Best. Walleye. Opener. Ever.

My kids had prom the Friday evening before the opener, so I pushed off my "opening" day to Sunday afternoon this year.  This gave me a chance to see my two oldest off to prom and take my oldest son up north with me to fish walleyes.

We had an incredible time!  Sunday we caught everything - crappies, gills, tons of smallies (3-4lbers on average), and some beautiful walleyes.  But it got even better...Monday we ended up catching a ton of walleyes - and every single one of them were legal.  We have set a new goal this year to let a lot more fish go.  We not only want to discipline ourselves, but our hope is to pass on this conservation mindset to other who fish with us as well. We let half the walleyes we caught go - including 2 over 5 pounds and a 22.5"er.

Key was finding good weeds.  Water temps varied from 44-48 degrees.  Charlie Brewer Slider 3" Grubs were again out of this world.  If you follow any of our writing, you will know that we have incredible success on these plastics.  We used the bluegill color 1/8 oz. Old Fart Lures jighead on the business end.  Can't rave enough about these jigheads - awesome 4/0 hook with a wide gap.  Super strong mustad hook.  You have to have Carl pour you a couple dozen and experience them for yourself!!!

Best two experiences for the weekend:  Catching 2 crappies on one cast with a Rapala ultralight crankbait and getting pummeled by a 5.1 lb eye and setting the hook into a solid headshake!

Hope your opener was a fun one too!  Looks like it's going to be a great year of fishing!