Tag Archives: ice fishing

First trip to Lake of the Woods

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Fishing wasn’t fast and furious, but it was good enough to keep things interesting Monday when a friend and I made a quick trip to Ballard’s Resort on Lake of the Woods.

Hundreds of fish houses dotted the frozen expanse of Lake of the Woods on Monday north of Pine Island. (Brad Dokken photo)

Set up in about 25 feet of water north of Pine Island, we kept 11 saugers and released at least twice that many smaller walleyes and saugers. I also released a 24-inch walleye that came through suspended. When I saw the blip about 6 feet down on the screen of my Vexilar FL-18, I quickly reeled my jigging spoon to get it in the fish’s viewing range. There was no hesitation, and the fish absolutely slammed the lure.

As my first walleye through the ice this winter, the fish sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the season.

Lake of the Woods has to have the largest collection of small rigs such as Geo Trackers and Suzuki Samurais in the country right now, as most of the resorts use the light vehicles to pull trailers to transport anglers onto the lake until the ice can support larger tracked vehicles. I’m guessing we had 10 to 12 inches of ice in the area where we were fishing, but Ballard’s staff said they were continuing to find areas with thinner ice, in some cases as little as 5 inches to 7 inches.

That’s why it’s best to access the lake through a resort this time of year.

There was no doubt that the winter fishing season was in full swing. Several hundred fish houses dotted the frozen horizon north of Pine Island, most of them rentals from resorts along the south shore.

No doubt ice fishing is big business on the big lake. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, results from a creel survey show anglers logged about 1.6 million hours on the ice last winter. That’s nearly twice as many hours as anglers spent fishing the lake this past summer.

I’ll have more about the past year’s creel survey in Sunday’s Northland Outdoors section.

Ice fishing beginning on Lake of the Woods

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The Arctic blast that has descended on the Northland is just what the doctor ordered if you’re a Lake of the Woods ice fishing enthusiast or one of the many resorts or outfitters who cater to those enthusiasts.

Lightweight vehicles from Ballard’s Resort near Baudette, Minn., haul rental houses across Pine Island onto the frozen expanse of Lake of the Woods in this photo from Dec. 11, 2007. The winter fishing again is getting started along the south shore, where resorts are pulling rental houses onto ice that is more than 9 inches thick in most places. “Caution” and “safety” remain the words of the day, though, and anglers should check with resorts or use their accesses when venturing out. (Brad Dokken photo)

Joe Henry, executive director of Lake of the Woods Tourism, sent out a report this morning saying permanent houses are beginning to dot the south shore of the frozen lake, and others are being pulled out.

As for the fishing? “Very good,” Henry says. Water clarity is good, and the ice is 9 inches or thicker in most spots but does very in places.

It’s very important, Henry said, that anyone venturing onto the ice use a resort or resort ice road to access the lake because there are a few spots where the ice is covered with light snow and not as thick.

For now, it’s light vehicle traffic only, Henry said; ATV traffic is allowed in some places, or resorts can provide transportation on and off the ice. Walleyes are hitting in 15 to 22 feet of water.

Up at the Northwest Angle, Frank Walsh of Bay Store Camp on Oak Island says he marked a trail on the south side of Oak on Sunday and found more than 8 inches of ice everywhere except for one small area of 6 inches where he expected to find thinner ice

Walsh said there were three pressure ridges just off the south side of the island, and he plans to start pulling houses onto the lake either today or tomorrow. And with lows in the single digits forecast for the next few days, conditions will continue to improve.

Things also are about to get rolling on the west side of the lake. Izzy’s Ice Fishing of Warroad, Minn., which rents sleeper houses, made the following Twitter post Sunday: “Hungry for walleye?  Fishing this weekend, #get it booked.”

 

Hot perch bite

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I made my winter fishing debut for the season last Thursday when I joined Jason Mitchell and Jeff Andersen, members of the Clam Corp.’s “Ice Team,” and two others for a day of perch fishing on a body of water somewhere near Devils Lake.

Jason Mitchell of Devils Lake shows off a chunky perch caught Nov. 29 through the ice of a small body of water near Devils Lake.

At Mitchell’s request and as a matter of courtesy, I’ll leave it at that.

Mitchell, of course, is a longtime Devils Lake fishing and hunting guide and host of “The Jason Mitchell Outdoors” TV show. Andersen, of Baxter, Minn., is a central and northern Minnesota fishing guide and professional photographer.

Joe Andersen — Mitchell’s cameraman and Jeff Andersen’s  younger brother — of Devils Lake and John Hoyer of Minnetonka, Minn., rounded out the crew.

So how was the fishing? In a word — “phenomenal.” Mitchell had stumbled across the perch mother lode a few days earlier after drilling some 200 holes. The fish had moved a few hundred yards from where he found them, but once we hit the school last Thursday, the perch, at times, would hit as fast as we could drop our jigs down the hole.

Catching our limits of 20 perch each (some of them pushing 14 inches) wasn’t a problem. Safety wasn’t a concern, either. The lake we fished had 6 inches of clear, solid ice, and I found myself wishing I’d brought my skates.

The fishing we experienced that day is just one example of the opportunity that awaits North Dakota anglers who like to get out and explore smaller lakes that are off the beaten path. Thanks to a series of wet years beginning in the early ’90s, North Dakota now has 400 bodies of water with fish. According to the Game and Fish Department, that’s up from 168 fishable waters in 1988.

For a full story about our day on the ice and the status of North Dakota’s small lake boom, check out Sunday’s Northland Outdoors section.