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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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I think it was at about the 3:10 mark of the first video. Scary as all heck. Reason 1 through 10,000 why I am not in a hurry to be the first on the ice.

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Welcome back to another fantastic ice fishing season on the World's Best Hard Water Fishery, Lake of the Woods. In this addition on the Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman, the Cropduster and Wiggles accompany me in the sky above Lake of the Woods for this December 5, 2012 view of the south shore of Lake of the Woods...Baudette to Warroad. We are now at the mercy of the wind, but what's new about that (anyone who fishes Lake of the Woods in the summer will get this). We need the wind to blow back the ice to close the gap (which it's doing right now) and then quit for a few days to have a nice cold subzero freeze (which it's supposed to be -13 on Monday evening).

Make sure to be safe if you're venturing out there past Pine Island (Walking and Wheelers). The Rainy River has had rumors about the Walleyes putting on the feed bag in the evenings just before dark...the night bite. I'd fish from the Airport to Wheelers Point (Walking Only with portable). This is the preseason look at what we're expecting to be another fantastic ice fishing season in our wonderful backyard. Come share in all the fun and create fishing experiences that you'll be exaggerating for years.

As always, Happy Fishing and God Bless!

Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman

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all I have to say is Cropduster , JP you guys a great with the reports you give. I for one greatly appreciate them. Thank You.

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Nice report JP.

Hopefully the forecasted snow stays away. Fargo news says there is a good chance of accumilating snow somewhere in the RRV. It could stay South for a few more weeks.

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Great reports JP Wiggles and cropduster, that -13 for monday looks good another week or two and we should be ready to go .

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Any word on how or if the ice is healing up? Sounded like the ice came back south and was curious because we are still planning on being up next week on Thursday and trying to get a feel if our trip will be on as planned. Thanks

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DFA, I don't think many people are going out at all. Adrians has not opened their access if people are going onto the lake. The LOW Sheriff's office was on the Roseau radio station yesterday urging people to stay off the lake for the weekend and give it time to freeze up.

Wallpie, I am guessing by next Thur things should be ok looking at the forcast and hopefully I am not wrong.

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With the heavy winds expected this weekend with the possibility of accumulations of snow, i don't think many resorts are going to project when roads will open. We just need to stay patient and let things play out. Check back at the beginning of next week and you may get some more clear answers.

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Hit the river again tonight. The ice thickness was much more consistent today, hovering around 6 or so inches. I just walked out but I did see a few ATV/Snowmobiles buzzing around. About 4" of fluffy snow on the ice when I left at dark. Bring your ice cleats - walking, especially when pulling a sled, can be down right dangerous.

Kept 4-17" walleyes and one nice sauger. All walleyes cleaned were male. Caught nearly everything that showed up on the Vex, and when they did show up they were aggressive. Released many 8-14" walleyes, but nothing over 17. Orange/gold buckshot with a whole frozen shiner did the trick.

There were about 10 rigs parked at the public Wheeler's Point Rainy River landing and a few ATV/Sleds heading out when I swung through this afternoon. I couldn't see anybody on the bay, so I am assuming they were either near the gap on the bay side or just across the island.

The snow and it's insulation could have stayed away, but if I had to guess, it's going to be all systems go next weekend.

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-6 down here in Duluth, bring on the deep freeze and no more snow! How much did you end up getting up there? Just glad we didn't get all the stuff the cities did, their ice is pretty much ruined I'm sure. Looks like my snowmobile will actually get some use this year though!

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I was hunting all weekend south of LOW 20 miles or so. We got snow Friday night, saturday, and again saturday night. I don't know what they got on the lake but we must have got around... 4-5 inches by the time it stopped.

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Like Dave said. I am geussing 5-6" at my house. The wind did blow alot of it off the lake on Sunday, but there are little drifts all over and where the ice is busted up is packed full of snow now. Certainly will need to be careful around these areas for awhile.

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I saw on Ballard's FB page that there are still spots on the lake as of 12/10 that only had 3-4 inches of ice. Be carefull when you are out there and don't venture off the main trail without checking the ice. Brian Ney said the same thing in his report also.

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Just got back from LOW a little bit ago. Fished off Adrians road half a day Mon and full days Tue/Wed. The best action was Tue morning. It was tough to keep one line down for about half an hour from 9:15-9:45. You would drop your line down and when you lifted up to see your jig on the vex there was already a fish on. No real big eyes but a lot of nice eater saugers.

A few inches of snow up there and where we fished about 11 inches of ice. A couple spots we drilled by the piled up ice we couldn't get through. Guessing the ice overlapped a couple times under the sheet.

As far as snow in my back yard my wife pulled out the yard stick and it hit 20 inches. Could have a little built up from the wind but my area reported 17 inches.

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Went out of Morris Point today with the wheeler and started to head east a bit, think I ran into Cyrus road there real close to each other. Well after being on that road for a bit I went a little further east to 22ft of water. Where I nailed the fish 45 fish by 1:30 lots of dink's but lots of real nice 16 to 17 inch fish plus 3 bonus fish walleye 26 23 24.5in that of course went back. The bigger fish came between noon and one lot of the keepers around 9 to 11 its was steady most the day I packed up and left a 2. I was alone most of the day until noon when a group of guys came by and drilled 14 holes and fished for 25mins and then left saying there was no fish around.

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These are the only 2 lures I used all day the top is the Demon and the bottom is the Lindy flying rattle The lindy got all the big walleyes. The Demon I just used as a deadstick. Hope it helps.

full-41847-27608-img_0715.jpg

full-41847-27609-img_0712.jpg

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Nice report walleye. Hard to beat the red Lindy Ratln Flyer.

Hoping to post a similar report on Saturday. Your mid-week trip makes me jealous. I am bracing for some pretty heavy ice traffic activity this weekend.

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Jay rattle varmits, buckshot spoons rattle flyers, deamons, pink charmers, stopsigns, thesea all catch fish ,red glow, perchglow pink glow , gold. all should do ya fine.

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