2014 Bass Opener; how did everyone else do?

My 2014 MN Bass opener started with a blast

Started the season on my favorite metro Bass lake. I think the warmer weather we had this previous week really got everything stabilized; I found the water temps around 65 degrees today. I also think here was a mix of both pre spawn, spawn, and post spawn fish.

My big fish for the day was just shy of 22″; I also caught a couple 21″s and a pile between 17″ to 20″. I didn’t weigh the one close to 22″ but I’ll bet she was real close to 6 lbs.

Top baits were chatterbaits and dropshots. Still learning how to fish chatterbaits. Sometimes the bites feel like a snag, while other times a gentle loading of the rod.

How did everyone else do??

I had my best opener ever. I also was on a favorite metro area Bass lake, and I got there very early. It’s been months since I’ve had an 8 weight fly rod in my hands throwing big old Bass Bugs in the early morning hours and I missed it!

Everything I caught this morning was on top waters. Poppers and Dahlberg Divers, and most of the fish were in skinny water along inside weedlines. In the first hour alone I had over a dozen fish like the ones pictured. It was nuts! I’ve caught bigger Bass in my time, but I’ve never had that many “good” fish come to hand in such a short period of time.

What a great start to the season

Rootski

Nice job KWP!
Our water temps here are low 50s yet

Also opened on a metro bass lake. Did decent. Caught between 20-25 fish. 5 over 17″ with 19 being the largest. All fish shallow on stick worms. Spawn about over on the lake I was on. Most beds were empty. Had 65-67 deg. Water temps. I could not believe that it came up that much in 1 week.

Fishing was good and not as much boat traffic as I thought there would be. Everything seemed to be working for me today, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, senkos, and jigs. Most of the nicer fish came out of 10-12 feet of water, full of eggs still.

Can’t believe she held it by herself. Very proud moment for dad. 18.5″, water temp on Hackensack area lake was 60-64,68 by river inlet.

Nice Fish Everyone

My Bass Opener has sucked so far and I’m not sure what happened. I’d been catching a mixed bag of eye, pike, and largemouth every morning this week at the shore spot I’d be fishing because I don’t have the boat out of storage yet. On Friday morning it was the same thing with 2 guys in a boat also catching a bunch of bass and pike in the same general area. On Friday night I went to check things out and I got 1 bass, 2 pike, and 5 walleye and I had several hits that I didn’t see what they were.

I was on the lake before sun up to be sure to get the spot I wanted to fish. Turns out my worries about getting the spot I wanted were unfounded. On my first throw with a chatterjig I got 16″ fish. I thought it was gonna be on. Didn’t get another bite on that, so I switched to a craw tube and quickly got bit off. I re-tied and got nothing. The boater who had been in the area the day before showed up and all I saw him catch was a dogfish. For the morning I caught just 4 bass and 8 northern and 1 other guy got 3 bass and a panfish fisherman got 1 bass. On Sunday morning I only got 1 bass and 5 pike. The only thing I can come up with is the water level is falling and the increase in boat traffic through the area starting Friday Night drove most of the bass that were in the area out, but it didn’t seem to effect the pike one bit.

Last year the increase in boat traffic didn’t seem to make a difference in this spot.