Myself and 5 Friends headed up to LOTW Friday – Sun. in search of Big Pike. We managed to catch decent #’s of pike but were not successful in our Quest for a Big one ( Over 40″ ) We had the best luck on dead Bait ( Cisco and Smelt ) Warning make sure any cisco or smelt you use have a sticker saying they were taken from VHS free waters. Not just a receipt for a bait store. If anyone is headed up and want large sucker Minnows or large shiners you better find some close to home. Every bait store from Blackduck on up are out and almost all said they will not get any more this ice season. We fished in water from as little as 3ft to around 10 Ft. I’d say our best luck came in the 5-6 ft range. Ice depth ranged from less than 12″ all the way to near 38″ most spots were right to the powerhead on a standard auger. We needed one with a extension in only 1 spot. We fished several Area’s. West of springsteel – all the way to the Canadian border. Out in front of the Warroad River. the swift ditch area. Caught fish in all 3 area’s The warden who check us late Sat. afternoon said he had only saw 1 fish over 40′ in all the people he checked. Overall I think the bite was just off. I’m sure there are better days to come. There were still people driving 1 ton trucks pulling wheeled houses in all areas we fished. The one spot we had the least ice ( Around 12″ ) there was a truck with a wheeled house only a few hundred yards away. The lake did lose ice on Sat. with the warner temps and high winds. It rained hard all night on Sat. and the winds were crazy bad on Sun when we headed home so I’m sure they lost some ice from that. Good luck to anyone headed up there yet this ice season. Hope you have better luck than we had on the big fish.
March 30, 2015 at 1:49 pm
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