Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Walleye Opener Plans


Recommended Posts

Where is everyone spending the walleye opener? I will be on Blackduck lake with a bunch of family members and close friends.

Stay safe, and good luck to all smile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Yes indeed, good luck all and safe travels. Heading to Winny on Sunday the 10th till Wednesday. Camper will be at Pines by the Gosh Dam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

I will be in Grand Marais with my old man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will stay away from the crowd and fish for pike on the Northern opener

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fishing the opener for the 1st time in a long time.We're close to GDP as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have always avoided the crowds that weekend, both on the roads and especially on the water. To tell you the truth my boat normally doesn't get heavy use until after Memorial Day weekend, I'm to busy with getting my garden in order. Labor Day is another one worth missing.

We'll stay home and have a nice quiet weekend grilling and then have a small bocci ball, or some yard game tournament. Then the couples kick back at night by our city approved fire and throw back a few cold ones, and shoot the breeze. If the weather sucks, which is normal for the opener, we are inside playing board games with family, or friends.

This year I may fish Sunday, 6 blocks from my house wadding the river with not a soul around. Never seen ideal wadding conditions for this time of the year on the Big Miss. I've ran into several eyes already just rigging worms for suckers, should be interesting when you can legally target them.

Good luck to all and be safe, it's always a jungle out there on opener smile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be up at Mille Lacs again, as it's a family tradition. Since the night ban is on for the rest of the year, this is my only time to get out at night and pull cranks on my honey holes. Hoping to make the most of it. smile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be doing the midnight run to the mn river with my wife on friday night probably fish until 2. Stay at her moms wake up drive 2 hrs to lake minnewaska hit the night bite. Celebrate mothers day then hit a some lakes somewere in between. Good luck to everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I may hit a local lake Saturday night after most of the boats are off the lake and troll cranks for a bit. If I fish this weekend this is usually when I go but have done Sunday evening in the past as well depending on weather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

I went, I froze, I ate eyes for supper tonight, :) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

I went to Grand Marais to the family cabin. I ended up going alone, because my dad is to busy. I fished many streams on the back roads such as the Grade Road from Highway 1 to the Gunflint Trail. If you like fishing brook trout this that area as so many little streams that have them. I caught brookies in about every stream I fished. Most were small 4-6 inchers, but I got 5 over 8 inches and had one nice one that would have been my dinner. I got it to the bank and it slipped out of my hand and back into the river. That was on Friday. On the drive on the back roads I saw a moose, grouse, pine martin, and bear.  None of them wanted to photographed. I did see some ice along some of the streams and there was snow on the ski slopes in Lutsen.

 

As for Walleyes the area up there some of the bigger lakes still have a spawn going on. I seen some sign on some streams saying closed to fishing to protect spawning walleyes. On Saturday morning I fished some of the smaller shallower lakes and caught some walleyes in 2-5 feet of water on a 1/16 oz. lead head jig with a leech. I should have used minnows, because some locals came in with minnows and showed me how to catch walleyes. The water was to cold for leeches to be moving around. 

  • Thumbs Up 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I checked out the river, no walleye, but still had fun. LOL!

The best part of the catch was the fact she was caught by sight fishing brush piles for crappie. Usually the monsters are caught soaking a worm on bottom, waiting for a bite. Hooking this bruiser in skinny water was quite the riot, a real Battle Royal.

*snip*

*snip*

​Tom, that is one MASSIVE bigmouth buffalo. How big do you think she was? Congratulations on the gigantic fish, she's a beauty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, Moose, I was up in the BWCA on a little solo trip last week.  I went out to the lake one night and shined the headlamp in the water....and saw lots and lots of glowing eyeballs in a few feet of water.   Pretty cool to see, that's for sure.  

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

​Tom, that is one MASSIVE bigmouth buffalo. How big do you think she was? Congratulations on the gigantic fish, she's a beauty.

​38" and about 20lbs, Common Carp

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.