Joel and I are up fishing on Lake of the Woods and I thought it a good idea to throw out an update on conditions and the bite.
Ice conditions are behind normal for this time of the season but people are getting out on ATVs. There’s 8″ – 10″ of ice near shore and the resorts are doing a good job getting people out to fish in depths out to 25′. There are still large areas of open water in the basin so cross country travel, particular north to the islands, is strongly discouraged.
The word at the resorts is that fishing is good for numbers and most everyone is catching fish. 17′ – 21′ seems to be a common depth being fished and the catch is a mix of walleyes, saugers and the occasional big perch.
Joel and I opted to get away from the houses and road traffic and stick to shallow water to see if we couldn’t get on a better class of fish. It paid off. Our first three fish went 23.5″, 27″ and Joel had a giant come unpinned right at the hole after the fight was all but over and all the was left was to get the head of the fish up the hole. AAArrrrrRRRRGggGGGGG! 
How that fish slipped the hooks will haunt us both for awhile as it was the largest walleye I’ve seen below the ice in several years.
After our run on bigger fish we moved out a couple feet deeper and we quickly iced a half dozen nice eaters for dinner at Adrians. We catch ’em, they cook ’em which is a great way to wind down from a long, wet day out on the lake.
The hot bait for us was the 1/4 Oz. BFishN Tackle blade bait. Joel did big fish damage fishing gold and I had better numbers on pink white.
As for the pic attached, Joel looks shocked that this fish stayed hooked up. I know if we had lost this second big fish we would have had to head to shore for the rest of the day.
We’re back at it tomorrow. To everyone else headed out on ice this weekend, be safe out there. Ice conditions have been changing rapidly everywhere we’ve been. 
Good luck and isn’t it fun, with early ice and seeing a GIANT through it… 
