Every year since 1986 – good weather and bad – Tim Lyon has tested the waters of Lake of the Woods or Rainy River on the Minnesota Fishing Opener.
A charter boat driver for Ballard’s Resort on the south shore of Lake of the Woods north of Baudette, Minn., Lyon says he still looks forward to opening day. The Rhode Island native started his career as a Lake of the Woods fishing guide at the Northwest Angle before moving to the south end of the lake, where he’s been a charter boat captain since 2000.
As the May 10 Minnesota Fishing Opener approaches, Lyon says he’s optimistic about fishing prospects on the big lake.
“I’m always optimistic,” said Lyon, 66. “That’s me by nature – not me by biology. I mean, I get to fish (in early) May. I’m always excited about that – especially when you’ve gone through that sort of catharsis of nothing going on over the course of the last several weeks.”
While most Minnesota lakes are ice-free – or will be by the Fishing Opener – Lake of the Woods could be an exception. As of midweek, the U.S. side of the big lake still had a substantial covering of ice, although satellite imagery showed significant areas of open water and cracks. Warm weather in the forecast will erode that even more.
Later ice-out often means lights-out fishing on Lake of the Woods, especially for big fish, as spawning walleyes linger in the Rainy River and adjacent Four-Mile Bay before returning to the main lake.
No promises, but this could be one of those years.
“I always look forward to late springs,” Lyon said. “If I don’t have to go out on the lake and try to chase fish around out there, it’s nice to have that first week in the river. And I think we’ll probably get that, just based on the amount of ice that’s still out there.
“The (water) temperature should be cold enough to still have spawning fish in the river, which always throws some bigger fish into the boat during the course of the opener.”
During years when that happens – 2013 and 2014 stand out in the minds of many anglers – Four-Mile Bay and the mouth of the Rainy can be “just a frenzy of big fish and probably not that many fish the size you can keep,” Lyon said.
Anglers on Lake of the Woods and Rainy River (to the dam at International Falls, Minn.) can keep an aggregate limit of six walleyes and saugers, of which no more than four can be walleyes. All walleyes from 19½ to 28 inches in length must be released, and one trophy walleye longer than 28 inches is allowed.
“I’m more than happy to fish for ego” over eaters, Lyon joked. “So, I look at it optimistically.”
Options abound
As with previous openers, the 500,000 (or so) anglers who hit the water for the storied Minnesota Fishing Opener won’t lack options, whether it’s walleyes or other species such as northern pike, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, panfish or catfish – a perennial favorite among anglers who fish the Red River.
Undated courtesy photo of Marc Bacigalupi, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Northwest Region fisheries manager in Bemidji. Minnesota’s 2025 fishing season opens Saturday, May 10, 2025. (Courtesy of Marc Bacigalupi)
No doubt, though, walleyes are the stars of the show on opening day. Fisheries crews for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are wrapping up their annual walleye egg take operations to supply state stocking programs, said Marc Bacigalupi, Northwest Region fisheries manager for the DNR in Bemidji.
“It’ll be a nice, two-week period where fish are getting ready to bite again” by opening day, Bacigalupi said.
According to the DNR’s spring fishing outlook, Lake of the Woods has a strong population of walleyes in the 13- to 16-inch range, smaller 9- to 11-inch fish and a “high” abundance of walleyes larger than 25 inches.
Anchoring and jigging with a minnow or frozen shiner is the go-to technique for early season walleyes – at least on Lake of the Woods and Rainy River.
“It’s hard to stress how little you want to move and how soft that bite is when it’s cold,” Lyon said.
Another favorite
Upper Red Lake also will be loaded with boats on opening day. For this year, the DNR upped the walleye limit on Upper Red to five fish, with only one over 17 inches allowed. In 2024, anglers on Upper Red were allowed three walleyes, with one over 17 inches, from the May 11 opener through June 14; beginning June 15, 2024, the limit increased to four walleyes, with one over 17 inches allowed.
The limit remained at four walleyes, with one over 17 inches, for the winter 2024-25 fishing season.
According to Evie Evarts, area fisheries supervisor for the DNR in Bemidji, this year’s increased open water limit reflects a series of recent strong year-classes that has resulted in an abundance of smaller walleyes in the population.
The summer regulation allows anglers to keep abundant walleyes while maintaining breeding fish at a level that continues to produce successful year-classes, Evarts said. A year-class refers to fish recruited to the population from a particular year’s hatch.
“We’ve had good year-classes every couple of years now,” Evarts said. “When we had really high brood stock, we weren’t seeing the year-classes, so we’re back to getting good year-classes in there, which is always good for Red.”
By all indications, fishing on the state’s 48,000-acre portion of Upper Red should be good for the opener. The ice on Upper Red was all but gone April 29, with just a small band of shore ice on the south shore of Lower Red, all of which is in tribal waters. Larger post-spawn walleyes likely will be concentrated on the first shoreline break for the opener, so the DNR recommends that anglers have a proper measuring board in the boat to accurately measure the fish they catch.
Walleyes on Red could be “at the tail end of their spawn” on the opener, Evarts says.
“I think it’s going to be good,” she said. “The later the ice goes out on Red, the better it is for fishing. We’re right in that window, so it should be good.”
Closer to Bemidji, shallower lakes likely will offer the best fishing prospects, Evarts says.
“We just lost ice on Lake Bemidji this week – I think it’s all gone – so the water is still going to be pretty cold, I think, for the opener,” she said. “I would say that any of our shallower lakes like Plantagenet and Blackduck, those would all be good starter lakes for the walleye opener.”
Cass Lake, because it’s larger and deeper, generally isn’t a destination lake for the fishing opener, Evarts says, though smaller lakes in the Mississippi River chain, “such as Kitchi and any of those,” would be good bets.
“They’re pretty shallow, and they’re in the river (chain) so they’re going to be warmer,” she said.
Walleyes should be even more recovered from the spawn farther south in Minnesota.
Leech Lake, the other large lake in the DNR’s Northwest Region, also looks promising, with walleye numbers “within or above various management objectives,” the DNR said in its preseason outlook. Anglers can expect to encounter several year-classes of walleyes ranging from 10 inches to 27 inches in length, with the majority being from the 2021 year-class, fish mainly between 15 and 17 inches long.
The DNR offers a full statewide fishing opener preview on its website at mndnr.gov.
Steeped in tradition
Bacigalupi, the Northwest Region fisheries manager, says he’ll be participating in the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener, which this year will be held in the Crosslake chain of lakes area near Brainerd. As an avid walleye angler, he’ll be among the volunteers taking event participants fishing.
The Minnesota Fishing Opener “is a great tradition,” Bacigalupi said.
“It’s about fishing, but it’s also just kind of celebrating the arrival of spring and the tradition of fishing and families having a good excuse to get back together,” he said.
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Maybe the tradition is getting up early; or hitting the water at 12:01 a.m., when the season officially is underway. The Minnesota Fishing Opener is set by statute to open the Saturday two weeks before the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which this year is May 24.
“It’s something to celebrate,” Bacigalupi said. “You know, our politics are polarized, but it’s still about people knowing that this is still a great place to come and visit and recreate and for our citizens to enjoy our resources that we do work hard at maintaining.”
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