Soooo...how was the MN opener?

[Ron]

Soooo...how was the MN opener?

[the viking]

Fantastic! Lake of the Woods, Morris point-Pine Island areas... Jigs and minnows...Lots of 15 to 19 inch walleyes, with an occasional thumper, a few bonus saugers, and some northerns and jumbo perch! The weather was beautiful, Mom's getting fresh walleye for mothers day!

[curt quesnell]

see, if you fish lake of the woods, you get home early enough
to be the first posts.....

morris point gap was good on saturday, but is was outdone
by the bite between south buffalo point and elm on the
warroad side of the lake. sunday was very good also but
saturday (from the stories in the very busy fish cleaning
house)was really amazing.

plenty of fun was had.

curt quesnell

[Kaz]

Viking: Were you inside the gap or out by the green bouy??? I will be up there on the 23, and hope for the same luck. Yours sounded very good!!! Kaz

[curt quesnell]

im not sure why, but there were no bouys out yet at the
morris point gap. the only reason i can think of is that
the water is so very high you can cross over the island
anywhere ( its scary, but do-able)

the vikings assistant
curt quesnell

[Wile E.]

Opener was great I had my limit by 4:30 am saturday morn. Thats why I missed seeing you reddog cause I was loading up when everybody else was going out. that little lake in SW Mn. has some good ones in it. 1-22.5" and the rest were 18".

[easymoney]

The wife and I each got our limit in a couple of hours today,fish between 16 and 19 inches,threw back 3 hogs and some little ones. It was a great day on Lake of the Woods today, fished between elm point and buffalo point in 12 to 15 feet, snap jigging and trolling bouncers and spinners. Going again tomorrow or the next day, Good luck to all

[slick2526]

It was a veryyy nice day. But I had no luck at all. :( oh well

[reddog]

Hey Wile, So that white Starcraft I was chasing around all day wasnt you?? LOL. Me thinks that they think that guy in the Crestliner is the friendliest guy on the water, or had some sort of ideas about the woman in the boat. Either way, yes it was a good day on Saturday. Today was much different, as in everyone had fish except moi! I hate it when that happens. Do unto others. Now Im just waiting for my turn to return the favor. I guess Im just hardheaded enough that I dont want a fish bad enough to go for the live bait route. I know, a fisherman should be versatile, but I guess I like to catch them the way I want to, not the way the fish want to. My turn will come again. This I am sure of.

[cisco]

I had luck, but not very good luck. But, an opener is an opener and it was fun fishing with my son-in-law. Even got a couple hours in with two grandsons.

If this was a put-and-take situation, someone forgot the put.

[The Great Guide]

Hit a small lake north of Duluth,MN on Saturday. Fished from 9:00a to 3:00p. Two of us boated 30 to 35 small males all 14 to 15 inches. All were in 20 feet of water. We had to hover directly over them and vertical jig minnows. Weather was great. Fish fry was great.

Sunday we went to the St. Louis River. Fished up near the Hwy 23 bridge. Current was swift and river was full of debris. 7000 boats were on the river. Drifted spinners and crawlers for two hours which produced one 24 inch W. Switched to a pink jig with a glow green twister tail and tipped it with a minnow and WHAM caught 25 to 30 W's over the next 4 hours 15 to 20 inches. All fish were released.

Weather was great. Fishing was great. I am happy.

TGG

[EAGLE EYES]

Ya, The twister tail thing was the way to go for me as well.
I fished from 6pm to 9pm on Sat. I limited out by about 7:30 all 17" males one 20". Beautiful night up in Ottertail County:-)
1/4 ounce Glow White jig with a crappie tail, tipped with a jumbo silver Shiner. Water still pretty cool though 52-58 surface temp. Next weekend will be even better! Have Fun! :-) EE

[jawjerker]

I was on the south end of Mille Lacs, super slow, probably saw nets out maybe 8-10 times all weekend, managed a few 18-20 inchers, had to throw 3 back that were over the slot. Can anyone tell me how it was up on the sand on the north end?

[Kaz]

Jaw: I talked to my buddy who fished just north of Agate, and it was slow there too. Out of eight fishing, two had not landed a fish until about 10 PM saturday. One 8 pounder, returned, otherwise eaters only. Four of the eight filled, the others only a few!! Water is still cold. Good luck fishing....Kaz

[Kaz]

Thanks Curt: I will be up on the 5/22/01-5/27/01. I fish just outside the gap in 12 to 20 ft. They probably haven't set the bouys yet, but there is allways a green one just outside the gap. I fish toward Morris Point gap or the wash out. I have a place on Burr Oak Rd. Third on the left from Dana's grocery. Stop by some time. I monitor Channel 82 as the "Kaz 3" on the water. Kaz

[Wile E.]

