Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Fishing Forum :: How big is too big?
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JD |
What do you think is the minimum worthwhile size to keep/fillet/cook, and the maximum size you're willing to keep, and why? For bass, walleye, pike, trout, etc... curious to hear your criteria. I will provide mine later if this thread doesn't get immediately locked for wanting to _respectfully_ discuss a controversial topic. |
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timatkn |
thegildedgopher: " Probably depends on the lake but generally speaking taking the 25 inch fish would be more harmful. That fish would be a super producer of eggs and fryfor multiple generations to come, it survived all those years so it is doing something right and passing along those genes will help future fish generations. Wile those 15 inchers are probably more males (not really needed) or probably don’t reproduce yet or not much. You can get philosophical and wonder what if those 15 inch fish survive to be fish producers but maybe they never survive to reproduce…a bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush. That’s why Minnesota changed their regs many years ago so you can only harvest 1 walleye over 20 inches (the Q is 1 over 19 inches) In an effort to try to keep the breeders from being harvested. Probably cutting hairs…not sure either would be that bad if that’s all one took though. T |
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HayRiverDrifter |
I like to eat fish every day, so the first few fish I catch go on the stringer unless they are under 14" or so. If I catch more fish, I will keep walleye and release the others. If I catch a big walleye over 20", I will release unless it's the first and only fish I catch. We generally figure one fish per person for a good fish fry. |
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MichiganMan |
ockycamper: "Apparently my group is the only one that bakes, blackens or smokes the fish without breading. I don't even bring breading anymore." I'd be ok with it! I like wrapping fillets in foil, with some butter, onions, and lemon slices or lemon juice and baking them in the coals. It works best with lake trout. Problem is, I seem to be the only one who likes the fish that way. Everyone else wants their fish fried. |
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naturboy12 |
MichiganMan: "ockycamper: "Apparently my group is the only one that bakes, blackens or smokes the fish without breading. I don't even bring breading anymore." We do the same, although with just butter and a little seasoning. Works just fine for pike and walleye as well, cuts down on a lot of weight (oil and cast iron pan mostly), is a lot easier to clean up, doesn't leave all our clothes smelling like a vat of used oil and is a whole lot healthier. There is no way I would go back to frying fish in the wilderness and we now often cook our fish at home this same way! |
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RatherbeDuffing |
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thegildedgopher |
timatkn: "thegildedgopher: " That makes sense. Part of me does wonder, though, whether the 25" fish is potentially nearing the end of its productive years (or its years, period), whereas the 15" fish potentially has several years of spawn left? And what makes any random 15" walleye more likely to be a male than a female? Unless it's actively in the spawn and spewing milt, can the average angler tell? It's not like rainbow trout where you can identify the sex by the color and markings. |
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Captn Tony |
I did a blind taste test with smalleys, eyes, and slimers with breading and no one passed the test! Not one person could tell what they were eating. |
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YetiJedi |
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Scoobs |
ockycamper: "Apparently my group is the only one that bakes, blackens or smokes the fish without breading. I don't even bring breading anymore." As much as I love a good fish fry, you should try Matthew Posa's campfire fish dinner . ...It's pretty fantastic. I've made this at home several times. The one thing I don't do is add gobs of butter... I start with regular olive oil (not EVOO)... |
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AceAceAce |
ockycamper: "I bring the same seasonings I use for fishing on the gulf to BWCA. The guys really like fish fillets blackened and fried in a pan with just a little olive oil." Care to share what that seasoning is? I'm always looking for a good seasoning. |
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cyclones30 |
So...that leaves walleye and I'm pretty much in the "nice eater" category you see on a lot of TV shows. I like to eat anything from say 14-18" on average, not that I measure each one or decide if it's a quarter inch over/under that. More of a general rule of thumb. If it's a 20"+ walleye it's going back unless it was hooked in the gills or something else where I think it's not going to have a good chance of making it. |
