'Caught my first walleye' - then a bullet to the head (MN)

StarTribune.com ^ | 2/18/10 | Paul Walsh

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Ryan Byrnes loves fishing so much that he left Phoenix to spend winters at college in Ely, Minn., where walleye are practically a snowball's throw from his classrooms.

Wednesday night he got an ice-fishing experience he'll never forget: First, he caught his first walleye ever. Second, he got shot in the head.

"The next I know, I'm laying in the snow and there is blood on the ground," said Byrnes, 18. "I felt the back of my head and it was bloody."

Byrnes, a student at Vermilion Community College in Ely, was fishing on Shagawa Lake with his roommate Cody Kuznia.

"The fish were biting, and everything was golden," said Byrnes, 18. "... Caught my first walleye. I was very excited."

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

There is an ice fishing community that likes to get all liquored up and shoot in the air.....

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

FWIW....

[cripplecreek]

Some folks take their fishing way too seriously.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

[Viking2002]

'There is an ice fishing community that likes to get all liquored up and shoot in the air..... '

My buddy and I would do that on New Year's when the neighbors would snap off a few shells, but we'd aim for the base of a close tree trunk. We never did subscribe to that "Here, hold muh beer and watch this" form of Darwinism.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Except that they forget to actually fish......

[Ancient Drive]

Fishing is hazardous.. we need to regulate it.

[maddog55]

Been working with the Walleye since the early 90's... hate t catch one though.

Walleye POD:

[RckyRaCoCo]

First, he caught his first walleye ever. Second, he got shot in the head.

I hate when that happens.

[shibumi]

That's not a walleye .....

THAT'S a walleye.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

That’s bait....

;-0

[mia]

Well, that walleye is a might bigger than mine. The biggest I’ve caught was 21”. And, I thought the same as you. That’s not even a keeper.

[killermosquito]

My son caught one on Lake Erie about 5 years about when he was at 7 years old. 29 inches long and about 9lbs.

[353FMG]

Does it taste like chicken?

[kanawa]

[shibumi]

Yes.

In a fishy sort of way.

[Cyman]

Looks like a sauger to me

[bgill]

Is that tiny little thing legal?

[Semper Mark]

Looks like a sauger to me

Same here. Or a saugeye.

I can't make out the markings, but the dorsal fins look like a sauger.