fishing reports 2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info

[bemidjibasser]

Anyone fishing the rough ice in shallow or are most trying to get on the smoother ice?

[cablefish]

Cant get through the rough ice in shallow its all slush

[vman11]

  cablefish said:

Cant get through the rough ice in shallow its all slush

Yeah it's a PITA that's for sure. We were using a 5' spud bar to stick down the hole to move the chunks away , and then hope to get your jig through the mess. Fishing wasn't terrible up shallow from 2-4PM. But it's pretty much a dead sea the rest of the time.

[Muckpetey]

Does anyone know whom I can rent a 3-4 person sleeper with a generator and TV from mid January? I've called a couple places and they're either booked or won't return my call.

[NAMASafetyDirector]

Call Nels at Fred's Beds. Not sure about the Genny and TV but he's got the nicest rental sleepers on the lake and you can't beat the service.

[Muckpetey]

  NAMASafetyDirector said:

Call Nels at Fred's Beds. Not sure about the Genny and TV but he's got the nicest rental sleepers on the lake and you can't beat the service.

Called and emailed, still waiting to hear back...

[DaSwede]

Just got back from LOW this afternoon. We fished Friday and Saturday out of Sportsmans. Fishing was POOR to say the least. Water clarity was awful at 24-25 feet. Saturday they moved us out to their farthest NE house which was in 27'. Water clarity was much better, but fishing was still very slow. Only highlight was a 24.5" walleye. I think our guide did the best he could, but for some reason, the fish were just not active. Last year at this time, we had the best fishing ever, so must just be a slow start to the season.

That's just my observation...take it for what it is....

[Hoey]

Fished Friday through Monday. Weather was interesting. Catching was Good, not Excellent. Fished 20 ft, 27 ft, and 33 ft. Everywhere we went, we caught fish. Sizes covered the range. Largest slot was 23 in. Many eel pout - some rather large, a few tulibee, a couple perch, nice sauger, but mostly walleye.

On Monday, snowmobiles were overheating due to the loss of snow cover from the melt. We probably should not have been out there. Solid 18 in of ice in most spots. Found 12 in near cracks. Odd was the typical late afternoon bite was not there as usual.

[holmsvc]

We fished off of Adrian's road all day Friday and Saturday morning. It was AWFUL, this weekend was the worst fishing I have had up there in 9 years. We talked to people that were fishing with several different resorts Friday night and they also really struggled. I talked to a group that took 4 wheelers up towards knight and they only had a few keeper saugers.

[Sifty]

Fished Thursday thru Sunday with Sweet Sleepers,the bite was slow but we did get some nicer fish a 24.5,24 and a 22. All caught on a plain red hook. We where in 27 ft of water.

The bite was odd as we would have a run of a couple fish and then nothing for a hour to a hour and a half then we woul pick up one more. The weather was up and down with rain,sleet and then sat. night snow.

The ice is in as bad of shape as people are talking. I talked to one guy on sat. afternoon that was portable fishing and he had knocked a hole in his sled from a ice chunk that he did not see. Ice was 16 inches in the house we where in.

Nice to see the eelpout and tulies making a return. We caught a number of 6" walleye's that I was told where this years hatch that should put some fish in the buckets in a few years.

All in all a fun trip even if the fish where'nt jumping in the house.

[marine_man]

Yikes.. quiet in the report thread!

Got back from a 3 day trip to Arnesens.. and fishing was pretty slow. We spent the first two days at Gull Rock (unfortunately... would rather have been on the reefs) and had pretty slow days... between 5 of us, about 15 fish caught on Sunday and 25 fish caught on Monday... Yesterday we were at 12 mile reef and were marking a few more fish than the first day... but only had about 15 fish caught until 1:00 when the rest of the group had enough and wanted to head for home. They said that they had about 8 houses on Archie's reef and were headed that way and towards Twin Rock in the next couple of weeks.

marine_man

[Sportfish1850]

Any recent reports ? Heading up to Zipple Bay on Wednesday and staying out of Zipple Bay resort. What's working what's not ? Thanks for any tips.

[uffdapete]

Try something different than 30'. We were out 6 mi yesterday and it was the 2nd slowest day I've had in 30 years on LOW. As in 9 saugers from 8-12" in 8 hrs for 13 guys. The fish simply were not moving and the few we saw on the flashers were very negative - likely small saugers.

[lungdeflator]

Shallow. 15-25 fow

[walleyeking19]

My dad and brothers just got back yesterday from their trip. 3 days of fishing all day, they ended up with 30 fish for 3 guys. By far the slowest its ever been up there for them.

2 years ago 4 of us got almost 200 fish over the same time frame. That lake is messed up this year.

[busse3775]

Where were you fishing out of walleyking19? 6 of us are heading up there Thursday afternoon and fishing out of Adrians Friday and Saturday. Last I heard Adrians has there houses 20+ miles out and the fishing has been decent.

