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2020 Lake of the Woods Fishing Reports & Info


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Very interesting couple days...….good and bad. Got out about 10 ish on Sunday and headed out to the mud where the big school had been a week ago. Gone. Headed deeper, nothing. Off to the NW there were a couple boats. As I got nearer, there was a flotilla! Had to of been 150, maybe 200 or more spread out SE to NW a number of miles NE from Long Pt. Curt had mentioned the large area of LOW there were fish in the deep.  Right on Curt. Most seemed to be bait fishing. I pulled plugs for about an hour and didn't catch any....didn't see any caught either. The fish were much thinner than a week ago but there was likely somewhere they were thick. It was just plain weird seeing so many boats spread out so far in the mud. 

After the hour pulling cranks, I headed north for some rock fishing. It seemed most everyone was south in the pack. One boat on the Knight reefs, 2 out on the Bridges humps fishing very close together...friends no doubt.. That is where the bad came in: the 2 boats on south Bridges. I stopped on middle Bridges which is a very small hump, maybe 50" across the top. I hardly got my line in when one of the 2 boats left S Bridges and headed towards me. I was kind of worried they didn't see me but finally they throttled down and made a circle around me at about 25 feet...maybe 30! WTH? Two guys in a SD boat, a nice white  Ranger 620T  with a 200 Verado. The driver killed the motor to start fishing about 25 feet from me. Three boats on the whole  north side   and you  stop 25 feet away???? I was pulling spinners so that put an end to that. I just pulled up and left. Crazy. I headed to an even smaller hump to the north. About 20 - 30 minutes later, here they come. Same scenario, I couldn't believe it. We had a conversation that didn't include any Minnesota nice. It was 4:30 so I headed back to the shoal and caught a couple of eaters for supper. Had they shown up there, I was going to go into speed trolling mode...….in a rather small circle. They didn't. I don't usually bi tch about other anglers but those guys were something else. All I could think of was they had no self respect.

That takes care of my whine.....still quite a few big fish on the rocks. One odd thing---I caught zero saugers.

Really curious it that bunch of fish in middle is starting to disperse. It was just crazy seeing so many boats out in nowhere land, especially so many bait fishing.

Good luck...………….unless you are the two DH's from South Dakota.

Sorry for the rant

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SRJ - Great report.  Yes unfortunately it happens when others just get too close.  "Miles of open water, no other boats in-sight, and you really need to be on top of me?"  It really makes me shake my head as I will not do this.  Some of the reefs/humps you mention are only the size of two parking lot spots.  You snag up, you pull back to save the tackle, the other boat moves up to block you out.  Like you said, time to move.  

 

I usually stop 500 feet from my desired location, get lines set, and begin trolling towards my target.  I may get close to another boat, but I am just passing by. 

 

I have had other boats come roaring up, do a small circle around me, nearly capsizing us, and then mark the center of the circle on their gps, and then off.  

 

My motto is two-fold, "make my own water,"  i.e. fish where others are not and "you can not find fish unless you find fish."  

 

I will be fishing Fri and Sat this weekend.  Forecast includes a chance of rain all weekend.  Good Luck!!!

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Fished some on Friday and Saturday.  Did not go to the mud, stayed more local.  

On Friday we fished a mid-depth reef with spinners and crawlers, nothing,   We pulled tail dancers and shad raps from 20' into 16' along shore, nothing.  We then went into 8' with spinners and crawlers.  Kept 3 over 17", nice dinner. 

 

Saturday was better.  We went out early due to pending weather, went directly to the 8' water, found a couple there again, kept scouting out to 20', nothing, back to 8 to 10' and ended up with 6 eyes, a fat 16 and 17 with the rest 18 to 19"s.  We pulled our lines out a 1pm.  The weather really did not get going until 11pm or so.  50mph winds, heavy rain (6 10ths total), and 15 minutes of pea to dime-sized hail with little damage.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fished a couple hours late Tues afternoon, Weds and Thurs morning. Caught supper on Tues pulling leadcore in about 31' out from Zipple. Not the huge schools like a few weeks ago but enough to fish. Weds went rock hopping and found fish on about half the humps, no biggies. Seemed to be an unusual number of very nice boats for a Weds and all pulling leadcore. Good deal for me as I was fishing spinners. Found out that night about the AIM tourney explaining the boat show with the guys prefishing. Thurs morning was out 11 miles from the washout pulling baits in the mud and the bite was pretty good. Again, not the massive numbers seen previously but a good number of biters. The charters were scattered all over the basin with some up north as well. Still a fair number of boats bait fishing out deep.

