fishing reports 2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info

[sturgeonator]

C.Ford sounds like you know a lot about LOW. Sure wish I could get together with you and get some tips. Show me the finer points of walleye and northern fishing. Noticed you had some awesome sturgeon pictures on your web site.

[C. Ford]

Thanks for the feedback, Just takes time on the water Ive been fortunate to be able to guide full time since 1999. Started guideing for Steve Ballard at Ballards and never looked back. Really enjoy the small personal thing compared to the Charter boat stuff, real good experience though. Spend most of my time now either in the Canadian water or up in the Angle area, Bait fish all year long no need for the riggers, once in a great while when I'm running over flow. Kinda have to then thats what they want you doing it seems. Any way gotta go. Keep it fun, Chris

[firedew]

C.Ford you sure have come a long way,It's been 20 yrs since we use to catch crappies on Lake Minnetonka and Medicine lake.I'll look you up when the ice freezes and I'm up for the walleyes.

[fiskyknut]

WOW fishing has been good this year! Bite on Muskeg is kicking into high gear and Sunday folks baifishing were plain hoisting the Walters. Last 2 trips for me were plug pulling trips, not getting the numbers the baitfishers are getting but the size makes up for that! SR's, Hornets, and Xraps all have been bit!

Good reports from East to West and pretty much all points inbetween!

Fine weather coming this weekend too, for a change! By golly we just might see sunshine and temps into the 70's this weekend finally!

fiskyknut

[bluegill56]

We are planning on coming up this weekend to fish the south shore. Any reports or advice greatly appreciated.

[WIFisher]

Coming up to the North end (Canadian Side) a week from tomorrow for the muskie opener. What have water temps been like in the bays/mainlake? Just wondering if most of them will still be in the bays(I hope so)

Thanks

[LaPorte_MN_IA]

Last week as we left the lake the main water was 54. The bays were starting to rise to 60 - 62. The assortment of fish were starting to arrive in the bays.

We casted for pike in the Hades Islands which is great musky water. I didn't see or hear of one musky being caught.

[Scout*]

Fished Warroad, Swift, south shore, elm, Buffalo south pt.

Fished last Thursday, Friday. Lots of small fish, mostly saugers. Caught only one keeper walleye and several nice sauger. Others were either too small or too big. Fished in 14' to 3' of water. Dragged shads and raps. Only decent report of nice keepers came from fisherman fishing Buffalo south pt on Thursday. Caught three nice walleye out of the slot.

Hopefully warmer weather will turn on the nicer sized walleyes.

Scout

[Kingfisher]

Two of us launched yesterday morning out of the Warroad Public Access, headed east a couple miles to a waypoint, dropped a spinner & crawler into the very milky water, picked up an 18", Wow easy pickens right, not. We threw back three little ones, and kept jumping further and further east, we didn't see one boat dip net a fish. Headed to 12 Mile, made a few passes, nothing, went to Buffalo South Point, water clarity normal, didn't start catching fish until we got to Elm Point, kept 5 more keepers, lost some soft bites, threw back several smaller eyes. Checked Rudy's Reef on the way back to Warroad, didn't see any fish on the graph, kept going, drifted a ways out from the blinker, again nothing. Quit at 6, what a great day to be on the pond.

[greggh]

Going to Lake of the Woods for the first time. Staying at a Rainy river motel just a few blocks from the Lake. Noice fisherman. Interested in fishing primarily walleyes,also pike, panfish or bass. Advice on where/how to fish, bait appreciated. My 70 year old friend will have 40 hp boat, fish locator and GPS. Preferrs worms or leeches for walleyes

 

Thanks

Gregg

Hi Gregg and welcome to the family.  Your motel operator will have pretty much all the areas to fish and last minute instructions.  Here are some things you can do in advance. Have an anchor that will hold your boat in a decent wind and at LEAST 100 feet of rope.  You dont say when your trip is but if it is in June you will want to anchor up and jig with either live or dead frozen shiners, or chub minnows.  Leeches might work ok but if you want to use the best bait day in and day out use the shiners alive or frozen.  3/8th ounce jigs in orange, gold or pink and your ready to do your best.  Remember a good anchor and 100 feet of rope at least.

Have a great trip

Edited May 27, 2015 by curt quesnell
Adding information..

[fiskyknut]

I fished the last 2 afternoons..

As Kingfisher mentioned water was a bit silty on Wednesday after the days of big winds.

Wednesday launched at Springsteel and ran 8.5 miles to a little rockpile middle of nowhere. First trip over the top I get a 27.5'r, second pass I get a 18.5'r. Both of these came on Leeches and my favorite color smiley blade. 2 more drifts with nothing and my buddy gets on radio and talks with his brother who says they're catching out near the S-tip. Against my better judgement we go there only to catch dinks!! We did box 6 or 7 smallish keepers out there anyhow, most came on Fatheads, a few on Crawlers.

