Anyone fish the Opener in WI?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Did anybody go Bass fishing this last weekend in WI for thier opener?.. If so, please tell us how you caught them.

Also, will anybody be chasing the lesser species of fish for the MN opener this next weekend?

[fisher98]

D-D

I went to Yellow & Little Yellow, north of Webster. The fishing was pretty good. Water temps ranged from 50' in the morning to near 60'in the late afternoon. All fish were caught in shallow bays or channel areas on soft plastics in a wide range of colors.

The cool thing was as the day went on more and more new fish were moving up shallow. We could actually see new fishing coming into our area.

The fish were not huge, but we did catch a few in the mid-3lb range....and man did it feel good to set the hook on some fish!!!! We also got our share of wind burn as well...wind on Saturday ranged from 20-30 mph with stronger gusts, and Sunday was more like 10-20 mph with some stronger gusts!!!!

fisher98

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks for the report 98... sounds like fun.. too bad about the wind.. that can make a fun day a lot more work. that is for sure...

Congrats on the hooksets.. cant wait for my first on a bass this season!

[JoJo]

We fished Wapo Sunday. Windy, and the water temps never got above 55.

First fish was a keeper walleye on a red rattle trap. Go figure, our first Bass outing. The bass we did catch had not spawned yet. They were moving up holding in 8 to 10 feet off the spawning areas.

Jo

[ABASSER]

Deitz,

Fished Balsam on sunday, the water is still cold - low 50's, caught some small fish though in shallow bays. It was just great to be able to go bass fishing!

[Trouthunter]

Fished on Saturday, got 2 largies and a smallie. All about 16". Too windy to fish out of the driftboat effectively. All on crankbaits in 8-10FOW.

[Cooter]

Fished backwaters near Alma(Buffalo City) mostly for bluegills but also yanked some bass. Caught several on a lindly rig with bullet sinker and whole nightcrawler. Some on a white/silver homemade spinnerbait, and an 18.5 incher on a husky jerk. That was about all I tried as I only planned on bluegill fishing and was limited on bass lures. A coworker caught some nice smallies below a (Contact US Regarding This Word) on the Chippewa River(Wissota) on minnows under bobbers - were fishing a shallow side bay with an incoming creek.

[Ray Esboldt]

Umm, does walleye fishing count as fishing the opener. Well, that's what I did, and I did it very poorly. Why do I torture myself with those fish?

[st.crioxfishin]

I was in northern wisc., but fishing for wall***s. We did pretty well limiting sat. and sun. For MN opener I will be in the Alex. area looking for some more wall***s and crappies. Good Luck to everyone heading out!

[Lunker]

I fished a little bit from shore on opener and caught one little largemouth. Fortunatly here in Point the WI river is open year round, and I've been fishing the river for weeks. Catching mostly small eyes(up to 30 a day), some nice smallies, a few nice pike, and one nice cat. I went out to a shallow stretch on sunday(day after opener) and the bass were heating up. Caught the usual bunch of walleyes, but also about a half dozen smallies. Hittin white twister tails and craw tubes. Had one nice smallie keep exploding on a popper and not getting it. Finally attached a tube, and bam, nice little bass. Lokin forward to gettin back to my home lakes in the cities after finals though. Blah

[andy j]

I was out all morning on Sat. near Milwaukee. Did decent got about 10 bass all 12-15"s also caught about 20 pike and missed a big gator.

[luv2senko]

Caught about 50 on saturday. Half were probably legal with the biggest just over 3 lbs. Sunday was slower, but big fish was 5 lbs. The smaller lakes are the ticket right now with warmer water and more vegetation starting to emerge.

[HellaBass]

I fished both days on Wissota, thought i would give it a whirl since the Elite 50 is coming in June. WOW, great smallie fisherie. Got into some nice prespawn females. Best 5 on Mom's day would have been about 16-17# Very healty fish and I also caught a few straggler largemouth.

[Trouthunter]

Went on saturday in WI again and caught 6 smallies, all nice sized fish. Switched from crankbaits to a tube jig and had instant success.

BD

[Cooter]

Caught 17, 18, and 19" smallies on Shell L over the weekend. All on northern suckers under a bigger slip float. Fish swollen with spawn. One spit up a few tiny crawfish.