Sure hate to see summer slipping away.

 

Good luck.

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On ‎8‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 9:15 AM, srj said:

Fished a couple hours late Tues afternoon, Weds and Thurs morning. Caught supper on Tues pulling leadcore in about 31' out from Zipple. Not the huge schools like a few weeks ago but enough to fish. Weds went rock hopping and found fish on about half the humps, no biggies. Seemed to be an unusual number of very nice boats for a Weds and all pulling leadcore. Good deal for me as I was fishing spinners. Found out that night about the AIM tourney explaining the boat show with the guys prefishing. Thurs morning was out 11 miles from the washout pulling baits in the mud and the bite was pretty good. Again, not the massive numbers seen previously but a good number of biters. The charters were scattered all over the basin with some up north as well. Still a fair number of boats bait fishing out deep.

Sure hate to see summer slipping away.

 

Good luck.

Summer slipping away means Fall fishing though!

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Steve - Nice report.  I will be fishing this weekend with high school classmates, our annual trip, then staying around all week toward Labor Day and heading home on Sunday to avoid the heaviest traffic.  I will be bringing my tree equipment and spending a day helping a local retiree with some trimming.  

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Sounds like a great time, Hoey. Keeping active with old friends is really important...……….as I have advanced well past "middle age", most of my friends I fished/hunted with have either died or quit the outdoors pursuits. Bummer. However, Thursday I head to Morson with one of my remaining partners to spend a few days at his place at Sportsmans Landing, always a good time. That part of LOW is really fun! Endless rock humps to fish, and little traffic. A couple years ago, I got my bud into jigging raps and similar lures. Big fun jig rappin the sand flats in that area. And usually, we catch a few crappies for a great meal.

One observation  after many years of fishing LOW north and east of Big Traverse involves the rock humps.....anyone with thoughts on this, please weigh in. In big Traverse, the rock bite peaks in July and slowly peters out. There are still good days, but by late August, you have to run and gun to find fish on the rocks. However, in Sabaskong, Little Traverse and areas north and east of Big Traverse, the rock bite stays very strong. On Whitefish Bay, my best rock fishing was the last couple weeks of August. My thought is it is because of the pressure on  the US side and the lack thereof on the Canada side. Opinions?

Good luck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So what's the latest and greatest? Heading up with a buddy after work on Friday for the long weekend, wife and kid staying home. Been way too long since I've been up!

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On 8/20/2018 at 6:09 PM, srj said:

Sounds like a great time, Hoey. Keeping active with old friends is really important...……….as I have advanced well past "middle age", most of my friends I fished/hunted with have either died or quit the outdoors pursuits. Bummer. However, Thursday I head to Morson with one of my remaining partners to spend a few days at his place at Sportsmans Landing, always a good time. That part of LOW is really fun! Endless rock humps to fish, and little traffic. A couple years ago, I got my bud into jigging raps and similar lures. Big fun jig rappin the sand flats in that area. And usually, we catch a few crappies for a great meal.

One observation  after many years of fishing LOW north and east of Big Traverse involves the rock humps.....anyone with thoughts on this, please weigh in. In big Traverse, the rock bite peaks in July and slowly peters out. There are still good days, but by late August, you have to run and gun to find fish on the rocks. However, in Sabaskong, Little Traverse and areas north and east of Big Traverse, the rock bite stays very strong. On Whitefish Bay, my best rock fishing was the last couple weeks of August. My thought is it is because of the pressure on  the US side and the lack thereof on the Canada side. Opinions?

Good luck.

 

An interesting observation.  I'd be curious, too.

As summer moves on, we know the fish in Big Traverse usually tend to start cruising the mud flats.  Seems like most of the rocks in Big T aren't surrounded by sand, but mud.  I haven't fished the Canadian side - what is the bottom structure around them like?  If it's sand instead of mud, that could be a difference in holding the fish up on the rocks?  The areas of Little T I've fished didn't seem to have much mud.

Could easily be food source related.

Or water temperature/clarity differences as walleyes seek relief from mid to late summer heat in Big T.  Proximity to cooler/deeper water?  For example, Whitefish is much deeper than Big T and will stay cooler later into the summer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cool pic, Hoey.

