WILLMAR -- What if they held a fishing opener and no one showed up?
With the continuous rains Saturday throughout the area, fishing for the 2008 opener was spotty at best, according to area bait shops.
Not a lot of good reports of fish being caught or even boats out on the water.
"The water temperature is just too cold right now," said Tim Damm of Atwater Bait and Tackle. "It needs to warm up another five to eight degrees. There have been a lot of people out, but they're not catching a lot of fish."
The normal walleye and northern pike fishing opener Saturday brings a number of anglers out at 12:01 a.m. and in the last few years, that's the best time of the whole weekend.
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"A lot of guys were getting walleyes at midnight. They were bringing in nice-sized walleyes, 18 to 20 inches," said Jabran Mustafa of J's Bait and Sport in Willmar.
By daybreak, rain and cold seemed to be the order of the day.
Most of the Kandiyohi County parks reported a limited number of boats out on area lakes Saturday.
"It's been fairly slow. The best I've heard is one boat had five keepers. The bass are biting, but the season isn't open yet," said Todd Anderson of County Park 3 on Diamond Lake. "It was down from years past. But there are a few diehards that stayed out there in the rain."
Those "diehards" reported success, if they stayed at it long enough. If one could stand the constant rain and temperatures in the 40s, that is.
What action there was centered around shallower lakes, even though water temperatures ranged from the mid-40s to 50 degrees, still not warm enough for decent fish activity.
"It was spotty over the county," according to Brad Foshaug of Brad's 71 Bait and Sports north of Willmar. "The best place I heard of was Diamond opening night and early in the morning. (Saturday), everybody just quit. There was a little action on Norway. Long Lake was the same. It was a long time between fish. It's been slow everywhere. One fish here, a couple of fish there."
Green Lake wasn't a great hub of activity, either. Reports Saturday noted the lack of trailers at the public access near Mel's Sport Shop in Spicer and even Sunday there weren't many people trying to catch the first of the season.
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Reports from the Montevideo and Madison areas were much the same: very little action.
But as the sun came out Sunday for Mother's Day, as it always does, so does the hope of better fishing to come.
"There's usually better fishing out here on Memorial Day," said Bud Groen at County Park 1 on Big Kandi Lake.
"The best part is coming this weekend and next weekend," Foshaug added.
Elsewhere in the state, Gov. Tim Pawlenty caught a 17-inch walleye Saturday on Pelican Lake as part of the 60th annual Governor's Fishing Opener, but that's not what he'll eat.
"I guess I'm eating humble pie," the Republican governor said early Saturday afternoon after returning to Breezy Point Resort and a morning of fishing. In the annual competition between Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, it was Molnau who again bested the governor. While both caught only one fish, it was Molnau who got hers first and it was larger.
Pawlenty caught his walleye about 11:05 a.m. while Molnau got hers about 8:30 a.m.
-- Brad Swenson of the Bemidji Pioneer contributed to this story.
