MN Walleye Opener

It's kind of like christmas, but better since I don't have to worry about a fat man breaking into my house. We are just two days away from the Minnesota Walleye Opener and I have a great group of ladies to hit Lake of the Woods with! I've done my homework and I'm ready! After talking with Tom H. who is the large lake specialist for the area fisheries office I'm even more pumped. Lake of the Woods is seeing a large abundance of 14-19.5 inch walleye. This is due to the walleye classes being extremely strong since 2009. He also stated he expects things to remain this way for quite some time! I'll be sure to post some photos Monday Morning! Where do you all plan to fish this weekend? Any tips to share? I can't wait!

The 2012 walleye opener was nothing short of amazing! With a nice walleye chop, limits were caught within a few hours, trophies were pulled in, and the sun was shining! The south end of the lake did a great job producing some nice sized walleye in roughly 20-30 feet of water. As always, brightly colored jigs such as chartreuse, pink, orange, and the lucky gold, were on fire for the opener. For bait, we used a mix of live and frozen shiners and did well with either one. As the week moves along we can expect some nice weather with highs in the 70’s. The water temp is at the mid 50’s level and has great clarity. The report at the NW Angle is also positive. Fishing was excellent! Everyone seemed to catch their limit and they saw some nice slot size fish as well. A few groups even found themselves boating some nice smallmouth bass. All in all, a very successful opener on either end of the lake!