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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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Spotty fishing over the weekend on the West side. When we did find them, however, we crushed them. Enjoy the weather!

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Really slow out of Zipple Bay Park ramp out to 30' and at Pine Island for us on jigs. Talked to several boats coming in. One boat had three fish all day.

I didn't have the crank rods along. Big mistake. The walleyes think it's July.

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Over the weekend we finally found them---in the mud. Strange but true. Best fishing we found came when the wind would blow and we were corkin' in 30'.

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We did decent about 3 mi south of the 9 ftr out in the mud. Not fast by any means but we got some decent fish, missed quite a few and threw a few back.

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Lake of the Woods fishing has been excellent so far, with limits in the boat every trip so far. We have also seen a lot of really nice slot fish coming out of the lake. We have been fishing straight out of Lighthouse Gap, Pine Island, and up north by Knights. All of these spots are producing fish for us, here are the tactics we are using to put them in the boat.

Anchor and jigging in 28-30 feet (Pink and white combo)

Flatlining plugs in 7-15 FOW (Firetiger and Gold have been the best colors)

Pulling spinners in 7-15 FOW (Gold spinners with a nighcrawler)

Don’t waste any more time…head up to the Walleye capital of the world and fish with one of the most experienced guides on the lake – Steve Sweet. Enjoy the cabin right on the lake and book a charter trip with Steve to kick back and enjoy catching that Minnesota Gold!

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Fished June 4th - 7th through Ballard's Resort. All I can say is AWESOME!!!! Fished several different spots but mainly in 30 - 33 feet of water. Lots of nice eaters and slot fish every day with some perch and a couple of northerns mixed in. Thanks to Kyle @ Ballard's for doing a great job!

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Has anyone done any downrigging out in the mud since fish are being found out there? I know it may be a bit early for that but just wondering. Be up over the 4th to try some riggin.

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I tried it a little over week ago. One day was good, next day I marked fish but they didn't seem very hungry.

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I am heading up on Thursday. It's Father's Day trip. My father-on-law (76), my uncle (91), and my son (15). Third year in a row for this group. Looking forward to it all.

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We pulled some #5 shad raps in 30 ft. or so on Saturday over the mud and caught fish. We weren't using downriggers but snap weights instead to get them down. We didn't spend as much time as I wanted exploring different areas, but the fish were going on them.

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Hey Hoey we to are coming up to fish fathers day weekend maybe run into you , will be with my Dad and Son good luck to you!

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Hoey and Walleyen Inn...

I'm leaving in a hour or so to head up there. Good luck, guys

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We had another great Fathers weekend outing out of Arnesens's fished north side of North Arnesens. Friday from 5 to 7 pm caught 25 they were hitting gold spinners with bottom bouncers very agressively was a blast doubled on 24.5" ers. Sat beat the rain out there and caught a bunch more spinners and jigging almost left an anchor in the rocks but kept trying and got it loose.frozen shinerers on white and pink and orange and gold jigs got real windy and wet by noon on sat so went in went back out at 5 and the wind came up big time had a very intersting and wet ride in. but caught more fish!!came home early sunday morning a great Trip with my Dad and son!!!

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That wind on Sat. afternoon was wicked. On the windy days, we stayed and fished the bay and did well. Did half the trip in the bay and the other in the lake. Some nice fish came out of the bay. Fished 10-15 feet in the bay and over 20 in the main lake. Frozen shiners and jigs did the trick. Color didn't matter. Trolled a crawler harness and picked up a few more.

My favorite scene is watching smaller boats head out to the main lake on the rough days and then count down till they turned back to fish the bay

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Fishing was very good when the weather was good. We fished Fri, Sat, Sun. Fri, off Gull Rock Reef, limit of larger eyes, 4 jumbos, and 3 sauger. My 15 yo son got his first 30 incher. With that, we came in early (3pm) since my son packed the cooler with only 4 beers. Sat, knew rain was coming at 10am. Fished for about an hour ahead of the rain. The rain was light with no end in sight. Then the wind came up 15-25mph. We were in by noon. Tough ride back in heavy rain and high winds. Went back out a 4pm when the winds seemed to calm for a bit. Once out there south of 12 mile, winds picked up again so we just drifted across to north Arnesens, picking up many slot eyes, a lot of fun. My 27 incher was the big fish of the day. Tough ride back at 8pm with the winds again at 15-25mph. Sun, early was quite windy, but seemed to be settling down to 10-15mph. Fished again from 12 mile to north Arnesen's. With our limits, everything was released, a lot nice 18 to 19.25 inch fish. Again a lot of slot fish. Then the wind went calm and the bite stopped. Headed in early around 3pm. It was a great overall trip for father's day!!!

