The opening week of the Minnesota fishing season also happened to be finals week for me.  While I finished up cramming for final exams and polishing off term papers, my good friend Paul Nistler and friends Curt and Todd headed north for the warmer waters of Upper Red Lake and Lake of the Woods.  That’s right, I said headed north for warmer water.

Although some of the larger lakes in Northern and Central Minnesota were finally shedding this year’s ice pack, the shallow waters of Upper Red Lake had been ice-free and warming nicely and in fact the walleye bite had been on fire since opener.  The guys stopped off at Red on Friday morning and anchored down near the mouth of the Tamarack River and soon found themselves in the midst of unbelieveable walleye fishing that included several triples.

At Lake of the Woods, the boys found more of the same kind of action.  By late Friday the winds had kicked up to gale force, but fishing Saturday in the shelter of Pine Island produced as well as anything to be expected at the walleye capital of the world.