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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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Do you guys know that throwing tulibee on the ice and just leaving them is illegal and called "wanton waste"? Never heard of it? Take time to look at the regulations before you go fishing next time. I hope you get written up and fined for it next time you do it.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Tell you what. Just give us your names and I'll report you myself.

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I've only fished LOW for the last 15 years or so, but I rarely remember anyone talking about or I even catching a tulibee, now this year its all I hear about at the fish cleaning shack. Less walleyes and more tulibees.

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That might just be the same logic that has helped lead to the demise of eelpout......

What demise of eelpout?? I see and catch them just as often as ever on LOTW.

Eelpout are my personal most ABSOLUTE favorite fish to catch and EAT! They are fantastic delicious!! If anyone has never tried them I strongly STRONGLY recommend it! Very good. Love it. Those babies get put back EVERY time so they can grow into a good eater... YUMMMM

As a side note ... if anyone loves whitefish/tullibee let me know. I seem to catch a lot of them. Feeding a person is better than feeding my local crows or dogs or whatever it is that comes out and eats those things...

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We always catch tullibee on the north side but have seen more of them the last few years. Pout seem to be more active and feed a lot at night but not many people are fishing at night on LOW.

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I expected you to have that attitude Big A. Thanks for doing your part to hurt our natural resources.

Sadly if that is your opinion..then you are VERY VERY welcome sir. Happy to help out. I will continue to do my part as often as I am able to get out there and do some fishing. Hope you do the same. Happy fishing and good luck to you. If your ever looking for some tullibee... let me know. wink

If I am able to get past my "ignorance of the law" then perhaps I will have some time to reflect on how I could possibly be hurting our natural resources? Cuz that is a brain teaser....

although..... I seem to have a pretty good grasp on the law... so now I will just have to give myself a headache trying to make sense of your nonsense... either way. HAPPY FISHING. GOOD LUCK.

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Tulibee are probably one of the main factors in the strength of LOW's walleye population, they help the walleyes grow big and fat smile.

Not that there aren't other reasons in play, but the decline in the Tulibee population on Mille Lacs has been very detrimental to the walleye population.

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These ARE the laws:

• Littering of any materials, including parts of fish or other animals, and depositing rubbish, poisonous substances, or chemicals harmful to aquatic life into public waters, onto ice, or lake or stream shores is illegal.

• ANY fish that is caught and will not be utilized must be immediately returned alive back into the water. A person CANNOT wantonly waste a fish that is caught by leaving it or any usable portion on the ice, thrown up on the bank, or intentionally killing it and returning it back into the water unless authorized.

Dispose of unwanted bait, including minnows, leeches

and worms, in the TRASH. It is illegal to release bait

into a waterbody, release worms on the ground, and

to release aquatic animals from one waterbody into another.

Last spring, at the Birchdale landing, several people were cited for dumping their unwanted minnows on the ground and not the trash.

So far this winter, I have been checked twice by a CO - after doing their normal license check and fish measuring - both reminded me not to leave any minnows on the ice when I left. I keep small trash pail for unused, dead, or changed bait(minnows - waxies).

Everyone should take home whatever they brought with them on the lake.

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Did you misread what I said kfk? I don't advocate the wasting of any fish. Eelpout were ignorantly thrown on the ice for years which is the basis for my comment.

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I love them too Big Al! They are not nearly as prevalent as they used to be. There are many factors that lead to this, but one would surely be all the waste that used to take place. In the 70's and the 80's a common practice was to pitch them on the ice in huge numbers.

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Sadly if that is your opinion..then you are VERY VERY welcome sir. Happy to help out. I will continue to do my part as often as I am able to get out there and do some fishing. Hope you do the same. Happy fishing and good luck to you. If your ever looking for some tullibee... let meknow.

If I am able to get past my "ignorance of the law" then perhaps I will have some time to reflect on how I could possibly be hurting our natural resources? Cuz that is a brain teaser....

although..... I seem to have a pretty good grasp on the law... so now I will just have to give myself a headache trying to make sense of your nonsense... either way. HAPPY FISHING. GOOD LUCK.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Can we get back to fishing reports???

just thinking the same thing. I put my report in the thread on weather. LOL getting silly in here.

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No kidding! I haven't been here in a while, and I find 2 pages of sarcasm, slams, and digs in a FISHING REPORTS thread!

Welcome to FM! Please, fishing reports guys. Fishing reports!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

really slowed down up there but still fun. stayed with adrians again.

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Heading up thurs to stay with family in Warroad. What is everyone's experience on plummeting weather fishing? Do the walleyes head shallower or deeper as outside temps drop?

