Opener On Mille Lacs - Day One

[sandmannd]

Headed up to Mille Lacs with Wade yesterday and his uncle Scott met us. We were invited to stay at a friends place along with about 12 other fisherman. It's a blast! We hung out, had some great food and just talked for a while.

We got up early this morning and hit the lake. Wade, Scott and I went out to some rocks and others went elsewhere. We were marking fish and had a few bites, but no commitments. That is until Wade felt a tug on the line and landed this beauty.

We had a pretty good chuckle over that. Then I got a tug on my line. I didn't pull up one crayfish, I pulled up five!!

Shortly after this load of fun, the wind really picked up. We were getting some big waves and Wade was getting pretty drenched in the bow. We packed up and moved closer to shore. We searched for fish but couldn't find much of anything and the waves were brutal. Friends of ours had boats up north on the sand so we decided to come in and trailer up there. Wood Pat and Trav were also up there and saying they were getting fish. We came into the cabin and snacked a little and then headed up.

We got out and started drifting in about 9 FOW and drifted out to about 19 FOW. It was long and Wade tied into our boats big fish of the day. It was a beauty at 25.5" and very healthy looking.

We continued to go along and Wade picked up a few more over twenty with one at about 15.5" that went in the box. Myself and Scott were getting nothing. I could feel the bite but it was so light they just weren't taking it. Finally I tied into a healthy 15.5" that went in the box. We wrapped it up about 3 PM to get back to the cabin for the weigh in.

You see, each year, there's a group of us that meet up at this cabin and we have a friendly competition. Biggest weight wins the trophy for the year. We didn't stand a chance with only two keepers did we? Well we got back and everyone else only had one keeper. There was another boat that had two, but when they put their boat at the dock they put theirs in their net to bring to the cabin. One of theirs found a hole in the net, hit the dock and swam away free!! Wade, Scott and I won the cup with a whopping 2.23 lb weigh in.

Over all it was cold, rainy and windy but that's opener up here on the pond. Fishing wasn't great but we got a couple. The company was awesome. We were going to go slip bobbering but were too wore out from the day on the water. Those waves really pound you and getting pelted with rain the face all day takes a toll as well.

Sunday will bring day two of our three day opener and we are hoping for some better results.