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Lake of the Woods Report
Posted On: January 17, 2012 | By: steil
I spent the weekend fishing Lake of the Woods with the family. My son Cole has been asking all year for the chance to catch an Eel Pout. Eel pout are not in every lake so it takes a little planning to catch one. After spending years ice fishing Lake of the Woods, the choice of lakes was easy for me. If we were going to catch him a pout, Lake of the Woods was our best bet. With a reported hot walleye/sauger bite going on and the chance at an Eel Pout, we decided we would take a road trip to Lake of the Woods. So, on Friday evening we loaded up the Northern Beer Suburban and DreamShak and headed on our way.
We arrived at the Lake about Midnight and stopped in at Adrians resort to pick up some shiners and pay our road pass. They were just closing down for the night but we made it just in time. We then headed out on Adrians Road which is very well marked for travel. We headed out past all other houses and then started working our way Northwest to a spot on the mud that I like to summer fish in 33 feet of water. The ice was in
very good shape and measured exactly 19.5 inches where we were. The -7 degree temps on the lake combined with a stiff SE wind made setting up less than desirable but it didn't take long. By 1 AM we were set up with lines down and suprisingly there were a lot of fish showing up on the Humminbird. Despite not catching any while setting up, it was good to see all the fish activity.
Cole and I woke up and started fishing at 7 AM and the action picked up very quickly. At first it was tullibee after tullibee and then it soon switched to walleye after walleye. The set lines were firing constantly with walleye and left very little time to jig. We spent the entire morning rebaiting rattle reels and catching nice walleye, sometime three at a time. I made sure I took the time to remind the kids that it doesn't get any better than this. The action was very consistant until after lunch when it slowed a little. But, just when it looked like the action was slowing down, we would jig up a nice walleye. The later it got, the better the jigging bite was. ON the day we ended up keeping our limit of nice walleye with a few sauger, perch and tullibee. But, besides the fish we kept we released a lot of walleye and sauger that were both to small and to big and on Eel Pout.
Yes, I said Eel Pout. Cole accomplished his goal on this trip of catching an Eel Pout. As a dad, it was a nice relief. Eel
POut are certainly hard to target this time of year so it really just becomes a matter of putting your time in, fishing deep water. Thankfully for us, one decided to cooperate. We thanked it with a few pictures and then sent it on its way. It was almost like the perfect ending to a perfect day of fishing but we decided to end it in a better way. We piled into the Northern Beer Suburban and drove into the Wigwam resort and had them fry up some of our fish. It was so good, we ate until we were full and headed back to the comfort of the DreamShak. Now that was the perfect ending to a perfect day!
Sunday we woke up to fishing that was much slower then Saturday. Saturday we caught roughly 30 walleye between 16 and 22 inches with the majority between 18 and 20 inches. On Sunday, we caught a couple nice walleye but for the most part, we kept busy with the active Tullibee again. With the bite being significantly slower we decided to relocate our camp to Leech Lake so that we were closer to home. Leech Lake would still give us a chance to fish yet only have a 2 hour ride home in the AM, so that is what we did.
We set up in Walker Bay on Leech Lake on 14.5 inches of ice. This was enough to drive the Northern Suburban and DreamShak on so we were able to get set up very fast. Unforately the bite was not that great for us. We caught a few very small walleye and lost two nicer fish on the rattle reels but that was it. We packed up and headed home very early in the AM but once again it was a great weekend.
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Mille Lacs Fishing Report
Posted On: January 10, 2012 | By: steil
I just returned from the Pure Fishing Ice Summit on Mille Lacs out of McQuoids resort. For those that are wondering what an Ice Summit is, well, I kind of was wondering the same thing as I headed up to McQuoids on Sunday. The Pure Fishing Ice Summit was a chance for those at Pure Fishing to get together with some of their Pro Staffers to discuss product development and improvement as well as a chance for the pro staffers to meet each other and do some fishing together. As always, with these events you always hope the fish bite and the opportunity for some good photos presents. As it turned out both the fish and Mother Nature decided to cooperate to make this event a great time for all.
Despite what you have heard about the bad ice conditions on Mille Lacs, which do exist on parts of the lake, the ice in the
South East Corner is very good for the most part. I was able to drive my vehicle on the ice and pull my 20 ft wheel house as long as I stuck to the roads Kevin McQuoid had staked on the lake. Kevin has roads hitting much of the good structure on the SE corner and the fishing is actually pretty darn good if you ask me.
We started the first night set up on a Rock hump that topped out at 18 ft. Kevin suggested we set up on top with the full moon because the fish may bite all night, and for the most part they did. We caught a quite a few small walleye in that 10-12 inch range that and a couple in the protected slot we did not keep but a bunch of nice jumbo perch found their way into the bucket. The fishing was pretty good for the evening bite and then seemed to kick in a 1 AM again. We took a break around 7 PM when we headed over to meet up with the rest of the group from Pure Fishing that was using Kevin's Sleeper houses. As it turned out, one of the sleeper
houses had already caught a 29 inch walleye when we arrived.
