REGIONAL— If there’s a consensus about the prospects for anglers when they hit the water on Saturday, it’s that the outlook is favorable for a solid opener.
While water temperatures have remained fairly cool, this year’s early ice-out, which ran about two weeks ahead of schedule on most area lakes, should have allowed most walleye to wrap up with spawning activities by opener.
That means anglers may not be able to rely on their typical early season approaches or locations if they hope to find fish. With a few more sunny days and highs in the 50s and 60s this week, water temperatures should finally start to budge out of the mid-40s, where they had seemed to be stuck in recent days.
“I think with the water warming up, the fish should get pretty active,” said Lake Vermilion fishing guide Rob Bryers. “I think it could be a really good opener.”
Matt Hennen, the large lake specialist at the DNR’s Tower area office, agreed that warmer water would help. “The water temps are not getting up there like expected with early ice-out,” he said. But with more sunshine forecast for the end of the week and over the weekend, Hennen is optimistic that warming water will spur more walleye activity. On Vermilion, he said the walleye population is solid. “The fish population is definitely there for a good opener,” he said.
Rob Nelson, who has operated Ely Fishing Guide Company for the past 25 years, agrees that the fish are out there, but he expects they might be a bit harder to find as they disperse from the spawn. “Some people might have to give up their traditional opener tactics because they’ll be more scattered,” said Nelson, who plans to be out with his daughters on White Iron Lake— a family tradition— on opening day.
Nelson sees two trends that might work to the advantage of anglers over the next few weeks. One is rising water levels thanks to recent rains, while the continued seasonably cool temperatures through at least the middle of the month should keep water temperatures from rising too quickly over the next few weeks. “If the temps remain fairly cool, it keeps the fishing better longer,” he said. “But we need the water to continue coming up,” he said, noting that many area residents reported the lowest early spring water levels they had ever seen back in April.
Anglers up at the border will be happy with the rising water as well. While water levels were shockingly low early on with this winter’s lack of snowpack, levels have rebounded quickly and are now back in the middle of the rule curve, according to Jerry Pohlman, who owns and operates Nelson’s Resort. With the early ice-out, Pohlman expects the walleye will have mostly moved out of spawning areas and are likely to be more scattered than is typical for opener. Even so, he said he doesn’t expect that will prompt many anglers to change up their methods.
For now, Rob Nelson will likely stick to some of his usual early season Ely area haunts, working areas of current where Birch Lake enters near the south end of White Iron or up to the north, by Silver Rapids.
Most anglers will likely start their quest for walleye this weekend with the usual early season standby, a colorful jig and a minnow, generally worked just off the bottom. Bryers said that’s always a good starting point, and he’ll be working a jig and minnow himself, in about 20-25 feet of water over hard bottoms. He expects dock fishing, usually done with a bobber and minnow in the early season, should be strong in the evenings and he’d consider switching over to a leech as bait in some of the shallower, dark water bays that tend to warm faster, particularly if the weather continues to warm.
Working west?
While Vermilion’s east end has traditionally attracted the most walleye anglers, that could start to change this year after the DNR’s latest fish survey showed record numbers of walleye on the west end of the lake. With an average of 22 walleye per net in the most recent survey, the west end walleye population is running about twice as high as in the recent past and that will undoubtedly get the attention of anglers who track that kind of data. “The west end just looks phenomenol,” said Hennen.
Bryers said it isn’t just DNR test netting that speaks to the improvements in the west end’s walleye numbers.
“The people fishing on the west end are seeing it,” he said. “The guys based on the west end… you’re not seeing them on the east side as much as they were. It’s not just Niles Bay. It’s also around Wakemup and Head-o-Lakes bays. And they’re catching nice sized fish.”