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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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Fishing at Lake of the Woods has been excellent! The water temps are cooling a bit into the high 60's and the fish are responding well. Walleyes are basically being taken 3 ways, crankbaits, crawler harnesses and jigging with frozen shiners. The jig bite is picking up. Colors, gold, pink and chartreuse. We are noticing some of the fish are starting to move shallower, but the most common depths are 28 - 32 feet. Both deep mud and rock reefs are holding fish. Everywhere from Lighthouse and Morris Point gaps to Zippel Bay and Long Point up to Garden Island fish are present.

Up at the NW angle, walleyes are in transition mode and are being found all over. Sunken islands, steep drops and wind blown shorelines are all producing. The go to lure is a 1/8 ounce jig in white, gold or chartreuse tipped with a minnow. Depths range from 25' - 45'. The muskies are eating well. Lots of fish being boated. Crappie action is picking up as the water cools. Jig and minnow on breaks. Big northerns are being taken by anglers targeting other species. Bass anglers having a "Hay Day".

As the water cools, fishing only gets better at Lake of the Woods. The leaves are just starting to change, sweatshirts are being worn, hunting has started and it is a beautiful time of the year. All info on our website at www.lakeofthewoodsmn.com or "Like Us" at www.facebook.com/walleyecapital. Good Fishing!

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pretty good fishing friday through monday. Best luck was around gull rock reef and 16 mile reef. 26-32' pulling spinners with crawlers. Leeches were working well for others but we couldnt find any up there so will have to bring them from home. Lots of nice size keepers and a few in the slot up to 23.5". Sunday and monday morning orange spinners and crawlers were the rig of choice. Caught a scheels ice rod and reel combo and what I think was a rock bass? Are there rock bass in low???

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W4me

I have caught quite a few rock bass and there is a decent population of them on the lake.

Froggy

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The North Star Classic fishing tournament is this weekend out of Wigwam Resort. Spots are still open. This is a Saturday and Sunday tournament for teams of two. For more info, call Kevin at 218-634-9457

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Sounds like a broken record, but the record you want in your collection. Another GREAT week of fishing at Lake of the Woods. Walleyes are being caught from Stony Point, down to Long Point, all the way over to the Lighthouse Gap, basically the entire lake has schools of fish. Deep mud and rock reefs are both holding fish. Crankbaits are still producing, as is pulling spinners and jigging. As the water cools into the mid 60's, we anticipate the live bait bite to be stronger than crankbaits, but not yet. Fish are starting to move shallower. Colors, gold, pink, white, chartreuse. For crankbaits, don't overlook the chrome finishes. Water depths, 25 - 35 feet of water.

Up at the NW Angle. Walleye fishing was excellent this last week. With the high winds, walleyes were stacked in predictable locations, however, the "spot on the spot" was more crucial than it has been all year. Walleyes were schooled up in bunches in single spots throughout an entire area. Rather than pulling up to a reef or main lake point and catching fish throughout the area, fish were schooled up tight in current breaks, sharp turns, or steep drop-offs and breaks adjacent to deeper water. Depth was not a factor throughout the lake, but more-so depending on the area or spot you were fishing. Jigging 1/8th ounce jigs with Berkley Gulp minnow imitators proved to be one of the best ways to catch Walleye on Lake of the Woods during a cold front. The larger Walleyes are feeding with a twenty-eight inch+ fish being caught.

With the Fall-like weather, the Muskies are moving shallow onto spots adjacent to late-fall locations. Classic Muskie spots near steep shorelines produced well for our guests with large bucktails being the go-to lure of choice. This was the best week of the year for trophy Muskie on Lake of the Woods. A fifty-three inch Muskie was caught along with several in the upper and mid forty inch range. While the figure eight was a tremendous fish catching technique all summer long, fish were crushing lure out from the boat this last week. If you are looking to make a trip up to the Northwest Angle, do not overlook the potential of the month of September.

To receive weekly fishing reports via email, sign up at our website, www.lakeofthewoodsmn.com.

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I just got back from a weekend at LOTW. I was using downriggers. I was able to get out Friday and Sunday doing really well. My best lure colors were purple and chrome although I changed alot and most caught fish. Location didn't seem to matter much. I had friends fishing other places and we all did about the same. We caught a lot of little one's Friday but raising the riggers up a little seemed to help. Saturday I trailered to Warroad and stayed in the bay. Didn't do much a couple walleye and a bonus 40 inch northern. We didn't catch any real big walleye a few 26-28's Great weekend wish I was still there!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Great walleye fishing continues. With some wind, many charters went north near the Stony Point area, while others stayed in Four Mile Bay and the Rainy River. Fish were caught in both locations, mainly jigging with a frozen shiner. Fish are moving shallower and are being caught in front of both gaps and the rock in front of Zippel Bay. Shiners and walleyes are starting to show up in the river. Limits and even some big fish were caught in the river this week. Water temp in the river this week was 54.1 degrees.

Up at the NW Angle. Walleyes are gorging themselves on large minnows, perch, and even other walleyes up to 8 inches long. Jigs tipped with plastics or minnows over water as deep as fifty feet in neckdown areas and steep shorelines near shallow bays. Fish spread out throughout the structure.

Muskie fishing continues to be very good with classic, fall spots and areas are starting to show more and more fish. Steep shorelines and main lake rocks near deep, open water are the best. Muskies are relating tight to boulders, steep breaks, and open water. Depths anywhere from just a couple feet to depths of over twenty feet with big crankbaits, jerkbaits, and large plastics are putting big, fat Muskies in the net.

Big Northern Pike are being caught in the same areas as the Muskies. Casting and trolling can put numbers of big Pike in the boat throughout the Fall.

Big Crappies are still being caught, with anglers focusing in water as deep as thirty-five feet over a rock bottom. Areas near shallow, weedy, and sandy bays seem to be the best areas. Natural colored jigs tipped with a minnow slowly jigged near the bottom off main lake points and rock reefs are a great place to start your search.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's been a few days since there has been some actual fishing reports. Can someone update us what's going on up there specifically the river in front of the resorts and around the gaps? We're planning on coming up Friday/Saturday this weekend.

How's the shiner run?

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks

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Things should continue to settle down and recover from the violent winds of last week. The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend. You might hit it just right. Me too. Good luck

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Fished out of Long Point on Saturday getting blown off the lake after a couple of rough hours. Fished the river amongst the other 300 boats and had a little better luck. Sunday we had all of Zipple Bay to ourselves and limited out in a couple of hours. Didn't see may fish being caught on the river.

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I'm headed up on Thursday (10/11) and fishing Friday - Monday. We will be targeting Morris Point gap. Does anybody know if the chocolate settled back down? Good Luck to everbody fishing this weekend!

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I am heading up after work tomorrow and am thinking the Zipple Bay area on Friday and the gap on Saturday...maybe wet a line in the river off the pontoon if we have a nice evening before we pull it out for the season. Last year this time was the best fishing I have ever had and if its half as good as it was a year ago, it should be great!

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We fished out of Cyrus resort Sun-Tues of this week. Water on the main lake was very dirty from Morris gap to Lighthouse gap. The wind limited our time on the main lake. Spent all Sunday on the river from the lighthouse gap up to the church. Slow bite but probably put 40 fish in the boat. Most small but did manage a few keepers. Monday the winds died down and we fished out from lighthouse gap in 28-30 fow. Marked a bunch of fish and what appeared to be schools of minnows but unable to get any fish. Took a ride out to the islands with no luck there. Went back to the river and got into some nicer fish with a couple limits of 15"-18" fish. Tuesday with hard winds out of NW and snow showers we hit the river again. Very light bite and many smaller fish. Looks like we where about a week early for the shiner run into the river.

Good luck out there!

