Opener Stories - Worst or Best

[Sandmannd]

Well this was my first opener with a boat and needless to say I was pumped. I had the boat ready to go, so I thought. A buddy and I were going to head out at Midnight on Clear Lake by Forest Lake. I went out to my truck got the boat hooked up and the lights weren't workin' right. I wiggled the connecter, got a spark and they started working. Took the blocks out of the tires and came back to the front of the boat and the wires were smoking. Took a look and one was melted a little, got the electrical tape, taped it up and tried again with the same result. I snipped that wire and they started to work. Will have to re-wire that for next time. I thought my bad luck was over, but no. I get up to Clear at 11:15 and it's already full of people, my buddy wasn't there yet so I got the boat ready. I put the boat in and went to park on the street. Don't know what I was paying attention to but got a little close to the edge of the road. It looked like a level surface, but no, slid off the road and high centered the front end, back end driver side was off the ground *Frick!!!!!!*. Took the trailer off, no one had a tow rope so I figured I'd wait for my buddy. Went down to the boat to stow my tackle till I delt with the truck and stepped into 4 inches of water *double Frick!!!!!!!*. Forgot the @#($& drain plug. Reached in and got the drain in and ran the bildge. Not a biggy, but added to the already marvelous outing. My buddy got there, ran to Wal-mart and got a tow rope. Took a second to get the truck out and got parked. We got out around midnight and started hitting it. We got a lot of light bites, but couldn't get a hook set. My buddy finally landed a pretty nice 12 inched around 2 AM. We had a few more bites and by 2:30 the cold hit and the bite stopped. We stayed out till after 5 and couldn't get on them again. Still had a good time on the water and I'm hoping I got the bad out for the season. So what's your story?

[shaneD]

i had a great time, started at 4, actually woke up when the alarm went off, already had the truck and the boat packed, minnows were still alive, i drove over to clear lake - same place as above - was to lazy to walk up the road to park so i kept going to Green Lake, there were about 10 trucks in the lot. Put in fast and easy, no waiting. motor started on first try (that hasn't happened often.) Motor out to a midlake hump and my line didn't even hit the bottom and i had a fish on. Not much size to them but i did get a limit and caught around 40 eyes and 1 northern - went through all my minnows - two scoops of shiners - and a couple of leaches. all in all a great morning - best part of the day was that the wife had cut the grass while i was gone so i could take a nap when i got home!

[Fish Head]

Here is the worst opener story. I didn't go fishing! After freezing my ### off year after year on the opener, I decided not to go up north this year and spend the weekend at home for mother's day to make my wife happy.

Of course, what happend? A great opener. Now thats the worst opener!

[united jigsticker]

Well, Fish Head, if you go next year and the weather is poor once again, we all will know that it's your fault.

Just kidding.

[pocketknife]

better get used to bad trailer wiring it's always a problem and always will be check often, good luck

[pocketknife]

Oh btw I've done the no plug a few times now it's funny to think about ha ha.

[Matt Johnson]

I also spent the opener on dry land... and decided to fish tomorrow and Tuesday instead... and of course, it's supposed to storm and be windy Go figure... oh well, it's a long season.

I'm still going to hit the lake tomorrow and Tuesday though, rain or shine

[fisherking01]

we had a great opener. Hit 3 lakes on saturday, two boats 6 guys. first lake, 8 eyes in the keeper slot, 17-18.5 inches, tossed about a dozen smaller and larger back. Second lake, 3 keeper walleyes, 17-18.5 inches in my boat, two in the other, same size. Released seven between 21-24.5 inches. Last lake of the day, caught and released around 20 walleyes from 16-19 inches, one 22.5 incher.

In all we kept 13 walleyes and had a great fish fry Sat. night.

We had a great time reliving the day, and openers past. Stayed up late, up at 5 and did a little gardening before church. At Noon today I took my kids, Taylor and Hannah, and a nephew, Austin to a local funspot. We fished for two hours boating a total of 26 walleyes from 16-18.5 inches. Had several doubles, and one tripple on with only one of those landed. All were released.

The bait of choice seemed to be rapalas, with most caught on them, a few pike and eyes on spoons, and some on spinners with either a minnow or crawler. leeches didn't pan out at all.

Here are a couple pics from today with the kids. I drove the boat and unhooked a lot of fish for them. I did get a chance to catch a couple when Hannah got tired. Camera date is wrong for those scrutinizing eyes!!

[The_Duckslayer]

We hit Tetonka for the opener. Stayed at a resort there for the weekend. Our boat caught three fish... 1 Crappie (too small), 1 Largemouth Bass (not in season) and 1 White Bass (filleted and in the fridge now). It's going be an apetizer for mama tomorrow. Did I mention that was ALL the fish that we caught? Did I mention that they were all caught by the Lil Mrs? We still had a great time though, good to get away for the kids and the house for a while. There were not many folks around the campfires there that caught many. They were very few and far between. We did get drenched Saturday in the rain though! Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[upnorth]

We hit Vermilion and didn't have too many problems, other than a dead starting battery(some how the interior lights got left on) but I found it when I was gassing up, so a quick stop at the fleet store and we were good to go. Started out shallow and there seemed to be more boats than fish so we moved out a bit deeper and found a couple of slot fish,one 23 incher by my daughter(put a big smile on hers and my faces), move even deeper and found some nice 14 to 16 inch keepers. So overall the opener was a success. But then my idea of successful fishing trip is any trip you get back to launch with no major problems.

[Remy]

I went to Minnetonka and had a couple buddies out and one overslept so I left without him since he wasn't answering the phone but he called right as I was about to drop my line in the water so I had to make the 20 minute trek back to get him. At least he bought me lunch to make up for it. As I was grabbing the net to land a nice northern I stepped on an $80 rod and snapped it in half. 2 hours later I was using the lakeview restroom on the boat and out of the corner of my eye I see my rod tip bending and then over the boat goes my St Croix rod and a nice real. I dove for it and missed it and my shorts got a litte wet in the process but it was gone. I spent 3 hours on saturday trying to cast the biggest lures I could trying to get it and I went back on Sunday with the biggest treble hooks I could find and dragged the bottom for a few more hours with no luck. So now my 2 best rods are gone and I only caught one small eye. But at least I was fishing so I can't complain to much.

[catflisher]

went to a lake me and my buddy found by getting lost and fishing the first lake we found two weeks ago..3 dozen boats on a small(under 300 acres)lake.almost all of them hitin' it hard for the eyes.we did too,but after 2 hours of little chirps,(perch),we settled on a weed edge we found the night before,where we ran into some nice sunpikes and real nice bullheads.spent the rest of our day there,pulling in a half basket full of nummy bullies,(the sunfitch must have moved on)and,as a bonus got three walters fishing with crawler gobs and smashed minnows..turns out we caught more eyes than most of the guys trying hard to catch some.also,my pal had his line snap on a hookset,(old line,he's lazy)way up past his slip bobber.15 minutes later after he got re-rigged,he casts out,gets bit right away and pulls in a nice bullfart with about 10 yards of line hanging out of his maw..hey that looks like my sinker he says..look down his throat i sez..there was his jig..yes the nummy bullcheeks were very 'gessive!!!!