So it's raining now but the crappie are still biting. I called all around this morning and the walleye fishing was VERY slow everywhere from what I could tell.

Was out covering the Governor's Fishing Opener this morning on Lake Pelican with Marv Koep as my guide and we pulled two walleye and about a dozen crappie out of the lake. It was a tough, tough bite and they were all being caught in 14 to 17 feet of water.

Lake temps on Pelican varied from 44 to 48 degrees but the fish all came out of 45 degree water. Reports I heard elsewhere from Bemidji down to Mille Lacs were very similar.

I was on Gull all day and the bite was spotty at best. It took all morning to find some "biters." The afternoon was a little bit better, but still very slow. 9-18 feet was the best, time dry everything out, including myself.

We only lasted about 2 or 3 hours in the rain but i'd say we managed around 50 bluegills around or over 8" between 3 of us, but not many smaller ones. We also got around 10 smaller crappies. Would of made for great pictures but the photographer isnside me wasn't too ambitious in the wetness today.

We fished edward from about 6:30 until about 2, not a bite in our boat, we only saw 2 fish get boated all day, I think they were bass, very very slow, the only decent report I heard of was below the dam in cross lake this morning was a decent bite.

Lots of nice crappies being caught (and many released) on many area lakes...particularly in small, sheltered bays.

(I LISTED A SPECIFIC LAKE AND LOCATION in this post and was chastised for doing so....not that it was much of a secret but I thought I'd go back and make this post more generic...if you want the specific location you can e-mail me or look at any Brainerd Lakes fishing book or talk with anybody in this area and they'll tell you the same thing!)

Good to hear, seems like a lot of people ended up chasing panfish when the walleye bite wasn't much to talk about.

I never heard how T-Paw did? Walleyedan, how'd things go?

The Gov caught a 17" eye. I believe it was the only walleye in the boat, not bad for a tough bite.

you are right, the crappies did want to cooperate

We ended up boating 1 walleye, around 100 crappies, quite a few sunnies (some nice bulls to) 4 northerns and some bass.

Between 3 guys we only kept 20 crappies and the walleye. Everything else went back.

Even with the rain we had a blast.

Duck

Left @ 2:00 PM Sunday Quit at 6:oo PM boated 7 between 21 and 25 plus 3 small pike in 10 fow on cranks. Weird even with [PoorWordUsage] weather most of the eyes had the crank in their gullet.
JJZ

Whats the Hot Sunfish Lake Now days thinking of goin out?

How deep were most people getting the crappies? The lake I was on they were getting them in 1' - 3' in water sheltered bays... I tried to get away from the crowds though and couldnt find any. Not worth fishing with 3 other boats and shorefishers in a small area to get a couple...

The reports we heard around the shop were pretty similar. Great crappie and panfishing but slow for the walleyes. Gull appeared to be the best lake in the area. Fishing shallow proved to be the best. Some boats found them in as shallow as 4-6 feet during the day. To get at these shallow fish anglers were pitching Berkley Frenzies, Rapala Shad Raps, or jigs and minnows. A few boats also connected using Lindy rigs and shiners in 12-14 feet of water. The night trollers did pretty good on Saturday night in the cold rain.

We'll be on the water quite a few times this week so we'll keep you posted.

Jason Erlandson

The water in Gull is still pretty darn cold....43 - 45 degrees as of yesterday afternoon. Fished yesterday afternoon for about two hours throwing crank baits... A few nice bass and northerns that were all released. No eyes for me... Hope to be out again this afternoon.....

As it warms up the walleye bite will improve..

I think the reason everyone thought it was a slow opener was because they were fishing the traditional opener spots. On most lakes the ice only went out a few days ago and the walleyes are still in their spawning areas (some still spawning), not the traditional Mid-May areas. With water temps in the 40's you have to think outside the box so to speak and adjust accordingly.