Arvid's Fishing Report

Thursday afternoon, Tom, Steve, George & I went to Zipple Bay after they finished work. We went to the same general area as we did on Tuesday and were fishing about 5:00 p.m. The bite was good and we caught lot of fish; mostly sauger and a lot of little ones we released. We kept seventeen; thirteen nice saugers and four walleyes. It was good for less than two hours fishing.

Tom practicing on little saugers.

Looking for one like he caught in February. (See 02/28/09 report)

George with a nice walleye

Steve with a good sauger

A couple of the Bosch Boys are up from Detroit getting things organized for the upcoming winter test season. With fishing not like it should be on the river, four of us; Tom, Steve, George and myself went to Zipple Bay on Tuesday afternoon. We left at 4:00 p.m. after they finished work and it must have been near 5:00 by the time we got to the lake. We anchored up in about twenty feet of water and the bite was good from the start. We used jigs and minnows; both chubs and frozen shiners. It didn’t seem to make any difference what color jig or which minnows we used, as we all caught fish. We lost count of the number of fish caught in the one and one half  hours that we fished, but we kept eighteen; twelve nice saugers and six walleyes. Numerous small sauger and walleye were released. The wind kept getting stronger and we were running out of daylight so we called it quits or we probably would have gotten our limits.

Steve with a nice walleye

Many of us are waiting for the weather to shape up and the fish to move in the river and start a good bite; both have been slow in coming.

Jonathan and his two girls are home for the MEA weekend. We made the best of a cold, dreary Thursday by getting a couple odd jobs done around the house and then Jonathan took Rachel skating at the arena. Friday, the weather began to change and Jonathan, Rachel and I fished the river for a couple hours in the afternoon. We caught two walleyes and a perch. Both walleyes were too big to keep. Rachel caught one 21-1/2″ and I caught one 25″. After an early supper Jonathan and I fished the river that last hour before dark and caught five walleyes. Jonathan caught one to big; 22″, one to small and a nice one 17″. I caught one 20″ and an eater. We both lost a fish that we maybe could have kept, so for the short time we fished it wasn’t too bad.

Jonathan and Rachel with her 21-1/2″ walleye

Jonathan with a nice 22″ walleye

After the beautiful summer weather we had in September, the current weather we are having is a little hard to get use too. If cooler water temperatures are suppose to get the fish a little more active, the next few days should help;  low temps in the twenties, highs in the thirties.

Diane and I have been gone for a couple weeks and fishing was put on hold. Reports were that fishing has been really slow up until the past couple of days. Friday I heard that the shiners are in the river and the bite has improved considerably. Now if we just get some sunshine, the last couple of weeks in October should be fun.

A snowy Saturday morning

During the winter months a few of us retired folks do a little driving for Bud, who has contract with Bosch to transport some of their personnel back and forth to the Bemidji airport and do some other miscellaneous driving. Last year Bud was the receipient of a launch trip out of  Ballard’s resort and asked his four drivers to go with him. On Tuesday morning we met at Ballard’s at 8:00 a.m. for an all day trip complete with shore lunch. The weather wasn’t perfect; a good SE breeze to start the morning that switched to a strong west wind by mid-afternoon, complete with a strong thunderstorm right after lunch. After an hours ride across the lake we ended up fishing behind Hay Island, about half way between Garden Island and Little Oak. We made a few drifts using minnows and crawlers; caught walleyes, saugers and some big perch. We also anchored up in about 25 feet of water; used jigs with minnows and that was equally successful. At noon we pulled anchor and went to Kirk Island for a great shore lunch of fish, fried potatoes with onions and baked beans. After lunch we fished some more; sat through the thunderstorm and then had 1-1/2 hour ride home. Big fish for the day was a 19″ walleye. It was a good trip.

The Group; Sheldon, Terry, Arvid, Don, Bud and Captain Bill

Fish for shore lunch

Bill preparing our shore lunch

Monday afternoon, Katy, Cameron and I went out on the river to fish for sturgeon. We anchored up in about twenty feet of water; put a night crawler on a single hook let it lay on the river bottom. We had plenty of action; most I’m guessing were suckers or redhorse that would take all of the crawler except for about an inch or so left on the hook. We did catch one of those bait thiefs; about an 18″ redhorse. In a little over two hours we went through almost two dozen crawlers and we did catch two sturgeon; both were small and Cameron caught his first sturgeon. His was 28″ and the other we caught was 30″. Cameron had a good bite early on that he missed and I had a really good fish on briefly and when he took off he took my hook, sinker and some line with him. It’s my fault, I should pay closer attention to the condition of my line. It hasn’t been all that many years that one could go fishing for sturgeon and catch one, but they’ve made a remarkable comeback. You won’t always catch a big one, but many times you will.

Cameron with his first sturgeon.

Katy and Arvid with a 30″ sturgeon

Cameron, the cousin of our grandson Scott, and his mother, Katy, are on a swing through northwestern Minnesota. Cameron has a goal of visiting each County in the state and this weekend brought them to Lake of the Woods.  Cameron likes to fish and fishing is usually pretty good up here, its the catching that gets a little slow once in the while. Reports are that fishing is still good between Zipple Bay and Long Point  in 28-32 feet of water either down rigging or anchored up and jigging, but fish are hard to come by in the Gap, Pine Island and Rainy River;  just a lot of little saugers. Some sturgeon are being caught in the river and I thought if Cameron could get one of those on his line that he’d have a good time. So Sunday afternoon the three of us fished two spots close to town for a couple of hours, but no sturgeon;  Cameron caught a nice eater; the only fish we caught.

Cameron with his walleye; a nice eater

There is still a bite on the outside of Pine Island. Tuesday morning, Willard and I pulled some crank baits along Pine Island and caught a limit of  nice walleyes including one 25″. There were a number of boats in the area bait fishing; most were drifting and we we saw some fish being caught. It is surprisingly good fishing close to shore for this time of the year.

Willard with a nice 25″ walleye

On a beautiful Thursday afternoon, Jodi, Scott and I went to the Lake mainly to let Scott play on the beach on Pine Island.  After an hour of doing that we decided to fish for a short time before heading home. Out on the water, I handed Jodi her grandfather’s rod that I had put a line counter reel on and told her that we were going to fish a way that she’d never fished before. I put a small Rapala on her line and told her to take the counter to 120 and we’ll see if anything happens. We had not gone five minutes and she said, “Dad! I got a fish”. Well, when the smoke all cleared we had this 40″ Northern Pike in the boat. At one point we thought the fish had gotten off because the drag loosened completely and the fish swam towards us and the line went slack. That big old fish had a lamprey on it and a couple other scars, but after we measured it and took a couple of pictures we released it no worse than being a little tired from the fight.

Fishing for walleyes was a little anti climatic after that, but we did for a very short time at the Morris Point washout. The water is still a little riled after that four day blow from last weekend, but we did see a few fish being caught in 15′-17′ of water. We caught one 14″ walleye on a crawler; then tried pulling a Rapala up by the Lighthouse Gap without success so we headed for home.

Jodi with her 40″ Northern Pike