Current LOTW south shore bite?

Anyone currently up there? We are heading up Thursday morning and wondering if the river is filling up and if the schools are staged? Thanks guys.

I’m heading that way for my annual trip 10 days after you, I’m listening in on this one.

Never been up there but going for the first time this weekend. Leaving Friday AM. Is finding shiners pretty tough once youre up there? Should I be buying bait along the way?

I’m heading up Thursday as well. I’ve heard the jigging bite is on. Never been up there this time of year, looking forward to trying something new. If you see me and my wife on the water say hi, we are in the big orange Warrior tiller.

I’m heading up Thursday evening. From what my buddy has told me the bite has been good but you have to sort through a lot of little ones to get your keepers. We will be fishing along pine island up to the gap. Depending on where you are staying you can get frozen shiners form the resort. You can also get live shiners from the bait shops in the area now. We will be taking out both. I feel like we do better with live shiners but either work well. If you are in a spot with fish and things slow down a bit throw on a blade or a rippin rap. This seems to call them in for us at times.

One tip for hooking your shiners is go through the mouth, out the gills and hook the shiner up through the back right behind the anus. This will really increase your hook up rate versus mouth hooking them.

We are staying right next to Cyrus with Stevie Sweet. When you come out of his bay you are right at the southern tip of pine island. This is a good place to start. I have also heard they are getting nice fish out in front of Zipple bay right now.

Maybe we should meet up for a few drinks on Friday and talk about what worked for us that day?

We can PM each other if we get on fish if you would like. I’ll be in a red/black Skeeter WX 1910.

Looks like I m8ght be up this weekend to. Not sure where yet. Just starting to put plans together.

I spoke with one of the guys that is going up with me on the 17th. His friend just got back this last weekend. said they landed a 32″ several 28″ers. They were NW Angle and oak island. I have a text message showing 3 of the bigger fish.

One more helpful tool I use. The NOAA wave forecast for LOW.

https://www.weather.gov/fgf/lake_fcst_low

Hey dusty we are staying at wheelers. Let me know.

We will be up on Friday evening. Also staying at Wheelers.

We are heading up Wednesday the 14th. Can’t wait!

Fished the river yesterday for a few hrs and it was the slowest I have ever had. Talked to a couple other boats and they said there hole weekend was that way

I realize a lot can change quick, but we were up September 13-18th and the vast majority of fish were in the North half of Traverse Bay. Usually there are sizeable schools within 10 miles of the gap and myself and most of the other tournament anglers didn’t find anything worth fishing. Conversely, I have never seen so many fish that time of year on the North end. Draw a line from roughly Buffalo Bay to Knight island, and everybody was fishing North of it. Like I started, fish move so it could be all different now. Good luck.

Fife wrote:

I realize a lot can change quick, but we were up September 13-18th and the vast majority of fish were in the North half of Traverse Bay. Usually there are sizeable schools within 10 miles of the gap and myself and most of the other tournament anglers didn’t find anything worth fishing. Conversely, I have never seen so many fish that time of year on the North end. Draw a line from roughly Buffalo Bay to Knight island, and everybody was fishing North of it. Like I started, fish move so it could be all different now. Good luck.

We were up that weekend too. Didn’t fish the tourney but all our fish were north like you spoke about. Knight island almost up to Oak is where we fished. Good numbers, decent size jigging and pitching cranks on windblown rocks. My guess is that bite is still there with this warmer weather recently.

It was nice to meet you 85Lund! We had a great time out on the big water. We fished out of Arnesens and came home with our two person limit. On the shallower structures 27-20 fow we caught alot of dinks and some sauger/ keeper walters mixed in. When we moved out a little deeper in the 30+ fow we got into some nicer slot fish that were fun to reel in. Kalin’s gold google eye rattling jig with a stinger worked the best for us with frozen shiners. When I switched up to a purple/ white/ orange UV jig I got into some nice fat pike but not as many walters. On Friday the fish were more aggressive and would hit hard and easy catches, on Saturday they were more timid on the bite and you had to let them suck on the minnow a bit before setting the hook. It got pretty windy Friday and made for a fun wet ride! Very happy with our first fall trip to the lake and really impressed with Arnesens resort. We will be back!

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My wife and I fished in front of the gap on Saturday. We caught fish but it wasn’t lights out by any means. We saw plenty of schools of shiners on the finder but the walleyes were really holding tight to the bottom. Even though we caught them, I rarely marked any fish on the graph. It’s rare that I see them that tight to the bottom on Lake of the Woods.

Dustin Tichy wrote:

It was nice to meet you 85Lund! We had a great time out on the big water. We fished out of Arnesens and came home with our two person limit. On the shallower structures 27-20 fow we caught alot of dinks and some sauger/ keeper walters mixed in. When we moved out a little deeper in the 30+ fow we got into some nicer slot fish that were fun to reel in. Kalin’s gold google eye rattling jig with a stinger worked the best for us with frozen shiners. When I switched up to a purple/ white/ orange UV jig I got into some nice fat pike but not as many walters. On Friday the fish were more aggressive and would hit hard and easy catches, on Saturday they were more timid on the bite and you had to let them suck on the minnow a bit before setting the hook. It got pretty windy Friday and made for a fun wet ride! Very happy with our first fall trip to the lake and really impressed with Arnesens resort. We will be back!

It was nice to meet you too Dustin!

We had to sort through lots of shorts to get our fish but it sure was fun! Both days were over 100 fish between 3 guys in the boat. Used live shiners and frozen and both produced the same. Found a more consistent bite down by Morris Point and Four Mile bay than we did up by lighthouse gap. Less boat traffic down south as well. It was a great 2 days on the water.

Leaving early in the morning for LOW, any more info?

Went out of Morris today.WINDY!! but caught fish from 13′-20′ shallower was better for bigger eaters(15″-17″ vs 12″-15″ers).
Jig and shiners.(border bait has great shiners btw..)
Good luck.

Thanks Craig, much appreciated!

Any recent reports for the river? Thinking of heading up Thursday for a couple days. I know its going to be cold! Just wondering if the bigger Wallies are in the river yet.

When I was up this last weekend everyone we talked to that fished the river said they were going to lake next day.
But alot can change quick this time of year..
Good luck

talked to a guy that lives up there today and he said river fishing is still very very slow, said lake is way better

Jon Krawchuk wrote:

Any recent reports for the river? Thinking of heading up Thursday for a couple days. I know its going to be cold! Just wondering if the bigger Wallies are in the river yet.

Best off if possible head to islands or South Bay, Morris Point to the West on South shore. 2 28s, 1 24 and 19 and smaller.

One more day to go, All the locals are rushing in to winterize now.

Still watching, headed up Friday morning. Thanks!

Looks like some snow Thursday which may affect the trip. Maybe next week?? Let us know how it goes Empty, if you don’t mind.

Was a cold and windy weekend! Fishing was SLOW in the river on Friday. Winds were up so we fished from 4 mile up to the Church. Also trailered up to Vidas, picked up a few there. Saturday our plan was to launch out of Zipple, the state park was locked up and a buddy said by the resort was also. There was one boat about to break ice…. Ended up hitting the main lake via river and had better luck, had to sort through shorts but more action. Biggest was a 29″.

Forecast looks good and tempted to make another run.

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Mixed reports and now I’m debating the 4 hour drive. I guess it’s still fishing!