Last week fished Thurs and Friday. The rock bite was very slow for me even when fish were on top. Lots of very nice rigs on the water for the NWT championship. Leadcore was the name of the game for the 30 or 40 tourney boats I saw on Thursday. It appeared to be a day long grind with many boats fishing the same general area.  Quite the massive payout for first and second place in that tournament  I caught a fair number pulling a spinner and shiner in the mud but crankbaits worked better. Friday I fished a good bit shallower outside the gap and found a fair number of nice fish. I would think the shoreline bite should be happening before long.

Good luck

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SRJ nice report.  Here is mine.

 

We (wife and I) hosted a neighbor couple for the weekend.  So did not want long, wear-you-out runs out to the mud, my least enjoyable place to fish. 

 

Was out for 3 hours on Thursday late afternoon.  Fished deep sand, near mud off local reefs, more or less scouting since I got a big one there the prior weekend.  Caught five total, kept a 16, released a fat 25. 

 

Friday we fished 10am to 4pm, on some shallow flats (8 to 20ft), scouting again, Went through all 50 of our crawlers.  Ended up keeping 9 or so eyes and 6 nice perch.  Fish for dinner!!!

 

Saturday we got out early and off early, 8am to 1pm.  Again fished shallow flats and some shallow rocks, and ran out of bait again, this time was 60 crawlers.  Each of our guest got fat 26 inchers.  Wrapped up our limit of eyes.  No sauger at all this trip and some more perch.  We cleaned-up and participated in a local barn dance.  

 

It was fun and great weekend.  Our neighbor, he had never been on big water, nor fished for eyes, and he did well.  I hope they look forward to another trip.  

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Good fishing Hoey. Hopefully, the near shore bite kicks in over East here soon....I'm with you on the mud bite...least fav way to catch them. However, when it is the only bite going, I sure appreciate it. Not sure when I can chase them around again as we leave for Saskatchewan next Saturday and that is usually the highlight of the year. It would sure be fun to take a bit of fishing equipment with as it drives me nuts seeing guys bank fishing on the N and S Saskatchewan rivers. Just not enough time.

 

Good luck.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Heck the weather is not being very cooperative with fishing out of a boat.  I was at my cabin two weeks ago and only fished for an hour.  Planning to be around this weekend and seeing nothing but cold, rainy, and breezy conditions.  I usually take the boat in for year-end service around Halloween, looking forward to a couple of nicer days.  Not this year, the boat is getting dropped off for service on Sunday.  Good-bye to a very nice summer and crappy fall.  I can not wait to say hello to the ice fishing season.  Oh - I did invest in a Stryker outfit this weekend at Thorne's mod event and two fully thermal houses to get er started.

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I'll be up the 2nd and 3rd weekends in October. Pontoon gets put to bed the 1st trip with the wife and kid and the cabin gets shut down for the season on the second trip for the last hurrah with a couple of buddies. Take the boat home and get that winterized before deer hunting. Before I know it I'll be looking forward to next May. Here's hoping for a good snowmobiling season!

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I have had a couple years where early Nov snow prevented me from picking up the boat at the dealer following service due to too much snow in their yard and at the storage lot.  Nice dealer, he says "just leave it here and we will do a spring start-up for you."  Other years, picked it up and the boat and trailer got coated in slush, sand, and road salt.  Yuk!!!  

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  • 1 month later...

View from Rocky Point.  Lake is ready to freeze up, but I do not believe the winds are going to fully participate.

image.thumb.png.2aaa4ede00387f4d82918f7d7f1d0eee.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

Went out of Adriens Road on Saturday. Holy cow the ice is rough. Traveling off road is slow and bumpy as there are large ice shards everywhere. Fishing was pretty bad for us. We moved 5 times and tried depths from 16-24 feet. 2 guys kept 6 fish and released another 6 dinks. Fished 8am - 5pm. 

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I fished Friday and Saturday.  Yes the ice is rough and full of ice heaves and piles, for the first mile or so. 

 

Friday I fished 22 ft along shore line breaks.  I caught 10 fish in the first 4 hours with one keeper.  At 330pm to 4pm, things changed as I could not keep up with the bite.  Probably caught another 20 or so.  Ended the day with my 4 eyes and one nice sauger.  Fish for dinner and breakfast.

 

On Saturday I ventured out a little further to 26 ft.  One fish caught and kept in the first 4 hours.  I headed back to the Friday spot, got setup and at 3pm it was gang busters again.  Ended the trip with my 4 eye and 2 sauger limit.  

 

Ice was 12" thick consistently and this was on the newest ice, smooth, clear, and spooky.  No one else out there that I could see or hear.  Nice to see an end-of-day bite again.  Seemed like the past two years there was no end-of-day bite.  

