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Walleye Opener On Big Sandy Lake


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Anyone else heading out walleye fishing this weekend on Big Sandy Lake?!?! The weather is looking great for Saturday. I'm getting some leeches and heading out to the main body of the lake to see what's biting.

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I will be up there along with a couple cousins and the father-in-law. From what I have seen too, the weather should be very nice for opening day.

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Early weather reports always say its going to be nice! Once they get you commited it will change about thursday afternoon to cloudy and 45deg. I of course will start my day on Big Sandy and finish next to a campfire at the camper in Eagle Point.

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I will also open on big sandy and enjoy a campfire at eagle point.

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I will also be on BSL, after fishing enjoying a campfire on NorthEnd.

The eyes should be in shallow.

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Early weather reports always say its going to be nice! Once they get you commited it will change about thursday afternoon to cloudy and 45deg. I of course will start my day on Big Sandy and finish next to a campfire at the camper in Eagle Point.

Aint that the truth! .. smile

Is the Jon boat gonna be tooling around with the young-sters? Love it!

Note to self don't stay up drinking until the wee hours again this year .. Doah! smile

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Haha that forecast is holding strong! Only a couple more days and the fishing, drinking, and Bon fires begin!

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Well Pier thats been a few years and now he has just finished his freshman year in Duluth! I have a new one coming up but not as interested in fishing. He just wants me to come get him to catch!;) The jon boat was a good one!

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I will be at big sandy! I had to family up and sell my fishing machine for a pontoon. It will an interesting change. I just put it in the water last weekend. look for the big yellow starcraft, you cant miss it! I am going to hit some of the rock piles in the big basin. I dont have my trusty gps any more so i am going to have to search for the spots! Good Luck All?

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We are going to be heading up this afternoon. I just hope traffic doesn't get too awful. We already have an advanced scout up there right now checking our spots for opening morning! The weather is looking pretty great, and I just hope the fish cooperate. Good luck to everyone up here and everywhere else!

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Had a great weekend of fishing on BSL. I fished with leeches, minnows and spinnerbaits for northern pike. Caught a walleye, a perch and ten northerns. Was a blast...can't wait to get back up in June.

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We also had a pretty awesome weekend on BSL. We kept, 3 walleye(2-17 1/2", and one 14 3/4")2 nice crappies and 2 nice perch. Though we caught probably around 30 or so walleye, they were just all under. We did catch quite a few that were right at about 13 1/2". Most of ours came right off of Moose Gut(I wasn't even originally planning to fish this area) near the flagpole in about 6' of water. Every single walleye we caught was no deeper than 8' with most coming from 4'-6'. Leeches were really the ticket, except for mid Saturday where we caught a few on minnows and when we got the crappies on minnows. 95% came off of slip bobbers, as trolling didn't seem to do that much.

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Born2Fish, that is very interesting. We were the boat in the middle of the Webster bay fishing in 25 feet of water watching your large group of boats fishing Moose Gut Island. We also did very well and had an awesome time. Between Saturday and Sunday we got 6 keepers and between the three of us, over 50 walleye boated. Live bait rigs and only minnows worked. We tried leaches, crawlers (green and normal). We noticed no difference between shiners ($8 dozen) and fatheads ($4 scoop), sorry Willys.

We just drifted around the basin areas. How about anybody else? I got the feeling that there were several walleye schools acting very differently.

Last year we fished hard and only caught a few. It seems to me the slot has already made fishing BSL a lot more fun.

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Our best luck was in 5-7 FOW, leeches. Caught several Eyes around 13 inches. Yes, the slot is working, we caght more eyes this weekend than the previous 5 years on opener.

Will be working the landings this weekend for DNR(volunteer, please make sure your boats are free of weeds and live wells are drained and fresh water for your minnow buckets.

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We weren't in the larger group of people fishing Moose Gut. We didn't actually get over to there until just before sun down. We actually tried our best to stay as much away from people as we could. It seemed if we got too close to a group, we caught nothing. And I can't agree more about the slot. I really hope it sticks for a while and lets these fish grow nice and big. We caught so many that were right below the slot or just over it. I just enjoy catching them. I don't mind throwing every single one back into the water to swim another day. 4 or 5 keepers for a few guys is just enough to have a nice meal at night.

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Was it just me or did the ton of 13 1/2" to 13 7/8" Walleyes we caught from last year shrink? It sure seemed like it.

Anyway it was great time. Our boat put about 35 Eyes in the boat for the 2 days with 8 keepers and 2 perch. Sunday night was our best night with 5 in the box. Rick got all of his fish vertical jigging with a white 1/8 OZ glow jig tipped with a leech in 5-7 FOW and I landed mine on a mixed selection of techniques and baits, "bobber, lindy, vertical, pitching, drift" in 2' to 10'.

Mornings were real slow for us with the bite picking up in the afternoon and peaking at dusk!

The Fish fry was to die for as expected...

As far as the slot. It should help to at least get some keeper size fish. But I wouldn't hold my breath on thinking Big Sandy will ever be a lake that produces larger quality fish because it isn't going to happen as history has proven repeatably for the last 60 years.

Good times, good people as always~~~~ smile

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"But I wouldn't hold my breath on thinking Big Sandy will ever be a lake that produces larger quality fish because it isn't going to happen as history has proven repeatably for the last 60 years"

Well, I think you are wrong. In the last few years, I have seen 4 eyes over 30, several in the upper 20's. Prior to a few years ago, I didn't see anything this big so I think there is potential, will it be a milacs, no. I have seen 28 lbs northern come out of the lake, big, big Bass, Sunnies and crappies. Big sandly holds lots of BIG fish.

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It's always fun to dream and hope for the best. Big Sandy never has and never will produce a substantial number of Large eyes and Northern's compared to the BILLIONS and BILLIONS of snakes and sub 16" Walleyes in the fishery~

It is what it is Big Sandy for some reason just doesn't produce many Large healthy looking Walleyes statistically and comparably speaking and nobody has or probably ever will have the answers to why. Of course thats just my opinion based on my Family and friends 70 years of living on BSL along with countless enquirers to DNR fishery experts and biologist as why this is with no real concrete answers given.

Good Luck!

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The Big Fish are in there, you just have to study and learn the lake and get lucky! Believe me, it's not a Milacs as far as size, but they are in there and many people do not know how to fish big sandy and most of me likes that!

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It appears to me that Big Sandy and adjoining lakes have ideal spawning for pike and you could never stock enough walleyes to make up for the depredation that occurs due to the northern pike eating machines!

There should be a bigger limit on pike in Big Sandy and adjoining lakes! 2c

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Finlander, I couldn't agree with you more. Way too many little northern in the lake, lets raise the limit on them. One good thing, the northern in big sandy are very good eating. I take the bones out and they are as good as walleye.

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The Big Fish are in there, you just have to study and learn the lake and get lucky! Believe me, it's not a Milacs as far as size, but they are in there and many people do not know how to fish big sandy and most of me likes that!

Agreed!

I don't want MY opinions to be confused here with not thinking the slot will greatly help with the size and the amount of nice fish in BSL. Big Sandy like it has in the past will rebound naturally and with the help of the slot for sure.

In the end, for the most part it still will be home to the stunted Walleye and that's not such a bad thing!

I'm expecting some pretty good fishing this weekend good luck to all!

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