Island Lake ?????

[Northlander]

If I want BIG Walleyes I fish the St. Louis River and Lake Superior. Dont need to drive more than 5 minutes to be on trophy fish. It sure would be nice if island did have a better big fish population though. A lake that size should have more big eyes. I agree its a forage thing and I believe smelt or scisco would live there but the DNR would never go for that. I just donate plenty of minnows and crawlers to the cause. Oh and a few Reef Runners.

[live4chrome]

the last thing we want in island are smelt. look at the decimation that they brought to burntside lake. Ciscoes on the other hand...

[reinhard1]

tullibees are my choice. you would see all gamefish benefit from them. plus good for the smoker. good luck.

[JBMasterAngler]

Yep, ciscoes/tullibees would be great! You'd have bigger and better everything in island...walleye, pike, muskies, etc. Would even benefit fisherman...who wouldn't want to hit a school of them in the winter time?

[Steve Foss]

No matter what type of additional baitfish are stocked, they'll all compete with walleye (and any other species of) fry for micro-organism forage. Once there are enough ciscoes to matter, that probably would inhibit walleye recruitment for several years until the lake reaches an equilibrium.

You can introduce species to a lake, but unless you add some sort of forage base, adding one species usually means kicking another species in the nuts.

One of the problems with smelt in Burntside is they feed on those micro-organisms for more than one year, possibly for their whole lives, so they are competing with gamefish fry for forage, robbing the gamefish fry and pushing down recruitment. Burntside is a typical cold clear sterile Canadian Shield lake, however, and I reckon Island is more rich with forage.

Just something to consider.

[reinhard1]

you make a good point steve, and i could be wrong but island is a different animal. island has always had good natural re-production rates. i think the problem is the growth rate so there's where the tulibee suggestion comes in. the lake i fish that has smelt in it is doing fine {grindstone}. this lake had ciscoes in it at one time but the smelt did compete with them and won. otherwise these faty forage species make big fatty's. i'm going to discuss this with the dnr monday and see why tullibees cant be introduced. their may be a good reason or maby not. good luck.

[live4chrome]

you make a good point steve, and i could be wrong but island is a different animal. island has always had good natural re-production rates. i think the problem is the growth rate so there's where the tulibee suggestion comes in. the lake i fish that has smelt in it is doing fine {grindstone}. this lake had ciscoes in it at one time but the smelt did compete with them and won. otherwise these faty forage species make big fatty's. i'm going to discuss this with the dnr monday and see why tullibees cant be introduced. their may be a good reason or maby not. good luck.

Smelt LOVE fish eggs, esp. walleye, whitefish, and lakers.

smelt would be very bad to have in there. The last thing we need is some moron backyard biologist to put them in there.

[Northlander]

For sure.

[reinhard1]

tullibees for island not smelt. i was refering to another lake where i fish {grindstone}, near sandstone. good luck.

[Steve Foss]

I hear you, reinhard. Those durn smelt have a catastrophic impact on a fishery once they get established. Gobbling gamefish eggs is the first whammy, which pushes down spawning success. Outcompeting gamefish fry for micro-organisms is the second whammy, which kills recruitment.

Smelt come in = nothing is ever the same again.

[Down Deep]

Recently I was looking at some of fish sampling data of Rice Lake that the Fond Du Lac tribe does as part of their fish management program. There was one interesting piece of data that stood out that relates to this discussion. In 2008 they did a sampling and found walleyes as old as 15 years, but were only 20 inches long. Also 4 and 5 year old fish were 13 to 14 inches long. I could be that Island, Fish and Rice just might have a strain of walleyes that is just genetically a smaller fish.

[reinhard1]

i'm going to ask that question to the dnr people today. i want to know why there is a slow growth rate of walleye in island. it may be the same reason on the other lakes also so we will see. good luck.

