I posted this on the Lake of the Woods forum but its not getting any hits. Just wondering if anyone has been up there recently and how the bite was? I’m going up there tomorrow and it will be my first time staying at Sportman’s, normally we stay at the Wigwam but wanted to see how Sportmans does it.
I have a trip booked for 11th thru 13th for a sleeper at Sportsman’s. I have not heard many reports either. Please let me know how you do! Good luck!
Just returned form Arnesens a couple days ago. 5 guys, 133 fish. Fishing was poor to say the least with day three being the best. Arnesens was top notch all the way around like usual, but I honestly don’t believe that they are on fish. The ice is kinda sketchy and they aren’t even fishing some of their usual spots. Most houses are set up around Gull Rock, with a few out by Pedros reef and South and North Arnesens Reef. Lots of unhappy fisherman around the south shore this year….Best producer was a plain red hook under bobber. I had some luck on day 3 with a red Lindy Flyer. Biggest fish was a 17 inch walleye. I did catch a 13 inch crappie!
Best producer was a plain red hook under bobber. I had some luck on day 3 with a red Lindy Flyer. Biggest fish was a 17 inch walleye. I did catch a 13 inch crappie!
Last year I caught most of my fish with a plain red hook as well. Hopefully the bite has pick up this week but people have to remember it is fishing…
It’s been slow for almost everyone with only an occasional good report. It depends if you’re in the right place at the right time like it always does, but overall, there are no really good reports that I’ve heard with mainly saugers and small walleyes being caught if anything. A friend of mine was up on Monday and never even had a bite fishing around DNR Reef on the west side of the lake.
In my experience this winter, I’ve marked a lot of fish but it’s tough to get them to bite. I’ve had trouble getting them to hit something that I’m jigging. The best routine that’s worked for me is to call them in with something that rattles and then they may hit a dead rod or a bobber rod once in a while.
I was fishing on Saturday and for something different I took the hooks off of a Rippin Rap so that I could use it for a rattling decoy, hoping to draw the fish in with hopes they’d hit one of my two bobber rods. It worked up to a point, but fishing was really slow for me.
I was up there Feb 10th-12th and the fishing was very poor. Stayed on the ice with Sportmans Sleepers so we couldn’t really move. All the other houses were also very slow.
We only caught 1 walleye and the rest were 12″-17″ Sauger.
Hopefully this warm weather will change things for you. Bring lots of beer!
We stayed at Bayview and went out of on LOW by Adrians. We were out about 10 to 12 miles past Pine Island. WE had 4 people and fished out of 2 houses. We fished Monday the 15th from 1 to 5. Our house caught 14 fish with 2
Walleyes about 17 inches being the biggest, and the rest Saugers. The other house caught 9. The next day our house caught 39 and the other house caught 11. We only fished from 8AM to 1, because we had our limits. Most of our fish were caught jigging those 2 days. Our houses were close to a pressure ridge and they could not go out any farther. The next day they moved us in 3 miles closer to Pine Island. The ice thickness went from 24 inches to 15 inches. Our house caught 9 and their house caught 38. We fished from 8AM to 2, Most of the fish were caught on dead sticks with minnows on our last day.
Just returned form Arnesens a couple days ago. 5 guys, 133 fish. Fishing was poor to say the least with day three being the best. Arnesens was top notch all the way around like usual, but I honestly don’t believe that they are on fish. The ice is kinda sketchy and they aren’t even fishing some of their usual spots. Most houses are set up around Gull Rock, with a few out by Pedros reef and South and North Arnesens Reef. Lots of unhappy fisherman around the south shore this year….Best producer was a plain red hook under bobber. I had some luck on day 3 with a red Lindy Flyer. Biggest fish was a 17 inch walleye. I did catch a 13 inch crappie!
If it’s any consolation, I was up at Arnesen’s a few weeks ago and fishing was brutal for us. We had sleds and portables and we tried a lot of different places. Arnesen’s didn’t have many houses out at 12 mile so we fished there and caught nothing but tullibee. Next day we hit up 16 mile which had like two permanent houses on it, that’s it! No resort traffic, hardly any portable traffic, no road to it and we caught NOTHING. Normally if you can get out to those reefs before there’s a resort or a road out there you can really put some good numbers on the ice. Tried just about every side of the reef and even tried south little 12 mile.
The people fishing out of resort houses two miles from shore caught more than we did. Definitely a weird year with the ice, but I think the winter fishing has been going down hill for awhile up there. Does it have something to do with the thousands of fishermen fishing through the resorts on relatively small areas(reefs for instance)?
How’d you end up doing this weekend? I just got back with two other guys and fishing was poor to say the least. We were out within a mile of Pine Island for Friday evening, then moved 5.5 miles passed Pine Island in sunken timber territory. The resorts are moving houses in closer to Pine Island, with fishing reports from as far as 15 miles out being very poor. 3 walleye and 2 Sauger were all caught on a pink UV Stop Sign.
sunken timber territory.
Guess I have never heard of this area???
A buddy of mine and I went out of Zippel Bay resort and hammered them! Nonstop action from sun up to sun down. We ate very well! 30′ of water pink and gold with full minnows. The smaller the jig the better.
Well our fishing was about as good as the reports were. Our group of 3 caught 24 fish the whole weekend. We would mark fish but it was just tough to get them to bite and when they would bite it would be very light bite. Sportsman’s didn’t bring us out far because of the Ice conditions. It was about 50/50 from fish on deadstick to jigging. So nothing really was working great. Biggest fish all weekend was a 17 inch walleye caught on a jiggn rap.
I will say though Sportmans was a great stay and they are very organized. We were extremely impressed on how clean everything was. You can tell they take care of their customers and equipment. Even though we didnt catch much we still had a blast and will be going back to Sportmans for sure. The only complaint about Sportsman’s was the food wasn’t the greatest.
I was thinking of heading up there this weekend with my car. Hows the road? I have never gone through zippel bay usually by the river.
The road was good and shouldn’t have a problem with your car.
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