General Fishing Opener

A week ago, the general fishing season began for the inland waters of Minnesota. Pike, walleye, bass, and trout in lakes became legal quarry for anxious anglers.
Known to all Minnesotans as "The Opener", it is a great circus event that kicks off the tourist season, whereby hundreds of thousands of hopefuls plug up all the highways, small towns, and boat landings up north - and spend oodles of money at the resorts, bait shops  motels, restaurants, gas stations, gift shops, etc.
Covid-19 changed much of that this time around, forcing plans to be modified and in some cases, cancelling long standing traditions altogether.
A statewide "stay at home order" was in effect.
One of my chums referred to me as a "good Minnesotan" because I elected to be a non participant in the annual event.
Easy for me.
I fished off the dock at home.
And the weather was fabulous................... 2" of new snow in the first hour. And don't you just really groove on a stiff NW wind gusting to 35 MPH.
I lasted about 90 minutes before being chilled to the bone.
Fabulous I tell ya !

 Thirty one inches of pull. Ms Winklestien enjoyed a few licks of slimy pike.

Pearlies on a pike tail, or perhaps goldies. Who knew ?

The pike were on it though, and there were seven that slid onto the dock, with this one getting clunked on the head and relegated into a crispy fish dinner. 26.5 inches. Just legal and just right.
Generally speaking, it was generally pretty damn fine.