Arvid's Fishing Report

What a difference a few days make. A week ago today I fished the river by the airport and there was lots of ice. The river went out under the bridge on Sunday and today the river is open almost shore to shore.

Diane and I took a ride to Clementson this afternoon. The Vidas Landing has about 65 rigs that has filled the parking lot and a couple blocks up the road. I can only imagine what the Frontier Landing is like. Talked to one party of three that just came in and another party that fished yesterday and were just going out today. Both parties reported that fishing was good. Fishing should remain good until the tributaries up river break loose and dirty up the main river.

The Vidas Landing

There is still lots of ice on the river at Baudette. I understand the river is open to Frontier and I’ve seen a few small boats in town. I haven’t heard if boat fishing is any good or not. Ice fishing has not picked up much on this end of the lake or in the river. I know two guys that fished the lake on Monday and they each caught one walleye. I fished the river the last two evenings and caught one 14″ walleye. There are a few pike fishermen around and that fishing has been a little spotty. Not much time left until the season closes; fishing should be better than it is.

Mother Nature is not going to finish this winter quite yet. It looks like we’ve got a pretty good snow coming the next day or two. Not only has this been the poorest winter for fishing that I’ve had in the forty-four years that we’ve lived up here; we have also lost two fishing friends. My sister, Sue, in December and a good friend, Chuck, last week. We will miss them both.

Sue

Chuck

We have finally got some nice weather to melt some of our snow. Tuesday, the temperature was in the mid forties and water was running down the street. With the time change there is now extra daylight to fish the river after dinner. Tuesday, I did that and walked to the middle of the river by the airport. Neighbors Jim and Ralph had the same thought in mind and the three of us gave it a good try for almost two hours. Ralph caught a big burbot; we haven’t seen many that size in recent years. Jim and I each caught little saugers. This morning I tried the same spot for an hour and a half and didn’t have a bite.

Pike activity on the Bay has been good of late; (60 fish caught at the VFW derby a week ago) so I thought I’d give that a try just to catch something. There was a guy with a small boy (Hunter) from down state fishing pike on the river at the mouth of the Bay. They hadn’t had much action and I suggested that they move into the Bay and soon after they got set up again, Hunter caught a nice 26″ pike. I caught four small pike and kept two for pickling. It was a nice morning to be out on the ice.

Hunter with a nice 26″ pike

Ralph with a big burbot

It’s been a long, slow winter of fishing for many of us that live up here. I finally got out and had a decent bite, although we had to go a ways to find it.

Tom is the last Bosch boy here. It’s his job to get things shipped back and turn out the lights to end another winter test season. He takes some vacation days and has a couple brothers and some friends come up here to join him for some ice fishing. They fished outside of Pine Island one day, Zipple Bay for pike one day and some fished the river mornings and evenings. All combined they didn’t have much to show for their efforts. On top of it all, about a 24 hour flu bug was going through the group that would keep two or three laid up each day. Sunday their group went to Sixteen Mile out from Rocky Point. They ended up with about thirty walleyes and saugers, enough for a good fish fry that evening. Tom called and they were going back on Monday and he had room for me. There was eleven of us in four vehicles and we had seven portables. We set up in about twenty-five feet of water were fishing before noon.  For Tom and I the bite was steady most of the afternoon. We caught our limit of walleyes and six saugers. Most of the group had close to their limit of walleyes and a few saugers. All the walleyes were just nice eaters; 13″ to 16″; no slot fish and a few small ones to release. We came off the lake at sunset; a long, but good day.

Tom with a nice walleye

Jessie with a nice eater

Back in 2004 I had two boys, Alex and Jack, on my boat for the Take-A-Kid fishing day. They have grown up a bit. Alex, on the left, is a senior and goalie for the Lake of the Woods Bears hockey team. I’m told that he is the No. 1 rated goalie in Minnesota and he has played a large role in helping the team compile a 17 – 7 – 3 record this season. The season came to an end last night when they lost to Thief River Falls 3 -1 in the semifinals of Region 8-A and were out shot 44 to 9.

