How was opener

[Lals]

Wondering how opener was?  i won't have a chance to fish until Memorial Day. Thanks, Lals

[bassfshin24]

Spent opener on Mille Lacs. Got out at the butt crack of dawn and fished until 11. Best 5 went 26.85lbs with kicker fish being 5-13. Caught three others over 5 as well and so many 3.5-4.5lbers. Most of the fish came on jerkbaits. 

[M1dwestF1sh]

Got out on mille lacs from dawn to dusk and had a great time. The morning was a little frustrated but did get one at 6.04lb. Found a few bedding and up shallow later in the day. My best 5 went 25.93lbs. Fished for largemouth sunday and monday and t was a bit more frustrating. Almost all the fish I caught were on beds but not many over 3lbs 

[roony]

If the fish were immediately released, hopefully not even taken out of the water, how would you know their weight so precisely?

Edited May 17, 2017 by roony

[TurnUpTheFishing]

You weigh them on a handheld scale... It's catch and release season. You can weigh and take photos of the fish you just cant keep them.

 

I fished Mille Lacs on Sunday morning on the east side to try and hide from some of that wind. We got into some good walleyes dragging a football head jigs. Only caught one smallie on a jerkbait and had one other bass swipe at it near the boat. We fished the west side in the evening and did worse. Only a few walleye and pike. All the spots we normally get them seemed dead. What depth did you guys find them in? Im assuming rocks 5-10 fow?

[RuddyDuck]

Went out with Juans group on opener to some local lakes. Had a decent morning, maybe 20+ fish or so. Swim Jigs and t-rigs worked.  Biggest for the boat was about 4.3705lbs, I could only hit 3.1102lbs! Nice weather and fun times though.

 

I tried another lake in the evening and caught about 30. Too bad the biggest one was maybe 13-14in. Most were smaller!!  Saw bigger ones, but they wouldn't bite. Curlyleaf was really bad, think the big ones where buried in that stuff.

Edited May 17, 2017 by RuddyDuck

[bassfshin24]

1 hour ago, TurnUpTheFishing said:

You weigh them on a handheld scale... It's catch and release season. You can weigh and take photos of the fish you just cant keep them.

 

I fished Mille Lacs on Sunday morning on the east side to try and hide from some of that wind. We got into some good walleyes dragging a football head jigs. Only caught one smallie on a jerkbait and had one other bass swipe at it near the boat. We fished the west side in the evening and did worse. Only a few walleye and pike. All the spots we normally get them seemed dead. What depth did you guys find them in? Im assuming rocks 5-10 fow?

All my first were caught in 2-6ft of water with a sand edge. Most of the fish were crushing that edge of the sand and boulders. 

1 hour ago, roony said:

If the fish were immediately released, hopefully not even taken out of the water, how would you know their weight so precisely?

Like TurnUpTheFishing said, you are able to weigh and take photos of fish right now during the catch and release season. This two week period of catch and release just started a couple years ago on Mille Lacs and it started state wide last year. 

[roony]

I don't get what you mean about a two week period of catch and release state wide.

[RuddyDuck]

New rule change that happened in 2015. Bass use to open 2 weeks after the regular eye opener. That meant u couldn't legally target them during that time. Now it opens the same time as the eye opener, so you can target them, but you must release them. Weighing them or a pic, shouldn't be a big deal. Just says catch and release in the regs.

[roony]

Ah, you're talking bass, I was confused thinking you were discussing walleye.

 

[RuddyDuck]

Yes, you crossed over to the dark side and ended up in the Bass thread!   Those other fish. 

[thatoneguy]

Started at midnight on Lake X with Swimbait Chucker. Got to set the hook a lot, but not as many of the big girls had moved up as we had hoped. I think 4.7ish was the biggest...tons of cookie-cutter 2.5 lb males. Really fun catching them on a swimjig in the dark.

Slept for an hour in the truck after that, then pointed the wagon north and slummed it for walleyes on Cass in the afternoon with some friends. 18 eyes in about 4 hours, several pike, and a wicked sunburn because I forgot to grab a hat on the way out of the house. Not enough cover left on my dome to get away with that anymore.

Forecast this weekend looks gross. I might hit Trout on Friday afternoon, and will definitely get over to Leech next week to check things out.

[BTL]

On 5/17/2017 at 0:09 PM, bassfshin24 said:

Spent opener on Mille Lacs. Got out at the butt crack of dawn and fished until 11. Best 5 went 26.85lbs with kicker fish being 5-13. Caught three others over 5 as well and so many 3.5-4.5lbers. Most of the fish came on jerkbaits. 

 

On 5/17/2017 at 0:41 PM, M1dwestF1sh said:

Got out on mille lacs from dawn to dusk and had a great time. The morning was a little frustrated but did get one at 6.04lb. Found a few bedding and up shallow later in the day. My best 5 went 25.93lbs. Fished for largemouth sunday and monday and t was a bit more frustrating. Almost all the fish I caught were on beds but not many over 3lbs 

 

Holy cow what an amazing fishery that is.

 

Congrats guys!