Island L. gives up 30" Eye

[Lee Borgersen]

  Island Lake gives up 30-inch walleye on opening weekend

  ...
DULUTH — Island Lake is known for its standard 11- and 12-inch walleyes. But David Salo, an Island Lake resident, caught a walleye this past Sunday that contradicts that reputation.

  ...
Salo, 61, caught a 30½-inch walleye while fishing a narrows in the lake's west basin. He released the fish after taking a photo and did not weigh it.

"I wanted to get the fish back in the water," he said. "She swam off strong."

A walleye of that length isn't caught often on the popular reservoir lake north of Duluth.

"Maybe every five or six years," said John Chalstrom of Chalstrom's Bait and Tackle. "It's rare."

Even in the annual Kolar Toyota ALS Walleye Contest, which attracts some of the best walleye anglers to the lake each June, the largest walleye is typically about a 5-pounder, perhaps a 23- or 24-inch fish.

Salo was fishing in a spot his grandfather, Jack D. Salo, introduced him to "about 55 years ago." He was using a 1/8th-ounce jig tipped with a minnow.

"Sunday morning, in heavy wind, we were working that narrows," Salo said. "We had drifted up on a gravel bar about 8 feet deep, pitching a couple jigs at the shoreline. That fish hit up in the shallows."

Salo said he played the spawned-out female for about two or three minutes. Then the fun began.

"We had a smaller net. We had to thrash the net at that fish three or four times to get it corralled," he said. "It flopped out twice, but the hook was in there solid."

Salo already has a 30-inch walleye on the wall at his home and has caught several walleyes in the 30-inch class on Lac Seul in Ontario, he said.





David Salo, who lives on Island Lake, holds the 30 1/2-inch walleye he caught on Sunday, May 14, of Minnesota's opening weekend of fishing. He caught the fish on a jig and minnow at a spot where his grandfather took him fishing as a child.

 

[glenn57]

WOW now dats a wall hanger!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leech~~]

Nice fish but even this is to much info. "while fishing a narrows in the lake's west basin"   

[Reinhard]

I fished Island Lake  since the early 60's.  That is truly a walleye that comes rare on Island Lake.  The species of walleye in Island have a very slow growth rate.  Many walleye for the table for sure but trophy's are rare as the article states.  I've caught some in the 24 inch range but even those are few.  Great lake for eye's for the table and a lake with much structure.  "narrows" are many.  You could call an area between islands narrows or even under water structures such as the river bed that runs through it.  Or where the Cloquet river runs into the lake.  We have spots with our own names so we can tell our friends where we got them. 

When I was a kid in Duluth we fished off shore there and always brought enough walleye home for dinner.  During that time we never caught a smallmouth.  Now Island is becoming a great smallmouth lake and also have Musky that run 50 inches.  Some big crappies there also, but you really have to find those.  Also a big perch now and then.  good luck.