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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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I figure somebody better give a fishing report besides JP. Not that I'm gonna know anything more. Fish are biting. Went out of Arneson's Rocky Point on Saturday and Sunday morning. It was a little breezey so we fished one of the closer reefs. Manage to catch our limit of walleyes and saugers between three guys biggest fish was 23 inches. We drifted with spinners(hammer gold or hammer silver). Leeches out produce nightcrawlers. We fished between 25 to 15 feet of water going about 1.5 to .8 MPH. It sounds like the people downriggen are doing really well. Good luck to anyone heading up there.

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We were up on LOTW July 22-24 and fished around Garden Island both days. The 23rd was cold and windy which limited our success, but Sunday was great. Most fish came in 15-20 feet of water with red/silver spinners and leeches or crawlers. Fish ranged from 13" to 22". Great time - sorry so late to post.

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My wife and I fished out of Arnesens on wed and thurs wed a little slow about 20 fish on N arnesens gold spinner with crawler thurs started out windy with a storm going across the northern lake fished N and S arnesens once storm went by and lake settled down did very well N side of N arnesen in 30 to 25 ft any pt sticking out into the 30 was very good biggest 27"er lots of 18 to 19 "er caught the bigger fish on the ne side of 16 mile later in the day good luck to all and want to still be there!!

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Walleye Inn,

I too was at Arnesen's this week, fished Tues afternoon, Wed, and Thur til 1pm or so. Sorry I did not see you, probably did not recognize you without the winter gear on.

We did really well on Tues afternoon. It took about an hour to find them on and next to the reefs. Got our limit of 16-19s and many large fish, 29, 28, etc.. a 36 northern, a nearly excellent 5 hr outing. An encore performance would be tough. Fish for dinner!

Wed we went over to Knights, did OK, but it was to weakest outing over there I have experienced.

Fished the local reefs on Thursday with little success. Was able to pick up the last two for our travel home limit. I will be back up on Sat, Aug 13th.

Hoey

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Hoey,I might be up on the 13 th also will be in an older blue and white warrior make sure to say hi if ya see us and good luck,there sure are some nice fish on the edges of the rocks right now.Terry

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Walleye Inn,

I have a dark blue Chev HD and dark blue and white ranger. Definitely will be looking for you.

Hoey

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I had to go back again this weekend, spinner bite with crawlers was definitely not as good as last week only caught a hand full sat and sunday but the downrigging was very good out in the middle of the lake about 8 miles north of long point all very nice walleys with alot of 18 and 19"ers threw back about 10 slot fish alot of fun with the nice weather good luck to all

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I'd have to agree with Walleye Inn. The fish were definitely not aggressive this past weekend for the spinner bite. We made drifts in several areas around Warroad and picked up a few here and there. I wanted to try pulling plugs but its a little tough with a full boat of people and not all the right setups. Judging by Curts report, it was the way to go. Saw most of the boats out past the blinker in the 23-18 fow range. Beautiful day on the lake. A little bit choppy right away in the morning but died off enough to break out the trolling motor for awhile. Did anyone else by chance see the fire and all the smoke over to the east side of the lake? I'm guessing someone was burning off a grass field perhaps. Wow did that look big from our location.

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Walleye Inn,

Great to see you. We did some fishing as I needed to be around for some local construction projects, so we could not travel far, out at 9am back at 11am out again at 2pm back again at 5pm, etc.... Like I said, we did some fishing, but not much catching.

Late Aug patterns seem to have set in. Weather has definitely cooled, cold fronts, high winds over the past couple of weeks, etc... Able to make a lot of fish, but no takers.

Definitely need to look for the fish. The guys that moved around a bit and able to find the fish were coming back with limits pulling crawlers. So do not give up hope, grind it out, and pull raps as back up.

Hoey

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Spent last Fri-Sat at the Big Pond. Friday we started at Whiskey pulling lead along the border and then in the mud. Lowrance was packed with fish everywhere in that area...but fishing was tough. Very few hook sets or nets amongst all the boats out there. Ground out about five or six fish and a few overs before we left for 12 mile. Pulled over and around 12 a few times; all for not. Talked to live baiters that had been there a while and they said it was very slow compared to Thurs. Ran over to N Arnesens and pulled around there with only a couple more to show. End of the day tried 15 fow by Lambertsons; one right away and that was it.

Saturday started pulling around Lemm. Very few fish on the graph in the mud around there. Had a few overs and a few that came unbuttoned before we bailed out and ran east until we found the group of boats in the mud between the 9 footer and Long Pt. Caught of few 18-19.5's but the catch rate was pretty slow and they weren't very thick on the graph. Ran in a few miles toward Zipple and tried that mud. Nothing on the graph and very few fish being caught. Ran in to 20-25 fow...marked none, caught none.

We then ran back out to the original spot and now the fish were off the floor and on the graph pretty thick. Got dialed in with #11 Taildancers 130 ft. back (fireline) on boards for our outside lines and 400 series Red-headed Wonderbreads 225 ft back on lead for our inside lines. Some fish bit as slow as 2.0 mph and some on outside boards turning so the #11's were easily going 3.5 mph at times. All of a sudden fishing was pretty fun. The keepers out there were just beautiful and lots of fish in a year class that has them at 24". One of the boats in our group, while we were busy running around checking spots, CPR'd 7 24"ers. Ended Saturday beautifully.

Had to leave by Noon on Sunday so we went to see if the fish at Whiskey would finally snap...they didn't. Got some keepers and a few overs to end the trip. I remember hearing former Riverbend owner Glen Voitilla years ago say that he felt the full and new moon phases were the worst time to be at L.O.W. I kind of know what he was talking about now. Great time overall, but you really had to work for them compared to normal. Good luck to all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My neighbors were out last Sunday and did great rigging. Tasty fish for din din Sunday night.

