fishing reports 2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info

[holmsvc]

Fished Friday and Saturday off Adrian's 6.5 miles out in 31ft from the bottom of the ice. Fishing was very slow! Marked lots of fish, but very few takers. We caught only two slot fish and kept less than 20 walleyes/saugers in two days. Deadsticks were better for bigger fish.

[tbash]

Yea I also forgot to mention that one of the 35 was a slimy northern. I also double-checked my math before posting since I was a little sleep deprived when I got back:).

[BisoNation]

Fished 32 feet south of garden island on sat & sun, 2 houses, 8 guys.

KEPT 17 sat and 18 sun, only 4 slot fish all weekend, caught 25-30 per day per house, we werent impressed.

[Hoey]

Three of us fished Fri, Sat, and Sun. Fri was at Archie's (16 mi.), 33 inches of ice, bite was slow, but we kept 5 nice eyes. Biggest slot was 26 inches.

Sat went up by Stoney point, 24 inches of ice, no houses there, no fish either, left early and wrapped up the day at Archie's with little success. Biggest slot was 28 inches near Stoney.

Sun we planned to head in early to catch the championship games, so we stayed close to shore, fished near Cooker's reef, 18 inches of ice, got a few jumbo perch and a nice sauger. It was slow. Moved up to 12 mile reef, 26 inches of ice and only caught small ones.

Ended the fun weekend without anything near a limit. Generally found fish everywhere, biters were small. Hopefully the fish will be a little more active in a couple of weeks when I plan to give it another shot.

[ChuckN]

A group of us fished shallow and deep. It was hit and miss in 15' but we mustered up some fish and a couple big fish.

In 36' we found the best action. Lots of tullibees (50+), 1 jumbo perch and lots of saugers and walleyes. Everyone in the group limited almost each day on sauger/walleye combos. Several 25-26" walleyes released. Great full 4 days of weekend fun on the ice!

Some spots on the lake where I found minimal snow cover my auger could hardly finish the job and got stuck. Almost time for an extension in some spots.

[JakeJ_Mn]

Spent the day on LOTW today. Left Cyrus about 6:30am and was off by 3pm.

Took the snowmobile to stay away from others, but always had houses in site. Moved 3 times between 24 - 30 fow. 12 walleyes and 16 saugers. Limit taken home included 4 walleyes 17-18 1/4" and 4 saugers 14-15" Nothing big and most of the others were small. About half on pink/gold jigs with minnow heads and half on pink hooks with tail hooked chub.

[iowaice712]

hay thanks for the info. I am headed up this weekend fishing LOW staying in baudettte at slims resort fishing sun-tues is there anything you recommend to do or not to do when jigging. And how far off the bottom to have the dead stick.Any add. info would be greatly appreciated

[iowaice712]

hay thanks for the information going to be going to Baudette staying at slims resort sat-Tues is there any jigs in your mind that is a must to bring this year?

[JakeJ_Mn]

I set my live minnow lines about 8 to 10 inches off the bottom. When I jig my eyes never leave the Vexilar and about every 4 or 5 jigs I bounce it off the bottom. I rest about every 10 to 12 jigs for a second or two to see if the fish move.

I use mostly pink or gold jigs and plain red and pink hooks for live bait. All the LOTW bait shops have a good assortment.

[RiverDewey]

Four of us fished in 32 FOW in fourmile bay for 2 days. Caught sauger and walleye on jigs (pink stop signs, frostees, 1/16 oz roundhead, VMC Tumblers)tipped with minnow heads and plain hooks with full minnows. The biggest walleye was 18" with a couple of others coming in at 16 or 17". All in all we caught around 30 fish the 2 days not including a couple of tullies. Over half the fish were caught deadsticking with a red or white hook and minnow. All fish were caught right off the bottom and most were sauger.

[LOTW_Outdoorsman]

Welcome back to another edition of the Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman. January on the Walleye Capital of the World has been amazing for this humble northern Minnesotan. Plenty of guests in the sleepers, and a few unforgettable fishing experiences are how I've had the pleasure of spending January. Jody delivers another brain teasing Lake of the Woods Trivia, and Walleye dinner for our family with her father one night in Four Mile Bay...life is good.

Fishing has still been fantastic for most everyone experiencing it with us this season so far. Plenty of activity out deep 34-36' of water, we're still finding most fish on the bottom in that 1-3" range. Pink Glow and Gold have been the best colors the past few weeks. No preference in bait for me, but some guests love the Chubb Minnows and others swear only by the Shiner. The next few weeks we should be seeing more activity off the rocks up and down the US/Canadian line and out of Rocky Pont...sleds and portable are a must if you plan on venturing off the plowed roads.

The Rainy River is never a for sure thing, but it can sometimes give us our biggest Walleyes that last hour of the day. Locals have been perfecting their secret honey holes for years, and being able to take advantage of that local wisdom is truly a blessing. Jody and I look forward to perfecting our secret honey holes for many years to come...Lord willing.

Thank you for watching and we hope you enjoy all our adventures from our beautiful playground...Lake of the Woods.

