The 2015 fishing opener likely to mirror 2011's

Want to know what fishing will be like when the 2015 season opens at 12:01 a.m. Saturday?

Will walleyes still be in the shallows, completing their spawn?

Concentrated in rivers, hanging out in current?

Or widely scattered — requiring opening-day anglers to hunt for them in water both shallow and deep?

For the answer, look to opening day 2011.

Because wherever you caught walleyes on that opener, you might also find them Saturday.

Don't bet the farm on it, of course. There's no sure thing in fishing. Wind. Rain. Water temperature. Sun. Clouds. Each can affect where walleyes are and whether they'll take your bait.

And nothing like opening day last year. Or the year before. Both of which followed long, cold, snowy winters. And slow-to-arrive springs.

So think twice — or more — before spending too much time wetting a line where you caught fish on the opener last year.

"This year we were done collecting walleye eggs at all eight of our stations by April 22," said Neil Vanderbosch, who oversees the DNR stocking program. "Last year we hadn't even started by then."

Weather on the season's first fishing day this year is expected to be much improved over the windy, overcast and frequently rainy conditions that prevailed on the opener in 2011.

The temperature Saturday in the Twin Cities is forecast to touch 70 degrees beneath partly cloudy skies and moderate winds, while Up North, near Bemidji, a high in the low 60s is predicted with clear skies.

How was fishing on opening day 2011?

Here's a sample of reports published in the Star Tribune on the Sunday following the opener that year.

• Chisago City area lakes were hiding walleyes in deeper waters, with crawler harnesses being the best solution in 16 to 20 feet of water.

• Shagawa and Fall Lake near Ely produced nice stringers of walleyes. Anglers were finding fish in 8 feet along the shoreline.

• Near Grand Rapids, walleyes and crappies were biting on Moose, Deer and Bass lakes.

• • •

The DNR last week warned anglers that dry conditions throughout the state could mean boat launching will be problematic on some lakes Saturday.

But a lack of rainfall last fall (and this spring) and a shortage of snow this past winter also have implications for walleyes.

Case in point:

On Upper Red Lake, the mouth of the Tamarack River — and oftentimes the river itself — usually is a hot spot for walleye fishing on the opener.

But maybe not on Saturday.

"This spring, the Tamarack River had very few spawning walleyes in it," said DNR area fisheries supervisor Gary Barnard of Bemidji. "The water is low, and there's not enough current in it to attract fish."

Barnard believes walleyes will be more widely dispersed Saturday than on recent openers. "We're already seeing water temperatures of 52 and 53 degrees," he said.

Typically, after female walleyes spawn in the shallows, they rest a short time before drifting out to deeper water. Male walleyes — the smaller of the two — usually remain congregated in spawning areas a while longer. Then they, too, scatter.

Finding fish under these conditions can be an opening day challenge, and might be on Saturday.

A bonus might be that crappies will take anglers' baits next weekend at a pace they haven't for a few years on opening day.

My report from the 2011 opener carried these words about crappies:

"Saturday evening, for dinner, we ate heartily, with fish left over. Among these were a small slew of crappies, slab specimens we picked up using slip bobbers and tiny jigs."

• • •

Fishing-license sales this year are well ahead of sales at this time last year and also in 2013.

Or it could be because this year a new catch-and-release bass season will begin Saturday in the southern two-thirds of the state, a significant difference in Minnesota fishing regulations. (Bass can be kept statewide beginning May 23.)

Previously, except in northeast Minnesota, bass weren't legal fare until two weeks after the walleye (and northern pike) opener.

The delay allowed most bass to finish spawning — they're highly vulnerable on their beds — before anglers started throwing baits at them.

The exception has been and remains in northeast Minnesota, where bass harvesting always has been allowed beginning with the walleye season.

The change more closely aligns Minnesota bass seasons with those of Wisconsin, where bass are legal when walleye and northern pike angling begins (Wisconsin protects smallmouth bass in the north until the third Saturday of May).

Finally, in response to the many requests I receive each year for retired state Sen. Bob Lessard's beer-batter walleye recipe, here it is. Good luck on Saturday.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour

• 2 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. garlic salt; 1 tsp. lemon pepper; 1 tsp. baking powder

• 1 cup beer

Directions:

• Combine eggs and beer; mix in dry ingredients. Stir. Cut fillets in half and dry on paper towel. Dip fillets in batter.

• Fry in deep fryer or skillet with oil at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Lessard recommends serving walleye with a garden salad, hash browns and/or baked beans, supplementing these to assuage as necessary the stresses that often accompany angling with a martini made dry, shaken not stirred.