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zippel bay resort sleepers


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My Dad, brother, and I are going to stay in a sleeper through Zippel Bay Resort the weekend of February 16th. I have gotten a bunch of information from previos posts and it sounds like everyone that has stayed here has had a decent trip. We got the package that puts us in deep water during the day and a shallow water sleeper later at night. Has anyone ever done this before? How did you do? Do you think it was worth it, or would we be just as well off with just the sleeper? How are the sleepers set up and how nice are they? Any recomendations on what to bring other than fishing gear? Have any of you ever tried to catch bubot? I was thinking of setting up one rattle real for burbot and one for walleye for each person at night? How do you fish for them and is there any trick to cleaning them? I've never caught them before. It sounds like most of you use gold and glowing jigs, anyone ever have any luck just using the rattle reals with a hook and a minnow? Also I noticed that they have an option of fishing for northerns as well. Would it be worth it to give that a try one day, or should we stick with the walleyes and sauger? I apreciate any help, tips, or stories you can give. I have never been up to lake of the woods, but I'm realy excited. smile.gif

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Three of us did the same trip as you are doing. We went up three weeks ago. The sleeper was in 13 feet of water and the day house was in 24 feet. I would have preferred to be deeper as we were a ways shallower than any of the the other houses but what are ya gonna do? Having the day house was nice. It is nice to not have to bring your portables if you want to try for some sauger a tad deeper in the middle of the day. We loved that option. You could head out whenever you felt like it. I liked not having to set up and break down over and over each day. Just grab your rods/flasher, hop in the truck and your are fishing again in five minutes. We used our day house two of the three days. The first day we 'settled' in pretty nicely for the evening bite in our sleeper house. Otherwise, we would get up for the morning bite and hang out until 10:00 or so, then head to the day house until 3:30 or so and then head back to get ready for the evening bite. If you are hoping for burbot you may be disappointed. I may be mistaken but they tend to hang out deeper and with the sleeper being shallow/shallower, it may diminish your odds. That was our experience at least. 0 pout. We kept four lines down at night and got a few bells each night. Missed a couple at the holes but they were walleye. We actually kept 10 walleye and only 2 sauger for the trip. Most of our fish were caught in the sleeper in the morning.

The sleepers are set up nice, at least the one we had was. We had three guys but it was rigged up to sleep six if need be. The beds were two bunks....not the coffin style set up you get in a lot of sleepers. A word to the wise.....they don't give you bait (which seemed odd) so be prepared to purchase some on the way or you can buy them from the resort. Oh, and don't mix the shiners with the fatheads/Ruby reds. They don't like that so much. A bummer was our sleeper had not been moved in between tenants so we had minnows in our holes and colored snow all around the house. There was no garbage can or bags in our house and we never did receive a garbage can. No TP or paper towels are provided so pack that as well.

I hope I am not being too harsh but just stating what you may want to expect and more importantly bring to ensure you have a great time. Also, they don't have any cookware kits to rent so bring any and all supplies you will need for cooking. I always bring my little Smokey and cook burgers/brats but they have a hotplate in their houses so you can cook anything you would normally cook on a stove.

It is always a blast heading to LOW. As far as fishing goes I would recommend you jig a spoon of some sort with one rig while float fish or deadstick with a jig/fathead presentation to get started. Good luck!

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I believe the lady in the office asked us if we needed licenses. I would just buy your license when you stop for bait on the way up. I don't know what the price/selection is at the resort but you will find everything you need (license, Ruby's, Emeralds, Fatheads et al) in Baudette. Once again, good luck and have a blast!

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