I was just going to put the MN Fishing Opener and MN Bass Opener on the Google calendar when I noticed Memorial Day is on May 31st this year. MN ties its Fishing Openers to Memorial Day weekend by law. So instead of Opener being on the second Saturday of May where it usually is, we will instead have to wait a whole extra week until the 15th. Bah Humbug!
Bass season opens in a few hours. There is going to be a 16 boat tournament on Platte/Sullivan and a couple of Snatcher boats are fishing it. I sure hope those guys have the bass more figured out than I do right now. I am going to do my normal routine, start by fishing from shore at the GOMH around 5AM then head out in the Trophy when the fish quit or people show up. I think I'm going to head to the river first thing and see if anybody is fishing there.
Ohhh Sucky Ducky (But will I wake up at 4:00 AM like I'm planning)
If I do wake up. I predict a smash fest.
I'll start at the GOMH, then take the Trophy out. Plan to be off the water around noon.
Good Luck, Everyone!!!
Update: It got probably a little to cool. The fish were sluggish in the morning. I got a few on topwater, but nothing like I thought it could have been. Fishing improved for the evening bite.
The catch and release season has definitely taken away some of my enthusiasm for the Bass Opener. It doesn't help that the GOMH is barely hitting on a cylinder at this point due to low water and rain is in the forecast for today.
I think I'm going to hit the Grumpy Old Man Hole for the first hour or so, then quickly try Bulldog, then Mille Lacs. I may get over to Bulldog in the Slop Slip as well.
Not sure what I'll do for Sunday and Monday
If I can get 20 bass the three day weekend I'll be tickled.
Well, I've got to grab some Storm WildEye Swimbaits out of the Tackle Warehouse and throw the Excel Rod rod in the car. I still haven't officially opened the Tackle Warehouse this year, oh well. Maybe this week as I've got my first tournament of the year next Saturday.
To be fair, I didn't put much effort into catching a fish today. I set my alarm for 4AM, but when I got up I didn't feel like going so I went back to sleep. I didn't get up until after 1PM. I wrote a blog post over at the Log Blog titled Clown Show Catches Some Fish Anyway about my fishing trip last night. After delivering fish to Jenny at around 5PM in mom's convertible with top down I stopped by the GOMH to see what was up. Just a couple people fishing for sunnies and a pretty good wind blowing out of the SSW.
The forecast was calling for the wind to diminish by 9PM. Because of the forecast I made a bad decision to try fishing the Inlet on Sullivan instead of taking the Slop Slip to Bulldog. Conditions were perfect by the time I headed out at around 8PM. The Inlet was a total bust. I did have a pike miss my jig at the culvert and I bypassed the GOMH to head to Bulldog. The access at Bulldog was full of fishermen and I didn't get a bite at Holy Family access. Back at the GOMH it was dead and then dark. The rowdy bullhead fishermen were there. The bass fishermen did miss a couple of topwater hits at Peavy Lake today.
Between the low water and the crazy up and down weather this year my average fish caught per outing in May this year is now down to only 5 fish per outing; It was 11.6 last year for May and 14.9 in May 2013.
4:00-10:30AM
Conditions- There were some clouds at day break turning sunny, warm, with a breeze out of the S SW
Well after what transpired yesterday, I can't say I'm all that surprised at what transpired today. After getting in from last nights trip so late I decided I would just stay up all night and be sure to get the spot I wanted at the Grumpy Old Man Hole. I arrived at 4:00AM and nobody was there. I put my stuff down on the SE side and went up on the bridge and did some stretching. I really need to always do that if I plan to fish for any length of time. From what the radar was showing when I left I expected the clouds that were coming to bring some rain but they didn't. It was warmer out than I thought it would be and didn't get as cool as what the forecast said it would get. I was wearing a stocking cap and forgotten to bring a ball cap, Doh!
