Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

There were a few brave anglers who fought the wind and the weather on Saturday for the Minnesota fishing opener.

The opener in Minnesota means that anglers can legally fish for and catch walleyes and northern pike.  This year the opener was on May 13.

Minnesota law says the opener must take place two weekends before Memorial Day weekend.  That means that most years, the opener also lines up with Mother’s Day weekend.

For serious or even halfway-serious anglers , the fishing opener is a sacred holiday and the unofficial beginning of summer—a day that roughly half a million anglers eagerly await each year.

Some think of it purely as the walleye opener, but the season opener includes a number of other species that reside in Minnesota waters, such as northern pike, trout, and—in some areas of the state—bass. The season for sunfish, crappies, perch, channel catfish and a few less popular species is always open.

The lakes in this area didn’t see a lot of fishing pressure on either day, although Sunday (Mother’s Day) was much nicer with sunny skies and warmer temperatures in the 70s.   The day still featured some of that left over east wind from Saturday, but that was just providing that nice “walleye chop.”

At this point, we’re not sure how the fishing was on opener, but we will be checking it out for a report in next week’s issue.  The weather is supposed to stabilize a bit this week and that should allow area anglers a better opportunity to jump in the boat and head to their favorite walleye spots on area lakes.

The crappie and sunfish bite has been good on Minnewaska and at the Starbuck Marina.  The Marina was lined with people fishing from the docks on Sunday and it looked like most were having some success.

Hunt’s Bay on the northside of Lake Minnewaska has also been producing some nice panfish and crappies, we’ve been told.

An avid angler who fishes Lake Reno told me that crappie fishing there was good in the week before the opener.  He also had high hopes for a good walleye bite on that lake this week.