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Walleye opener 2004


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lake of the woods/rainy river sat,sun and to milelacs on mon,tues.

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I uasually spend opener at dads on Rush. This year because it's not mothers day maybe LOW.

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Will fish for work
Brian Rogers

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2dalake,
When you go to Leech fishing in the spring are you the group of guys that camp at Stony Point? If so, I've been camping down the street from you for the last 6 years.

Ole

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Lake vermilion or birch lake(babbit)....two great lakes for opener!!cant go wrong....really getting antsy for that ice to melt!!good luck to everyone ...where ever you go!!

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garysguideservice
garytheguide.com
[email protected]
Phone: 218-744-3158

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Cartfan- I've only fished byllesby once, only catching a small cat, but I've heard some good reports out of there, but nothing great. It wouldn't be a destination choice for me except we're storing our boat in my brother in laws house next to the lake, and I have a feeling, he'll pull the old, "o since I stored it all winter, why don't we all go out on byllesby for opener"? He did it last year... Although I made it to Riley last year and did well. Hoping for the st. loius trip myself though.

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I'm with gary the guide....it's been Birch for the last 20 years!!!!!!!......can't wait!!!!!......not to be an idiot but.......it's champing at the bit....not chomping......lol

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2dalake,
I would stop and say Hi but I've gotten real tired of the prices the resorts on Leech Lake are charging. I've stayed at a resort on Kabetogama last year and this year for the same period for 1/2 the price!!! I'm also going to spend some time on Winni/Cut Foot this year instead of Leech, I've found the fishing to be much more consistant.

Ole

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Ole,

Yeah I've been agitating for years to switch to a smaller lake that close to opener, but the other guys want to stick with it on Leech. They come from all over since the old gang has become a bit scattered. I catch plenty of fish the rest of the year so I don't mind, and once in awhile we have an early ice out and hit 'em right between the walleyes. Three years ago I had two other guys in the boat when we each caught one from 6-8 lbs within a half hour. That was pretty cool.

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Otter Tail!!!

Remember its the 15th not the 8th. The extra few days will make it a more productive Opener on Otter Tail. Might be easier to make it a whole weekend for the family or just the guys as there is no conflict with MOTHER's DAY this year.

Start a tradition, enjoy the opener with me....

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Paul Ness
Three Seasons Lodge on Otter Tail Lake

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There was never a "conflict" with Mother's Day at my house - they knew to let me go!

"They" being my mother and my wife.

If they're real good, I might even bring them along.

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Its still up in the air. Im thinking the nice'n local nest lake though.

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AKA PikeEye 300
And keep those hooks sharp!

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2dalake,

I've fished Leech every year since 1978 on the Wed. thru Sun. after opener. We have had a variety of weather from you can't get enough clothes on to you can't take enough off. We used to catch between 50-100 fish (we catch and release all but a couple to eat at nite) per day with 2 guys in the boat, starting in the mid 90's the number started to slip. We were still able to catch alot of fish and have a good time but by the late 90's the number of fish caught has dropped to 30-40 for that same 5 day period for 2 boats and 5 guys. We started going to Winni/Cut Foot a couple of years ago and the fishing has been fantastic, kinda the way it was at Leech back in the 80's. I love to fish Leech, in fact it's probably my favorite lake but I'm into fishing for the sport not so much the keep and eat and Winni has been better for me lately.

Ole

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When we hit that big water it can get nasty in the wind. One of the guys runs a big saltwater glass rig that can take those big swells when my Pike DLX has to stay in the bays. This year will be the first time in 22 years I have not brought a boat along because the boys have bought bigger boats than mine.

Last year we hit some really high winds from the SE and we took that big boat out to Goose Island and smoked for about 40 minutes and that was it......poker was the focus of the rest of the weekend.

One thing that has seriously declined on Leech is the fantastic crappie fishing that used to be there. I haven't seen a decent crappie bite out of there in years.

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Right here at home, in God's country! Lake Bemidji in the midnight to 4am range, and off to Blackduck and some other local nests the rest of the weekend. The new boat is on it's way!!!

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Matthew J. Breuer
Northcountry Guide Service
[email protected]
-----------------------
Custom Jigs and Spins
Phelps Tackle
Today's Tackle
Stone Legacy
Ice Leaders

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Leech for at least this year. If the fishings as bad as the last 2 years, I say it's time to try a new lake next year!

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Lake Bemidji is another one that gets rough in the wind. What did you get for a boat?

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Little Pine in Perham. Stay at the family cabin and catch walleyes and northerns off the dock. It doesn't get much better than that.

-Hossienda

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ooopps.

[This message has been edited by Insp Gadget (edited 03-10-2004).]

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Bemidji does get a little rough with some higher winds, there are spots to tuck away however. I bought a 2004 Crestliner 1750 Fishwawk. I needed a little extra room for guiding plus Crestliner offered me a spot on their team so I couldn't pass it up.

------------------
Matthew J. Breuer
Northcountry Guide Service
[email protected]
-----------------------
Custom Jigs and Spins
Phelps Tackle
Today's Tackle
Stone Legacy
Ice Leaders

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Nice rig, I'm jealous!! I need to send my wife back to work full time so I can get a bigger boat.

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Leech for me. We have been there the last two openers, rang up a total of 4 walleyes is all. Don't look for any big improvements for a while, there have not been any real good walleye hatches for a few years. But it is still good to sit in the cabin and talk smart with buddies, even if da fish doan bite.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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