I made the trip up to Lake of the Woods again last Thursday and Friday and it was phenomenal…AGAIN! This trip was different than my last 2 trips this summer. First my Dad was finally along and second, the wind was forcing us to fish a part of the lake we had never fished before. We trailered the boat from my Uncle’s cabin at Arnesen’s over to Morris Point resort. I had never fished the South part of the lake, but the staff at the resort showed us a few places to try and off we went. We started marking fish as soon as we got West of the resort, so we sent the leadcore down with a rainbow of crankbait colors. After a half hour with no bites in 29 fow we turned the boat in towards some shallower water. Immediately after hitting the 27 foot mark, we boated 2 saugers. We made two more runs through the area and had our pattern established. 25-27 fow, 4 colors of leadcore, and a #7 Black Sunset Gold Flicker Shad.
On pass number 4, my rod doubled over and I yelled “snag.” After getting the rod out of the holder, it became apparent that whatever I had was coming with us but wasn’t happy about it. I attempted to reel, but the fish wouldn’t let me gain an inch. My mind started racing. Should I take the boat out of gear? Loosen the drag? Tighten the drag? Is this a Northern? Sturgeon? Everything we were doing had worked flawlessly already that day, so I decided not to change a thing. I opted to just wait the fish out and eventually she started to give in. Slowly cranking and watching the line counter, 60, 50, 40, 30, and straight down she went. By this time my Dad had taken over driving the boat, my Uncle was hanging over the gunnel with the net, and I had moved to the front of the boat to fight the fish. She showed herself twice, made a couple more runs, and finally she was in the net. MY BIGGEST WALLEYE EVER!!! Just over 30 inches. 
We snapped a few pictures and then got her back in the water.
We finished out the afternoon, with a bunch more little fish and a box full of keepers for dinner. Its always tough to talk about the one that got away, but my Uncle had another big fish on that shook the hooks half way to the boat. This is a good place to talk about a little change I made this year that I believe has really helped my hooking and boating percentage. All of the crankbaits I use regularly are rigged with Mustad Triple Grip hooks. My crankbaits had one fish come unhooked over 2 days compared to the 7 or 8 that were lost on my Uncle’s baits. There is no way to be certain that was the reason, but its good enough for me. 
Friday was more of the same with lots of little ones, plenty of eaters, and 2 more big fish hook ups. My Dad battled another 30 inch fish all the way to the boat only to have her show herself a couple more times, and make one final run that broke the line. That still is driving me nuts. 
I just don’t get how that happens. Crankbait colors weren’t as easy to pinpoint with the weather changing from cloudy, to rain, back to cloudy, and finally the sun appearing. If I’m running my baits through pods of fish on the electronics and not getting bit, I know something has to be wrong. Immediately I try a speed change, but secondly its back into the crankbait box. I soaked a lot of baits that day before pinpointing blue to be the color while it was cloudy and gold when the sun peeked through.
For anyone on the fence about making a trip to Lake of the Woods, GET UP THERE! I’m starting to learn the lake and feel comfortable in catching fish, but this weekend I was forced to try a new area and it paid off in a big way. I probably won’t get up there again until its time to drive the snowmobiles out, but I’ll be counting the days until next time. 
