Saturday, May 12, 2018

MN Opener (GOMH All-Nighter/Back Sat Night)

15.5" Jerk Shad (Crackle)
12:00AM-8:30AM GOMH SW
Conditions:  36-42℉, Clear to Cloudy, Light N wind to calm
Water level to normal high
11" Shiner Minnow
I was hyped up to cash in some gold on the shiner minnows I caught last week. It didn't work out that way. Eddy's Jetty was iced in, so the GOMH it was. I got my first bite around 12:30 am, but it was silver. Some guys on the other side got some gold right away. Lantern Man's son got one, and Lantern Man got one. Shorty after LM got his golden, he told me to throw into the current, which I did, and got a jumper.
14" Shiner Minnow
It then got real slow, and everybody left by 2:30 am. I went fishing on the NE side and got a 15" jumper on the Grass Pig. Peter W. showed up at about 3 am. He got a bullhead right away. I tried the NE side briefly again before someone else showed up to check what was up. At 4 am, the Wheel House Guy showed up and started fishing right next to me. Pretty soon, his brother and other relatives/friends showed up and took up the SE side. WHG got one golden on the NE side. It was dead until about 5:40 am, when I quickly got three nice jumpers on the Poison (2x18", 17.75").
18" Poison/Razor Shad
17.75"/4.12lbs Poison/Razor Shad
It then got slow again for about an hour. I got into a good run of 16" jumpers on a brown/grn pumpkin crawtube, dropping the two big ones. I missed a bunch of bites as well.
18.25'"/3.81lbs Crawtube
I got one good 17" on the Grass Pig and that last pig on the crawtube. I also got one toothy on the craw tube. WHG gave me a banana and some banana bread to eat before leaving. His brother, who fished next to me the whole morning, got a few jumpers and silvers. The people across the way got more of the same. For the most part, fishing was more difficult than expected. I should have fished on the NE side in the wind rather than camping on the SW side like I did. Still, 19 jumpers for the trip isn't exactly terrible. I was disappointed to not get at least one golden, though. My feet were fried from standing in my Bugaboots all night.

For the morning trip
19 Jumpers (18.25,18,18,17.75,17,16) for my 6 best (Stupidly, I only weighed two fish)
1 Toothy
1 Silver
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Dad got me up just before 5 pm to go and put the dock in at the lake place, which we did.
8:45–11:00 pm GOMH NE
Conditions: 62-50℉, partly cloudy, calm
9.5" X-Rap Shallow Shad
Nobody was on the NE side when I got there, so I quickly got my stuff and headed down. Lantern Man arrived as I was getting my stuff laid out. I got a jumper on the first cast and thought it might be on. LM's son came and down on the NW side. He had been fishing the Southside, getting silvers and jumpers. After he left the GOMH last night, his bridge hopping was a resounding failure. His first cast under the bridge resulted in some gold. His friend Kyle came and netted it, and Kyle got a golden on his first cast as well. They got another one, and I got the one I did casting out on the crackle Jerk Shad. I also got a 24.5" toothy casting out on the jerk shad. Two bow fishing boats came through.   LM son and Kyle left. I got the Rock bullhead. Other than that, it was pretty dead. Sneaky C showed up. He was a pretty good day on the gravel lizards wherever he was fishing. I left shortly after Sneaky arrived. I was still worn out from last night and didn't feel like flogging the water anymore.

So that is my 2018 Opener Day 1


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