Lake of the Woods Fishing Report

The main lake is frozen over and making ice. Resorts and guides are out checking ice daily. As of now the ice varies quite a bit. If the forecast remains the same, some resorts hoping fish houses will be on the lake later this week. With sub zero temps in the forecast, ice will grow quickly. Anywhere from 2-6″ as of Sunday. Resorts and outfitters will be testing ice conditions, making trails, monitoring ice, etc. Work through resorts and their ice roads as they are tested, flooded and plowed. Know where you are going. As always, safety first.
The Rainy River has iced up. Like every year, work through resorts when ice fishing river as current and ice thickness will vary. We don’t encourage travel on the river unless through a resort or outfitter.

Up at the Northwest Angle resorts are checking ice daily. Reports of 2-6 inches as of Sunday. Getting close, resorts and outfitters will be marking trails when it is the right time. A few more days of sub zero temps will help. Work through resorts who are constantly routing trails on the best ice, around cracks, etc. When the time comes, stay on resort trails, do not deviate. We are excited, but safety first! Resorts and ice fishing reservations at http://www.LakeoftheWoodsMN.com/Lodging. Check out the Lake of the Woods Tourism Facebook page for day to day reports.

I’m up hear as we speak we caught a lot of fish but a lot of small fish kept 10 14 to 17 and no fish bigger than 17 the water is a bit more dingy right now. We fished 22 feet of water and we are going to be looking for bigger fish tomorrow.

Allan Davis wrote:

I’m up hear as we speak we caught a lot of fish but a lot of small fish kept 10 14 to 17 and no fish bigger than 17 the water is a bit more dingy right now. We fished 22 feet of water and we are going to be looking for bigger fish tomorrow.

Thanks for the report! Good luck finding some big ones.

We are heading up on Monday. Let us know how it goes today.

Thursday, 21′ was smoking. Lots of 16-18″ walleye, one pushing 19″, TONS of 10″ saugs and walleye. Couldn’t work 2 rods from 11-1:30, marked nothing from 9:30-10:55. Later aternoon was sporadic, but got fish regularly until I packed up at 3:45. Lots of chasers.

Fri ON border, 8:30-2:15 in 19.5′ about 12 small fish. 2:45-5 in 15′ about a dozen 14-16″, 1 fat 17″ saug and a kicker 22″.

Today – 7-now 13′, 6 smaller walleye so far, one decent saug. Sniffer row going on.

Packing things up to go back near day1 spot. A guy said he did well abouts there yesterday 11-2.

Glow red jigging shad has been dynamite. Red flyer solid alternate.

Well yesterday was the better bite. We tried 24fow today and there were more walleyes out there than 22fow but far less numbers. than we went shallow and there you will find very few fish but bigger walleyes. By shallow I’m talking 15fow. One issue is the ice is really broke up and is tough to set up in the crap. If I was going out for a third day I would be setting up in 17 to 21 feet. This is out of Moris point. If you are coming out next week I think you will start seeing the numbers in 24 feet we were just a little to early. 8t was tough to move this weekend due to the cold weather and wheeler trouble. I still think the bigger fish will be in less than 18 feet of water and the numbers will be more 18 to 24.

My thought is that the bigger fish are in the river right now and will be funneling out within the next few days. We heard of no slot fish being caught but we had three in the slot biggest 22 and we lost 3 nice fish in the whole due to a very light bite that is all we caught and only saw one other mark in shallow and that’s it. We had 9 to 10 inches of ice and I bet they will be driving trucks by nest weekend to middle of next week. Good luck and tight lines.

Guys, thanks for the reports. It is nice to hear how the people actually fishing are doing.

I hope everything works in the cold this morning.

I will post a report about how we do.

The ice is jagged and broke up, especially where Adrian’s road passes the island, it’s bad to 20′. If you cross closer to the gap, it’s smoother over that way, far easier to push in shallow. I fished off Graceton last week, there’s only 40-60yds of moonscape piled chuncks, followed by glass as far as you could see.

arcticm1000 wrote:

I hope everything works in the cold this morning.

Ouch, -25 that’s frigid. Good luck fishing! Please report back, can’t wait to hear what doesn’t break..

I’m internet fishing this morning…too darn cold!

Similar reports on the south shore. Slow bite, murky water, 19-22 feet.

I took Tuesday off work and will head out either for a morning or afternoon.

We didn’t get up here and set up until a little after 3. We set up in 17 feet of water hoping for a good last hour. We had 3 very light bites and zero fish. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Was out on the cdn side near the sables from 930-2 . 24-26′ One sauger, marked two others,slowww. Ice is very rough, need some snow to get around lots of open cracks up to a foot wide. Still was nice to get out.

Today way better. Ended up with about 50. Kept our limit. No big ones. 22′ was best. Uv green VMC rattle spoon was the hot bait.

We went to Ballard’s and had them cook some for supper for us. Good stuff.

Several trucks out on the south Shore Sunday. About 12″ of ice.

Good bite but short bite right before dark in 12′