Minnows, Worms, Leeches?

[loebs93]

I'm just fine tuning my "attack plan" for the opener in just a couple of days (hee haw) and I'm just wondering what baits you will be picking up for the opener and how you will be applying them.

I'm thinking about getting some fatheads and large leeches for jigs and spinner rigs.

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[Ole #1]

Shiners, lots of them.

Jig w/ shiner during morning and day, slip bober with shiner at night.

[eyepatrol]

There will be three of us going. In a way that's nice 'cause we can each use something different. My dad's a crawler man, and my brother-in-law will use whatever I suggest since he's not a real big fisherman. So I'll probably put him on a jig/minnow (fathead) combo and I'll proabably use a jig/leech combo. Whoever gets the first two fish, that's what we'll switch to unless we are all catching them and it doesn't seem to matter what we use. My experience has been jig/minnow combo works best this time of year.

[island guy]

I don't fish the opener. Too many people for me. I'll go out on Momday with a box full of jigs I made over the winter. I havn't bought bait in years. I've found I do as well just sticking with artificials as I did when I was forking out too much money for live bait.

[eyepatrol]

The cost of bait in my home town isn't too bad. It's $2.25 for a scoop of minnow, one dozen leeches or one dozen crawlers. The crawlers we get ourselves my picking them out of the yard at night. So, for the 6 or 8 times I fish in the summer, it costs about $20 or so a summer for bait. Not bad IMO.

[james_walleye]

I used too pick up a couple hundred crawlers every spring but now im married and my wife dont like them in the fridge! I'm thinking about buying a little dorm size fridge, probably pay for pretty easy in no time.

Loebs im fishing Madison Lake by Mankato and i think i'll have fatheads, leeches, and crawlers around. But i'd imagine if you were fishing farther up north minnows would be the way too go. Actually im going out right away at midnight and we are going too cast cranks all night so hopefully we wont be using any live bait that first night.

[riverrat56]

I'll be using Fatheads on jigs or lindy rigs, or maybe some night crawlers. I shy away from leeches, to spendy and dont produce for me around here anyways. Usually i just use artificials, but sometimes in the early part of the season bait just seems to work better.

[2dalake]

I dunno guys, the water is warming so quick this year I may just skip the shiners and go straight to leeches. I have not heard of a lake that's under 50 degrees anymore.

[fishkid]

last year we cought tons of walleyes right off our dock. we had about 9 people off 2 small docks and everybody picked what they wanted and cought fish. didnt seem like it really mattered too much. i like to use leeches of minnows and crawlers under a bobber.

[Captain B.R.K]

I'll be using fatheads!

The only way to go on opener. Once the water temps start goign up and get a bit warmer, then I tend to go with crawlers and leeches.

[Guest]

Jigs with minnows the first week or so,then I go with crawlers and leeches.If the water temps are pretty warm then Ill go with spinners and leeches and crawlers trolling very slow right away.Almost always jigs with minnows or plastic the first week.Good Fishing

[basscrazy]

Ill throw every lure/setup at them but mainly live bait. Thank God for electronics to make sure that im not waste my time. Where would fishing be without Depthfinders, GSPs, Vexlars and AquaVu??? I wonder how grandpa ever caught the fish he tells me about, if true he puts us to shame.

[cmoredrakes]

Leeches under corks, fatheads and cralwers for lindy-rigs and jiggin'. Leeches work for lindy's but, if you go too fast the leech will spin and the fish don't like that.

[island guy]

I remember fishing Ottertail with my grandpa. He had a 25' pole marked off every 6". We would troll, and every now and then he would kick off the pole to check the depth. Mostly he just used landmarks. He could follow structure like no one I've ever seen just using the landmarks. He fished this way till 1996 when he could no longer get in the boat. He lived on Ottertail for 50 years. We bought him a depth finder for Christmas one year. It never got out of the box. He saw no need for it. I wished I would of paid more attention to his "spots". Probably couldn't find em anyway. I remember him telling me a lot of his spots weren't much bigger than his lot. He would motor right to them.

Great memories!!

[waskawood]

Quote:

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I remember fishing Ottertail with my grandpa. Great memories!!

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Really, isn't this the reason that we should be doing it? We can eat the fish but no one can ever take our memories away from us. Thanks for the nice post.