Every year on walleye opener I host a number of family and friends at my house in Alexandria. Most of us start out fishing right in front of my house on Lake Mary, but if fishing is slow we’ll jump to one of the many other great walleye lakes nearby. In the past, opening day has been notorious for being a horrible day weather wise, but typically a pretty decent day for fishing. This year we didn’t know what to expect with the unusually warm temps and clear skies. We really thought our work was going to be cut out for us.
We started out on Mary and boated a few 10-13” fish and a few keepers by 8:30 Saturday morning. The water was like glass and the sun was just getting higher by the second. We decided it just wasn’t going to happen there, so we made the decision to pack up and move. The bite must have been poor for most because the access was full of people loading up.
After all that, we finally got to the new spot. It didn’t take long for us to realize our efforts were going to pay off. In minutes we boated a nice 18” opener walleye. Pass after pass we continued to pick up fish, and before we knew it, we had enough for our annual fish fry. We fished for another couple hours that day releasing dozens of beautiful fish. We ended up boating well over 60 walleye in the 15”-19” range, perfect table fair. We also boated a number of larger fish over the weekend which were all released, 21", 24", 26", 27.5", 29", and a monster 30.75", way to go Wes!
Most of our fish were caught in 12′-15′ of water with a sand/gravel bottom. We were using either 1/4oz Lindy X-Change jigs or Lindy rigs tipped with minnows. The exception was the 29.5" and the 30.75" which were both caught in about a foot of water casting shallow cranks from shore. There are so many different ways to catch a walleye this time of year, just go where the bait is and the Eyes won’t be far behind. The upcoming weather looks great, so don’t put it off another day, pull the trigger and get up to Alexandria for some great walleye action!
Nice report Joe!
Sounds like some awesome walleye fishing in those lakes around you’re area.
Way to go, Joe!
Fantastic looking walleyes!
Thanks Guys! The walleye are still on the chew up shallow. We’ve caught 7 between 25″-30″ the last two nights. Sorry, just camera phone pics today.
Great Job Joe!! Keep after them!!
Great Opener Joe,
Congrats,
Jack
Great Post Joe. I only have time to experience my favorite past time, Minnesota walleye fishing, 1 week in the spring, 1 fall trip, I’ve learned the week becomes much more productive when you hire one of the local guides when coming to an area like Alex, with all the different waters to fish. Each Lake has it’s own bite window, and it can take 4 days just to get the pattern figured out. after acouple of trips where I finally figured out the bite on the last day, I realized a guide service would make my trip be much more productive and satisfying.
I’ve hired several walleye guides over the last 15 yrs. during my fishing trips to the Alex/Ottertail area from my homebase in Eastern Iowa. There are several good guide services to pick from. Joe Scegura has to be one of the hardest working guides I’ve had the pleasure to hire. He always puts me on fish, and i know it’s because of all the research,prefishing scouting, bait selection etc. I highly recommend his service to anyone. He is a great guy, has a nice boat, and is no nonsense when it comes to fishing. He earns his pay.
Welcome to IDO JoeMac
and I agree with your comments in regard to Joe’s quality guide service and just being a great guy! 
Nice report Joe!
A guy never knows what to expect during the opener. It just doesn’t get much better than that hosting a bunch of friends and family over the weekend and having a big fish fry! 