The walleye opener was slower overall than I expected, but still a success in my opinion. Our group fished hard opening morning and was able to catch a number of quality walleye. Even though the bite was slower than normal we still managed plenty of fish by noon for our annual opening day fish fry. With full bellies we hit the water again Saturday evening and experienced a slightly better bite. There were even a few reports of anglers limiting out on walleye around the area.
It’s been almost two weeks since opener and up until recently we’ve had some very difficult weather. The high and low pressure systems moving through every other day have made fishing a bit unpredictable. The past few days on the other hand have really improved the bite. The more consistent days in a row we can get the better. The beginning part of this weekend looks to be quite nice so I expect the quality bite to continue.
The walleye are holding in 3-20 fow. They will move in shallow to feed in the low light time periods. Then, during the day you can follow them back out to deeper water. My preferred bait is still minnows and will be until we get into June. All of the fish we have been catching are spitting up numerous minnows, so it’s easy to see what they want. I’ve been using jigs and lindy rigs tipped with minnows.
My highlight for the week was taking my 20 month old son walleye fishing for the first time. The weather was poor, but he was not about to be left at home with Mom so along he went. I figured with the wind and drizzle this was going to be a short trip, but he was not deterred by the weather. Not only was he not deterred, he was very interested in catching “woweye”. He held his rod and was able to reel in a number of small walleye. To say I was impressed with my little man’s drive for fishing would be an understatement. There are few things in this life more memorable to a father than watching his child battle a fish as strong as they are!
It looks like the holiday weekend is forecasting some steadier weather, so let’s keep our fingers crossed for nice weather and tight lines!
