Well, lets hear some of the opening weekend reports

This opener was a mixed one for myself and buddy. Sat. was probably one of our worst opening days ever. Got on the water by about 5:15 and got a great start with the 1st walleye around 5:30. Great start but sadly it was also the finish for walleyes for the day. Not sure what was off. The weed growth was rather good for this early in the year. The water temps were a little warmer than on most openers but not overly warm. Tried to bounce around to a few different spots and all the same results. We have never used live bait and most fish Jerkbaits and a few paddletails. Did manage to catch a larger # of pike. Bailed on the walleyes and after going home for a quick breakfast we went back out to a different lake to chase some Bass. Although the bite for them was better than the Walleyes it wasn’t real great either. Sunday morning had us once again out chasing walleyes. Decided to try a different location this time. Morning started off real slow with nothing more than a few Pike and Bass to show for our effort. Decided to hit a spot that had been good in the past but had not produced the last few openers. This was a good decision. Over the next 90 minutes we caught 15 walleyes and managed to get 5 keepers. The others were either overs or smaller than I wanted to keep. Ended up with a 19,17, and 3 15′ fish for a few good meals. Overall I’d rate the opening weekend a 7. The boat traffic on Sat. was crazy. It was probably the most boats I have ever seen on a opening day on the water. Made it a little difficult trying to move from spot to spot with some areas having a TON of boats stacked up in channels and under bridges. But it was also nice to see so many people out enjoying a great opening day. Lets here how all of you did.

Ours was good overall. Tried a new lake this year with 2 of my boys as my usual fishing partner couldn’t make it. We got on the water about 7am and had our first fish by about 7:30. Then things picked up from there for my oldest at least. We fished until 2pm with my oldest getting 28 bass and 1 northern my middle got 7 or 8 bass and I got 5 bass and 1 Muskie. Water temps were 58-60 and my oldest got all his on a ned rig while myself and middle tried different presentations throughout the day. Even though I got outfished it was a good day on the water and seeing how my kids have evolved and learned over the years has proven they do listen even though sometimes it doesn’t seem that way

Vermilion-
Saturday was nice, very typical opener for us. Slept in, hit the lake at 10am, up to the west end for lunch at 12:30, down to tower for a beer and back out for night bite.

Sunday- 88 degrees and windy all day. No action during the daytime. Night bite good. Not going to sit in the sun and wind again to today we’ll do some cabin chores and go out in the evening.

Tomorrow I’ll probably go out early AM and stay out the entire day thru night bite, depending on action.

Wednesday might hit another lake or go home, still tbd

Hoodoo point on Vermilion was bonkers, I gave up trying to figure out where to park and left truck way down the road by the beach and got picked up there

Mille Lacs, our group did ok.. biggest was 26 1/2… most caught a limit… which isn’t saying much, its 2 over 17″ only one can be over 20″. Sundays blow kept most off the lake, except the south end.

Buddy and I hit a nearby lake in SW Wright county Saturday morning looking for eyes. Water was extremely clear and we struggled. Hooked a few pike and smallies, but no walters. Tried cranks, jig and plastics, jig and leech, spinners and crawlers. Luckily received a hot tip on another small lake and fished it Sunday morning. Took us a couple hours to track them down, but once we did it didn’t take too long to fill out. Water was dirty so it took something flashy or loud. Partner caught the majority on a chatterbait with a bright paddle tail trailer. I caught a few on WNC death jig with crawler (when it wasn’t tangled up!).

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Joe Jarl wrote:

Partner caught the majority on a chatterbait with a bright paddle tail trailer

The walleyes were caught on a chatterbait? Have fished a chatterbait a lot and have never caught a walleye on one. Not something I would of thought to even try for walleyes. I guess if they are in shallower water or in the weeds it would work well. Just something I would not have though to fish for them.
Nice batch of walleyes there !!!

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Jarl wrote:</div>
Partner caught the majority on a chatterbait with a bright paddle tail trailer

The walleyes were caught on a chatterbait? Have fished a chatterbait a lot and have never caught a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye on one. Not something I would of thought to even try for walleyes. I guess if they are in shallower water or in the weeds it would work well. Just something I would not have though to fish for them.
Nice batch of walleyes there !!!

