Pickerel Opener

Well anyone have any luck?

We were on Balsam yesterday. I boated a few pike. Two largest trolling. One buddy’s jig was bit off on bottom but no one raised a pickerel.
There were a dozen boats in South Bay but only saw One other get the net out.
Started out nice and calm but after lunch the north wind kicked up and it was almost whitecaps so we headed in around 2:30.

It's been a weird three days. Thursday in the sun and into the night there were so many fish. But either too small or out of season walleye and bass. Friday at midnight, reelingmachine and I were out there catching fish. But someone forgot to tell the walleye that the fishing season had begun. LOL. I bet a few people had good luck though.

Yesterday opening day on Sturgeon it was a good day on the water 30+ boats in the south 5 feet of water lots of action and the Musky were hitting everything we threw out there for the Walleye.
I got 6 in the boat 2 were in the slot size an kept . A 14 and an 18. The rest went back in One was 26”. And 3 were sub 13 s

Nice to see the different sizes!

MC

I fished Thursday to Saturday. Lots of out of season bass and some huge ones, but no walleye. Saw 3 walleye but they were laying on bottom. We could not even buy a pike, but saw several just laying there. There were no crappie to be seen as well. My oldest daughter lost a nice musky after several attempts to net it, finally broke off. It was definitely a strange one

We spent the day on buckhorn I only got dink perch my friend caught the biggest walleye that's ever been in my boat can't post the picture apparently

How is everyone doing with walleyes ?
It’s been pretty quiet here .
I know the weather is all over the place recently .

Was able to get my limit of 4 (15-17 inch fish) a few days ago on a smaller lake . All fish was caught between 8-11 pm since the day was a sunny and a cold one .

Did not fish this past long weekend as was on a family road trip .

The bite should only get better from here .

It has been slow on balsam. Fished this past weekend Friday to Tuesday. No walleye. Few people out no one i talked to caught anything. Fished till 9 Sunday night nothing caught 2 bass. Was in a bay saw a few pike seemed like they were chasing schools of bluegill. I made one cast to an aggresive looking pike with a hair jig and bit me off. Went out to the same bay Tuesday morning for bluegill and ended up with about 18 kept 10 and a bonus 12” crappie. Some of the bluegill were huge. Not on nests yet. The water is still very cold. 15.6 (60) and hasn’t changed much in a couple weeks.

12” crappie for size reference of the bluegill

Bluegill

Nice crappie and bluegill. Next four days will be perfect on Balsam catching walleye. That lure you had on in the bluegill picture. Try some that will go a bit deeper. Try those spots along the tree line that are usually lucky for you. I fish that area as well. Run your lure parallel where it drops to 8 feet deep. I think that's the same area. Good luck. Try the area you fished mid June last year.

Good looking crappie and gills.

The day time bite for walleye is tough right now as we had rains and cold fronts and I noticed that they are more active at night now.

Rice lake yesterday fished from 8am till 3 pm. Nothing at all one Largemouth only. About 20 boats out on the lake and I did not see anyone catch a fish.

Years of heavy fishing pressure night fishing poachers ice fishing poachers Rice is the next Suckbog

Walleye fishing on Upper Buckhorn has been in a steady decline that last 3 years. I wonder if it's because I hear boats in the middle of the night during just after ice out until the end of April? All seem to head to or coming from the narrow, rocky area with current. Hmmmm......!