Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Rollin' on the water.

Fishing opener's next weekend. I've been puttzing with the boat for the last couple weeks. Finished up most of the odds and ends today, and slipped the old Lund into the water for a quick shakedown run. The old Evinrude fired over without too much fuss. Everything worked. Some of the trailer lights even cooperated.

Can't wait to hit the water next Saturday morning for the walleye opener. Last year for the opener, I fished in long johns and a heavy coat. Today I got passed by a Yeah Baby on a Jet Ski. Life is definitely good.

I wish my luck was as good. Bearing went out on the boat trailer on the way to the river, made a horrific noise but it stayed on! After two trip to the much dreaded wal mart (because its sunday and nothing else is opened) I got both bearings redone and ended up on the lake close to home. Water isn't warm enuff for the gill to spawn and that sux cause tomorrow is a full moon. If the water was in the 70 range and a full moon we would have a mega spawn like last year.

Glad everything worked that's like winning the lotery.

Sorry to hear about the bearings SB. I took a chance on that today my self, as I had loaned out my grease gun to a friend from church. No problems though. 'Just went through the tackle. I've got enough jigs to catch every fish in Minnesota twice and then some. Why I keep buying more of this stuff is beyond me. I've got brand new packs of 1/8 oz. jigs that must be over 10 years old. Never even been opened-and I still bought more!

Where do you go for the opener GG?

I read once that most tackle isn't intended to catch fish, only fisherman. I'm in the same boat. I've got more trout, salmon, steelhead, and halibut gear and I still don't think I have enough. Last count I had over 50 fishing rods.

I think its out of fear of not having what the fish will bite! I'm guilty too. plus I have a tiny lure fettish! I buy every color of panfish assassins I find! I tie my own jigs and mold my own heads so its not that big a deal but its the store bought stuff that gets pricey! Crankbaits are outrageous now a days and I got plenty but every time I see one I use a lot in a color I don't have, out comes the wallet!

I frequently have opened right here at home on Prior Lake. Good fishing, but if the weather's nice, as it was this year, you want to be off the lake by 10 a.m. The ski boats and all the pretty people start coming out early. We were going to give Osakis a try, but decided to just stay dpown here, as my fishing buddy had to preach today. We fished Waconia. I couldn't con him into going out for the night bite, so we started at 5 a.m. No luck. A couple perch-that's it. Marked lots of fish from the bottom up to about 5 ft. of water. We talked to one boat who went out at midnight. They caught their fish shortly thereafter and said they never had another bite once the sun came up.

I've never drug Rapalas or other cranks and want to try that this year. I'm just looking to try a few things I haven't done before. When you guys troll cranks, do you run deep divers, or what?

The few times I trolled for eyes when I was younger we always used Wigglewarts. They were my dad's favorite trolling lure. We trolled an old roadbed in our local lake that went from 12-25' as you went further from shore.

We'd dredge up all kinds of fish trolling that spot, walleye, saugeye, sandbass, the occasional largemouth, and with some frequency blue cats. A friend caught a 50+ pound flathead once with I believe a magnum Wigglewart.