Happy Fishing and God Bless...

[gwiff100]

and he's Back!

[walleye4_life]

WAs at Slim's last Friday-Sunday, what a great place to stay! Fishing was steady both days and the slot fish were extremely active on both dead sticks and the charmer. Wife ended the weekend with her two biggest walleye's a thick 26 and a beautiful 27In. Just another great experience up at Slim's resort on LOW. I love that place.

[busse3775]

I can definitely second this on Slim's Resort it is a great place to stay with very reasonable prices. I stayed there with a couple other friends several weeks ago and we were very pleased. The cabin was clean and spacious and the food at the bar and grill was really good! Also, the fishing was really hot with the gold and red glow stop light.

[iowaice712]

headed to slims tomm 4 year in a row fishing sunday-tuesday hope to have as good as kuck as you guys take care thanks

[busse3775]

Just got done fishing Lotw for the weekend. Had to leave early because the weather was getting nasty. Yesterday we fished at the end of Adrians road out 9.2 miles for Pine Island. The morning was decent and marked quite a few fish with a lot of them being small and several keepers. We did pick up a 27 1/2 around 10 that we released then fishing really died from 11am-3pm. Today we moved and fished out of Morris Point. Again we marked a decent amount of fish but many being small with only several keepers. Overall, a pretty poor weekend but that's fishing and am looking forward to the next trip up in March!

[slammer]

"only several keepers"? You said fishing was slow. Confusing.

[eyeguy 54]

maybe meant 7

[maxpower17]

Maybe we shouldn't care.

[busse3775]

We fished the entire day on Saturday and fished only till 10:00am on Sunday. For two of us guys we caught 30 to 40 fish and ended up keeping only 6 fish that were around 14 inches. Couldn't find the bigger sized fish.

[walleyehntr]

Fished out Zippel Bay sunday and monday. Sunday was by far the best day. We caught a lot of fish, mostly smaller walleye/sauger. Ended the day with 18 keepers. Monday the bite was slow but we still managed 14 keepers and one slot fish. The weather sunday was bad but not near as bad as many made it out to be. We weathered the storm in portables. Several of the resorts roads were closed and i'm not sure why. Zippel Bay stayed open both days and got our business. We were very impressed with their service. The blew hard but there wasn't really much loose snow for it to move around so the roads were not drifting in. Overall it was a great time and we left with our limit and a few perch to boot. We stayed in shallower then most, 26-28FOW rather then heading out to 32'+. Not sure if people did better or not out deeper but we did fine in shallower.

[Lunker]

6 of us fished out of one of Nels sleepers (freds beds) last week. Couldn't of hit the weather worse as it was the major low pressure/cold front. We got up there the evening of the 21st and stayed til noon on the 23rd. The fish were finicky, but we managed to coax a bunch of walleye/sauger and about as many tullibee. Among the six of us we probably caught around 60-75 walleye/sauger mix and 40-50 tullibee. During certain periods a dead stick minnow on plain hook was best, then would switch to jigging spoons. Best bite was in the morning. Biggest was 22.5. Kept enough to have a meal on the lake day 2, but not many came home. Mostly sauger kept. Nels had some great sleepers ans service.

[eyeguy 54]

Maybe we shouldn't care.

but we just need to know... lol

[Tom Hubbard]

I fished out of Fred's Beds Jan 25-28. The wind & weather was absolutely horrible. Even with all the drifting Nels was able to get us out to our sleeper late Sat morning. We were set up in 29fow, and on fish the entire stay. The bite was slow because of the cold front, but did manage some eater walleyes and saugers, tons of tulibees and a few slot fish. Biggest was 26". The usual assortment of glow red baits/gold worked at times. Would say glow red Macho Minnow worked best. All slot fish came on bigger sucker minnows set up on rattle reels. We left Monday at noon instead of Tues morning because of conditions, and a 412 mile drive home. We rented a 8x16 two-man sleeper. Cool thing with Nel's shacks are, they're wired for a generator.

[H0LE HOPPER]

IF I may ask where are you guys getting the tullibee outta warroad or zippel? I haven't been to LOW in 2 years and from all my previous times up there we got into a nice school of tullibee once. Is there a certain timeframe they bite at as well?

[tisosy11]

Was up there last weekend out of Sportsmans and we were about 8 miles out and the Tulipee were steady both days fising...

[Rip_Some_Lip]

Im heading up there the first weekend of March. I have never kept any tullibee nor have I caught many there. Are they good to smoke? I have a couple buddies with smokers but I would be willing to bring some back if we catch any. I would assume you would just gut them and freeze them whole. Any comments would be appreciated.

[only ice]

That's all you have to do. I have a friend that smokes them, I don't but they are not bad. I bring a few back for him and he loves them.

[eyeguy 54]

LOVE them !!

[graf703]

I think they're great smoked. You're on the right track to gut them on the ice and freeze them. We kept them but didn't gut them and it was a little bit of a pain on top of the rest of the walleyes we had to clena.