Five tips and tools to improve your 2024 Minnesota fishing opener

Everyone has fishing tips. The source and timing can add to their currency. Here are a few to consider a week out from another Minnesota outdoors holiday — the fishing opener Saturday.

Ray Gildow, a longtime professional guide in the Nisswa Guides League and member of the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame, is monitoring water temperatures. His observation is that they are unusually low given the weeks of mild weather, but he expects them to climb leading up May 11. “Spawning will be done for the opener,” he added.

Here are Gildow’s three tips for the opener:

1. Avoid water where there are zebra mussel infestations (check Minnesota’s list at bit.ly/MNinfested). Anglers will spook fish in clear water. Better, he said, to find where the fish are and back away. Then, whether using jigs and minnows or artificial bait, cast away from the boat.

2. Don’t be afraid to go shallow for the first two or three weeks. Gildow recalled a recent season on Cut Foot Sioux Lake, connected to Lake Winnibigoshish. He and a lot of other anglers with the same idea were casting into 2 to 3 feet of water and hitting walleyes.

3. Start with live bait if possible. Still, Gildow is keen on artificials. “Plastics are becoming very important,” he said, adding that they become more lifelike every year in look and water patterns.

Minnesotans can fish from shore or a boat without a state license in state parks. (State recreation areas, however, don’t qualify.) The exception is if the waters require a trout stamp, in which case a license is required regardless of what’s targeted by hook and line. Easy to overlook: Parks require the purchase of an annual or daily permit to enter. Accomplish that at the entrance or better yet, do it ahead of time. You’ll need a Yodel account to snag a $7 daily permit. For $35 annual permits, visit the state parks reservation platform. Get started on either at bit.ly/MNpermits.

This might come in handy: did you know Minnesota lacks certified records for several species, including bluegill, northern pike and walleye? Before 1980, there weren’t certified weight rules for submissions, so the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the record-keepers, are looking to update several species. The noncertified records for the fish species above:

• Bluegill: 2 pounds, 13 ounces; length/girth unknown; Alice Lake, Hubbard County; 1948

• Northern pike: 45 pounds, 12 ounces; length/girth unknown; Basswood Lake, Lake County; 1929

• Walleye: 17 pounds, 8 ounces; 35¾ inches, 21¼ inches; Seagull River at Saganaga Lake, Cook County; 1979. (Make sure to read columnist Dennis Anderson’s anniversary column on LeRoy Chiovitte’s record walleye at bit.ly/chiovitte.)

Additionally, interest in catch-and-release prompted the state to add 18 species for eligibility this year. The DNR also hopes to draw more attention to native rough fish. Blue sucker, bigmouth buffalo, channel catfish and freshwater drum are among the additions.

There is a lot of tech gadgetry out there, and the DNR’s LakeFinder app is worth a bookmark. (It’s not in an app store.) Lakes are searchable by name, map and the user’s location. While some data might be dated, learn a lake’s species, size and depth, and water access directions. Additionally, the DNR just updated its regional fishing outlooks online. See them at bit.ly/24regions.

Contribute to the Star Tribune’s fishing opener coverage. Here is how, from May 11 and through the weekend:

Social media: Post what you are observing or catching with #stribfishing on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram.

Email: Send a fish photo and brief tale (angler’s name and city, where and how the fish was caught) to robert.timmons@startribune.com.

Online gallery and submission form: Submit your trophy shots and stories (and see past trophies) at bit.ly/stribfish24. We update Trophy Tales, a gallery of anglers’ photos and stories, weekly through the summer on StarTribune.com/outdoors.