Get ready for Minnesota’s fishing opener: Here’s what you need to know

For Grant Prokop, owner of Thousand Lakes Sporting Goods in Grand Rapids, Minnesota’s walleye and northern pike fishing opener transcends every other day.

“It’s a different pulse and a different vibe,” Prokop said. “I’m giddy to get up that morning and scoop bait. … It’s like Christmas up here, and we’re running like madmen to put people on fish."

Elsewhere up north, in the town of Cook, Lake Vermilion fishing guide Justin Chromy reveres Opening Day as the unofficial start of summer. Like other holidays, it’s celebrated with countless reunions of family and friends.

“After a long, desolate winter up here, you’re suddenly back on the map and people are coming back to their cabins,” he said. “The entire economy picks up.”

The buzz officially returns at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, May 10, and more than a few anglers around the state will have their limit of walleyes before sunrise. Others will be making their way to secret spots at dawn with hopes of hooking enough walleyes for a late-afternoon fish fry.

Here is your guide to Minnesota’s big event:

Parts of far northern Minnesota may not see open water in time for the big day.

Way up on the Gunflint Trail, on lakes Minnesota shares with Canada, professional fishing guide Jessica Berg-Collman doubts ice will be gone by opening day. She measured 24 inches of ice on Saganaga this week — deep enough to withstand a heavy rain that caused flooding in the area.

But elsewhere in the northern tier, even as far north as Crane Lake and Rainy Lake, boat launches should be open. Chromy said Lake Vermilion was mostly open this week, with high temperatures near 70 forecast for part of the week leading up to the opener.

“It should be a fairly regular opener as far as ice goes,” Chromy said.

Minnow trappers in Minnesota have been sounding alarms for several years about bait shortages, due in part to the loss of harvestable waters. This year, supplies are decent, said Marshall Koep, the state’s largest wholesaler of fatheads.

“Fatheads and sucker minnows have been good and should get better,” said Koep, who operates out of Otter Tail County.

He also predicted better-than-average availability of spottail shiners — high-demand, silvery minnows usually harvested on certain northern lakes during the final run-up to opening day.

More good news? Koep said new tariffs don’t apply to the many, many night crawlers that Minnesota bait dealers import from Canada.

Some 1.7 million people go fishing in Minnesota each year. As the Department of Natural Resources likes to say, Minnesota has more walleyes, walleye lakes and walleye anglers than any other state. Each year, anglers harvest about 3.5 million walleyes.

State-run hatcheries are central to walleye management, and the egg harvest from live-captured walleyes during April is critical to the annual stocking effort.

Luke Schalekamp, the DNR’s assistant area fisheries supervisor in Fergus Falls, said this year’s statewide egg-take went well. The agency reached all of its quotas for the delivery of fertilized eggs, he said.

He said the timing of the spawn was typical this year and that the fish should be dispersed from their spawning grounds by opening day.

Also typical this year, veterans of opening day walleye fishing are advising anglers to start shallow in the warmest of waters. The fish will be feeding there, near natural spawning areas, before dispersing to deeper water for the summer.

As an example, the DNR this year lists Fish Lake and Boulder Lake near Duluth as potential hot spots in its regional fishing outlook report. Those two reservoirs “are shallow and warm quickly and may provide more consistent early season action than some other larger and deeper lakes,” the report says.

If you’re looking for potentially fruitful walleye lakes away from the state’s popular ones, check with the regional outlook report. It lists potential gems for opening day, such as the Red Lake River Reservoir, accessible from a public ramp in Thief River Falls.

In the Detroit Lakes area, recent DNR surveys on Many Point Lake and Maple Lake recorded the second-highest catch rates for walleye since surveys began on those lakes.

In the Walker area, away from Leech Lake, quality populations of walleye can be found in Woman, Little Boy, Wabedo, Inguadona, and Ten Mile lakes.

In the Hutchinson area, the DNR report said walleye fishing should be good to excellent at the following lakes: Belle, Marion, Jennie, Allie and Preston, Big Swan, Washington, Minnie-Belle and Hanska.

Relatively speaking, there is no such thing as “warm” lake water in Minnesota in early to mid-May. The DNR is reminding anglers that cold water is dangerous and unexpected falls can quickly turn deadly. About 30% of fatal boating accidents each year happen during the cold-water period, and many involve victims who weren’t wearing a properly secured life jacket, the DNR said.

The 77th Annual Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener will take place at Crosslake in the Brainerd area, May 9-10. Crosslake is located on the east end of the Whitefish Chain, and the event has never before been held there. The fishing opener is a partnership among Explore Minnesota, the DNR and the governor’s office, along with a host city or community. The idea is to celebrate the importance of tourism, fishing and outdoor recreation.

Conventional wisdom around fishing is that the bite improves one to three days before a full moon, and somewhat after. This year’s lunar calendar is set for the moon to go full at 11:56 a.m. CST, May 12.