How was your opener?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Fished a few smaller lakes in NW of Mille Lacs saturday trying to stay out of the wind. Both lakes showed no signs of bass even preparing to spawn, not even little males cruising the shallows, temps in upper 50s. Pike out numbered bass 3 to 1 that day but still managed 8 bass, biggest being 17". Caught them on soft jerkbaits and swimjigs.

Sunday was calm so we headed onto mille Lacs, it was my first time targeting smallies there and felt over whelmed but we did ok. I got three chunky smallies 16, 18, 19, and a 28.5" walleye and did battle with a 40+ ski for about 30 seconds. My dad got one 16 smallie and a 27" eye and got bit off by a giant ski. Not bad for 4 hours work. We were working rocky areas with pointers.

[BPBOB]

Had a lot of luck on the "home" lake -threw a variety of lipless baits in the 8-10 foot area -bass and pike liked'm all. The lake temp was in the 61-62 range.Was having such a good time with the lipless bite ,I failed to really check out any other techniques.Nothing big- largest bass just over 15 inches.

Lots of fun.

[Wayne Ek]

Jason and myself had a great opener on a lake west of Alexandria. A 60-plus fish day. Dropped a pig at the boat (Jay did...) and we had four to five in the 3 to 3.25-pound range. Lots of 1.5 to 2.25 fish. Most came on a weighted fluke. Not many on beds, they were sitting in the 5 to 6-foot range, just moving up. Then Sunday we fished on the lake we live on... slow,slow,slow. Only 4-fish for a couple of hours and nothing over 2-pounds.

[H0LE HOPPER]

Well went out on the same lake i did sunday caught a TON of fish this was my personal best weekend for bass... Primarily focused on cattails, lillypads and weed edges with pockets too... temp was around 61-65 degrees on the local lake... Managed to catch my first two bass i thought werre the right size weighed in at 6.73 and a6.3 caught two more that were right on the line of six with 3 four pounders and my brother landing a nice 5 pound hog honestly fast action but the key for us was calm areas and on the lake by 6 made some memories for sre this weekend good fishing!!!!

[swampbuck]

Was on Leech fo xcell prefished sat caugh 20 shook a lot off.

Sunday we caught a lot of fish released at least 20 3lb fish weighed 27.8 for 8 on 5.2 still 5lbs out of first! Leech is one of the best lakes in the state for numbers andgood average size! Hands are beat up from going through that many nice fish love it

[bassfshin24]

Hit up Mille Lacs Saturday and Yesterday. Saturday was super slow for me, the wind kicked the [PoorWordUsage] out of me. Caught 1 smallie that went about 3lbs. Yesterday was a little better but still slow. Caught 8 smallies with the biggest 2 going 19.25 and both weighing 4.5lbs. These pigs were fulls of eggs. Most fish were caught on spinnerbaits on shallow rock bars.

[corncob]

Fished several smaller lakaes under rainy condtitions and caught 30-50 fish a day, but, they weren't chasing anything, and, needed to be hit on the head close to any cover or ambush spot available. Very little weed growth around ,water temps 58-61 degrees, pre-spawn.

[bucketmouth64]

Went out on local lake Sunday night, caught 2 bass, few northerns, a 21" walleye. Action was very slow. Fish were along/outside weedlines in 5-10'. Water temp at this lake was around 62.

[pascooter94]

I was also there we had 25.11 for our 8.great time on that body of water.

[kittycatcher16]

Had a decent day on Saturday. Got a 3 man limit in 5 hours of fishing. Threw a lot of dinks back and a few that were chunks. Biggest was 19.5. Regardless of how we did it felt good to be back out chasing bass again! Every fish was caught on worms. T.rigged. 5-12 feet in whatever weeds we could find.

[kt]

Hit several lakes this weekend with mixed results. Saturday was tough. First lake was disappointing, got 7 in a couple hours in the 2-3 lb range, but was expecting much better. 2nd lake was a lot better numbers wise but only got a couple in the 3 lb range. 3rd lake caught more pike than anything but managed to scrape together a couple 3 lbers and several dinks.

Sunday was better than saturday. 1st lake went after smallies and got between 15 and 20 but really had to work em. Most came on jerkbaits. Biggest two went 3.25. Also got 4 nice eater walleyes while after the smallies. 2nd lake was disappointing but still managed some nice fish biggest 5 went in the 18 lb range with big fish at 4.25. Again really had to work them to get em to bite. 3rd lake was lights out for numbers but size wasn't huge. Fished from 7:00-9:15 and easily bypassed the 100 fish mark (caught a fish on 15 straight casts at one point) with 4 guys. Most were in the 14-16 inch range with a couple 18's thrown in. Monday fished one lake for a couple hours around noon and did ok. Picked up one 4.25 and dropped another 4 lber at boatside. Ended up with around 20 total. Monday should've been the best day but wasn't able to get out for very long. The fish seemed to get progressively shallower as the weekend went along and the bite picked up as well. Water temps rose from 56-58 on saturday to 64-65 by monday afternoon. This week into the weekend should really see the fish start moving shallow. I've got a feeling it's going to be a quick move and a quick spawn with fish flooding the shallows in big numbers in the next few days.