Thursday dropped boat in at Swift and head for above mentioned rockpile.. Controlled drift downwind over it then backtroll back upwind over it. Water noticeably cleaner than day before. Got fishes right away boxing 3 good 16-17 inch fat Walters in about 45 minutes of doing that, threw back a half dozen dinkers as well. Decide to drop the anchor of the edge of the rocks. Bingo, we spent 2 hours hoisting Saugers left and right with a smallish Walleye mixed in at about a 10 to 1 ratio. Filled the limit with 15 inch Saugers, 5 or 6 of them going 16-17 inches. Wind died and so did the bite!!

Think I will dust off the trolling gear for the next trip maybe??

Regards....fiskyknut

[srj]

Hey Kingfisher, watched for your Lund on Wednesday but hardly saw any boats anywhere. I was on 12 mile in mid-afternoon and found a pretty good bunch but they were way on top. Only a few midgets in the deeper stuff. A few nice fish on Arnesens but overall slow. The water was seriously dirty! And way worse off to the east. Hopefully the lighter winds will let it clean up soon. The radio chatter sounded like some were catching, some were not out of Warroad up to south tip. Good you found some.

It was pretty interesting off the Morris Gap. Still quite a bit of water washing out there and a big plume of clean water out to 20' or so. And lots of fish using it. Big bite Wed evening and lots of boats by Thursday morning. Even Zipples blue Sportcraft was in there. Quite a mud line beyond 20' but looked to be lessening by afternoon when the wind went down. Sure changes things when it dirties up. Most charters seemed to be up north in the islands.

[srj]

Fisky, might be back up solo on Mon/Tues. Maybe give me a jingle on Sunday?

[Kingfisher]

Good to hear the water is clearing up, and that you guys got into some nice fish, trying to get something going for Mon or Tues, and Friday.

[fiskyknut]

Roger that Jorgie..

Will call Sunday, probably from the water.

Chit just did'nt work out for me to get over your way unfortuanatly this last time.

Soon though!

Norm

[toddb]

fisky/srj,

I'm gonna try some trolling in the rocky point area Tuesday. If you guys are game let me know, I have a couple open seats.

later,

toddb

[srj]

Todd, that would work great for me. I'll be north on the lake tomorrow but planned on Rocky Pt Tuesday anyway. Kinda worried about fishing out of that Triton.........I looked at one and kind of wanted it to follow me home!

If we don't connect on here tonight, my cell is 556-8681. Maybe leave your number if you get my voicemail as the calling number isn't shown with voicemail. If I'm across the lake when you call I won't have reception until I get back south.

Steve J

[fiskyknut]

Todd ring me or e in the morning if you can.

Jorgie I tried both your cells about 830pm or so.

Either of ya ring me early, I'm up 530am.

[toddb]

sounds like a go- I'll try to get a hold of Norm tomorrow. I'll buzz u tomorrow eve to set up the master plan.

later

[toddb]

Norm,

I'll buzz you in the AM. Maybe not 5:30. Just got back from a beatin in Canada last week so I'm headin for the rack.

Out,

toddb

[ranger20]

was up this weekend and very slow unless you want to travel to oakisland about 28mile from wheelers point then you will get your limit for sure,pine island has a wind wash going on right now and has gave the fish lockjaw,the wash goes out about 20miles,so hope for none windy days and it should get better,or book a guide trip and you will have nothing but fun good luck

[WingDing2]

Just returned from a 2 day trip and had a great time! We went to destinations to the North and had great success. Caught most of our fish on Leeches, not minnows which was surprising.

I did not find many fish on the rocks most were off the edge where a rock mud transition existed. Biggest walleye was a 28" fatty.

[DREZLER]

Just got back from Morris Point and a 3 day weekend. With the water all dirty no one was fishing the south shore or anywhere near it at all. A 25 mile trip to Garden Island was producing limits for everyone, either downrigging or jigging. However, in doing so I broke one seat, one downrigger base, another downrigger, and my boat stereo. Kind of an expensive deal.

[SM1]

Drezler, how did you manage to do so much damage?

[jerkbait]

My geuss would be wind, wind and wind. Looked mighty rough out there on Saturaday.

[chill]

We downrigged this past weekend Fri-Sat in 25-30 ft. with this 30.5 caught by my son on Sat.

[slammer]

Chill, what part of the lake were you fishing? Did you get any more fish besides the big one?

[DREZLER]

yeah, jerkbait is correct. It was awfully windy while we were up there and it's kind of discouraging trying to run 25 miles at ten miles and hour (2.5 hour ride). On the way back however on Sunday I was able to ride in the wake of my brothers 20 ft. ranger and it's amazing how few waves you hit 100 feet behind another boat.

[chill]

We fished north of long point towards little oak, both days were good after fighting the waves out we only had to fish 3-4 hrs to catch our fish with 5 people in the boat. We caught 6 total in the slot with the 2nd biggest being 27.75". Can anyone help with instructions on how to get a picture off your computer onto a post? I looked in the FAQ and searched old topics with no luck. Any help would be appreciated Thanks in advance

[WingDing2]

Chill, If you send me the pic I'll post it for you if you would like. wing at frontiernet dot net

BOB