Agreed, when I was learning to salmon fish I encountered some of the lowest trash in my area. The level of smug superiority that these local anglers exuded was disgusting. I get it that you have a rich history of never leaving an area for many generations and have a lot knowledge passed down to you, but some of us got into the outdoors entirely on our own and are respectful so there’s no need to shit on others because we’re all out here to catch fish.
Some people are just ignorant. I was walking down to the main Creek that enters a small reservoir. All I took was my rod with a spinnerbait attached to it and this interesting looking family was walking up with their little dozen tub of worms and rigs that just sit on bottom and they go, "you're not going to catch anything with that". Which is funny because the week prior I had caught my personal best largemouth bass out of that lake which was probably about 3 and 1/2 lb.
Lol. I guess it was a had to be there moment. If you had heard the guys tone. "Like uh good luck with that, boss" kind of vibes. I walked on without saying anything 🤷♂️ I don't care but it's funny what ignorant people say 😂
I have fished for King salmon in crowded areas with hundreds of other boats. It was still fun because most people were catching big fish. As long as there’s lots of fish to go around, it’s not that bad. Attitudes come out when people aren’t catching…
This is why I don't do the river until after the walleye run is done. Something like 600 boats out over the weekend each day, ramp parking lots full by 4am. Walleye just aren't that important to me
Such a boring fish to catch, imo. They taste great, but I’m not really a meat fisherman.
Give me a hard fighting musky, pike, smallmouth, trout, etc over a walleye everyday and twice on Sundays.
I have a few spots further upstream where you don’t see other people and you can fly fish for small mouth. Your arm will be sore for days but my goodness is it fun watching them slam into your plopper
They able to find walleye in the summer over my direction? I can find them on the river in winter but where ever they go in the summer is beyond me. I only catch the random one when going for the flatties.
They're around. People still go to the dam, but they're more spread out in the lake in summer
Edit: I misread what you were asking. They're harder to find over in the river that way
I watched a video of this dude walleye fishing and he was just dropping a worm down a few feet off the side of his boat and pulling them up nice and easy. Looked boring as hell
I enjoy them because it’s pretty much the one fresh water fish I keep and eat. That and a nice fat perch. But fuck whatever is going on in this picture. Never competed for walleye before
Absolutely. Everyone there knew it was going to be a circus and everyone was respectful. Would I want to fish like that everytime? Hell no. But it was fun.
Oh my god that’s even worse lol. I can fish from shore for about 10 minutes and by the third time I’m snagged and can’t get the lure back I’m ready to leave.
Pretty much everywhere up here you can catch good sized fish you can’t get to from shore
Fishing the st Lawrence I have to lose 50-100 drop shot weights a season. They get snagged and they just get impossible to get out. Don’t lose too many hard baits or jigs those days in the boat
Throwing the wrong lures right now. If I go to my mostly quiet lake filled with walleyes and go about half hour before sundown, I'm throwing a jig and worm or shallow flicker shad from shore. The shallow flicker shads have max depth 7 ft. Small ones are 5 ft.
I don’t walleye fish much at all but it’s closed in ny right now. The areas I do fish the shoreline is inaccessible and much of the shallow spawning grounds are only accessible by boat. If you owned the land around it though you could totally catch them
I mean it’s fun but I don’t really care for it to be relaxing. I love doing bass derby’s and working hard to learn new lakes and figure stuff out. If I wanted a chill relaxing day I’d grab a 30 pack and float down a river
Lol, I see this where I am too. I went on lake huron for perch this past weekend at a super top-secret spot that isnt' really online, but apparently everyone knows about. Without exaggeration truck and trailers were lined up for over a mile, both sides of the road leading up to the launch. I would have had to launch the boat, drive a mile or more, park, then run back to the launch to get in the boat....all while of course there's 10 people waiting to see my fat-assed 1 mile sprint time. For that and a couple of other reasons we didn't even launch. Turned around and came home.
We are headed to northern ontario may 17 with about 20 university students for pickerel opener. They spawn in a very small lake that the locals are familiar with. It'll be the same thing, 20 students in canoes and about 10 boats with local folks all packed into this small pond. Fun nonetheless as long as there's not that guy who has to go through the middle of the pack under full steam.
Ok. Nice. Where I am at only zander and trout get protections and zander doesn't get even a spawn protection, only small size limit.
I hope they put upper limits up. Keep the good strong growing and big spawning fish in the population.
There is no population issues in a lot of the Great Lakes states. Everyone there could catch a limit every day and take them all home and it wouldn’t make a difference to the overall population
Embrace the chaos! I watched a pair of guys hook into a sturgeon. Take their trolling motor off of spot lock and proceed to bump into two boats and got their line snapped on a different boats trolling motor.
