Riverbend Resort

[only ice]

I see alot of kids up there. They have a nice big dinning area,so you will be fine.Good food to!

[LivingTheDream]

Some of the best food around! Like the ribs.

[peerchking]

bak2mn

Kids will be fine,great food & drinks,I will be up the 29th also see you there, I'll be with my wife & father

[gillhunter2]

Bak2man, will be fishing 26&27th. Will give u report when we leave. Just got back last wknd from mud flats and reefs. Mud was better. Don't stay with same presentation if not working. Need electronics to catch walleyes. Limited 3 days in a row. Guys who fished only one presentation struggled.

[FlyRodAddiction]

Fished out of a sleeper on Sunday night and fished it Monday. We were catching a ton of Sauger off the bottom with a mix of lindy darters, gem'n eye's, plain red hooks, and live forage in the smallest size. Our largest was 15". We Fished Tuesday out of a day house and it was basically the same as the day before except that it was 26 below. We were catching the occasional walleye in the 15-18" range about 8-10 feet below the ice. Pulled in one 24" eye off the bottom but all others came in suspended. Both days we fished about 36 FOW, and jigging of any presentation even with a spring bobber scared the fish away. All fish were caught on dead sticks. Happy fishing!!

[bak2MN]

Thanks for all the input guys. Gillhunter will look forward to seeing your report. Good luck. My youngest cant wait for it to come soon enough.

[bturck]

Flyrodaddiction: Your report isn't the same one you gave me at the lodge on Tuesday night, you said you got skunked both days.... Just kiddin Jeff. I know you caught your fish, saw them in the cleaning shack.... Good to see you again after all those years, and Chris as well. I'll have to make a swing down to Cabellas in Rogers one day and look you up. You can direct me to the good buys....Talk soon. Bill

[FlyRodAddiction]

Bill, it was great seeing you as well! Come on in and I will personally escort you back to my deal shack also known as the bargain cave. Otherwise all of our ice fishing stuff is already on clearance so if you need anything for your February trip come check it out or hop online. See you later and wish me luck, i'm headed back out to Mille Lacs on Tuesday and the big pond has not been so kind to me this year!

[bturck]

Jeff will stop in to see you at cabellas. Are you headed back to LOW again this year?

[John Mickish]

They have always bent over backwards for me, it's a great place. No matter the weather we have always been on fish. I will be going back up for the second time this year in March.

[bak2MN]

Do they have any potties out there for the wife?

[bturck]

I was in 3 different houses over 2 days and each of them had the potties in the house. They are not heated, and a little cold on the tush my wife said, but at least she was out of the wind...

[bak2MN]

Thanks for the info Bill. That will help a little. She not real hip on going but me being gone and wanting to take the kids shes tagging along half heartedly.

[gillhunter2]

Bring your own paper. Worse than schools. Just like sandpaper.

[gillhunter2]

Bak2man, probably don't have to tell u but today is gonna be good bite. We struggled on Wednesday. Too many tullibees . Vexilar lit up all day.. moved us to 36.5 ft on Thursday and caught fish all day. Lot of walleye. Had trouble filling limit because not enough sauger. Bad problem! Glow red the ticket. Buckshot didn't work being jogged. Seemed like rattle spooked them. Stop sign best jigging presentation. Use smaller minnows on dead sucks. White and pink glow also good. Chase the suspended fish all day. Afternoon best for getting them to hit.caught fish until 445 both days. All slot fish suspended. Chubby darter worked also but keep switching. Don't die with one jigging presentation. Fish will tell u which one they like. Might work for an hour then they want something different. Good luck and hold off the cold front. Bring wax worms and let kids fish tulaby rig.lot of small ones but lot of action.

[bturck]

gillhunter: Were u out of Riverbend houses? Sounds like enough activity to make the time fly by. Tks for the report.

[bturck]

Looking for my buddy Paul from Riverbend. I know you read these threads. Are you booked again in February? Shoot me an email if you get a chance [email protected] Hope to see u up there again...

[gillhunter2]

Yes, was in riverbend houses. Guys who sat with same lure on for 10 hours were disappointed. Guys who threw whole arsenal at them were rewarded. Always was fish around. Just need to find color or action they preferred. Constantly changes.

[bturck]

gillhunter: You are so right. When the fish become picky like they have you have to keep changing up your presentation. There are days that I have gone through a dozen different jigs, sizes, colors etc before I find one to work. And just about the time you think gold is the ticket they won't touch it and you change up again. At least if a guy is marking you can keep playing. To sit on one jig all day and hope is not the answer....

[bturck]

Gillhunter: one other question. Did you go track vehicle all the way from Riverbend or drive out part way and then transfer to the track? Last year we drove out about 18 miles and then the tracks picked us up for the remainder of the trip. Saved a lot of cramped up riding.

