Just got back from a whirlwind run to LOTW. We stayed one night at Wigwam–and a HUGE thanks to Jean-Paul, Tom, and Colleen at Wigwam. They were great hosts and provded great fishing information…right down to locking in possible hotspots on our GPS!
And thanks to several IDOers who gave us invaluable tips. Bigfife was right on with much of his tips on techniques–we just didn’t get to try much of it.
Okay, how’d we do? We went there in my Warrior 1890 with a 90 Merc–tiller. What an experience to run it 26 miles across the lake in big waves. Not one boat was seen on the way over or on the way back. We did spot one off in the distance as we fished. What ifs kept running through my brain, but I figured if we landed eventually in Canada, we’d be taken care of.
Drifted with chartruse and gold spinners armed with crawlers on the west side of Garden from 21 to 10 feet. Whenever we hit the 18 to 16 line, it was game on. Deeper–nothing. Shallower…a 40 inch sturgeon in 10 feet on 6 lb test. Thought it uttered a secret catch and release password…BK…BK…BK. Anyway, we ran 2 drift socks, took water OVER THE FRONT OF THE BOAT regularly as we went up for passes, easily 5 foot waves, water was regularly floatling our gear in the bottom of the boat, and the rain hammered us. Oh, lightning storms were cool too. The boys made me stand up in the boat (at 6’5″)–lightning rod maybe?
Being a jig guy, I had some glitter jigs from Evert’s Resort in near where I live in Red Wing. That golld gliiter was huge! When the sun came out, I put one on with a piece of crawler, and the spinner boys eventually tied one on
Brought lead core and cranks. The boys would have none of it. Sigh…can’t wait to get back to Pepin.
We came away from Garden with nearly our limits–many smaller and some bigger. About 40 fish overall. Average eye was about 16 to 17 inches.
Why’d we go all the way to Garden? Because we could. Sort of. I need a bigger boat. My left arm looks like Popeye’s. And a bigger gas tank. Burned 28 gallons over there and back–one trip!
Saturday–I’ll be brief. No good for us. Tried out in front of Zipple Bay on the deeper water and managed a handful. Jigging big lead and frozen shiners.
Back on the road and home for dinner by 6 PM tonight.
Good luck to James and his group next week.
