If you want walleye action — serious action — with multi-species lunker potential, Lake Mille Lacs is probably your best bet within two hours of the metro.

Anyone who has bothered to wet a line in the Big Pond over the past few years knows there are plenty of fish to be caught. In a historical sense, the lake’s walleye population is down — but that’s only for Mille Lacs. By any normal standard, the lake has a bounty of walleyes hatched in 2013. Those fish should be around 14 inches on opening day, May 14.

To protect that generation of fish, none can be kept. But they can be caught. The Department of Natural Resources and numerous guides around the lake predict it’ll be a good bite on opening day.

Brad Hawthorne lives on the lake. He guides all over the state, but he’ll be fishing Mille Lacs on opening day this year.

Big picture: What’s the opener gonna be like?

I think we’re going to see a typical Mille Lacs opener with typical Mille Lacs tactics. It was an early ice-out, and they’ll have had weeks to recover from the spawn. They’re gonna be hungry and looking for food.

Live bait will be allowed. What do you recommend?

It was an early ice out, so more leeches than minnows for bait. Not that jig-and-minnows won’t be effective. They will. If the walleyes are in the weeds, pitching a jig-and-minnow is the way to get them. But if the water temperature gets around that 60-degree mark, you’ll start seeing the fish favor leeches. They always like minnows in cooler water. Part of that is because those leeches will ball up when it gets cold. I think dragging that north-end sand and break all the way from Red Door (Resort) to Fishers (Resort) will be what a ton of boats are doing.

Terminal tackle?

Lindy rigging. Eight- to 12-foot snell of 4-pound fluorocarbon and ¼- to ½-ounce weight. No. 8 hook. Yes, I think they’ll be line shy. But they’ll be hungry. If they’re not hanging in those areas, they’re gonna be in the weeds, so pitching ⅛- to ¼-ounce jigs with spottail shiners will get them there.

What if the wind kicks up? Will they be in other areas?

That’s the beauty of Mille Lacs; you can go to the leeward side and find fish. Off Indian Point is phenomenal. Big Point always produces on the opener, and Doe Island, too. So there’s west and east. On the south end, if (someone) wants to catch walleye, there are spots there too. Graveyard and Doe Island. All those areas produce fish, and they do it early. I think those 2013 fish will disperse all over the lake. My brain is just telling me that north end sand is gonna be on fire.

Start shallow and then work deep to get your bearings?

Actually, I usually go to the exact place that was best during the last opener. Then I work from there.

What if things get tough?

If you’re on the south end, go over those humps from 10 to 22 feet. Use your sonar and when you mark fish, stop and get the bait down right away. Don’t even throw an anchor, you’re looking for a reaction strike right away from active fish. If you don’t get one, move on. We call that power-corking, and it’s a great tactic when the bite is slow.