[gillhunter2]

Drove out all the way. 16 miles. Lets u bring everything u need. Not sure if they will let u when they get to reefs though.

[bak2MN]

Well our trip did not go so well. We got up early on Fri and was all set for a 1/2 day fishing. They had someone take us out right away. Hit the ice road at 11:30am or so. Made it out to their off shoot towards their houses. The young guy we were following was in a beat up chevy S 10 with no heat and no defroster. It had startd to snow and blow at this time. The young gentleman had his head stuck out the window trying to see the rd. He was bounceing of the berms like a pinball and eventually getting stuck. I pulled him out once and kept going.

We made it about 1 to 1 1/2 miles from the houses when our leader could no longer stick his head out the door and drive and still be able to see the rd. So he stopped and walked out ahead to see where the rd was and came back and said he could no longer see the rd. He then asked if I had a cell phone he could use as he did not have one or a cb radio in his truck. HMMMM. He made a few calls and said we would have to wait for their plow truck to get out of the shop and get out to us before we could continue. So we sat and sat and sat and waited and waited and waited. Sooooo.

Someone finally called and said they were working on getting to us but it may not be untill 4:00 or so. HMMMMM. Well as my patience was at its end the plow truck finally showed up. And here to find out it was not even their plow truck! They had to hire Snobees to plow out to get us and the rest of their poor customers off the lake. THANKS SNOBEES FOR BEING PREPARED FOR A SMALL WINTER STORM. We finally got turned around and Charlie guided us to the main rd and we finally made it off the lake around 4:30pm.

Long and short of it all they could say was they could not control the weather, which I agree nobody can! But I do think a resort or outfitter can control their equipment and their practices for getting people on and off the lake and not keep them stranded for 5 hrs in their vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

After we made it to the resort I went in to find out about their plans for the road and fishing in the morning and nobody was around but the bar staff and when talking to him and telling him what happened and why I was asking about the road for the morning he said THEY CANT CONTROL THE WEATHER, and I started to talk about the equipment being able to do the job he rasied his hands in the air and walked away saying Im just the bartender.

I got pretty po'ed at that and not getting any answers we called and cancelled our credit card so as not to get billed for anything from them and left.

We ended up staying at a motel in Baudette and going out in a Bomber to a nice house and with nice people from Sportsmans Lodge. THANKS AGAIN FOR GETTING US IN SPORTSMANS!!!! We ended up with 10 keepers and throwing only 3 back. Missed a bunch more. It was slow but at least we made it out to a house to fish!

In hind sight they and us as well should have not went out at that time but when we started out the weather was not that bad yet. I dont know if this a just bad luck one time deal with these guys or if stuff like this happens with them all the time and nobody says anything. I should have stayed and talked to them when they got off the ice but I figured it would not be a good conversation.

SORRY TO VENT BUT THANKS FOR LISTENING.

[lakowoods]

Been there done that! Bad luck one time deal, weather is uncontrollable in any vehicle. Lake of the Woods weather and circumstances is uncontrollable. many differant kind of extremes out there on this lake. lack of comunication dont help steve@logcabinbait

[only ice]

I also have gone up and had a day we couldnt get out.Its a Scary place when the wind is blowing the snow.Im sure they tried there best. Resorts need you, and want you to come back.Im sure if you would of talked to the owner he would of told you what went on. Should give them another chance. Its a good place to stay.

[bturck]

bak2mn: Geez sorry to hear that your trip was not what you expected. I agree with other posters that weather is definitley uncontrollable, but communication appeared to be a little short of expectations. No doubt that lake can throw curve balls. We cancelled a 1/2 day several years ago, when it was snowiing and blowing so bad you couldn't see across the river from the lodge. Brian Voytalla (owners son at that time) got a call from one of the Sportsmans bombers who had tried to make it to their houses and was totally turned around. Brian ended up going out to find him, took over an hour and Sportsmans bomber hadn't even gotten across Pine Island yet. Personally I wouldn't be on the lake either personal or outfitter without a GPS. White out is no fun or being stranded. Sorry about your trip....

[bak2MN]

Like I said on the way out it wasn't to bad until we got so close to the houses. And yes I know the weather can change in a hartbeat been up there many times. My biggest beef was to tell me thier plow truck is on the way and they didn't even have one to send. And when they did get there Charlie didn't want me to say a word about sitting there all day and got ticked when I started to vent a little. I did keep my cool pretty well I thought for the bad time we had. He didn't offer any info but we cant control the weather.

Control your equipment if your putting people on the lake anytime of the year.

Onlyice I dont know if I could give them another shot. The wife did not take it to well. She will go out in a bomber again but never a truck.

[bturck]

bak2mn, shoot me an email if you have time. [email protected] tks

[Crappiechopper]

Bak2mn, I fished with them last year and had a similar experience except without the storm. They were still using the same S-10 at that time. Wound up driving my own vehicle out.