Male Walleyes

[wall_guy_101]

Just a question that was brought up between a co-worker and I. How big can a male walleye get??

[PieEyed]

I read off the DNR website that a an adult male can reach aprox 22" - 24" in MN.

[IRISHSOBNO4]

i had one that was 27 inches, hooked real deep!!

i was surprised to see it was a male when i cleaned it.

i talked to a taxidermist about it he said he has had some in the 9lb range that were males.

[Team Otter]

In my opinion, anything over 21" would be "out of the norm" for being a male 'eye.

[TRZ]

i caught a tagged male at Mille Lacs this fall, it was 21.75 inches and had been first tagged in 02'. i assume it was well over 10 years old. it was cool to get a report on it because i just assumed anything over 20 inches was female.

[TRZ]

You ate a 27 inch walleye? i thought i was hungry!

[IRISHSOBNO4]

tast just as good as any other eye.

the lake i caught it on has no natural reproduction

and it was going to die....wanton waste?

[SFBOY]

my dad caught one that was 26.5" two years ago through the ice on green bay. it had a tag in it. the tag indicated that it had been tagged 9 years earlier about two miles from where he caught it. at the time it was tagged, it was 25". in 9 years it grew only 1.5". the DNR estimated the fish to be 16 to 17 years old.

[TRZ]

the tagged male i caught had grown 1/2 inch since april 02', and i caught it in late setember of this year. I have never hooked a walleye so deep i knew it would die what were you using? a spear?

[fishin magician]

What do you think male? 31 inches really really skinney. Different looking fins also.

[Team Otter]

That's a skinny boar.

[Bigfife]

I CPR'd a 24" tagged male walleye out on Mille Lacs this year. I never knew they could get that big.

[SFBOY]

i think it was the same thing; the hook was in there good if i remember him telling me correctly.

[PieEyed]

There are two options when you gut hook a fish you want to release.

First, choice for me is. Take a small needle nose and go through the gill on the side of the fish. Squeeze the shank of the hook and rotate your wrist, the hook will come right out. Gut hooked or not it's an easy way to remove a hook.

I see more people pulling on the line, tearing out the guts. Then sticking their big needle nose down the mouth of the walleye trying to get there hook back. Then look over at you and say, "what can you do it was gut hooked." I just have to look away.

I'm sure most of you know how to do this already but for those that don't I would love to shoot a clip on my digital camera on how to remove a hook this way. Do you think I could post it on here?

Second, choice if you don't feel confident in performing choice one, then just cut the line.

There's no excuse for saying, it was hooked deep that's why I killed a big walleye.

[IRISHSOBNO4]

when you fight a fish for 2 minuts and its bleeding all over you should add it to your limit, not let it go to lay on the bottom and die...especially in warm water.

that is wanton waste.

[ozzie]

If you were not in the boat don't comment on how one should have treated a fish. Thanks PieEyed for the options with a gut hook but to the rest don't start bashing a person unless you were with and know the situation. Otherwise it is pointless!!!!!!