For openers, it was so-so

Talk about it

Somebody forgot to tell the walleyes that Saturday was Minnesota’s fishing opener. The day was gorgeous, but the fishing was, as they say, spotty at best.

“I haven’t heard anything good,” said Ben Kellin of Ben’s Bait in Grand Rapids of fishing on Big Winnibigoshish. “I haven’t heard anything good anywhere.”

The same was true at Leech Lake.

“I talked to several people on Leech,” Kellin said. “Three or four (walleyes) in the boat was average.”

The conventional wisdom is that the cold front that settled over northeastern Minnesota the past few days kept walleyes in a non-feeding mode on the opener.

“People were picking up a few here and there, but nothing gangbusters,” said Rick Leonhardt of High Banks Resort on Lake Winnibigoshish.

Perch were plentiful and pesky, he said.

Walleye fishing also was poor in the Ely area, said Brian Krunkkala of The Great Outdoors bait shop there.

“It’s been a little slow,” Krunkkala said. “There are plenty of people up here, but fishing is not real good. The fish are scattered all over. I’ve gotten some decent reports from White Iron (Lake), people getting walleyes in 18 feet of water. Fall Lake was not real good. The (Minnesota Power) power dam is usually the hotspot, but it’s not doing well at all.”

Krunkkala blamed the cold.

“It was 28 degrees up here this morning,” he said.

Fish Lake near Duluth didn’t live up to its name on Saturday. Among many anglers fishing at the bridge on Lavaque Road Saturday, only one had caught a walleye, and it was a small one. A couple of anglers had caught northern pike, but fishing was slow.

“Everyone is just happy it was such a nice day,” said Shelly Pauna at Eagle’s Nest Resort on the lake. “I haven’t heard any huge fish stories.”

Vince Ekroot of Windigo Lodge on the Gunflint Trail north of Grand Marais and his partner, Chris Angelo of Grand Marais, fished for brook trout and lake trout Saturday morning. They caught two nice brook trout, but couldn’t reveal the lake where they caught them. Lake trout fishing on a lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness also was good, Ekroot said.

“We hooked 11, caught five and brought four home,” he said.

Tags: two harbors, outdoors, fishing