We have had an exceptional early thaw this year. The river opened one week ago and today I am fishing open water at lunds landing and Lewis and Clark. It would seem the walleye are prespawning on the river and people have been doing really well at the pumphouse.  Today I fished for pike on sakakawea.  Lunds had really low water, I couldn’t find a spot deeper than 5 ft. Managed a small pike slow rolling a minnow but was otherwise dead. It may be to shallow to early.  Lewis and Clark however was a different matter. There is still ice on the boat ramp where barley 3 weeks before I caught a 40 in fish through the ice.  On the inlet though the water was open and the pike were trolling. I got an ok pike and the guy across from me got a beauty of a fish.  Oddly I also caught a large catfish in deep water on a minnow. Weather has been in the 40s and wind was light with mostly sunny skies giving way to clouds.