went out in the sand in NE corner sat from 6:30 - 2pm and caught 4 walleyes for 3 guys in the boat. 22 1/2, 22 1/4, 18, 16. Bummed me out because of the success we had last year. I was pumped and then deflated with the results. Fished the south end on sunday just south of Edddy's from 8-11 and managed only 1 25 incher in 14 ft. NE end walleyes came from 14 ft as well. Wanted to pitch jigs along shallow rocky areas along shore on sunday but to windy to keep the boat in a nice drift mode. Anybody try ripping cranks in shallow to 10 ft rocky areas with any success on the windy shorelines on sunday?? I wonder if that would have worked since they are eating those little perch. Water temps will tell if they are there and not in normal mode yet?? I hope this does not relate to what is to come this year on the favorite walleye lake!!!!

Anyone catch a gill net full of walleyes?

In a word, slow. This is the first year we actually planned to have a fish fry on Saturday, which I would NOT recommend doing if you actually want to catch some box fish. We hopped around quite a bit looking for active fish, but would probably have been better off just staying in our first spot and working it all day. We ran around the S, SW, W, and NW ends and didn't find a whole lot going on. Pretty much everywhere we went was the same story; not much action and a whole lot of rubbernecking going on.

Speaking of which, when I popped a fish on our second drift I noticed this gal in a blue Crestliner frantically pointing over at our boat as I was reeling it in. Being the good husband he was, the poor guy at the helm darn near ran into our boat as he attempted to close the gap between us (they were only about 50' away to begin with). No harm done though, and I felt kind of bad for the guy as I imagine his opener was spent chasing down boats that his wife saw catching fish.

By afternoon, we were considering a run up to the NE sand as a last resort. But with rain starting to fall and strong winds in the forecast, we would have been in for a long miserable ride back to the docks on the South shore. Since the other two boats in our party hadn’t caught anything under 18" yet either, we decided to call it a day and agreed on burgers at Bayview for our “fish fry”.

Our group of 6 guys boated 7 fish ranged between 20” – 26”. We talked to several parties who had similar results so we didn’t feel so bad. Water temps ranged from 42 - 46 degrees. It was still great to get out, but if opener is any indication of what’s to come it might be a very tough year on the pond.

Good luck!

Fished the South End close to Spider Island. Our boat must have caught over 20 walleyes on Sat..... But none were keepers... Everything we caught was over 18 inches. We did catch 11 walleyes that were between 18 to 19 inches... Too bad those were outside the slot as well.

Im sure the DNR must know that most walleyes in that lake are over 18 inches... That's why they set the slot the way they did..

Looks like this year, Mille Lacs is a catch and release type of lake... It will be hard to catch enough keepers within the slot...

Fished Saturday 7:30am to 11am. Half way up the Eastside.
7 FOW, bobber, leech, yellow hook.
Released 5 eyes 21.5 - 24.5", kept 2 just under 18".

Knocked off early and went to Mother's Day Sat. night.
I'l fish harder and longer come this Thursday night.

The water temp is way too cold to judge how the bite will be this year. Once we have a little warmer water, the bite will improve. Most northern lakes with water temps around 42 didn't produce on opener.

Ole #1 is right on. This is a weird start to the year, or should I say normal .

I would say right now, shallow is what I would be staying around. I hope to get out in the next week or so and have a report my self.

Great reports guys. A lot of good info so far.

Thanks

Well here is my report.

Went out a 4:00am on Sat. moring anchored up on a rock pile that comes up to 2.5ft out of Vineland bay.

After getting set-up we sat for a half hour and the first bobber of the year went down and we ended up with a 15 1/2. as the net was being put away the next bobber went down a nd my son pulled in a 22 1/2. The wait for the next fish was a little longer about 5:45 the bite started for us in a matter of 45 mins. we boated 4 more keeper fish all the same size of 17 1/4 inches.
We also had somthing kind of neat happen as we where pulling in a 21 1/2 inch fish I put the net down to net the fish and when I pulled the net up there where two walleyes in it the 21 1/2 and a 18 1/4. Seems the 18 1/4 followed the 21 right into the net.

