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How did you do? - Post Opener Reports Here!


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How did everyone do on Opener? Lets hear the stories and see the pics!!

My wife and I celebrated Opener in our traditional fashion. Grilling brats at 11:30pm with our family at the Lake...and casting for walleyes off the dock at midnight. We both caught fish on our first cast....and a few more after that point. We called it quits after about 40 minutes...both of us work today. This is my wife’s first fish of the 2007 soft water season....on her first cast off the dock at 12:01 am. It was just a little too big for Lida’s slot restrictions so it was CPR’d.

IMG_6220.jpg

So, Lets hear some stories? Anyone else go out at midnight?

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I didn't go out at midnight, but hit the sunrise bite at the local trout pond. Managed to catch 5 trout within the span of just under an hour. The biggest was just over 17", a couple around 15" and the other two around 14". There was some tail dancing on the water this morning; it's been way too long since the last dance (October '06).

Pretty quiet out there this morning. I was the first one on the lake, and only a couple other anglers were out there when I was leaving, though more were coming in after I packed up. Saw quite a few loons, ducks, 5 bald eagles, and 4 deer. A little early for the turkeys yet.

The best part was that I didn't get rained on and it wasn't windy. I can't remember the last opener where the weather was cooperative...

Today was about as good as it gets: No crowd, a good bite, nice weather, and no bugs.

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I didn't fish the area but did head out around Bemidji with some friends. We went out at Midnight, my first time doing that, and tried catching some eyes.

We caught 3 between midnight and 4am with many rock bass keeping us busy crazy.gif We then headed to another area laken for a few more hours and ended up getting 12 more, keeping 8.

It was fun but I don't think I'll be doing the all night thing again. It was a long ride back to Fargo! crazy.gif

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felt like sleeping in today. so got up around 10 couldn't find A person to fish with me so wind was 20-25 when I hooked up the boat...Threw the ultra light in the boat and took off to my honey hole. Started fishing with my new rod WOW! that is awesome...Gary Roach UL 6' love it. First fish was 18" large mouth...Next cast was a 15" large mouth. Two people fishing off the dock started chit chatting with me. Jokenly they said you should take us fishing so I pulled up and they hopped in. After 3 hrs we had our limit of crappies...11-13" crappies. nothing big nothing too small just right. Sunnies were spawning. HUGE bulls we caught. lots of little norts. oh ya and I got 3 walleyes. When they hopped in the boat I told them no live bait they thought twice about hoping in the boat after that statement. Everything was a jig and twister tail. Released a crap load of them and all in all had a great day. dropped them off at the dock after 3 hrs and they hadn't had that much fun in years. too bad none of my friends were around to have taken them with. Kept 2 walleyes and a limit of nice eater crappies. Got enough sunnies now to keep mom and grandma happy for a few days atleast. 2 of my walleyes were caught in the cat tails.

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Went out to Pelican, another decent opener. Caught 18 walleyes this weekend and released a few that were too big for the frying pan. Ended up keeping 9 for 3 of us, others were let go to live another day. Lots of boats saterday but today was pretty quiet out there. Caught fish anywhere between 12 feet and 40.

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Ended up where I said I was going and the woman outfished me on the walleyes. We ended up with a few but only one keeper which she caught. We fished for sunnies with the kids and ended up catching a lot of them as well as a few crappies.

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I will post a grade for each lake I fished.

Lake Seven - "F" Lots of Rock Bass $ bullheads. Could see the walleyes with a flashlight in shallow water by river but they were not hungry for anything we tried. Crawlers, leaches, Shiners, gulp, crappie minnows, fatheads, shad raps, bare hook, lindy rigs. After 3 hours we went to bed.

Loon lake - "c-" 2 crapies between 4 of us, some nice smallmouth bass, lost one eye. used crappie minnows and gulp for crappies, trolled cranks and spinners for daytime walleyes in 20 FOW. Lost one.

Mellisa "d-" Saw lots of eyes caught at sunset by river mouth but they were tiny. Shame on the people who kept them. what good does it do to keep a 10" walleye (unless your the hitman" Waited till midnight hoped bigger ones woudl show up. Non.

East Silent Lake "f" Nice day on lake, water to clean, not enough wind,(surprising considering the 30 mph gust elswere) lost one really nice keeper eye when someone got buck fever and hit it with the landing net.

Sallie (B-), Caught One little eye threw it back. Got some crappies, threw them back I figured if they were hungry enough to swallow a 3" shiner minnow so be it they deserved to live to fight again. Lots of small mouth bass.

Over all I think we suffered from 2 problems. #1 I let my fishing partner pick the lakes (He is too bull headed to head for the correct lake first)

One was the weather. It was way to nice. I actually got so serverely sunburned it was hard to sleep last night. that's what I get for not remembering sunblock till after I felt the pain.

Oh and not mention we had water problems at the fishing shack. A copper pipe had burst over winter and no one caught it till I tried to turn on water and prime the pump. Had no water till noon saturday, (good thing we are not far from a gas station with clean restrooms) When we got he pipe fixed then we found another leak some were else. Someone must not have cleared the lines very good last year.

Overall I would give the weekend a B. No one got hurt, we all had fun, and it was fishing opener.