This past weekend I fished for two evenings with Tom, Ken and Earl in two of the Bosch shanties by the airport.  For the two nights Ken and Earl caught one pike and 3 walleyes that were two small to keep. Neither Tom or I had a bite. With that kind of action we decided to switch to pike fishing. Sunday evening we caught seven; kept three and released four little ones. Monday we also caught seven; kept three and released two little ones plus a 34″ and a 32-1/2″. What was a bit unusual was that the nice fish were caught late when pike normally quit biting.

Alex and Jake from the 2004 Take-A-Kid Fishing day

Tom with a 32-1/2″ pike

Ken with a 26-1/2″ pike

A 34″ pike caught on a little jig stick

On Wednesday I fished pike looking for a couple to pickle. The action wasn’t great, but I did catch four; two to keep; a little hammer handle and a nice 32″ slot fish to release.

Walleye and sauger fishing is still spotty on this end of the Lake. I understand that the bite has been good up near Garden Island. I also heard a report that someone caught three nice walleyes in the river. Maybe a few fish have moved into the river on a pre-spawn run. It’s getting towards that time of the year.

A nice 32″ pike

The local newspaper prints the court report that lists the traffic citations and DNR game and fish violations. This past month there have been numerous “fishing with an extra line” -$125. When one needs to fish with more than two lines, it’s a pretty good indicator of how well the fish have been biting.

Last Thursday and Friday, Don’s son-in-law and two friends were fishing north of Rocky Point. On Friday I went with Don and we spent most of the day where they were. Between the five of us we caught about 25 walleyes and saugers; mostly saugers. Don caught 8 of the 25 fish caught plus a 20″ walleye that he released before I could get a picture. It wasn’t great fishing, but better than some reports I’ve heard of.

On Sunday, after spending all morning flipping pancakes at the senior center, Jim (one of the Bosch Boys) and I fished the late afternoon for pike on the Baudette Bay.  We did have some action; caught three pike; two small ones and a little hammer handle and had other hits and flags. Our expert pike cleaner is gone for a week so we released all three.

Monday afternoon, Don and I took the snowmobiles to Four-Mile-Bay and fished a spot on the inside of the Gap that Don wanted to try. We gave it a couple of hours without and bite and decided that maybe another time might be better.

Jim with the hammer handle that took his jig stick out of his hand

Tom and I took advantage of the nice weather over the weekend and fished pike on the Baudette Bay for a little something different to do. Fishing with a tip-up and a jig stick, there is usually some action and always a chance to catch a big fish and some small ones to pickle. Tom had to work each day and fishing slowed by the time he was able to get down on the Bay, but we still caught and released a few hammer handles (little ones).  There is a slot on pike; any between 30″ and 40″ must be released. On Sunday morning I fished alone for a couple hours and caught two slot fish ten minutes apart; a 31″ and 35″. Didn’t catch anything close to 30″ the rest of time we fished. Late Sunday afternoon, as the sun was getting low, Tom suggested that we go and sit in one of the Bosch shanties on the river and maybe catch a walleye. As we started fishing Tom said that we were in a one bite house and sure enough, Tom got the only bite and caught a pike for pickling. Here it was, after dark and in the middle of the river. Pike usually don’t bite after dark and that was the last thing I expected to see come up the hole.

Tom with a pike in the “one bite” shanty

On Friday morning, Don, Brad and I loaded the snowmobiles and headed for Kakagi (Crow) Lake. The weather was decent; about 11 degrees above zero when we unloaded the sleds and the ride across Crow was pretty much uneventful. There was lot of snow on the lake and there was slush here and there, which always makes things interesting. We decided to go into Rowan Lake and start there and were fishing before ten o’clock. We had no more than started fishing and it began to snow with a good breeze out of the east. The forecast was for light snow; maybe one to six inches. We quit fishing at three o’clock and by then we must have gotten most of the six inches of snow. Fishing wasn’t all that bad considering the weather. We caught eight lake trout; kept our limit and released the rest. The ride back to the pickup was interesting. Visibility was not good and with all the powder snow and pockets of slush, it made for some tense times. It was good thing that Brad had a GPS to get us back on track a couple of time. The trip was, for sure, an adventure.

Brad with a nice Lake Trout

Don with his Lake Trout

A nice Lake Trout