[gunflint]

Maybe it's not the growth rate that's the problem. There could be a hampered learning curve. Just a thought. I know a guy that heard about a guy that has caught over a dozen walleyes in Island lake in the last 6 weeks that were over 26 inches and that includes 2 28s and a 27.5 just a few days ago. I heard that the 27.5 was as fat as a football and went almost 9 pounds. I also heard the guy gets eaters almost every time out.

Of course this is nothing but rumor so maybe the reports of nothing but small fish are right. I sure as heck can't seem to dial it in.

[reinhard1]

thats what i want to clear up for myself. i have caught some good walley's in the past from island, but more on average in boulder. but i have fished boulder more. but in general in island i get eaters which i'm not complaining about just wondering after fishing this lake for more than 40 years. good luck.

[fishinfey8]

Over the weekend I found some walleyes in a place that I would've never imagined they would/or even could be. The bite didn't start until 9pm, and only went for an hour. But, all the fish I caught were in that 17-22in. range. Glow bobber in 2' with my bait about 1' down...

I don't get it though, crappies, smallmouth, pike, muskie, rockbass, bluegills, every other gamefish get LARGE. Crappies and smallmouth in particular. It seems to me that if there was in inbalance in forage, there would be a stunted smallie or panfish population as well. It's wierd b/c there are two different populations of walleyes in one body of water. At least IMO, there are "normal" growth rate eyes, and there are the "stunted" eyes.

I do believe there is lack of forge in PARTS of Island lake; I also beleive there are alot of areas that do not lack forage. In these area's, while fishing i'll notice there are minnows swimming everywhere and I constantly catch big perch as well as see crayfish remains everywhere on shorelines. In these areas I only catch nice fish, wheter that be smallies, crappies, walleyes, or northerns. The problem is they only bite for a month out of the year, or they are only congregated for a month out of the year. At about mid-july numbers of bigger fish seem to become non-existent for me...I dunno crazy lake that's for sure.

[reinhard1]

fished all my life and still learning. the area by the picnic ground when the water is in "normal" levels is shallow where i fish [around 4ft]and catch walleys there. i have caught walley's in boulder in two ft. fishing off shore of an iland i camp on. i called the dnr this morning and found out that they do not stock tullibees in any waters. they said that they have found traces of tullibees in island over the years but very few and obvioulsy did not hold for some reason. they feel the tullibees that got into island got there via smith or little pequawan lake down the cloquet river into island. maby not the right kind of plankton is another guess. so as far as growth rates being slow it's more of a biological thing than a food thing. as gunflint stated above this is more of a learning thing with this. since walleys are rarely stocked in island the same strain is reproducing resulting in slower growth because they are constantly reproducing slower growing walleys biologicly. so i can stop wondering about it now. i think we are blessed just to have such a great fisherie and the lake has never dissapointed me, it has always given a meal for my family and good times. one interesting bait fish i did not know about thats in island is the trout perch. they never get them in numbers by normal test netting but one time when they were doing night testing with the electric shocking divices in the fall they found great numbers. trout perch rarely get over 3in. and live in the deepest waters of the lake. and gunflint the dnr guy confirmed the post you gave above about the ages of walleys in rice. pretty much the same in island also. hope this helped regarding tullibees and why they are not in island. good luck.

[tacklejunkie]

Over the weekend I found some walleyes in a place that I would've never imagined they would/or even could be. The bite didn't start until 9pm, and only went for an hour. But, all the fish I caught were in that 17-22in. range. Glow bobber in 2' with my bait about 1' down...

I don't get it though, crappies, smallmouth, pike, muskie, rockbass, bluegills, every other gamefish get LARGE. Crappies and smallmouth in particular. It seems to me that if there was in inbalance in forage, there would be a stunted smallie or panfish population as well. It's wierd b/c there are two different populations of walleyes in one body of water. At least IMO, there are "normal" growth rate eyes, and there are the "stunted" eyes.

