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First Day Fishing Reports


Paul Waldowski

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Many of our groups are reporting lots of fish over the slot with many groups coming in with enough slot fish for a fish fry.

Here in the bay fish are being taken from 18 26 feet on the sand and rock transition. Many of our groups never left the bay to get there fish. Longer snells with live bait rigs worked slowly on the transition line was the ticket.

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Paul,

Thanks for the report from that end of the lake.

We did well today on the North end in the sand but the fish did not come without some persistence and change. In the morning, we were on some nice post-spawn females in that 24 - 27" range and could only get them to "go" on leeches with 6' snells, a red hook and glow bead. By mid-morning, we ran into a pocket of 16 - 19" fish and had a ball but we needed to adjust. The slot fish were more prone to biting on a longer snell (i.e. ~10') and a lighter weight (i.e 1/4 oz) in deeper water. For us, the bigger fish were in 19 - 21' while the nicer slots were in 22 - 24'.

I'll post photos tomorrow evening once I'm back home. So far, so good. grin.gif

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We got on the water at 7am and fished in front of Fishers with all the other 10,000 boats. The fish were hitting fast and hard till about 10am then you had to find a pod of fish and work that area. We took our limit home and put back as many. 25" was the biggest for the day left the water at 2pm hoping to miss the mess that would be at the landings.

100_0438.jpg

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Quote:

We got on the water at 7am and fished in front of Fishers with all the other 10,000 boats. The fish were hitting fast and hard till about 10am then you had to find a pod of fish and work that area. We took our limit home and put back as many. 25" was the biggest for the day left the water at 2pm hoping to miss the mess that would be at the landings.

100_0438.jpg


Nice fish, but I dont see the 10,000 boats around you lol.

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nice posts...

we fished the sw side and found them in 19-20' on a rock sand transition also...long snell, red, chartruese or green hook w/bead. biggest was 26", smallest was 14" which we returned and later wished we had kept. we had 3 keepers from 16-1/2" to 17-1/2" before the motor started acting up. its very frustrating now that im home and thinking about it... there and then, we had a great time in beautiful weather and caught lots of nice fish. right now, im going to start cleaning breakfast for tomorrow! good luck and have fun to everyone. its a fantastic opener!

regards,

minnesotatuff

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We fished the SW corner as well and got on the water by 4:30 am to ease the pain of launching. We got our limit by noon and headed home. It was nice to see different sizes anywhere from 19 1/2 to 14 inches. Caught a nice 27 1/2 walleye that was fun to bring in. Great weather, great fishing and can't remember a more enjoyable opener. I was using a 8 ft snell and my buddy was using a 5 ft snell. Each had consistent action.

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Took my son up to the sand. We got a late start, didn't start fishing til 8 a.m. Forgot how much I love fishing that lake. We missed our first dozen bites. Had to get used to it again, to much jig fishing on the river the last 5 years. We left at 2 with 2 keepers (dinner for mom) I had a 22" and my son had a nice 24.5 that were released. I didnt mind all the boats, I fish pool 4 enough. It was the guys who thought they had to run wfo through all the people drifting. tongue.gif

Cant wait to get up there again. grin.gif

Dan

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We noticed the same thing. Good bite and then it really slowed after 10 a.m. 14 fish by 3 people including a couple really nice ones in the protected slot. Enough eaters and action to keep everyone happy.

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Well 3 of us got on the water and fishing by 9:00 a.m. and fished until around 5:00 p.m. We boated about 35-eye's and missed a bunch more, we limited out with 12-in well and threw back a bunch between 21-27". Needless to say, we had a "mud flat" all to ourselves the whole day. 3-boats did come in the see what we were doing and motored around with the depthfinder for about 10-min but all of them took off. Was a great weather opener and the lake became almost still around 3:00 p.m.

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Today was just as good but we had to adjust for the wind. I'll post a more detailed report with pictures in a bit.

Great opener on The Freshwater Giant! grin.gif

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Hey Otter,

Was that you on channel 69 calling out every time their boat got a fish? laugh.gif (just kidding)

I was looking for you on the north end, but didn't see the boat you described last week. Was going to say hi.

My report:

We went out at Midnight from Hunters and were fishing by 12:40 on the north sand. We tried trolling raps in the 6-10' range and only picked up 2 - 18" ers until 3:30. Then we switched to the 8' lindy snells with the old red hook and 3 beads and caught another 19 fish by 7:30am. Most were in the keeping range 16-19 1/2" with 2 @ 23" and 2 @ 24" and 1 @ 27". worked the 6-10' edge on th top of the break. The action pretty much stopped in the shallow water at 7:30, then we went out deeper and picked up a couple more and left by noon.

We seen a Pike doing the bobber up there by Barnicles...he was vertical with his mouth sticking out of the water like he was begging for a treat. I was landing a 24" when we went by him and by the time we went back to look at it, it was gone...weirdest thing i seen all day.

Great weather, exciting fishing...kept a limit for my dad...It dont get any better than that. cool.gif

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