A big THANK YOU to Veterans, those currently serving and families! We owe you everything – including our FREEDOM...to fish, among other things. Love you!

Btw have you ever seen this pic? Taken in Vietnam and one of the few shots of Al Lindner without a rod/reel in his hand.... πŸ™Œ Thx much Al!
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Today's Top 5
Ice fishing: You're doing it wrong.
Still a few diehards hitting the open-water, and it looks...enjoyable? πŸ˜…

1. Remember that time Fishing 411 TV's Jake Romanack found another use for the durable-as-snot Off Shore Tackle Planer Boards – looks like it works better than the real thing:
2. Or how about when your net stands up on its own...like Lake Erie guide Ross Robertson's socks and underwear do (lol):
Either that or Minn Kota is now making an invisible Talon....

3. This has to be the coldest Rapala Shadow Rap ever. Posted by Andre Smith in the Lund Boat Owners FB group:
If you're still getting out on the open-water, good luck and be safe! Please wear a PFD.
Electric auger takeover! βš‘οΈπŸ”‹
In case you hadn't heard...every single hole for the largest ice-fishing derby in the world (the Brainerd Jaycees $150K Ice Fishing Extravaganza) was drilled with a StrikeMaster Lithium 40v = CRAZY cool! When all was said and done, 80 volunteers drilled 20,000 holes [!!!] thru 2' of ice in just 5 hours. #LithiumSmokedSwissCheese

This new short film, produced and filmed by Ron Schara Productions, did an incredible job of documenting the effort:
It wasn't that long ago people were saying: "Not enough power." "Can't drill enough holes." "Can't drill through thick ice." "Will never handle a 10-inch bit."

Now electric augers are the norm. Look how hard it is to sell a used gas auger.... The only ones I've even seen marked as "sold" on FB Marketplace have gone dirt cheap to people that were just gonna use 'em to dig a few fence post holes lol. Times are changing! βš‘οΈπŸ”‹

Oh, and you asked for it...and StrikeMaster now has a 10" Lithium 40V Lite! A 10" electric auger that can consistently cut as many as 70 holes through 16" of ice on a single charge.

And it weighs roughly 22 pounds...LESS than your old 10" gas auger LOL! Dude might be theeee definition of the strong, silent type. πŸ’ͺ🀫😀
If you're looking for that 10" electrical beast, it looks like FishUSA just got 10 of 'em in stock. They also got some of the 8" models in stock now too if you'd rather shave off a pound and cut an extra 30 holes per charge (100-ish total) thru 16" of ice.
Check out the wall-EYES on this thing! 🧐
Snatched out of the Iowa River by TW fan Gabe Haugland while pitching around B-Fish-N Tackle AuthentX plastics. This walleye looks like it hasn't seen the sun in YEARS – she sure is purtty tho! 😍
Proof females are more aggressive!
Settle down, ladies...🀣 we're talking about fish here lol.


> I kept 9 crappies for a fresh-fish feast...and when I cleaned them, all but 1 were females with bright yellow skeins of eggs:
> It's the same when I clean yellow perch.... Which begs the question that has been haunting me for quite some time: Do the fish group up by sex, or are the schools evenly mixed, with the females simply being more aggressive?

> To get the answers, I went to fishing buddy and biologist, Jeff Matity, who works at the Fort Qu'Appelle fish hatchery in SK.

> Jeff: "I agree 100%. Female perch seem to be standouts of this phenomenon. At first and last ice, my brother Jason and I will catch a few males, but in Jan and Feb our catch is almost 100% dominated by females. The big girls never miss a meal, while the males are unburdened by investing calories into reproduction."

> According to Matity, the female members of most CAN freshwater fish contribute as much as 1/3 of their body weight into the production of eggs. And while 1-lb of eggs has approx 1,300 calories of energy, it takes many more to produce them.