I do believe there is lack of forge in PARTS of Island lake; I also beleive there are alot of areas that do not lack forage. In these area's, while fishing i'll notice there are minnows swimming everywhere and I constantly catch big perch as well as see crayfish remains everywhere on shorelines. In these areas I only catch nice fish, wheter that be smallies, crappies, walleyes, or northerns. The problem is they only bite for a month out of the year, or they are only congregated for a month out of the year. At about mid-july numbers of bigger fish seem to become non-existent for me...I dunno crazy lake that's for sure.

I've been up to Island in recent days and the action is there but it's a lot of smallish walleyes. In that group, I catch a few eaters so I don't complain.

Jig and...I tried 4" GULP. Much to my surprise, it worked

[Northlander]

This time of year the bigger the better. I used 4" Paddle tails this morning and caught some nice eyes on the river. They liked the perch with orange tail and albino firetails today. Nice when you dont have to get your hands wet digging for minnows in these cold mornings.

[tacklejunkie]

This time of year the bigger the better. I used 4" Paddle tails this morning and caught some nice eyes on the river. They liked the perch with orange tail and albino firetails today. Nice when you dont have to get your hands wet digging for minnows in these cold mornings.

I haven't had much luck with GULP crawlers on harnesses but the minnow ones worked good.

What are paddle tails and were would one pick them up and will I get a discount if I tell them, "Northlander sent me?"

[Northlander]

Junkie e-mail me and Ill get ya some to try out. If ya like them you can order them through Bass Assassins website.

[gunflint]

If the weatherman isn't lying it looks like a full weekend of fishing.

[Northlander]

Didnt do me much good yesterday and today! Those are my days off this week and Im pist. Oh well I will just put new line on my ice rods or something exciting.

[gunflint]

I don't think that you'll be missing all that much. I expect the bite to be real slow but the girls that do come to play can really test knot strength. I heard of one last weekend that went close to 9 pounds.

[tacklejunkie]

I heard of one last weekend that went close to 9 pounds.

On Island???

[reinhard1]

in island a 20in fish could be as old as 14 years old because of the slow growth rate as in previous posts have mentioned. so i dont see it imposible, but it would be an olde but a goode. but to me large walleys are catch and realease anyway and island is a great fishery. good luck.

[live4chrome]

There are some big fish in there, they are just hard to find.

[reinhard1]

i have no doubt about that at all. i have fished that lake since i was in jr high school, and am 61 now, same as my brother who still lives in duluth. we have caught some but none over 5 so far. good luck.

[tacklejunkie]

There are some big fish in there, they are just hard to find.

That's probably because they have to swim through all the small walleye in order to find your bait

[Northlander]

I have seen some nice walleyes out of Island. My PB is 28" up there with a few 25-27's but not nearly as many as I should have for as much time as I have spent on that lake.

I have no doubt a 9# was caught. Talked to a guy the other day who is getting some nice ones up there lately. Problem is you can fish all day and see only 3 fish and they could all be under 14" like me the other day.

Its a goofy lake and I think there could be something done to make it a better walleye lake.

Heck look what the Muskies are doing in there. Crappies are huge and smallies are every where. Even the perch can be nice. They are all growing real good in there. I think the walleye population could be much better if the DNR did some intensive research and did some stocking.

[reinhard1]

the dnr guy i spoke to seems to think as far as slow growth in island , as far as walley is concerned its in the walley genetics here. since it isnt stocked the same genetic strain reproduces on a continuing basis. a walley that is 20 in. long and 14 years old, thats slow growth. that would make a 9 pounder old. however i believe island was stocked one time in the past and those walleys could possibly be a different strain. that could be why you see the larger walleys at times, who knows. anyway i love the lake and if i can get eaters i'm happy. the last test netting done in 2006 were these for walleys. 9-11in. 72 / 12-14 in. 48 / 15-19in. 15 / 20-24in. 5 / 25-29in. 1 / 30in. 1 . so the majority were the eaters and there were some big ones but few. good luck.