A rare event

Tomorrow is the 2018 Fishing Opener in the great state of Minnesota, which celebrated its 160th birthday today.  To be specific, tomorrow is the first day walleye and northern pike can be (legally) caught and kept since their season closed at the end of February.  Bass season opens in a couple of weeks, muskie season a couple of weeks after that.  Panfish and perch can be caught and kept year-round.  So the term "fishing opener" is probably a lousy descriptor.  Too late now.

I've never been much of an opening day fisherman - too many people, more often than not the weather is terrible, and I'm not much of a soft water walleye fisherman.  I can't remember the last time I fished on opening day.....can't even come up with a ballpark guess.  I love to fish, but my excitement about the opener is a far cry from how revved up I get about the opening day of deer hunting.  However, this year I will be fishing on opening day for the first time in.....ages.  The weather is predicted to be beautiful, I'm meeting my dad at a lake that won't have anyone else on it, and we're not fishing for walleye.

At daylight I will head north to meet my dad at Secret Lake #3, the lake we weren't able to ice fish on a couple of weeks ago.  SL #3 has no public access, so dad and I will carry his canoe through the woods and slip onto the lake from shore.  More than likely we will quite literally slip, as most of the shoreline is a steep 5-10 foot drop into the water.  SL #3 has a nice population of big bluegills, small-to-medium crappies, and big bass.  It's a small, shallow lake filled with water that makes a strong cup of coffee look pale.  The water is clear but stained dark by the tag alder bog that surrounds a good portion of it.  It's tough to find a lake with big bluegills nowadays; having a small, almost private lake  full of them is......well, maybe I ought not talk about how full of fish the lake is until I actually catch something.

I've written about how special the first trip on the open water each year is, and I'm hoping this extra-early start on summertime fishing is a sign of good things to come.  In the year since the last opening day my time on lakes, both in summer and winter, has been way too limited.  My daughters have hardly fished, either.  I own far too much fishing gear to spend so little time using it.  But right now my rods (half of them) are rigged for 'gills and in the car.  My tackle case is sort of organized.  My life vest is ready...even remembered to pack sunscreen.  I anticipate a great day on the water, and look forward to sharing the results with you here tomorrow evening.  Until then, good fishin'!