Lake of the Woods – Baudette , Mn – 01/08 and 09

On Friday the 7th , 60 fishermen met at Ballards Resort on Lake of the Woods for our annual ice fishing weekend. Larry , Dave and I got to the resort early on Friday after our Red Lake adventure. We had made arraingements to go out on a scouting mission to see what the bite had in store for the rest of the group. Our house was in 30′ of water about 4 miles out from Pine Island. We found the fishing to be a bit slow but had some action between 10 and 2. The typical LOTW favorite gold jigs and spoons did OK along with red and white glow.The Bomber drivers were in the process of moving houses out further north in search of more active fish based on other reports. The plan was to get the 14 houses our group would be using on to new spots. We got back to the resort by 5 and hit the bar to greet all of the newcomers to our event. We were able to offer some tips on what worked best.

On Saturday morning we loaded up the Bombers and headed out for the day. The weather was fairly mild for early in January so we had high hopes the bite would be on. Our house was now sitting on 32′ of water. There were cash incentives and side bets on the largest walleye , perch and pout. The new slot limits had added a bit of extra work to stay in compliance with the rules. Our trip organizer , Larry , had his snowmobile available to run to any house who needed to have a fish weighed. The radios were buzzing with taunts and challenges as the day wore on. Plenty of fish under 15" were being caught but the larger ones were elusive. Eventually a couple of fish over 18" were caught and weighed. There would be some celebrations and surprises in the bar that night.

On Sunday morning the guys I was fishing with opted to go to the same house we had on Saturday. Our bite started a bit slow but we picked up the pace by noon. The radio was buzzing with info about fish needing to be weighed. We sure wish it was in our house. Nothing over 16" for our house but we sure did contribute to the keeper fish for the whole group.

The fish tally for 2 days. Out of a possible 480 walleyes and sauger for 60 guys we had 437. Throw in a few perch , a few white fish and of course the eelpout , it was quite a weekend. Saturday’s big fish were 2-9 and 2-1. Sunday was better for large fish with a 6-5 and a 5-8 taking the trophies. The large eelpout was 10-10.

The most applause for the evening was for the fisherman who caught the 2nd place walleye on Saturday and the largest eelpout for the weekend , a local Twin Cities sports icon , Kent Hrbek. Kent’s appearance was a huge surprise to all of us. There were only a couple of people who knew that Kent was joining our trip this year. A great guy and a good fisherman. Hopefully he will be back in 2006.

Dino