SE Minnesota Bass Opener

SE Minnesota is blessed with an awesome stretch of the Mississippi River with a year-around bass season. However, we have few natural lakes. Traditionally, we would travel to at least to the Twin Cities area lakes or further north for the inland bass opener. With the high gas prices I had to rethink the options. Lake Winona likely started as a backwater of the Mississippi but has been cutoff for years. The lake was dredged, poisoned and restocked in the 70’s and re-dredged in the 90’s. It has a history ob producing big bass. The water is dark and the lake has an early, dense narrow leaf cabbage growth. The edges of the first dredge are shallower but the second dredge has many edges that go from around 6’ to 30’ in the length of a boat. Dredging is not a precise process and the results are “mini” divots and points along the dredge line. Plus, hard bottom ridges and humps throughout the lake. These features hold the quality fish. The lake is small and has an idle only boating regulation.

I started fishing expecting to find the fish bedding but after fishing several inside weed edges it was clear the spawn was done. Swimming a jig over the mid-depth weed flats produce a couple small fish so I move to the typical summer locations on dredge edge. Some days the fish are active and chasing but yesterday it required an eye on the depth-finder, precise casts and boat control. The key to fishing the edges “mini” structure is holding the boat a reasonable distance from the edge, monitoring what happens on each cast, and the ability to visualize what is happening along the edge. If the cast is in the weeds longer than the previous cast you may have a point, if it fell directly into deep water it may be a divot. If the depth-finder shows a shallow, hard-bottom signal it may be a ridge off the dredge line.

I caught all of my fish on a half ounce home-made black/blue jig and Yum Craw Paddy trailer. I only had 15 fish for about 5 hours of fishing but the quality made up for it. The biggest bass went 5-14, post spawn. I would like to have seen her with her eggs! The fishing process is time consuming but gaining confidence that it will work will help in many other situations. Get a good depth-finder, spend so time idling around the lake and pay your dues to figure it out. The rewards may be some quality bass.

The locals hold a Wednesday night 2 fish tournament if you want to try your hand, show-up at 5:30 and join the fun.