Excellent Ice Fishing

[LakeofthewoodsMN]

On the south end...  Some excellent Ice fishing this week.  Resorts have fish houses out and good numbers of walleyes and saugers being caught.  Most ice fishing taking place between 20 - 27'.  Using the one-two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking with a live minnow for the second line.  Jigging spoons with a minnow head or tail effective for jigging line.  Colors, gold, glow, glow red, pink.  Some jumbo perch, big pike and eelpout keeping things interesting.  An angler caught an eelpout just over 17 lbs this week.  The MN State record, also caught on LOW was 19.67 lbs.  Eelpout or burbot are great eating.

On the Rainy River...   Ice fishing is taking place on the river mainly by locals.  The majority of ice fishing is done on the main lake during the ice fishing season where there isn't current.  Some nice walleyes are being caught in various spots of the river.  Ice conditions vary greatly, work through a resort for safety.  No snowmobile trail yet, stay tuned.

Up at the NW Angle...  With the border closure, NW Angle Resorts and Community have pulled together and will have a guest ice road across the lake up to the Angle so anglers can drive to resorts.  The NW Angle Guest Ice Road will begin when ice conditions allow, most likely early January.  The snowmobile trail will be staked soon across the lake, stay tuned.  Another option, North Country Air is flying anglers to the Angle.  More info on Facebook at Northwest Angle Guest Ice Road 2020.

Ice fishing has started up at the Angle with excellent reports.  A mix of walleyes, sauger and jumbo perch.  Great morning - evening bite in 15-19' of water.  Afternoons, 22-26' have been best.  Communicate with your favorite NW Angle resort for specifics and safety.