MN opener results?

[Ron]

Okay, guys and gals, how did you do?

[slick2526]

well, I just hit the little local lakes. no luck, fishing off shore and toooooo much wind. how did you do?

[Murph!]

It was very cold in the Leech Lake area. 18 degree wind chill on Saturday. Some snow flurries on and off. Very windy, but the fish were biting. We caught four limits on Saturday, with six fish over 20 inches. Also caught several males, but all and all with the weather it was good to get back on the water. Today's weather was better, still high winds. Fishing was slower with high pressure in the area. Did manage to get six fish this morning. My nieghbor caught and released a 28.5 in fish using a bait rig with a leech.
Good luck, Murph!

[night_eyes]

Went out on a Mankato area lake saturday and caught one 18" and a 4 lb northern. Went out yesterday from 7am-12 and caught about 15 walleyes...4 of them over 18" and lost one at the boat about 22". Low water didnt let me fish my regular big fish spots so i guess i was happy with the results.

[waliguy]

Fished two shortened days (wind factor) on Mille Lacs, west side, Vinland Bay. Saturday late afternoon boated 4 walleyes, with only one over the 14-18" slot. These fish were all from 11-13 feet of water, on leeches, with about 8' snells.

Sunday, boated another 4 walleyes, this time in the same place, a little deeper...14-16', again on leeches.

Seemed to me that a lot of fish were being caught in this area (and released) that were "over" the slot.

Good luck to all...

[Grampa_Joe]

We did good on Leech too. I don't think we made it out until 10:30 and we had 4 limits in two hours. You had to brave the wind to catch fish from what we heard. We topped out at probably 19". We went back from 10:00pm to 1:00am and caught some nicer fish pulling cranks.
Yesterday, we caught the 12 fish we ate in probably an hour. It was a lot of fun. I saw a lot of people I haven't seen since last year. I didn't see the Murph mobile so we probably weren't in the same area. Murph, I did leave that package for you.
Joe

[AquaMan]

After debating the boat launch on Friday, I took advantage of a lull (25MPH instead of 35MPH) in the wind and rode the 5 footers to the river mouth. With one life jacket on and the other clutched in my hand, I made the 6 miles to the cabin without incedent. Very hairy ride with the nose under a few waves...not the funnest ride. Friday afternoon was spent fishing for the unexpected and bonus crappie bite off the dock.

Saturday at 5AM we were in the wind driven sleet and snow on the Ottertail river...limit by 10 AM and in the cabin for breakfast by 10:30. One 3# and the rest in the 1.5-2.5#. Perfect eaters and they were good...Mmmm. Threw about 10, 1-.75# back. More northerns then I wish to count and even a few catfish???? Fished crappies for the rest of the day from the dock and crashed early.

Sunday was beatiful, albeit cold, and we fished for about 1.5 hours and boated 3 fish. Left early to beat homebound traffic and got home in time to mow the lawns and spend the afternoon with mama and the kids.

By the way, the smoked ham turned out great. Ya'll missed a good one. :-)

PS. How that Govenor's wife????? You go girl!

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Xplorer]

Ditto on the weather. Was on the St Louis river at 5 saturday morning. Winds were 25-40 and off and on rain/sleet. Started downriver and by first light could tell the river was too dirty there, decided to go upriver to the Hwy 23 bridge. What a ride!! Caught three eye's, but could not hold anchor as Minn Power had the gates open and you needed to be at 1/3 throttle to just to keep from going downstream!! Caught one northern and highlight of the day was a 4.9 lb smallmouth trolling a shad rap upcurrent. Great battle in the fast current. CPR'd and called it a day. Coast Guard was on the river warning folks to be extra careful in the wind/waves. Sunday was calmer (only 15-25!) but colder. Hope things warm up this week. Good to hear others had a safe weekend. Xplorer

[erik]

was on Rush Lake near Rush City just north of the Cities and it was the first opener in years that i didn't have to play bumper boats, so the wind was almost welcomed. the only keeper Eye was a 21 incher. The 21 inch largemouth my dad caught and released added a little extra fun to the day. lots of small bass and northerns in between real fish.

[Jim K.]

Fished a small west-central Minnesota Lake with my long time fishing buddy who knows Aquaman. Three of us filled out in about four cold,tough, windy hours on Saturday - 15-17 inchers. On Sunday we killed 'em! In three hours we caught 70 plus, about an inch bigger on average than Saturday, with the biggest a 27 inch soon to be Outdoor News photo until we ran out of minnows. All on jigs. It's really a blast catching and releasing fish after fish in front of boat loads of other fishermen who just don't get it. I might never use a Lindy rig again.

[The Great Guide]

Was at Kabetogama on the west side of the lake. Saturday morning started with a cold heavy downpour. Sat in the RV and drank coffee until 10:00 am. When the rain let up we went out. Wind was blowing 25 to 35 MPH making the lake as rough as I've ever seen it. In addition to the wind, a squall line would move through about every 15 minutes dropping heavy rain, snow and ice balls on us. Needless to say it was pretty tough out there. Couldn't hold any position on the usual windy post spawn points and shoreline and we were shut out for walleyes in the AM and called it quits at 2:00p.

The weather improved later in the day and we went out again at 4:30p. Ran down the lake to Namakan channel where we hit 4 nice 16 inchers in about 16 to 20 feet of water as well as several smaller ones. Jigs and leeches produced the larger fish. By 7:00 pm the cold front was really setting in and pushing the fish deep. So we called it quits. I thought we did pretty well given the extreme weather conditions. TGG

[AquaMan]

Hey, speaking of the strong winds and being blown off your spots..how about those Wave Tamers! Mine was a real key tool this weekend. Thanks Joe and Nancy! Keep up the great work. :-)

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Grampa_Joe]

LAST EDITED ON May-16-00 AT 10:10AM (CST)[p]I had 3 different boats that were doing the same drift this weekend ask me what kind of bag I had. I never touched it myself, a guy in my boat just threw it in the water every time. It was funny to see the look on the faces of the people in other boats when he did that and it worked every time.
By the way, to everyone who doesn't have one yet, the white bag is a Wave Tamer!
Joe

[conibear]

6 walleyes on the ottertail near Frazee. Perfect eating size. Froze my face though.
Conibear

[Jim in Glenwood]

Jim, you must really be a great fisherman! Your post makes me sick, it sounds like you think that you are a Fishing God among mere men. It always makes people with low self esteem feel better when they put down others. Maybe its time for you to examine why you fish.