2011 Minnesota Walleye Opener
With air temperatures in the 50s, water temperatures in the upper 40s and the occasional wind gust in the 30s we headed out on Lake Bemidji for the 2011 walleye opener.
The morning was spent taking care of a few odds and ends with the truck and the boat, so we didn’t hit the water until later in the afternoon. We stopped in at Taber’s Bait for a couple of scoops of spot tail shiners and to hear the early fishing reports, which were generally favorable, and headed up to the landing to get started. As usual, we had a general idea of where we wanted to fish. The skies were overcast and from the northwest end of the lake we could see that a northeast wind was stirring up a healthy chop across the lake. Perfect. But after we made our way to the area we planned on fishing it became obvious that the wind was going to provide a bit of a challenge. We targeted some shallow areas that hold cabbage in the summer and started with a big point that has a nice sharp drop on the edge. The plan was to stay on top right along that edge and backtroll, but the wind had other ideas. Fighting the wind and trying to feel the jig was a challenge to say the least. Fortunately Junior was focused at the front of the boat and managed to latch into a nice 18 inch male in about 5 feet of water on our first pass. We continued along like this until I gave up on trying to hold any kind of line. Rather than fight the wind we decided to drift over the deeper end of the point to stay along the edge of the heavier weeds. This produced another nice 18 incher, and so we were satisfied that our initial thoughts about this area were correct. So we picked up and moved to area “B”.
Rather than fight the wind again, we opted to buzz up to the north end of the area we were targeting and drift south while controlling our direction with the electric motor. Although it was tough to get any feel for the jig, the couple of fish we did find hammered the jig hard enough that there was little doubt it was a fish. Again, on the first pass Junior got another solid whack and boated a nice little 16 incher for the live well. We were encouraged by the activity and opted to leave the area alone after a couple more passes across.
Rather than fight the wind, we decided to check out a few spots along the north and east parts of the lake. Although is was a bit more peaceful, is was definitely slower, but I did manage to boat and release a nice 20 incher (picture above) while drifting through another area that holds some pretty good cabbage in the summer. We jumped from spot to spot making short passes looking for active fish, but didn’t manage to boat anything the rest of the evening. We headed in with a few fish for the freezer and a rough idea of what we are going to try for the next couple of days. League starts on Tuesday and we are hoping to find a couple of good “go-to” spots to get us on the board early. Hopefully the weather cooperates on Sunday!
Comments are closed.
