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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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I have had good luck out of Zippel all year. Some weekends we have had to work harder than others but overall it's been a good year. I have been shallower than most of the other houses all year, but the key is getting away from everyone else. I try to stay a few hundred yards away from other houses. This year has been good with the lack of snow, but I think those days might be over after the recent snowfalls, plus whats predicted. If you turn on Lindy and head all the way west it curves and turns into Perch. Zippel stopped plowing the road past that point on the 15th, so it could be iffy beyond that. There are other options though. Good luck!

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FISHED ADRIANS 14 MILES OUT THURSDAY DID WELL LIMITED OUT WITH 3 GUYS KEPT FISH BETWEEN 16-19 INCHES FEW FISH OVER SLOT WERE RELASED.

MOVED OUT TO END OF ADRIANS FRI MORNING, FISHED 3 HOURS COUPLE TINY SAUGER dump LOADS OF TULLIBES..MOVED BACK IN FEW MILES OUT IN 27FT. DID WELL UNTILL EVENING. SPENT A WHILE GETTING UNSTUCK FROM TRYING TO BUST THROUGH SNOW OF THE MAIN ROAD WITH WHEEL HOUSE.. I NEW IT WAS BAD IDEA AND DARN NEER MADE IT. LONG STORY SHORT LOTS OF SHOVELING BUT WE MADE IT OUT.

SAT WE SPENT THE MAJORITY OF THE DAY PIKE FISHING IN ZIPPLE. WE HAD TO FLAGS MISSED BOTH.. GUY NEXT TO US LANDED A 42 INCH 23LBS. WHAT A NICE FISH.. STILL A LITTLE EARLY FOR PIKE.

SAT EVENING WENT BACK TO HOUSE AT ADRIANS LOTS OF 6 INCH SAUGERS REALLY ANNOYING..

ONE THING IS RED RATTLIN FLYER AND FIRE TIGER OUT PRODUCED ANY OTHER JIG.. STOP SIGHN AND CHARMER NOTHING.. I DID USE A MICRO SLICK JIG WITH RUBBER TAIL AND COULD NOT KEEP TULLIBEE OFF.. CAUGHT WELL OVER 50 FOR THE WKND... GOOD LUCK

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Fished Zippel Bay Resort this past weekend. 6 guys 43 fish Walleye\Sauger, the biggest was 23" with a few 18" to boot. The saugers were pretty nice aswell 13"-15". We had enough for 2 decnt fish frys but nothing to brag about. Our depth was 28 1/2' off of the honey hole road. Pink and gold spoon with a dead shiner threw the back hooked was 5-1 for me. We did hook up with 5 nice tullys for the smoker!city

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caught lots of tullies, and brought home 28 eye/sauger. Biggest fish were 24"ers, and a couple of 22" 23". About a 100 fish weekend for 4 guys. Went out of Adrians both Friday and Saturday!

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caught lots of tullies, and brought home 28 eye/sauger. Biggest fish were 24"ers, and a couple of 22" 23". About a 100 fish weekend for 4 guys. Went out of Adrians both Friday and Saturday!

How deep were you?

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Hey JP , what kind of Rods&reels are you using in your video ?

Where to buy & price if I may ask , they look pretty nice & Im

Looking to upgrade some of my equipment .

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going down on sunday! haha just kidding coming up on sunday! but if we catch any tullibee or whitefish is it worth keeping them to smoke? or what do you guys think?

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I was wondering the same thing. I don't have a smoker, but would like to get a few done. Do you gut them shortly after catching? Do most meat markets smoke them for a fee?

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Some meat places will brine and smoke them for you and usually isnt all that expensive.You just have to call around and see who does it in your area. I would cut the heads off and gut them but I dont like to freeze them before smokeing. Just keep them on ice. Sometimes they will vacuum pack them for you to if you want to freeze them after they are smoked.

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4 of us fished Sat and Sun about 15 miles out from Pine Island. After 9 years in a row of good to great fishin' up there, we had a sloooooow trip. We kept 7 nice 'eyes and 5 nice saugers in 2 days. We threw back 2 slots in the 19.75" range and threw back another 10 small ones.

I was on fire and did a GREAT job of keeping the tulibees off of everyone else's lines. LOL I bet I caught 30 of them in 2 days. My wife was the only other person to catch 1.

I threw the tackle box at them and there was no hot bait or color. Although the pink charmer did put the most fish in the bucket.

We left the fishhouse at 3pm and made it back to the Wigwam a little after 5pm. We drove ourselves out and it was an adventure getting back to say the least.

