Some observations on the 2 walleye bag limit-2011
For the last several years, a group of my friends and I have all rented a cabin for the opening day of walleye season in the great northwoods. This year, we had a bag limit that was reduced from the traditional 3 down to 2. This, of course, is no surpise to readers of this board and I was no happier than the rest of you to see it on my favorite body of water this year. However, the reaction by the rest of the group when I informed them of the "new rules" was interesting. They were not interested in hearing about the reasons why the limit was lower and just wanted to know what the rules were for this year so they could comply. In my boat, we had our limits by 8:30 on opening day and spent the rest of the day fishing for perch, releasing walleyes, catching pike, and enjoying the beautiful weather. One of our boats decided to target smallmouth bass as their "alternate species". We still had our annual poker tournament and still gave out the trophy for the biggest walleye caught by our group (17" this year). We still had just as good a time as any other year, enjoying the scenery, each other's company, and the fact that we were in a wonderful part of the world, doing something we love to do.
It made me feel good that, for our group at least, no one's enjoyment of the opener was in any way diminished, no matter what the Chippewa decided to do and we have already reserved the same cabin for next year. Here's to a great fishing season for all of you.
Beautiful Day on the Flowage
I agree with you Bunczk. It was an awesome day on the water spent with family and friends. I have not fished the Flowage on the Walleye opener in years and was looking forward to a day on this body of water no mater what the walleye limit. I will say I may need to brush up on my pan fishing skills in order to extend my stay on the water.
Our boat consistently caught fish most of the day and most of the spots we tried produced at least one fish. When your looking for fish in a certain size range to keep for a meal the day can be very enjoyable catching and releasing fish. It's no different then the fishing in Canada, you release 98% of what you catch there as well.
We caught fish in 10 to 12 feet of water with wood as well as the breaks in the river channel. We mostly fished the Turtle side. Slip floats and a jig with a minnow worked equally well.
