Northern Zone Bass Opener

[BDawg23]

Hi guys. I will be heading up to the Hayward area to fish Grindstone and Round for smallies on the early season opener. What do you all think the water temp will be that weekend? I'm sure it will be drastically different then last year where I woke up to 42 degree water temps Saturday. If you had to fish one lake in the area for smallies what would you pick?

[snoozebutton]

We've had some pretty cool nights lately but the next 10 days or so it looks like a warming trend coming. Just a guess but I'd say low to mid 50's for water temps on the opener (I'm assuming you're talking about the 1st Sat. in May for catch and release.)

LCO for size and Grindstone for numbers and don't rule out Round Lake. Some of the biggest smallies I've caught were at night fishing for walleyes on both LCO and Round so don't rule that out either.

[BDawg23]

You think LCO has better size structure then Grindstone? I have only fished Grindstone in that area and have gotten into some really nice ones but never great numbers.

How big of fish have you caught up there? I got a super fat 21" last year which was my PB.

I have never fished LCO, probably because it is quite a bit bigger. I haven't fished Round either but have heard good things about the smallies and looking at the map have some spots pinpointed. Regardless of where I end up I'm sure we will be able to hook into a few!

[snoozebutton]

I don't target bass and the ones I have caught are while I was walleye fishing so take my info for what it's worth. Guess I should've made that more clear.

With that being said, I've caught a 19 and a 20 out of LCO and 2 summers ago I caught one just shy of 22 out of Round. That last one was caught at 4:00 AM, still totally dark out and I thought I had a huge walleye. BTW, all of them are still out there.

[vman59]

M biggest came from LCO 23 inch and still swimming I hope. That would be my choice for a trophy.

[DanM]

There is an early and late season bite on Grindstone that can be pretty productive. Last fall (Oct) I had several outings where I caught a number of smallies over 18" and a couple over 20" each time out. The key was Lindy rigging a walleye sucker. Fat heads would not even get a look. I plan to be on Grindstone the week after opener.

[MuntzAngling]

Last weekend I took my cousin out in the Tiger Cat area. Crankbaits and topwaters produced 36 bass on Saturday. Sunday was slower after the rain and got 8 more. Water temps 59 and fish near the lily pads!