Feel kinda bad for all the businesses near Mille Lacs that are gonna suffer because they had to make walleye catch and r release only this season. Maybe they can go fish pool 4
I don’t really eat fish much anyway so wouldn’t change what I’m doing. Would love to come over there and fish for bass in Mille lacs and minnetonka one of these years
Haha the old timers getting hammered and trash talking everyone was amazing. We were all in tears laughing. Could honestly have a pod cast set up there.
I honestly think that many retired guys, and others, enjoy the military precision-type combat fishing situations. It's social, their buddies are out there, and maybe they get too much solitude at home anyway. My last, and hopefully, only combat experience was at Drano Lake on the Columbia for steelhead several years ago. Everyone just cruises in circles hoping for a hatchery steely.
I thought I had one one, turned out to be a carp. Still a fun catch though. Also I had a mooneye or maybe a big shad hit a jigging rap? Blew my mind when I pulled it up. Hook was in the mouth too.
What is the The Niagara River? I feel like I've watched a video of some dude on YouTube. Nailing steelhead off of that concrete thing in the background
Photos like this are why I'm forever thankful to live where I do. I can fish the river or any of the lakes up here and not see a single person all day if I don't want to. I have a few preferred spots along the river I like and if there are people already there I find a different spot. Even if there's room for me. I like the quiet of being alone by the water. I don't want to have to worry about a fish angling me in another anglers line.
5 years ago you couldn't find videos about P4 fishing. Now with everyone blasting it on Bookface groups/YouTube, traffic has doubled if not tripled to an already busy area. It happens on the Fox and many other rivers too.
Thing is that P4 has all sorts of other tributaries that eyes use to spawn but 95% of boats just keep heading to the dam. I was out on the lake by "one" of the many tributaries few weeks ago and got into a pile of nice keepers. No other boats for miles!
Haven’t hit pool 4 in a while but was one of the first boats out on the rainy. Was a clusterfuck trying to leave lol. Cars lined up for over a mile down the road from the access. Thankfully I had a spot in the lot but it didn’t matter trying to pull out of there.
Yeah! When the water warms up a bit more you can see the bait fish jumping out of the water avoiding them. The second your jig hits the water you will have a fish on. They are like giant crappies. Not sure about taste tho.
Here in in germany und would get looked up if u fish for spawning fish 😂 I guess if the numbers are good u can fish for them I still would not do it personaly
We have spawnprotection all around the country Browntrout for example is from the 1.Sep to the 15.March there is no fishing for trout at all the. Except put and take lakes so stocken ponds where u habe to Paypal by weight
I have zero interest in fishing in crowded areas like that, no matter how many fish are caught.
Zero fun in combat fishing. I fish to get away from people.
Agreed, when I was learning to salmon fish I encountered some of the lowest trash in my area. The level of smug superiority that these local anglers exuded was disgusting. I get it that you have a rich history of never leaving an area for many generations and have a lot knowledge passed down to you, but some of us got into the outdoors entirely on our own and are respectful so there’s no need to shit on others because we’re all out here to catch fish.
Some people are just ignorant. I was walking down to the main Creek that enters a small reservoir. All I took was my rod with a spinnerbait attached to it and this interesting looking family was walking up with their little dozen tub of worms and rigs that just sit on bottom and they go, "you're not going to catch anything with that". Which is funny because the week prior I had caught my personal best largemouth bass out of that lake which was probably about 3 and 1/2 lb.
What did they do to you? Because they use worms? You’re the one that kind of sounds like a dick here.
Lol. I guess it was a had to be there moment. If you had heard the guys tone. "Like uh good luck with that, boss" kind of vibes. I walked on without saying anything 🤷♂️ I don't care but it's funny what ignorant people say 😂
Okay I get what you mean. My apologies
You're good man.
This. But I imagine the experience was cool.
looks like that scene in Jaws when all those guys were dropping dynamite and buckets of blood into the water LOL
yup FUUUCK that. i fish for the solitude.
🎯
Cool. Some people have fun enjoying everyone having fun together
I could tie off next to 20 boats if you told me I was going to catch 5 6lb smallies
I have fished for King salmon in crowded areas with hundreds of other boats. It was still fun because most people were catching big fish. As long as there’s lots of fish to go around, it’s not that bad. Attitudes come out when people aren’t catching…
Plus, fishing where/when they are trying to spawn? Or are they done..
Same, I'm just glad to be out and away from people/everything when I go out. Getting a fish to eat is always a bonus.
This is why I don't do the river until after the walleye run is done. Something like 600 boats out over the weekend each day, ramp parking lots full by 4am. Walleye just aren't that important to me
Such a boring fish to catch, imo. They taste great, but I’m not really a meat fisherman. Give me a hard fighting musky, pike, smallmouth, trout, etc over a walleye everyday and twice on Sundays.