X2

I’ve heard of walleyes being caught(even targeted) with spinnerbaits here and there but not chatters. I could see it working tho especially in dirty shallower water.

Nice Joe!

fishthumper wrote:

The walleyes were caught on a chatterbait?

Yeah, he’s not afraid to try just about anything. In hindsight, I think a spinnerbait probably would’ve worked too. We were well off the weed line but only about 8fow.

Nice Joe!

Nothing to brag about here. Starting having issues with suburban on Thursday so no boat hauling. Plan was night fishing Mille lacs or pelican but ended up doing some dock fishing at the cabin and shore fishing on the sippi, which is about quarter mile from cabin (Crosby area). On the river just soaked some crawlers like we used to do back in the day, brought me back to my youth! Bass and sunnies off the dock. A few cat fish on river. Saturday afternoon buddy brought his boat up and we went to pelican, caught a couple eyes, few northerns and bass. Sunday morning buddy and hit the river in the boat, caught a few catfish. Decided to take a cruise downriver towards Brainerd, on way back his motor started making a not so good noise, almost like it was stuck between neutral and gear. No Propulsion in forward or reverse so we dropped the trolling motor to get us back to landing. Well we killed the trolling motor batteries. Put the starting battery at the trolling motor, killed that one and ended up having to walk the boat back the rest of it he 500 yards or so to landing. Steep banks on that stretch so made the walking an adventure! Looks like a sweet stretch of river though and going to have to explore it more. Just wasn’t out weekend!

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Saturday me and the Boys drove right past the St. Louis River where there was 200 boats and laughed our way to NW WI.

Got to a sub-1,000 acre lake with two other boats on it and crushed big staging crappies and gills all day

We kept one limit of smaller ones for a couple meals.

Sunday wasn’t nearly as good, but wind was ripping white caps and the fish either moved or shut down from the day before. Tried a few other spots with minimal luck.

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weedis wrote:

On the river just soaked some crawlers like we used to do back in the day, brought me back to my youth!

A broke down truck and swimming a boat back to the landing sounds like our youth too bud!

I spent the opener at the in-laws in AZ, golfed Whirlwind Devil’s Claw. Super cool course!

Mixed bag for me on Tonka. Got out and targeted walleye at sunrise and caught a nice Largemouth and smaller bass/sunfish but no wallys. Then went pitching a lipless crank during the day and caught nice eater Walter’s on back to back casts in addition to a mixed bag of bass and northern. Nothing spectacular but since it was my first Tonka walleye it was a good day for me.

Great “opener” on the river as always! It definitely helps when you’ve already been chasing the fish around for a while… Lots of 16-19 inch fish, and a few in the 22-25″ range, all in less than 7′ of water castings cranks.

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Got blasted by the wind just to catch a few hammer handles. I was out looking for bass and pike but no bass even seen and the pike were small. I smelled like fish when i was done so success.

Didn’t really target Walleyes, Casted around got a bunch of Bass a couple of pike and had one exciting Muskie follow while casting a chatter bait. Our lake isn’t managed for Muskie, but the neighboring lake is and a few get in via a shallow creek, probably as fry. They’re not super-common in our lake, even for muskie standards, so it always gets your heart pumping to see one follow your lure. Fished for panfish to take a break from casting and did OK there, kept enough for a fish fry.

lol, bigwerm, you are not wrong. I thought this kind of stuff was supposed to stop as you get older.

weedis wrote:

Nothing to brag about here. Starting having issues with suburban on Thursday so no boat hauling.

These often end up being the most memorable though. And you got the kids out which is a win!

Dang weedis. It sounds like you guys fished yourself into a new country song. I spent Saturday at my much younger sisters graduation from Stout and with the hurricane blowing yesterday, I called it a down day. I’m hoping to get a crack at them this weekend.

Red Lake. No problem getting our limits and 5 fish this year was nice. Ramps were busy but manageable the times we used them. Sunday afternoon wind was epic but we used it to our advantage.