What size catch and release?

I am interested in opinions on what others consider to be reasonable size for catch & release now that the larger females will be migrating to spawn?

I had no problem keeping a 25 inch walleye from an Iowa lake here in Cedar Rapids where the DNR stocked the lake and no significant natural spawning.

My wife and I have made the trip to Pool 4 about six times over the past year, the most recent being this last Saturday. We took 8 keepers that day, 6 males and 2 females, the largest of which was 20 1/2 inches. We made the decision to release any female over 22 inches, being mindful of this wonderful resource. Were we too conservative or too liberal?

You actually EAT those things!? They taste worse than they smell!!! GROSS!

Most guys will let anything over 20″ swim free. With all the 15″ – 19″ fish available there’s little reason to knife the prime spawners.

For this time of year nothing over 20″ stays in the boat and I try to release all females unless there bleeding.I like those 15″-18″ they taste better.

Speaking of the lake near Cedar Rapids, if I assume correctly, you may mean Pleasant Creek; I heard that the IADNR is no longer stocking the lake. Something about a policy of not stocking walleye in waters less than 400 acres (?). This is pretty ridiculous IMHO, because PC gets fished really hard. Lots of people have access to that lake and fish it. If anything, they should stock it more heavily (within reason, of course) with all the guys hittin’ it and the easy access to a large population center.

When I heard about this policy last summer, I quit fishing PC for walleye. Last June, I had no trouble catching 3-4 nice sized fish on each outing. Without the assistance of stocking and the limited natural spawn, keeping fish out of there made little sense to me. I suppose my own decision will not matter much in the long run; because many others will continue to keep everything they catch out there, but I figure I’ll leave those ‘eyes alone for someone else. Macbride and Coralville, however, will continue to be stocked (> 400 acres).

I fish the Mississippi and I only keep enough eaters (<20″) for a meal, which right now for my family with young kids is about 4 fish. If I caught something really big (<10#) it would be a hard decision on whether to mount the trophy or get a replica. So far, I have not had to make that decision..

Regards,

Joe

I’ve always wondered about the decision to put walleyes in Palo in the first place. It’s primarily a bass lake, on top of that it’s one of Iowa’s best muskie lakes, throw in a few walleyes, maybe a crappie or two, some perch, white bass, maybe a gorilla and a dozen clowns in a VW while they’re at it?

Wonder what other’s opinions are on the ability of a 400 acre lake’s ability to support six or more predator species. I’ve always assumed that the number of predator species was what’s kept the crappies from booming there (read: lousy crappie fishing), but have no data to support that, and no expertise to rely on (need to include a disclaimer of this sort when making wild-eyed assumptions).

I think that in trying to make that little lake all things to all people, they really are missing an opportunity to make it a really spectacular lake for one or two species.

I have fished both PC and Macbride extensively, and very little on Coralville. Only caught one small eye in PC years ago, but have a friend who is successful there. Have had some success pulling good sized eyes out of Macbride, but again, was informed by DNR that they were likely all stocked fish.

In talking with the DNR guys, they say that in the past they would stock PC with some excess eye fry & fingerlings, but they recently were prevented from doing so from the higher ups. That makes very little sense to me, and certainly frustrated the local DNR guys.

A 20″ walleye gives a guy a big chunk of meat. Anything much bigger, in my opinion just doesn’t taste as good.

Personally I would eat a dozen 12 to 14 inch walleyes over a 22 inch walleye. I think the smaller walleyes have a better texture and “flake” to the meat.

They also cook more evenly in my book when it comes to deep frying. When you have a thick rib section (from a 22″) deep frying with a thinner tail section (from a 15″), at times the tail section will over cook and the rib section will be a bit under cooked.

Just my personal preference, as I deep fry 80% of my walleyes.

I like those 15 to 19 inch Saugers for eatin butwalleyes that size are pretty tasty to.We have a slot limit down here,you can’t keep anything between 20 and 27 but I would let them fish go,Anyways!

Yeah, I’m a newcomer to these parts, so I can’t really comment on what they did out there over the years; and having access for the first time to some new species, I am probably a little biased towards the walleye. Back east, I was reared up on pretty decent bass and panfish fishing; walleye/muskies/northern were not really readily available to me, so upon my arrivalin the midwest, I pretty much decided to chase walleyes since it represented the chance to try something totally new.

You make some good points. Heck, 6 predator species? How about the lake’s ability to support the numbers of anglers harvesting fish on a regular basis? I remember last spring/early summer heading out there an hour or two b4 sunrise on the weekend, being the first on the ramp. In the time it took to park the trailer after dumping my rig in the bath, it was not unusual to have 4-5 other boats lined up behind me as I headed back to untie from the courtesy dock. I bet some grad student could do a heck of a thesis on the whacked-out biology of that lake.

I suppose I based some of my opinions on an article in Iowa Game & Fish last year, where the local DNR bio guy, Paul Sleeper, mentioned PC as being a top walleye lake with limited natural repro; but that he hated to let the word out too much because of his inability to stock it. The deep water, creek bed, road beds, and gravel bottom areas apparently allowed the ‘eyes to do pretty well; but probably not well enough to hang on with the heavy pressure and lack of a stocking program. In other words, the few they put in did suprisingly well, perhaps better than expected. So, after stocking walleyes what was perhaps more a bass and panfish lake is now also a walleye lake. More competion for those 400 acres…

Regards,

Joe

I release walleye below 14″ (where there is no legal size limit), and walleye over 19″. The smaller ones need to grow a little more, and those over 19″ are the spawners that keep the population going.

I’ve caught a few decent walleye out of PC–kiss that fishery good-bye in a couple years. My understanding is that the IDNR decided to stop stocking walleye in lakes under 500 acres (PC is about 470) because they are switching from stocking newly-hatched fry to fingerlings. Walleye fingerlings have a better survival rate than fry, but are also more expensive to raise. Therefore, walleye stocking efforts will be concentrated on larger waters that can better handle the addition of walleye to the mix.

I still release fish over 19″ in waters like Macbride (I thought this was the Minnesota forum ) where there is less natural reproduction, mainly to grow larger fish for other guys to catch and hopefully release. Plus, I can tell you from experience when I was younger and didn’t know any better that walleye over 19″ don’t taste that great.

I talked with a WDNR biologist a couple of years ago regarding the ability to sex walleyes. I was wondering if it might be as easy as sexing muskies (something about the anal vent either shaped like a pear or a keyhole). He told me that with the exception of the spring spawn when the females are showing their classic belly, they have a hard time sexing them. He suggested that any fish over 17″ very possibly is a female. With that in mind, when I am keeping fish for the table I have pretty much set the Benson limit at 13-14 on the bottom side and 17-18 on the top side. In most cases, I am unable to eat that much fish because of the nature of my job, so I just fish catch and release. I NEVER keep fish to freeze. I ONLY keep enough to eat at a sitting.

Gary: Not that I am insinuating that you are advocating keeping larger fish, but on that frying thing you mentioned this might help: I cut the pin bones out of my fillets. After cutting on both sides of that strip of bones, I cut off the tail section and make two cuts (3 pieces) on the top loin leaving me the belly flap. When frying I start with the cheek meat to make sure that the oil is hot, then fry everything according to size, i.e., bellies, tails, then top loin chunks. All pieces are the same size and fry evenly. Hope this helps. I do this with all my ‘eyes ’cause the wife won’t eat any bones.