On day two we decided to pull our houses into shallow water near McQuoids resort to try to catch some big perch. The perch bite was very good but you had to weed through some smaller fish in order to get the larger keeper size fish. We were fishing shallow enough to site fish so that always makes it fun, especially when you see fish in the 12-13 inch range. The two biggest perch of the weekend were 12.5 inches and 13 inches. These were true giants and some of the guys were also sent home with a nice meal of eater size fish.
Both Mark Courts and myself had our DreamShak's on the ice
to stay mobile but the groups fishing out of Kevin McQuoids sleeper houses actually did just as good without having to move. There were quite a few walleye in that 24-29 inch range caught by people staying in Kevin's houses with the shallow water (Less than 10 ft) being just as good as the deeper water (17-22ft). Despite spending much of the day targeting perch in shallow water, we were able to pick up a few walleye also in these same spots. Mark Courts and Jason Przekurat actually really got into the big walleye after I headed for home and had a great full moon night bite.
It was great to spend a couple days on the ice with some of the guys I usually fish against, as well as my tour travel partners, Kevein McQuoid, Jason Przekurat and Mark Courts. I can promise you there was no shortage of laughing and joking around and overall fun had by all. Thanks again to Pure Fishing for putting this event on. Not that I need a reason to go up and fish Mille Lacs, but it was great to see some old friends and meet some new ones. Big Thanks to Kevin McQuoid for his hospitality and putting us on the perch and walleye. If you are looking for safe ice and good fishing give McQuiods a call at (320) 676-8709 or email them at macs@macstwinbay.com
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Leech Lake Report
Posted On: January 4, 2012 | By: steil
I got to spend New Years weekend on the ice with my family. The kids and I packed up the DreamShak on Thursday afternoon with intension's of fishing Mille Lacs for two days and then heading up to Leech Lake. However, after checking the ice on Mille Lacs, which was a mess, and the forecasted winds, I opted to cancel the Mille Lacs portion of my trip and head up the the safer ice on Leech Lake. As it turned out it was the right call.
With the change of plans we had lot of time on Leech Lake so we decided we would fish Pike, Walleye, Perch and crappies/bluegill if we could find them. We opted to set up in very shallow water in order to focus our efforts on quality vs quantity. The kids said they wanted to catch big fish, so that is what we did. We started the weekend in 9 feet of water with scattered cabbage and prepared for the evening walleye bite. Being the first big trip of the year it took me a while to get things set up and finally after sitting down to enjoy one of Northerns new 16 Ounce
Honey Brown's, it wasn't even a minute and the first rattle reel started to go. Cole jumped up and was a little over-anxious on the first bite which resulted in a miss and then another miss and then another. It was obvious the fish weren't overly aggressive but we kept after it and adjusted our presentation some. We were using big bait, targeting these big fish so you are going to miss a few. But, we stuck with the program and it paid off.
On the sixth bite of the night I could feel the weight of the fish as it pulled line off the rattle reel and we waited very patiently for this one to eat. When Cole set the hook we knew it was a good one. I could tell he was going to need some help so I jumped in to guide the head into the hole. On the other end of the line was Cole's personal best 27 inch walleye. What a great start to the weekend and there was a lot of excitement in the house.
While we did a lot of exploring outside the hard house, Jadyn kept an eye on her lines inside the house. On day two, while I was out fishing on the ice, Jadyn battled and landed her personal best 33 inch Northern Pike. I could hear her celebrating in the house and when I came in I found a very nice pike laying on the
floor with all the rattle reel line wrapped around it. There is NO way the fish was getting away as it literally tied itself to the line. Dad was very proud of his daughter!!
Speaking of Pike, we had excellent pike fishing with many fish between 4 and 12 pounds. For the most part the pike fishing was very, very good. When you add in a 1 pound 15 ounce crappie Cole caught as well as the 50 or so Jumbo perch we caught, it was a great weekend. As I said earlier, this trip was not about numbers but overall the size of everything was very good. The smallest walleye we caught was 22 inches and the biggest was Cole's 27 incher. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend the New Years weekend then fishing with the family. Yes, the kids spent some time watching TV and running around on the ice but they spent most of the time fishing, learning to use the Humminbird 385ci in Ice Mode and chasing Tip-up Flags. This of course gave dad some time to enjoy a few more
Northern Beer and just relax.
As always I left the lake with a true appreciation for Leech Lake. I am constantly amazed at the quality of fish the lake produces. It is truly a multi-species paradise and one worth checking out if you have not. The ice for those interested was between 12-15 inches. I used an ATV to pull out my 20ft DreamShak but used my truck to pull it off. The ice is clear and strong and I will be driving on from now on.
Oh and yes if you are asking did Cole where that Oregon sweatshirt all weekend, yes he did. After he caught that big walleye the first night he thought it was lucky so he wore it all weekend. Apparently it worked because they they looked pretty good in the Bowl game also.
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