Opening Day Weather

[RuddyDuck]

Well, Opener is finally here, but the weather doesn't look the greatest for Saturday. I guess at least it isn't suppose to rain!

Any thoughts or changes to your game plan and lure choices knowing the weather is gonna be a bit chilly?    

Edited May 12, 2016 by RuddyDuck

[bassfshin24]

I think I'll have the same things tied on that I was planning on and then just let the fish tell me what I need to do haha. Hopefully the cooler weather doesn't change things too much. 

[thatoneguy]

With the forecast wind, I will definitely not be on Leech like I had planned. If I fish at all it will either be walleyes on Cass with some buddies or a small lake closer to home.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Debating about switching lakes and not fishing mille lacs... In which case switch all small mouth rigs over for largemouth

[Nick Kuhn]

Just an FYI largemouth were on beds last week not far north of the cities over in Wisconsin. Not sure what the cold will do, but it certainly isn't going to get the males off beds.

[RK]

If you'd have asked me in mid-January what the forecast would be for this weekend, I'd have said "high of 40, NW winds 20-25."

It never fails...

If I get out to chase bass at all, I may actually look off the edges of some of the spawning flats to some inside turns to see if fish that have sucked off the flat pile up there. Might be a real good weekend for a grub on a jighead.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Going to switch it up from mille lacs to tonka due to wind.

I'll start off with a lipless just to cover water and casting into the wind

[GeluNumber1]

I'm thinking a small jerkbait or a wacky rigged senko for Demontreville or White Bear. Might throw a lipless crank if they seem aggressive.

[Craigums]

Fish were biting better than I thought they would. Swim Jig and Chatterbait worked best for me. The guy that won our tournament caught a bunch on a 14' diving crankbait off a dropoff leading into a spawning bay...including a 6.57# Largie

[RK]

23 minutes ago, Craigums said:

Fish were biting better than I thought they would. Swim Jig and Chatterbait worked best for me. The guy that won our tournament caught a bunch on a 14' diving crankbait off a dropoff leading into a spawning bay...including a 6.57# Largie

Deep diving crankbaits are so, so overlooked for early season bass. Inside turns, etc., with last year's weeds that funnel into spawning areas can be lights out.

[serpent]

Fishing was awesome.  Lots of fish and 2 over 5. 

[thatoneguy]

On 5/12/2016 at 1:19 PM, M1dwestF1sh said:

Very good for me as well. I had 48-49 degree water on Trout Lake, so I started out looking at intermediate-depth transition areas and didn't find a lot. Once I went shallow, it was game on. Caught a handful of decent largemouth in last year's pencil reeds, but got tired of pike biting me off and went smallie hunting. I ended up with 6 fish over 4lbs and 2 over 5 (which is a really good smallie for Trout), all of which came from 1-6 feet of water. 1/4 oz mushroom head jig with a Grass Pig Jr was by far the best for me.

I don't know why it says M1dwestF1sh said that...I said that 

[Doufish2]

28° when I launched on a small lake south of Alex Saturday morning with 20+ MPH winds. But were the fish biting! This lake has sharp drops and I found most fish sitting in 10-12 FOW. Black T-tigged Senko with chartreuse dyed tip was the key. They just ate them up one after the other!  I was the only one on the lake!!! Great opener!

[RuddyDuck]

Tried a little in SW MN on opener with my Dad, but the wind just didn't help with thngs for us. But at least he got out to fish for his 89th birthday! He was pretty adament about getting out and trying. Here's the old codger all bundled up.I hope I'm still Bass fishing when I'm that old.He blamed the lack of fish on my poor skills of course.

 

[Juan Grande]

Gotta love that time out on the water with your dad!

[bklimek]

Any updates from those that attempted Mille Lacs?  Curious to hear what the water temps were and what the smalljaws were relating to.

BK

[Todd S.]

We went to Mille lacs but never put the boat in, too windy for our taste. Wish I could give you a much better report......

[thatoneguy]

57 minutes ago, bklimek said:

Any updates from those that attempted Mille Lacs?  Curious to hear what the water temps were and what the smalljaws were relating to.

BK

I saw pics of some giants that came off ML opening weekend, I believe from the west side of the lake. I can ask about water temps if I remember next time I talk to the dude.

[bassfshin24]

Water temps are 53 as of today. 

 

[thatoneguy]

1 hour ago, bassfshin24 said:

Water temps are 53 as of today. 

 

Oooooh prime time...I may have to run down there on Saturday instead of going to Leech!  Or Mille Lacs on Friday and Leech on Saturday...soo much fishing to do and not enough time!

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Fished the west side of Mille Lacs for about 3 hours on sunday before getting fed up with the wind. Didnt catch anything and didnt see anyone in other boats getting anything either. We changed tactics to fish smaller lakes in the area for largemouth and got into them really well. The lakes we fished had water temps in the 55-58 degree range and the fish were aggressive and feeding well. Swim jigs were tallying lots of fish in the shallows and if you crawled a jig in deeper water adjacent to these areas you wouldnt get as many bites but they would be bigger fish waiting to move up.

[NELS-BELLS]

We fished small lakes this past weekend and found similar results as TurnUpTheFishing.  Swim jigs caught the most numbers on the shallow shoreline flats but the bigger fish seemed to be at the drop off.  We saw a few fish on beds on one corner of a bay on one of the lakes.  Water temps were about 54 on average.

Nels

[JP Z]

From one or two folks I talked to who did fish Mille Lacs it was tough.....until you found them then it was lights out.. Was at the gym this afternoon and talked with my trainer, another clients son was out last night.  Had one or two over 7 from what I've heard...but I need to see picts to believe it.

[DLD24]

Had a blast out yesterday on my home lake...I love frog fishing and when you can sight fish them with frogs it's a blast.. ended up with 2 over 19,18 a some 16s... 

[Hoyt4]

ML was on fire this weekend. Guys I work with caught a ton of fish and smallies were hitting the cranks. Saturday and Sunday they tuffed out the wind and got rewarded for doing it.

Even better for those who targeted Eyes