Is anyone braving the weather today?

[ChrisR71]

I fished yesterday for panfish. I really want to bass fish today but it looks like storms all day.

Did anyone get out or is anyone going out today? It looks wet.

Good luck.

[Deitz Dittrich]

What a perfect opener. Normally I have to get up pretty early just to get a spot at the landing. I pulled into the landing only to see 2 vehicles parked in the lot. Mine was number 3. I fished till 9am, boated 20 keepers(+12") and probably 10 or so short fish. I had 5 fish over 3 lbs... all were caught on the "Funky Chicken"...

[Matt Johnson]

My brother and I made it out today and got into some crappies. Nothing big but a lot of them. Only managed two bass, both were less then 2 pounds. It rained off and on, not too bad out there. Exude is right, a fine day for fishing, not many boats around

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[BDR]

I didn't get out today.

Funky Chicken?? Is this the new dance craze? Or do I need to hit the tackle shop again?

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

JR's Tackle
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait

[HawgTide]

I waited until the rain stopped then went out for a few hours on the River. Caught 15 smallies in 3 hours, biggest was 18 inches. I think the river fish are less affected by the fronts than lake fish.

[RandyFish]

And....just what presentation do you use in a spawn period that is being battered by low front after low front?

Can we assume that most fish are going to be "more passive" than normal...even though they will be moving into the shallows?

If so, is it slow, bottom hugging presentations such as jigs and slow rolled spinner baits around cover: docks, inside weed lines.

Remember, I am assuming we are fishing during the rain or immediately thereafter -- trying to get some fish while the low fronts are here.

[maddawg53]

Managed to land a few using texas rigging on the weed edges. They shut off when the wind came up though, or was I just craving some breakfast?

[ChrisR71]

I did finally make it out yesterday after the rain. It felt good to fish for bass even though the wind was blowing 30 mph from the east. I caught about a dozen bass on crank baits.

I hope there is another break in the weather so I can get out either today or tomorrow.

Good luck out there.

Chris

[SluggoMaster]

It was a GREAT day yesterday, excluding the weather. Between the two of us, we caught 30-40 two pound+ fish on shallow cranks. The largest fish was right at four pounds. Good luck all!

[Yaeger Guide]

It was a good day to fish, and a better day to test the rain gear and the bilge. All in all, another solid MN opener in the metro. Plastics, spinners and even the rat brought in bass yesterday. Water temps varied from 59 to 65 on this lake depending on location. Big fish came in before 5:45, while the main lake was more fishable.

Not a lot of competition on the lake made the winds and rain tolerable. The carp spawning made things interesting...tried to snag one but I was unable.

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God bless,
Judd Yaeger
Yaeger Guides
(Twin Cities Guides)
www.yaegerweb.com/guide

[Mark Christianson]

We braved it and did outstanding.
3 of us yesterday got 194 bass, with the largest at 18 3/4".
Today so far we are at 99 bass with the biggest at 18 1/2".
My buddie got a 40 inch Northern on a 3 inch tube yesterday.
We have also gotten a lots of pike, a bunch of crappies and even 2 walleyes.
Its been unreal, and I am off until Wednesday. I don't think my thumb will make it until then.

[Mark Christianson]

Ooops. 194 bass was the morning total.
We ended the day with 229 bass total.

[ricqik]

We got out on Sat morning and thing there'd be boats everywhere, ut nope, just 2 ahead of us 3. We boated an average 4.5lbs, we kept 3 of them in the 14-16" and let go all smaller and trophy 4-5lb+. We were amazed at the amount of 4lb'ers that was sittin and cruising along in 2' or less of water that didn't bite. Was a fun day.

[musky hunter]

I made it out Sunday afternoon, on foot since my boat is out of commission, and hit a few sport on the St. Louis. Had a ball poking my rod through the brush and working the current from 3' to half a cast from shore. Pull in and released 8-10 smallies from 14-18". All on minnows and a jig. No walleyes though.

[Lunker]

We were up north for opener around grand rapids, very frustrating weekend. Fished for a couple hours saturday before the storm blew in. Water was very chilly, guage read about 50 F, and very windy. Managed to land one small northern on a crank in 4 ft, then one 15 in bass on the edge of the pads on a tube jig before the wind really kicked up and we got off the lake. Rained all day and the next, finally picked up and went home. Not a fun opener.
Was nice to get out in the new boat for the first time though(21ft stratos, 225 evinrude) thing really moves

[buzbunni]

Hit a metro lake for the opener and did o.k. for a few hours on Sunday. All caught on small spinner baits cast near shore. Seems like the bass I saw were still on beds? Anyhow, missed a couple on a T-rig(I'm still learning, and I will master the plastics thing!). The real fun was catching my first Muskie. A small guy, but my first Muskie none-the-less. He demolished my brand-new DT6, but it was worth it. Clear water made it fun to watch the attack.

