Brutal Walleye Opener
“Always look on the Bright Side of Life…” For all of you Monty Python fans out there, this song went through my head a few times this week. It didn’t make the fishing any better.
Winter held on forever up here this year. We had several significant snowfalls from March through April. The bay in front of the lodge went ice free on May 13 and the last of the ice left the main lake on May 20. Winter was still not done with us. We opened the season with several days of rain, sleet, and sideways snow. The guides managed to catch enough for lunch, but it was some of the most difficult fishing that we have experienced in years.
The weather finally broke and we had some nicer conditions by Friday, but it was a little too late to affect the results for this week. We did have about ½ of our groups choose not to come up with the late ice, so the stats are almost nonexistent.
Our best guess is that most pike and walleye in our area are still in pre-spawn mode. Some are moving shallow and beginning to spawn, but lake temps are mostly between 44 – 48 degrees F.
A few piles of snow remain in the yard, but the heavy melt helped raise the lake levels quickly this spring. We are currently at 1166.35 ft. above sea level. The average for this time of year is 1165.25.
For the week, we caught no walleyes over 27 in. And that is all I have to say about that.
The guides did manage to find a few nice, lazy, chilly pike. We caught and released 30 pike over 37 in., including 6 – 39s and 1- 40.
The forecast looks good and we know it will turn around quickly, but we are all ready for next week.
