It might not sound like much to a non-angler, but a 10- to 12-pound walleye is a big deal.
First off, if it was caught in one of the local tournaments, a fish that size, weighed in with the rest of whatever was allowed in the tournament, would most likely guarantee a placing in the Top Ten.
More likely, given that winning weights for tournaments these days is around 28 pounds, it might even put you in first or second place. Prize? Maybe $20,000!
Anyway, a big walleye was caught recently out of Lac La Biche. The fish length was 28 1/2 inches. Unfortunately, angler Lisa Roper didn’t have a scale to weigh the fish. She also released the fish as she didn’t think it was heavy enough to break the Alberta walleye record of 15 lbs 8 ounces.
In our own Lesser Slave Lake, Winagami or Snipe, a good size walleye is anything over 20 inches – 24-25 inches is considered “really, really nice,” so you get the drift.
The fish was caught with a spoon, a Len Thompson No. 13 Grey Ghost to be exact.
Well done, Lisa!

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For many years now, anglers on Lesser Slave Lake have thought the lake is way overdue to produce a record perch.
For some people, perch are few and far between, but when they are biting, there seems to be no end of them. Perch are a smaller fish than northern pike, whitefish or walleye, but many perch taken from Lesser Slave are in the 12-13-inch range. This puts them very close to the Alberta record, which would be about 15 inches. Being that close makes it understandable a record fish is someplace out there.
Weight wise, which is what the record actually counts, the Alberta record is 2 lb, 15.5 ounces.

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One of the nice things about summer is the number of Customer Appreciation Days local businesses have. Or, in the case of local governments, maybe they should be called Taxpayer Appreciation Days!
Either way, rain or shine, you can count on lots of people coming out to have a free Beef-on-a-Bun or a hotdog or whatever.
Sometimes, like at the recent Big Lakes County lunch, the lineup took some people most of their lunch break to get through.
Popular indeed!

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Although the official start of summer was June 21, for most people holidays really start about when school lets out. Like, right now!
Your local newspaper folks will be grinding it out, taking pictures and writing stories of all the people having fun.
Yes, we are just the downtrodden people who actually have to keep everything running. Like the people who keep the lights on, the streets clean, the water running and toilets flushing, the businesses open, and the cars and trucks running. Hey, that’s almost everybody!
Well, try to take a break folks, and here’s a Tip of The Page Hat to all you hard-working people.