As the shallow water bite that James and I fished earlier in the season continues to taper off with the thicker ice and snow killing off the weeds it’s now time to head out to some deeper water. However with some of the most extreme weather conditions that we’ve seen in years, rainstorms, extreme cold, wind, and more wind all mixed together, having limited our options to go looking for fish in deeper water I decided that maybe the idea of staying dry and warm in a permanent shack out-weighed the lack of mobility.
While I know my Insulated Otter Pro Lodge could have easily handled even these extreme conditions and I did feel a little like I was “wimping out” I quickly remembered how much fun it can be catching walleyes in my slippers these past two weekends. We were set up in 31 FOW just on the outside edge of a sand to mud transition and we managed to introduce ourselves to over 40 hungry walleyes by just sitting still.
The reason I mention all of this is that while most of my reports here on IDO require lots of gear (portable ice house, warm clothes, boots, flasher, rods, etc) if someone wanted to duplicate the past 2 weekends that I spent fishing out of our permanent house by renting a shack on Mille Lacs it could require nothing more than a bucket of bait and a pair of slippers to wear in the shack. You hardly would have needed electronics or fishing rods as 90% of our fish were caught on rattle reels.
As someone who loves the challenge of overcoming Mother Nature and outworking everyone else to find the best bites it sure was nice to take it easy for a couple weekends and enjoy hot fishing in a dry, warm shack. If anyone out there is thinking about renting a house on Mille Lacs or even Red Lake or LOTW I’ve got just one question – What’s stopping you? Give the good folks up at Red Door or one of the other resorts on Mille Lacs a call, grab your slippers, and don’t forget the camera!
That big fish is a beauty, (pic #1), Will!
What did the big girl measure and thanks for
fueling the fire to get back up there!
Congrats on the great bite Will, and thanks for keeping us in-tune with the bite!
Joel
Good to know your still rippin into the fish! Keep the reports coming! With all this cold weather- its nice to see fish still cooperating!
Jig em in the face!
It was just a hair under 27″ Dan but as big of a chunk as she was I would have sworn 29″ before I put her on the tape.
while out there you don’t have to worry about those red eyed roughies, maybe a few pout though!
Nice looking fish there, Will !
-J.
I totally forgot to mention that I did catch my first pout in 2 years out there on Saturday morning. Just a little guy, but it was cool to see they’re still around.
Making a trip up there in mid February hope the bites hot
Hey Will, We fished this past weekend out of Garrison out a little deeper based on your recommendations. My friends 11 year old son David, pulled his first walleye ( a fat 20″ ) through the ice! All of your advice was spot on! The walleyes came through all night long. The dads pulled a few beauties too! Thank you! We now have another “fisherman for life” in the ranks!
