Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="cooter00" data-source="post: 290886" data-attributes="member: 737">So I have fished West sak to pouch pretty much my whole life I realize that fish (walleye specific) go in cycles up and down nature is nature but I never remember such a drastic change in size caught. This winter I have caught more 11-14 inch walleye then I ever remember I mean you always catch them but usually you can weed them out and scratch a 19 my perfered eating size but this winter it hasn't happened out of 20 days of ice fishing this season I have caught 5 fish over 17 inches 1 of the five was a 20 incher I averaged about 20 to 40 fish each trip never a shortage of action never really a slow day but just no size I'm not complaining at all I had a great season better then average except size wise so here's my ponder where are they I've talked to many fellow anglers and they have had the same fishing lots of small walleye now for the previous summer and last winter I caught larger then average walleye where I had days where I couldn't catch a fish under 20 inches last winter specific I caught my pb Walter threw the ice and lots of other 20 pluserz I did have days where I caught smaller fish but never remember not taking home at least one nicer fish each trip..back to this winter now my theory #1 we had way better than average spawn last spring making those fish 11- 14 inchers now and they are hungry smelt are bigger then average so smaller Willie's are targeting smaller prey which isn't as plenty full as smelt making them overly aggressive and on the other note the biggins are eating all the smelt they want and are not in normal feeding patterns so they are not active hunting...theory 2- I don't really have another theory but over a couple brews on the ice after a long day of catching 12inchers the conversation was struck and allot of theory's were discussed I won't share them all but one slightly got me thinking it was said that they migrate up river to spawn and because of a good food source in the river they never fully migrated back. But I don't 100% buy this one cause you would think there would an abundance of bigger fish caught in the river we had good ice and I heard of more then average people fishing the river West of Williston and not doin any better or worse then previous years. So fellow anglers let's here the theories fishing tactics can't be blamed they haven't changed fishing spots haven't changed actually I searched more this year then ever in my life record #of holes drilled for me anyway I know there out there they didn't disappear why are they not getting caught like previous years.</blockquote>

Verification: What is the most common fish caught on this site?

Reply to thread

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA