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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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Guess we have another angler hooked on LOW

Funny how that happens. He got more fish through the ice in two days up there then he usually gets all ice season. I should have bought a bigger house because once Amanda starts going there will be no more room for rookies.

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Merry Christmas and welcome back to another edition of the Lake of the Woods Outdoormsman on beautiful Lake of the Woods. In this episode you'll get the opportunity to see us fish in 24 - 25 feet of water just of Adrian's Road in one of the new Ice Cabins. There was plenty of activity, just a ton of small Saugers are roaming the mud flats right now, and a few MONSTER Sturgeon (as you'll see at the end of the video).

The dead stick method has been the best with this finicky bite that we're experiencing right now, but make sure to have your Charmers and Hot Tamale's all charged up before you throw them down the hole. Live chubs have been out producing the frozen Shiner this last week. The temp has been dropping everyday and it hit -13 below zero F last night. The plus is that we're making ice, the minus is that the fluctuation has slowed down the bite, just a bit. This is great news for the masses wanting to get the wheel houses out on Adrian's Road.

We just moved 3 houses in with the rest of Ryan Donat's houses with Bayview Lodge in 29 feet of water. We're searching for those nice Walleyes, which that pursuit never ends. This week all the Ice Cabins are rented out and ready to put the hottest baits to the test...make sure to see what we're using in next weeks episode.

Merry Christmas again and as always, Happy Fishing and God Bless!

Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I was up with Jim Uran, Joe Paquin, Mike Raetz, Randy & Drew Miller as well as Brian & braden Dykhuizen. We went out of JP Tessier's houses LOTWoutdoorsman.

The walleyes, sauger, tullibee and eelpout kept us busy. We were fishing in 26" of water on a flat.

The hot lures were The OPS Flutter Jig and Tom's Tackle Charmer. We had some success with a number of other lures as well.

The fish were curious but were not actively biting jigged presentations. You had to jig to get them in but once there it was time to let the lures do their part with a tail-hooked live minnow.

Watch more videos here at HSOshow

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fished out of morris on sunday in 23 fow. mostly saugers with a couple eyes. 12" of ice where we set up. looked like the majority of the houses were out in the 25' range. not sure if we were just too shallow but got away from the crowd. theres a lot of houses out already. fish werent aggressive by no means. a lot of lookers. the dead stick seemed better. cold first trip of the year but we had fun.

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can someone give a snow cover report? I am coming up next week and was wondering if Wheelers and trucks (if enough ice) can get around or is the snow too deep? the forecast isn't calling for much snow from now til then so i am hoping to be able to get around without using a sled. thanks

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The west end of the lake has enough snow for snowmobiles and not too much for 4xATVs. No comment on trucks as this is covered quite a bit in other threads. The bite was reported to be slow over the past weekend and continued into the week, i.e Monday and Tuesday. With the weather stabilizing, the bite should be picking up.

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Heading to LOTW in a couple of weeks or so I need so help finding the fish since its my first time any spots or tips you guys could give me to have a good day, I am coming from Crookston, MN

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Two days over Pine Island with Darren and the crew from Snobes Ice fishing. We managed to come up with our three man limit. It was fishing not catching, had to work for em. Biggest was a 24" released with 19" the biggest in the bucket. Saucers and eyes ran 14 to 16 and one jumbo perch. Dead. Sticks out fished the jigs. They would be pretty spooky around the jigs, and seemed to not want a lot of action. We released a lot of fish up to 13". Pink and red hooks were the color on the sticks, with gold and pink on the jig rods. Adrian's road still not open for big vehicle travel. Darren gave me one of his small lake vehicles which was really nice and allowed us the flexibility to come and go on our own. We were set up in 30' and he was starting to move houses again yesterday. 15 to17" of ice over Pine, four mile bay is starting to put some ice on so it shouldn't be much. Longer for big truck travel. Overall good trip lots of fun as always....

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We fished in Adrians' houses 12/27 & 12/28. They transported us. 27' the first day and 28' the next. it was a lot slower than 2 weeks ago but still pretty good. Pink frosty jig was the best. A #9 jigging rap would attract fish in pretty good. the lake is loaded with small fish so yhe future looks good. Adrians' crew and hospitality are great. Stan C. smile

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Sounds like you had a good trip. I agree on the future with the small fish, should be some good year classes coming up

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During the same days, our group had similar results. We fished 28 fow near the end of Adrian's road both days. Thursday produced good numbers of smaller but aggressive fish. Friday was slower as far as numbers but much nicer fish. My partner iced his personal best with a 26"+ walleye. Thursday they liked the jigging spoons while the bobbers did the damage Friday.

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Fished off Adrian's Road December 27-29. 9 guys had a total of 22 keepers and one slot fish. A handful of little ones mixed in to sort through. Fished in 27 to 30 feet. Moved once per day. Slowest fishing I have had at LOTW. Jigging vs dead sticking produced similar results. Gold was our best color, followed by glow white / green. Chubs or frozen shiners didn't have a noticeable difference for us.

