How was your opener?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

We didnt do to good but it felt real good to be out tossing lures and catching some bass.

I went out with my Dad to a metro lake I managed 5 fish but nothing was over 14". My dad got two, biggest being 17". We had trouble locating the larger fish, though we did fish relatively shallow most the day. Our fish came on soft jerkbaits, and Jig/pigs. Most areas the water was lower 60s but we did find a few places that had beds being guarded by males that we left alone.

[Cyberfish]

I got out with the Bass Putz and showed him how it's done yet again. I got the 3 biggest with a chunky 18.5", a hefty 17.5" and super porked out 16.5" football toad. Got a few smaller one's. Putz got 3 16ers and a bunch of hammerhandles.

Ain't saying what I got 2 of them on, cause it's putz's secret bait. Got the football on a Cubby Mini-Mite Chart while fishing for Gills.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Opener in the chisago lakes area was kinda slow. I hit 4 different lakes on saturday will 2 fish being caught on each lake. Most lakes the surface temps were still in the upper 50's.. maybe some of the shallow bays were just starting to creap into the low 60 degree range. Very few fish on beds, and the ones that were, were small. Bigger fish were caught on the outside weed edge with jerkbaits.

[Trouthunter]

Gus and I landed 10 fish on Tonka. Weather held up. Fished crankbaits on the shoreline. Had a nice muskie follow and one slimer landed too.

Missed or lost about half a dozen others.

[M.T. Bucket]

Spent most of the time coaching my 3 year old on the finer points of casting to the same side of the boat you're facing

He did great. Brought in his orange fishy casting plug faultlessly every time.

Me, not so well. One bass, one snake, and to keep his interest we resorted to gill fishing with a few crawlers I picked in the yard last night. Lots of small gills.

The ominous clouds that rolled by never delivered on their threat, so no world records broken but a great afternoon anyway.

[Mn Walleye 1976]

Fished a small lake with my brother. Top water only. We caught 11 fish, biggest being a 19, two 17's, three 16's then the rest 15 down to about 13. Missed about 20 others. All in about 4 hours. Tried the shallows then hit the weedline.

Then today went out for walleyes with my dad on another lake. Caught 4 bass and one walleye. Three bass were caught while fishing for walleyes all about 12 inches, other bass was 17 on top water over a hump. The walleye was the highlight of the day, she hit in about 17 FOW. Hit my shiner on a lindy like a ton of bricks. She went 26 inches, and was a beautiful golden color.

All fish from the weekend were released.

[Wayne Ek]

Got 22 largemouth in one boat, none over 2.5 Lbs. The other boat got 13 fish, but one was a 18.5" smallie. Sunday we hit the "Chain" got 11 in one boat, nothing over 2lbs. and the other boat got 7, again none over 2lbs. Water temp. was 58 to 60, saw alot of empty beds in the pencil reeds, and ton's of small bass 8,9,10 inch size up in the reeds.

[Ole the Guide]

Went with my brother-in-law on Sat. up in Park Rapids. Weather was cold and rainy. We found the biters in the shallow coves. Caught 11 and missed some. Very inactive. Would only bite on very slow presentations like worms and deadsticking worms. They were 12- 17 inches.

It was a lot of fun throwing bass lures!!

Ole

[Captain B.R.K]

Did ok this past opener.

Hit a few back bays on X lakes that temps were in the high 50's. Started with a baby minus 1 to locate fish in the bays. Once we caught a few there, we slowed down our presentations with jerkshads, wacky style and original senko presentations. Wouldn't say fish were real active yet in the bays because of the colder temps. But when tempted with a slower presentation, it was LIGHTS OUT!

Couldn't complain about our success.....did better than the above reports.

[st.crioxfishin]

Did pretty well in the shallow bays up north (45N of brainerd)Caught around 35 total over the weekend. Mainly on soft jerkbaits in 2FOW in pads and a few on hard jekrbaits on emerging weed egdes in about 8 FOW.

