Opener Results

[cere19]

Saw no one else started a thread about their luck on opener so I thought I would be the first. Went to Mille Lacs Midnight till 7:30 had 3 people in boat till 3 am then just two of us after that. Got 2 15 inchers and a 21 bobbers went down maybe 4 other times from the fish pretty slow and it sounded like no one really had a good night out there. Howd everyone else do?

[mainbutter]

Fished 8 AM to noon before we had to take out and make it back to town for the gf to head off to work.

One nice ~30in pike landed, another even bigger one took off with the tail end of one of my homemade soft plastics. The girlfriend also caught two nice LMBs on a crankbait and a red eye spoon.

[PerchPounder]

6am - 1pm two lakes three small walleyes

1pm - 5pm one lake 9 walleyes 15-17" 5 perch 10-11"

#5 shad raps trolled 2.5 - 3.2mph

expecting alot more traffic on the lake tomorrow.

[wplatehunter]

The group I'm meeting up with Sunday said the fish we deep today.

[bucketmouth64]

At midnight we fished off docks at white iron/farm lake at resort for about an hour. Lost 3 lures to snags and no fish. Saturday three of us fished Shagawa Lake in Ely and caught 29 northern/smallmouths. Was a really fun day to spend on the water and the weather being nice too.

[Mr. Pike1]

Its been about 4 years since I actually went out on opener. I usually wait and take a day off early in the week to avoid the crazyness. We Fished North West of the Twin Cities. Was out from 2:30 am till about 10:00 am. We got into a very nice walleye bite from about 6:00-8:00 am. Simple 1/8 jig and shinner or fathead worked for us.

I am for the most part a catch and release guy but with the early start and drive I figured should bring something home for the efforts. Me and my parnter took home a total of 7 all int ath 16-19" eater class.

[Bigtom]

went to Mile lacs sat. 6:00am - 5:00pm

1 boat = 10 fish 1 keeper biggest 25inch

2 boat = 10 fish 5 keepers biggest fish 27.5 inches

went back sun.6:00 am - 3:00 pm

1 boat = 6 fish 1 keeper biggest 26 inch

It was not bad fishing, could of used more wind and rain, but nice weekend.

I can't complain but someone backed into my trailer light and broke it. At least they were nice enought to leave a note.

[solbes]

Saturday morning just before sunrise I hooked into a fish with some real shoulders. Same lure, same spot as 2 or 3 years ago when I had a 29 incher. After diving under the boat a couple of times and thrashing around, I had her in the net. This time I got a legitamate 30 incher. I was fist pumping as I hauled her into the boat. And then realized it was a Bowfin. Ooops! Kinda felt a little silly after that, but I did get a rush and had fun reeling it in.

Action for walleyes was non-existent, but the nort's were fast and furious on X-raps casted into 3-4 feet. Every single one of them was on the pause; I am in love with this lure in the month of May and early June. Weather was FANTASTIC!

[mainbutter]

Nice catch solbes I have no idea why bowfin aren't revered by minnesotans. They're tastier than walleye and better fighters than pike. I'm still chasing my first.

[Archerysniper]

Saturday morning just before sunrise I hooked into a fish with some real shoulders. Same lure, same spot as 2 or 3 years ago when I had a 29 incher. After diving under the boat a couple of times and thrashing around, I had her in the net. This time I got a legitamate 30 incher. I was fist pumping as I hauled her into the boat. And then realized it was a Bowfin. Ooops! Kinda felt a little silly after that, but I did get a rush and had fun reeling it in.

Action for walleyes was non-existent, but the nort's were fast and furious on X-raps casted into 3-4 feet. Every single one of them was on the pause; I am in love with this lure in the month of May and early June. Weather was FANTASTIC!

Hopefully you kept it the state record is only 10 Lbs.

[vern]

Yep, probably broke the record!

[mr_jman]

Went to a lake in south central Minnesota. Got there at about 11:58pm on Friday and to my surprise there were only about 3 trailers in the lot. Unloaded the boat and proceeded to fish for 3 hours before getting bit. I was graphing A LOT of fish but finally caught a nice crappie at 3 AM. Then I proceeded to catch about 7 more crappies and 2 small walleyes. Went home with 4 very nice crappies and the rest swam on. I fished till about 8:30AM and couldn't keep my eyes open driving home and fell asleep till about 3:30pm. Woke up and watched the Twins proceed to get blown out. I then went to a different lake to fish with my dad. He musta brought the bad luck cause we fished from 4 - 7pm and got nothing. SO....

I went back to the other lake and got there abot 7:30pm and fished till 11:30pm. I switched to crawlers and was able to get 2 nice perch, and 2 crappies. Also caught 4 walleyes but again too small. Thrill of the night came on two freshwater drum that I was HOPING were nice walleyes. Put up a nice fight but a little dissapointed with what was on the end of the line. Oh well, still had fun fighting them!

