Lake of the Woods - Zippel Bay Fishing Reports

[CANOPY SAM]

Ooofda, short notice, and the weather could make it tough! Supposed to be cold and rainy (maybe?).

I'd like to come but will have to do a quick inventory and see if I can make this work.

[lichen fox]

Yea, it just started opening up over the weekend and both arms of the bay are open and about half of the main bay between the state park and the lake is open....they went out in the airboat on tue & wed before they made the final decision if there was enough open water for the tourney....they also went out in the air boat on the lake and drilled some holes...they said there was still a good couple feet of ice out front of zipple where they drilled...but, Nick said he thinks the lake still has a chance at being open for the 11th! We'll see! If you can't make it and want to listen in for live results, we'll be broadcasting the final day...Sunday, noon to 3pm from Zipple on KQ92 out of Warroad...Interviews, leader board updates, and we'll also try and talk with the winners!

[curt quesnell]

Saturday and Sunday will be very nice weather days.

Good Luck all

[jerkbait]

Yep, looking at the forecast for Williams right now. Sunny and 53 on Saturday and sunny and 65 on Sunday. Good luck all! I will be stuck doing spring cleaning. yuck!

[LindellProStaf]

So did anyone hear how the Tourney went? I wondered how the pike were biting in Zipple Bay. Also I wondered if live bait or trolling crankbaits was the way to go.

[jerkbait]

I only heard that 1st place was 7 lbs 13 oz. 2nd was 6 lbs something.

[vman11]

Very few fish caught, biggest sounded like a 33" that had to of course go back.

One group I know caught 2 small ones and placed 5th.

[child23]

I fished in it. It was a very tough bite. We ended up catching our only fish with about 15 minutes left of the tournament. The fish were just starting to come into the shallows on Sunday with the sun and warmer weather. Only 11 teams weighed fish in. I think this weekend will be a very good weekend to target the pike in the bay because I think they will be very hungry.

[Thomas77]

just got back from Zipple Bay today after spending 4 days there. Pike were hungry !! We had 2 boats in our group and everyone caught several 40 inchers each day that were all put back. Smelt went very fast in 4 days. Had a great fish fry Saturday afternoon. All the folks at Zipple were great as usual !!