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  • Dahitman44

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We (me, my wife and my dad) hit the lake at midnight and fought the strong winds/rain and even a little sleet. Luckly we only spent an hour casting from the shore and dock. It was pretty tough conditions but our tradition stated we had to make a few casts...

We got one walleye each and called it a night.....at least we can say we tried.

This would be my better half toughing it out in her deluxe purple rain gear.

IMG_1314.jpg

Three in the bucket. All about 15 inches.

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My dad got the first walleye at 1215am.....

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I hope everyone had a good opener grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

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Im waiting for everyone to go home and ill have my opener on tuesday or wednsday evening. Sometime in the past few years I took a shine to fishing in the middle of the week :-)Wunder how that happened? lololol Paul

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Shae had to call me this morning to brag a little bit. I'm out in bismark for a funeral so am hoping to be on the water in the morning. He got 20 walleyes with one over 6#. Went though 3 doz minnows and even caught some on raps. Said it was a fun morning. Hopefully I'll get some action in the morning wink.gif

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I'm "On Call" for work mad.giffrown.gif Got to go to Fergus and get Perkins terminals up. WoooHooo frown.gif

Oh well, this coming Wednesday thru Sunday, 2 days of prefishing and 2 days of tournament. I think that will be a good start.

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Fished Star today. Caught eight walleyes (six keepers) and lost count on the northerns. The morning was better than the afternoon. Fish were anywhere from 18 to 38 feet down. Started out with a lindy rig, short snell and shiners. Caught the last two walleyes with a bottom bouncer and crawler. Tried it because I'd heard someone got a limit in the morning and all fish were in the mid 30 foot range. That allowed me to keep track of the bottom with the wind.

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A buddy and I fished near Otter Tail. Caught 17 walleyes. kept 10, a zillion perch and about a dozen northerns. Lots of action. I agree that morning was better then later. Lindy rigging shiners, 12 - 15 feet, 4-6 foot snells. Sometime they hit hard, sometimes they just climbed on. Lots of boats.........

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Went to Crystal but didn't feel like battling the wind. Went to the bay and caught 28 crappie (not kept, caught). Every single one was a male. None had that egg buldge belly. Every boat that went into the bay parked in the calm water to get out of the wind and caught nothing. I sat in the wind all by myself and had a blast between the crappie, bass, and sunfish. The weather sure got nice around 6pm.

As I was loading up the boat I heard a holler from one of the shore fisherman fishing the culvert from Crystal to Rush. Walked over and saw that he had just caught a 8-9# walleye on a sucker/bobber shocked.gifshocked.gifshocked.gif. Never would have thought such a big fish would be sittin there. He sure was excited. This was about 8:50pm. He told me that he had caught one that size last year at this time from the culvert. They must move in shallow at dusk and head towards the current flowing through there.

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We had very good success this weekend. We caught our 18 on Saturday morning and 18 on Sunday Morning as well. 18-25 FOW. Water temp was 55. (5 degrees higher than last year this time ) Leeches outperformed shiners 2-1. Released a 27" and 3 25"s. We did have to keep another 25" as it was bleeding badly. Boy, that makes me ill to keep a fish like that! Both days we had 3 that were 20-21", so that fit nicely into our new regulation.

Even with the great action, the best part is that there wasn't even one other boat that fished within 250yards of us all weekend. I wonder how long we can keep this lake a secret? There aren't many left.

All in all...I couldnt have asked for more...(other than one partner being 30 minutes late!)

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We had a slow opener.

Hit Pelican and fished in the afternoon to evening. We caught one 'eye each (three of us) and lost a few on the way.

We were lindy riggin with shiners.

The morning was a lot better. People did well, so I hear. Pitching jigs was also the key for MANY people.

I hope to get out again soon.

Talked to one group that caught 65 'eyes with 15 people and six boats. Kind of depressing.

That is fishing.

Keep your lines tight.

Hitman

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Saturday

Boated 9 walleye 15"-17.5". Chartreuse jig/shiner combo 8'-14' worked best.

Sunday

Boated 9 walleye: (1) 14", (5) 16"-17", (3) 25.5"-26.75". Lindy rigs 3'-10' snells; colored #8 hooks tipped with leeches; 25'-32'.

Getting up early and staying away from other boats paid off for us on both lakes.

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Picked up 11 walleyes myself, and my partner got one around 24 inches. Nice fat fish in the 15-20 inch range with 2 being 24+. Fished in 4-13 fow and got all of them but one on spot tail shiners. Jigging was the ticket.

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well went out at 12:01 am Saturday Morning. We were the only boat on Big Pelican Lake in the 30 mph wind, rain, and sleet. We did manage to almost run over a guy standing in the river channel in waders. It started Slow and then suddenly we couldnt keep the walleyes of the hook in front side of boat. 5 nice keeps 14-17" in 30 minutes, then it was done. hung out till 4am trying to find my 6th and 6 for my partner. used secret color jig head I guess.

Sunday went back to Pelican from shore from about 4am to 6am. got skunked, went form there to Sybil. caught some hammer handles in 30 feet of water trolling lindy rigs for eys. found out that they were biting on crawlers. I had none, forgot 30 doz in garage in MHD. Left there went to Sallie to troll for pike. Got one huge monster beyond size limit. Anglers said Sallie was the dead sea all day, I Agreed. Went to Mellisa, saw some sweet walleys being caught in the channel. 4 boats in the same spot, only one in the exact spot I guess. Our 2 boats and one other sat skunked and soakin wet in the downpour watching the boat in the middle pull in eye afer eye. Saw him release a 24+" fish. I comend him on his realease of a real nice fish. Over all after 18hours on the water SUNDAY sucked for us. So I will take my nice 5 from saturday and be happy.

