fishing report from sandybay cottages

Three of us went up to fish with Jeff at Sandybay from Jan 5-8.The weather was at best up and down like a yo-yo from a high of -27 one day to a high of -10 the next . Weather like that has a way of affecting the bite. Never the less we still did O.K. We caught a total of 58 walleye [ only one was above 18.1"] and only 21 perch. Our first day was the best, and each day got a little worse. Needless to say a good fish fry was not to be had. The company was good, service was great, accomadations were good, and all in all we had a good time. Hoping to be back at a later date.

Thanks for the updated report dickie, sounds like you guys did alright despite the fluctuating tempatures. Always a good time on the Nip regardless

Glad you did OK Dickie we are heading up to the Walt next Tuesday hope the weather stabilizes and we can get a few. Did you get any walleye over 18 inches or were they all in that perfect little MNR slot of 15-17 again? Sounds like not to many perch being caught yet either. Marty S

only one over 18" good luck Marty. Report when you get back.

Sounds like you guys made out better than us I'm just curious about what depth you guys where fishing in we were in 34 feet as that was where the hut was positioned...
One thing we all agreed on was the new size for keeping walleye we think they missed the boat on that one .
We reeled in slowly all fish to help the fishes air sacks however many fish still blew there sacks.
It didn't make sense to let these fish go to just end up dieing and the fish over 18.1 you could keep.
So the way we see it is half the small ones caught will die and if the 18.1 and over your allowed to keep it will be a hard on the walleye this year..
We all agreed the mnr should bring back a slot size .......

My fishfinder said we were in about 33 feet of water. We didn't have any problem with the air sac. Maybe it's because we fish with tip-ups and reel in the line by hand which is usually bringing them up slower than by pole. There was only one fish that was compromised by a deep set hook. Other than that we think that those we put back had a very good chance of survival.

I was told this by an old native fella, but he claims that as long as the sac is intact. The fish will live. That being said I still try to bring them up as slow as possible to prevent the chance being taken. Anyone know of anywhere that testing has been done.

I don't know about testing but several years ago we caught one in the slot and the air sack came out. We left the fish in an open hole in the hut about 3 or 4 hours later we heard a splash from the hole, looked in and fish was gone.

Ya, any ones that i have released i usually try and torpedo in, and they seem to swim away

Good report there.

I think you did well with the weather you had and if I was not inot the condo thing I would be fishing with Jeff for sure

We generally fish 32-39 as well and have not had issues with samll fish.........just bring them up real slow as your intent is to release anyhow. Like yourself, we get the odd deep hooked bleeder, but some of those will survive as well even tho it doesn't look like it

Good luck on your next outing.

Thanks and good luck when you guys are there. Give us a report when you get back

Nice job dickie Thanks for the report. Sounds like a good time...

anybody try making a fish descender looks fairly simple to make just a upside down barbless blunted hook and a good size weight on the bottom

When deep sea fishing, we would return a fish with an upside down milk crate that was weighted. We would put the fish in and drop it to about 20 feet. The pressure did the rest and the fish would swim away.