In the past 7 years after the crappie boom I have just stayed on the highway and headed for Lake of the Woods to get my walleyes. This year the new slot limit finally intrigued me to give things a shot again. I dug out some old crappie contacts and started making plans. It was decided that the four of us were able to get Friday the 15th off so we decided we would leave in the AM with hopes of getting on the ice for an evening fish.
Friday morning rolled around and we loaded equipment and we were off. We stopped in Mora for a few groceries and had nothing but pavement ahead of us. Well almost… we had to stop at L & M in Grand Rapids to pick up parts for a heater and browse a bit. OK back on the road! Nope just prior to Squaw Lake we start loosing air in the trailer tire, UG! We rolled into my old friends place Art Mertz and we rework a valve stem and we are back on the road!
We arrive at the famous NINETOE resort and spa! For you old IBOT people we spent some time looking at the old shovel for some memories. We splashed down a beverage while we got our gear ready and we were off. We rolled thru West Winds and paid the access fee $10 and gained a couple location tips. We rolled out to the south set up in 7ft of water for an evening bite and it was game on! Our goal was to get 4 nice fish to eat for supper and figure out what they wanted to see. By dark 30 we had easily kept our 4 and released another 10-12 fish. All the fish were easily in the13-19 inch range and looking very healthy. It was a mix of lures that they would hit on including but not limited to Demons on the dead sticks, Slender spoons, macho minnows, PK flutter fish. We also had a few break-offs and plenty of good times.
We went back cleaned up ourselves and the fish and headed over to West Winds. We handed over our fillets and in a few they were back out on the plate! BAM! This is a very easy way to get something in the belly after a long day on the ice. I believe it was $8.95 which included a salad, potato and fish.
Saturday morning we headed back out to the same spot but there was just too much vehicle traffic so our results were slim pickings. We had a few things to fix at the cabin so we headed back for an early lunch. While we were fixing Tyler Brasel from Bear Paw dropped Joel a txt that asked if we wanted to head for deep water and try a spot with him. We couldn’t load our equipment fast enough. We head X miles out on the lake and 45 minutes later we are set-up and fishing. This time we are looking to get our fish to take home. 2 hours later we had our twenty in the bucket and released 3 times that many. At this spot the slender spoon and chubby darter was the boom lure. I wish I could talk more about this area but out of respect for Tyler I will not. Yes, it was that good!
This turned out to be a truly amazing trip and would like to make sure everyone gets up to Red Lake and gives a shot. Please Please Please get your kids up there with you! I already have another trip in the works!
This one is for the old IBOTS