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papalambeau |
We keep walleyes for a fish fry and go with the 15-18" size. Anything smaller or bigger is catch and release. We usually go with catch and release for trout too. We may keep one under 18" to bake and give everyone a taste for one of our evening meals |
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Savage Voyageur |
Now I will answer what I personally do. I will not keep a Pike or Smallmouth Bass up there unless we need fish to eat, that means No walleye were caught. No big Pike or Bass are kept in this case. Walleye slot limit eater size for me are 16-19”. Only bigger fish than that will be kept if they cannot be revived and swim back. Bigger walleye are generally females so I like them to go back. |
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Lawnchair107 |
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ockycamper |
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ockycamper |
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Scoobs |
ockycamper: "Does he not bring any spoons? I can't believe he actually stirs his food with his hands." He has a titanium spork for eating. Has a small spatula for stirring and flipping in the pan. No tongs... |
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Gadfly |
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Wallidave |
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bobbernumber3 |
lundojam: "(First, an aside: Those of you who have caught, prepared, served and eaten a mixed bag of pike, bass, and walleye know that difference among the species is minimal..." My cousin eats all his fish with Frank's Hot Sauce. I imagine his fish all taste the same. I'm what you'd call a "Super-taster"... love catching, cleaning, cooking and tasting. Bass, no. |
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shock |
i've had to take some bigger fish out of my local (Waconia) and they taste fantastic. fish out of the minnesota river or lotus lake in chanhassen whole different story NASTY ! |
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Speckled |
Bass and Northern, I'm never really targeting but will keep them to eat once in a while. Bass are probably 12-16 or 17 (1-2.5 lbs) Northern 24-28ish. Generally about 4-6 lbs, smaller is too hard to clean and remove the Y bones. All of these are ball park. If it's eater sized, I'm not measuring it. Brook trout from the lakes - they're all eaters. They're stockers that don't reproduce. Brook Trout from the streams - I let them all go unless poorly hooked, in which case i'll keep and eat. |
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Z4K |
14-20" Lake Trout 24"+ Northern (check regs, zones and border lakes vary) 15-18" Walleye 13-15" Walleye 18-20" Walleye 14-24" Northern 12-18" Bass, do we really have to eat fish today? Ideally a good trip would have one meal each of my top 3. |
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Scoobs |
I love fish. :) My keeper size -- All based on local regulations first. Bass: 14-16" preferred. Walleye: 14-16" preferred. Pike: 20-24" preferred. Lake Trout: 14-18" preferred. Everything else is released. If I'm desperate for a fish dinner, I'll take an inch or two extra either way if possible. I never go for a bag limit. And the vast majority of the time, it's catch and release for the entire day. I won't keep a female full of eggs regardless of size. I won't keep trophy fish either. ...can't say I've ever caught a trophy anyway, so that's a non-issue up to this point. LOL |
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missmolly |
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KarlBAndersen1 |
If the fishing was poor and I was only able to pick up some smallies, I'll eat a few of those not caring what size they are. |
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cyclones30 |
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casualbriday |
ockycamper: "Apparently my group is the only one that bakes, blackens or smokes the fish without breading. I don't even bring breading anymore." Any time the opportunity arises (BWCA or driftless) my buddies and I make blackened stocked trout filets and top instant fried noodles with them. We also make tacos with grilled walleye at home, which could be doable in the bush with some omissions and substitutions. |
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ockycamper |
The guys really like the fish seasoned with this stuff and just cooked in a little olive oil or baked on the fire. Those that have never had fish cooked without breading don't know what they are missing |
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ockycamper |
