The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Outdoors

Related Photos

May 24, 2009

’Eyes on 2009 bass opener

Wouldn’t you know it.

I spend the last two weeks fishing for walleyes and northerns in anticipation of the 2009 Minnesota bass opener, which opened Saturday, and nothing.

Bass opener comes, and I catch my first walleye of the season — with a bass rig.

I made it out onto the lake at roughly 7 a.m. Saturday morning on a honey hole west of Mankato — sorry, but this little spot stays with me, my friends.

After about 10 minutes on the water and watching several topwater strikes mixed in with spawning carp slapping the shorelines, I decided to cut my jig-and-pig and tie on a buzz bait, which worked great. Within three casts I’d landed my first official bass of the season — a 14-incher with serious fight.

Now, I’d come across some TriggerX soft plastics a while back that I’d been itching to try since acquiring them. TriggerX is a product of Rapala, and the company’s first major attempt to infiltrate the soft bait industry.

I was intrigued because Rapala’s soft plastics are saturated in pheromones specifically designed for each fish — so one formula for walleye, one for bass, etc.

Within two minutes of fishing a TriggerX worm, Texas-rigged, I snagged and broke my line, bringing me back to the Strike King Bitsy Bug I’d traded for the buzz bait.

A few casts after retying, bam, something hit me hard. The fight was particularly strong for this fish and it hit close to the boat, but boy, that fish just didn’t want to come up.

For a second, I thought maybe I’d come into a whopper of a bass and I started anticipating its jump, but then the fight resided a bit and up to the surface came that 17-inch walleye and out came my net.

One more for show

At one point Saturday, while tossing a Chatterfrog along a log, I thought I’d come up with a small largemouth at the south end of the log. The strike was ferocious and my pole slumped and strained, but the fight died faster than the bite came.

At the end of the line, though, was a beautiful, 13-inch crappie coming in at a little over one pound. The slab bled black, white and silver all over with brilliance only cold-water fishing can provide.

Earlier in the week, I mentioned on my blog that I’m a big believer in football gods and fishing gods — when the Vikings completely biff a game, I know the football gods have cursed me.

When I have a great day or an awful day fishing, I usually chalk it up to the fishing gods. Well, on my blog I suggested that my patience in not illegally fishing bass before opener should be rewarded by the fishing gods when bass opened.

Catching eight bass definitely was a reward, but somehow I have to wonder if somewhere, the fishing gods were smiling when I caught that walleye.

If it makes them feel better, I got a pretty good chuckle out of it, too — and a nice meal to boast.



Doug Monson is a Free Press copy editor. Click here to access his fishing blog or e-mail him at dmonson@mankatofreepress.com.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Outdoors