Opening day
Since I was a kid I loved opening day of fishing season. I’m not sure why the day is so magical, by the time May rolls around I’ve usually been Salmon fishing a few times on Lake Superior and walleye fishing on the local rivers and Green Bay. Still every year I’m like a kid again tossing and turning waiting for the alarm to go off.
Living in the north woods hasn’t done much for my condition. The Friday before season the town of Phillips comes alive with people. It’s nice to see after a quite month or so since the end of snowmobiling and ice fishing. The local businesses and charity groups get in on the action with special promotions, bake sales and live music, it’s like the whole town is coming out of hibernation.
This opening day found me in one of my early morning shore spots by 4:30 A.M.. These days if I can’t sleep I just get up and go fishing, but an early spring has the walleyes in a post spawn pattern and not as plentiful as usual, so its on to plan B. After a quick cup of coffee I hooked up the boat and picked up Chris Morrone from Elk River Custom Rods. Just side note: Chris and his brother Marc handcraft some of the nicest fishing rods I’ve used and can be reached at elkrivercustomrods.com.
The plan was to go fish some mid lake structure the walleye use after they get done spawning, but with the wind blowing from the South at 25 knots, even with two drift socks out we were moving to fast to jig, We tried drifting spinner rigs and missed a couple fish and decided this wasn’t worth the effort. So on to plan C.
We headed to a shallow southern bay with a river inlet to catch some pike and just have some fun. Having some new equipment and lures along that I wanted to test anyway this seemed like a better idea then battling wind all day.
The next three hours were a action filled pike festival with most of the fish in the 24 to 32 inch range. What a blast! We caught fish after fish while watching the few boats still out on the main lake getting blown around wondering why we were the only ones doing this.
I enjoy a fresh walleye dinner as much as the next guy, but I just don’t see the point in being miserable all day for one or two fish when there is an easy fun alternative. So the next time things aren’t working out the way you planned for your opening day walleye trip just find a shallow bay put on a spinner bait and you’ll feel like a kid again.