Fishing Opener

[JAdaken]

Anyone else have plans for the fishing opener? Just a little over a week away here in Minnesota. I'm headed to a friends house on Big Marine lake for the weekend, usually have quite a few people there with boats and fishing from shore (good fishing right off his docks), so of course there will be lots of beer drinking and food eating =) maybe get lucky and catch a few fish too.

[boogaard_24]

I'm heading up north to a smaller but productive walleye lake up past Bemidji. I wonder how URL's going to be for opener? Crazy I'm sure. With the early ice-out, it should be a good walleye bite (finally) this opener. Better than the snow/sleet like some openers past - knock on wood.

[Budweiser]

I'm heading up to lake of the woods from Friday until Tuesday next week with my brother and a few friends. Should be a damn good catch! This is my first time going up with them, but they always nail em up there.

[Nainoa]

I'm staying close to town but doing an opener 3 day extravaganza...

Saturday I'm fishing this little bridge that marks where a lake chain pours over some rip-rap into the outflow creek. (Every time I shore fished there last year, I caught nice Walleye.)

Sunday, I'm heading up to a Gin Clear lake about 45 Minutes north of me...

Monday, I'm making the haul over to this lake by Alexandria... They've got a ton of Walleye in that lake, but the last 2 years there's been one hell of a year class of Perch moving through the system which has shut down the bite... I'm hoping that this is the year that the bite turns on.

***
Extended forecast on weather.com just came up with opener... Granted while that's still too far out to really be accurate they are calling for 69 degrees and partly cloudy...

With the rest of next week being filled with storms...

Storms shutting down the feeding cycle, then opening up with good weather... Full moon cycle in high gear all weekend... Oooooh... We might just be looking at one hell of an opener!

Might make up for the dismal weather we've seen on the last 4 or 5.

Good luck my Minnesotan Brethren!

[JAdaken]

I'm jealous of all you going up north. I usually head to the cabin near Cook a few days after opener but not this year :( Oh well i'm headed up there for memorial weekend and many other weekends over the summer, plus a full week the end of June with a bwca trip in August. Shall be a good fishing season.

Good luck to you all.

[JAdaken]

I'm heading up north to a smaller but productive walleye lake up past Bemidji. I wonder how URL's going to be for opener? Crazy I'm sure. With the early ice-out, it should be a good walleye bite (finally) this opener. Better than the snow/sleet like some openers past - knock on wood.

The small lakes are my favorite. I like to fish from a canoe and always look for lakes that are hard to get to or are carry in only. Got a few more to explore this year near my cabin.

I've never fished URL but i've been to mille lacs a few time and really don't care for the real big lakes (not to mention I got sea sick lol). The biggest I fish is Vermillion but that is broke up by all the islands and such.

[Nainoa]

The small lakes are my favorite. I like to fish from a canoe and always look for lakes that are hard to get to or are carry in only. Got a few more to explore this year near my cabin.

I've never fished URL but i've been to mille lacs a few time and really don't care for the real big lakes (not to mention I got sea sick lol). The biggest I fish is Vermillion but that is broke up by all the islands and such.

I'm becoming a fan of Winnie...

I camp at the Deer River National sites that are on Cut Foot Sioux... Which is a smaller lake attached to Winnie...

So if the winds are up on Winnie, I can stay in CFS and still get some good fishing...

I've been out on Winnie in a windstorm... And HOLY ****...

You know the saying "There are no Atheists in Fox Holes."
Well there also are no Atheists in a windstorm on Winnie...

5 foot waves in a 16 foot boat, is unholy...

We were launching the boat out of the water... "Dukes of Hazard Style," once every minute or two... JUST INSANE!

[boogaard_24]

I've covered a lot water in MN, but still have yet to hit Winnie. But that's what I hear - old Winnie can turn into the "Deadliest Catch" out there in a hurry with huge swells.

[Nainoa]

I've covered a lot water in MN, but still have yet to hit Winnie. But that's what I hear - old Winnie can turn into the "Deadliest Catch" out there in a hurry with huge swells.


Yeah Winnie and Leech (though I'm very limited with leech)

With Winnie, when it's on... God is it on... Sometimes the Walleye just stack up on structure like friggin' cord wood... That Slot limit they imposed a few years back has turned that lake into an awesome walleye fishery.

But you gotta watch the skies, and err on the side of caution if you see the weather is about to turn... Otherwise...

Oh God...

Gotta Run... Having a flash back... Need to go to my safety corner, hug my knees and rock back and forth for a while.
;)

[Budweiser]

Where is lake Winnie located at?

