Reports?

[Capt.Blaine]

I am curious to hear how the opener was this year. I didn’t make it out but I am heading out on Monday. Anyone have a report they would like to share?

[Team Otter]

The north end sand bite treated us well today in 22 - 24' of water. Many 16 - 18" fish with some bonus fish in that 21 - 24.5" range. All fish very healthy and looking good. Lindy Rigs and leeches on a plain red hook with a 6 - 8' snell. We'll be back in the morning for more!

[PK3]

Fished out in front of Fisher's resort from 6:30 am to 10:30am. 8 keepers up to 19", all under 15" going back. Leeches on a red hook and red bead. 6' snell length.

[Whiskeywalleyes]

Great day, launched at Fishers 5:30am, fished away from the pack on sand structure and did well. leeches was the answer and keeping the presantation below .5 mph. 12' snells. caught enough 15-18" range. Worked agate reef, hit more, the gortex came in handy for the on & off showers. Hit the shallows of pickart point rock piles and lost 4 boat side. Saw several people using serveral techniques. Saw them using Slip bobbers & leeches on Agence reef doing well. I heard there was a funnel cloud reported on the south side spotted on the water..?? anyone see it? eyes were bitting soft, feed them line, and bingo!

[Capt.Blaine]

So far it sounds better than last year!

[jipper]

Went out of barnacles... And it was one of the best openers I have had in years...We could of limited out 3 time....Biggest fish was 261/2...Just a whole bunch of quality fish... Right around 18-21ft seem to be the best bit..

[dustywaterwolf]

No funnel clouds just lots of fish being caught. The bite in Vineland bay here just outside of the harbor here at Eddy's was absolutely awesome. The big wind kept the launches off the lake until the evening run after subsiding late in the afternoon, but those that braved the wind and water conditions were rewarded with many fish. Lots of limits were cleaned yesterday and the fish were all realy nice in the 15 to 19 inch range.

Lindy rigging in 6 to 14 feet of water with leeches and bobbering the same depths later in the day into the evening was the ticket. I heard lots of people saying red hooks as stated on some of the other threads, but heard lots of talk about chartruese and plain green also. Launches had quite a good catch last night, with well over a hundred fish caught by our fishing guests. Wind is not quite as bad today, (sunday).

[Dhenry]

We fished out of Garrison on Saturday. We caught a bunch of fish lindying with leeches and crawlers throughout the day. Started at 5:45 and the fish bit off-and-on all day. The key to the early morning bite was back trolling into the wind. Our key depths were 11'-13' feet of water. Hook color didn't seem to matter and our snells were about 7'. Equal amounts of fish were caught on crawleres and leeches. We ended our day trolling crankbaits along shallow sand and weeds (5'-8') feet. The crankbait bite was unbelievable from 8 pm until we left the lake at 11:30. We didn't pick up any big fish cranking, but caught a lot of 16-19 inchers. We put about 16 hours in on Saturday and caught a lot of fish. We put the boat in on Sunday for a couple of hours...had two fish on and called it a day. The bite should be pretty awesome for the next three to four weeks.

[STMA_I_HUNTER]

Sat morning was slow for us, fished out of Isle in the wind, saw a few fish caught, but not many. Loaded the boat and headed to the sand, and boy was that a good move. Caught good mix of fish for the afternoon and early evening (along with everyone else up there). Leeches in the 22-26' range off the north sand.

Anybody with good reports Sat morning down near Isle? Want to know what we may have been doing wrong.

[Harmonica Bear]

I was out of Barnacle's as well. Our group did fantastic. Pretty much unbelievable. We all c/r'd tons of fish and kept some for the fry pan. Presentations didn't seem to matter in our group (except for my fishing partner) and were pretty varied from slip bobbers to lindy's, but they all involved a leech. I was using a 7' snell, chartruese beed and a plain hook and could do no wrong. My bass fishing partner, kept calling his colorful Lindy rig a Carolina rig which didn't appease the walleye gods and his luck wasn't nearly as good HA! Once he simplified things and got the terminology right he did catch one. Anyway fishing was pretty much as good as it gets.

[BarTender]

Did real well. largest was 28+ with about 15 in the 23-25" range. Aloso cought about 20 that were 20-23" all said and done, the two of us cought well over 80 fish sat and sunday morning. We also cought 3 that had the DNR tag's in their back.

Funny thing was seeing the bass boat out there on the north end, not even using a net, flipping the walleyes in like they were bass.

[Harmonica Bear]

HAHA! BarTender, that was me! Good humor. Yes fishing is good when you can do that. Trust me we used the net a lot or at least my buddy did. I think it was only twice I just flipped them in, it was pretty funny though, he hadn't caught a fish yet and I felt bad to keep asking for the net.

[eyespy&eye]

We had a cabin at Fishers for the weekend, and had a great time! Most fish caught we 15"-18" with one at 25", and one at 27". This was one of the better openers in a while.

[dfv87]

Went out of Agate Bay Resort, Resort was great, fishing turned out to be great, Had 1 small malfunction with the trolling motor otherwise the EQ was great, weather... well it was tolerable (with Gore Tex). North sand red hook green bead 8' snells and go slow.

[BarTender]

wHAT THERE WERE TWO of us in BASS BOATS OUT THERE??

