Opener Reports

[mojoputter]

Was on Turtle lake with my son for about 5 hrs and got about 20 bass and a couple northerns and lost about 6. All thats in that lake is 1- 1 1/2 pounders, has anyone seen anything bigger then 2 pounders in that lake..? Not like you have to tell me where I just want to know that I may have a chance to catch something a little bgger then 1 lb bass all the time. Good day of fishing though, caught most of them on texas rig and a few on spinners.

[fishcast]

All thats in that lake is 1- 1 1/2 pounders, has anyone seen anything bigger then 2 pounders in that lake..?

I have only fished it once on open water for a couple hours, but got a couple over 16" mixed in with the small ones midsummer out deep, and I know someone that catches 18" and larger fairly often.

For opener I was on an ultra cler lake and for the first two hours got a lot of hits and caught a few small fish on floating raps. When the sun was up the shallow bite was about gone there probably cause its so clear with only minimal cover. Moved out to about 7-10 fow with light cabbage coming up with light tube jigs and caught a number of small ones, but nothing over 16.5".

[evinrude19]

i had a really good opener on saturday i boated around 40 fish and the biggest being around 7 pounds and 21 inches and the average 2 - 2.5 pounds wacky rigged senko worked really good

[MinnesotaMongo]

Sounds like lots of Bill Dance-like talk around here.....

[MNBassGuy]

Great day on West Metro lake Saturday! Brought in about 50 fish (3 guys in my boat) with about 20 over 3 pounds. Got one big girl that went just over 5. Bigger fish came on jigs with Guide Series craw trailers tipped with orange dye on the claw tips. Got a few smaller males cruising around on a Money Minnow, and then a bunch on a Gambler blade bait (their version of a chatterbait).

Good to get back out on the water!!

[bassNspear]

man, sounds like everyone had a pretty good opener for 2008. I wish i would have been able to get out, but since i had to work, it wasnt the best weekend to try and get out.

[SledNeck]

right away in the morning I had a 6 + pounder(largemouth) jump and spit my jig n pig. It was horrific, like watching your own dog get run over. Its gonna ruin my whole whole week.

[tweedlap]

Sledneck,

Great visual..very funny !

tweed

[Royce Aardahl]

right away in the morning I had a 6 + pounder(largemouth) jump and spit my jig n pig. It was horrific, like watching your own dog get run over. Its gonna ruin my whole whole week.

you'll find no sympathy here sledneck

[st.crioxfishin]

I had a pretty good bass opener weekend as well. I was up north for saturday and sunday. And then fished a metro lake today.

Up north most fish were still prespawn depending on where you were on the lake. Shallow bays were productive using flukes, swimbaits, and stick worms. On the main lake flats rattle traps and swimbaits produced the best results.

In the metro today I caught a majority of the fish on weightless stick worms fished on the inside weedlines. Water temps were 62-63 degrees today and I did see some fish on beds and some just cruising the shoreline.

[Lunker]

I fished a small lake in Itasca county saturday morning and evening.The lake is small, weedy, shallow, and was fairly clear.

Fish were prespawn, but barely. I saw no beds, but the fish had moved shallow. They were not hanging to structure and had spread out on the shallow areas, so I'm pretty sure they were close to making beds. Caught all fish in 1-4 feet of water. If I went deeper, all I caught were pike.

The action wasn't furious, but there was a nice average size. Caught 8 bass, 5 pike in the morning by myself, and 6 bass, 2 pike in the evening with my brother. All bass were 15-18.5", And most of the 16"+ fish were fat with spawn.

Out of the 14 bass, 2 were caught on a 4" watermelon/cream senko, 1 on a 6" baby-bass colored soft-jerkbait, and the rest on spinner baits (chartreuse, white) fished over and through the emerging pad beds. Most of the fish came out of creek/creek-mouth areas with pads being the primary live vegetation with a lot of last years dead grass mixed in. I could see some activily feeding fish in about a foot of water, but they were being very spooky and picky with my plastics.

The only congregated fish we caught were 4 that came out of a 4 ft deep pool caused by a beaver dam in a creek.

[RK]

Hiya -

Pretty fun opener. Only got out in the morning Sat and Sun because of family stuff (not to mention 40mph gusts on Sat evening.... I like wind, but that was a bit much...)

