Gettin Ready for opener

[Fishawk]

Just starting to do some pre opener planning on the lake map and was wonder if anyone has some good starting spots near Miller Bay or Huddles reef area. We are staying at trappers landing and looks like there is plenty of structure to fish in the area but a tip on where to start would be awesome. How is the late ice out going to affect early season fishing. Can't wait!

[Murph!]

Well hopefully we won't need an ice breaker boat, come on Mother Nature. There are several good locations in the southern area of Leech. The reefs in the Huddles Reef area are usually a good bet. Look for other boats fishing in the area and join the crowd. Or go searching on your own. Stony Point behind Bear Island is a popular spot on the opener. Jigs and shiners are the best presentation in the spring. Sugar Point area is also a good area to try. Much depends on the wind direction, fish the windblown areas that stack up the bait.

Good Luck, Murph

[djwilliams]

Jim- In your opinion how many days/weeks does it appear we behind a typical spring @ Leech? Someone asked this the other day in conversation- none of us knew

[Murph!]

That is a good question. I think the ice will go fast when we get some decent weather. A lot of the ice cap was packed snow that should melt pretty fast. With maybe 14 inches of hard ice. With that said, water temps are only part of the formula that causes fish to spawn. I am not a biologist but common sense tells me the females are full of eggs and they desire to rid themselves of this burden. I also know muskies many times travel to their spawning grounds under the ice pack. I recall 5 or 6 years ago when we still had ice on the opener and the walleye fishing was very good. Mother Nature has been bad this spring, hopefully she will make up for this bad behavior with some nice weather soon.

Good luck

[murness]

We are getting close for our annual trip to Trader's Bay, be up May 21st. The week between the opener and Memorial Day weekend always works best for us.

The fishing was fantastic last year, hoping for the trend to continue (has been better every year for the last 4). We will definitely try our spots from last year again (Stoney, Trader's, Otter and the HoneyHole). We limited every day in those 4 spots. I bet we had a dozen over the slot, which mostly got put back, so we know they are a bit bigger.

This will be 14th year overall. The last 4 years have brought back a lot of good memories from when I was a kid (did 10 straight from 7 to 17, then came back 20 years later), now ready for my first trip in my 40's. I hope to have my son up within a few years and continue the trend.

Good Luck to all for the opener this year (and leave some for us).:D