Minnesota Walleye Opener

   Well, the walleye and pike season has officially opened last Saturday, May 12th, to be exact! We had pretty nice weather for most of the day. Later, towards evening the wind picked up and made fishing difficult.
   I started out my opener fishing with Jason Rylander, from Bemidji, MN. We started our morning at 4:45 am, man that was early! Jason took me to a small lake that he has had success in find big fish. We were after quality not quantity on this opener. With this strategy we figured we wouldn't have to fight with crowds at landings and such. We hit a total of 3 different lakes on this Saturday.
   At 9:45 am, Jason sets into this nice walleye! 20.5" to be exact! Good to see a walleye after starting to "drag meat" at 5:45am!

 
   Ok, I will explain the AWESOME sport coat now, I guess. The night before the great event of "opener" I had a great idea at work with 30 minutes to spare before the weekend started. I was thinking about all fisherman that were going to be out with all their shiny new boats and equipment and the over all hoopla that comes with opener, and the sometimes way too serious tone that some fisherman take on. My idea was to be successful yet have some fun! Why not make it "classy"?! After all it is a special occasion for us fisherman! The one rule for "the sport coat look" was that you had to hook and land a walleye. As you will see, as you read this, I did not have the luxury of wearing my coat this opener.
   On to lake number 2. Lake number 2, was a short ride away. This lake is another small lake but, with more numbers of fish in it according to Jason. It didn't take long and BAM! Rylander with another "walter"! This girl hit the tape at 21" dead on.

The third and final lake we set the boat into was a much bigger body of water, Jason's home lake if you will. We took on a another fisherman and good friend of ours, Tony Klaers. We set out, and quickly discovered that the wind was not going to be friendly. We spent most of the late afternoon trying to hide from this unwelcome adversary. I was the only one that evening to set any hooks. Both, yup, two hooksets and and two pike. That was my whole day. Pike and largemouth bass all day for this guy. I'm not complaining one bit though. It was great to get out, put an arch in the stick, and enjoy the company of good friends!
  Thanks for reading and please come back!
                                                                                 Patrick