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3 of us fished Friday afternoon out in front of Zipple Bay and had lousy luck, jigging up 4 sauger only. We tried various depths but could not buy a fish. The other 2 fished on Saturday across to the angle and picked up a few and then waited for a break in the wind to get back to the south side. They finished the day out in front of Zipple with zero fish. By far the slowest fishing this time of year on LOW we have ever had.

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Are you talking about 4-mile Bay? Just wondering as we are headed up this weekend and will be fishing the 4 mile/gap area and are looking for some reports. Good news if there are still some fish down there.

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Are you talking about 4-mile Bay? Just wondering as we are headed up this weekend and will be fishing the 4 mile/gap area and are looking for some reports. Good news if there are still some fish down there.

Yup.

Actually, the walleyes will stay in the bay till about mid July from my experience.

Action is a little slower than the lake because the bay doesn't have a large population of little saugers but I would say we ended up with a dozen walleyes when we fished the bay

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Hey Hoey (Keith) nice report some real nice fish out deep. Will see ya up there again. Was fun talking to you at the resort always nice to share reports.congrats to your son for the 30" er ,

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have the fish flies hatched yet? Will be up at rocky point for the weekend and the kids want to play in the water/beach. It can get pretty nasty on the beach with all the dead bugs. I will never forget the first time I went to LOW about 8 or 10 years ago. Pulled into warroad after dark and there was a guy in front of one of the gas stations using a snow shovel to push the piles of fish flies away from the doors. Thankfully I have not seen them that bad since. not the greatest 1st impression but it definatly didnt scare me away once I found out how great the lake and fishing is!

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W4M, I am sure you found the fish flies in full hatch as the rest of us did. We fished Fri and Sat. Both days were very fine weather, perfect for sun bathing. Fri the bite was tough. Started out south of 12 mile, picked up quite a few, then moved on looking for other areas and did not find much. Three fish cleaned for dinner. Sat we found fish, picked up our limit of 18 to 19 inchers and many slot fish. My brother in law hit a personal best of 31 inches on a walleye. It was a monster. We suspect the fly hatch to have impacted the bite.

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Hoey- Where about did you fish on Saturday? What presentation did you guys find going the best? I am hoping the cranks start going good by the 4th. Thanks!

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yep, we found the flies. Fishing was kinda slow but the quality was decent. Saturday we tried the reefs (drifting with spinners and anchored with jigs) but didnt do much. Had better luck over by lamberts rock. Nice eaters and a 23" and 25". My 5 year old son caught the 25! grin

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  • 4 weeks later...

Very sorry to hear about your buddy. I have 3 goldens myself. Wish we had a litter due I would bring one up to you. Keep up the great videos.

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Made it out for my first ever trip ever to LOTW and it was great. Fished from a charter boat 7/21 & 7/22. Caught about 25 walleyes the first day and we were told that was very slow fishing. The second day we got about 50, over half of the fish were 20"-25" including 3-28" and 1-29.5". All the fish were healthy and fat. Fishing from the charter was a great way to learn the lake and the techniques used to catch fish. Can't wait to go back.

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Map Guy, thanks for the report. I am heading up this weekend. This will be my 4th time on the lake. We have had great luck up there. My son calls it "Cheating", because we could not go 5 minutes without a fish on the down riggers. We were limited out in two hours and threw back plenty of slots. Red and gold shad raps and wally divers were hot last year in Aug (32 to 34 fow). Blues and purple were good in late June. I hope to report good things after I return. This is a nice forum for information sharing. It's nice to know I am not the only fishing fanatic (still trying to convince my wife it's not just me)!

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