I got my first bite at 4:24AM while fishing off of the S side of the bridge with the firetiger Ripple Shad, but whatever it was got off. I went down to the SE side and started throwing the Grass Pig and missed a couple of bites on that. Next I picked up a blue/black Pure Poison with Craw Fatty trailer and on my very first cast I had a 16 or so inch fish take it at 4:42AM. Why no picture you ask? Well as I swung it up on shore it came off. It wiggled right past me down 3 steps and into the water. I thought no problem, I'd just catch another one. I was amazed when I couldn't get another bite on the Poison. So then I started throwing a huckleberry Craw Tube. I had a fish swirl on it as I was lifting it out of the water. I cast back to the spot a couple of times and then got instantly cut off. Thankfully I was smart enough to not use tungsten and I quickly retied. I decided to head over to the SW side and cast from there for a bit before someone else showed up. I brought the Craw Tube and Poison rods with me. I had a couple of bites that I didn't hook up with when somebody else drove up at 4:58, so I quickly went back to the SE side. I thought maybe he was a panfish fishermen by the gear he came down with, but he was fishing for jumpers with worms and a bobber.
I got a 21" toothy bullhead on the huckleberry shortly after the other guy showed up. He got a jumpin bullhead. I had a few bites on the craw tube, but I was having trouble detecting the bites. A combination of being out of practice and the old line on my reel. I switched to a Chigger Craw and got a couple of jumpers on that, but I missed about 7 bites. The guy with his daughter showed up and were still after panfish and the guy who was in the boat yesterday with his buddy wrecking the jumpers showed up as well. He anchored for a bit, got nothing and put the trolling motor down. I experimented with various crankbaits and had a couple bites that got off. It was really slow. The guy out in the boat got a dogfish coming down the SE side towards me. He said "the bass must know it's opener, because it's all I could catch the past couple of days." I got a slimer while working along the cattails next to shore with a green pumpkin craw tube, also missed another bite that might have been a jumper doing that.
Catch of the Day
While fishing with the Chigger Craw towards under the bridge I thought I had a bite, but it was a snag. When I went up on the bridge to try and get it loose I found out I was caught on somebody else's snag that it turns out had snagged somebody else, that had snagged somebody else. All I could see at the time was the Rapala. I went and got the Pure Poison what has 40lb Power Pro on it and snagged the Rapala. When I pulled it loose the other two snags came with it. The dad said, well at least I caught something. The hooks still looked good on the rap, so I cast it out a few times but didn't get anything.
The Morning's Entertainment, a goose family that swam through the culvert
Some panfish fisherman showed up and I went up on the bridge and started casting a swamp gas Grass Pig and I got 3 toothies doing that. The guy who was fishing with worms and the dad and daughter left around 8AM. I think the guy with worms got 4 or 5 jumpers total. I went over to the SW side and got a 15" or so jumper on the green pumpkin craw tube, but I didn't bring the ruler with me to know for sure how big it was. I also forgot to get a picture. A couple of grandma's showed up so I went back to the SE side and started packing up at about 8:30. When I got up to the car it looked like the NE side was open, so I put on a senko knock off Snatch Stix from the people at BassSnatchin.com and headed over there only to find some guy was fishing down there. I went to the NW side. I had a toothy under the bridge swipe at the Snatch Stix a couple of different times but not get it. The other guy left, so I switched sides. Over there I got a couple of toothies on the Grass Pig and one on an old wooden Bass Pro Shops flat crankbait that I have weighted to suspend. Some guys that were fishing down a little ways from me were more than happy to take them from me. I left a little before 10 when some kids on bikes who were going to fish showed up.
I headed over to Bulldog Lake and was happy to see no one fishing there so I pulled in. I got the fish on the top of this blog. Then unbelievably I caught a smaller one also on the Snatch Stix. I had to go meet Dad at Jenny's so I didn't stay long.
I wish I would have thought to go fish the Culvert over the Platte River. I came home and crashed, so that was it for my 1st day of Bass Opener.
Well Dad has been sick with a cold for about a month now, so we haven't gotten the Trophy out of storage yet. So tomorrow for what is probably the first time since I started writing this blog that I will not be out on Platte/Sullivan for the MN state Bass Opener. And after my trip last night, oh what fun it's going to be. I'm in the process right now of doing an all nighter in the hope's the spot I want won't be taken. All it will take is a couple of late night/early morning golden bullhead fishermen who intend to stay and I'm screwed. After last night I have no clue how the bite might turn out. I'm gonna catch some, but I don't anticipate a whack fest, but then again a school can move in too. My plan is to get there before 4AM and then sit on the SE side. No trying for golden's on the N side and chancing someone showing up and taking a spot before I can get there.
