A couple of my good friends and I headed up to some of the only remaining “Open Walleye Water” in Northern Minnesota, no doubt it was Lake of the Woods.
Derik, Nathan and I arrived at the big ice cube around 5:30 on Friday afternoon. We were fishing over Pine Island in 25ft of water. Nathan and Derik were catching fish and some of them were keepers. I had a few hits and then I saw a big mark on the Vexilar. I jigged a bit and raised my bait up about three feet when the mark came up and “SMACK”! I set the hook only to have the line start peeling off the reel!! 
No doubt I had on something bigger than a 16″! After a few minute battle I told Nathan to get ready and grab the big girl and she popped her head out of the water just that fast!! We measured her at 27-1/2″, took a quick photo(see picture)and sent her back down the hole to add another few inches. We ended up catching five keepers Friday night and we headed back to the hotel for the evening.
Saturday morning we went back to our same spot and had a nice 17″ keeper right away from Derik and another 16″ from Nathan. I had another big mark on the Vexilar and again I jigged my lure and again……”SMACK”!! The fight was on again and I brought up a really healthy 26-1/2″ beauty. I let her go and put my bait back down the hole for about five minutes when, you guessed it, “SMACK”!! After another couple minute battle I pulled up another beauty 26″!! 
Needless to say I was excited and thought, Could I possibly get another piggy??? Well, we caught a couple more fish too small and Derik caught a really nice 23-1/2″ and we went in for breakfast at 10:30.
After we ate we went deeper for some sauger with little results. We had a lot of sniffers but no real aggressive fish.
We went back in to our original spot and set up for the evening bite at around 4:30. Nathan set the hook at around 5:00 and the hook set back!! He battled with what was definately a healthy eye but just before she got turned up the hole she got loose and Nathan’s chance for a photo OPP ended before he knew it 
!! We caught a few more keepers and at about 6:00 I had another big mark on the Vex and again I worked my magic, and again…..”SMACK”!! I knew this girl was a piggy because she did what she wanted for about 5 minutes before I got her to come up. Well, when she got up she managed to wrap herself around the Vex transducer that was just sticking out the bottom of the center hole. 
Nathan got it untangled but the big girl got off and swam away!! 
We both figured her at around 27″-29″! We each finished off our limits and we were on the road home at about 7:00.
The best bait seemed to be the Northland rattle spoon in gold, blue and the green colors. All of the fish we kept were between 15″ & 17-1/2″, enough to feed everyone and make the trip fun.
Looks like the open water of Big Stone will be the next fishing trip for me.
Good Luck Everyone!!! 
March 21, 2007 at 1:15 am
#1285398
right through the canvas on the house in the picture of Derek holding the 23 1/2. I know if I had gotten mine through the hole it would have been bigger then yours. 
and get an Alumacraft Adam!! Just think, with an Alumacraft you could actually go to Big Stone this coming opener!! 
