WI Opener

[JBMasterAngler]

Who is going out for the WI opener on saturday? This is the 1st year I've ever bought a WI license, so I'm going into this season completely blind folded! My original plan was to fish the chippewa river down by lake pepin, but with all the snow finally melting, I'm thinking the water will be too high for me to want to deal with. I think I might just drive a big loop and check out alot of lakes/rivers and their launches, get a feel for some potential places to go this season. Gonna have special interest in the namekegon river. Anyway, just wondering what everyone is going

[newoodhntr]

The lakes are all locked up with ice from Merrill north. Access along the shore lines are getting iffy. The Wi. river is high and fast right now up here too.

[Nick Kuhn]

Most of Polk/Barron county just over the border will be pretty close to open after Tuesday. I will be out there somewhere. Should be interesting to say the least.

[Rivernut]

I"ll be in the Polk county area myself. Not sure what body of water, just itching to get out.

[Jarrid Houston]

Boy, she's going to cut it close in Polk Cty areas. Heard there is still quite a bit of ice. Up here in Douglas I doubt there will he any open water to venture out onto. My plans are changing hour by hour..

1 May try a river up here, although water is high muddy and fast soooo

2 may travel south a ways. Driving through the Barron area yesterday I did see open water and peeps fishing from shore. Not sure what lake it was but.......

3 may grab a plank and head out to the 20 plus inches of ice we still have around here and set up tip ups?????

4 may just continue spring cleaning and cancel the WI opener this year and get ready for Minnesotas.....

5 - #4 will not happen I will find somewhere to go for sure. It's a valuable tradition that can't be broken. Sucks though......

[SkunkedAgain]

My FIL just said that their lake near Luck is locked up tight with little shot of being open for opener. What luck that I could get to ice fish two openers in the span of a week! This is going to be awesome

[Jarrid Houston]

Sounds like most the smaller lakes around spooner and Hayward will be open

[Walleye Guy]

Skunked: What lake is your FIL on? I have a place on Big Round and I am hoping to put the dock, lifts and boats and toys in on Saturday.

[JBMasterAngler]

Well, due to weather and conditions, I didn't even drive that big loop I just drove around a little in the star prairie/somerset area. Checked out a couple spots that look promising. Due to conditions up north, my MN opener plans are cancelled now too So I might be spending my opener in WI instead. I thought it was interesting that lake wapagasset was about 90% iced over, while nearby cedar lake was 100% ice free (except for some floating ice that was blown to the south shore).

[Dooley87]

My family's cabin is near cable, we spent all friday calling around and asking about open water and found our best option was the west fork of the chippewa river that goes into the flowage, fishing was slow but we only saw two other small walleyes boated all day. They seemed to be spread out through out the whole river and were hard to pattern, we caught all these on my hand made hair jigs

[Nick Kuhn]

Had to dodge some ice out there but I did manage to locate a few bass in an area I probably couldn't get the boat to at normal water levels. Must have been soaking up what little warmth they could find. Caught 5 of them, all between 15" and 16.5". Better than staying home.

[Jarrid Houston]

Saturday was slow to say the least... Weather was disappointing and water temps were cold. Sunday and Monday fish turned on for our crew. Fished the areas of Spooner, Chip Flow and Trego. Nevertheless had a fun opener. Now time to gear up for the Minnesota opener!