Great fishing for the Alexandria Minnesota Fishing Season Opener

The Alexandria Minnesota fishing season opener was pretty good overall. I’ve received reports from numerous people fishing across the area and of course those that fished in my group, that the fishing was pretty consistent. On average people didn’t smash limits everywhere, but there was more than enough fish caught for a good time and tasty shore lunch. My group boated well over 150 walleye Saturday and we kept a select bunch of 15”-19” fish for lunch. After a relaxing afternoon of eating and sitting in the shade, we hit the water for some more catch and release action.
We caught the majority of our fish on a few shallow lakes near Alexandria. Our best baits were Lindy rigs and X-Change jigs tipped with minnows, fished very slow. Most of our fish came from sandy/gravel areas in 7-15 FOW, but we did find some out in 20’ as well. The water temps were 57-60deg. We are at least a couple weeks ahead of schedule, so it won’t be long and we’ll have to make the switch to faster presentations. We also noticed a few fish caught on leeches, so it won’t be long and we’ll start to see crawlers and leeches become the bait of choice.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be in a transition period were the masses of fish are going to be moving out of the shallows and into some deeper water. As I stated above I fished shallower lakes, but the deeper lakes in and north of town are already reporting some decent action out in 20-22 FOW. Normally the deeper lakes take a couple weeks after opener to produce good fish, but being we are ahead of schedule many of the lakes in the area, shallow and deep alike are putting out some very nice fish.

As the fish transition I’ll keep you up to date on the current tactics and locations. For now, I’d recommend picking up some minnows, leeches and hit your favorite Alexandria lake. Look for some sandy/gravel shorelines in 10-15 FOW and move slow. Good Luck.