Talked to a lot of others on the ice. The pattern seemed to be "put in your time and you will get a flurry eventually." Our flurries were short and far between. Fishing did seem to improve a bit each day, the best being on the 29th. Good luck.

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Thank you for the reports,

Coming back toLOW for the first time in a couple of years next week. I'm so excited that I'm already packed and I have a week to go. I'm hoping the steady weather pattern will help pick up the pace. But I know about putting in the time needed to get them.

Haven't heard much about suspended fish? Anybody else notice them?

I'll be sure to post once I have some firsthand knowledge.

OD

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Didn't many suspended when we were there. Those that were weren't interested. They were holding tight to the bottom where we were at

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I saw lots of suspended fish yesterday, but couldnt' get a single one to show interest. Did fill out by 1:30 though, so fishing was good regardless just no big ones.

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Had the chance to fish Wednesday - Saturday 3 miles out from Morris Gap, between Cyrus's and Adrian's ice road.

Minimal snow allowed me to pull my Ice Castle anywhere desired. There are quite a few heaves/rough ice patches out there so after bobbing and weaving around I was able to get away from the crowd. 16-18" of ice the 3 places the house was set down.

Fishing was pretty tough for LOTW standards, based on prevous experiences. Caught about 30 fish each day. Had some buddies up in another house next to me that had similar results. Found nice eater fish out there, but had to work very hard to fill limits. Released 2-22's, a 23 and a 27 between the groups over the 4 days.

I knew people out on their own at Zipple and off of Adrian's road and also knew of people fishing with Ken Mar Ke and Sportsmans. Everybody had similar or worse reports. Everyone we talked to on the East end had a tough go of it.

Fishing seems slower compared to my logs from the same time last year. 75+ fish per day was pretty common. Haven't gotten into them like that yet this season.

Hoping for better results out from Rocky/Long Pt next weekend.

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Beware of the ice.... Just because someone else drove there doesn't mean it is safe. We just about put a vehicle through springsteel's road tonight. A crack formed parallel to the road and we just about went down. Btw we weren't pulling a house, just an empty truck and we were driving less than 15 mph. There is a barricade on the road but I wouldn't drive right on the road. I've been fishing all my life and that is the closest to going down that I have ever been.

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Fished all weekend out of Adrians with the wife. Fished in 29ft two days doing ok, but not great. Got lots of smaler fish but baged some nice 14 to 19 inch Eyes and some 13 to 16 inch Saugers. 5 slot fish relesed largest being 27 1/2. Ate a very large meal Sat, and came home with a few meals. Thanks Brian, and all the crew up there, had a very nice time once again. See ya in a few weeks, AGAIN!!!

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we FISHED OUT OF ZIPPEL SAT AND SUNDAY WENT OUT TO 28 FT kinda by ourselves on friday night didn't want towander to far.plain red hook and red rattling flyer were the main two weapons of choice but tried everything, fishing was slow for us caught about 30 only 2 keepers but alott of traffic sat going to try and get away by ourselves but safety is the key issue we had 15" of good ice.We did very good on cyrus road in 30 ft the previous two weekends but wanted to get the original Walley Inn out on the pond also nice to meet those that sopped by and said Hi and trade reports everyone is welcome to swing in CO even stopped by he was a very nice guy also.Good luck and be safe!! Terry

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Well I think that if I was with customers I could get a deduction, but this trip is the annual father daughter trip we missed last year. So it's all on me, gladly. Now maybe if I could get a video of her catching a trophy and work a deal with the resort to post it on YouTube....

Really just hoping for some time with the kid and a few fish. Kind of a tradition we've been doing in my family for the past 45 years or so. I highly recommend it to all, especially father daughters. I bring her to LOW because you can almost always get on some fish and the accommodations are girl friendly. All important to building a tradition.

OD

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Started at sunrise at 5 mile with pretty tough results. Kept 1-17" sauger, lost a slot fish and caught about twenty 8-12" walleye. Pretty decent action, but they were all small. Packed up at 10:30 and headed to Gull Rock.

Results weren't any better. Cut the day short due to the slow bite. Didn't mark many fish. Fished 4 different spots, among and outside of Arneson's houses, from 28'-32' of water and it didn't seem to matter. As mention in the Babbler's Road thread, there is a pretty heafty, active crack running straight West of Gull Rock.

Most houses in that area are resort houses - not much public traffic yet. Looked to be quite a few houses on 12 mile off in the distance.

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Not sure if it was you Vman but thanks again to the guy who drilled my holes today, my 15 year old strikemaster is on the replace list. We were pretty close to the area you described. It didn't get any better into the afternoon- early evening, marked alot but nothing was interested.

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Orch: couldn't agree more. Any time you can spend fishing with the family or the kids alone is time well spent. They will never forget it. My dad has been gone since '95 but I still remember the time we spent trolling for hours and catching fish. Enjoy the time with your daughter, be careful though she might out fish you smile

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