37" walleye?

[Guest]

Last Labor Day i was camped out on the edge of the BWCAW near ELy. I was cooking fish and listening to WELY radio, an interview took place with an Illinois man who claimed to have caught and released a 37" walleye. He was fishing with his wife who had taken pictures of the fish. He stated it was his second time fishing for walleyes....Have any of you heard or know anything more about this? just wondering.........

see ya out there!

[Xplorer]

Gonefishin,
I recall seeing the same thing in the ely newspaper I believe. I think that the lake he claimed to have caught it on was Insula?!? Didnt know that there is a possible photo of the fish tho. Would love to see if it was "for real". I'm still lookin for my first 30"er, couldn't imagine a 37"er!!! Xplorer

[Guest]

A 37"er would have been a new state record. I would have gone to the nearest 1 hour photo and had those pics developed!!! Would have been printed in the local paper too!!!

Xplorer you're still waiting on a 30"er? There are lots of lakes in and around the Ely area that hold trophy walleyes....they are just so **** hard to get to...and hard to get a trophy fish back if you want it on your wall. Do you reside in the Ely area?
Hope ya get a 30"+ soon.......

See ya out there

[Guest]

Why do people always want to keep the trophy for the wall when resin replicas cost about the same and pretty much tells the story? I think the real trophy would be the photo of the release below the resin mount and knowing that that fish is still out there reproducing and possibly making another fisherman's day on the end of their line.

[The Yeti]

I camped/fished on Garden lake last year. No luck. I actually had much better luck boating all the way up to the islands on the South end of White Iron and got some nice eyes and smallies. Is Garden known for big eyes? Where would you catch them. Fall lake seems to be more pike oriented. Any info would be good. I would like to head back up again this year.

[The Yeti]

Correction: It was Farm lake that I camped and fished on and Garden seems pike oriented. Any walleye info in these lakes would still be appreciated. Thanks.

[Guest]

Yeti...I lived on Fall lake while I was going to college in Ely. Fall lake is a great walleye lake, especially in the spring when the fish come into the hydro dam in Winton. Lots of nice fish! Farm lake and Garden lake are good crappie and pike fisheries, but stocking efforts in both lakes over the years have failed miserably and the walleyes you catch are usually in the 12" - 15" range. I have done really well for those smaller fish. White Iron is a better fishery for larger Eyes and the Kawishiwi River where it flows out of Birch lake is even better in the Spring. I used to park on the highway and catch my limit of walleyes right under the bridge on Hwy #1.

Good luck and do some more exploring in that area, many of the lakes close to the Garden lake chain are fantastic walleye fisheries.

Alaskander

[Xplorer]

Gonefishin,
I'm down in the Duluth area. Have done some camping on Fall,Garden,Birch,Hanson and a couple of other lakes around Ely. Spend most my camping days now on the islands in Voyageurs Park. Biggest to date is a 27.5" CPR'd 3 years ago (should be a 30 this year!)on the river down here. May try some open water trolling on superior this year for eye's if the weather cooperates.
Xplorer

[ELY]

The 37" walleye was caught and released on Lake Insula. I have seen the picture and it is true. I work a the resort where they brought the picture to.

[Northlander]

I wont believe it till I see the pics and then I probably wont. 37" is a huge walleye and chances of a eye living long enough to grow that big in Insula are few and far between. Biggest eye I have ever seen from the BWCA is 31.5" and that was unreal. Ely why dont you see if you have access to pics for us.

[ELY]

How do you post a picture? They sent us one picture in the mail and has since been damaged from so many resort guests looking at it. The owners didn't protect it. I will check to see if they were resort guests and contact them directly. Otherwise I believe the local paper ran the picture and story when it happened.

Fish rarely die of old age and the there is a good forage base, tons of structure, and many hiding spots for those big walleyes in Insula. The biggest walleye I have personally seen was a 32" walleye my friend caught in the BW's. He caught it in 5 feet of water with a big swivel and a jig attached. Would have never fished there, but it was the only calm spot on the lake for our canoe. I don't get it. Sometimes people are in the right spot at the right time. Usually the biggest walleyes caught over the summer in Ely are 32-33 inches long and only a couple at that. However, those are only the ones we see in the paper. Most of us locals don't tell anyone in the media about big fish if we catch them. Also, if you ever watch the walleyes spawn at night in the small rivers up here, it is pretty neat. Our next door neighbor(who is dead now) used to mess around with a gill net in front of our house on the river where it narrows down to twenty feet wide. He caught one that made a grocery scale read 18 lbs, so I believe they are out there, but are only caught once in many people's lifetimes by hook and line. Sorry for being so long winded today.

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

Quote:

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Why do people always want to keep the trophy for the wall when resin replicas cost about the same and pretty much tells the story?

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I'm all about catch and release, but if i'm not miskaken there's quite a price difference between graphite and skin mounts.

