Lake of the Woods Late July Trolling Report

Trolling crankbaits in the open basin is one of the best ways to cover a lot of water in a short amount of time allowing you to find active feeding walleyes. I finally made it up to Lake of the Woods and “the walleye capital of the world” did not disappoint. Eight anglers divided up amongst two boats caught over 250 walleyes while fishing 3 days and 20 of those walleyes were between 27-30 inches.

Joining me on this trip was my wife Tina, Troy Rahn, Brandon Smoley, Dean Ally, Craig Daugherty, Joe Cavanaugh and Bob Rahn. The goal was to go after big walleyes and hopefully find enough keeper fish under the slot limit to take some home.

Lake of the Woods can be somewhat intimidating being that it’s over 1 million acres in size. Thanks to a tip from fellow IDO member Corey Cook we had some success the weekend before our trip, we were able to concentrate on some of his targeted areas. Thurs night we hit the water at 4:30 pm and we were into fish right away. My boat ended up pulling 30 walleyes including a few saugers. Most of those fish were caught on the new Rapala Scatter Rap Minnow and we caught a few more on Reef Runner – Deep Little Rippers. Many fish ended up in the livewell and the biggest walleye that we caught that evening was 27 inches.

We were pulling the Scatter Rap Minnows with Sufix 832 leadcore (3.5 colors) with a 50 foot Floruocarboan Leader. The side to side swimming action this lure gives off is not like any other lure that I’ve seen and the walleyes could not resist it. The Reef Runner Deep Little Rippers were also pulled on Sufix 832 Lead Core (2.5 colors) in bright colors took the rest of our fish.

Fri we woke up and the wind was blowing pretty hard from the north at 10-15mph. We made our way out in 3 footers and were able to catch a few more fish. An afternoon front came through and then the wind really picked up. It didn’t take long and soon we were fishing in 6 footers! It’s a good thing we were in my Skeeter WX2100! Long story short – it was to a point where it was unfishable when the waves started to plunge our planer boards down a foot into the water. We called it quits and for the most part – Fri was a bust.

Saturday the wind finally calmed down and we made our way out towards Garden Island where Troy had some success in his boat the day before. We caught some more fish up there but I was still not happy with the size. I decided that we needed to put on a few miles in search of some bigger fish. After some time spent on scouting, we found some better-sized fish Sat evening. Storm Deep Thundersticks trolled on Leadcore was the best big fish presentation. Pearl Ghost White and Orange UV were the best colors.

Since Fri was a bust, we decided to fish a little on Sun morning and that was a good move! We really got into some big fish and got the pattern dialed in even more. While fishing only 3 hours, my boat pulled over 30 walleyes and 8 were between 27-29 inches. The only sad part then was we had to go home.

Understanding the right sign on your sonar is key when scouting. I like using my side imaging to scan the water looking for schools of baitfish and balls of bugs. I also will turn down my sensitivity on my regular sonar so I only see the bigger baitfish such as tullibees that are suspended in the water column. Being able to decipher what a tullibee arc looks like on your sonar compared to a walleye arc is key. Being that Lake of the Woods has stained water, I will place the crankbaits 2 feet above the arcs on my sonar.

Lake of the Woods is an awesome big walleye fishery and has endless opportunities. Now’s the time to make some plans and try open water trolling. I know I’ll be back fishing it again real soon!

Until next time – keep trollin’!