May 5TH....Pre-opener Report

Looks like we will have a big swing in weather again for the next couple of days. Middle 60's today, low 80's tomorrow, and then cold front and upper 50's to 60 for the weekend.

The walleye spawn should/will be over on all lakes in the area. DNR nets showed even the largest lakes had finished up by Tuesday of this week(2 days ago). Water temps vary from 45-53 on most lakes(actual), and do warm up on the calm sunny days. Overall, the bite should be really good this weekend.

Walleyes: Pick any lake....a good lake

Deep, shallow, clear, dark, flowage, natural....shouldn't matter. Spawn is over and fish will be hungry. Walleyes will be using wood, last year's weeds(sorry, but those plants standing up aren't new, they are carry over), and probably still handing around spawning grounds on the largest lakes. Jigs and minnows, plastics, cranks will all work this weekend depending upon level of aggressiveness of the fish. Fish the areas being affected by wind and look shallow.

Crappies:

I've been catching fish for the past 3 weeks in old weed flats and weed edges (5-8'). Plastics (mini mites and kalin's crappie scrubs) have outfished anyone using livebait. I watched 4 boats around me using minnows and catch nothing last Monday....we caught over 75 fish that day. These fish are full of eggs or starting to fill, release the females, release fish over 12", and only keep what you need to eat.


Good Luck out there!