From today's DNR press release: Similarly, the smallmouth bass harvest season will be extended and limits relaxed. The smallmouth bass season on Mille Lacs will start May 10 and be exempted from the statewide catch-and-release regulation that begins in mid-September. This means anglers may harvest smallmouth bass from the opener until the last Sunday in February. Anglers may keep six fish, only one of which may be longer than 18 inches. The previous regulation allowed anglers to keep six fish 17- to 20-inches, only one of which could be longer than 20 inches.
I am totally OK with the changes. We will just have to see whether or not I will be able to take advantage of the early start to the season. It's been a couple of years since I caught a smallie from Mille Lacs and I haven't had the Trophy out there in at least 5 years. The one thing that I don't care for is the fact that we can't be on the water until 6AM except for on the Opener weekend. I feel they should have made the start time 5AM. The night ban is in effect until December, so there will be no night fishing allowed on the lake this year other than on Opener weekend.
I got out for a few hours today with my boater Owen to pre-fish for next Saturday's Tournament on South Long. The lake seems to be a bit behind Platte Lake at this point. The warmest water we found was 55°F and it was pretty much 54°F everywhere. The wind was blowing out of the E SE yet again for the 3rd or 4th straight day. I guess the air temp got to 61°F today and there was no sun. We basically didn't catch very many fish. I got 5 but two of them were quality keepers at or a bit over 2lbs. We got everything on moving baits. Depending on the weather improving a bit this week, we have confidence in a couple of spots. Thankfully they both are fairly large areas. Being boat #1 should help.
The GOMH:
I arrived at the GOMH around 5PM and started on "the juice". All I got was one toothy bullhead on the Grass Pig. Eventually I moved to the SW side and there I started getting fish on the huckleberry Christopherson's Craw Tube. My 10th fish was this Toad Bullhead.
I'm not sure of the exact length because I didn't have my ruler along, but I'm calling it 19.5" for the Derby. She was definitely close to 5lbs full of eggs. I caught a total of 11 bass at the GOMH. I left at 9PM
Fish for the Day Bass: 16 Pike: 1 Fish Total for Bass Opener Bass: 73 Pike: 11 Walleye: 1
I didn't get on the water on Sullivan Lake until a bit after 2PM then I spent an hour and a half trying to figure out my motor issues. I ended up calling Dad and he brought out a new fuel line for me. While I was waiting for him to show up I fished a single dock and picked up my first Derby fish of the year on a huckleberry Christopherson's Craw Tube.
17.75"
The picture doesn't show it well but it was a fat fish, obviously still had eggs in her. Once dad got the new fuel line to me I was off to the North Shore of the Platte River Outlet. I started hitting bass right away on my Gambler Ninja Spin. I put down the poor man's power pole and proceeded to get this walleye on the Grass Pig.
16"
I proceeded to work the flat getting largies and pike on the Grass Pig, a Terminator Spinnerbait, the Ninja Spin, and Craw Tube. Once again the biggest fish came on the Craw Tube at almost 16 inches. My plan was to be off the water at 6PM then go to the GOMH to try some topwater action on "the juice". Thanks to there being a boat at the Platte River Mouth that's what happened.
I got to the GOMH a bit after 7PM and there was a guy and a girl fishing on "the juice". I managed to get two jumpin bullhead with a Stanley Phantom just to the East of the juice then the girl left allowing me to get straight on to it. I proceeded to land a few and miss a few on the Phantom. I got a toothy on the Grass pig and two fat 15"+ ers on a Lucky Craft Kelly J. I was out of there by 9PM.
Total Fish for the Day- Bass: 23 Pike: 3 Walleye: 1
I decided to start this year fishing from shore at the GOMH but I brought my boat just in case fishing wasn't that great. There was somebody already on the South side when I got there at 5AM, which was fine with me. I took the NE side fishing by the bridge. I started out throwing Berkley Frenzy Popper but didn't have any hits on that. This was my first fish.
A fat 16 inch jumpin bullhead on a Craw Tube. I proceeded to get a couple more and a toothy, before another group arrived and I chose to go to the juice so they wouldn't stumble on to it. Once again I tried topwater but that wasn't happening. Turns out the juice had been invaded by toothy bullheads; I got 3 of those along with a few jumpers no bigger than the first fish I got. I used Craw Tubes, Grass Pigs, and a Spro Aruku Shad. It was now 6:30AM and I had 10 jumpin bullheads and 4 toothy bullheads when I made the call to bail. I decided to check out the Platte Lake Access and seeing as there were only 2 cars at the ramp and nobody to wait for I put in there. I decided to hit the tip of the Platte Lake Access peninsula point first. The wind was blowing in on it pretty good and I quickly got on the board with this 15 incher.