 

Not much snow on shore or on the lake.  I took my snowmobile out.  Before I headed home I noticed that my slides/hyfax had a ridge on the side, like it melted and oozed.  I have not seen this before.  So now I am wondering if this occurred during this past weekend or was there previously.  I am googling this to see if this is an issue and how to repair if needed....  I did drive over quite a bit of shredded ice chunks and my track would not have had contact with snow.....  

 

Good Luck and be safe!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Your hifax will do that because of lack of snow which lubes and cools them.  If your hifax are wearing, you can usually smell a burnt plastic smell.  In these conditions, you also have to watch your engine temp as it requires snow hitting the coolers to cool them off.

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17 hours ago, Sculpin said:

On another note, you could have gone to the 8 fish limit effective Sat. Dec. 1st.

Sculp - You are totally correct.  After my post that you are referencing, I began to wonder about the sauger component of the limit, since the DNR commission recommended changes that harmonizes the winter and summer limit of eyes and sauger.  Those changes have not been implemented.  I just check on this a day or two ago.  Thank you reading my post and your attention to detail.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!

Hoey

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I've been out the past three days and heading out again this morning.  Fishing is good with plenty of good eaters (14-16") and some nice slot fish as well.  Ice is clear and slick due to the lack of snow but don't have too much trouble with my snowmobile slipping as long as i don't drive like a maniac.  Ice thickness is right around 12-15" a few miles East of 5 Mile.  In the bay the ice is relatively smooth but as you venture further East it seems to have broken up and refroze but nothing to really worry about except a bit of a rougher ride.  I've only seen one crack worthy of speaking of and thats a couple miles East of the point in Warroad.  I managed to "skip" across it 2 days ago but had to find an alternate route coming back.  I don't know how far North it goes but it is crossable at the Southern most point.  I haven't seen any DNR trails marked as of yet but I have seen 5 mile reef does have a plowed road.  $10 contribution fee is what he asks.  

 

Good luck everyone, be safe....hope this helps

10-4

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  • 1 month later...

Well, I’m heading up tomorrow with my son who finally has a weekend off from hockey. I’m looking for a general report and ice conditions. I have a small sleeper house. How far are is Adrians road plowed?  

Thanks in advance for any input!

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Heard Adrian's road was just about to Garden. Check out Curt's January 21 report.

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Just out of curiosity, how much ice has this arctic blast made? Makes me feel confident about a late March trip.

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I got a kitchen pass on Tuesday morning and now the head cook has decided to join me.  We are heading up in an hour.  Probably going to turn the impromptu trip into a Super Bowl Party weekend!!!  Good Luck!!!

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Well my friends, I had to leave Warroad so I can't fish every day of the week anymore :(

 

But I didn't move too terribly far away so I can still fish weekends.  How are they biting now?  I'm guessing they've slowed up but am targeting places such as Long Point, Rocky and in the bay on the West end....anything?

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Alright - We, wife and I fished Fri and Sat.  We fixed the choke on the Polaris, twice on upon arrival on Thurs.  Glad we picked up two on the way. 

 

Fri we went to a mid-lake, deep water reef, setup on the edge, 25 fow under the 3 ft of ice, lines were in by 11am,  ended the day with 10 keepers, eyes and sauger mix, overall the bite was decent, we were definitely kept busy.  Fish for dinner.  We added the extension on the auger.  Yes - bring the extension. 

 

On Sat we went 1 mile off shore, setup in 20 fow, under 2.5 ft of ice, near some rocks, lines were set by 1130am (what is the hurry?), looking for perch, ended the day with a mix of eyes, sauger, and 9 jumbos, bite was about the same as Fri, probably 35 fish per person. 

 

Minimum length of the eyes was 15 and 14 for the sauger.  Biggest eye kept was a 19 and 18 for the sauger.  My wife caught and released this nice 24 incher.  

 

IMG_0934.thumb.JPG.e583921281843523d2a325b18c040d6b.JPG

 

The bite was definitely better than two weeks ago.  It was cold then and warmed up nicely for this trip.  

 

It was interesting, the ash trees have dropped their seeds and the pine grosbeaks numbered into the hundreds and were all over the place, feasting. 

 

We had planned to enjoy the Super Bowl with local friends, but decided on Saturday to head home on Sunday, rather than Monday due to the Winter Storm Warnings and the forecast.  

 

Looking forward to the next trip.  

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