> Jeff: "That is the primary reason why ice anglers catch more females than males. Females are more active and hungrier all winter long. With males, it's not even close. They use virtually all of the calories they ingest for maintenance and growth. The production of sperm requires only a fraction of the calories they eat and that is only during the spawning period."

Females also live longer, grow faster and get bigger than males. Believe at least 2 of the 3 are true for humans too hahaha.

More interesting goods in Gord's full wite-up here where they dive into more details.
Ice Castle fish house deer stand?!
Was sent this from Cody Backstrand who said he put some bigger windows in his Ice Castle a couple years ago so he could also use it for deer hunting...then took it one step further this year!
It's definitely a multi-species, multi-season use house now lol. Awesome.
News

Starting Dec 1: Allowed to keep 1 walleye between 21-23", or 1 walleye longer than 28"

> "Our assessment netting shows that the walleye population is abundant enough to sustain some harvest again this winter....

> "The 2022 assessment found higher numbers of walleye than in the 2021 assessment, with walleye caught in similar numbers to what were found in the 2017-2020 assessments.

> "The 2013-yr class continues to be the most abundant, followed by fish hatched in 2017. The 2017-yr class fish are now 18-21 inches long, with faster growing individuals exceeding 21". Fish that hatched in 2020-2022 were also sampled in higher numbers. It's encouraging to see additional year classes that may eventually contribute to the fishery, but the ultimate impact to the walleye population won't be known for several years."


From Derik Zimmel (a lieutenant with the Grand Forks, ND Police Dept) who owns True North Polygraph and now administers the tests for some of the country's largest fishing events, including the National Walleye Tour, Masters Walleye Circuit and the U.S. Open National Bass Fishing Championship that launched last year and paid $1 MILLION to 1st place. 🀯


David Yoder brought in a thick 29-7/8" long walleye that weighed 11.50 lbs:
Once verified, it would just barely bump Nick Eckenrode's 11.37-lber (30.5") a notch down the standings. Btw there's a 10.92-lber leading the kayak division! Incredible. Current standings here.




The WI Ice Fishing Expo will be happening Dec 8-10, 2023 and will be held at the Sunnyview Expo Center in Oshkosh. Looks like they already have Tom Boley lined-up for a seminar.


People have literally been asking me for years where to snag one because they always seem to be sold-out. Just saw that FishUSA got 'em in stock so wanted to shout it out asap.

The large size (14"L x 9"W x 3"H) holds 81 spoons, individually slid into slots so they don't get tangled or have the paint chipped off from bouncing around in the sled.

Same box I've been using to store my #7 and smaller Jigging Raps for years. 🀐
Few TargetWalleye.com Highlights




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Tip of the Day

All I know is that I'm definitely going to play around with setting a Northland Forage Minnow Jig RIGHT ON BOTTOM after watching this video of Brad Hawthorne talking advanced rattle reel tips. He's specifically talking about late-winter in this video, but it's a trick that could save ya during a tough bite anytime you hit the ice:
Meme of the Day
Buckle up, ice-heads. πŸ₯Ά
That's either really good news, or really bad news, depending just how crazy you are lol.
Today's 'Eye Candy
If you're ever gonna buy a used Simms suit off of someone, Big Bite Adventures guide Spenser Samplawski is your guy...he does a great job of keeping slime off it by holding the fish waaaay out away from his body.... LOL kidding, man!
Spenser posts some insanely B-E-A-Utiful fish pics on his Instagram. And as you can tell by the Simms bibs in that pic ^ of a fat 30.5-incher, dude catches way more than his fair share of BIG everything. πŸ’―πŸ’―πŸ’―
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Friends of Target Walleye
Who is Target Walleye

Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Jay Kumar, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He's in it now, but still can't answer that question.... Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a "fishing degree" at the time.... Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com

ο»ΏTo send us walleye pics, ice shots or whatever, just respond to this email or click here to email us. Or post it on the Target Walleye Facebook page.
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P.O. BOX 541
Brainerd, MN 56401
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