Where are you opening?

[Sportland_Bait]

Where are you all going to open this year? I'll be at the bait shop all weekend, selling all the essentials and lining up the guide boats. Plus some media type stuff. The bait tanks start get filled starting Tuesday, so it'll be a busy week for me. I think there are quite a few decent options this year. It could be interesting where we will find the fish this weekend. I think the key will be warm water and windswept shorelines. With the rain this week current areas could be another likely hangout. If Gull is even half as good as it was last season for the first weekend it should be phenomenal. So where is everyone going and what is the gameplan?

Jason Erlandson

[AWH]

I'm going to open the season at work. If I get out a few days later after everyone's gone home, that works out perfect. Get to hear which lakes were hot and which ones weren't and formulate the game plan from there.

Aaron

[TrophyEyes]

I am going to fish Sat. and Sun. on Pelican and Monday on Mille Lacs. I am planning on not having a plan. I think this years weather and water temp are going to play tricks on the fishing. Either you will be on them or not as far as I can tell. I have a little transition spot on Pelican that is a sand transition to rocks with weeds patched in. That is where I am going to start Sat. morning. I am not going to stay long in any spot and may be using the aqua view more this year than past. I am going to start shallow in the morning with bobbers from 4-9 feet and work to the 13-17ft break/weed line in the afternoon with lindy rigs, followed by some 3-7 feet cranks over the rocks when night falls. I may mix in some jigging in that plan. Then again that plan is more of a situational plan and won't know until I actually do it. The olny plan I need to figure out is the bait situation. I am thinking it may be a little cold for leeches and redtails, but I hate shiners. I may end up with a mixed bag of bait for Sat. until I find the right trigger.

Mille Lacs, North Sand with lindy rigs all day. Keeping it simple and productive.

[DUCKJ]

Ill be on the river just like every year. Most of the time its good but have had some very slow fishing the last couple openers. With the water up a little and the warmer weather this spring im hoping it will pick up a bit from last year. We go out at 10:00 to get our spot and have a good time shooting the bull till midnight. $5.00 on the walleye, pay $1.00 to everyone(around $7.00= 2 boats) if the fish is a rockbass. Pike and smallies are just a bonus. We fish till 3am and get a couple hrs of sleep and back out on a lake around 6 am. Not sure what lake yet.

Good luck to eveyone.

Duck

[anchor man]

I'll be on the Whitefish Chain. Anyone know any good areas to anchor and cast some jigs/minnows this time of year? Might have a full boat of guys, so trolling might be out of the question.

Thanks

[Sportland_Bait]

On Whitefish I would look for current areas for sure. It's a tough body of water early in the year, but one area that always holds a few fish is the mouth of the Pine River. A good back up plan up there is the Whitefish Chain's slab crappies.

Jason Erlandson

[Whiskeywalleyes]

The lake that stocked the mosted.

[TrophyEyes]

Can anyone tell me why Pelican is still missing some of the buoys? It will be very dangerous for some folks that don't have the lake master chip or know the lake like the back of their hand. I know the lake and have the lake master chip and almost ripped off my lower unit.

[CaptainMusky]

I am sure those buoys will all be in by this weekend. There were still a couple docks not in around my area yesterday.

My dad and I will be hitting Gull along with 10,000 other people. Hopefully our honey hole is still a secret. We spent the last 4 years out there on opener and never had competition from other fishermen.

[fishroger]

The buoys should be out soon on pelican. The lake is down at least 2 ' so some areas are as shallow as they have been for years. Im going to Round with some friends who rented a house there. The access should be all right with the rain, still have to get feet wet.

[TrophyEyes]

Believe me, I know Pelican is down significantly. We put in our dock and boat last weekend and at the end of our 309' of dock we had 18" of water. That's not a good sign. Usually we start the season with about 30"+ at the end of the dock. I would just warn everyone to be careful running across the lake at night if you aren't possitive where the rocks are. There will definately be some dinged props this weekend. It wouldn't hurt to keep a set of wadders in the boat either, just in case you have to get out and push. Seriously, its that shallow in spots.

[burl]

North long for me.Was up last weekend doing the dock and lift thing and was not to impressed with the current lake level.Does not seem much better than last fall and that was realy bad.Not looking forward to the 7 mile boat trip from the merifield access back to 371 just to launch the boat.Burl.