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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Allen" data-source="post: 294476" data-attributes="member: 389"> Maybe you're new to the concept of science, but the NDGF test nettings don't lie.  They may not have been the best worded, or misconstrued by the masses, thoughts they've put out there because obviously...fish swim.  Their point has always been one of despite the migration of the bite, they find plenty of walleyes in places where people aren't catching fish when they use nets or electro-fish. I've seen it myself back when I commercial fished Lake Sakakawea and Audubon with 500 ft seines.  We were targeting non-gamefish (carp, catfish, goldeye, buffalo, etc) and would try to avoid places where we thought we would find gamefish (walleyes and pike). On occasion though we would run into big concentrations of walleye in places we didn't think they belonged and would go back the next day to try and catch them with rod/reel (sportfishing) only to often discover they weren't in the mood to bite.  And then be back the next day with the seines only to prove (well, we were still chasing non-game species) that the damn things were still there and were in no mood to feed. We've all seen this if we've been at Cabela's or anywhere there's a large aquarium with gamefish.  Just because there's a minnow in the face of a walleye doesn't mean they will eat it.  Water temp, atmospheric pressure, seasonality, etc all play a role in where the hotspot shows up. We all know walleyes, pike, smelt, and every other species of fish run to their local spawning grounds at the right time of year to congregate and lay their eggs, duh.  What does NOT take place is every walleye in Lake Oahe showing up at the snagging hole on the Heart.  That would be a true migration, what you and I observe in the bite migration is far more to do with conditions that it is a mass movement of fish.  Walleyes find suitable spawning grounds in every single tributary from the face of Oahe Dam up through the tailrace of Garrison dam, and to my knowledge a given walleye will use whatever is closest (unlike salmon which seek what they think of as home waters).</blockquote>

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