Arvid's Fishing Report

On a beautiful Friday, Matt and I went to Bemidji. After a nice lunch and a couple of stops we met Terry for an evening of bobber fishing for bluegills. The first choice was Gull Lake which has been spotty this year, but has had a couple of good reports lately. We were fishing a little before 5:00 p.m. and for the first hour or so we were sure that we had picked the wrong lake. After trying five or six spots we finally found some and for the next couple of hours the action was good. We kept ten nice bluegills, all 9″-10″ and released a bunch, both big and little. Matt is working on a list of Minnesota species and added bluegill, pumpkinseed and bullhead to it.

Matt and Terry

Matt with a Bullhead

Wednesday afternoon, Julie, Matt & I went to Zippel Bay for a couple of hours. We back trolled crawlers in ten to fifteen feet of water. Marked a lot of fish, but the bite was slow. We kept two nice walleyes and three saugers. Matt caught and released a nice 15″ smallmouth. On our way home we stopped and picked a few blueberries. They are nice, but still a lot of green ones.

Matt with a nice 15″ smallmouth

It was a busy 4th of July weekend in Baudette; big celebration with lots of things going on. We got a heavy rain on Saturday night; from two to four inches; depending who you talked to. The runoff muddied up the water and that will take a few days to clear up.

Jonathan, his family, Julie and Matt are home for the weekend and class reunions. Julie and Matt will be here for another ten days. Matt has a goal to catch a few fish while he’s here and he doesn’t care much what; just as long as it’s big. That may be a challenge.

Monday, Julie, Matt and I went to Zippel Bay thinking that we could find some cleaner water and wouldn’t have so far to go if we were going to fish deeper water. It was light wind so we motored out to 34 feet; found no fish and started working our way back in. We stopped three or four times; got nothing and finally went all the way into 12 feet. We trolled and drifted; using crawlers and shiners. We ended up with six nice walleyes and one sauger. We released a 21″ walleye and several small saugers.  It was a beautiful day and, at times, a little to much sun on the knees.

Matt with a 15 inch walleye

Since the Take A Kid Fishing day grandson Scott and I have fished a number of times; mostly for an hour or two at a time. We have fished the river and out around Pine Island. We have trolled some crank baits and have anchored up on the river with hopes of catching a sturgeon that would impress the Sturgeon General to award him with another certificate. We haven’t caught a whole lot of fish, but Scott has caught quite an assortment. Six species that include a walleye, sauger, sturgeon, smallmouth bass, northern pike and sucker. We have kept some walleyes and saugers, but released everything else.

Scott with his Northern Pike

Scott with a Smallmouth Bass

Scott with a Walleye

Scott with one big Sucker

Wednesday was the 13th annual Lake of the Woods Take a Kid Fishing day. Each year about 100 kids are treated to a day on the water by community volunteers. Most of the smaller boats, like mine, take two kids; some of the larger ones take three or four and a first mate. This year I had my grandson, Scott, and a local girl, Skyla. With a pretty good breeze out of the northwest I chose not to venture out into the lake and instead fished Four Mile Bay. We fished for about an hour; caught three small walleyes; two of them big enough to clean. Then it was to Pine Island for playtime on the beach for nearly three hours. At one time there were seven boats pulled up on the inside of Pine and nearly twenty kids swimming and playing in the water. We fished for a half hour before heading in; trolling crankbaits and caught a sauger and two small walleyes. The end of the day had a great outdoor cookout at Sportsman’s Lodge with a fish fry, hamburgers, hotdogs and all the trimmings.

The larger boats that were able to go out to the 30-32 feet of water out side the Gap had very good fishing.

Scott & Skyla with Scott’s walleye

Skyla with her walleye

Playing in the waves

Fishing continues to be excellent on Lake of the Woods, especially anchored up in 30-32 feet of water off the south shore. Anything gold with a minnow, better yet with a frozen shiner, has both walleyes and saugers aggressive. Monday afternoon, Don, Sue, Diane and I left town shortly after 4:00 and fished the outside of the Lighthouse Gap in 31 feet of water. In less than three hours we caught 25-30 walleyes and saugers; kept 14 walleyes, 3 saugers and released 3 slot fish of 20″,  22-1/2″ , and 25″ plus a few little ones. We all caught fish, but not like Don, he had the hot hand and the hot lure.

Sue with a dandy 25″ walleye

Steve and Scott are in Baudette for a few days getting away from the Arizona heat; Jodi’s vacation doesn’t start for a couple of weeks.

With over an inch of rain yesterday and the wind blowing today there wasn’t much fishing to be done, but Scott wanted to go cast a Rapala for a short time so we put the boat in; trolled up and down the Bay; then achored up by the bridge. With night crawlers on both lines, we hadn’t fished very long when Scott caught a 37″ sturgeon. It was his first sturgeon and gave him and his light rod all he wanted.

Scott with his first sturgeon

Noie, Janice, Diane and I went to Zippel Bay again on a beautiful Monday afternoon and fished for about two hours. We caught seven walleyes; no saugers and what we lacked in numbers was made up in quality. We kept four from 15″ – 19″ and released the other three; one little one and two that Diane caught, 22-1/2″ and 27″.

Noie and Janice with nice walleyes

Diane’s 27″ walleye

Uncle Noie & Janice are here for a visit from Michigan’s U P. We fished Zippel Bay on Saturday for most of the afternoon. We started out fishing deep, in about 30′, with not much going on. We caught a perch and a few small saugers. Other boats around us didn’t seem to be doing much either so we moved in; put on some crawler harnesses and trolled around in 8′ to 12′ of water. We didn’t set the world on fire, but did catch about a dozen fish; kept 5 nice walleyes; three saugers and released two walleyes, 20″ & 22″. Sunday was a little breezy so we fished the river in the afternoon for a short time an caught three nice walleyes and released four little saugers. For the times of the day we fished it wasn’t to bad.

Janice with a 20″ walleye

Noie with a nice walleye

Don, Sue, Diane and I fished late Thursday afternoon for about three hours. We have been hearing that out  in front of the Gap in thirty feet of water is the place to be. The main flotilla of boats were still a couple miles further out, but when we got to thirty feet we decided to drop anchor and try it. After a sunny start to the day, it turned cloudy with  just a light NE wind. A gold jig tipped with a frozen shiner is supposed to be the bait and it wasn’t long before one of the gals caught a small sauger. After that the bite became steady and we ended up catching about twenty-five walleyes and saugers with the gals doing most of the catching. Sue caught and released 21″ & 22″ walleyes; Diane released one 22″. We kept ten nice walleyes, four saugers and released about six little ones.

Sue with a pretty gold 22″ walleye

Diane with a nice 22″ walleye