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Thanks! That sounds good. We'll be up there Friday morning. Sounds like a mild weather week ahead. Wind, please stay down... wink

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Was decent, we kept 9 total, Eyes and sauger. No huge fish, 18" was the biggest. We only fished for 3 hours. Went thru a bag and a half of frozen shiners though. Missed a few.

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We'll be fishing by noon, Friday. Sounds like gusts up to 25 or so for tomorrow. Hope it doesn't stir the drink too bad.

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Did fairly well this past weekend in the gaps anywhere from 17 to 21 FOW (10/18-10/21). The river was slow for us.

Ate a few fish each day and came home with a limit.

Thanks to Cyrus Resort for great accommodations and hospitality

Highlight was this 29.5 10.5 pounder

full-2310-25697-photo2.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fished the past 2 weekends out on the lake. Last Saturday we fished out of Long Point, today we fished out of the Wheeler's Point area.

Fishing at Long Point was OK - not phenomenal, but not bad. Every fish we caught at the beginning was in the slot. Started with 2-25's and 2-27's before we got one for the box. Found fish in the 27-30' range. The water was a bit churned up from the recent winds, potentially the reason for the so-so bite. Water temps on 10/27 were right at 40.

Today we headed to the Pine Island area. Reports from resorts and bait shops said the lake had been better than the river so far, and that the fish were still pretty deep. Not any real shiner run yet as most are small.

Water temps at the river launch were 35 and hovered around 37-38 on the lake. Fished all over from Lighthouse to Morris Gap, from 16' to 30'. Finally found a pod of fish in front of Lighthouse in 25' that were really active. Lots of little sorters but many eaters mixed in as well. Did not get a fish in/over the slot today. Pink and orange seemed to work the best with the nod going to pink. Talked to guys at the launch who did well on eaters in 32'. Mentioned they caught a lot of little sauger and their biggest was 23.5". Overall a pretty good numbers day.

Heavy freezing fog and temps around 20 at sunrise made things interesting. Wouldn't have been able to do it with out a GPS today. Water clarity wasn't the greatest, seemed like the wind has it a little mixed up out from the island as well.

I think I'm done with open water for the year. Next weekend I'm in ND for deer and the long range forecast has the temps looking pretty low for the following weekend. Hopefully ice is near - Bostic Bay was froze over this morning.

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I also fished the lake yesterday. We found bait at 21 ft and stayed anchored for 4-5 hours. Managed 1-24, 1-25, 1-26, 2-28, and 1-29.25. Picture of big fish below. Decided to fish the river today, where it was generally slow, but managed a handful of eaters and one fish at 21".

full-18186-26078-image.jpg

Sorry for the pic quality as I had to take a cell pic of the back of my camera.

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Fishing reports were few and far between as many anglers are out deer hunting.

The soft water season is winding down with a few anglers still after those walleyes. There is still good fishing to be had near Clementson and Frontier on the Rainy River! In addition, there were a few boats this weekend that caught some nice fish in front of Pine Island. These anglers found a cloud of shiners, dropped anchor and caught quite a few walleyes over 25".

Duck hunters are having a bonanza in 4 mile bay!

With the MN Deer opener, there were many reports of nice deer being brought in, and many more to come! Deer hunting is a big tradition for locals and visitors alike with thousands of acres of public hunting land.

NW Angle: Fishing still good. Fishing was good in 30 to 40 feet off points using jigs. Deer opener went well with some nice deer harvested. Big bucks being harvested both on the mainland and on islands. Duck hunters are still doing quite well, with a lot of birds moving through still. These birds are the much sought after "northern flight". Thousands of ducks on the main lake.

The majority of the resorts have pulled their charter boats for the season. Many of our small bays and ponds are already iced over, and ice fishing will be here before you know it! Call now to plan your ice fishing vacation!

More info at www.lakeofthewoodsMN.com.

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Stayed and fished the river. Kept 6 eyes and 1 sauger. Threw back a couple slot fish and one eater with a growth on it.

2 guys

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