Opening Move

[gunflint]

It's day dreaming time with 66 days to go. What presentaion are you going to start the season with? For me I'll start by trolling a perch shad rap in the shallows. And then adjust according to conditions.

[Dave B]

Rainbow on a lindy slow trolling on Lake Vermilion.

[Jason Boser]

jig and a shiner on cass lake

[The Yeti]

ol' reliable.. jig and minnow combo on the edge of a weedline in 6-8 foot of water.

[Tonka Boy]

Jig and minnow/gulp on Minnetonka. I'll start in 11-14' and move my way out to 26' as the day progresses.

[Mr Special]

Not sure where yet. But I'll probably start off slow trolling stick baits and switch over to jigs or lindy's after I find a few.

TB,

After last year tonka does seem tempting.

[Farley]

lindy rigs on Kabetogama, then probably switch to jigs and minnows towards the end of the day.

[riverrat56]

Jig and twisty tail on the MN River.

[The_Duckslayer]

Probably use a plain hook and a chunk of nitecrawler and see if I can find some of them there bullheads while the water is still nice and cold. Mmmm Mmmm good eatin'! Any one else N Joy the prickly little buggers? Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[IceHawk]

Jig and fathead on the Horseshoe chain.

[slick814]

jig & rainbow, then probably some kind of spinner rig on Lake Vermilion... assuming that the circus ain't on the East end...

[Riverratpete]

Probably start with a long snell rig with a shiner but the big questions is....what color bead? then move to jig/minnow up in the emergent weedbeds later in the day

[Northlander]

Jig n minnows or jig n plastics. Maybe troll some spinners.

[FOOT]

With 3 fishermen in my boat well start with a variety but all using slip sinker rigs. Slip sinker rigs because we were using them on the Mississippi River long before Lindy came around. However, we were not smart enough to market them. Oh Well.

Anyway, one person will use a leech, one will use a shinner and the last person will use a fathead or rainbow. We also might switch to a crawler if nothing happens. Some will use a chartruse jig and others just a plain hook. If one seems better then the other then we all switch or go to dragging iron. It's always amazed me why some fishermen will travel several hours, pay money for a rental cabin, use a $15k boat, buy $200 rod and reel and then limit themselves to just 1 or 2 baits due to the cost.

Oh by the way it will be opening on Winnie for the 35th year. Good Luck to everyone.

[davev]

Most of the year, I envy the MN fishermen. Except in Michigan, our opening moves are a little earlier than MN. The Detroit River really gets going before the ice comes off your northern lakes. We'll be out there with jig and minnow in early April catching the "Big Girls" and releasing them.

[LocalGuide]

My opening move will probably involve 2 or 3 people in the boat.

We'll start it off by trolling bottom bouncers with a 6' snell and a white(glow) hook. On that hook there will be a leech. If that does nothing then I might try a minnow and then mabye a crawler. If the fish are active we might switch over a spinner rig and if the fish are a little more negative I will resort to a jig and maybe even the good ole slip bobber.

I hope we have just as good of an opener as we did last year. That was fun and maybe this time we can latch into some bigger fish too.

[Kevin Turner]

Tube or grub...drifting the Mississippi at Monticello.

[rmh2o]

Midnight on Mille Lacs the wife and I will be watching the stars shine (I hope) and the slip bobbers glow.

[Hossienda]

Sitting on my dock, sipping a cocktail with a shiner and floating glow jig in 13 feet of water. Walleyes and northerns every year without every going out in a boat.

-Hossienda