[JAdaken]

Its in the Chippewa National Forest thats about all I know. Here is the lake info http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=11014700

[JAdaken]

If you want info on a lake here is the DNR lake finder handy for checking out new lakes. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html

[Nainoa]

If you want info on a lake here is the DNR lake finder handy for checking out new lakes. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html


Yep I don't hit a lake without checking the lake finder... Great tool to know what's hot and what's not for water... And the map's while most suck balls, are still helpful...

If you're looking for more info on Lake Winnie...

http://www.lakewinnie.net/

***

If you're contimplating a trip to Winnie, and you don't want to go uber rustic like I do, I would HIGHLY recommend staying at Bowen Lodge... They have Rustic Camping, Camping, RV Camping, Hotel like Cabins, and full out cottages... They also have a protect and best marina on the lake...

The Eagle's Nest (Which is where I drive the boat up to if I need gas or other supplies) is also an AWESOME PLACE, and would be #2 on my list of places to stay up there...

Then there's William's Narrows, which is Deep into Cut Foot Sioux... They've got nice cabins... Modern facitilites... And they've got "The Bobber Lounge" bar and eatery.

***

Personally I try to avoid the other resorts on the lake because they are out on the BIG water... So it sucks to plan a trip... Get there, a storm picks up and you just sit there staring a mega waves that look like they're re-runs off of Hawaii 5-0...

At least if you stay somewhere on Cut Foot Sioux... Bad weather can roll in and you're only going to have to deal with 1-2 foot waves... 3 Foot Max, and that's if AHBL...

****

Winnie is definitely worth a stay in June...

I'm going from June 8th-12th...

During that time of year the Walleye are running through "The Gap" which is the area between CFS, and Main Winnie...

****

For more on fishing Winnie and other parts of MN...
I reccomend checking out the message boards at Fishingminnnesota.com

[boogaard_24]

What's your favorite presentation for this time of year? Jig and a fathead of course - but what kinds of jigs do you prefer? Fireball? Fuzz-e-grub? Plain? I need to replenish my supply - had a few tough trips out to Snagsville recently, aka "Pool 2, Pool 3 and the St. Croix."
We'll probably drag some Lindy's around too.
1 week to go!

[Nainoa]

What's your favorite presentation for this time of year? Jig and a fathead of course - but what kinds of jigs do you prefer? Fireball? Fuzz-e-grub? Plain? I need to replenish my supply - had a few tough trips out to Snagsville recently, aka "Pool 2, Pool 3 and the St. Croix."
We'll probably drag some Lindy's around too.
1 week to go!



Other than the old Fathead and a Jig... I also find surprising success crank baiting on shallow flats...

But that isn't that big of a surprise...

***

But the biggest surprise I've been running into has been straight jigging with friggin' crawlers!

***
See I'm up in St. Cloud, so for me it's just an hours drive to any kind of lake I want... Olig, Meso, Eutro... Wooded, Prairie Pot Hole... Stained, Gin Clear, Chain, River, You name it... If it's an inland water I've got it within an hour of me...

My mind has gone back into "Boggle Mode." As I start running the list of places I'm going in the next 4 weeks...

For example:

Saturday: Cat Fishing on a Stained water chain
Sunday: Crappie fishing, and exploratory mission on a Gin Clear lake.

Opener: Fishing the outflow river of a stained water Eutrophic chain
Sunday after opener: Gin Clear
Monday After Opener: Prairie Pot hole

Weekend of 5/20: Prairie Lake

Memorial Weekend: Gin Clear 3 day bonanza, plus digging a pit for my GF's mother.

June 8-12: Camping and fishing Winnie.

[JAdaken]

Weather forecast is still looking good as long as these storms during the week aren't too strong they shouldn't affect the fishing much. Hopefully it will be better than last years rain.

[Nainoa]

Weather forecast is still looking good as long as these storms during the week aren't too strong they shouldn't affect the fishing much. Hopefully it will be better than last years rain.

For me anything will be better than Opener 2005...

Oh God...

Check this friggin' story out...

***

So my buddy, who's one of those guys who's a spoiled rich kid... 30 years old, still living in his parents basement, while they pay his bills and he brags about how much money he has, and how he's the man... While his mom washes his laundry, packs his lunches, and bails him out of every stupid thing he does.

So the week before opener, we're all hanging out coming up with a plan... He says "Hey, my Dad just gave me and my brother his boat... Lets use that!" (Not to turn down a 17 foot, 1984 Slyvan with a 75 HP Johnson) So we went with it.

*NOTE I've been on this boat several times before, and had some breakdown issues, but he claimed that the boat had been properly serviced.