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Just got back from Mille Lacs last night. My buddyta nd I went - No joke here - 40 walleyes in two days - average was 23 inches with the biggest being 26 1/4 inches and about 6 lbs. What a fishery!!

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Fished a lake by vergas which has been excellent the last 4 years. This year we struggled. 3 guys in the boat; Saturday morning 3 eyes, Sat evening 2 eyes; Sunday Morning 1 eye.

Not to mention that other than 1 fish, they all came on shiners. Usually, leeches are the ticket out there. 20-25 FOW. 60 degree surface temp....wow was that warm for this time of year.

Paul-

I used to fish many of those lakes you listed...ALOT! I have deserted them only because I have found a few closer to home. Good, good stuff down by Vergas if you hit them at the right time......

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I fished the loon lake by Vergas. We launched at the loon lake resort. Great guy there, he is fixing up the place I guess. One of my friends had a friend from out of town stayin at the resort. that is why we ended up fishing loon lake that day.

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Paul,

Shoot me an email if you'd be willing to talk a little bit about Loon with me. I have fished that lake several times in the last couple of years and am heading there in a couple of days again. I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say about it. [email protected]

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Fished Walker Lake from 6:00 to 10:30 am amongst the many, many people. Ran out of our four dozen shiners, Caught tons of northerns, bass, perch. about 20 eyes - kept 8 good eaters. Ran into Otter Tail for more bait and fished Otter tail for a couple hours - about 15 perch , no eyes. Lots of fun.

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Paul -

Good report....

Loon lake has smallmouth? Didn't know that...I've fished the lake a few times. The fishing was so-so, but the many bays make that lake very scenic.

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Went out to one of my favorite early lakes north of DL yesterday. My partner kept a couple "pretty small" walleye. I returned about a nine inch, very slow, may have been caused by the cold front that went through. Nice to get out again on the water.

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My buddy went to Walker and got his fish as well. He said 75 boats by 9:00am!?? Wow.

I like to get my fish, but think I will try my luck elsewhere with that much traffic....

Brings back memories of Marshall on opener. Speaking of which, did anyone try or hear word on Marshall last weekend?

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Quote:

Paul -

Good report....

Loon lake has smallmouth? Didn't know that...I've fished the lake a few times. The fishing was so-so, but the many bays make that lake very scenic.


East Silent was also very scenic. Very pretty Lake

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Hit Pelican at 2 p.m. on Saturday and had a blast. Covered a good amount of area, but ended up hanging out in my "honey Hole" expecting big results near dark.

We did not see them. The fish were not as heavy as I thought they would be.

Ended up keeping four nice fish between 15-17 inches. Had a blast.

Stopped by Zorbaz to eat on the way back and didn't feel very well before the food came.

Ended up being sick as a DOG from Saturday Night till Monday am. The Stomache Flu -- the last time I had it that bad and coming out both ends was almost nine years ago.

Yep it was that bad.

Glad the rest of you had fun.

I missed all of the Mother's Day excitement and that made my wife and Mother not very happy. Lucky me.

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Fished my favorite lake with my dad. Started late, chasing walleyes, but gave up and switched to crappies after we hooked one on a shiner. Turned out to be the best day of crappie fishing I've ever had. We had a blast, catching our limit of 13+" crappies. Nothing better than paying back dad for all the years he spent teaching me how to fish, with a fantastic trip like that!

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We did pretty good on Pelican Sat. and sunday ran through about 5-6 dozen Shiners on walleyes and snot rockets. Every fish was stuffed with shiners - it was amazing they would still eat with 4-5 huge shiners stuck in 16" walleye's

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I have a place on the south side, about a half mile east of the access on Summer Haven road and it's kinda funny that your fish were full, everyone we cleaned both sat and sun were completely empty.

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Fished Blueberry lake and caught about a dozen or so fish, keeping 5 walleyes. Hit a local river spot and got 1 more for a limit of 14-17 inch eyes. Got out last night and caught about 12 nice 15-20 eyes from shore, all after dark. I'm heading out there again tonight for some more eye action. It was a fun opener, but way too sunny; what happened to the clouds and rain confused.gif. Probably stay closer to home next year and fish for some crappies as well. Hope everyone had a great opener.

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Fisherdog19, Did I possibly meet you last night?

I got out last night and from 9-10:15 picked up 6 eyes. Only 3 of which were in that 14-16" range. There were only 2 other guys down there once it got dark.

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I don't think so; no one was fishing where I was until about 10:30pm until my buddy showed up. Last night we only got 7, but lost at least 8 more. I'll give it a couple days until I head out there again. All nice fish that averaged around 17 inches. If you want to email and compare notes, give me a holler.

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Fdog, pulled a 26"er out of my spot in F-town tonight. Otherwise,it's been pretty slow there the past couple of days; probably would catch more fish if I would use bait...

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Went out tonight for 3 hrs and we limited again on Craps. Had a blast. Anyone looking for a fishing partner next few days should drop me a line...looks like I'm unemployed and might as well enjoy some fishing. Hitman you should drop a line maybe go out one evening.

Code-Man

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The weekend was great. Coaght and released about 50 eyes on saturday afternoon alone. Some of the best fishing in a long time.

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Code-Man,

Drop me a line... [email protected] I may be able to get away for an evening after work this week. Have you had any luck on the eyes?

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