Sat AM I ended up with 18-20 smallies, with a couple nice ones (19 and 18 inchers). Water was all of 49 degrees, so fish had just come in I think. Took me a while to find them. Caught a few on top of a rock reef, then found them more concentrated on sand/gravel in 3-7 feet of water. Seemed like small groups of fish milling around, because you'd catch 2-3 in a half dozen casts, then not catch another fish for 50 yards. Caught 3 while only making one cast at one point. Hooked fish came in with 2 others following. Unhooked the fish, dropped the jig below the boat, caught one of his buddies, unhooked him, and caught the third. Caught a couple fish on a jerkbait, but most came swimming a 3" smoke grub.

Sunday I took the wife and kids out for a couple hours and we had similar results. Wife and I caught fish swimming grubs and 4" jigworms, and my girls each caught a few on wacky-rigged Dingers below adjust-a-bubble bobbers. (If you bass fish with kids, a wacky rigged stick bait and an adjust-a-bubble half full of water is awesome...)

I would say the fish were pretty early pre-spawn. Most of the shallow fish were smaller males, and the bigger fish were all singles deeper and closer to the main lake. Not big numbers of fish shallow, and the ones that were there were in small groups.

All in all, probably ended up with 35 or so smallies for the two mornings. Pretty nice way to start the season.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[goblueM]

went back out from 9-3 today on a small metro lake in the canoe. Wind was tricky and seemed to screw us no matter what we did. Ended up just crashing in the cattails and fishing the slop and did very well. 15-20 bass (lost count), smallest was about 14 inches, biggest 18.5 and 3.9 pounds. Most fish came on 7" power worms (texas rigged with 1/16th ounce bullet weight) with some red in them, whether it was red shad, tequila sunrise, or midnight fire. Got the biggest on a spinnerbait, couple on a rattle trap. Biggest fish of the day got off after wrapping around a cattail on the hookset, prolly went 20. Fun day though, it was fun hauling nice feisty fish out of skinny water. BTW water temps were about 66-67 according to my pocket thermometer. Might have some pics up tomo, too late to do it tonight

[Juan Grande]

I managed to get out Sat. and Mon. for a few hours each day. Water temp was around 62 and bass didn't seem very active.

I threw spinnerbaits, cranks and senkos from about 8' of water in and caught a few shorts and a couple decent fish (about 2 lbs).

The lake I fished usually has a ton of curly leaf pond weed by now, but I couldn't find much. There was no emergent vegetation either. There's a point that I've had some luck on in the spring. I expected the fish to be on that point spawning this weekend, but they were no where to be found.

What point in the spawn would the bass likely be at with 62 degree water?

[jalberg]

I fished various metro area lakes this weekend. Put in close to 40 hours on the water. I found that the big fish were spawned out and in slightly deeper water adjacent to spawning areas. Only small bass were left on a few beds. Most beds were empty. I got my biggest fish Saturday at around 5:30AM as the sun was coming up. It was just shy of 22 inches but only 5lb 8oz. I also got a 21 incher Sunday and another spawned out 21.5 on Monday morning. This leaves me asking a question.

How much weight does a bass lose/gain between prespawn, spawn and fall?

[Andrew Erickson]

i was fishing from shore on independence and caught 2 small bass on a spinnerbait.Had alot of muskies follow my bait up to the dock to.

[B@ssmaster]

I fished a small lake near Walker. Water temps 58-64 degrees. Managed only a total of 4 hours serious bassin' all weekend, landed 21 bass, most all between 15-18". About half dozen snot rockets to boot. A wide variety of plastics/presentations and jigs did nothing. All fish on spinner baits. Very little nesting activity yet, fish seemed to be staging in 4' - 8' deep weed choked bays. Lots of cabbage/pad fish.

[ALL_IN]

I headed up to Sauk Lake, and fished hard. Found the bass in the weed lines and they seemed to favor the spinner baits. I actually had my BEST luck on a secret weapon spinner bait. THANKS HELLA!!!

Fished hard and boated 9 on Saturday, Sunday was wet and rainy ended up fishing pannies later in the day (family time). Monday was cool and we packed up and headed home.

First fish of the day hit a double willow green and white spinner 8FOW, 19 inch largemouth! What a way to start the YEAR!

ALL-IN

[Lunker]

Not quite an opener report but I wade fished a small south metro lake yesterday and it was slow. I think that cold front didn't help, and the lake I fished had basically zero weed growth so far.

Managed 2 small bass on a spinnerbait and lost 1 nice fish and one small fish. Also caught one small pike.

Saw a handful of beds, all deserted.