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I used to fish that spot alot on Melissa, with the exception of waiting until late to relieve some of the pressure. The boats can really jam in there at times!!

I wonder what the other boat was doing different than you? I used to do really well with a floating jig head/shiner in the current. I have since moved on to "quieter" locations:)

I have heard that Marshall was SLOOOOOOW, last weekend..can anyone confirm??

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Weeeellll.... Good news/bad news for me.

Good news: Did ok on Saturday evening on Crystal. Got on a school of pretty nice fish, kept 2 for dinner, turned the rest back. Didn't get out till 5 or so but managed to find some fish pretty quick so I had a good evening bite. Nice way to start the season.

BTW - Skitterpop - you and I chatted at the access... small world. That kid had a pretty nice walleye eh?

Bad news: driving through Pelican saturday around noon... Heading into the Cenex station to get bait. Waiting for oncoming traffic to clear and bang. My Tracker Tundra gets clipped by a 20 y/o kid with his dad's pickup and a suspended license. Big dent in the right rear corner. Waiting on the estimate right now on repairs. Fortunately the kid's dad had good insurance so I won't have to file a claim on mine. Guy who looked at it is pretty sure it's repairable so I won't have to get a new hull - unless he finds structural damage when he starts tearing into it. Will have to see I guess. NOT a great way to start the season...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

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RK,

Bummer. Sounds like a case of bad luck- wrong place at the wrong time kinda deal. If you're up in the next couple weeks and need a spot in a boat, give me a hollar. I'll see what I can do to make room for ya.

Hope for a quick and easy fix on your rig.

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F-Dog --

When you jigging were you anchored or drifting?

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I went out with Fisherdog on the opener to 3rd Crow Wing and watched him pull in three walleyes, while I caught three slimers and a crappie. Earlier in the day I had caught 5 rainbows. Today I went out with the wife and between the two of us caught 10 rainbows. Maybe I should stick to fishing trout since I know I can at least catch them tongue.gif.

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Well...suppose I could chime in too. smile.gif

My uncle and I went out on Sat afternoon and fished until about midnight. We kept 10 eaters and released another 10 slot fish. Shiners on livebait rigs were the ticket early and cranks later on. I don't think we caught a walleye deeper than 13 feet.

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Hiya -

Thanks for the offer Scoot. Should find out the score on the boat tomorrow I hope. I brought it back to the Cities and dropped it off at my dealership last night, and they had a repair guy there looking at it before noon. Just be a matter of cost of repair vs. replacement cost on whether or not they total it out. From what the repair guy told me it's fixable (and he's as good as they get with this stuff) but won't be cheap. If they go the repair route though I can be up and running again pretty fast.

Tell you what, stuff like this is where you REALLY appreciate a good boat dealer. They have been all over this. They had the repair guy called and on his way before they were even open this morning - service guy called him on his way to work. When people say choose a dealer for their customer service, this is what they're talking about...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

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Hey JP

I'm closing in on organizing tackle/boats etc. I've got a tournament this weekend in Jamestown ND and for some reason I decided to dump a 35 year tackle collection out of 6 tackle boxes and God knows how many plastic sacks in to a couple big bins and begin sorting. tongue.gif. After about 60 hours it's done now, the boat is close enough and my duck boat is ready. After this weekend I'd like to get in to some trout or even pannies with the fly rod (OH, I got a 5 now too).

Probably be calling you in about a week after 4 days (Thurs - Sunday) of fishing sunup > sundown trying to win some $$$$$.

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Zelek --

That shallow, eh? We could usually find them shallow butt not this year. Not yet. What time were you getting them?

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HM

On the lake we were on, shiners were working relatively shallow all throughout the afternoon. We got one that came in 4 fow!! Of course, the wind was howling pretty good and I think that's what helps the shallow bite a lot somedays.

The real fun came after dark though. Man I get a such a kick out of that night bite!! They were still going strong when we packed up early too. We didn't really want to leave, but I needed to get some sleep for Sun. I'm sure glad Mother's Day only comes once a year. wink.gif

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walleyeguy, maybe you should just spill the beans on your lake... smile.gif

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zelek, maybe you should spill the beans on the lake you were on! smile.gifsmile.gif

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Zelek --

I am with ya. When you were fishing shallow was it on the windy or the calm side?

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Bison --

If I know old Zelek, I'll bet he was fartin' around on "Sliver" -- Just kidding.

So ... Bison buddy ... where were you?

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Bison---

I'll tell you what..I'm 31 years old and have been chasing these silly walleyes since I was old enough to hold onto a leech:) Any lake south of hwy59...I've fished it. And have probably been skunked a time or two! I know all of you guys are some class acts and would really enjoy getting together with some of you to fish. However, if I were to reveal this spot, which noone else even fishes, there would be boats up the ying-yang the next time I went out. Surely, you can appreciate my interest in keeping it quiet. They will bite on this spot for 4 weeks..then skreetch to a stop.

However, I would be willing to share some of my other summer spots that produce fish, but is not completely secret. Maybe email.

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walleyeguy, no problem - I was just meesin with ya before. I totally know what you mean.

Hitman, I went to Jewett lake, out by Fergus, for the opener with my buddy who's wife's parents have a house out there. We hammered em, but they were all bass crazy.gif (that we let go of course)! My buddy's father-in-law caught a 17 inch walleye and that was it. We were talking about doing the Ottertail Lake thing, but figured the bass action was enough to keep us at Jewett for the day. I am going to hit the Pelican night bite soon...

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Eye Guy 23 --

You trickster. Try to get a guy to give up some spots. Why I otta ...

Just kidding.

I think Bison was just fishin for a little free info. Can't hurt to ask. wink.gifcool.gif

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