Lake Champlain United - Forums

Looking back at the Master Angler Program entries for the past 5 years for Lake Champlain:

9 lbs. 10 oz 7/19/17 Trolling
9 lbs. 14 oz. 5/5/17 Trolling
11 lbs. 4 oz. 5/13/16 Casting
9 lbs. 10 oz. 5/17/15 Trolling
9 lbs. 4 oz. 5/11/14 Trolling
8 lbs. 14 oz ice fishing 2012.

2010 State Record Walleye 14 lbs. 9 oz. caught ice fishing Lake Champlain.

Looks like 9 lbs. is still the benchmark or where the high bar is. Trolling dominates this data for catching the bigger fish during soft water months. 7 and 8's are very nice fish too! 9 is sacred territory for post spawn. I remember a 9 lb fish that placed in the LCI many years ago Fathers Day and the scale sample showed that the fish was 25 years old!

Don't worry about going deep too. My buddy Bill caught an Inland Sea walleye of a little better than 13 lbs 70 down while salmon fishing, maybe 6 or 7 years ago.

By no means am I saying you can't catch one 9, 10, 11+ lbs, yes and upwards of 15lbs as proven by the state record in 2010. They exist in the lake, that's for sure. But you will not see more than a couple caught in any given year. A 7lb walleye is an extremely tough fish to catch regularly for anyone is basically my point. Some folks may never get one. Just my two cents.

Woops... sorry guys not even a Champlain valley fish. Misfire. Believe I just figured out how to post a pic.

Geesh.......got me all excited for the opener this weekend! Haven't caught a walleye in 10 years.

Figured it fit the bill and would get some tickers going! Get out there and give em hell. Let em swim ta catch again

The more people know the better the system can be... there's nothing that can hurt a fishery more than being able to keep too many established breeders....as well as expecting a population to be able to rebound via stocking, from 25,000 fry... × it by 10, install a slot, and know that almost ever 2-3 yr old+ fish that didn't get caught... spawned. In 4-6 yrs there could by prestigious eye tourneys ! May start a fire .... guess that's my 2 cents.

Mandatory... no cull, 100% realese, tournaments. Possibly!!!

Can't realese anything.

Must of been a bad idea.... not even a negative response. I see.....

LOL. It would be great if there were enough walleye for a tournament. It still doesn't mean I could catch them, but my odds would go up. Might try for some this year in Champlain.

I think also the walleye population goes up and down with the smelt population.
I think when theres a high population of smelt they tend to eat alot of the walleye fry
And when the smelt population are down, the walleye numbers increase.
Kind of like partridge and red fox numbers..

Double edged sword... feel that there could be. Heard so many ole stories and really hope to see it in my time.

Don't spend anywhere near the time on your guys system as I do on mine. I've seen the population where I fish be decimated (by fisherman) in a year or 2 and not come back for as many. Highs and lows. I nearly "patrol" my home grounds these past few years, basically begging guys, not to keep mature/ egg laiden fish. They have it in the back of there minds. Walleyes good eating, but if there ain't non, eat non.