The Opener

 2012 Minnesota Walleye Opener found me in the Grand Rapids (MN) area fishing "The Mighty Mississippi" with my good friend AJ. We have been opening there for roughly the last 10 years, with some true "leviathans"coming from her depths.
 This year was no exception, with AJ's first fish of 2012 stretching the tape to a healthy 28 1/2 inches!!After a few pics she was released to catch again.
 High winds and water levels forced us to fish areas not typical in past years,but one must adapt to the fish. A jig and minnow combo caught our fish this weekend,although our numbers weren't staggering, we did catch quality fish.

 After the weekend I was back in the Bemidji area, fishing panfish by day and "eyes" after dark.
Monday morning I found a shallow water crappie bite that produced some nice 10-14 inch crappies.The bait of choice was a 1/64th oz Lindy "Lil Nipper" jig tipped with Berkley Power Bait below a slip float.Way too much fun!! I lost count but I would guess there were 15 fish put in the boat.

The evening found me out chasing walleyes,working the shallow sand flats with shallow running stick type baits.On this evening the walleyes were most cooperative, I landed 13 and missed about as many.(I guess the old hook set is a little rusty!!) A limit of "eyes" made their way home with me as a peace offering to my very understanding wife!!

Pre-Spawn Gills!!!

   Hello! Patrick here again. Although walleye fishing on opener was fun, I always have big panfish on the brain. I can't get away from it either! I'm not complaining at all, I just love trophy class panfish! In order to get mix "bull fix", I decided to head to one of my favorite big bluegill lakes for evening of slip float sinking fun. On this journey, my beautiful wife Stephanie, joined me. It was Monday, May 14th and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. The plan was to take the small boat out and just use the oars. Before we loaded gear in the boat, we had to take cast or two of the dock.

    It was decided, very quickly that the boat was not needed. We were catching some quality fish right from the dock!

   All the fish were up very shallow this evening. With the warm sun and clear skies all day the water temp has come up very quick. I did not have a thermometer to take a reading but, I'm guessing the water temp was around 62-65 degrees

   The lure of choice for this outing was a feather jig tied by a good friend of mine, Chris Salmon, owner and head jig tyer of Slab Jiggies (www.slabjiggies.com). His 1/32 oz jig under a size 0 Thill slip float was the perfect combination for this scenario. I tipped my jigs with 1" Berkley Gulp! minnows, leeches & fry.

I lost track of how many bluegills we caught but, Stephanie estimates that we landed 35-40 nice fish! All fish were released to finish their spawn and to fight another day!

   I can't wait to get back out there! The weekends don't come fast enough. That should change soon though. We, Steph and I, are looking to buy a motor for the boat soon. When that happens...lookout!

Tomorrow night, my buddy Shawn Anderson, the other half of Chasing Leviathans will be joining me in the garage to help me out with some trailer light work and some discussions about some up coming fishing plans. Thanks for reading all! Patrick

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