Ned rig shallow sand, Gut hooked fish study, Blue vs green walleyes 😱

Love me some unique critters!

"Blue pike" were officially declared extinct in 1976 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. So what are the blue-ish variations of walleyes floating around the interwebz like the one above...? They are actually a different species than their extinct cousins. A little info below from John Hageman's Sandusky Register write-up:

> "In a few lakes in ON and QC, blue-colored walleyes are frequently caught, but DNA analysis has repeatedly shown that they are simply a blue color-phased walleye that is missing yellow pigment and not a true blue pike."

Now you (we) know.

Oh, and if Ontario is the blue walleye capital of the world, then obviously Manitoba is the #greenback capital. 🔥🔥🔥

I was catching 'em on a 3/16-oz VMC Ned Rig Jig (chartreuse) paired with a "green pumpkin goby" color Z-Man Big TRD. There's a zillion different Ned heads out there – few things that makes this one so fishy:

> "A hybrid bend in the Ned Rig Jig's 1X-strong, forged, fine-wire Vanadium Steel hook provides extra strength. A chemically sharpened needle point and a hybrid, wide gap ensures that bass [and of course walleyes!] stay buttoned...."

Its traditional mushroom style head and 90° line-tie = drags smoothly on bottom, does a great job of hopping over rocks, and creates more lift for your plastics so they stand up.

Comes in 4 sizes (1/16, 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 oz) and 3 colors (black, green pumpkin and chartreuse). Love that all the sizes have a 1/0 hook, 'cuz a lot of other jigs out there start bumping up the hook size the heavier they get...which is fine unless you're trying to throw compact little baits like you typically want to with a Ned rig.

On deeply-hooked (aka gut-hooked) fish. 🧐

I've heard lots of arguments for both sides, so tried to do a little digging. Not a lot of hard info out there, but did come across some....

Little disclaimer: This is an older fisheries research study from 2009 – and they specifically used bluegills in the study – but it has some pretty interesting info that I thought others might be curious to hear. Few excerpts below:

> "Research on a wide range of fish species has revealed that deep hooking is perhaps the single most important determinant of injury and post-release mortality in recreational fisheries. However, there is little information on the best option for dealing with deeply hooked fish that are to be released: should the line be cut or should the hook be removed?

> "...the highest mortality levels in fish for which the hook was removed (33% after 48 h and 44% after 10 days).

> "...for the line-cut treatment (8% after 48 h and 12.5% after 10 days).

> "After 48 h, 45.5% of the fish from the line-cut treatment group were able to expel the hook originally embedded in their esophagus, and at the end of the 10 day study, 71.4% had expelled the hook.

> "Even with the hook left in the esophagus, fish were able to feed although at lower rates than controls during the first 48 h of holding. By 10 days post-capture, there were no differences in feeding rates as evidenced by growth patterns among the treatment groups, nor were there differences in the hepatosomatic index.

> "Collectively, the findings from this study demonstrate that cutting the line is a more effective release method than removing the hook when fish are deeply hooked.

> "As such, angler education efforts should focus on disseminating this message to anglers as well as encouraging the use of gear and techniques that minimize incidences of deep hooking (e.g., circle hooks, non-organic bait).

Interesting stuff – full scoop here. As with anything, I'm sure there are other studies out there, somewhere, that could say the opposite of the one above.

FishUSA has 'em in stock right here, right now.

2. DC: USFWS wants to phase out lead fishing tackle...

...and ammo on a few National Wildlife Refuges.

3. Asian carp have increased interest in bowfishing?

4. OR: Northern crayfish found for the first time.

In the Ashland Canal.

> This species is native to the Midwest, but has also been found in California and Washington.

5. OR: $2.2 bil spent on hatching salmon hasn't helped?

That's what this post claims. Federal money.

> "The hatcheries were supposed to stop the decline of salmon. They haven't. The numbers of each of the 6 salmon species native to the Columbia basin have dropped to a fraction of what they once were, and 13 distinct populations are now considered threatened or endangered.

> Nearly 250 million young salmon, most of them from hatcheries, head to the ocean each year – roughly 3x as many as before any dams were built. But the return rate today is less than 1/5th of what it was decades ago. Out of the million salmon eggs fertilized at Carson, only a few thousand will survive their journey to the ocean and return upriver as adults....

6. Awesome Father's Day gift idea for ya.

I absolutely love my Rapala R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet Knife Combo 🔥 thing actually makes cleaning fish fun, which is a big statement lol.

It has 80 min of continuous runtime with one of those little lithium ion batteries (comes with 2) which means you can fillet fish anywhere and not be stuck next to an outlet. And it's 2x the speed and 3x the torque of standard electric fillet knives, so it can make anybody (even me lol) look good at cleaning fish.

7. Buck Knives has engravable knives for groomsmen.

Something they'll use way more than cufflinks – and no offense if you're a better dresser than myself hahaha.

8. FishUSA has 10% off planer boards today.

"A walleye has probably never seen a nightcrawler a day in its life."

- LOL! That's NWT pro Korey Sprengel talking in this new video on The Next Bite's YouTube channel. So why do they catch the snot outta walleyes? Well, like Korey says: "It's very fluid thru the water and it has scent."

I'm not sure there's anyone who pays more attention to fishy details than Korey. It's one of the reasons why when he talks = I listen word for word. So when he gets excited about a new bait – that he personally helped develop for several years – you can bet I'm excited about it too.

That bait is the not-out-yet Berkley Gulp! SR Crawler. And Korey does an awesome job of explaining why they made it the way it is in this video. Thing looks filthy!

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

To 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.

Target Walleye LLC

P.O. BOX 2782

Baxter, MN 56425

(218) 824 5026

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