Heres a pic of the largest one - 21 1/4" 5lbs 4oz

as you can see it was full of eggs, released as always

[Ralph Wiggum]

Nothing too impressive, but not bad either. We had numerous little fellows, 2 sixteen inchers, a seventeen, and an eighteen. 4 snot rockets, and I lost a nice northern because I got cocky and ditched the leader.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Monday afternoon turned out to be much better. As the water warmed and the wind kicked up a little, the fish because less spookey and were a little easier to catch.

I did manage to pull some very nice Dog fish this weekend as well..

[delmuts]

soooo; did you lip any of those too ???? my son and i went to the little lake near us last night. got there about 5:00 pm with hopes of some of the people going home at that time. ( wrong!) this lake is only 100 acres. there were still 20 + boats on the water. ( talk about fishing pressure) the bass fishing was slow, but we did manage some, with two in the 4 lb. range.( my son caught them) most fish came on buzz baits later in the evening. we tried a carolina rig, and tube with no takers. caught several on a jig and plastics. surface temp showed 68, but the gils are still full of eggs. we concentrated on flats in 4 to 7 foot of water,and one drop off; since every one else was fishing the shore.not a great night of catching, but was a beautifull time on the lake and we did catch fish!

[Juan Grande]

Fished the Zimmerman area all weekend. The bass weren't in the shallows. Had some luck on a deeper weedline with Senkos and tubes. Biggest fish was 18".

How warm does the water need to be for the spawn? Last year at this time we caught 10-15 fish off the same point each time out. I'm assuming they were spawning. That same point produced one fish this entire weekend.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I believe 64 is the magic temp.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ralph, For some it is. Not all bass will spawn the same day. Many are already done, but the majority have not. Some bass spawn deeper, some spawn shallower, some when the temps are cooler some when warmer. when the surface temps hit 64 they get a little more active thats for sure!

[Ralph Wiggum]

Our's were all caught in the shallows, but I saw none spawning. I think the water was a little chilly still (we were a bit north of Willmar). I know some people that picked up some deeper bass the on Saturday morning on the same lake. We got ours on Sunday afternoon/evening.

[ABASSER]

Had my first club tournament on Forest Lake sunday. Deitz - i'm off to a good start again, won the tournament with 12.38lbs. Fishing was great, catching 13 & 14 inchers all day with an occasional 16. All fish were caught on the Exude Comida - what an awesome bait!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Abasser- I too caught most of my fish on the Comida this weekend.. I will agree, they did well. I also noticed I was able to catch quite a few fish on one bait. Which is nice..

Congrats on the win man!.. Keep up the good work!

[BUSHWAC]

We had a great opener north of brainerd this past weekend. managed 29 fish on Saturday morning by 9:00AM breakfast call. My 15 year old Nephew is starting to turn it on also. big hooksets and the first 3 fish of the morning. I was pretty proud of him the way he handles himself now with 3 of us in the boat.

[Duffman]

Seeing that the walleyes were nowhere to be found on the cabin lake, I'd thought I'd give some bass a go. It's a classic perch/walleye lake 4 hrs north of the cities and I'm plenty happy to get into 1 or 2 bass in a normal weekend. Even when I'm targeting them.

I had a great bass weekend all things considered. An 18"er on the first cast, about a dozen for the weekend including another 18"er. And the suprise of the weekend turned out to be a nice fat 20"er, still holding spawn. My largest out of this lake in the last 17 yrs. The bass all seemed to be in pre-spawn mode, half on spinnerbaits-half on rubber worms. I sure hope it's a sign of things to come this year chasing dem bucketmouths.

[bucketmouth64]

Caught 12 fish in 3.5 hours. All on cranks and jerkbait in 5-6 feet of water. Didn't venture in the shallows because many boats were fishing them. Fish were all small...in the 1-1.5 lb. range. Seemed like I was catching the same one all morning long. Several follow-ups, but again small fish.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Here's my best fish of the weekend. It was 18" and jumped 3 times. Lots of fun...Boo Yah!

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Went out to White Bear monday and redeemed myself after my slow opener. I caught 9 bass, most running 14"-16". Most of them came in the morning on jerkbaits. Once the sun was out and the boaters were in full force fishing died off except for those hammer handles.