Another amusing moment: My fishing partner gets his jigpig caught in a tree; no hope of retrieval so I tell him to drop it down so we can cut it off, I also suggest he drop it in the water to see if there are any takers. Sure enough, the biggest bass of the day has it in his mouth and before I can say "set-the-hook"(my buddy didn't have polarized glasses on) the fish spit it out. I'm sure this has happened to others. It makes me wonder about a jigpig under a thill-type float for a lite bite presentaion.

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SERIOUSLY! It was THIS big!

[Clay.P]

Fishing was pretty good considering the weather. I caught alot of fish in the 14 to 18 inch range. I found alot of fish shallow and a few fish staging on inside turns and depressions. I caught most of my fish on an RC Tackle swimming jig. The rest of them came on a southern pro flippin tube.

[Guest]

Did pretty good ths weekend. Sat. caught 20 and monday we got 14 with my buddy getting a 21.5 incher. Others were all sizes. Almost all were in deeper water 5-10 ft using the good ol white spinner.

[Dan Wood]

Opener was very good for us. No hogs, but tons of bass. It was nice nice having the lake and landing pretty much to ourselves.. Bass were prespawn/spawn in the metro. We got a couple off shallow beds, but most were along the deeper transition areas and deeper beds. I'll post some more info. later on techniques - Catch-N.com Kick-N Craw was the hot bait and typically is for me during the spawn. It outfished everything else 5 to 1. A distant second was a t-rigged tube.

[Hello High Water]

Opener was very good for me. A total of 60+ fish in 8 hrs. Fished a little metro lake and boated 7 fish over 5lbs. Who new top water could be so productive in the driving rain!

[panolo]

Opener was average for us. We saw a ton of fish and even hit them on the head with our baits. Most did not want to bite. The ones we did get were between 16-22 inches with a few small ones mixed in. First bass of the season was a 19" on a white buzz bait. For us the sun was the key. When the sun peaked out the fish got a little more active. It sure will be nice to get some good weather. Only benefit to the crappy weather is that the landing is quieter!

[Dan Wood]

Sun? Where were you fishing?? That must have been Monday...

Man, my arm is sore from setting the hook so many times over the weekend... I know that is sad, but true. I must be getting old

[Granny]

I was in the boat with Frogs on Saturday and like he said we ended up with 20 fish. Sunday the better half and I boated over 30 bass. She ended up catching all the big fish with 3 being between 18"-19". White and Yellow spinner baits all weekend. When the sun peaked through the fish shut off in the shallows.

Granny

[BigMike]

I finally got out Monday to test out the new waders up on the 'sippi around Monticello and it was a pretty decent outing. Was out most of the day and caught 9 smallies, 2 big catfish, 1 sheepie. I caught a handful of bigger smallmouth 3 in the 17 & 18inch range, 3 in the 14 & 15 inch and then 3 less than 10. I was surprised because my first two fish of the day were two catfish larger than 5+lbs - on a 4'' tube!

Not too bad for a day out on the river plus it was a ton of fun to get out with the waders! I did have one beginner wading mishap. I was out fishing along this bar about 30 feet from shore in 3 feet of water walking down current (back towards the car at the end of the day) - mistake #1. First I should always be trying to work upstream, not down. As I kept moving down river the water kept getting deeper so I tried to move towards shore and the bar I was on dropped off between shore too. I had to struggle to get back upstream in water almost up to my chest - kinda freaky! I made it and I definitely won't be doing that again! You gotta learn somehow - fortunately I wasn't washed down river.

Oh, you wanna know where our DNR money is going - I got stopped by the CO's to check for licenses and you wanna know what they were driving - brand new river pro! Must be rough, j/k! Actually, I was just happy to see CO's out checking people - I wish we had more CO's out on the waters!

[panolo]

Dan... It was mostly Monday. HAd to work Saturday, was sick for most of Sunday(got out for an hour and got a few fish. Started chumming for them so I went in). The lake I fished was very stained due to rain run off so I think the sun helped them see my lures better. There were a couple clear spots but I couldn't get those fish to turn on.