REDDOG I was useing a rapala J7 floating on the west side just north of the boat launch at 1.5mph or less in about 4.5 ft. of water. oh yeah original color ( white bottom and dark top). I got some friends comming down there next weekend so if you see antbody from Austin tell them you know me. Have a good time

[AquaMan]

EE, you were definitly the exception. Of the 48 boats polled at the landing on Sunday, 2 had thier limit after 2 full days, 21 had between 3-5 and the rest had less then 3. None had anything over 24" and most were in the 12"-20".

Needless to say, it was a very slow one. As you said, vertical Jigging was key. We did well on both shiners and fatheads. We averaged 3 per person in our group of 5 people. The other boat went for meat, I went on a pig hunt. Needless to say, the river spot I set them up on was good since they caught most of the fish for the group. The rookie in that group was very pleased. I did find a couple of new spots down on the south side of the lake for another trip, but the river and a few mid-lake humps were the big winners hands down. The shallows at the river mouth were crowded all weekend and no one boated many fish, so I was surprized to see the "followers" continue to stay.

The crappies were the big ticket for us. Backwater river channels produced a nice meal for the group and families.

Chilly waters and a recent spawn have the big girls deep and resting right now. Next weekend will be the time for Ottertail. 80's all week with get them hungry and moving shallow in the early morning and evening.

I just hope that Lake of the Woods is still going strong over Memorial Day weekend. We are heading to Morison for 5 days.

Hope you all had fun in the sun. We did...they can call me "Red" now. <sizzle>

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

.·´¯° --- "It all begins and ends at the water's edge"

Eric@crowncomputerinc.com

[EAGLE EYES]

Sounds like you had a good time! I hear ya on the RED thing. Me gots burned puttin' in the dock on friday. Ouuwwee :'(

[Xplorer]

Fished the St louis river both days with good results, can't remember this nice of weather for an entire opener. Father in law and I caught over 30 eye's saturday and about 10 sunday morning, nearly all males which were spewwing milt all over the place. Boated 7 over 20" on saturday, with father in law's 25.5" male tops. He also got a 23.5" male on suday am. Nearly all caught on lil rippers, shad raps and bombers trolled upriver. A few caught on jig/minnows. Lots of boats, lots of sun, lots of current and a great time was had by all. Xplorer

[Fishy]

Don't waste your time on MilleLacs,trust me do yourself a favor and stay away.Leave it to me I'll let you know when things pick up. :-)

[the viking]

Kaz, We'll be up there on the 24th, staying at Borderview Great Cabin....Hopefully the Walleyes will still be on the go! Zipple Bay area was also very good, particularly on sunday evening in 6 to 8 feet....Lot's of 25 to 30 inchers just outside the jetti. One place or the other ought to be good...heading back up on wednesday for the day and will probably be back up for the weekend...I don't know for sure if my assistant will be with me on the 24th but curt and I are going on the 16th.

[mnjimcarp]

fishy, that is pretty funny.

mille lacs was awesome today!

good fishing. jim carpenter

[Jared]

Fished Big winnie on saturday and sunday. Three of us caught about 40 fish-all smaller males between 14-17". sunday was very good also until the lake went flat. Wind picked up after we left.
Fantastic opener!

[Fishy]

Quiet don't spoil a good thing.I waited over an hour at the boat ramp.

[dunns]

where exactly were you fishing? we fished in and around vineland with average success. 4 of us caught around 20 fish. what were you using.
dunns

[A.J.]

Two limits on Mille Lacs sand in 4.5 hours.

[Badfish]

We fished just north of Ottertail Beach Resort in 6.5-10 feet and took home 15 for 4 of us on Saturday and 8 for 2 of us on Sunday. Bigest was 18-19", most about 15". Gold Fireball jigs and shiners. As far as I could tell, we did better than about 90% of the folks in the area.
Badfish

[Minnkotaguy(Mn)]

Fished the south east corner of Mille Lacs on saturday and caught about 30 eyes. 8 of them were within the slot limit. Caught all of our fish on lindy rigs and roach rigs in about 16ft. Hardly anyone around us were catching fish. Sorry to hear that you guys had a bad weekend, cuz I didn't :D

[eyeguy/mn]

Was really good!
Did the midnite thing on pickerel lake, realized those deepwater cold lake walleyes were still spawning so I bailed and went to ottertail, after a lengthy search I found them piled into a shorline corner and commenced to pound on them. Caught 20 in about 2 and a half hours running up to about 19 inches. Released all but one I had hooked bad. Sunday we were on north lida and fished the morning, got ten there plus a bunch of little snotrockets. It was almost no brainer fishing! Made for one of the best openers I can remember in recent years!! Paul

[A.J.]

Personally, I can't complain about coming off the lake with limits for two people in 4.5 hours. Considering the fact that we threw back quite a few smaller ones and a couple larger ones, we had an enjoyable day.

[kevin dyck]

My buddy and i fished the sand bar on North end on Tuesday. 95 degrees, with no chop at all. But the fishing was good! got 2, 27 inch, 6 keepers, 4 other over slot, 4 others under slot.A day that was not suppose to be good, and it was!! Cant wait till next tuesday!! With the right weather it will be invredible!!