ON LAKE VERMILION, Minn. — Fishing guide Dave Schaeffer tossed a chartreuse and pink jig into the water of Lake Vermilion early last Saturday morning on Minnesota's fishing opener. He liked the feel of his first cast of the season.

"Baby," he muttered, "it's been a while."

And for a while, it looked as if the opener might not come at all, as ice clung to the surface of many lakes. Elsewhere on Lake Vermilion, down on Big Bay, ice stretched almost shore to shore on Saturday. Many anglers were compelled to trailer their boats to the west end of the lake, where Schaeffer, 62, and his friend and fellow guide Denny Van de Linde, 64, of Cook were spending their 33rd annual opener together.

Both men guide on Lake Vermilion all summer and into the fall, but not on the opener.

"We met in '75, and we've fished every opener together since then," Van de Linde said.
 
They had planned to fish Schaeffer's end of the lake, but the ice changed that. So they took Van de Linde's new 18�-foot Alumacraft into the shallows of Black Bay at the west end. The water temperature was 50 degrees here, as opposed to a frigid 40 in the main bays. No wonder. They had been ice-covered just 24 hours before.

"The fish are going to be in the warmer water," Van de Linde said.
 
We had passed a flotilla of Lunds and Alumacrafts and Sylvans in the narrows, where most anglers were trolling Shad Raps and other minnow imitations. The three of us threw jigs from 1/16th to � ounce tipped with minnows, and Van de Linde tried trolling a slip-sinker rig, too.

The day was cool -— 41 degrees at 6 a.m. with a fresh wind from the east. Bodies propped in boats were topped with stocking caps. Some hoods were up. Some anglers wore gloves. The sky spit snow pellets for about 5 minutes.

"It's better than rain," Van de Linde said.

Despite the cool conditions, nearly everyone seemed happy to be fishing on liquid water again. Trolling or drifting in close quarters, anglers chatted boat to boat. Schaeffer hooked our first walleye sometime after 8 a.m. on a jig and minnow in about 7 feet of water. It looked like it had been in the walleye tanning booth, its thick body a deep golden green. But at 18 inches, it had to go back to the lake.

A protected 17- to 26-inch slot limit on Lake Vermilion means all walleyes in that category must be released. Slot limits, aimed at preserving spawning fish, are common on the state's larger walleye lakes.

"This is the third year of the slot," Van de Linde said. "Overall, it's been accepted by the public. No one's complaining."

"Caught a few. All too big," one angler in another boat told us, shrugging.

"We got seven. All in the slot," another reported.
 
But catching nice walleyes is a problem everyone on Vermilion seemed happy about on Saturday.
 
Schaeffer continued to school Van de Linde and the other angler on board. Schaeffer caught fish through the morning, only one of which was small enough to keep — and just barely. Jigs and minnows in 7 to 10 feet did the trick. And we boated one 22-incher, too.

Much of the time, we fished in loose pods of 13 to 15 boats, but Schaeffer and Van de Linde said this was light turnout for an opener on Vermilion.

"Way down," Van de Linde said. "I'd have to say we're below 50 percent (of normal)."

That was to be expected, with the partial ice-out on Vermilion and ice-out of any kind remaining in doubt until Friday.

Between bites, we watched bald eagles and buffleheads and looked at modest cabins tucked among the old pines. We told stories of timber wolves and caribou and big walleyes of yesteryear. Schaeffer and Van de Linde have an easy friendship rooted in a lot of history together. They seem to share the same brain when it comes to finding walleyes.

"Denny," Schaeffer would say, "I want you to take me out to that reef where those boats are."
 
"Let's do it," Van de Linde would answer.

And off we'd go.

"Got any more of those jigs?" Van de Linde asked.

"They're in my jig box," Schaeffer answered.

"Tell him the story about..." Van de Linde would say.

And Schaeffer would tell the stories.

They had both dreamed of retiring to the Lake Vermilion area, and both made the move in 2002. Schaeffer came up from Forest Lake, Minn., and Van de Linde from Mendota Heights, Minn. They eased into guiding after that.

But never on opening day. Each of them sets that one aside for an old friend.