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I just got back last night fished the end of Adrian's road 14 miles past the island (28" of ice)fishing was OK on Friday night and Saturday morning, Saturday midday as the wind switched to the Southeast and the pressure went down the bite pretty much shut off. Two of us caught close to 50 tulibees, two slot walleyes, a dozen eaters, a couple dozen walleyes under 8",and a couple of bonus jumbo perch. Lots of sniffers.

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I just got back last night fished the end of Adrian's road 14 miles past the island (28" of ice)fishing was OK on Friday night and Saturday morning, Saturday midday as the wind switched to the Southeast and the pressure went down the bite pretty much shut off. Two of us caught close to 50 tulibees, two slot walleyes, a dozen eaters, a couple dozen walleyes under 8",and a couple of bonus jumbo perch. Lots of sniffers.

Just going off the weather history from wunderground.com in baudette for fri and sat, looks like wind picked up to the se around noon and pressure was rising. What's your source of the pressure dropping? I'm just trying to correlate pressure with fishing here, not saying you're wrong.

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Most times my fingers type much faster than my brain and I type extremely slow...Rising would have been correct.

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Welcome back to this February edition of the Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman. Thank you to everyone that makes this all possible.

Even though I've seen enough snow to last me a few more years, we've still been having a pretty consistent bite in the 34-36' range out on the lake off the ice roads. There's been an afternoon bite in the 23-29' range just on the lake side of Pine Island. I personally haven't found a difference between the frozen Shiners and Chubbs, but everyone has their own preference. Don't leave home without your Glow Pink and Gold...my two favorite lures this past month have to be the Clam Blade Spoon and the Tom's Tackle CoopDuster, hands down.

We only have a couple weeks left, don't wait, if you want to fish Lake of the Woods and don't have accommodations and would like to try out our sleeper ice houses, checkout www.lakeofthewoodsoutdoorsman.com for all the reservation information.

Happy Fishing and God Bless!

Lake of the Woods Outdoorsman

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Just got back from our trip out of Morris Point from 2/20 - 2/23.

As everyone has seen on the other links, all of the Ice Roads along the south shore were closed on Friday, so we didn't get out. Morris Point didn't get their road opened up until 11 or so on Saturday, so we only got to fish from about noon to dark Saturday. We caught about 18 or so during that time, but only one keeper. Sunday, the road was closed again so we took off. Can't say that has ever happened to us before, but that's the risk you take when you don't go with the bombers.

The resorts are doing everything they can to get their people out there. I look at it this way, if the wind was blowing 25-30 mph in the summer you wouldn't be fishing either!

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Don't have a fishing report other than the wind is blowing like crazy here in the Red river valley. I imagine it'll be a mess at the lake again.. Just received the fishing report from Denny's Outdoor Sports in Roseau and he is reminding anglers that fishing licenses expire February 28th. They are no

longer valid till April 15th like they have been the last few years. Is this so? If it is be sure to purchase one because I'm sure the DNR will be checking this weekend

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Fished with sleds and portables Sunday through Tuesday evening. Conditions were brutal, cold and wind. We took the snowmobile trail on Monday up through Knight and Bridges over to Garden Island. Due to the incessant wind, the trail was not groomed and very rough. Tuesday, we got smart, trailered the sleds and bought a road pass from Adrian's, which is out about 17-18 miles. Parked at the end of the road and it was a short ride to Garden. Access would be equally easy to Knight and Bridges from the end of the road. If your going to try this in the next few days, make sure all your gear is in top notch shape and bring everything you think you would need for any situation. Can't afford mistakes out there. Anyway, we ended up catching a lot of giant, and I mean giant perch. Also, caught plenty keeper walleye/sauger in the 14-18" range and tons of tiny ones. The good bites came in waves with sometimes hours in between and only lasted a short time. Those little walleyes were fairly active most of the time. Stayed at the Lakeroad Motel, great facility for the do it yourselfer.

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Fished Thursday, Friday, Saturday with family in 2 of Bayview's houses 22 miles out on Adrian's road. Both groups did a nice job of keeping the roads plowed.

We ended up with about 100 fish total for the 4 of us, 24 Tulibees and the rest Walleye and Sauger plus a 27" Pike. Kept enough to make a nice fish fry and close to limits for the trip home. Very hard to get the Walleye / Sauger to bite - would follow and tap but not commit.

We returned 4 fish. 24", 23 1/2, 21, 20 1/2.

Not bad though for the cold front / wind.

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Had a good trip despite the cold. Up Thursday to Saturday out of Zippel. Caught plenty of fish. Fish bit hard for the most part. Lots of dinks, but well worth it. Green, and pink were the best for me and gold caught the biggest fish at 26.5 in. Had a hand full of fish between that and the bottom of the slot. Most fish were Sauger.

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