I decided to just catch up on the sleep after getting back around 12AM. Slept in till about 10AM then after eating, I cleaned the fish I had caught the night before. About this time the Twins were on and I ended up watching the whole game (AT LEAST THEY CAME BACK AND WON!) then headed out to a third lake on my way back to Tyler. Caught my first fish in daylight... a very nice bluegill followed shortly by a small crappie. That would be all I would catch and headed out around 7:30pm.

Not a bad opener, enough fish to make a nice meal or two (Crappies were large!) Saying I caught 6 walleyes on a southern minnesota lake on opener sounds pretty good, just wish they would have had some size but it'll come!

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER ALL WEEKEND!!!!!

[JBMasterAngler]

Bowfin record is 11 pounds 4 ounces.

[mrklean]

saturday 1 baby pike and bass, watched a group of people keep 5" sunnies all day that made me real happy. Sunday caught a ton of sunnies small one but we brought the gfs so we just needed to keep them happy with fish

[paceman]

Had really good luck on Saturday. Fishing walker lake near Otter Tail. 3 of us limited out fishing from 6:00 am until 2:00 pm. All nice 14"-18". tossed back a 23" eye plus numerous pike and a few bass/perch. Went thorugh a bunch of shiners. 2 of us went back on Sunday and it was a much tougher bite. We only scratched out 2 good eaters. But still had a fantastic opener weekend:)

[Tator2k]

Went out to a central Mn lake Friday night. First boat on the landing at 10 pm. 3 in the boat. Caught a 17" walleye almost immdately at midnight, missed landing another and then dead. Didn't sound like anyone on the lake had much luck. Just before sun up we moved to another lake for trout. Fished until 2:30 and landed about 10 lbs of rainbows with the largest about 3 lb.

Added a few nice sized panfish.

[pushbutton]

my fishing partner is 4 so we caught a lot of crappies and gills....after initial excitement of trolling raps his attention span waned. did manage one northern doing so but no eyes. had a blast in our roughfish honeyhole netting a ton of suckers, and hooked on to about a 7 lb. dogfish that released itself while pulling it up to the boat. even caught a six pack of carfish sat. eve. all around a great weekend with a lot of multi species action and beautiful weather with a very interested and tired partner!

[solbes]

No bowfin record, although I would have been clueless had it actually been the record. The 11 lb 4 oz'er in the books in 2008 was 35" long. Beast!

[BartmanMN]

Caught a nice tan, however no 'eyes'.

[BigDude]

I fished dam where the Rum River dumps into the Mississippi and hooked into a good 11" smallmouth on Saturday. I didn't see anything else the rest of the day, but the other folks there were catching carp.

On Sunday I fished a dam in Faribault on the Cannon River, hooked some small bass there. There wasn't anything much over the size of a fingerling there.

I'm hoping at some point to actually catch something that's in season like a pike or an eye. Hopefully I can find a better spot to do some shore fishing this week.

Heading up to Gooseberry Falls this weekend and Cloquet the weekend after that. If all else fails I should be able to get into some fish up there.

[pikestabber]

Nice catch solbes I have no idea why bowfin aren't revered by minnesotans. They're tastier than walleye and better fighters than pike. I'm still chasing my first.

Just a polite disagreement, but I have to comment, here, Mainbutter. The rivers I fish up north are lousy with Dogfish (Bowfin). Yes, they are a blast to catch, but tastier than walleye? I will man up and say I tried Bowfin, and to say they are tastier than walleye is to say I'd rather have a gas station hamburger than Fillet Mignon. They are that bad, IMO. Soft, fishy and just not good at all! We caught three this weekend (the first of which we thought was a monster walleye until it surfaced), and the groans of disappointment from fellow fishermen proved that we were not alone in catching these guys. Just about every boat caught a couple, but no one seemed to revere them this weekend.

[OnAFly]

We went out for Sunday. Got one nice 22" walleye in the first hour then a couple of decent pike. By 11:00 the sun was so hot and bright the bite all but shut off.

We tried chasing some crappies in the reeds but the wind kicked up and made sneaking up on them difficult. I did see a nice bowfin. When I tapped my jig on it's head a few times it finally decided it had enough and inhaled the jig. Unfortunately, I had 6lb line on and it just ran into the reeds and I ended up losing it.

Those things are a blast to catch, but they always seem to throw my hooks.

[KyleM.]

fished all morning, couple small bass, then at high noon on Saturday picked up a 22 inch eye then on Sunday nice east wend at 1pm caught a 19 inch eye then right before dark caught a 15 inch eye 3 1/2 year old fishing buddy had a lot of fun first year where he was able to hold own rod for trolling.

[Sonicrunch]

I got skunked on Buffalo, Deer, and Bass (chain near Buffalo). Saw a lot of carp though.

[bigbad401]

I fished near Willmar and the first fish I got at 2:30am was a 26 1/2, 7lbs walleye. The rest of the weekend was 'eyes no bigger than 16 in. Must have caught about 10-12 of them. Kept a couple just to eat. But the 7 pounder is my biggest 'eye so far in my short fishing experience. Not too bad.