Arvid's Fishing Report

Thursday was a beautiful day up here in the north country and  I told grandma Diane that we should go fishing for a little while. We put the boat in at the Wheeler’s Point access and headed for the Morris Point washout. The water is high and more of the west end of Pine Island is under water. We pulled crankbaits for a little while and caught six walleyes and saugers. We kept three and then decided to jig fish while we had a snack. There we other boats in the area fishing in water that ranged from about 14′ to 20′.  We anchored up in 18 feet of water and action was immediate and steady. We ended with our limit and released a number of smaller fish. As usual, I was outfished, both for the biggest and the most.

Diane with a nice 22″ walleye

Baudette and the Lake of the Woods area has been awarded a Blandin Foundation Broadband grant. I am on a committee representing our senior center and the center is receiving computers, workstations and training, thanks to the Blandin grant. We had a meeting on Thursday noon along with a Rotary program and afterwards I was asked to go fishing with Mike, Ralph and Blandin consultant, Karl. The four of us went out of Sportsman’s about 3:30 and fished the Morris Point area. There were several boats fishing off the lone pine tree left on Pine Island. Some were anchored, some drifting, some were trolling. They were in various depths from about 12′ to 20′. We anchored up in 19′ and for the next two and a half hours had steady action. We must have caught 30-40 walleyes and saugers. We kept 14 walleyes, 7 saugers; released several little ones and three nice slot fish; 21″, 22-1/2″ and 30″.  It had been threatening rain most of the day, but we didn’t get any on us. For the short time we were out, we had good fishing; a nice time.

Ralph with a dandy 30″ walleye

Karl with a nice walleye

Mike with  a nice walleye

We have just finished our annual trout trip. Three of the Bosch Boys, Jim, Tom & Steve came from Michigan. Jonathan came up and brought Britta to stay with Grandma Diane. George, Terry and I made up the seven that went to Whitefish Bay for three days. Jim’s dad, Bill, had some health issues and couldn’t make this years trip. We went up Sunday and fished that afternoon, Monday and Tuesday. Jonathan needed to go home on Wednesday, so we came back to Baudette Tuesday afternoon. The weather all three days was great; not a drop of rain and just a nice breeze most of the time. There was a major hatch of black flies that didn’t bite, but were a nuisance. The fishing was ok. The group caught 18 trout; had a meal of fish each day and were just one short of a limit for each to bring home. Steve caught the big fish; a nice 34″ trout, but I wasn’t with him to get a picture. All the fish were caught rock fishing. We tried trolling different times, but nothing; not even a pike. It was another great trip.

After the rest of the group returned on Wednesday, Jim, Tom, Steve and I went to the golf course and played in a men’s night evening scramble. The four of us played as a team and it was a good time. The golf score was not good; something about not having your own clubs.

Jonathan with a 33″ lake trout

Tom and George with Sunday afternoon’s catch

George had the hot hand. Here’s one of the trout he caught

Jim with one of the three trout caught off the dock by the cabin

If there is one thing that will change fishing from very good to very poor, it’s three to six inches of rain. After three days of almost steady drizzle and rain, it is nice to see the sun.  Baudette got a little over three inches, but just a few miles upriver at Silver Creek and Clementson, reports were five to over six inches. The river is up and there is a lot of debris coming down. It’ll be days before the river cleans up. With the big weekend coming fishermen will probably have to go to the lake in search of cleaner water.

The first week of the walleye season has been nothing short of fantastic. The walleyes have finishing spawning in the river and the bite is on. I’m told they have not spawned in the lake. Those fishing the river this week have not had to fish long for a limit of fish. Although there were some reports that all they were catching were slot fish. Water conditions on the river are good with a nice current. The best bite seems to be in the 11′ to 14′ range and the bite is all day long. I fished Friday mid-morning for a hour and kept a limit. Diane and I went out in the afternoon for less than two hours and caught eight nice walleyes. We kept her four and released the rest. We had only two slot fish; nothing big. We used gold/green and silver rattle spoons, but I don’t think it would make much difference; they were hungry.

A nice slot fish

Diane and I were in Indiana last week. Grandson, Matt, was a participant in an academic honors banquet and we were invited to attend it. While there, we spent a couple of hours one afternoon fishing bluegills and bass on a private pond. There are not many lakes in Indiana, but it seems like every little ravine has a dam and is stocked with fish of some kind or another. There were five of us fishing and we must have caught 75 bluegills and several small bass.  They kept about 35 bluegills, all in the 8″-9″ range. All bass get released.

For the sturgeon fishermen up here, I understand that last weekend was very, very good. There were many 50″ plus and 60″ plus fish caught. This week has changed. Two main tributaries of the Rainy, the Littlefork and Bigfork rivers, opened up a day apart and have made a mess of the Rainy. Sturgeon fishing has pretty much turned off and it’s not likely that the water will clean up before the  two-week harvest season closes this weekend.

Matt 

Connor

Darlis

Rollie

Winter wants to hang on and the river ice is slow to go. As of this morning, Wednesday, the ice is out past Silver Creek, but not yet to Baudette. Yesterday, Kooch County opened up the Vidas Landing, so the three accesses upriver from Baudette; Birchdale, Frontier and Vidas, are now open. Fishing, I understand, is good; catching is a little challenging. One person I talked to caught more slot fish walleyes than smaller ones. They also caught several pike while fishing for walleyes with a jig and a minnow. I understand that those people who were targeting sturgeon were doing very well. Sturgeon fishing is catch and release. With just a few days left until the season closes, there are a lot of  fishermen around. Looks like the weather is going to be ok thru the weekend.

Diane and I took a ride to Frontier this afternoon. The river is open and there are 18 rigs at the landing. The river is open approximately five miles past Frontier. In a normal year, it would  open at the Vidas Landing in a day, Silver Creek in two or three days and Baudette by this weekend. There is not a lot of in-flow to the river, so that could change river opening by a day or two.

While at Frontier, there were two boats going down river and one going up. With that much movement, I’m guessing that maybe the bite is a little slow and they are moving to try and find fish.

Looking upriver from the Frontier Landing – April 2nd