Opener Success On Mille Lacs

I didn't get headed out this morning until after 12:30AM.  I had a hunch that Eddy's Jetty wasn't gonna play tonight and I was right.

Ice was tight to the shore and the harbor was even less than 50% open.  As I tried to make my way North along the frontage road I had to turn around and come back as the road was blocked with ice.

I made my way to my back up spot and it was free of ice.  Thankfully I wore my neoprene waders and I went and scoped it out.  I saw some suckers and a couple eye balls, so I went to the truck and got my gear. I don't think I was in the water until right around 2:00AM.  I knew I was probably going to be fishing shallow water probably not deeper than 5 or 6 feet.  I decided to try a rainbow trout Berkley Frenzy Minnow because it was one of the few floaters I had with me and it casts pretty well.

I waded out in the water and had been casting for about 20 minutes when I had a hit really close to me.  It was on for a few seconds and got off.  I fished there for about 10 more minutes then I moved.  I was in the new spot about 10 minutes when a good eye just choked it.

24 Inches

I tried to go out to approximately the same spot and started fishing again. I had been at it about 10 minutes when  I hooked into another fish that felt really good but it got off after about 10 seconds.  My next bite came about 10 minutes later and stayed hooked up.

24.5"

Much to my surprise the fish was actually a half inch longer.  It didn't have nearly the shoulders the first one had.

Once again I went out and tried to fish from the same general area.  My feet started getting cold so I began to wish for a fish to end my night on.  I missed the first 3 bites I had before catching this keeper to end my night at about 3:50AM.

19"

All in all I consider this morning a smashing success.  3 eyes landed and 5 more bites, not bad for not knowing if I was going to be able to fish or not.