After two months of open water waiting to start chasing ‘ol Marble Eyes, I’m thrilled the MN Walleye Opener has finally arrived! We opened on Mille Lacs and what a great weekend to be on the water! On Saturday, we started out in the traditional North sand spots as did thousands of other anglers. Fish were being caught in 18-23 foot depths, with most people live bait rigging with leeches. We started with this tactic as well, trying to avoid the large flotillas and attempted to find fish on the outskirts away from heavy boat traffic. Fishing was pretty slow for us as we only boated 4 walleyes in the morning ranging from 19-22 inches. At noon, we decided to buck the trend and see what was happening out on the northern mud flats. The fish weren’t stacked out there like they will be in a few weeks but we did mark a few promising areas so decided to deploy spinners and give it a try. This was a good move as we had steady action the rest of the day, hopping around to a few spots we scouted and ended up putting another 20 fish in the boat. Most were in the 20-23 inch range, but we did manage a couple slots for dinner and a nice 28.5 incher.
On Sunday, we hit some western mud flats and found similar action as Saturday afternoon. Plenty of nice fish in that 20-26 inch range plus we got a few more eaters for a fresh Walleye dinner this week. Depth seemed to vary. When scouting a flat, I’ll usually cruise over it first and identify if the fish seem to be hanging higher or lower. This weekend there was a mix of fish on top right on the edge and down the slopes a bit, so we just back trolled up and down which worked pretty well. The best spinner patterns this week were Jolly Roger Pro Series Firebelly, Purple Haze and Sunrise Craw.
So how was the traffic up there on the big lake? I would assume with the gorgeous weather the early season community spots would have been crawling with boats. I was thinking about all you guys out fishing while I was home working on the yard and knocking out some honey do’s!
Here are a few more pics from the weekend.
Hey James,
Traffic was quite heavy on the traditional North sands spots so with water temps approaching the mid 50’s we headed to the mud, which was where we caught most of our fish. At times there wasn’t even another boat within miles and almost thought I was fishing on a Tuesday in August!
Good call. With 140k acres of water to play with and fish using most of it I just can’t see playing bumper boats.
Great report and thanks for the tip on Saturday. We picked up some eaters Saturday night, so Sunday we decided to avoid the shoreline and head out away from the crowds. Rigs and spinners both produced. I should have recorded the image on the graph when we pulled up on the first flat.
It looked like the graph was in demo mode. 
Great report. Staying at Wilderness resort over the weekend I think we where right in the heart of all that boat traffic for opener. The rigs where lined up on the edge of hwy 47 in front of all the major resorts. Saturday evening from agate reef to as far as you could see north there where thousands of boats set up bobber fishing or rigging. Its a crazy scene but it had been a number of years since I did a mille lacs opener and it was good to see again. The fishing was good to.
Nice fish
In the 35 years I have been fishing the big lake, I have never seen more fishermen and trucks and trailers on the side of the highway…EVER!
For instance, 7:30 AM Saturday there were rigs & trailers from Fishers to Malmo! Both sides of the highway! Same thing played out at other resorts. It was crazy! (I have to say, the smallmouth population is in great shape! 
) Ben got a 26.5″ 20 minutes into the season on a corked leech. Quite a large size range in the fish. Many were between 13″ to 27″ with many boats reporting some over 28″.Corking and trolling shallow was out ticket for fish. We never caught a fish in over 7 FOW. This opener goes down into the books as a success! Had a great fish fry again at Big D’s Friday night. Made contact with a bunch of old buddies, and met some new ones!
We had water temps up to 66 in some spots yesterday. Pulling blades for the first time today. Headed out in about an hour. Probably trailer over to the north end with the big blow we have today. I’ll try to check in some time tomorrow with a report!
-J.
Shawn,
What were you using for weight (bottom bouncer, slip sinker, etc)? It sounds as though you put together a pattern that few people tried.
Hi Shady5,
We were backtrolling spinners on the mudflats with 2 Oz Bottom Bouncers. Everyone has their preference, but I prefer the simplicity of a bouncer and they’ve worked extremely well for us. All Jolly Roger Tackle Harnesses are 10 feet long. If a shorter length is desired, it can simply be cut. I run them 10 feet most of the time on Mille Lacs and other clear water lakes as well. My theory is that the bouncer stirs up the mud a bit which can attract the fish to check it out. By the time the dust settles, the business end of the rig will be coming by and that’s when they whack it! On mud, I typically make sure it’s on the bottom. On gravel, I’ll send it down when starting out, touch the bottom and reel up 2 cranks on the reel to keep it off a bit to avoid getting snagged.
Hope that helps,
Thanks for the report Shawn and congrats on your opening weekend success!
Thanks for the information, Shawn. I picked up some of your spinner blades last year and have been very happy with them. You have great products! Good luck this season!