I typically do not bread my fish. I will blacken the fillets, grill them or bake them. One year we caught a pike and simply gutted the fish, rinsed the cavity out and sprayed the cavity with lemon butter. Then grilled the fish directly over the fire on the grates. We ate the meat out of the burned fish with forks. . .some of the best pike we have eaten. Same with the other fish. Baking or blackening the fillets will allow you to actually taste the fish. In my experience, most people like fish batter. . .not really fish. |
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DRob1992 |
Gadfly: "Pretty similar for myself. Will usually keep a walleye from 15" to 19", Pike from 22" to 25" and Lakers under 20". Don't really keep anything else and outside of Lakers I can't remember the last time I kept a full limit. " +1 but I'll add smallie 2-3 pound range. I'm not discriminate if fishing is slow and I'm hungry. |
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ockycamper |
I bring the same seasonings I use for fishing on the gulf to BWCA. The guys really like fish fillets blackened and fried in a pan with just a little olive oil. |
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Hammertime |
I’ve been fortunate enough to let a few low to mid 20s walleyes go but we have eaten them as well. Couldn’t agree more on the idea that deep fried bass and walleye are indistinguishable. |
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JD |
Younger fish have firmer meat with less accumulated pollutants. I'm all about that! If I could guarantee, when fishing for a meal, that I'd only be catching 16" walleyes, 15" bass, 24" pike, or 20" lakers, or at least knew that I'd catch enough of the ideal eater size that I could blissfully send back every fish that's just a _little_ on the big side, then I'd do so. The thing is, sometimes you just keep catching big fish, or you have had a slow day and you finally catch something and it's on the big side. Last year on Crooked I think our average walleye was 19 or 20 inches (which was awesome). We wanted to eat fish... so we kept a couple walleyes. It was a nice change of pace actually because usually we can catch some smallies and pike but have a heck of a time locating walleye. On that trip I caught a 27 inch walleye that I of course released, though she took a while to revive. I hope she's still swimming around Sunday Bay somewhere. Most times I don't want to deal with filleting, cooking, and cleaning up, so fish go back, but usually we'll do a 1-2 fish meals on a trip (more when I'm with just "the guys"). We'll skip the fish meal if all we are catching are really nice fish, though. We bring enough food that we never need to eat fish, but I like to when we can, because I only eat fish maybe a half dozen times a year. |
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lundojam |
We don't measure, we just sort of say keeper or not. The criteria tend to change based upon supply and demand. Thanks for being honest those of you who said you will keep a 14" walleye. In my mind, that's a pretty universal canoe country keeper. |
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Pinetree |
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Lawnchair107 |
I have tricked a many folks in thinking they’ve been eating walleyes when I’ve prepared bass, perch, crappie, etc. |
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Gadfly |
RatherbeDuffing: "I refuse to believe that anyone can tell the difference of BWCA fish in a blind taste test assuming everything is prepared the same. " With the exception of Trout I tend to agree. I myself would admit that even in central Minnesota lakes I probably couldn't tell the difference between a walleye or pike. |
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thegildedgopher |
Pike are pretty limited by the Northeast Zone regs. I'd keep anything from 20-29 if we were planning a fish fry, I think they taste as good if not better than walleye. Smaller than 20 are a hassle to clean and 30-40 are protected. I don't keep bass, but I'm probably in the group that couldn't taste the difference if prepared identically to walleye. If I was fishing in a big group that wanted to cook a feast I wouldn't think twice about keeping SMB. An interesting discussion -- I wonder what has the greater impact on a fishery, keeping a limit of 15" fish or one or two 25" fish? I don't eat enough fish to really worry about contaminants in older fish. |
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DRob1992 |
lundojam: "(First, an aside: Those of you who have caught, prepared, served and eaten a mixed bag of pike, bass, and walleye know that difference among the species is minimal. If someone says they don't like bass or pike, it becomes a secret and almost nobody can tell the difference except for the supertasters. Smallish fish from cold water tastes good.) +1 lundo ... maybe it's because I'm always starving on fishing/camping trips but I think I'd fail miserably with a blind taste test of the four. |
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Pinetree |
Like a lot of fish, the bigger fish have bigger flakes and sometimes a stronger taste. |