Minnesota fishing opener is like a holiday of its own to my family. It falls on the same weekend as Mother's Day which often leads to having to choose between heading up north or staying close to home. This year, my husband and I chose to head to the cabin and seek out some great Pike fishing. We were not disappointed...
Fishing Opener in Minnesota often welcomes all sorts of unpredictable weather. This year, it was temperatures below freezing and a surprise blizzard. Did that stop us? Not at all.
When we arrived at the small lake access near our cabin, we were immediately faced with some challenges. A truck was parked partially in the way of the access and a floating bog blocked our entrance into the lake. So, while Lucas prepared the boat, I got to work with the biggest stick I could find to push the floating bog out of the way.
After a while we finally got the boat on the water and set off to troll for Northern Pike. It didn't take too long for us to hook into our first fish of the day... At the same time. The excitement was beaming off of us. We continued trolling and while my husband had more luck than I did, we both caught a good amount of Pike, even if they weren't monsters. Before long it started snowing and the wind began to bite as hard as the fish. That's when we noticed the boat had begun taking on water. We had sprung a leak in the transom. Lucas was quick to find the 1/8th inch sized hole where an old screw had come out. That's when we had to decide whether we risked it and stayed on the lake, or we turned in for the afternoon.
Because it was white-out on the lake and we hadn't packed a lunch, we decided to turn in for a few hours and to try to patch the hole. After a trip to the hardware store and the gas station, we let the marine putting set for a few hours while we warmed up and prepared for the late afternoon journey back to the lake.
By the time we got back out there, the weather began to warm up into the 50s and the sun tried poking through the clouds. Needless to say, the snow melted as quickly as the putty on the boat leak set. We returned to the lake and got back on the water. We trolled for a while, catching one Pike each, but decided it was time to target some bass. We moved into a small bay and cast towards the shore as we used the trolling motor to circle around the bay.
Lucas was catching bass, left and right, on a little crappie spinner while my topwater scum frog had one blow up but no other results. Once we were three-quarters around the bay, I was frustrated, I took a black and red spinner and swapped out my topwater. On my second good cast, BAM. I caught my first Largemouth Bass of the year. My mood immediately turned around. We circled the bay once more with no luck and went back to trolling for Pike. Using the same jerk baits we had so much luck with earlier in the day, we each caught one more Pike a piece and decided to call it a day.
It was the most successful MN Fishing Opener I could remember as well as our first opener as a married couple. The memories we made that day will stay with us forever. But, opener is only the beginning. What are my goals for the 2020 Open Water Fishing Season? Well, some of them have already happened. Here they are:
Open Water Goals 2020
Buy a fishing kayak (done)
Catch a new PB (personal best) fish (done)
Become a ProStaffer (done)
Portage to a long forgotten lake (done)
Catch my first open water Walleye
Target Muskies
Learn more about River Fishing
Enter a tournament
Start a YouTube Channel for kayak fishing
Renovate the boat with my hubby
As some of these goals have already been achieved, you can easily guess that I have more stories to share on this blog.
Which one do you want to hear next?
Stay tuned for more adventures!