WI walleye opener & crappie action.

[Uncle Smash]

Well thanks for the luck Tubes as it rubbed off.

I headed over to the cabin in WI on Thursday evening to get things organized for the opener and to do a little crappie fishing on Friday.

The old man and I headed to a smaller lake nearby in hopes to find some warmer water.... Well we started by finding water temps in the 47 - 49 degree range.

I worked the boat out deep and in shallow, moving along with the trolling motor very slowly in search of the fish and better temps. I alternated my casts by flipping my cork and minnow ahead of the boat and then casting a beetle spin to seek out the active fish.

Well... after hours of searching only to catch a number of bass and one pike the frustration level was rather high. However, we ran into a number of other boats reporting similar successes or lack there of... this led me to try one more area before we were to pull out.

I ran over to an area with a lot of dark timber in hopes that this wood would warm the water faster... we pulled up and temps were 51.5.....

First cast tight to the wood and the cork goes down

We went on to catch a number of good fish ranging from 10 to 13 inches and only kept 10 fish for a good meal. All fish were caught on the Crappie Pro Lil'wazzup (sp?) in brown & white tipped with a minnow.

My big one for the day.
WI US crappie_161523.jpg

Pop's holding a 13 & a 10 incher showing the size difference!
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A 13 on the tape. She moved off the front of the table a touch when I took the pic but good enough...
WI 13_164101.jpg

This morning came early as Puzzler came up Friday evening and we went out at midnight for a few hours but to no avail....

We caught a few hours of shuteye, ate some breakfast and we were back on the water... To start with we tried some of our normal spots for this time of year.

Minnows and leeches under a cork were the choice for our set lines and we decided to cast X raps and the new Rapala clacking crank to seek the active fish.

Our morning efforts only produced a good number of small mouth which were a blast but not the target species.

We decided that we should stop back to one of our normal spots, as I had to leave for home by 2:00 and it was close to my vehicle, but try a bit off the and spot more toward the main basin.

After about 10 mins of searching I cast my cork right over the breakline... as soon as my slip cork stood up... down it went!

On the end of the line was a nice 21 incher

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I cast back in the spot and immediately get hit again! Puzzler throws up in there and his cork goes down too!

Puzzler holding our nice back to back fish

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The actions was fast and furious for about 40 minutes with fish ranging from 14 to 23 inches with a couple of giants in the mix that were lost boat side as well...

Another double

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All in all it was a great morning/afternoon.Here are a few we kept for the fry pan.

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All walleye were caught under a slip cork with a glow white hook and a leech hooked through the middle/whacky style in 6 to 8 foot of water....

I had to run back home this afternoon as my lovely wife wanted to go out with some friends for an early mothers day celebration at 5:00 so Puzzler & Pop's will be up giving it ago the rest of the weekend.

Best of luck to them and thanks again for the well wishes Tubes! Another great WI opener!

[PATRICK R]

Looks like a great opener Uncle Smash. Congrats. I've never tried hooking leeches wacky style before. Might have to get a try if I'm corking sometime.

[Uncle Smash]

Good opener indeed. It took a little more work to find them this year but rewarding. Pop's and Puzzzler went on to stick another limit on Sunday I guess with a few pike and smallies to release in the mix as well. Yea, for the leeches it works great Pat. Hook through the end on a jig, though the middle under cork is usually what I follow...

[MagicStik]

Wow...some great fish for the WI opener!

Magic

[AllenW]

Funny looking Musky's Smash.....

Nice fish, to bad about the bass, them darn rough fish are everywhere..

Sounds like a good trip, getting out with your dad imho is a big plus.

Al