[walleyeking19]

busse, They were out of Sportmans. They were pretty far out too, I think they said the bomber ride was 55 minutes. Reading the fishing reports from Sportsmans HSOforum you'd think they were pounding them, but thats not the case this year. Hopefully you have better luck!

[tonyjor]

Any new reports out of Arnesen's? Heading up there soon. Also, on a side note, do the day houses have porta potties near them or anything? Or do I need to bring another bucket?

[jay83196]

Updates FROM arnesons? Anybody?

[Sportfish1850]

Well Zipple Bay area was a complete bust for us. 3 days of constant fishing, mixed up colors, jigged,with spoons and jig heads, used bobbers, & slip sinker rigs. 2 guys had 11 keepers over 3 days and maybe 40 fish total that whole time. Our rental house was in 27ft of water (from the top of the ice), and we tried 15' and 31' with our portable. Nothing at 15' and a few more small sauger (10-11") at 31'. Biggest walleye was 15".

Pink and white/glow were the only colors that did anything, and jigging was almost inactive. A minnow on a small pink/white jig head under a bobber 6" off the bottom lifted up a couple of feet every few minutes was the only thing that even got any interest.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Has anybody been doing good up there?? Was thinking of renting a house in April but I haven't heard many, if any, good reports from up there this year.

[JBMasterAngler]

Ice house removal on LOTW is march 31. Better reschedule your trip.

[M1dwestF1sh]

I always thought it went into April. We did this last year and I could have sworn it was in April... I guess late march it is!

[jerkbait]

Houses have to be off by march 31st, but walleye season doesn't close until April 14th.

[busse3775]

Six of us fished out of Adrians houses Friday and Saturday out by Garden Island. Friday the bite was alright in the morning but the fish were very very small. We were catching little walleyes that were only 6 inches long and most of the time we missed them. Friday we caught around 40 fish and only kept 8 fish with the biggest one being 15 inches and caught one slot fish that was 22.5". I thought the bite in the afternoon would pick up but I was wrong and we didn't catch a fish over 10" the last couple hours then had to drive the long hour drive back to shore. Saturday it was even slower and the fish seemed to come through in waves. We caught around 30 fish and kept 7 then had a fish fry that was very good at Adrians. While cleaning fish most people said that fishing was pretty slow, I did see one guy cleaning two jumbo perch that were around 13"-14". Was very happy with our stay at Adrians even though we didn't get much sleep for the weekend since we enjoyed a couple bands at Sportsmens and the Wigwam.

[bmc]

My wife and I, along w/ our 2 grandsons ages 6 and 4 were up on the big pond over the weekend.

We rented a house from Bayview Lodge.

We were 25+ miles out from Pine Island.

4 of us fishing on Saturday kept 13 saugers, 1 walleye, and a SUMO 13" perch that weighed 1.8 lbs. What a tank! Also kept 9 tulibees for the smoker. We had a nice fish fry Saturday night.

My wife got a touch of the flu on Saturday night, so the 6 year old and I fished Sunday. We ended up with 9 saugers, 2 walleyes, and 15 tulibees for the smoker.

Best baits were a purple colored Lindy Rattln Flyer w/ a whole minnow, sized 3 blue or glow jigging raps w/ a piece of minnow, and Northland Forage Minnow spoon in orange and yellow w/ a piece of minnow.

Bobber fishing was sloooow to say the least.

Fish were in a neutral mood I'd say. We had to jig to get their attention, make them chase a couple feet off bottom, and then shake the lure to make them bite.

Brian

[Hoey]

  bmc said:

We rented a house from Bayview Lodge.

We were 25+ miles out from Pine Island.

On Sunday we fished out in the middle of the basin. Bite was alright, but we noticed all the houses off the WSW side of Garden. We headed up there on Monday and found houses from multiple river resorts. This area was about a mile north of our location on Sunday. We stopped and talked to a gentleman from Cloquet, a retired teacher. He indicated the drive was some 26 miles out from Pine Island. Wow. We ended up fishing another mile or so north of there and did alright.

A lot of river resort houses and plowed roads out there.

[bmc]

They were kind of out there by themselves.

The "bridge" we drove across was kind of scary. No way I would try to pull a wheel house over that.

Brian

[Lunker]

Our group of nine got back yesterday from a four day trip in sleepers. Fun trip but the fishing was very slow. Caught some sauger, 3 or 4 walleye, 2 tullees, and 1 northern total. Big fish was the 32" northern. None of the sauger or walleye were over 15". Probably less than 30 fish total caught between the 9 of us over the 4 days, so very slow overall. Marked fish but were very picky, would not go near jigged baits, most caught dead sticked. Better luck next year.

[Walleyehooker]

Just returned from a few days up at the NW Angle on Oak Island. Fishing for the most part was on the slow side much like the rest of the lake. But the weather was pretty nice and we moved around enough to catch enough for a fish fry and bring a limit home and toss some back for another day. Still had a great time till my drive shaft broke on my snowmobile on the way back to Warroad. Gets a little tricky to tow a sled when you cant use the track so we had to improvise a little.