MINNEAPOLIS — This Saturday, when Minnesota's inland walleye and northern pike seasons begin anew, the fishing, as always, will be fantastic.

And the catching? You heard it here first: It'll be fast and furious.

To make this admittedly out-on-a-limb prediction, I looked at statewide ice-out dates, which obviously were early this spring, and also considered peak days that Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Division employees collected walleye eggs during this spring's spawning runs.

But mostly I recalled the cool weather and delayed crappie runs that prevailed after the early ice-out dates in 2012 to reach my determination that fishing (and catching) will be productive when the 2024 season begins — just as it was on the 2012 opener.

On Leech Lake, for example, one of Minnesota's major walleye haunts, the ice went out this year on April 12, more than two weeks ahead of the April 28 median ice-out date.

In 2012, Leech's ice-out also occurred early, April 2, a record.

Ditto on Upper Red, another popular walleye destination for anglers, where the ice went out this year on April 9. In 2012, the ice on this giant walleye factory also was gone early, on March 27.

Perhaps more important still than ice-out dates when trying to predict opening day walleye fishing success is the weather that prevails after the ice is gone.

Similar to this year, cool weather was the norm in 2012 between ice-out and the opener, preventing lake water from warming.

Telltale of springtime water temperatures, which in turn are telltale of air temperatures, is the timing of crappie spawning runs into shallow water.

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