As always, I spent the opener with my family at our Cabin South of Park Rapids. Spending the opener away from Mille Lacs has become a nice tradition for us as we don’t have to battle the crowds and fishing small lakes works out well for the kids. We started the weekend on Big Pine lake and that is where we ended the weekend. The fishing was very consistant once we got the pattern figured out. This first picture is Cole and I with a nice double we had on the weekend. The 22 incher in the picture was released, as anything 18-26 inches has to be released on Big Pine.
We started the day off casting cranks in 3-5 ft of water and this produced 2 nice 17 inch walleye and a few pike for some action. We were casting Smithwicks and pulling them through the cabbage that was just starting to come up. With lake temps in the low 50’s everything seemed to be a little behind schedule when compared to other openers.
After a couple of hours of casting we decided to break out the bobber rods. It took about 1 minute of bobber fishing to figure out that was a good decision. We ended up keeping 10 walleye on the day and releasing one in the slot. Attached is a picture of my dad Gary, Son Cole and Brother-in-law Todd with some nice eater walleye from the AM.
We finished the day bobber fishing in the same spot we got most of the fish. The fish were stacked on the first shoreline break in 11-13 FOW. The spot didn’t really seem to matter, as the first shoreline break seemd to hold fish no matter where we went. Between the walleye and pike we also got quite a few Jumbo Perch. The action was pretty fast for bobber fishing and overall it was a great opener. The last photo is a few more fish from the weekend. Nothing better than gettting to fish with your family on the MN Opener!
Great report Scott!
It has got to be a great feeling when you get to spend quality time with the family!
Nice job Scott! Looks like great times with family!
I’ll be heading to West Battle Lake Sunday for the week. I’ll probably hit Ottertail a few time but may have to give Big Pine a try too. Keep us posted on the bite in the area please.
Nice report!!
Couldn’t think of a better way to spend opening weekend!! Catching walleyes with your family! 
Scott, as always great report. It looks like a great time. I can’t wait until I get my new boat and the kids are old enough to start our own family traditions. Thanks, Love2Fish.
Thanks for the report Scott!
looks like a great time and super fish to boot, a real win win deal
dave
Nice report and PICs, Scott. You gotta love those pics, with your little guy and the “BIG Boys”. A day that I’m sure will be remembered by him for a long time.
Wade, we never did make it over to Ottertail. We only fished Big Pine. We spent most of Sunday working up the Deer Food Plots after fishing in the AM for a couple hours.
The word from the area is that the fishing was even better on Rush and Little Pine to name a few. In general the walleye bite was “on” in the area.
I fished Little Pine in the morning and did fairly well. Missed more fish than I would like to admit, but found a couple spots with very active fish.
Sweet! One member of our party bought a trailer on Rush Lake last season so we’ll spend some time there too. I like Rush – lots of structure there. So many lakes and only 5 days to fish them all!
Nice report Scott!
Looks like you guys had a some great fun pulling in a bunch of walleyes.
JWB
Scott: I am heading that way Thursday. I Stay at a friends on Blanch lake and move around a lot. What appeared to be the bait of choice. For the guys I am taking, bobber fishing would work well. Thanks for any help.
Mike Humpal
When ever I fish anything connected by the Ottertail River I use shiners. We did get a few fish on leeches but shiners always seem to produce best on lakes that are connected by the Ottertail, at least early in the year. The fish we cleaned for supper were all FULL of shiners
One thing we didn’t do was try deeper. There seemd to be plenty of fish shallow yet but I know there are plenty of males stacked out deeper.
Great report! Good to see the future handliner getting into the act!
Great report Scott…Tell your dad Hello! Good to see the three of you getting on some nice fish!
Great report Scott!!
Ben Garver
Just and update. We hit big pine on Saturday AM while doing some work up at the cabin. In talking with the locals the bite was pretty tough over the last few days. We ended up getting 3 keeper walleye in the 15-18 inch range and a bunch of nice Pike. The action was pretty good. Bobber fishing was slow this weekend, but we were able to pick up a few rigging, still working 11-14ft.