Caught 3 walleye over 20″ and one 16″ keeper today down in 16. Water temp was 73º. The three big ones were super super fat, figured they were full of shad. The 16″er was also very fat and he was packed to the brim with milt. Never spawned. Wondering now if the 3 over 20 were big females that never spawned?
What state or general location if not the actual lake or river?
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What state or general location if not the actual lake or river?
Brent, it takes a bit of detective work when these come up under “Todays Topics” but if you look you’ll see this is in the Mississippi River Forum and he mentions down in 16. So Pool 16 of the Mississippi River.
Caught a nice female on P2 last week that left eggs all over my seat…and that Saturday, caught some on Mille Lacs still full of eggs…
I am going to go out on a limb and say this years class is going to be horrible. 3-5 years down the road it might be hard to catch an eater. “
I really wonder what the DNR is going to do about Mille Lacs regulations in a few years.
MN lakes will be alright. The DNR will just stock extra next year and adjust the limits. Us guys down here don’t have that luxury, what we have is what we have. Walleye fishing down here sucks compared to what you MN guys have. Just look at the FLW last year, some of those MN boys sure were complaining about not catching a single fish. Just wait until 5 years down the line like Pug said, makes the bad fishing even worse.
This year is panning out to be the worst ever for us (speaking about me and my buddies). I can honestly tell you I have caught 2 keeper walleyes all year. Rest are 10″ long or in the slot (3 so far in the slot). Everyone assured us the fishing would not suffer from that hot spell last year and all the dead walleye/northern floating down the Miss. I guess all the walleye are hiding from me this year because we should be well over the 500-600 fish mark by now and I’m at 8 since ice out. 
Just does not make any sense at all!
Now that I think back, I think the last 2 years I have made this exact same topic on here. Caught fish in june/jul/august with eggs and milt. Bad spawns, fish kill, high water all adds up to problems.
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I’m still catching catfish with a lot of blood on their eggs, the males are full of milt too, their eggs are very ripe but they just haven’t dropped them yet. Everythings atleast 3 weeks to a month behind.
From what I have seen our cats are about normal. Kept two for my grandma today. One spawned out female and one in the process of dropping. All the cats I’ve seen caught have been very dark. Right on date wise, mid june.
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I am going to go out on a limb and say this years class is going to be horrible. 3-5 years down the road it might be hard to catch an eater. “
I really wonder what the DNR is going to do about Mille Lacs regulations in a few years.
x2 The longer this winter went everybody was cheering, but then it kept going and going and now, well, only time will tell. Hopefully whatever eggs that did drop were given really good chances of survival. 
This may sound crazy Kevin but usually by early June their done here and quit biting on dittypoles. After about two weeks they are out of the shallow water, where they spawn, and are back around their usual deeper water areas. They come in along shore at night and feed but way fewer in the shallow water areas then their was a couple weeks earlier. We know when the majority are spawning because we get fewer fish and not just because were catching them, its this way all over the river in a lot of different areas where they spawn. I know a couple other guys who fish the same way I do and we all catch fewer fish about the same time, its the weather.
High water that’s been colder then usual has been the main culprit here. Was going to go last night and the guy I fish with went out of town for a couple days and forgot he was gone so I stayed home, going by myself tonight though, got the trolling motor back on the boat so I can run them myself, it doesn’t spook them at all like my little 6 hrs. Evie does. I haven’t checked the forcast but if its not raining after I get off work and eat dinner, I’m going.
WE had both our kids over last night with the grandkids and Cooked up two packages of fillets so the freezers looking a little more bare now. My 2 year old grandson couldn’t get enough and ate until he left and walked out the door for home with a fillet in a paper towel.
Individual fish are all different from one another. If conditions aren’t just right for a particular fish they’ll just hold the spawn. This may be a local thing with the walleyes there. Regardless, nature has a way of balancing itself out when an odd year rolls along.
I wouldn’t get to worked up over this unless you see four or five years back to back with a sour spawn. Things will work out.
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