Hoping for 1 more ice trip before getting in the boat on the river in April.

Brian

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I smoked up a pile of tullies from my last trip up to LOTW. Froze them solid outside the house while we were fishing, cleaned them after they thawed at home. I don't gut them, I basically fillet one side off (including ribs), then cut the head off the remaining side and pull the guts and you're done other than rinsing. I then froze them for a few days until I was ready to smoke them. Turned out great. I look forward to the tullies more than the walleye and sauger. Smoked tullibee is amazing and not hard to do yourself if you have a smoker.

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I use a couple different rods and reels. The rods that I like the best and that I use more than any other, is JR's Tackle Ice Rod and their Dead Stick Rod. I also have a Tom's Tackle "Lake of the Woods Brand" version rod and reel combo that has a little bit more backbone, which I like better when targeting the bigger fish (Northern and Lake Trout), but with the Walleyes, Sauger and Perch I prefer the JR's. I also have an Ugly Stick Lite Ice, which was my favorite before the JR's equipment. The reels I have purchased, all but one is a Shimano. I prefer to use 6 pound test line when Ice fishing. It seems to be doing the trick for me these days, but everyone has their own favorite...Happy Fishing and God Bless!

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We fished Friday evening through Sunday afternoon last weekend. We brought home a 15 fish from two people. Most were 16-19". We missed/lost several larger fish and one sturgeon. We fished 18-35' of water with the best bite being shallow at 18'. Sean Westman was the guide and his houses were great and the service was fantastic.

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We were in a resort house, so we didn't have many options. We could have moved to a different house on Sunday, but the overall report from Saturday was similar to ours.

And knowing my luck, we would have went to a different house on Sunday and someone would've hammered them in our house from Saturday. grin

Brian

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Brian, have never fished up there this time of year and was wondering what bait did you have on when the tullibee were hitting? Am pretty ADD and a fair weather fisherman so if the saugeyeballs are not biting, would be happy with the tullie action. Just so JediTrav knows, l as well, be fishing out a resort house wink

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Going out of Arnesons in a few weeks wondering if anybody has anything to say about them, any fishing reports from their houses etc.

Thanks

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pushbutton,

It really didn't matter what I threw down the hole, I was dubbed the Tulibee King both days.

Big spoons, little spoons, Lindy Darter's, Jiggin Raps, even the fabled Pink Charmer all produced the silver stinkers for me. Color didn't matter either, but the more shiny the better typically w/ tulibees.

Brian

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Fish Arnesen's from Sun-Tues. A very good trip given the weather. Sunday during white out conditions we had a very good day bring in 9 walleyes almost all 16" cookie cutters with a couple bigger ones. 9 Saugers all 13.5" and bigger and a couple bonus perch and a very thick 25" slot fish. Trick seemed to be a lure with rattles which has always been a favorite but you could jig them up with anything what it finally took was to shake the heck out of the lure right in there face those rattles triggered them. Best overall lure was a gold lindy rattlen flyer, second was glow red buckshoot spoons and JB rattlen varmits. The set lines were slower but still produced a few keeping it simple a couple split shots with a gold or red hook produced decently. Mon was a slower day but by the end we had caught a good share of fish including 4 slots a 20,21,22,23. so it ended up be a decent day. Tues we fished a half day finished getting our limit to replace what we had ate in the cabin and we left the lake by noon. All and all another great trip. Wingnut, Dino, and the rest of the gang treated us right once again.

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Heading up a week from today! Hoping conditions are good. How is the lake now for snow cover? Sled is loaded and ready and the Otter ready to rock!

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Were heading up tonight for the weekend, friends of ours that have a cabin near the lake said its probably not a bad idea to bring a set of tire chains if your planning to drive on the lake. It's my first time up there so hopefully the fishing is hot.

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The snow is piling up. I think if you just have your pickup you can weave your way through things but if you have a house behing you it would be a little tougher. On the flat not bad but last weeks snow really drifted with Sun wind. Chains if you have the would be a good idea. For sure don't forget that shovel. There is plenty snow for running a sled now.

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Leaving for Lake of the Woods this morning, hopefully i get into some fish! I'll give you the report on wednesday.

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Booked a trip for this weekend to fish out of wheelers. Took a quick glance at the forcast and I see nothing but mid 40s to 50s. How much ice is there currently? How are driving conditions now? And how fast have you guys seen the ice deteriorate with those kinds of temperatures.

Not sure if I should bring my boat or vexilar!!!

northerneyes

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