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hi all - planning a trip in Mid-Sept, will rigging still work at this time once the water cools a bit?

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Sure isnt many reports from up there lately.I havent been up there but from what I hear they are catching some fish in about 30 around the south shore and also still catching fish up by the reefs.You should be able to use any method in September to catch fish. Riging,Jiging or cranks will all put fish in the boat. I am hopeing to get up there 1 more time myself.

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leaving in the morning for Arnesons for the weekend. Should I get minnows? Or crawlers and leeches the best bait? Dont have riggers or lead core.

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On my way up for the weekend. Heard conflicting reports on wind for Sat. Some say 10-20 NNW and others say only around 10. My boat can handle a 15 mph breeze or so but its no fun bouncing around in anything over 10. Anyone hear otherwise?

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Did not make the trip. Changed plans at last minute for family issue. Gonna try for next weekend. Was anyone out d/rigging this weekend? Are the fish moving closer to shore?

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Well we fished the lake over the weekend and good. Fished Fri out at cookers reef. And caught one 21.5" and the rest were 14 to 16 inch saugers. Sat due to wind went out of Springsteel, just out to 19 foot of water and drifted to 21 foot and again caught 14 to 17 inch saugers, 1 37 inch northern and a few jumbo perch. Sun same thing out of sringsteel but to the north this time one 21.5 inch ne 19 incher and the rest were 14 to 16 inch sauger. Mon went out for a couple hours and caught 2 18s and the rest were saugers. Now I have never caught that many saugers in the summer before. I dont know if it was because we were useing minnows or what. But 90% of our fish were saugers. Not complaining at all! Tast just as good. Looked like bigger fish were comeing off of riggers. The wife and kids had fun catching and I stayed busy baiting and netting and untangling and cleaning fish and frying fish and...

Over all great time ate fish and brought our limits hokme Arnesons Resort gets another A+ from us, and will be back next year and or maybe this winter!

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Fished Whiskey Jack's Thursday. Not fast, but two of us kept 8 nice walleyes (16-18 in) and kept a couple of saugers. 21-22 ft. spinners & crawlers fished for 4 hours enough action to keep us interested,

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Fishing has been pretty consistent in the last week despite the wind! The wind is making some of the water muddy but that hasn’t stopped us. We have been using downriggers and jigging. Fishing in 26-32 feet of water using a Chartreuse Gold Firefighter has been most successful for us. In 5-7 feet of water this week we caught some really nice walleye using Shad Raps, Glass Raps, Tail Dancers, and Flicker Shads. Those are all great bait and have been pulling in fish after fish! This Monday we anchored in a few spots between 26-32 feet of water and limited out by noon! We were using frozen shiners and every fish we pulled up had a belly full of shiners, overflowing from their mouth! The walleyes are schooling up tight right now and chasing shiners to the river. Good luck and happy fishing!

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Got home yesterday from a week of good fishing! Hated to leave! Hopfully get to do it again next year, with God willing and the Dr's doing good things. We didn't get to fish Zipple Bay like we wanted to, the wind came up and put that idea away. We did manage to catch limits of walleye and sauger and got our limits of northerns. We don't get the walleye as much as you guys up north so we bring home the northerns and they are pretty good after you learn to clean them right. Got our walleye Monday and got off the water just as it started getting Bad!! Love it up there! Treasure that area, It's Heaven!

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Fished from Thurs-Sat. Downrigging from 29-34 feet. It was fantastic. Best colors were blue and purple. I don't have a big boat so Saturday I stayed closer to shore wasn't quiet as fast but still caught plenty.

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Fishing continues to be good! We have been running down riggers in 30-32 feet of water about 20 miles out in the middle of nowhere. Once we found a few fish pulling plugs, we threw out the anchor and got ready for the jig-a-thon! Anchored up and jigging, when we found the fish turned out to be the ticket. We were using pink, gold, and white jigs tipped with frozen shiners. Until this weather, we have been catching fish in 24’ feet of water. We are starting to see big schools of shiners on the electronics and there are rumors of shiners seen running up the river. We are supposed to get 40 mph winds tonight and the temperature is supposed to drop a little. As soon as this wind dies down and the water clears up a bit the fishing should be in for a red hot fall bite!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fishing this last week has been great! Just yesterday, a couple of us caught our limits within a couple hours in the evening. We couldn’t even let the jig hit the bottom before they would bite. Not only did we catch our limit, but we had some whoppers in the mix. We caught a 30 incher and a 29 incher! The fish are biting now that the water is clearing up. The best fishing has been by the washout or West of the gap in 24 ft of water and during the mornings or the evenings. The fish aren’t yet to the river but I am still finding them with big and thick shiners in their mouths and bellies. I have been jigging and using brighter colors like pink, orange, white and gold and hooking them with frozen shiners. The season is changing and it is getting beautiful outside. A friend of mine went across the lake yesterday morning and saw a few thousand Bluebills in the middle of the lake. It was a great sight for those who love birds. I imagine that this winter will provide all of us with some great fishing. The saugers we are catching are getting older and fatter! Good luck fishing to everyone this week!

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My wife and I fished last night out of the Lighthouse Gap area in 23 fow. Color did not matter. Boated our 12 keepers in under an hour. No big fish but nice eaters. Caught our walleyes right at sunset. Otherwise is was purely a sauger bite. All the boats around us were catching fish as well. Many of the fish had shiners in their bellies. Great bite is on right now.

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