Anderson: To catch walleyes on some Minnesota lakes, ‘you’re gonna need a bigger boat'

The most memorable scene from the 1975 movie “Jaws’’ isn’t when its star mutant chomps partygoer Chrissie while she skinny-dips.

Nor is it when the great white shark is blown up when police chief Martin Brody shoves a pressurized tank into the shark’s mouth and explodes the tank with a rifle shot.

Those scenes lurk in moviegoers’ collective memory.

But it’s Brody’s line while chumming bait from the stern of Quint’s boat — attracting the shark in the process — that is the show’s humdinger.

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

If you fish walleyes in Minnesota, you know the feeling.

Because in this state, most walleyes swim in big lakes — Winnibigoshish, Lake of the Woods, Upper Red and Mille Lacs, to name a few.

Oftentimes these waters are rough, and sometimes they’re dangerous. Which is one reason why so many walleye fishermen run big boats.

Evidence of Minnesota anglers’ penchant for outsized watercraft will be on display at the Northwest Sportshow when that annual harbinger of spring opens Thursday for a four-day run at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Further proof will be exhibited May 10, the state’s walleye opener, at any of a thousand boat ramps scattered from Winona to Warroad.

Though Minnesota registers nearly 800,000 watercraft and boasts the nation’s highest per capita boat ownership, no longer are armadas of 14-foot Lunds, Alumacrafts and Crestliners powered by 10-horse Johnsons and Evinrudes backed into the state’s fishing hotspots by anglers looking to fool a few walleyes.

In their places, oftentimes, are plush and frequently chromatically metal-flaked watercraft 18-feet and longer, many with outboards of 150 horsepower and some with 250- 300- and even 400-horsepower engines swinging from their transoms.

“We keep a few 14-foot ‘plain Jane’ boats in stock, but there’s not a ton of interest in them among customers,” said Pat Erickson of Dan’s South Side Marine in Bloomington, one of a small fleet of boat dealers, along with RV dealers and vacation destinations, that will exhibit at the Sportshow. “We order just a few each year.”

“Open” boats (as differentiated from cabin cruisers) 16- to 26-feet long outnumber boats less than 16-feet in Minnesota by about three times, some 300,000 to 100,000, according to Department of Natural Resources data.

The switch to larger fishing boats in part has been borne of necessity. About 40% of the state’s walleyes are caught each year from Minnesota’s 10 largest lakes, with a combined surface area of more than 625,000 acres.

Anglers often ply these gigantic walleye havens when the wind is blowing, because that’s when they can maneuver their boats and work their baits without spooking their quarry. Larger watercraft don’t ensure safety in these circumstances. But they make it more likely.

The evolution — revolution — of small to big fishing boats has come with a price tag.

Frankie Dusenka of Frankie’s Live Bait and Marine in Chisago City recalls in 2004 when, at the Minneapolis Boat Show, he displayed 620 Rangers with 225 outboards priced at $35,000.

“I said to the guy working with me at that show, ‘Who’s going to pay us $35K for a fishing boat?’” Dusenka said the other day. “It turned out quite a few people would, because we wrote $1.3 million worth of business at that show.”

Today, that same boat, Dusenka said, would probably be rigged with a 300-horse outboard and could set an angler back $100,000 or more.

Marketing has helped fuel anglers’ preference for bigger boats.

In the 1970s, when Al and Ron Lindner of Brainerd founded what would become a fishing media empire, their In-Fisherman magazine and TV show often pictured them trolling or casting in shiny 18- and 20-foot Lunds outfitted with electric trolling motors, plush pedestal seats, plenty of rod storage, aerated live wells and enough electronics to land a jet.

Gung-ho anglers paid attention. So did the sport’s weekend warriors. Soon, both were ponying up cold hard cash for their own 20-footers, hoping their investments would shorten the time between walleye nibbles.

As recently as the early 1960s, many Minnesota fishermen didn’t own any type of boat. Instead they toted small outboards in their car trunks and rented boats at resorts to fit with their motors.

Some might argue Minnesota walleye fishing hasn’t changed enough in the years since to warrant the expense, and in some cases the hassle, of owning not only big fishing boats but the big trucks needed to pull them.

Perhaps that’s true.

But we — all of us — have changed. We’re more mobile, more exploratory and far more accustomed to leveraging modern conveniences and gadgets to achieve our various wants and desires.

Boat ownership is part of that process for a lot of Minnesotans, said Kory Taylor of Erickson Marine of Tonka Bay and Hastings.

“If you’re into fishing, or even if you’re just into being on the water, you’ll dedicate money to it,” Taylor said. “For some people it might be golf or another activity. But for a lot of people in this state it’s fishing, and if they have to sacrifice something in their lives in order to buy the boat they want, they’ll do it.”

Taylor and other dealers say first-time buyers often purchase small, relatively inexpensive boats and motors and move up to bigger craft over time if their interest warrants.

Others sate their fishing habit by buying used boats.

“I paid $1,000 for my 14-foot Lund with a 15-horse Johnson,” said Dave Trauba, the recently appointed DNR wildlife section chief. “I bought it some years ago from a guy in Starbuck [Minn.]. It came with an electric trolling motor and a very primitive electronic depth finder.”

Trauba’s easily towed and launched boat was ideal, he said, during the 24 years he was the DNR wildlife area supervisor at Lac qui Parle in far western Minnesota.

Most of his fishing in those years was on Lac qui Parle Lake (5,700 acres), less than 10 minutes from his home, and his minimalist rig produced a lot of walleyes, crappies and fun for him and his family.

“But now with my new job, my wife and I will be moving closer to the Twin Cities and I might be looking to upgrade my boat to add a little more stability for our grandchildren,” he said.

You’re gonna need a bigger boat?

There will be plenty for sale at the Convention Center when the Northwest Sportshow opens Thursday.