With the first day of the Minnesota fishing opener out of the way we can now sit back and relax... not! The fishing has only begun and its time to have more fun out there!

So, how did everyone's first day of opener go?

I spent some time in the Chisago area yesterday morning with my old man and we stumbled across a nice pod of shallow water walleye. We threw the new 2" Mister Twister Mino, the 2.5" Gulp minnows and the 2" Berkley Power Minnows at them on 1/16oz or 1/32oz jigs. They definitely preferred something smaller in profile that fell slow.

Any sort of rocky or gravel areas were key if available, or else a mix of weeds kicked out a few fish too. Depths no deeper than 5 feet.

Fished from about 6:30am-11am and boated a total of 17 walleye with the biggest coming in at a hair under 25-inches. Here's a couple pictures...





Not too many females mixed in, a lot of skinnier males for the most part. Also noticed that you sorted through a bunch of smaller bass in all the spots that we landed walleye.

As for bonus fish we also landed a couple nice gills and about a 4 pound bass. The slack water on the points produced a lot of crappies too, but most were 7-9 inches and not a single walleye came from an area where there was an influx of crappies so those spots were short lived.

We tried throwing cranks at a few of the fish but no takers, not even a slimy pike. Small-profiled plastic minnows were the ticket. Tie on a small white tubes if you want panfish

We made it off the lake before the weather came through, started to rain on the way home

Hope everyone had a safe and fun first day of fishing! Good luck the rest of the weekend and the rest of the season!

Let's see some pics and reports!

nice fish did you keep a few the the table?

Very nice fish Matt, I was across the street at Green. Managed 2 Walleyes 16 & 16 1/2 and a few small northerns.DNR was on site doin their job said he hadn't seen any eyes come thru all day. As I loaded up the boat we watched him nail the boat behind us bringing in a whole stringer of very nice large mouths. Why are some people so ignorant to not know the regulations before they go out????

17 Walleyes on Chisago? I'm shocked! I live on the lake, had five boats out there on and off from 12am - 6pm Saturday, tried everywhere and tried everything and managed 4 walleyes. Besides that I know noone that did any better. Heard there was a little better bite on Green but they were running a little on the smaller side.

We kept a few for the table. Gave my mom a nice Mother's Day dinner

There sure were a lot of boats on Chisago, but everyone was fishing deeper structure and isolated structure. I tried out on those spots and couldn't get a bite. I counted 11 boats on one piece of structure but didn't watch any hooksets. We caught all of our fish in less than 5 feet of water and with small presentations.

Chartruese was the dominant color by far and don't be afraid to snap-jig. A lot of people slowed down due to the weather and water temps, but I found that snappin' the jig and then letting it slowly fall was the ticket. We didn't even tie on a spinner-rig, it was all jiggin' for the most part on non-classic spots butted up against the shoreline... found the 1-degree bump in water and found the fish...

What temp were you getting?

Great Report Matt,

I am jealous on them walleyes....

I hit the water (Tonka) with my dad also on opener targeting crappies and managed to keep him busy. He ended up catching the big crappie of the day.... Great to go out fishing with the guy who got me hooked (Literally) on fishing. Just to think 20 years ago I thought he knew everything about fishing. Well Times have changed and he is so excited to hit the water with me. Good stuff......

No pictures but great conversation in the boat.

PS. Missed the Turtle Lake UPL this year. Also noticed you live in the same city I do. Might have to exchange some converstaion sometime.

Good Luck....
Andy

i didnt get to get out, as i had the bachlor party this weekend. Looks like you had a awesome weekend matt. Glad to see that you were putting some time and effort into getting out on the lake. Glad some success bro!!

I found some water to be in the upper 50's, at least in the spots I found walleyes. I did find low 60's back in the shallow bays but only stunted gills and crappies in there. 54-56 degrees seemed to be the norm for mainlake...

Andy,
Yep, no UPL this past winter. Needed to take a year break. With the new addition to the family my time was limited I did fish Turtle a few times though and it was slower than years past. Had to work a lot harder for fish. And yes, I moved out to Blaine last fall. We'll have to get together one of these days bud...

Nice report Matt. Is that the lake you took us ice fishing on last winter around Christmas with John, Paul, and my son Tom?
We were up on Mille Lacs and caught 8 with 2 keepers, the rest were 24 - 26 and went back in the lake, one smallie also. I too did have some luck ripping a jig and minnow.

I ventured Northwest from the cities on opener...targeting the Northerns. The bass were biting EVERYTHING. I tried several times to switch up my presentation in order to avoid the bass but they wouldn't leave me alone. 14 bass from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. all were very,very fat in the belly with the smallest at 3lbs. By noon I had enough and decided it would be best to get off the lake and let nature take its course. I always have this problem. Targeting bass in the summer I can't keep the Northern's away. Going after northern's in the spring I can't keep the bass away....I think mother nature is playing some kind of sick joke on me.

Awesome report Matt!
I headed out after work saturday morning for a few hours of fishing. I only fished for Walleye's for the first hour I was out. Once boat traffic picked up I switched over to Pike. In three hours of fishing I picked up 6 Walleye's, 5 Pike, and a Bass to boot.

Not too bad! Was that at your namesake lake?

lumpy,
Nope, but very close Next lake to the NE... we were on Chisago

Glad to hear you hooked some fish on Mille Lacs.

I've heard a mixed bag of results at the store yesterday. Some people did well but a lot of people had a tough time. It was either a blow-out or a bust... not a lot of in between...

Spent the weekend up North and got plenty of eater eyes...Hit the metro waters for the first time last night and couldn't get one small enough to eat..6 fish between 22" and 25"...Here is the best one.. [/img]