Opener Reports, The Good The Bad and the Ugly

Sat. on Waconia was brutal!! On the water at 5 A.M. off the water at 1:45, 8.75 hours of fishing and I saw one muskie that was not even two feet. I caught a bass on the second cast of the morning and a northern 8 hours later. My partner and I pounded it too. There was a bass club tournament, but only a handful of muskie fisherman. Where the heck was everyone!?!

Sun. went to Tonka. On the water at 6 A.M. off the water at 12:45, 6.75 hours of fishing and my partner and I each had follows within the first 1.5 hours. Let’s just say our figure 8 mechanics were very rusty. Once again we fished very intensely. As far as fishermen, it was the dead sea out there as well, of course the rain and then the typhoon winds may have been the reasons for few other individuals.

Conclusion: I am extremely sore, including my fingers, hands and arms ache and my sea legs are very tired. Best part is I can’t wait to go out again really soon!

I was also out on waconia. Did not do well either. The launch was packed, not to mention the street/highway parking. Didn’t get to the lake as early as I wanted, hit every reef, weededge, and flats with no follow or hits. Called it in around noon and trolled back to launch and my brother got a hit on his crank. The little ski, 30-40 spit it out as he hit boatside though. Talked to a few guys at the launch and one group managed an upper 40 fish and another got a nice follow. Others were also blanked. Managed to get home before the downpour.

Hit another lake on sunday from noon until 9pm. Nothing until around 7pm and had a big hit and miss on the jerk and god let me tell you how bad I wanted that fish. Threw everything in the box to that zone in a 15-30 min gap until I finally gave up. Before leaving we hit a weedege where I landed a baby ski on the jerk. He got hooked back so clipped and released him asap. As for opener there sure was lots of boats out. Ramps packed in both places. I hope to hear some better stories with some better luck!

Made a really bad decision on Saturday. With the weather forcast calling for T-storms, we decided to go to French lake (small and easy to get off in case of nasty storm)……Well, no storm (thanks weatherman!! ), but the lake was FILLED with ski hunters. Almost to the point it was commical. Nothing against the other fisherman, just way too crowded for me for that small of a lake. (ramp parking lot was full @ 5am as we took the last spot )

Seen 3, no takers, nice fish too. A boat next to us lost a good one. Didn’t see a fish netted. Fished from 5am to noon.

So, Sunday with not knowing what the weather was going to do, hit the river and caught a handfull of eyes in the AM……went home and took a long nap.

The fish seem a bit sluggish. Water temps were 68-69 degrees. Fish were found very shallow in the early AM.

I went out to tonka on sat. I saw three ski’s in the low 40’s. They very lazy coming in. One was on a Bucktail spinner bait the other two were on bucktails. I did catch a lot of nice pike.

I fished Harriet Sunday evening. Zero fish seen in three hours or so. It sounds like it was a zoo over the weekend. I guess there were 18-20 boats on Saturday morning and another 10 or so when I was out last night and apparently very, very few fish caught.(I’d have to agree with Gary’s statement above.. way too many boats for such a small body of water) Saturday boated two fish in fifteen minutes on another metro lake that receives much less pressure. All in all a good start to the season.

Same story here guys,
Fished 5:30 till 11:00am on Waconia. Killer Bass tourney that lined the beach shoreline where I planned on starting. Weeds looked real nice on the lake though. Minimal junk weeds and lots of cabbage. Raised on 40″ on a firetiger Manta off the island and that was it! Didnt even see a gator. Hopefully get out to a lake this weekend that isnt in the tourney. Good luck to all who are in it.

You are dead on about the cabbage. Could the infamous milfoil be on its way out?