We pulled the trigger and made the trip up for early ice walleyes. It was between Red and LOTW and we chose the big lake. We were really hoping to be able to drive out but neither Red or LOTW was making ice despite multiple -30 degree nights.
We dragged one snowmobile up and planned to make due with what we had. We pulled out 2 brand new portables. The Jason Mitchell X2 and my new Otter Lodge 1200. Both were major upgrades for us and found out that the insulation was very necessary for this trip considering that the -5 temp we saw on Friday afternoon was the warmest we saw.
We fished the following depths: 18, 22, 24 and 25. We found 24′ to be the best and found almost 1/2 of the fish at this depth were walleyes. We picked up 6 slot fish but nothing over 26″. We figured we caught between 130-140 fish.
We had a great stay at the Walleye Inn on Friday night and we managed to get a cabin after a cancellation at River Bend Resort. If you’ve never been to River Bend, I highly recommend it. Paul and Brandi Johnson run a great operation.
Overall it was a great trip and a great way to break in the new portables.
