Minnesota Fishing Opener - Saturday, May 15th

The big day is finally here in Minnesota, the biggest fishing day of the year. Everybody will put their gardening and yard work to rest to get out their boat big or small only, to chase Minnesota’s marble eyed wonder the walleye. Many will wonder where the walleye will be this opener due to the early ice out and warming of the lakes. If I were to put a guess into where to find the walleye I would look for post spawn, pre summer areas.

Some of the post spawn areas are close to the walleyes’ spawning grounds. You would look at main geographic locations, such as points a few hundred feet away from a creek, the first weed lines of the season and maybe some of shallow sandy mid lake reefs. The reason for fishing some of these spots is that this is where smaller bait fish may be spawning. Ways to fish these post-spawn walleyes is very aggressive. Due to some cooler temps, you will be fishing shallow. I like to use live target perch when I am fishing weed lines. While fishing weed lines cast towards them and do a stop and go twitch with the live target lure. While fishing these early season weed lines look for pockets and inside turns of points. This is a very fast way of fishing and easy way to cover a lot of water.

If you are having a hard time finding them using those techniques, look outside of what everyone else is doing and try trolling. There are many types of trolling you can do to cover water but, one of the most under looked for this time of year is trolling crank baits. You can always use a lindy rig but, if you want more aggressive hard biting fish this is the type of fishing for you. Just like before, look for those rocky windblown points and weed lines. You will probably be fishing shallower, therefore use lures according to depth. If you are fishing in 6 feet or less, long line a Rapala original floater behind your boat (perch, black-silver or black-gold work best) in a size 12 or 14. You want to fish these fairly quick and adjust your speed from 1.5-2 mph. If you are fishing deeper a number 5 shad rap or live target perch from 7-15 will work best (same colors as above).

You can always stick to your classic presentations too, but with the early spring this year you might have to change locations to find fishing success this spring. Good luck and hope to see you out on the water this summer.