By Tom Hintgen, AlbertLeaTribune.com

PELICAN RAPIDS &8212; Knowledgeable fishermen know, due to the recent cold weather, that walleye will be hard to catch come Saturday on many lakes of northern Minnesota. Some may opt to cast for cold-water crappies as part of the Minnesota fishing opener. Many adamant walleye fishermen, however, will try to defy the odds.

&8220;People who&8217;ve looked forward to the opener for several weeks aren&8217;t going to let cold water, bad weather or anything else stop them in the pursuit of walleye,&8221; said Galen Teichert, general manager of Park Region Cenex in Pelican Rapids.

Two of Teichert&8217;s employees who work at the new Cenex convenience store, manager Cheryl Nelson and Larry Doll, were busy Wednesday making sure the Cenex bait shop was well supplied with fishing rods, lures, other fishing equipment and shiners, suckers, crappies, night crawlers and artificial lures.

&8220;We&8217;ll always see the walleye fishermen, but with ice on the banks I think you&8217;ll see more people fishing for cold-water crappies this opening day weekend,&8221; Doll said. &8220;This always is an exciting time of year. The fishing opening has such a strong tradition with families and friends getting together.&8221;

&8220;Walleye Dan&8221; Eigen has been selected as Gov. Tim Pawlenty&8217;s fishing host for the 2008 Minnesota Governor&8217;s Fishing Opener at Breezy Point near Brainerd. Eigen, a full-time professional fishing guide, is owner and operator of Walleyedan&8217;s Guide Service of Nisswa.

Minnesota&8217;s Fishing Opener weather is typified by partly cloudy to cloudy skies, morning temperatures in the low 40s and afternoon temperatures climbing to near 70. A trace of snow has been reported in northern Minnesota on at least four of the last 56 fishing openers.

On at least three occasions, some lakes were still frozen for the opener. This season, the ice is leaving the lakes about one to two weeks behind historical averages.