Wisconsin fishing opener is a midnight success

[h2ofwlr]

By Dave Orrick
dorrick@pioneerpress.com
Posted: 05/02/2015 12:01:00 AM CDT
Updated: 05/03/2015 12:40:29 AM CDT

http://www.twincities.com/outdoors/ci_2 ... ht-success
Renee Holland of Bloomington, Minn., hoists a smallmouth bass she caught on a lake in northwest Wisconsin Saturday, May. 2, 2015, opening day for fishing for most game fish in Wisconsin. Smallmouths remain catch-and-release in the far northern part of the state. (Photo courtesy Mats Holland)

HAYWARD, Wis. -- The full moon struggled to emerge from a mass of clouds in the southeastern sky, roughly the source of a breeze that was chopping the water -- still warming it, I imagined.

All good signs.

Inside the bar, the Wild-Blackhawks game had the patrons in fits. Like many waterfront watering holes around these parts this time of year, the assemblage Friday night was a mixed bag: Twin Citians overdue for hockey glory, Chicagoans gloating on theirs, and native 'Sconnians stuck in the middle, generally finding more solidarity with the Minnesota team but often trapped among transplants from each state.

Across town in an Indian casino, Gov. Scott Walker and a host of tourism and wildlife officials were encamped in a banquet celebrating 50 years of governors coming to northwestern Wisconsin on the first Saturday in May. Undercurrents of tension there included not only hockey, but also speculation about presidential politics and the future of the Department of Natural Resources, which Walker has targeted for spending reductions, most newsworthy among them being a major reduction in the ranks of DNR researchers.

But everyone was unified by one topic.

Fishing.

Wisconsin's season opener for most game fish -- walleye, northern pike, bass -- was drawing near. The consensus -- perhaps the only point of agreement among the hockey factions -- was that conditions were as good as any opener. Ice was a distant memory (unlike this time last year), walleyes had been done spawning for at least a week, and water temps had broken 50 degrees in most lakes.

Time expired on the Wild's hopes just in time for me to ease my boat into the water, get the outboard idling and have a line ready when the clock struck 12:00:01 a.m.

I had never done the midnight opener before, the act of wetting a hooked line at precisely the first moment it's legally allowed. It's often more symbolic a thing than an effective tactic, even for walleyes, which schedule dinner after the sun has set.

But I had that itch this year, more so than most. My plans to fish with others had fallen through, and there were no takers in the bar; game plans for the morning had been hatched and would be followed, and the other midnight anglers had their own boats, of course. I didn't mind. There are times to fish with company, and there are times to fish alone.

With a shudder followed by a lurch, the 9-horse engine engaged the propeller, and I idled toward 4- to 6-foot-deep rocky shoals, a floating Rapala wiggling behind me.

I boated my first walleye at 12:10 a.m.

The clouds dissipated, the moon ascended, and the winds calmed as I plodded along humps and bars I've fished for more than 20 years. Eventually, I found the walleye convention, and soon a parade of 15- to 18-inch males were ejaculating milt and regurgitating yellow perch in on the hull and me. The sweet smell of fish slime ...

I decided to fill my stringer, and had my limit in short order.

I twisted the throttle. The bow raised skyward toward the moon. I leaned forward to help the 14-foot craft ease on plane, and headed in.