Never had that happen before.
All in all a great opener for us we had two other boats with us one got one 26 and the other got 3 keepers and one 20.

The thing I noticed down by us was the lack of boats.
Water temp for us was 43.8 still a little colder then we thought it would be.


Sifty

Sat., my buddy and I launched out of Appledorn's and headed to Malmo. We stopped at the three mile reef, but as figured nothing happening there. Made it to Malmo, was lindy rigging with leeches, my buddy was going between worms and minnows. About 10:00 am in 16', buddy got a 23" in the boat, he was spewing sperm all over, got him back in the water. I took a 17" after that and missed several more before action stopped around 11. Tried a few other spots and called it quits at 1 pm. Rain and predicted evening temps in 30's chased me from the tent site and called it a weekend. It still was fun to get out and get a few fish biting.

Looking forward to getting back up there next weekend or weekend after...

As always, great stay at Appledorn's, thanks to Paul and the gang! Always willing and able to help in any way, highly recommend!

Fished the sand by Malmo in the morning...got a couple in the boat and a few missed...mostly in 11 to 14 fow. Got real slow so we went down to flamingo reef and watched a boat next to us catch walleyes like panfish for an hour right before the rain hit. They left so we slid over into their spot and picked up 7 eyes until we took off when the rain and wind really started picking up at 6pm. We could have landed a few more fish but they worked there way off the hook All this action was in 9 fow on slip bobbers with small red gamakatsu hooks, yellow bead or two above the hook, and leeches. Overall the fishing seemed slow but definitly fish to be had if you were lucky enough to find a good pod of active fish.

Glad we went out @ midnight Friday! b/t 2 boats we caught 24 & had 17 under 18" by 3:30AM. All fish caught on bobbers in 7-10" in the NE. Most on leeches, a few on small shiners.
Fished 2 hours midday on Sat & caught 2 fish (15" & 22") on Lindy's.
Too much wind for us on Sun.
I talked to several people who were skunked on the N End. 1 other boat in our group caught 20 with 10 keepers bobber fishing another reef on the NE Friday night.

The only good report from Sat I heard was 2 limits out of isle on Lindy rigs in 13'

Hit the lake around 8:00 a.m. out of the Casino Landing. Fished some deeper spots that have generally been good on opener's for us until around 12:30 or so with no takers. Water temp was around 42 degrees. Pulled the pin out there and headed for Indian Point for some slip bobber fishing around 1:00 p.m. I managed a nice 28.5" Walleye did the CPR thing as she still hadn't spawned yet and was full of eggs, then the rain came in and we headed out about 2:15 or so.

Had 3 in my boat and only caught the one eye which was a nice one, but with the cold water temps I just don't think the eye's are done spawning yet. I'm sure if we hit the shallows earlier in the morning we could've done a bit better. Only saw two other eye's netted off of Indian Point and talked to a few others at the landing coming off the lake and the bite didn't sound really great. There weren't the big numbers of boats up there either.

We went out at midnight on Friday and boated 5 fish 3 slots. Saturday we caught ten fish all over. Biggest was a 29 in rail. I bet it didnt weigh 7 pounds. Considering the cold water temps it was a decent opener for us

All fish we caught were spawned out.

Went out of Terrys sat we got 3 all day. Went backout sunday night in 7 ft of water on the rocks and caught over 30 kept12

Went out sat. only. For about 10 hours total (in the rain and wind). We caught 14 eyes, 4 of which were in the slot. Most of them came between 5 am - 7 am, and as the sun was setting. Lots of 19 inchers we had to throw back. A couple over 20. Had a great opener, caught more fish than I had expected with the horrible winter season in the back of my mind. cant wait to get back up their!