Opening weekend – How did everyone do – What were Water Temps ?

I’m kind of curious with the late ice out how everyone did on opening weekend. I’m also curious what the water temps were in different parts of the state. Our opening day went better than I expected it to. With 3 guys in the boat we ended up with 14 Walleyes kept. We also had several over 20″ that were released as well as 6-7 smaller fish that were also released. Sunday was much slower. I think the fish got beat up hard on Sat. and the bright sky and lack of wind didn’t help. I was fishing in the central part of the state. The water Temps were between 56-58 Deg. where we fished.

Mille Lacs was varied from 41-43’ water temp. Fish were caught, a lot of 16-18” 2013 class. Few big ones too, 24-26”.

Sunday morning trolled jigs around tops of growing weeds in 4-10′ and hammered the crappies. Some nice bass and a kicker big northern as well. Going for eyes initially but we just went with what the lake was putting out and had a blast for a few hours.

At a friend’s place in the Perham area, mid 50’s for surface temps. Six of us did well for crappies in the pencil reeds on Friday afternoon but walleyes were kinda slow on Sat, 5 keepers with a 26″ throwback plus some bass and pike from 9-20 FOW. Nothing really shallow, mostly 12-16 FOW.

zooks wrote:

At a friend’s place in the Perham area, mid 50’s for surface temps. Six of us did well for crappies in the pencil reeds on Friday afternoon but <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes were kinda slow on Sat, 5 keepers with a 26″ throwback plus some <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass and pike from 9-20 FOW. Nothing really shallow, mostly 12-16 FOW.

I love fishing the Perham area. So many lake choices with excellent fishing

55-62 on the west central MN lakes I was wader fishing saturday.

fished in very southwest corner of the state. Around Worthington area. lots of fish shallow already. caught lots of small 14 inchers, with a few good sized eyes around 20 in as well. seems like the fish were really schooled up

Alexandria Opener was as good as it gets once again

Our group had a blast! Every lake we fished had temps in the mid 50’s and the fish were on the chew! We were in before noon this year with many of the guys only rolling out of bed at the crack of 8:30… too much fun Friday I guess!

Not a bad haul for a few hours of fishing! We had some nice fish that went 26″-29″ as well. I’ll post more pics and details in the Alexandria forum soon.

BTW: To all those guys that say “I don’t go on opener cause it’s sooo busy!” Try getting off of the 4-5 big name walleye lakes and you can seriously have an entire walleye lake to yourself.

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zachary Wietzema wrote:

fished in very southwest corner of the state. Around Worthington area. lots of fish shallow already. caught lots of small 14 inchers, with a few good sized eyes around 20 in as well. seems like the fish were really schooled up

Which lake were you on? I grew up in that area

Tom Albrecht wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>zachary Wietzema wrote:</div>
fished in very southwest corner of the state. Around Worthington area. lots of fish shallow already. caught lots of small 14 inchers, with a few good sized eyes around 20 in as well. seems like the fish were really schooled up

Which lake were you on? I grew up in that area

Hey me too! I grew up in Windom. How bout you guys? Bit of a drive form Worthngton but I’m going to guess Loon Lake.

Fishing was outstanding as usual on Mille Lacs. The water temp was 42-43 degrees at Midnight on Friday, actually dropped to 41.5 just before sun-up, and the fish were still spawning like crazy with large females swimming around only inches below the surface and multiple males chasing behind. The shallow night bite was tough though as there were plenty of fish but they had more pressing things to do than eat crankbaits.

With our tail between our legs we took a quick nap and decided to head back out for an afternoon pitching jigs… After hooking up on my first cast we knew it was a good decision as we proceeded to burn through 4 dozen shiners in just a few hours and barely miss a beat when we switched over to plastics.

Will

We made the journey up to Namakan and did pretty good. Water was 47-48 degrees on the main lake and mid 50’s in the bays. Friday we did a little crappie fishing with ok results. Friday afternoon we witnessed the walleye right up in the rocks on shore spawning! So, Saturday we decided to fish shallow most the day and did well. Kept 4 walleye’s between 15-16.5″. Threw a few back that were too small and probably had over a dozen above that 17″ mark (17″-28″ must be released) with a nice 24″ being the biggest. Caught just about everything under the sun fishing the shallower waters. Pike, Smallies, Crappies, Walleyes, and even a snapper.

Joe Scegura wrote:

Alexandria Opener was as good as it gets once again

Our group had a blast! Every lake we fished had temps in the mid 50’s and the fish were on the chew! We were in before noon this year with many of the guys only rolling out of bed at the crack of 8:30… too much fun Friday I guess!

Not a bad haul for a few hours of fishing! We had some nice fish that went 26″-29″ as well. I’ll post more pics and details in the Alexandria forum soon.

BTW: To all those guys that say “I don’t go on opener cause it’s sooo busy!” Try getting off of the 4-5 big name walleye lakes and you can seriously have an entire <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye lake to yourself.

Dang, lakes are so full of fish in the Alex area they started feeding right on the grass.

Up on Leech Lake and did OK. Saturday was the better day, we caught some larger fish right away 25-26″ and some eater fish later in the day. Same as fishthumper, Sunday was much tougher. Only got a handful of fish for the entire day, sunny skies and lack of wind plus lots of boats. We did get some bonus big crappies so that helped!

Red Lake was fast action. You could easily limit in less than an hour then catch/release the rest of the day. Or even wait to finish your limit later like we did. Constant action all day. To be honest I got a little bored with it. The fish size never varied from 15-18″. Maybe a couple 19’s but never broke 20.
Damn fine eating fish from there.

Fished Winny on Saturday and got a bit of a slow start only to find a fantastic bite staying away from the crowds. Fish ranged from 16-26″ and were somewhat in the middle of spawning as we caught them. Fished Mille Lacs Sunday and also stumbled into some good action, fish ranged from 18 – 27.5″, most fish were spawned out. Best approach was jigs and minnows on both lakes in transitions areas. Shinners seemed to work best but they sure would eat fat heads also. I would say this opener exceeded my expectations.

Fished Mille Lacs on Saturday. I saw water temps from 36 to 43 degrees depending on where you were at. Around 3 mile it was the coldest waters for us. Up north and along east shores it was in the 40’s

Walleyes were popping #7 flicker shades along the north end break for us. 17-21ft 130 ft back going 2MPH. Healthy looking fish for sure and were pounding baits.

Tried jig and minnow but the small mouth loved those. Popped a FAT 20.5 that went just short of 6lbs.

All in all it was a great time, better fishing that we normally have on opener.

Started off shallow not much action started casting towards deeper water had a dozen bass and northern in under an hour. Princeton going for crappies this weekend