opener reports

[beeflover]

I fished on Prior Lake, cold and windy to start the day. Water temps were 58-59 to start the day and up to 60-61 by mid afternoon. Lots of signs of bed building but no fish on beds. The fish backed off the beds they started or are they done?

Caught quite a few dinks and about 6 bucks that measured up to the best two were only 14 inches. Best baits were a black and blue finesse jig and a 5 in zoom watermelon black pepper swim bait. No luck with senkos, swim jigs, buzzbait etc.

Pretty much stayed with sheltered areas and banks because I didn't feel like dealing with the cold wind and big waves off the break line. I marked a lot of fish in the 8-12 ft areas but no deeper bites. Fished the bank to the outside weeks lines, most fish in 2-4 ft.

I will probably throw a mojo rig more tomorrow and hopefully there is less wind so I can see a little better. A lot of big carp up shallow and some sunfish on the newly cleaned bottom areas.

[mnguy152]

caught alot of bass in the deeper water in the 12 to 16ft range and the biggest was 17 3/4". all caught off of worms

[ANYFISH2]

Fished a small lake in cass county, and caught(3 guys) 122 bass most where the 14-16in range, none bigger and maybe 10 smaller. 90% of the fish came off underdeveloped lilly pad flats 2-6ft water. The others came from shoreline wood, there wasn't much biting in the main lake for us.

Overall fun first day, expect it to only get better the next two weeks.

[Search Function]

I had very similar results to ANYFISH2 fishing Platte Lake on the far South end of Crow Wing County. Nothing over 16 and 7/8ths. Got fish on craw tubes, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and a spook in the evening.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Of the 15 or so fish my partner and I managed only one was less than 2 pounds and the majority were 3 or better, biggest just over four and a likely 5+ lost boatside. Water temps were upper 50s and no signs of beds and the fish we caught didnt look beat up from spawning activity. We had one spot that was directly in the wind which made boat control very difficult but it held a good amount of big females staging to move up, its a ditch along side a sunken road bed. We did catch a few about 5 or 10 feet off the bank that were probably males starting the nest building or were just waiting for those females to move up. Most fish came on jigs, few on tubes and the smallest on a spinnerbait.

[Markula]

The night bite has been epic!

[RumRiverRat]

Opener I fish a small lake in Wright county from midnight until 9am. Caught 54. Biggest was 21" and pushing 6 pounds full of eggs.

Most of the fish were between 16 and 19".

Used lipless cranks,clackin cranks,chatterbait,soft swimbait,flipped a 3/8oz jig and chunk, flipped an Ugly Otter.

Fish were stacked shallow.

Caught the big girl on a lizard on a standup shakey head off a bed in 3ft of water about 7am.

Will be heading to the lake shortly and will fish the next 4 days

[Craigums]

Well I got the boat out for 2hrs this morning. Mostly to run my Trolling Motor and make sure the batteries were holding a charge. I fished near Lakeville. 58* water temps. Didn't see any fish shallow. It was windy and cloudy so I can't be 100% certain that the males haven't moved up. I only brought 2 rods with me. Threw spinnerbaits and Jigs to shallow flooded cover with no bites. I should have brought a crankbait rod because Im sure the bass are staging to move up. I didn't catch any but my TM was running good so Im happy. My livewell seems to be struggling so that has me a little concerned

[thatoneguy]

Fished a tournament on Leech yesterday...had a rough day. Prefishing on Saturday I had located (with a tip from Meat Run) some BIG fish in a harbor. My partner prefished the east side, and fished 7 hours without getting a bite.

So we (obviously) fished the area I had covered. Put together a limit of 3 pounders, but couldn't find the big ones. As we were working a dock, a guy getting into his boat asked how we were doing. Just OK, we said, nothing big.

You shoulda been here yesterday, he replied. In the evening my brother pulled 3 fish over 20" off this dock.

We weighed 6 fish for 17 lbs and change, which on Leech is about the same as zeroing.

The lesson learned is don't count on tournament fish from a spot to which tourists have easy access.

[bassfshin24]

I had a pretty amazing opener on the big pond. I fished a few hours each day Saturday-Monday. I'm guessing I ended up with 12-15 smallies between 4-5lbs. With my biggest 2 being 5lbs even and another one being a little over 5.5lbs. My wife also beat her personal best smallie of 2.75lbs with two fish over 4lbs. One went 4.5lbs and the other one went 4.75lbs. My brother also brought in 3 smallies over 4lbs with his biggest being 4.5lbs.

But the beast of the trip was brought in by my brother in law. He pulled in monster 6.25lbs smallie. It was the fattest smallie I have ever seen. Length was 20.75" with a girth of 16.75".