[Eye-lander]

We had a great opener as well. One of the best bites on the opener that I can remember. Three of us limited out on the sand in 18'-19' on Saturday. Also had 6 fish over 20" thrown back, largest going 27". Seems like most of the big fish were around 25". I started by myself with a crawler on a red hook, but soon switched to a leech on same setup after I had the net in my hand too much and down 3-0.

We went out Sunday because the fishing was so good. Just catch and release and sat on a pod of 22"-26" fish for over 3 hours out of Wealthwood. What a blast on 4 lb. test! The bite on Sunday for us was deeper with the fish off the break a ways in 23'-24' of water. Same weather so I'm guessing all the boat pressure pushed them deeper.

[Paul Waldowski]

Fished the North End sand today and with all of the traffic and pressure we found ourself fishing deeper than most others and in different places trying to get away from the group. Almost all of our fish came from 26 to 30 feet deep. Best rig for us was a 6 foot snell with a small spinner and a leech. Here are a couple of pictures.

[Ole #1]

Nice fish Paul!

Anyone have any luck on indian point this weekend?

[wallyeye]

My dad and I went out of Myr Mar on the North end opening night. Slip bobbers and pink froste jig with leeches was our best setup. 7 fow on the windy side of a rock bar. We threw back anything under 15" and largest fish was a 19. We were done for the day in 2 1/2 hours.

[fireball]

I was out today with a buddy on the north side sand and found it a little slow for all the chattering about a hot bite in the sand. We got 4 eyes from 20.5-25.5in that we threw back and 1eater in the sand. We tried a couple flats on the north side and got 2 eaters there also and thats it. I was expecting a little better bite than that esp with the nice weather we had today. We were out right at 6am and had to leave at 3pm. Maybe the bite starts in the evening,because there wasn't much of a morn bite at all and only a few fish were caught in the afternoon.

All our fish came from 22-30fow nothing up shallow, with leeches and plain red hooks. snells varied from 7-12ft. Tried minnows with no luck also. How did everyone else do? Is the bite better in the evening or did I just hit a bad day again?

[Sportland_Bait]

We had a decent morning out there on the sand. My wife and I fished about three hours. We ended up with three 14-17 inchers and 5 20-26 inchers. We threw everything back, but they were fun to catch. We were using big leeches on 4-6 foot leaders. Seemed like the fish were hugging the bottom in 24-27 feet of water. The fish sure were hungry. We weren't even feeding any line and most fish already had it way down. Wish I could go again tomorrow, but I have to work the shop.

Jason Erlandson

[gorrilla]

Jason, I had similar results this afternoon(2-7pm). I was getting them in 17-21 though with leeches and crawlers on a 8 -10 foot snell. I thought I saw most fish(walleyes???) off the bottom a ways tonight. One guy had a 30" at the boat landing when I came in.

[Capt.Blaine]

We did good yesterday (15th) 24 in the 20-25.5 range and 4 keepers. Today was a little slower with just 4 in the 15-19" range. Atleast we got to bring some fish home.

[Captain B.R.K]

Great pic's Paul! Did you get out today?! Interested to hear how you did.

Looking forward to possibly getting out this weekend. I say "possibly" because if the wind is rippin again, I won't take my small boat out Got my fingers crossed we'll be ok.

[FIBWAB]

Tuesday 5/16 on the sand of the N/E corner, hit the water @ 5:30am. All fish came in @ 17' to 22'of water. The hottest bite was where the 25' came close to shore and controlled drifted S/W close to the brake line. Boated 30 to 40 fish between the 4 of us. 25.5" the largest, several over the 20" mark. Leach hook and bead long snell 7' to 10'. Ran the speed between .6 to 1 mph.

[ladylikestofish]

Hey Waldowski! Still alive & kicking I see! Loooooooong time, no talk! Send me an e-mail when you have time!

[MilleLacsEyes]

Those are some nice pictures. I think the fishing will be good this weekend.

[LovenLifeGuy]

Fished in front of red door on Tue morning with a little luck but for the most part it was slow. Fish wanted crawlers and we only had a dozen. I let my fishing partner use them since he is new to fishing. All the fishe we (he)caught were over 20 and he got his largest ever, a nice fat one just under 27. Also bobber fished some rocks at noon and caught three right away on agate reef and nothing after that. We called it a day around 1pm. All the fish we caught were over 20 with most in the 23-25 range. Nothing to eat but I can't complain. Good luck!

LovenLifeGuy

[LuckySeven]

We killed 'em out of Malmo on opener. Red hook and leech with drift sock.

[dustywaterwolf]

Yea fireball the daytime bite since the weather has cleared has become a lot less kind. I dont know about on the north end sand, but here on the SW side on Vineland, the fish are still around, but a lot less cooperative until about 7pm. Dont really want to blame the fishfly hatch either, but that has been really heavy too the last few nites. One must keep in mind that the lake is about 2 weeks ahead of itself, and the fish have gotten a ton of fishing pressure all of a sudden and that may have made them scatter into deeper water a little quicker than we are used to this time of the year. I have talked with several anglers coming off the water with fish and since this sunnier weather has come on, the fish have definately been being taken out of deeper water. The evening bite has still been very very good though.