****

The day of opener comes, and of course it's **** weather, but we've all got awesome rain gear... My buddy insists that we fish this spot he knows on the river, because he caught a fish there last summer... And even though I HATE river fishing, I went along with it.

We pick up the boat... We're going through the check list of stuff before we leave... He's standing in the back of the boat... And I ask him "How are we on Gas?" To which he replies "We've got a full tank." And then he asks "Should we bring the spare tank?) Which is 5 gallons on an already packed to the gills boat...

So I told him "No." (We weren't going that far.)

We hit the water, of course his spot is dead, because the river is still at high water... But he only brought one 15 pound anchor, so there's only a handful of spots we can actually get the boat to sit at...

Finally we convince him to give up on his spot, and we find a quite little back bay to fish in...

We go to move around the bay a little bit with the trolling motor... That's when we discover that the battery is dead because "My Dad said he was going to charge the trolling battery for me!"

That spot turns out to be dead... But he swears he knows of another one near by... So he fires up the motor... Boat starts sputtering after a few seconds... We check the gas can... It's got a couple of drips of gas.
To which he responds "My Stupid Brother... He promied me he'd fill up the tank."

So we try to beat it back to the landing, pumping the ball the whole way...

That's when the weather really took the nasty turn...

We get going a little ways... Out onto the main part of the river...

Sure enough we run out of gas...

We go to the oar locker... Only one oar left... And it's gray and brittle... We simply put it in the water, and it SHATTERED with dry rot.

And now we're literally up a river without a paddle... And we're floating towards a chain of sunken islands.

So what does our great captain do?

He opens up his cell phone and calls his parents, leaves them a message, suggesting that they borrow the neighbor's boat, launch and rescue us... They should have a little time to spare before we "FLOAT OVER THE DAM!"

So we're going into the Sunken islands... Shore is 250 feet of debris, and rapid filled currents... Rich Boy keeps dialing his cell phone... The other guy (Who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth) Simply curled up in the front, pulled his rain coat over his head.

The old Ranch hand and I, were left as the only two non-paniced people...

So we used my "Super Knife." To cut the hinges off of the cooler lid, and used it as a crude oar. While using the net like a skiff pole, to push us off any Rocks or trees of the sunken island...

Finally we floated free of the complex... And a mexican family found us in their Jet boat... And towed us back to shore...

Where my Buddy proceeded to yell at me, telling me it was my fault we ran out of gas because I said "No" to the Spare gas can.

When we got back, we talked to his Brother... His brother never filled the tank, and when he said it was "Full" he just assumed, and never even bothered to check...

***

And all that... While being in that terrible rainy crap that we had last year... Which was probably the least annoying factor of my opener.

***

So now... I have my own boat... I hardly speak to that Spoiled Brat anymore... And in 24.5 hours on the water this year, I have been just slaughtering the pan fish!

[Budweiser]

Sounds like you need some new friends.

[Nainoa]

Sounds like you need some new friends.

Really it's just been that guy...

Now that I have my own boat, I never have to fall into his "Can't somebody else do it" style of sportsman ship.

He called me last night to see what was going on for opener, and was shocked to find that I didn't have a spot for him on my boat. So I politely informed him that he should take his own rig out... Then told him that I was going to a completely different lake... Just so I wouldn't have to tow him when his boat breaks down this year.

[JAdaken]

How did you guys do over the weekend? That massive slow moving low pressure turned the fish off for us. A few northern and bass but that was it. Everyone I talked to on the lake said the same thing. I heard they were biting better out west and north. It was still a great time :)

We had some grilled shark steak someone brought over wow was it good! Now I gotta be real strict on my cut since I ate and drank so much =)

[Nainoa]

How did you guys do over the weekend? That massive slow moving low pressure turned the fish off for us. A few northern and bass but that was it. Everyone I talked to on the lake said the same thing. I heard they were biting better out west and north. It was still a great time :)

We had some grilled shark steak someone brought over wow was it good! Now I gotta be real strict on my cut since I ate and drank so much =)


I fished for 3 days... Damn it's hard being back at the office, and I think I'm "Land Sick" because the solid ground doesn't move and it feels funny!
LOL!

Walleye were tough to comeby...

I got two and lost them at the boat...
Didn't get any pike...

Stumbled into a ton of Bass...

Limited out the whole damn boat on Cat Fish... (Man I'm going to have one rich garden this year!)

Caught a bazillion sunnies the size of small dinner plates, and got into a mess of jumbo perch.

Had one Musky Follow (Second one in two weeks... So I'm really dieing to get out Musky Fishing in 3 weeks!!!!)

To top it all off negotiating the crowds of boats, in some rather rough weather, really sharpened and gave me confidence in my new Captain skills.

