Weekend in the River

[curt quesnell]

Wild winds last week have the lake pretty churned up and

from what I heard fishing lakeside was tough. But in the

Rainy River the wind really cant blow too hard and this time

of the year fishing can be pretty darn good.

Cat Man and I didnt get on the water till about 3 pm

Saturday. The wind was howling from up river so with a

good sea spike anchor we got set up about halfway to

Baudette close to mid river in 19 feet of water. (Steve

from Log Cabin Bait gave us a heads up on the location).

This is one of the "end of the day" spots so I thought

we might sit for a while before much excitement came along.

Almost right away Shannon says "darn it"(or something to

that effect) and reels in a now empty orange jig head and

hooks up another frozen shiner. One minute later he says

"get the net" (or something like that). Nice Walleye #1

just shy of 16 inches.

After a couple more minutes we release a 21 incher and every

few minutes till quittin time (dark) we are losing shiners

or catching Walleyes of very many size ranges.

I havent been out for a few weeks so it was very nice to

sit there as the wind slowly died and the evening nudged

close to perfect. I didnt expect to fish the river but

circumstances pointed us in that direction. We werent

alone, there were many many other boats from the Lighthouse

corner to the Airport at Baudette. I think the bite

improved as the day went by.

Sunday, we needed 4 Walleyes (replacements from the fish

fry) and I wanted to see the lake. The wind was all but

gone. We started in the Lighthouse Gap and had just set

up when a string of about 8 lake bound boats blew by us.

In the 45 seconds it took for the caravan to pass us by

we each had 17 inch Walleyes netted. One more keeper came

in a few minutes before tiny Saugers moved in.

I wanted to get over to Morris Point so off went to catch

our last fish and head home to watch the Vikes. The water

there was real green and there was much algae in it. I

was kind of expecting brown muddy water but the green stuff

didnt have fish either. So we quit with 3 for the morning

and packed it in.

The weather was fine and the fishing was more than I hoped

for.

srj, I called for you on 88 about 9:30 but could raise

you. Next time

One final note. Get a sea spike style anchor if you dont

have one already. Most other kinds of anchors dont hold

in the sandy mucky style bottom of Lake of the Woods in the

kind of wind that commonly occurs in the fall. Get a big

enough one to hold your boat and get AT LEAST a 100 feet of

anchor rope. Your trip will be much better if you do.

[flysndie]

Just got back from L.O.W. my self. took on a lot of water Fri. going from Morris to LightHouse Gaps in the back waters. Worked hard to get enough,for a big fish fry that night, but the 7 of us managed. Saturday, was awsome,all three boats had limits in no time,and spent the remainder of the day sport fishing. We mainly fished by Wheelers Pt. and approx. 1 mile south of sportsmans. I strongly agree with you about the anchor only add a 5ft. length of rubber coated anchor chain. This will help you from breaking loose when large wakes roll in Gold,Silver, Chartreuse, Blaze Orange,& White Glo lead head jigs worked the best

[srj]

Curt, we didn't get on the lake until 10:30 or so. Ended up staying anchored in the cleaner water towards the gap. We caught a few nice ones but it was lots slower than Saturday from what we heard. It was kinda like ice fishing--had lots of fish come up to look at the bait but not many takers. THe lookers kept us optimistic. Tried lots of colors, sizes, styles, etc.

Always fun fishing with Fisky--this time he had a new jiggin rod to break in. With the slow bite it took a while but then---a perch. A bit later, after a good battle, a 5 incher was lost being lifted into the boat. But then a fat 17 incher finally got Norms new pole broken in!

Looked like a few new geese arriving too. One big flock coming from the NE had 5 cut out of the flock and head for the seagulls sitting on the sand bar--a snow and 4 eagle head blues. They liked all that white sitting there.

Good luck next time--heading to Manitoba this weekend so won't be fishing for a bit.

p.s. folks sure anchor up close! A couple guys in a 620 dropped the hook with there boat sitting about 20' away and this was after most everyone had left??? Maybe he wanted to mate his ranger with the yarcraft? Give a little room, folks.

[CatManLee]

Yah, It still amazes me just how close some people will anchor by a guy fishing??????? Must be "the Spot"!

[nauticaljohn]

Curt, you got a new email address? Bounced back. What is the call sign for the station also?

Hey, CatMan!

[CatManLee]

What's up John, When are you coming up? I'll probably make atleast one more trip before ice up, then bring on the ice...I'm looking forward to ice fishing already? Only a couple months...

[nauticaljohn]

CML, been seeing quite a few reports from you this year. You'll get to be as famous as CQ before long. I think I saw you took a 5th place at an ice tourn.?? (Brainerd)?

We are planning to make a trip up this fall and hopefully early ice.

We had a great time at the get-to-gether this summer. Missed you but got to finally put a face on KAZ.

Hope to see you this fall.

[CatManLee]

I don't think I'll ever be as famous as the "one and only" Curt Quesnell...as for Brainerd, I think I placed 20th or 25th, or something like that with a Tulibee, won a new auger (figures, I'd just bought a new one),so I sold it and bought some other fishing goodies with the money.