Opening day tips

The days have been nice, but the nights have been cooler, and that's keeping the water temperatures a little below what you might expect.

Bass: you may find a few moving up to scope out spawning grounds on warm afternoons, but most likely the better fish will be looking at prespawn areas. Rocky points and narrows near spawning areas. In the afternoons look for them patrolling rocky points and sandy areas to feed up. Pay attention to the bait in an area, if you see larger shiners, golden or otherwise, there will be quality fish in the immediate area.

Northern Pike: They should be absolutely on fire for the opener. Concentrate in areas where you see schools of juvenile panfish or minnows. Here's a free one as well. This time of year, one of the best baits for pike is a silver and black or silver and blue back rattle trap. In 5-10 feet of water cast the bait around the isolated clumps of early green weeds. Oh yeah, bring the net....

Musky: Should be somewhat active on most area lakes, although there will be some post spawn blues that is lingering in a few of the bigger fish. I'd start near the rock points and bars in 8-12 feet. Bucktails are always a solid bet this time of year, especially around isolated weed clumps where juvenile panfish are holding.

Walleye: Pine, Lac LaBelle and Oconomowc will be the local hotspots. Labelle: Hit the shallow weeds with a 1/16th or 1/8th jig and leech. Pine: Crawlers and leeches, on a lindy rig or splitshot along the weed breaks and the end of the underwater points. Oconomwoc: Small suckers, big shiners or leeches on sand in 8-15 feet. If the bite is slow, use your electric motor to make slow circles around structure pulling live bait on lindy's, three ways or bottom bouncers. start deep and work your way in 2' of depth on each pass till you hit fish.

Trout: The DNR put and take stocking programs are back in full swing after a couple year hiatus. These stocked fish get thinned out pretty quickly but the opener is prime time. Lower genessee and fowler are my favorites and both lakes are usually as busy as they ever are for the opener. Genessee even has "extra" parking for opening weekend. Remember you'll need an inland trout stamp to retain any species of trout. I'm a big fan of a tailed hooked minnow below a slip bobber but there are times where nothing will catch as many fish as some corn nuggets. I'd also consider some of the "panfish plumpers" we have at the shop, I'll be hitting Genessee late next week to try them out on the trout.


Eric will have the shop open all night on friday and I'll be in and out during the day on Saturday between fishing runs.

Good luck and we'll see you this weekend.
CT