Trip Advice: Leech Lake or Red Lake

Looking for some trip advice.

My dad and I are coming up to Minnesota for an ice camping trip between Jan 31-Feb 4. We have stayed in an ice castle on Mille Lacs the last few years and want to change it up. We have it narrowed down to Leech Lake or Red Lake. We fished Leech in the summer quite a few years ago with some success, but I am curious which lake people would recommend for an ice camping trip. Leech was intriguing for the potential perch bite as well, but I would love to hear some opinions. We are looking at going through a resort, so we can use their ice road access. Thanks for any help!

IMO success on Leech requires being mobile, not real conducive to a sleeper house/ice camping. Red typically falls off later into the season, not saying you can’t do well but it’s a lot more hit and miss, emphasis on miss. I’d look at Winnie or the extra hour drive to LOW.

I wouldn’t touch red this time of the year

BigWerm wrote:

IMO success on Leech requires being mobile, not real conducive to a sleeper house/ice camping. Red typically falls off later into the season, not saying you can’t do well but it’s a lot more hit and miss, emphasis on miss. I’d look at Winnie or the extra hour drive to LOW.

I haven’t looked into Winnie at all, but we did consider LOW. Since we are camping, the lack of a “night bite” at LOW somewhat pushed us towards the others.

Agree if you are camping and want night action I’d probably skip LOW. However Leech is also a tough nut to crack, especially in winter. Agree Winnie would be worth looking into. Personally I think you’d do far better on Red than Leech, even though it does slow down.

I would also lean towards Winnie. You will probably have more road options than on Leech. In leech was intriguing because of the potential of a perch bite, Winnie should be even better. I’ve only ever fished Red earlier in the season. End of Jan. early Feb. is not what I would consider early. Usually by Feb. the bite on Red is starting to slow down. Your post or profile does not say where you will be coming from. Bigstone lake would be another option I’d take a look at.

The night bite on lotw is great. I don’t understand the ” no nite bite on lotw”. Don’t sit in 27 ft of water where all the little sauger been all day. Move. Lots of big fish caught after dark.

fishthumper wrote:

I would also lean towards Winnie. You will probably have more road options than on Leech. In leech was intriguing because of the potential of a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch bite, Winnie should be even better. I’ve only ever fished Red earlier in the season. End of Jan. early Feb. is not what I would consider early. Usually by Feb. the bite on Red is starting to slow down. Your post or profile does not say where you will be coming from. Bigstone lake would be another option I’d take a look at.

We will be coming up from Omaha, so Big Stone would be a much closer option.

Bearcat89 wrote:

The night bite on lotw is great. I don’t understand the ” no nite bite on lotw”. Don’t sit in 27 ft of water where all the little sauger been all day. Move. Lots of big fish caught after dark.

I have never fished it, that is just something I have seen on a lot of forums and posts when I have been researching. Thank you for the input!

Bryce Maher wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
The night bite on lotw is great. I don’t understand the ” no nite bite on lotw”. Don’t sit in 27 ft of water where all the little sauger been all day. Move. Lots of big fish caught after dark.

I have never fished it, that is just something I have seen on a lot of forums and posts when I have been researching. Thank you for the input!

I’m not a wheelhouse guy but have done some day house trips on LOTW and ran portables a couple of others. If I had my own wheelhouse and was in it for a few days, I’d try to set up on some type of first break or transition in 15-18’ of water. During the day I’d run a giant hub shack and stake it out over the deeper water that the resorts and 95% of people on LOTW fish. Once the sun goes down, use the wheelhouse and hopefully nab a few nicer fish in the dark.

I set up in 12 ft after dark and that’s where we would set up the house for after dark. In the day time I use a sled or wheeler to travel deeper water away from people. But the house sits in the shallows. We do very well

Bearcat89 wrote:

I set up in 12 ft after dark and that’s where we would set up the house for after dark. In the day time I use a sled or wheeler to travel deeper water away from people. But the house sits in the shallows. We do very well

I did similar to this last year around my birthday Feb 15th. Was going to run out deeper with portable, but weather was nasty. So I threw out a couple tip ups during the day and messed around with the pike. Then rattle reels down overnight. Caught 4-5 pike each day and a couple nice ones. Had 2-3 bites each night. All walleyes were over the slot but it was fun catching them and I just know it was a matter of time before we would have gotten into the dirty thirty club, just ran out of time. Also about 12 FOW. I plan on doing the same this year.

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All good and the night bite on lake of the woods has been discussed often over the past couple years.

I do not think the guy starting the original request has his own wheelhouse. So unless you can recommend a LOW resort still offering the “two house gig and they move you plan” … that option is not available to him.

LOW: Can be lots of fish, but often sorting becomes a must ..
Red: Known to slow down in Jan-Feb, but some get lucky. Probably get your 3 fish limit in 2 days-nights fishing … then maybe not.
ML: More people go there because it is close and roads are plowed. Moving depths is probably the right thing to do if staying overnight. Last time we were on ML (rented a sleeper), the rattle wheels went all night long … we pulled up a lot of beautiful 19″ fish time and time again … only to let them go looking for that magical 22″. To be honest it seems like many people renting houses do not catch much except small perch. To the original poster … did you catch fish on your previous trips ?

Bearcat89 wrote:

The night bite on lotw is great. I don’t understand the ” no nite bite on lotw”. Don’t sit in 27 ft of water where all the little sauger been all day. Move. Lots of big fish caught after dark.

At around what depth?

Brittman wrote:

All good and the night bite on lake of the woods has been discussed often over the past couple years.

I do not think the guy starting the original request has his own wheelhouse. So unless you can recommend a LOW resort still offering the “two house gig and they move you plan” … that option is not available to him.

LOW: Can be lots of fish, but often sorting becomes a must ..
Red: Known to slow down in Jan-Feb, but some get lucky. Probably get your 3 fish limit in 2 days-nights fishing … then maybe not.
ML: More people go there because it is close and roads are plowed. Moving depths is probably the right thing to do if staying overnight. Last time we were on ML (rented a sleeper), the rattle wheels went all night long … we pulled up a lot of beautiful 19″ fish time and time again … only to let them go looking for that magical 22″. To be honest it seems like many people renting houses do not catch much except small perch. To the original poster … did you catch fish on your previous trips ?

We caught some fish, but action was pretty slow overall. Had some luck overnight on rattle reels and some luck jigging spoons a couple years back. Small perch were caught quite a bit last year. We liked the wheelhouse aspect so that we could just drive out to where the house was in our truck. We have portable shelters, but don’t have any 4 wheelers or snowmobiles so we stayed closed to where we could walk our houses from the wheelhouse.

We decided this year instead of renting a wheelhouse to split an Eskimo 850 outbreak to use for camping. So now it’s just finalizing where we want to go.

I’m sure you will have fun no matter where you go. But I would not expect to hammer the walleye at that time of year and especially if it’s your first time on the lake. I have ice fished all over this state for years and the best walleye bites have been on Red. I know a guy who has a lake place on Leech and he only fishes Red in winter. You will probably not get any perch on Leech other than tiny dinks. If you want perch you’d be better off in March.

Of course you will get differing opinions but if you have it narrowed down to Red or Leech, it would be Red for me all day long.