Walleye State & World Records | What is a Trophy Size? (2024)

FAQs

What size walleye is considered a trophy? ›

Honestly, an 8-pound walleye for most folks is a trophy walleye. If you don't fish 100 days or more each year for walleyes, then the chances of catching a 10-pound walleye are slim.

Trophy walleyes — fish weighing 10 pounds or more — are nothing new to Lake Erie. Long known as the Walleye Capital of the World, Lake Erie has a history of not only producing millions of walleyes annually, but many big fish as well.

Most, however, average much less than this at one to five pounds. Upon reaching sexual maturity, most adult walleyes are around 10 to 20 inches long. However, especially lengthy specimens can reach more than 30 inches from nose to tail fin tip!

THE BIG THE BAD THE UGLY OF THE WORLD RECORD WALLEYE(S)

Harper's fish was said to weigh 25 pounds, 4 ounces with an astonishing length of 41 inches and 29-inch girth.

For the warmwater anglers, a memorable musky is 42" and a trophy is 50", for walleye, they are memorable at 20" and trophies at 25", a memorable Largemouth Bass is 20" and a trophy 25", Smallmouth Bass are memorable at 17" and a trophy at 20", and Bluegill are memorable at 10" and 12 inchers are trophies.

The best eating size fish: walleye 15 – 18 inches, perch 9 – 12 inches and northern pike 22 – 28 inches. We encourage our guests to enjoy eating while they are here when the fish are at their very best freshness and taste. Shore lunches where fish and food are cooked over an open fire are especially delicious.

Weight of Actual Fish: 8 – 9 lbs.

Generally, female walleye which are 25 inches long are about 10 years old, and 30 inch females are in the range of 20 years old.

How big is too big walleye? ›

IDEAL EATING SIZE. Keep it simple and keep only fish under 2-3 lbs for any species and enjoy the day. PikeEatPike: "We try not to keep any walleye over 16". Some days it's hard to catch eater fish because they are all too big.

The biggest walleye ever caught weighted 25 pounds.

This world record was caught on Old Hickory Reservoir in Tennessee by Mabry Harper on August 3, 1960.

Lake of the Woods, Minnesota

No list of walleye fishing spots would be complete without Lake of the Woods, the Walleye Fishing capital of the world. There may be no better spot on the planet to fish for walleye – they're plentiful, you can catch some huge fish, and there's fishing pretty much year round.

Life Expectancy

Typically, your average male walleye will live anywhere between 15-20 years. Female walleyes live significantly longer than males. In fact, if left alone, the average female walleye will live for around 25 years, possibly longer.

Male Walleyes mature at approximately 3 years of age, generally grow to approximately 20”/51cm and have a life expectancy is 15-20 years.

Female walleye grow faster than male walleye, after they are three years old. Female walleye start to mature when they are 4 years old, 15 inches long, but all of them are not sexually mature until they are 7 years old, 20 inches long.

Female walleyes grow faster and become larger than males. The males reach maturity in two or three years, when they are 12 to 13.5 inches long; females mature in four to five years, at lengths of 15 to 17 inches (Fig. 2). On average, walleyes live to be about seven years old, but older specimens have been caught.

5-6 Lbs.