Every time I have been to the BWCA, I have caught very nice numbers of walleye, but nothing over 20". Has anyone caught a big walleye in the BWCA?

J

Not I!

My biggest came in at 22" on a dead-end lake over Labor Day several years ago. The caveat being that we generally travel on smaller lakes - I've never fished Basswood, Iron, Sag, etc. so that probably keeps the trophy potential down for my group.

I have been lucky. I caught a 29 in Snowbank in 1994. Two 30's in one day in the Quetico on a lake that will remain unnamed. Many 25, 26 ,27 inchers over the years. Biggest pike is 37 and biggest smallie is 21 in Sag.

LLC has produced a few 25's, one 26 and a 28.5 for me over the years

Last year I caught 6 in one day, 5 from 24"-27". Capping off the perfect single day stringer with a monster 12" at 1130pm. All CPR.

Quite a few in the 24 to 27 inch range. Biggest was a 30.5 incher. Izzy

My brother and I caught two 27.5 inchers on Agnes within minutes of each other, along with several in the 24-25 inch range.

My son pulled in a 22 incher on Swan a few years back.

What have you guys caught them on? I've never jigged for walleyes with live bait, and have always caught them slow-rolling rapalas on the bottom. Jig and leech, liny-rig, etc?

Leech and slip bobber. Izzy

A 32 incher on Lake 3 in 1988, and a 29 incher on Alice in 1993.

Ditto Izzy and trolling Rapalas.

Biggest Brent Lake early August in the middle of Bluebird day on a Rapala Taildancer----30" 20' deep on a reef--smallest walleye I caught that day was 22". If all you are catching are small ones might be location. Smaller walleyes are usually shallower especially as summer comes on--I say usually becuase their are always exceptions. As you get into mid/late summer a lot of people fish the current areas you will find fish, but ususally not big walleyes. They migrate out to the deeper points/reefs 10-30' deep depending on the lake/time of day.

Tim

I have caught a number of 25-26.5" walleyes. I have caught one that was measured at 26.5 in Quetico, the thing is, it was measured wrong. I measured it to the V in the tail, instead of pinching the tail, so now I am calling that one 27". Some of the 25's and 26's were measured that way too. Still looking for that 30" fish though, maybe this year on Kawnipi?

Here's a nice Insula Walleye caught below the rapids of the Kawishiwi River where it runs into Insula... I Did not measure it as I did not have a tape, but to give you an idea of it's size, I am 6'5 and the landing net in my lap is about 34 or 36 inches long. We guessed it at about 28 inches!

Bruce

My two biggest walleyes were caught the same day last year in early June. One was 26"-27" and the other was 30.5". I just got the replica of the 30.5" back a few weeks ago from Artistic Anglers here in Duluth.



MagicStik

Very nice looking mount. Congratulations MagicStik. Izzy

All of my big girls were caught on Lindy rigs with a leech or crawler. They all also still swim in the waters they were caught. Most of the big pig walleyes we catch are on the edge of mid lake reefs on windy days or drifting in current areas in the eve. The one in Snowbank was caught fishing for big NP with a bobber and sucker in about 10 ft right off an island.

This is my biggest at 26 inches. On Insula in late Aug. 2006. I was using a 4 inch gitzit jig in about 15 feet.

Six Walleye over 25" last August on Thursday Bay. My son caught the largest ( 28" ) while I had two at 27". They were all caught and released on Thursday bay the first week of August last Summer trolling crankbaits along banks in 15' to 18' mainly in the northern half of the bay - near the Canadian line.

Soaking leeches worked for the 17 inchers for meals.

Beautiful fish TomT!

I caught two 22" walleyes and several smaller last year. It was quite a rush as I was solo and fishing the BWCA for the first time!

Hopefully this year I can beat the 22" mark.

I've caught several nice walleyes in Basswood. I got a 33" in 2006. And over the years i've got several 26-30" fish there as well.

Gosh, I never measured how many "Inches" our large walleyes were. My wife caught a 6lber once on Pike Lake, can't find the picture. 5lbs is my largest and caught a 4 pounder 10 minutes later on Sag. Here's those two. WW