Well opener has come and gone.
It sure seemed quite around the Hayward area lakes over the weekend. Cold weather could have been a reason.
Chasing crappies a few days before the walleye opener is how I spend Thursday and Friday. Each year I pick a new lake to see if I can figure out the puzzle. This years pick was Lake Owen. The 9 mile long, 1,250 acre lake, with water clarity around 20 feet would give me all I could handle. I got on the water at 11 am and with water temps around 45 degrees, I knew that I would need to find warmer water. I drove around till I hit temps in the low 50’s.
I found bass, both largemouth and smallmouth, northerns, walleyes, and sunfish. But I was chasing crappies so I kept moving till I got into a school of crappies. The ones that I found were small 7-9 inches. I fished many different areas and never found the big ones, BUT that’s fishing.
I can say that Lake Owen is a big beautiful body of water that I enjoyed fishing and exploring.
Next I was off to a small lake that’s maybe 250 acres that a friend has a cabin on. It over the years has brought many smiles and laughs with its monster crappies and numerous walleyes. After getting the cabin ready and gas, water etc. working it was time to chase some 12-14 inch crappies. Water temps were in the low 50’s so I knew that we would have to work for them. I was hoping for temps in the low 60’s as then the stumps and fallen trees would be full of fish. We caught crappies from 9 feet of water to mere inches. They were still scattered. So we had our work cut out for us. We managed to get our share of fish, crappies bass, and even some walleyes.
Saturday finally came with air temps in the 30’s, water temps in the low 40’s. COLD.
Slow is all I can say. Minnows, crawlers, plastics, and crankbaits would not produce many fish for our group. With one keeper in other boat and zero in my boat it was time for a new plan. Plan B was to have dinner and go out right before dark and pitch 3 inch sliders and mimic minnows on 1/8 ounce jigs into the shallows. That Worked 
We got on a school for fish. They seemed to be 13-14.5 males and some of them were still spawning.
Sunday, slept in, got to the lake around 8:30 and fished till 11 with a few fish to show for our effort. Plan B again. pack up and fish our way home.
I picked Long lake for our first stop to find some crappies and bass. I knew of a shallow stumped filled slew that should have water temps in the 60’s. When we got there the water temps was 62.8 and I knew that it was time for topwater bassin. 
We were throwing 1/8 ounce buzzbaits with green and orange skirts. The three hours flew by landing bass after bass. They averaged 2-3 pounds.
That’s how my opener went, how was yours?
Ron