Ice?

Anybody been up by LOTW recently? Wondering about guesstimates for fishing on the far side of Pine Island. Anyone want to give it a shot? Sounds like this weekend’s wind crashed a lot of the ice. Can’t wait to get up there next month. Anybody else got a trip planned? I’m going to try and get up there quite frequently this winter.

Mark

I’ll be spending New Year’s week up with a group of guys. I’m really looking forward to it as I have not been there before in the winter.

Gone to LOTW for almost 30 years in May and June but have never been up in the winter. Would love to try it sometime. Please post up pictures and reports of your trips.

We are looking to go the weekend just prior to X-mas. We will be fishing the LOTW (Pine Island) area for the morning prime time bite and then retreating the Upper Red for the evening crappie bite and back up to the lake for the morning bite again.

I hear Arnesons resort is kicking out alot of fish as of recently. I heard of a couple reports of staggering numbers of walleyes coming from their houses!!

Hmmmm…..

Steve, I’ll be up there on the 20th also. Any chance you want to meet up? We’ll be fishing just over Pine Island. Talked to some locals and resort owners up there today and they said the same thing: unbelievable numbers of fish being caught in that area. Talked to people up at Red, too, and they said the bite’s not very good right now, though. Think I’ll be saving the URL trips for later in the season.

Mark

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DeeZee,
Hey I wouldn’t waste your time on Red right now, the bite is non-exsistent. The bite over the last few days has slowed considerable on LOTW but those fish seem to very streaky. Good luck on whatever you do….I will try to get a report out before you head up this way, just in case things change on Red.

DeeZee,
The bite has been wide open again this week. I have talked to number of people this week and the ice conditions are good. 15 inches of ice and it sounds like thousands of people are driving all sized vehicles out there. From the Zipple bay area to Twin Islands and Wheeler point, everyone is catching. I am heading there tommorrow morning for the day, and will let ya know how things went. From what I’m hearing a 100 fish a day per house is pretty common. Lots of small fish with some medium sized to thrown in the mix and it sounds like a few 10 lb+ fish are still getting caught each day. Well I will update the report MOnday. Still haven’t heard much from Red!!!!

Thanks Sean for the update!
Go get em! Have you heard any approximate depth that has been producing better than others at all, or is it a full range of depths? Let us all know of your findings!!

I just sent you a PM!

I’m looking forward to that report Sean. I’m off work after 3:30 on Friday the 27 untill Jan 6th. Maybe a perch jerkin,slabber crappie and walleye week. Where is everyones favorite place to stay up there. Do you need reservations way in advance? Steve

Guys,
It should be a great trip if the weather doesn’t change. The fish seem to be everywhere. We had activity on the Vexilar all day long, but we either missed most of them or they didn’t like are offering. We had two houses and I would say that are catch was average. We did talk to a few people that caught 100 fish per house…but most people were catching numbers of small fish. We were trying to concentrate on larger fish and not so much numbers…we moved three times and it seemed that the further West the better. On Sunday a guy called me and told me that they moved into 15 feet around 2 and caught a bunch of nice walleyes, so keep that as an option. 26 feet seemed to be the best depth for us. Good Luck its a fun bite even on those tough days…not that 50 fish is tough….but it could have been better from what I’ve been told.

Thanks for the info, Sean. Is it Friday yet? I can’t wait to get up there.

Mark

Was up late last week and caught around 200 ‘eyes & saugers in 2 days between 2 of us. First day we went out of Zippel and seemed to catch the smaller mix of fish. There was around 12″+ of ice, but only ATVs were out there due to some large ice heaves and cracks. Second day we fished over Pine Is. and saw better quality fish and only caught walleyes. All sized vehicles were driving out over Pine since there was 15″ or more ice. The fish we caught over here came mostly in the late afternoon, but we took our limit of walleyes all between 16″ to 22″. Did have 1 fish that I never saw- couldn’t get it up off the bottom with only 6# mono. Maybe a big ‘eye, pike or sturgeon. Good luck and be safe!!

Red Eye,

Did you have trouble finding or catching eater size fish? Or did you just hammer all sizes of walleyes? I like those 15’s, 16’s, and occasionally a 17 incher on a slow day. Sounds like a good time. Did you go out of a resort? Sleeper house? Any recommendations on places to stay? Thanks, TGIF

TGIF,

Finding the eaters was a little tricky the first day when we were out in deeper water. That’s where we found a lot of the numbers, but the fish were all in the 6-13″ category. We got a tip the first night that we needed to fish shallower so we did. The next day we went shallower and caught only walleyes. Seemed like around 2 or after the bite started to pick up and was going very good closer to 4. We were throwing back some 15″ fish so we could target the 16-18″ fish for our limit to take home. The vexilar would just light up and as you were reeling one in another would take its place near the bottom. Gotta love it when they come up off the bottom and hammer it!

As far as places to stay near Pine Is…… there are many different resorts near the mouth of the Rainy River that rent cabins as well as fish houses/sleepers. We use our portables so we can make the move when needed- (usually shallow in the morning, deeper late am-early pm (sauger time), then back in for the good pm bite, bite seemed to shut down after dark for us.) Wigwam is a nice place to stay and have decent food/bar, otherwise we’ve stayed at a couple motels in Baudette.

Hope this helps. Lots ‘o luck!!

TGIF We go up a couple times a year and stay with Steve Sweet he has sleeper houses and has always been good to us . He will help you with anything you need give him a call if you like 888-226-8638 (pin 3091) .
Good Luck and let us know how it went.

Take a kid with you Sifty

Thanks for the info Red Eye and Sifty!!!!!