I fished Bitter the last weekend of January and we caught 75 Walleye in one night. 15", 20" and a 26" were the only keepers we caught. All 72 others were 12" or less. There are tons of small fish in their but if you are patient enough a nice one will roll through.
Mille Lacs is pretty good considering the temps this winter. Not sure how it will hold up with today’s rain. Had a death in the family a couple months ago so unfortunately I’ve only been able to spend a couple afternoons on the ice. Plan is to sneak away to lake of the woods next weekend to try and make up for some lost fishing time. Tight lines my friend and I’m looking forward to the next podcast for the long drive!
How much ice did you have? I thought there wasn't a minimum length requirement for walleyes on almost all lakes east river but 6 or 7 lakes. I don't believe Bitter was one on the list...correct me if I am wrong.
I never measured exactly, but I would say it was in the 13 to 15 range I suppose. And I never really checked the minimums, I was just going off of memory from a few years ago, and I was happy just to catch and release to be out there.
We headed up to Webster a couple years ago. The freshwater shrimp was something I didn't expect. 30" of ice I didn't expect either. I had a helluva time there, the struggle was real. I'm from Iowa, and a lot of the time the bite is so light I was using spring bobbers. That wasn't working in SOUTH Dakota AT ALL. Best I could figure, the spring bobber was affecting the action of my bait, and making the jigging motion less appealing to the walleye we were trying for. Less movement. My friends had been to SD before, and weren't using spring bobbers like we do for the timid panfish bite, but nobody passed that little gem on until we got back to the lodge and I spoke with the old timer from the area. 😂
Ha! Yeah, those eyes are probably a little more aggressive. I've never used a spring bobber. Two years ago we caught just as many when we went in late December, but they were all 16-20 inches with a 24 and a monster lost under the hole, so I don't know why we are struggling finding anything over 14 inches the last couple years now.
@BloemendaalFishing My other problem was I still had a Lowrance Hook 4. ( My first fish finder ) All my buddy's had top of the line Vexilars and were seeing better fish differentiation than I was. My screen was just a mess. Was time for an upgrade. Noticed you rock the Marcum.
@BloemendaalFishing That's a great feature tho! Get a couple Vexilars in your shack for extended periods of time, and it gets annoying. Livescope isn't in my future until they come down in price, but maybe a Marcum would be the best of both worlds. 🤔
Was just up on bitter, caught about 15 walleye all lil guys except 2 17 inchers that were very slender for winter fish, got three fat perch though but there's definitely a problem with that lake. Don't understand why the bait shops are swearing that the bite is so hot on bitter when most people don't see a good keeper all weekend. Way too many fisherman on that lake
Well thank you! Partly because we enjoy it, honestly. I’m sure we would’ve been fine driving the pickup, but I’m always overly cautious, not knowing if there are trouble spots.
Bitter lake was last stocked with walleye in 2021. The small walleye you were catching are natural reproduction. Their is no minimum length limit for Bitter, 4 fish limit with one over 20 inches.
Love the underwater shots. Something I’m trying to get more of 👌🏻
Thanks, Avid! I thought that was pretty much the saving grace of the video.
@@BloemendaalFishing sometimes a little extra is needed eh? I just posted up an ice fishing vid, come check it out 🤙🏻
I fished Bitter the last weekend of January and we caught 75 Walleye in one night. 15", 20" and a 26" were the only keepers we caught. All 72 others were 12" or less. There are tons of small fish in their but if you are patient enough a nice one will roll through.
Sounds about right. May if we'd stayed out past 6:00 PM we'd have gotten a couple nice ones too. Appreciate you stopping by, Bryce!
Glad to see you found some good ice!
Briefly. How’s Mille Lacs?
Mille Lacs is pretty good considering the temps this winter. Not sure how it will hold up with today’s rain. Had a death in the family a couple months ago so unfortunately I’ve only been able to spend a couple afternoons on the ice. Plan is to sneak away to lake of the woods next weekend to try and make up for some lost fishing time. Tight lines my friend and I’m looking forward to the next podcast for the long drive!
So sorry to hear about that. I sure hope you have some solace on the ice up on LOTW. Thanks for the ML ice report!@@adhall777
How much ice did you have? I thought there wasn't a minimum length requirement for walleyes on almost all lakes east river but 6 or 7 lakes. I don't believe Bitter was one on the list...correct me if I am wrong.
I never measured exactly, but I would say it was in the 13 to 15 range I suppose. And I never really checked the minimums, I was just going off of memory from a few years ago, and I was happy just to catch and release to be out there.
We headed up to Webster a couple years ago. The freshwater shrimp was something I didn't expect. 30" of ice I didn't expect either.
I had a helluva time there, the struggle was real.
I'm from Iowa, and a lot of the time the bite is so light I was using spring bobbers.
That wasn't working in SOUTH Dakota AT ALL. Best I could figure, the spring bobber was affecting the action of my bait, and making the jigging motion less appealing to the walleye we were trying for. Less movement.
My friends had been to SD before, and weren't using spring bobbers like we do for the timid panfish bite, but nobody passed that little gem on until we got back to the lodge and I spoke with the old timer from the area. 😂
Ha! Yeah, those eyes are probably a little more aggressive. I've never used a spring bobber. Two years ago we caught just as many when we went in late December, but they were all 16-20 inches with a 24 and a monster lost under the hole, so I don't know why we are struggling finding anything over 14 inches the last couple years now.
@BloemendaalFishing My other problem was I still had a Lowrance Hook 4. ( My first fish finder )
All my buddy's had top of the line Vexilars and were seeing better fish differentiation than I was. My screen was just a mess. Was time for an upgrade.
Noticed you rock the Marcum.
I do, and I like it. But I’ll be honest, one of the main reasons I got, it was simply because it was quieter, and it makes less noise on my videos. 😂
@BloemendaalFishing That's a great feature tho! Get a couple Vexilars in your shack for extended periods of time, and it gets annoying.
Livescope isn't in my future until they come down in price, but maybe a Marcum would be the best of both worlds. 🤔
We ice fished bitter 2023 and they were all small walleyes. Going next week feb 22nd 2024 hoping it's better.
Well shoot. Good luck next time.
Was just up on bitter, caught about 15 walleye all lil guys except 2 17 inchers that were very slender for winter fish, got three fat perch though but there's definitely a problem with that lake. Don't understand why the bait shops are swearing that the bite is so hot on bitter when most people don't see a good keeper all weekend. Way too many fisherman on that lake
Seems to be too many fish, not enough food. And I guess the bite is technically good, it’s just that it’s all little ones biting.
Good video! Why are you walking though? 🤔🙂
Well thank you! Partly because we enjoy it, honestly. I’m sure we would’ve been fine driving the pickup, but I’m always overly cautious, not knowing if there are trouble spots.
What is the size requirement there? 15? Those would have eaten just as well if you wanted to without any size restrictions in play.
I believe it is 14 inches, but yeah, if there weren’t a minimum all of those fish would’ve tasted plenty good!
Bitter lake was last stocked with walleye in 2021. The small walleye you were catching are natural reproduction. Their is no minimum length limit for Bitter, 4 fish limit with one over 20 inches.
Appreciate the info, thanks, Greg!