Opening Weekend 2023 Report

Walleye Season 2023 is finally here, and we hope everybody had a safe and enjoyable opening weekend! With the late spring this year, it was a unique fishing opener! The weather was decent, and we had a little bit of wind and rain which i believe kept a few anglers off the water, but overall, the weather was not bad! The late spring and late ice out had water temps lower than we would have liked to see, and because of that, the bait situation was not ideal.

We heard mixed review from anglers, with a few good reports coming off Big Pine, Little Pine, Rush and Ottertail. The best reports we heard off were anglers catching walleye in 4-8 feet of water while trolling small jigs tipped with a shiner, fathead, sucker minnow or soft plastic. With the warm weather the past few days and in the immediate forecast, we should see this technique continue to produce over the next two weeks.

The good news about having cold water temps and a slow bite on opener is that we should see a tremendous bite over the next two weeks! We should also see a better run of minnows for the weekend, and I'm guessing the walleyes will be snapping later this week and into the weekend! There will likely be some fishing moving out and being caught in the 10-20 foot of water range, but majority of fish will likely be caught under 12 feet of water with the cooler water temps!

The crappie and bluegill bite has been good with anglers having success in 3-10 feet of water in shallow bays in the warmest water on the lake. The best technique has been a small bobber with a small jig tipped with a crappie minnow, wax worm, leech or soft plastic. This shallow water panfish bite will continue to be good for the next week and through the summer, but the panfish will slowly start to move out to the deeper weed lines as the water warms ups.

We are sitting good on inventory in the store, and are fully equipped to help you make this fishing season a good one! Whether its a new rod, reel, or just the latest and greatest in tackle, we have you covered!

At this point it is hard to tell exactly what we will have for bait for the weekend, so check back to our Facebook page for more updates throughout the week on our current bait situation! Happy Fishing Everyone!