Most fish were caught from 3-6ft of water. 75% of the fish came on jerkbaits. Also caught some on a a rippin rap and a spinnerbait. Water temps were anywhere from 48-52.

Pictures will be posted soon

[Jeff13]

Never got out baby came 5 weeks early!

Anyway fishing buddies slammed smallies while walleye fishing the pond.

They tortured me with pics, 3 smallies were 21-22 inch monsters. Three guys 15 fish in 15 casts on one spot, they were packed together tight when they found them. They were all caught on swim baits.

For the record they ate none of them

[RuddyDuck]

Sounds like some great reports to start out the season!

I made it out Sat and Sun on a small lake in the Walker area. Fished Sat afternoon myself for a couple hours and probably had about 12 bass with one going 19in+. Caught that one on a green YUM dinger in about 2ft of water near a log. Had a couple in the 17in range and the rest were in the 12-16in range. Caught them all in 2-5 ft of water on dingers, spinnerbaits and a Brush hawg.

On Sunday evening my daughter and I each landed a nice 19in bass, plus probably had another dozen in the 12 to 17in range. These were all caught on Spinnerbaits in 1 to 4ft over pad fields that are just starting to sprout up. Up north the pad fields aren't up yet, so you can fish those shallow areas that are warming up first. Did see a few smaller ones on some beds.

Another opener is in the books!

[fishuhalik]

Only fished bass for 2 hours. Fish were found in 3-5' under old pads. did best on a Texas rigged lizard. 12 fish, most around 1-2lbs. 1 about 3 1/2-4lbs.

[beeflover]

the weather has been bad but the fishing is good when you can get out there. thanks for the feedback its interesting to me to be able to watch the progress of this bass spawning season.

I fished Monday and Thursday, lots of fish all very shallow, water temps near Annandale were 58ish on the main lake and up to 62 in shallow calm areas. All fish were less than 3 ft. Many on pad knees. Many females still full of eggs. No sign of any wear an tear on any tails to indicate bed making. Lots of old beds look good maybe they don't even have to clean em this year?

Swim baits and flukes mostly.

We got rid of the rain finally now we need this wind to lay down a bit.

Any info on water temps and baits etc keep me posted. I have two teenagers to help catch some fish this Sunday and can use the help.

Who are these guys fishin all nite?

[turn_in_poachers]

I caught these two within 10 mins of each other. Totally worth the broken rod. 1/2oz black/blue jig in the metro area.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Silly question but is the spawn over where you guys are fishing? I havnt been out much yet this year and just today I hit a metro lake with water temps in the low 60s. I caught about 10 bass, all males less than a few pounds, up shallow but I didnt see more that a few of what appeared to be obvious beds. None of the fish I caught had raw tails. Is the spawn winding down or just ramping up?

[RumRiverRat]

The lake I was on this morning was definitely post spawn, bulk of the spawn is done.

Heck I saw Bluegills on beds, usually they spawn after the bass.

I caught one female that was 18" and look to still have eggs, otherwise I caught 6 males between 12 and 15".

Going to be post frontal and post spawn conditions Sunday morning.

[beeflover]

turn in poachers, is that one a those two piece rods?

[beeflover]

turn up the fishing, rum river guy thinks the spawn is over. Usually this time of year that would be the case.

On the other hand I'm catching many females full of eggs and the milt is not exactly streaming out of the bucks. I'm still fishing very shallow patterns.

Weeds are way behind too is what I see, hope we get more on the water feedback from other folks.

[Superduty]

Fish are in all phases of prespawn, spawn, and postspawn right now. I have caught fish in all three phases on the same large Wright county lake the last two days. It makes sense that on a small shallow lake the bass might be mostly done spawning already. On the larger lakes, many of the fish have found the warmer water and got the job done. The fish that remained in main lake areas havn't spawned yet. Very little weed growth compared to a normal year has been my observation.

[RumRiverRat]

Should have stayed in bed this morning.

Fishing has been tough.

The lake I am on is small and shallow 75% of the lake is less than 12 feet deep. On the same lake as yesterday.

The lake is incredibly clear, which is highly abnormal.

Whole lot of curly leaf pond weed growing, which will die soon because they sprayed Thursday.

Eating a sammich and contemplating my next move.

The sooner I get home, the sooner I have to mow and do yard work. May take a nap in the boat to delay that.

[RuddyDuck]

That's not the kinda report I want to here RRR! I'll be heading out around 10am this morning, maybe things will heat up a little by then. I was out on Pelican yesterday for a few hours. Only got 2 bass but one was over 4 and the other one was over 4.5lbs. The 4lb might of been in spawn yet, as it had a fat belly and was only 18in long. Lost one other one as somehow I didn't have my reel seated good and my reel flew off when I set the hook! What the @#$@! Lost the fish, but didn't lose the reel.