Little Bay de Noc opener

The long awaited Walleye opener finally got here at 2:00AM this morning. I picked up Mr. Larry Theil from Kingsford Michigan and we headed out in the early morning darkness for Lake Michigan’s little Bay de Noc. A cold front had moved in yesterday and temperatures had dropped dramatically. We started fishing typical post spawn patterns…shallow flats adjacent to river mouths, reefs, and deep water corridors. I was surprised at the lighter than normal boat traffic for a Saturday opener. Our lure choices initally were light jigs with a half crawler or leech added in the cold(48 degree) water. It wasn’t long before a young Great Lakes walleye shyly grabbed Larry’s offering and I was a little more optimistic.

Two hours and a handful of small males later it was waning. The wind died completely and the sun shone brightly…not good walleye conditions. By now there were nearly 200 boats within sight and the action had ground to a complete halt. It was time to change tactics…I motored away from the crush of boats to the first deep water break from the 6-12′ depths to 17-22′. We opted to try slowly pulling Lindy rigs along the bottom. This worked fairly well, accounting for a few of the abundant 13 to 15" juveniles.

Finally the wind came out of the South and we moved again…this time because I knew if we traveled a few miles South we may find the "Walleye chop" we were looking for in the deep wide expanse near the Black Bottom area off Gladstone. Indeed we found a strong breeze and 2-4′ rollers! Marking good numbers of fish in 30-35′ of water I broke out the heavy lumber…1/2 oz Zone R and H20 jigs…we opted for some scented plastics to try to encourage some bigger fish into biting.

My red/blk jig and Gulp trailer were instantly nailed by the first of several agressive "eater" sized eyes. The harder the wind blew the more agressive the fish became and the action was hot! Larry and I had a ball with these small but fiesty fighters.

Finally the wind and surf got a little more than I could deal with with my medium drift sock, even with 3/4 oz jigs. So we called it a day…tired and wind burned. We didn’t find any of the elusive trophy sized eyes but had a great opener and Larry brought a nice meal of walleye home to the family, while releasing more than 20 fish.

Don’t be afraid to relocate and change strategies with early season or post spawn fish…it could save the day!