2016 Minnesota Fishing Opener Photos

And just like that, she came and went. Those who were able to make it out to their favorite lake here in Minnesota for the 2016 Minnesota Fishing Opener were greeted with cold temps, rain, snow, and high winds. The temperature registered 32 degrees at Big Sandy Lake, home of the 2016 MN Governor’s Fishing Opener event. As with many season openers, the weather doesn’t stand a chance in ruining long running traditions, folks will always find and make the time to get out in the boat with friends and family seeking to create new memories and add to their story book of fish catches.

Here are few photos from opening weekend, please share your photos and stories with us in this forum.

Photos are courtesy of the following individuals: John Ellingsworth, Kara Wattunen, Angie Cornelius, Chris Brady, Nick Cox, Matthew Stearns, Andrew Osowski, Dennis Cox, Parker Knudsen, Dave Larson, Trevor Ellingson, and Scott Issaacson.

Photos continued:

Not pointing fingers but lots of bass photos (not open yet…). Are those from this weekend here in Mn and if so were they being targeted? The rods/reels and lures sure would make it seem so. Congrats on some nice fish…

roosterrouster wrote:

Not pointing fingers but lots of bass photos (not open yet…). Are those from this weekend here in Mn and if so were they being targeted? The rods/reels and lures sure would make it seem so. Congrats on some nice fish…

look at the 2016 regs

Catch and release bass season opened on Saturday.
DT

My son’s first eye of the open water season.
DT

Mr. Derek wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>roosterrouster wrote:</div>
Not pointing fingers but lots of bass photos (not open yet…). Are those from this weekend here in Mn and if so were they being targeted? The rods/reels and lures sure would make it seem so. Congrats on some nice fish…

look at the 2016 regs
News to me! Thanks for settin’ me straight! RR

Nice detective work 007

A nice 22″ wally that bit between the occasion flurries.

First eye of the year in Minnesota measured in at 29″!

26″ eye

deertracker wrote:

My son’s first eye of the open water season.
DT

Awesome fish, love to see photos like that!

The biggest of a few hundred Lake Vermilion eyes caught by my old man.

DaveB wrote:

The biggest of a few hundred Lake Vermilion eyes caught by my old man.

Awesome! How many of your fish were over the 20 inch mark?

Just One! We had a few that were just under 18, but the majority were 13-15″.

It was really odd. In the past few years the numbers were down but the sizes were way up. It was the exact flip this year.

The other odd this was that I caught my first tullipee in 30 yrs on that lake. My dad said he had never seen one on 40 yrs. Minutes later, I caught my second.

@DaveB we have heard that the bite has been on fire on Vermilion. The reports we have been getting are same/similar to yours with many of the fish being in that 13-15″ range.

As for the Tullibees (cisco), back in 1984 the decision was made to stock muskies in Vermilion and a lot of that was based in part to the abundance of tullibee’s and white suckers in the lake. I found this information in an online fisheries report from Duane Williams who was the DNR Large Lake Specialist at the time.

I also think I recall seeing a season that starts in October each year for netting Ciscos (Tulibees) out of Vermillion.

Glad you had fun laying into some fish!!!

We would see tulibees feeding on mayflies on the surface, but just never caught any.

The muskies and rusty crayfish have really changed that lake. We would rarely fish over 10′ in years past, now we start fishing deeper and move shallow until we find them.

Crawlers on rigs in 12′-20′, no wind we ran the trolling motor and with wind we drifted at .5-.8 mph. Points and breaks on Leech Lake. And of course someone will say “no wind?” we didn’t fish until Monday-Friday LOL!

@US-Johnson I just arrived back from Leech Lake this past weekend, and it was no wind till Sunday. The lake is tough with no wind, but we still managed to get quite a few fish (second weekend of season).

Running a tiller I welcomed the lack of wind, giving us the option to run and gun. With the temps in the 40-65 degree range for the early part of the week it was still cool on the water. We put on 30ish miles a day the first two days until we got em wired. Still an epic week on the water releasing 6 fish between 20.25″ and 28″ along with easily catching limits daily. My fishing partner and I got plenty of laughs, fish and sun.

US-J where is Austi Mn.? …. rrr

Been a slow start with wind and rain but the bite is starting to improve on LOW. Not a bad fish to start the season off with.

Decent lake George bass

Bill Boyd wrote:

Been a slow start with wind and rain but the bite is starting to improve on LOW. Not a bad fish to start the season off with.

Nice Eye Bill! I would agree that is a killer way to kick off your season!

Greg Perz wrote:

Decent lake George bass

Nice fatty there Greg! I was out on Tonka this weekend throwing frogs and catching quite a few bass. A lot of fun! I think I prefer topwater for smallies over largies though. Something about the tug of a smallie.

I would agree 100%

As Koonce would say, “The Tug is the Drug.”