I made my annual "meat hunt" trip to the Potholes this past weekend and timed it almost perfect!  If we had not have been in the midst of two frontal passages, I think the fish would have been even more aggressive.  My ABA partner & I left the house at 3 a.m. and were on the water at 6:30 dodging duckhunters put-putting out to their blinds for opening day.  Sounded like a war all around us as the sun rose.
Water temp was 56 which warmed to 60 by the time we left about 2. Lake level down about 28-30 ft.  I found my LM's up in Crab Creek waiting for me. However, I couldn't get them to hit the crankbait.   7" black or Red Shad ribbontail worms brought in numerous LM's in the 3-3.5 range.  My best was 4.3. All of the LM's were in about 8' with the exception of the big one.  She was in 2' right at the dropoff into the 8' creek channel. I couldn't find one 2 lbs. or under, so in the afternoon we went looking for SMB.  It took about 1 1/2 hrs for my partner & I to put 10 in the boat dragging Yammamoto 176 4" lizards along the face of the dam in 15' of water.  No big Smallies as they were all clones about 13-14".  They made the trip home in the cooler.  Walleye fishermen were having fair success in front of the dunes.  At 2 p.m. we loaded up and headed for Vantage.  Winds were blowing about 25mph from the west and the water was fairly rough & 62 degrees at the I-90 bridge.  We found that by following the west bank upriver, the wind was not a very big factor.  Once upstream about 6 or 7 miles the wind was not even noticable. We did more exploring and camera work than fishing but my partner managed to hook 2 SM's each about 13-14" on a wacky-rigged coreshot Senko.  Loaded the boat and was home before 8 p.m.
I've now got enough fish for several meals till next year.  

Smitty