If you came to Dogskin in the 1990s, you might remember a quiet shift. Most lodges in Manitoba and northwest Ontario were going hard on catch-and-release at the time. Big walleye on the wall, hero shots at the dock, everything goes back. The conservation argument was loud and, to be fair, mostly correct: pressure on the trophy fishery was real, and turning fish back into the water was usually the right call.
The Torgersons made a different choice on Dogskin. Not the opposite choice. A more specific one.
Keep 14- to 17-inch walleye for shore lunch. Release everything else. That's it.
Why That Specific Slot
Walleye in that 14-to-17-inch range are the eating fish. Sweet, white, flaky, the right thickness for a cast-iron pan on the shore. Anything bigger goes back, because big walleye are the breeders. The 24- and 28-inch fish are the ones that produce the next generation. Pull those out of the lake and the fishery thins out fast.
Anything smaller goes back too, because they're too young, and frankly, they're not as good to eat.
So we keep the middle. The eating slot. The way our grandparents did it, before "catch and release" was a phrase anybody used, and before "shore lunch" became something you bought at a restaurant in Winnipeg.
Among the First in Canada to Go Voluntary
We were among the first lodges in Canada to voluntarily adopt this kind of slot-based catch-and-consume policy. Not first overall — there are a lot of lodges in this country and we'd never claim a title we can't prove. But we were early, and we made the call before any regulator told us to.
The Manitoba conservation rules eventually caught up and now codify a lot of what we were already doing. That felt good. It meant we'd been reading the fishery right.
Worth saying out loud: the Anishinaabe families who fished these waters for generations before any of us were already practicing a version of this. Take what you need to eat, leave the rest alone, treat the lake like it's going to feed your grandchildren. We learned a lot of what we know about Dogskin from people who'd been on this water long before 1969.
Why It's Still the Right Call in 2026
Three decades later, the fishery is still healthy. The walleye population on Dogskin and the outpost lakes is in good shape. We see plenty of fish in the slot. We see plenty of trophy fish above it. The lake reproduces year after year because we leave the breeders alone.
Meanwhile, full catch-and-release has had its own problems show up over the years. A walleye that gets caught, fought hard, photographed, and released doesn't always make it. Especially in warmer water. Especially if it's hooked deep. The mortality rate on released fish isn't zero, and on some lakes it's higher than people want to admit.
Catch-and-consume in the eating slot, plus careful release of everything else, turns out to be a pretty good model. The fish you keep, you eat. The fish you release, you release quickly and gently, with the right tools, the right grip, and the right water-side handling. Our guides do this every day. They're good at it.
What This Means for Your Trip
Shore lunch is the best meal of the week. That's not marketing copy. Ask anyone who's been here.
You're on the water in the morning, you catch a few in the slot, you motor to a spot the guide knows, and twenty minutes later there's a fire going, fillets in the pan, potatoes in the other pan, beans in a pot, coffee on the boil. The fish was swimming forty-five minutes ago. You eat it on a flat rock with a paper plate, looking out at the lake you just pulled it from.
You catch the trophy fish, you photograph it, you let it go. It swims back down to do what trophy walleye do, and somebody else's grandkid catches it in 2046.
That's the model. That's what we've been doing since the mid-1990s. That's why the lake is still as good as it is.
Come See It For Yourself
If you're booking a trip with us, you'll learn the slot quickly. The guides will measure your catch, talk you through the keep-or-release call, and handle the cleaning. By day two or three, you won't think about it anymore — it just becomes how you fish.
And the shore lunch will live in your head all year.
Plan your trip or call us at 715-955-4110. Limited weeks available for the 2026 season. Fishing runs June through September.