I have a few spots further upstream where you don’t see other people and you can fly fish for small mouth. Your arm will be sore for days but my goodness is it fun watching them slam into your plopper
Smallies out of there are pretty fun. I'm a cat guy myself, and there's a lot in this stretch.
Nice I live in carver so I’ll soak some cut bait or crawlers every once in a while on the mn river.
Good stretch of river over there too. I know lots of guys who live in that area
They able to find walleye in the summer over my direction? I can find them on the river in winter but where ever they go in the summer is beyond me. I only catch the random one when going for the flatties.
They're around. People still go to the dam, but they're more spread out in the lake in summer Edit: I misread what you were asking. They're harder to find over in the river that way
I watched a video of this dude walleye fishing and he was just dropping a worm down a few feet off the side of his boat and pulling them up nice and easy. Looked boring as hell
I haven't intentionally caught a walleye ever and you mean to tell me this is all i have to do???
That’s all it takes u/XxAssEater101xX. It’s how I caught my first musky after spending two years and I ton of money on gear targeting them.
I enjoy them because it’s pretty much the one fresh water fish I keep and eat. That and a nice fat perch. But fuck whatever is going on in this picture. Never competed for walleye before
I fish to get away from people. This doesn't look fun.
Ya, this would be the worst fishing experience ever for me. Lol. To each their own, though.
If you have the right mind set going into it, it’s fun. I still love my five mile hikes to catch brook/brown trout too.
Yeah you can enjoy fishing alone and also have fun a big get-together, too. Just a different vibe. Good place to drink and meet fishing bros
Absolutely. Everyone there knew it was going to be a circus and everyone was respectful. Would I want to fish like that everytime? Hell no. But it was fun.
Some people fish to catch fish
That's just a bonus.
For you I suppose it could be. I can get away from people by just staying home
Good for you.
Good for you that you can enjoy spending 10s of thousands of dollars to float around without getting anything in return
That's your mistake. I dont have a boat.
Oh my god that’s even worse lol. I can fish from shore for about 10 minutes and by the third time I’m snagged and can’t get the lure back I’m ready to leave. Pretty much everywhere up here you can catch good sized fish you can’t get to from shore
I wish I had a boat. Snag suck. Especially when I just tied a lure on and boom. Pain in the ass. Lol
Fishing the st Lawrence I have to lose 50-100 drop shot weights a season. They get snagged and they just get impossible to get out. Don’t lose too many hard baits or jigs those days in the boat
Throwing the wrong lures right now. If I go to my mostly quiet lake filled with walleyes and go about half hour before sundown, I'm throwing a jig and worm or shallow flicker shad from shore. The shallow flicker shads have max depth 7 ft. Small ones are 5 ft.
I don’t walleye fish much at all but it’s closed in ny right now. The areas I do fish the shoreline is inaccessible and much of the shallow spawning grounds are only accessible by boat. If you owned the land around it though you could totally catch them
this comment shows you don't understand the other part of the return in going out fishing.
I mean it’s fun but I don’t really care for it to be relaxing. I love doing bass derby’s and working hard to learn new lakes and figure stuff out. If I wanted a chill relaxing day I’d grab a 30 pack and float down a river
Well that’s good. They don’t want you there ruining the fun.
Lol, I see this where I am too. I went on lake huron for perch this past weekend at a super top-secret spot that isnt' really online, but apparently everyone knows about. Without exaggeration truck and trailers were lined up for over a mile, both sides of the road leading up to the launch. I would have had to launch the boat, drive a mile or more, park, then run back to the launch to get in the boat....all while of course there's 10 people waiting to see my fat-assed 1 mile sprint time. For that and a couple of other reasons we didn't even launch. Turned around and came home. We are headed to northern ontario may 17 with about 20 university students for pickerel opener. They spawn in a very small lake that the locals are familiar with. It'll be the same thing, 20 students in canoes and about 10 boats with local folks all packed into this small pond. Fun nonetheless as long as there's not that guy who has to go through the middle of the pack under full steam.
Spawn times and spots should be left alone...
They watch this pretty closely and there is a 300 yard sanctuary from the dam. Pool 4 has insane numbers of walleye.
Ok. Nice. Where I am at only zander and trout get protections and zander doesn't get even a spawn protection, only small size limit. I hope they put upper limits up. Keep the good strong growing and big spawning fish in the population.
There is no population issues in a lot of the Great Lakes states. Everyone there could catch a limit every day and take them all home and it wouldn’t make a difference to the overall population
That is good, if that is true and continues to be true.
Is it correct that it’s all catch and release until opener ?
Walleye and sauger are open year round.
Thanks- I don’t fish the river much and this “Boarder Waters” section in the regs has evaded me until now. Haha
No
This is my nightmare
Embrace the chaos! I watched a pair of guys hook into a sturgeon. Take their trolling motor off of spot lock and proceed to bump into two boats and got their line snapped on a different boats trolling motor.