***

The only really bad day was Opener itself... Yeah the weather sucked, as I got caught in one of the confluence storms (Rained on me for 6 hours straight.)

But what really pissed me off was the people who fished on that lake...

Guys were going through huge groups of trolling boats with the hammer down fully on plane... Their wake splashing up into people's boats...

One a**hole trolled by while we were vertical jigging... He trolled so close, that he hooked my buddy's line... Drew his line up as he trolled away... Broke his line... Guy grabs my buddys lure, shrugs his shoulders and they continue on around the bend.

WTF... There are some rude ass people on that lake, and I'm not going back to that one... Lakes that are near suburban towns just seem to harbor too many pricks.


****

If I look at this three days of Opener, from the perspective of Walleye... Meh... It was a total frustrating failure...

However if I look at this three day weekend as just some "Fun Fishing." I had a blast, tons of laughs and it's been the best weekend of fishing that I've had in a long time!

[boogaard_24]

Ended up hitting Upper Red on Saturday and Sunday - too freakin' easy! Caught about 30 walleyes in 3-4 hours each day, most in the 16-21" range. Not too hard to find either, just drift and Lindy with a minnow in 8' of water close to shore (where everyone else was). Pretty amazing how that lake has turned around. People were fishing off a dock next to the launch up the Tamarack river and getting eyes. The slot limit is tight for obvious reasons, 17-26" had to go back - but we caught so many we didn't keep anything under 16" and still got our 6 fish limit for 3 guys.

[JAdaken]

A guy my cousin works for said they got ~200 walleye on Upper red in 3 days, they said it was almost too easy.

I know what you mean by people and their lack of respect for others fishing. When I have to go by someone fishing I slow down to the point where I am making hardly any waves, then of course I anchor somewhere and other boats fly right by me at full speed within my casting range I hate it. Even worse are jet-ski's. I've even had them on remote lakes cruising around for hours with that annoying whining engine they have grr.

Anyway glad you guys had fun cause in the end thats all that really matters.

[fitnessman]

Nainoa, you will learn fast to avoid those spots where the weekend anglers frequent.

Sportsmen do not fish that way.

I live near the greatest Walleye spring run is in the nation (Flat out hands down) I went once and never will return...Let the rookies have at it. I go two weeks before and fish where they stage and pound them.

[Nainoa]

A guy my cousin works for said they got ~200 walleye on Upper red in 3 days, they said it was almost too easy.

I know what you mean by people and their lack of respect for others fishing. When I have to go by someone fishing I slow down to the point where I am making hardly any waves, then of course I anchor somewhere and other boats fly right by me at full speed within my casting range I hate it. Even worse are jet-ski's. I've even had them on remote lakes cruising around for hours with that annoying whining engine they have grr.

Anyway glad you guys had fun cause in the end thats all that really matters.


Yeah I try to be courteous also...

I felt kind of bad though on Sunday... The particular lake I was on, has a sand flat that runs for 300 yards out from the landing, and it's a No-wake zone... Though they only tell you this at the landing billboard... There's no Bouys...

That particular landing is only a single... So a lot of people just sit in the sand flat waiting...

Turns out one guy was actually fishing while he waited... As I came in he was facing north... Just to be safe I went on the south side of him and out by like 70 feet or so... All of a sudden the guy turns around and picks up his Rod... He must have been pissing off the other side of the boat... Just then I saw his bobber... Missed it by like 9 inches!


****

Normally we stay away from "The Crowd" But my spot on Opener, was originally a "Secret Spot." As of last year only a handful of people knew about it...

Heck the only two ways to get to it...
1. Launch in a river system, and travel 3.5 miles upstream (Which is what I did.)

2. Launch out of a different spot on the chain, and travel through 4 different lakes, for a 17 mile journey...

Construction of two other bridges on the chain has blocked off all other access to the area...

But what I think caused the crowd, was the locals... Weather would let up... They'd hop in the boat and then Blast out to get to the spot...

So I guess I can understand that...

But what I don't understand was the asshats who would have a whole lake basin to themselves, when we were just out catfishing for fun... And they'd still blast by on plane within 10 feet of you.


(I suspect that these were just un-ruley teenagers...) But one time I got Raised by 2 old men with gray hair, in a crestliner with a 225 Honda... They had the hammer down blasting through the river portion of the chain, at the speed of broken balls, completely heedless of any kind of deadheads floating in the water.

But I've already come to the conclusion... Next year... Opener... I'm renting a cabin at Bowen's Lodge on Winnie...
Then I can just keep an eye on the weather... If it looks nice, I can just jaunt down to the protected Harbor/Marina, and head out... Head back if weather turns ugly...