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Walleye fishing is very different in different parts of the country. I fished in a few parts of Michigan, & Minnesota (East, West, and Southern LOW, Upper Red, & some local lakes around Twin Cities, and Fergus Falls).
I was VERY surprised when I seen what was considered a "Keeper" when I first started fishing Minnesota.
Once when fishing LOW before the slot limit was started, I spent a day throwing back every fish I caught under 15", as I naturally thought that that was a reasonable limit (I was suprised that at the time there was no size limit !!).
I never took home any fish from there, as we get all the walleyes we want here at home. I gave all my walleyes to the local guys that were my fishing partners. When they seen I had thrown all those good eating 12" to 15" fish back, they were none to pleased with me!!
Here at home we consider a 19" fish fairly small. A very average size in Eastern Lake Erie, and lake Ontario is 21 to 25".
An 8 or 9 pound walleye doesn't even turn a head to look at it around here.
Where we fish, the water is at least 50 to 120' deep. Walleyes don't have much chance of living when pulled up from much deeper than 40 or 50 feet.
It's fairly common for 2 guys to bring home 40 to 50 pounds of walleyes for a days fishing. I went out with a couple friends last June out of Barcelona NY, and the 3 of us could legally bring home 15 fish. The 70 quart cooler was overfilled when we had 12 fish, and 2 ice bottles in the cooler, so we quit.
They recently raised the limit on the NY side of Erie from 4 to 5 walleyes, and from 4 to 6 on the Canadian side because of the increase numbers of available fish.
9 and 10 pounders are not uncommon in Erie, and 15 pounders come out of Ontario all the time. In the walleye contest they have here in Western NY they pay the top 200 fish. You better have close to 10 pounds if you hope to win anything. It's just bigger water, with a lot more food for the walleyes in it.

It doesn't make the fishing any better in any one place just because of the size of the fish. I love to drive to Minnesota, just to fish with friends. And the type of fishing we do for the walleyes (mostly jigging) can be a lot more fun than trolling for the big fish on Erie...

But they all sure taste good !!

And if anyone tells you that big walleyes don't taste as good as small ones, your talking to someone that doesn't know how to clean big fish !!

10 pounds 9 ounces



Typical 4 fish limit (limit is now 5)



10 pounds 2 oz.



two 4 fish limits, holding a 13 pound 4 oz. walleye
Total fish weight 52.5 pounds




How can you not love fishing !!!!