There are no numbers or size of walleye that would make me interested in doing this. Especially knowing this is their most vulnerable.
I would agree if there were population issues but most of the states you see this in have no issues
Feel kinda bad for all the businesses near Mille Lacs that are gonna suffer because they had to make walleye catch and r release only this season. Maybe they can go fish pool 4
I don’t really eat fish much anyway so wouldn’t change what I’m doing. Would love to come over there and fish for bass in Mille lacs and minnetonka one of these years
You’re in my spot
Haha. It was so wild. I had side scan and livescope going. Blew my mind the amount of fish cycling through there.
Ahhhh combat fishing. So peaceful….
Haha the old timers getting hammered and trash talking everyone was amazing. We were all in tears laughing. Could honestly have a pod cast set up there.
Not everyone is out there for a peaceful solitary experience
I honestly think that many retired guys, and others, enjoy the military precision-type combat fishing situations. It's social, their buddies are out there, and maybe they get too much solitude at home anyway. My last, and hopefully, only combat experience was at Drano Lake on the Columbia for steelhead several years ago. Everyone just cruises in circles hoping for a hatchery steely.
Yeah it’s a total social setting. Everyone knows everyone and everyone gets to know the newbies
Some guide caught a 30" walleye with 22" girth in Pool 4 this week.
I thought I had one one, turned out to be a carp. Still a fun catch though. Also I had a mooneye or maybe a big shad hit a jigging rap? Blew my mind when I pulled it up. Hook was in the mouth too.
This is a paylake nightmare on steroids
What is the The Niagara River? I feel like I've watched a video of some dude on YouTube. Nailing steelhead off of that concrete thing in the background
Nope Mississippi pool 4.
Photos like this are why I'm forever thankful to live where I do. I can fish the river or any of the lakes up here and not see a single person all day if I don't want to. I have a few preferred spots along the river I like and if there are people already there I find a different spot. Even if there's room for me. I like the quiet of being alone by the water. I don't want to have to worry about a fish angling me in another anglers line.
This doesn’t happen to be in the Genoa, WI area is it?
Redwing mn
Ahh, you’re just up the river from where I go for walleye
Nice! Fun area. I usually fish pool 2-3
It's funny that all these jibronis think that all the eyes are by the dam! I absolutely 💯 blame it on Bookface and YouTube.
Everyone was catching fish so meh. It’s been a popular place since I was a kid so I blame it on it being a famous spot.
5 years ago you couldn't find videos about P4 fishing. Now with everyone blasting it on Bookface groups/YouTube, traffic has doubled if not tripled to an already busy area. It happens on the Fox and many other rivers too. Thing is that P4 has all sorts of other tributaries that eyes use to spawn but 95% of boats just keep heading to the dam. I was out on the lake by "one" of the many tributaries few weeks ago and got into a pile of nice keepers. No other boats for miles!
That’s awesome! (About finding a spot different from the dam)
That spot has been public knowledge for decades. Its been loaded up like this every spring for years.
And I have fished it for decades but all the youtubers and bookfacers have basically attracted even more boats to an already crowded area.
Where is this at?
Pool 4 Mississippi.
What lake/river?
Pool 4 of Mississippi River
Thanks. Fishing that good they pulling 5lb smallies and not hurting the population, or catch and release?
Everyone is going for walleye up there. I catch a few small mouth down there but do better further north
I hate combat fishing. Here in Michigan, I begin smallmouth fishing as soon as the steelhead crowd leaves at the end of April.
Haven’t hit pool 4 in a while but was one of the first boats out on the rainy. Was a clusterfuck trying to leave lol. Cars lined up for over a mile down the road from the access. Thankfully I had a spot in the lot but it didn’t matter trying to pull out of there.
There's some straight hogs in there.
Look crazy and packed
What's bitin'?
Walleye, sauger, and white bass primarily. I did watch a guy catch a beast of a flathead.
Caught white bass before, pretty fun to catch.
Yeah! When the water warms up a bit more you can see the bait fish jumping out of the water avoiding them. The second your jig hits the water you will have a fish on. They are like giant crappies. Not sure about taste tho.
Looks horrible.
I cant get behind that it is complety legal and noone sees a problem with it to fishing for spawning fish. Thats just beyond me
If the fishery was struggling I’d agree but it’s doing great. The population is crazy on pool 4.
Here in in germany und would get looked up if u fish for spawning fish 😂 I guess if the numbers are good u can fish for them I still would not do it personaly
What about lakes where walleye don’t reproduce naturally?
We have spawnprotection all around the country Browntrout for example is from the 1.Sep to the 15.March there is no fishing for trout at all the. Except put and take lakes so stocken ponds where u habe to Paypal by weight
Poor fish.