Stalmass
10/19/2021 7:06:41 AMHey Mark...thanks for the report, but are you concerned with Barotrauma on these fish you are bringing up from 50-70 feet? Studies suggest that mortality could be in the 50% range. I have been guilty of this in the past, but will not fish for Walleye that deep anymore because of this and the fact that rarely do you catch larger fish that deep. I am just really concerned for the Walleye in Roosevelt because of the huge increase in angler interest/activity, but more importantly the tribes desire to wipe them out with gill nets. Thoughts?
Walleyemark1
10/19/2021 7:24:03 AMSTALMASS - We release the ones we are not keeping immediately. It's rare for us to have any that don't immediately dive back to the bottom. We never see them float back up; if we did we would put them in the livewell till they decompress, then release them. 50-70 FOW doesn't seem to be a problem, any deeper and it would be a problem though. I personally do not like fishing deep but right now that's where we are finding the fish. I have tried shallower with no luck. Normally the water would be lower and we would actually have current which drives the fish shallower. In those conditions we target shallow areas near the river channel but this is another weird year when it comes to the water level.
Stalmass
10/19/2021 8:29:06 AMWe have been catching a few shallow, but nothing consistent. Lake levels have been very weird this year for sure. I am really concerned about the big spawners being slowly picked off by the nets and the huge negative impact this will have on the population...really unfortunate.