Low temps slow up fishing opener

By John Cross
Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO May 11, 2008 01:19 am

— This is the first Minnesota opener that Ed Bisek has been able to fish in more than three decades.
For the previous 35 years, he was tending to the opening day needs of angling guests at his Beaver Dam Resort on German Lake.
But earlier this year, Bisek reached a decision to permanently close the doors of the south-central Minnesota recreational institution. Finally, he could do some fishing himself. “It was slow out there,” he said of his first opener in years.
He wasn’t alone. “I talked to several anglers who fished area lakes and except for a crappie or perch here and there, I haven’t heard of a person who caught a walleye or northern,” he said, blaming the poor bite on cold water.
Bisek said the temperature on German Lake was in the mid-50s compared to a normal opening day temperature in the mid-60s.
It was a similar story on most area lakes and local tackle and bait dealers blamed the mediocre bite on the extended cool conditions that have kept water temperatures lower than normal.
At Reel Fishing and Tackle at Madison Lake, Katy Winkler said that as of Saturday afternoon, she had seen only one walleye — a 4-pound, 11-ounce fish caught by Gary Strung in Madison Lake.
“Part of it is the water is cooler than normal — you really have to slow things down,” she said. If the walleyes seemed to have developed lockjaw on Madison Lake, the panfish bite continues. “The crappies — they’re always biting.”

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