2013 Wisconsin Fishing Opener Was A Cold Icy One to Remember

Months ago me and some friends made plans to fish the Wisconsin fishing opener.   We kept the date open, got babysitters lined up, bought our licenses and eagerly waited to get back on the water.  However, it was apparent last week that we were going to have to change plans with the bizarre late spring we've had.

Most of the north third of Wisconsin's lakes are still frozen, and that was the case for anywhere we were willing to drive to.  We decided the only way to get our fishing in was to find some streams, rivers, or dams that had opened up.  We weren't going to give up on opener, we weren't going to let mother nature win.

Our first stop was a few hours at the Gordon Dam.  The water was raging through the damn, and the snow was mostly gone off the ground.  Unfortunately, the fish weren't biting.  The water temperature was 41 degrees.   We weren't the only fisherman there either.  Several groups of people came and left throwing a line just for a few minutes to say they fished opener.

From there we tried further up the river in Gordon and pulled off on the side of the road.  Still no luck after about 45 minutes.

Last ditch effort, we tried the mouth of the Amnicon river, right where it feeds into Lake Superior.   A strong current made it difficult to fish in, and no results either.

Even though we were skunked, it was still worth trying.  At one point I laughed and pointed out that we had four guys fishing from shore, who all own their own boats.  Something about that isn't right for opener, is it?