I got a couple on that Pure Poison, a couple on the Grass Pig, and a couple on a Craw Tube including one that was just shy of 17 inches. That was all I could get off the point. I then proceeded to drift into Channel Inn Bay. I got a nice pike on a Gambler Ninja Spin and then I got into a little school of bass that I caught on the Ninja Spin and the Grass Pig. By 9AM my upper back was giving me issues. I toughed it out for a couple more hours. I added 4 pike and 24 bass to my morning total.
Bass: 34 Pike: 8
Rock Lake:
I didn't get on Rock until a little after 7:30PM. I started in RPRO where I got my pike two days ago and I got 3 pike to start with on the Gambler Ninja Spin. I got my first bass on a Zoom Horny Toad. I started throwing my firetiger Stanley Phantom and started catching bass on that including this almost 17 inch beauty.
I also got some on a Grass Pig and one nice fish on a Craw Tube, that was also just shy of 17 inches. I called it a night right around 9PM
It's 2AM on Opener Eve and I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet. I was thinking about trailering the boat and starting from shore at the GOMH. I think we are still gonna be mostly pre-spawn in this area. Hopefully after I'm on the water today I'll have a plan. I'll update this post tonight.
Update: Things I needed to get done with the boat combined with getting my gear together didn't allow me to get out in the boat today. I really still don't have my tackle organized the way I would like it to be. Oh well it's a long season. I decided to go with my plan to take the boat with me and fish from the shore at the GOMH and make the call from there about what I do next. It looks like it's going to be wet when I get to the lake at 5AM. That is if I can get up.
I plan on throwing topwater first thing. Maybe it will be the Frenzy Popper maybe not.
Tonight I headed out after 6:00PM and was fishing by 6:45PM. Conditions were brutal with the wind blowing out of the SW about 20 to 30. However once I got to the Beaver Dam in the Rock Platte River Outlet it was on. I got this first fish on a white Havoc Grass Pig.
14"
I put down the anchor and proceeded to beat the snot out of them on the Grass Pig (8 fish), a black/white swirl Zoom Horny Toad (11 fish), and a green pumpkin Crawtube (15 fish). My biggest was this 18.25"
Got her on the Crawtube. You can see the beat up tail, she was spawned out as was this 17" that hit the Crawtube.
I filled my Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Bloggers Derby limit with this 17, a 17.25", 2x 17.50's, and the 18.25". All in all it was a pretty sweet trip and a great end to the Bass Opener Weekend.
I was going to fish Rock Lake but the Access was packed so I went to Erskine. I fished from 5PM-9PM. Conditions were windy out of the SE, diminishing and starting to blow as I got off the water. I basically fished across the North End of the lake from NW to East. First hit was a pike that didn't hook up. Next I got a almost 14" bass on the Pure Poison & Craw Fatty. I got 5 bass on a white Grass Pig and the Pike. I missed a quality 10lb class pike when it hit the Grass Pig coming towards me. I didn't get a good hookset. I caught one on a Fluke at the only dock I fished. As it calmed down I went back to the NW corner and got 5 on a Horny Toad including my biggest at 16.75". I didn't take bass pictures early because of the wind, then I forgot about it. I missed a bunch of hits, mostly small fish, on the Horny Toad but I think I missed one big one. Not sure what kind of fish it was. It looked like I was going to get stormed on, so I left about 15 minutes before I should have.
Well I wasn't as worn out as I thought I would be so I was up around 5AM, however I didn't get to the GOMH until 6AM and it was totally covered up. They had gotten a few jumpin bullheads. The wind was nasty out of the NE. They hadn't seen any boats. I did fish on the sides on the NE and SE. I missed a hit on the Horny Toad. I think it was a jumper because the toad wasn't all ripped up. I left after half an hour.
Because of the wind I didn't think anywhere else would be good so I just came home.
I am not getting up at first light to fish on Platte/Sullivan in the morning. I know I'm gonna be to worn out from my 10 hours on the water today. Depending on the weather and how I feel I may get out in the evening.
When I saw the suggestion on fishing message boards I thought it would never happen. But apparently it actually might. Apparently the DNR Comisioner
Here is the money quote from the article: Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Landwehr said Monday that moving up the fishing opener shouldn't interfere with the spawning season, and he wouldn't have a problem with it.
