daily/possession or size structure limit out there and although it may be an inconvenience, I’m fine with almost any limit because I want my boys to be able to enjoy fishing all of their lifetime too.

mark-bruzek wrote:

When you see the guy with his 1ton pulling the 24′ IC with a side by side in the back just realize he is living paycheck to paycheck making payments. (same with summer toys) –No reason to envy, be happy with what you have and can afford.–

I’d argue that’s a very broad brush to paint with.

I’m sure there’s plenty of guys like you describe, but there’s also plenty that have everything paid for and worked their way up to pay for those toys (started with a smaller shack, truck, etc)

Hunting and Fishing Licenses should cost more for Residents and Non-Residents.

Put more Law Enforcement out there.

Not to be too controversial, but if you’re not donating to conservation shame on you. Give as much as you take.

I agree with many unpopulars above, discussion in of itself.

Perch fishing should be banned for 5 years, then extremely low limits placed thereafter indefinitely. Perch are the elite bottom of the food chain species, the top of the chain in many many lakes thrives with a healthy stable perch population. Obviously some don’t, but overall this would be a huge net gain.

Walleye suck

Pike are the best tasting freshwater fish.

An actual unpopular opinion – shallow water walleyes put up a better fight than pike, or any bass.

– you’re opinion is null on flavor of a fish if you do not bleed and subsequently put the fish on ice

– hubs beat flipovers in every category

People who keep big panfish fish are stupid.

I think there should be a statewide Maximum Size Limit on panfish.

Like No Crappies over 12″
No Sunfish over 8.5″
No Perch over 12″

If it were to somehow start to negatively effect an individual lake, then open that lake up with a public announcement.

Let everyone reap the rewards and see what a trophy really looks like.

We could all work together to make lakes better.

Most people don’t have any self control when “the big ones are biting,” and keep all of them. I let them all go, but feel like I’m in the minority.

I’d also like to see twice the enforcement on the lakes. I’d be happy to pay double the cost of my license if each county could hire another CO.

If you don’t bleed fish then they are just a mushy nastiness.

Also-

(Stunted) Pike are more harmful to a lakes ecosystem than carp. All pike under 24” should be killed when caught, kept or not.

Polaris is insanely overrated.

MN waterfowl season starts too early.

-Regulations will never again allow any notable harvest of walleyes from Mille Lacs. The lake is getting clearer, warmer, and bass are carving out more and more of the biomass each year. Technology and proximity to the Twin Cities metro will always work against that lake.

Wheelhouses are an incredible nuisance and should be banned!

buckybadger wrote:

-Regulations will never again allow any notable harvest of <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes from Mille Lacs. The lake is getting clearer, warmer, and <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass are carving out more and more of the biomass each year. Technology and proximity to the Twin Cities metro will always work against that lake.

This has nothing to do with harvest/limits on Mille lacs.

I think tree stands should be illegal and all deer hunting should be from the ground.
I also think if you hunt from a big heating enclosed stand, that is purely unsportsmanlike

I like Hamm’s Beer and Spam.

All flavors except Turkey.

Fun topic
1. Jiffy augers outdated in the 70″s ice world goes electric they put out more heavy gas augers just don’t get it.

2. Tackle bags that last more than 2 years at 30-50 bucks you would think they could use better zippers my jeans last longer than that at 12 bucks

3. I own a smaller 16 foot boat 25 hp motor. Simple and works for me. Constantly have guys with bigger boats. Oh I wish I had a boat like that mine is to big and hard to load. Unless your on big water why not down size? Even though I’m guessing boat companies don’t make as much on smaller boats they make up the bulk I just don’t get the have to have a big boat. Many opinions here of course but drives me nuts.

4. I would rather catch carp opposed to walleye way more fight.

5. I don’t mind Lindners and IDO but anything on YouTube or other shows are great for when I can’t sleep.

6. Companies for fishing that sell because of YouTube Googan baits 1 time use etc.

Also Hubs have there time and place but a flip over helps move faster. Hubs are great if you never move.

Walleye fishing is the most boring type of fishing to do. They fight like wet noodles. So many other fish are more interesting and more fun to fish for.

I think Mille Lacs should be transitioned into keeping it a trophy smallmouth lake and walleye should stay C&R only.

Tip ups are more fun than jigging. (This might actually not be that unpopular)

98 percent of you tube fisherman are completely boring. Why film your selves and post it while having a “epic” day on 10 inch crappies. Then act like some pro.

And pretty much all fishing shows are boring and hard to watch. With the exception of 1 or 2 clips per the entire show.besides Jay siemens and Aaron wiebe

404 ERROR wrote:

Polaris is insanely overrated.

MN waterfowl season starts too early.

POLARIS means:
Pull
Off
Lake
And
Repair
In
Summer

An unpopular opinion? Online forum time should be limited to ten minutes a day.

Sounds like a lot of you guys should stop fishing for Walleye’s and leave them for the rest of us, since there so gross.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Sounds like a lot of you guys should stop fishing for Walleye’s and leave them for the rest of us, since there so gross.

The main reason that they are so popular for table fare is that they yield a lot of meat and very few bones. Pike are definitely better table fare in my opinion the the mount of wasted meat turns me off.