[MNRiverRat]

Alaskander, When were you in school at VCC? I was there from 97-99... Glad to see you maid it in the conservation field. I am too, own my own native prairie restoration biz. As far as walleyes, I never did catch a realyy big fish in the Ely area, believe me, I tried. I have caught way bigger fish in the metro area. I never went hungry in Ely though, lots of nice eaters around

MNRiverRat

[Northlander]

Ely get a hold of those pics yet? Im anxious to see a 37" walleye pic.

[matthothand]

Isn't the current state record of 17-8 from Seagull only 35 3/4"? Or am I mistaken? If this person really did catch a 37" eye wouldn't there be more pics of it floating around? That is a phenomenal fish by ANY standards and I would like to think it would appear in more publications other than just a local newspaper.

[Ely Lake Expert]

I am with northlander that I just want ot see an walleye as big as 37 inches. I had a kid tell me this winter that he caught a 41 incher through the ice, I burst out laughing then I kept laughing, then he seemed a little discouraged, but I could not help LOL.

[Mudcutter]

AS far as I know, and that ain't much, to qualify for a state record fish, you must have it weighed on a certified scale. I happened to be in Ely 2 weeks after the catch and read about it in the local paper. According to them, they let it go after a few crude measurements. No legal state R/C.Who cares about legal. We all know that bigger fish swim than those in the record books, except for maybe the pike "caught" outta basswood that weighed 45lbs in the 30's. In my view, that's a joke. The fish I saw in a picture outta the Star/Trib a few years ago was not bigger than 35lbs and that was supposed to be the record. No way.

My buddy one year on Alpine did catch a 50.25" pike. It went about 36lbs. Hats off to Tom Gust--- and if your out there Tom---- give me a copy of that picture as I lost mine!!!!

[BRULEDRIFTER]

i was living in ely at the time of said catch. i was working at the steak house and heard plenty about it. all i heard was the guy measured it with a rope and then later measured it with a tape. so who knows..... i never heard about or saw any pictures. to me, its just another legend of insula, and the ely area.

god i miss that place.... i'll be there next weeked though

[Steve Foss]

Ely: if you get the picture to me I can scan it electronically and restore it. My wife is a photo restoration expert. We can then print it at our home digital photo studio and give you back the original and a couple prints.

Cost to youi? Zero, as long as you let me use it in the Timberjay's outdoors pages.

If you like, you can e-mail me at the address below, or give me a call at 365-3114.

[little perch 1]

I am like Mr.Catfish and Northlander I shure would like to see this picture.Other wise it seems to be a real good fish story

Mr.Catfish,Are you going to the Rainey Lake fishing contest on March 19th?

[Northlander]

LP1 its not a contest at all its just some FM guys/gals getting together to fish and have a good time. No weigh ins or prizes.

[Surface Tension]

I had that pic at one time and it was posted or its link was posted somewhere on FM. Look at the date on the original post here, its back in 2002, old news. There was a debate as to the length from the photo and that fish had little girth, not even close to a new state record. I'll see if I can dig that pic and topic up.

[gunflint]

Anonymous,

Here it is and I don't care who knows it. If I catch a 37" walleye, it's going up on the wall.

[moderation]

gunflint

I do a lot of catch and release but 37” would definitely go on the wall, and to be truthful it could be quite a bit smaller to qualify.

[Northlander]

If I catch a 37" walleye Im getting a application for a line class record, state record, world record and sending picks to every magazine, newspaper, website, outdoors company and my dad!

[rangr]

Steve, if I catch a 37incher I'm taking a picture and the rest is ............PRICELESS..................

[ELY]

Hey guys,

Still trying to get the picture as well. Had some other things happen this week. I think the people that caught it weren't as hardcore into fishing as some of us. I believe they were from out of state and up here more for the scenery than the fishing. I think the fish was first measured with a rope as well. One of us will just have to catch a 37" walleye ourselves for a more reliable fish story.

[outdoor ran]

If this is the story of the guy up in the BWCA who said he caught a 37 incher? Took a measurement with a rope using a knot. This is just my opinion. I looked at that pic a long time, looking at the walleye and its suroundings. I just don't believe that fish is more then 31 maybe 32 inches skinny. I look at alot of walleye photos and skin mounts. I've caught my share of 28" and 29". It just dosen't look legit to me. Maybe the knot slipped or he measured the wrong end of the rope, maybe I'm wrong. There are 37" walleyes swimming around somewhere. I just don't believe this is one of them.

[ELY]

I talked to one of the owners at Kawishiwi Lodge on Lake one and she told me the people e-mailed her the picture of the fish and she was going to see if she still had it saved. It was four years ago. The people parked at the resort but never stayed there. She didn't think she still had any contact info for the people but was going to check that too. Keep you updated and my fingers crossed.

[deepdiver]

Just got an email fowarded to me.... check out these pictures...

Thats one big fish