Hello fellow BWCAers-

With fishing opener less than 24 hours away, I thought it might be fun to hear about how people do out there this weekend. I'm planning on being out fishing Walleyes in the Twin Cities on Sunday morning and can't wait to get out there!

Fishing on the opener is like drinking on New Year's eve; the amateurs are out in force.
I have a place on Lake Pepin and it is open year round. so don't get too excited about the "opener".

Mixed Reviews on the opener. It started out really well with a limit of Rainbow Trout in 46 minutes, so I thought this is going to be a really good opener. 6 hours and 3 lakes later I only had two Northern Pike to add to the total. The walleyes were non existent on the three lakes I fished after the trout lake, and I didnt see a single Walleye caught by anyone, it was very weird .

Agree basspro.

I ended the day with a sunburn, 3 slimy snakes, and no clue what a Walleye looks like....

Being as cold as it is, most walleyes have been caught in over 20 feet of water.

Good opener up north. Filled the livewell as well as caught-photo-release of this 27 incher.

Couldn't get away from home---so I headed out in the Metro for a few hours. Right away got a good eater 15" walleye. Thought I was going to be banging them after that--only one of the night :) Did find a dozen nice bluegills to make up for it though.


T

quote Basspro69: "Mixed Reviews on the opener. It started out really well with a limit of Rainbow Trout in 46 minutes, so I thought this is going to be a really good opener. 6 hours and 3 lakes later I only had two Northern Pike to add to the total. The walleyes were non existent on the three lakes I fished after the trout lake, and I didnt see a single Walleye caught by anyone, it was very weird ."

What did you use for bait to catch all those Ranibows? I went out woth an iflated nightcrawler and a Lindy rig and got skunked...

Fished the st croix for a few hours Friday night. For walleyes we caught 2 shorts and 2 legals. We also caught two decent crappies. I was on Big Carnelian on Saturday looking for pike and only caught hammer handles.

Fishing on the St Louis was slow yesterday. Only one eye in the boat and two sturgeon. Everyone else I talked with said the same. I did manage to burn knee caps pretty good!

quote jamotrade: "

quote Basspro69: "Mixed Reviews on the opener. It started out really well with a limit of Rainbow Trout in 46 minutes, so I thought this is going to be a really good opener. 6 hours and 3 lakes later I only had two Northern Pike to add to the total. The walleyes were non existent on the three lakes I fished after the trout lake, and I didnt see a single Walleye caught by anyone, it was very weird ."

What did you use for bait to catch all those Ranibows? I went out woth an iflated nightcrawler and a Lindy rig and got skunked..."

A silver 1/4 ounce little cleo and a small tube jig those two lures caught all of them .

quote esenjay: "
Good opener up north. Filled the livewell as well as caught-photo-release of this 27 incher.



"

Nice fish esenjay, im glad you got on the eyes, because I know about three hundred anglers on three lakes that didnt see one .

I fished mille lacs with my father and about 14 million others Saturday and did pretty good. Ended up with a limit for both of us(4 each) and 3- 26inchers and one 27. It was a lot of fun but alot of people to deal with!!!

Leech was busy too, fished Saturday a.m. and caught four eaters and decided to hang it up until mid week.

quote eyez4dinner: "I fished mille lacs with my father and about 14 million others Saturday and did pretty good. Ended up with a limit for both of us(4 each) and 3- 26inchers and one 27. It was a lot of fun but alot of people to deal with!!! "

Nice fish, the last time I was on Mille Lacs was last year, and every walleye we caught was in the slot, very good time though. What is the slot for Mille lacs this spring.

Grand Rapids area- no lakers, couple of small Walters and lots of these...

Leech was busy...

We struggled in the morning but it picked up after noon and we ended up with our limit and had to throw back a bunch that were too big including this 25 incher.

Had some fun with the crappies on Friday night too.

My buddy and I caught eight lakers between 3 and 6 pounds on Saturday, but really had to work for them. Not a bite on Sunday. Weird. We kept two smaller fish for the pan, and released the rest. Pretty slow fishing, but didn't see anyone else fishing were we were.

quote gutmon: "Grand Rapids area- no lakers, couple of small Walters and lots of these...


"

I want some. Those are very nice crappies !

Nice to see there is still some Crappies left in Leech...for now anyway.

Guy in Wisconsin (Illinois?) caught a 19", 4.5 lbs crappie last weekend

http://www.garyengbergoutdoors.com/blog/2010/05/11/huge-4-12-pound-crappie-caught-in-wisconsin-5-11-2010/

Lake trout fishing in the BWCA. Saturday we caught a few in the morning but tough to find fish the rest of the day. Sunday was pretty good for us though. 6 of us caught about 35 lakers on Sunday including this 36 incher.

quote brerud: "Lake trout fishing in the BWCA. Saturday we caught a few in the morning but tough to find fish the rest of the day. Sunday was pretty good for us though. 6 of us caught about 35 lakers on Sunday including this 36 incher. "

Nice fish!

Nice trout brerud

quote Basspro69: "

quote jamotrade: "

quote Basspro69: "Mixed Reviews on the opener. It started out really well with a limit of Rainbow Trout in 46 minutes, so I thought this is going to be a really good opener. 6 hours and 3 lakes later I only had two Northern Pike to add to the total. The walleyes were non existent on the three lakes I fished after the trout lake, and I didnt see a single Walleye caught by anyone, it was very weird ."

What did you use for bait to catch all those Ranibows? I went out woth an iflated nightcrawler and a Lindy rig and got skunked..."

A silver 1/4 ounce little cleo and a small tube jig those two lures caught all of them ."

Did you fish shallow or were they out on the break lines?

Both shallow and deep water, but everyone of them was within 3 feet of the surface, spring and fall I always start really shallow for Rainbows then work my way deeper.

quote apugarcia: "Guy in Wisconsin (Illinois?) caught a 19", 4.5 lbs crappie last weekend


http://www.garyengbergoutdoors.com/blog/2010/05/11/huge-4-12-pound-crappie-caught-in-wisconsin-5-11-2010/ "

Holy Holy Holy My God, everybody needs to see this fish !

quote brerud: "Lake trout fishing in the BWCA. Saturday we caught a few in the morning but tough to find fish the rest of the day. Sunday was pretty good for us though. 6 of us caught about 35 lakers on Sunday including this 36 incher. "

Beautiful Fish !

We fished the fire lakes out of Sawbill Saturday through Tuesday.
We fished hard (minnows, raps, plastics) every day and ended up with a total of 7 walleyes boated (very disappointing). Heard that we actually did better than most. Most fish were caught in 5'-9' of water while lindy rigging. I did catch one on a gulp minnow twister tail (bright orange).
One guy did manage to catch the fatest 38" pike I have ever seen - in a canoe with 6lb test on a lindy rig - great to watch.
I'll try to get some pics out here...

A couple of 22" eyes from Opener (me)



A buddies huge pike from Opener:

quote brerud: "Lake trout fishing in the BWCA. Saturday we caught a few in the morning but tough to find fish the rest of the day. Sunday was pretty good for us though. 6 of us caught about 35 lakers on Sunday including this 36 incher. "

Oh you're killing me.... I was unable to do my spring lake trout trip the last 2 years. Thanks for sharing.

T

brerud- Did you catch that trout on Kekekabic? I think it was you that mentioned on another thread that you were in Kek this spring. I'm curious because I have heard rumors of big lakers in kek so I fished it hard once and caught a lot of small trout.

WH - those are just rumors of big fish in Kek. There are only little ones in there...:)