Arvid's Fishing Report

We’ve had some ice making weather and it’s time to ice fish. We were gone for the Thanksgiving holiday and I just got the little shanty put down by the bridge in front of the Baudette Bay. I would like to have put it down by the airport, but that access is no longer available. A recently installed ILS (Instrument Landing System)  means no vehicle traffic across the end of the runway. The 25-30 shanties that were normally in that area will now have to find other spots. The only other nearby access is the Peace Park in town, but that means going under the bridges and that is usually not the safest ice until into January. That could be a little earlier this year as there is about 7″ of ice on the river with very little current and not much snow cover.

That gets us to fishing. I opened up the holes yesterday and fished the last hour or so before dark. I caught a nice 24″ pike, a 25″ walleye and had another fish on briefly which I think was another pike, that was it. The almanac has better fishing in the morning so I went down before daybreak and had one bite and no fish; so much for the almanac. Others that I’ve talked to are finding river fishing much the same. I suspect that the slow Fall fishing on the river may carry over to the winter season.

I’ve heard that the south shore of the Lake has a lot of rough ice, but there are fish being caught.

Always know where to go early in the winter as the ice isn’t the same all over.

A nice 25″ walleye