I am all for it. Who cares if the resorts don't like it because some won't be ready in time. Boo Hoo for them! I rather doubt most people who are booked for May 12th are going to cancel their plans. What would make this even better is keeping the Mille Lacs night ban the same, so I get more that a full week to night fish at Mille Lacs. Who knows maybe Eddy's would have an 11PM or midnight launch.
Also moving the bass opener up a week would be really cool as well.
I was not a spring chicken and didn't get to the launch until after 6AM. I wasn't fishing until about 6:45AM and much to my surprise I couldn't see anyone at the spot. As I was getting set up there was a red Lund heading my way. There was a bit of a SW breeze and I got blown towards the North Shore. I ran the trolling motor to get back towards the South shore. As the boat approached he was headed to go between me and the South shore. I yelled and pointed for him to go around the other way. I lined up my first cast of the morning with a white Stanley Jigs Phantom(spook) . Next thing I know the red Lund is passing between me and the South shore and headed right to where my bait is sitting. I was not happy, so I yelled at the guy (I have this on video and will post it when I figure out how to post to Youtube). Anyway if there were fish there, there weren't any longer. In the video if you look close you can see he drives right over where my lure was sitting, before I reeled it in.
Fishing the area I had one hit on the Phantom but it didn't hook up. Next bait in the quiver was a Havoc Lane's Grass Pig (Dipper). I could feel fish hitting it but they didn't hold on so I could set the hook. Next I tried a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and had a fish hit that and not hook up. I went subsurface with a PB&J Yum Wooly Bug and finally I got a bass. It was only 11.25". A couple of casts later I got my first "keeper" at 15". I caught a few more fish but it was slow. Eventually the red Lund came back out of the river. I asked them if they caught anything and the guy swore at me, so I'm guessing that is a no. I could see another boat in the river fishing it's way towards me. They said it was really slow and only got a couple of small fish. I had to see for myself and they were right. The one notable thing is that I caught my first Dipper fish. Actually I got two, one on an unweighted set up and one on a weighted hook. Both fish smacked it and held on.
Eventually I left the river and went to fish the greater Pro. I was throwing the white weighted Grass Pig and I had it get bumped a few times but the fish were not taking it. Finally I had enough of that and switched to a black blue Pure Poison Chatter Jig and got a bass on that. After a while it became clear the fish just were not chasing so I started pitching the Wooly Bug to groups of pads. I was rewarded with my biggest fish of the day at 17.75". I caught a few more and missed a couple of bites doing that. Eventually I went to where it was calm and looked for fish. Saw one good bass, a few average to small one's and one nice pike. Not a single dogfish. Eventually I got back into the wind and got one on the Pure Poison and an Orange Swim Jig with Havoc Devil Spear trailer. I got a few more hits that didn't hook up and on one of the hits the Spear tail came off. I switched the tail to a 4" pumpkin Action Plastics Grub and got a couple pike. As I was fishing down the shore a couple of guys from the Bass Snatchers came by. They were getting the lay of the land and hadn't started fishing yet.
I worked my way to the GOMH and into Platte where I got a 15.25" on the Pure Poison, along with a couple of pike.
I worked into channel in bay where it was calm and it was dead, not even panfish.
Eventually I worked my way into the Big West Bay. I tied on a baby bass Ninja Spinnerbait and the pike fest was on as I drifted the weed flat in the wind (and it was windy folks). I think I caught about 15 pike and two bass. Eventually I made a switch to a smaller black and red faux Ninja and the bass and pike evened out a bit. I think I finally narrowed down an area that was holding a few bass and I headed in.
It was an ordeal getting the boat trailered in that big wind on a NE shore access, but I did it and didn't break anything. I'm lucky I didn't swamp the boat and break stuff.
I ended up with: 24 Bass (Best 5:17.75, 16.25, 15.25, 15.25, 15) 26 Pike
Note: My "new and improved" trolling motor bracket didn't survive the first trip. I can still use it for now, but we are gonna need to try something else.
As for me, it's another 3 weeks before I can go after the bassies with reckless abandon. As it looks right now, there is going to be very high water which I think will be a plus. There is a lot of water in Platte that is normally a little to shallow to fish, especially with the weeds up. But this year that stuff should be prime. I think it might be topwater domination in 3 weeks.