[Meat-Run]

swampbuck,

what did you have for water temps and what were the bass doing...moving up or roaming, how was the rice looking? I'll be up there end of this week and all next week and trying to time things just right?

thanks,

mr

[Juan Grande]

I had a so so weekend fishing wise. Hit Maple Lake and we caught a mix of about 15-20 bass and northerns. Fish were all caught in shallow on Mann's -1 type cranks and Rattle Traps. Water temp on Maple was in the low 60s. Fished Blue Lake on and off all weekend, caught quite a few small males. Water was 61-62 degrees.

Fished Mille Lacs on Sunday, very slow for us and the the temp was about 55 degrees.

Aside from curly leaf, the vegetation was only up about a foot from the bottom on Blue and Maple. Most lakes must be behind a couple weeks. We found a spot on Maple that had to be spawning grounds (big open shallow area with a sand/silt bottom) but didn't see one fish or any sign of beds.

[Presco]

Had a pretty good opener, was in Canada all last week fishing walleye/smallies. Smallie bite wasn't as good as years past, but we did manage about 30 between my dad and I (about 4 above 18") on one of the days. Started the morning throwing jerkbaits, but my dad switched to a wacky rig and started hammering them. They were killing anything finesse, lots of fun. Great fun to find pods of 8-10 fish cruising the shallows, tossing a craw bait, and see 2-3 peel off and race to jump on your bait.

Saturday and Sunday was back in Minnesota and fished the in-laws lake up near Crosby. Found a great dock pattern and caught about 20-25 largies on t-rigged beavers and rodents. Nothing huge, but good, consistent action for the couple hours we were out. Great to be fishing bass again.

[EBass]

Hit da Sippi and no surprise the water is high and fast. It was slow but managed 5, with just over 18" for the biggest. Buddy also caught 5 and 2 walleyes.

[bemidjibasser]

Fished a couple lakes in the Park Rapids area and primarily focused on smallies. Got a 20, 19.5 and 19 on Saturday with a dozen others that were in the 12-16" range. Sunday was a little slower with fewer fish and smaller size overall...

[KickNBass]

Fished the Grand Rapids area.

Saturday, fished a typical smallie/largemouth type lake with good clarity and a good amount of prime smallmouth spawning areas. Started out at 10AM fishing fast withe spinnerbaits, rattle traps and swim jigs to no avail. Saw a few empty spawning beds. Water temp was at 52 degrees. Spent about an hour doing this.

Moved to the next likely spot and switched to senkos and beavers split shot rigged and a small tube on a Title SHot shorty jig and started getting into them. At the end of our pass through a reed area with good gravel, caught a few smallies and largemouths and then spotted a single smallie on a bed. Went back through and found several more beds with smallies on them. Temp was around 54 by then.

Then moved to probably the biggest spawning flat on the lake and it was loaded with spawning smallies. It was very windy by then so you couldn't see them too easily. Temps got to about 56 degrees by early afternoon when we had to leave.

Sunday went to a more typical trout type lake that has smallies and largemouths. Water temp was 52 degrees there as well at 8 AM. Went right to the typical smallie spawning areas and found a few empty beds but saw no fish. Fished another shoreline, didn't see any beds there indicating that this lake was a bit behind compared to the other lake and last year. Saw a few fish in 15 feet or so but no takers.

Went into a shallow largemouth type bay around 10AM, saw 54 degree temps and single LMs on beds. They were very spooky. Fished there until around 11 and then checked on the smallies and saw a couple singles on beds. Within an hour most of the beds we found in the beginning of the day had single males on them. Checked out the LM area again and quite a lot of the fish were on beds. After about an hour went back to the smallies one last time and two of the beds had two fish on them.

Pretty cool day. Was surprised to find from another friend who fished much farther south than me that there were no bedding fish on the lake he fished...

[JP Z]

Fished in my annual Bass Opener tournament and didn't even bother to weigh my fish if that tells you anything. We just couldn't find the bigger fish. I think I was too deep. Water temp was 58.8 degrees so not great. And I found a leak in my boat, well I didn't find the leak yet, I just now know my boat leaks.......boooooo.

[CHM]

My oldest son and I were on the water by 5:30. Things started out fast but slowed as the morning progressed. We boated about 25 fish, half bass and half northerns. Shallow cranks & swimjigs were the best. A couple on a topwater and a couple on a spinnerbait. Everything was shallow. Water temp was 58. I caught a 2lb 6oz and a 3lb 2oz in the last 5 minutes to win our little grudge tourney. We left the lake at 10am.

Chuck

[funbilly]

Got out sunday afternoon on Bald Eagle did well boated 25 bass, alot of northerns. Shallow all of them 6-10 fow on the kvd 1.5's. The biggest came in 3 fow on a white jig, that bass measured 19 inches.

[Fever]

Got out Sunday and Monday as Saturday was Sectional playoffs for Softball. Anyway, tough bite. Fished for 5 hours on sunday on one of my fav smaller bass lakes in the west metro and only caught 5 fish. All carbon copies of each other (about 15.5 inches) but all came on different approaches in different parts of the lake... Ugh. No pattern established. I tried everything. Spinnerbait, swimbait, shallow cranks, lipless cranks, top water popper, mossy mouse, 7 inche t-rigged worm, drop shot and creature bait, 10 inch t-rigged worm, and some deeper cranks.

Monday I hit another lake in the same area and fished for 4 hours and caught three fish. One of these was a beast though. I topped my best from last year on that fish. She was a 20.75 incher and was very fat and most likely in prespawn. I caught her shallow in like 2 fow on a 10 inch black t-rigged worm. I honestly think the spawn hasent happened on many lakes yet. That 20 incher had its fins all messedup and bloodied.