Arvid's Fishing Report

What weather we’ve been having; rainy, snow, windy and cold. I told some guys in the boat next to me a couple days ago that it sure seemed like October;  it was cold and the geese were honking. It sure was a short summer.

I took a break from the normal daily activities and drove to Bemidji Saturday morning  to participate in the Bemidji Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk. The main reason for my participation is for my grandson, Scott, a special,  wonderful young boy.  Many of you already know of him, but if you don’t,  check out his website at http://www.stride4scott.com. It was a sunny morning for the 5k walk; cold and windy; about 37 degrees when the walk started. I was with Scott’s aunt Mary and cousin Kelly. It took us a couple hours to complete the walk and we enjoyed ourselves as we visited with others along the route.

Fishing has been nothing short of exceptional in many of the northern Minnesota lakes and rivers so far this spring. I understand that anchored in about 17 feet of water outside the Gap has been very good. I have fished the river a couple times with good fishing in 13-14 feet of water. The river is up a bit with some of the rain that we’ve had and the current is still very strong. I still hear of many big fish being caught although I haven’t caught anything since opener over 18″. The reports I’ve heard from Red Lake are fantastic. Even my friend, Terry, isn’t having any trouble catching fish.

Scott, our leader for Team Scott (July ’08 photo)

Team Scott participants in the Bemidji walk – Arvid, Kelly and Mary

There were a lot of good fishing reports that came off the Rainy River on opening weekend. Most of the folks that braved the cold and snow on opening day had  good fishing although some had difficulty in catching a limit  to keep. Different folks I talked with said that half the fish they caught were in the slot and had to be released with quite a few  in the 27″-30″ range. The boat landing across from the house was full all day and I watched from the comfort of the living room knowing that the forecast for the next few days was much better.

Mother’s day was better; frost and twenty-six degrees to start with, but it quickly got  nice and sunny. After helping with a pancake breakfast at our senior center all morning I put the boat in the water for the first time this spring. I went down by the airport and anchored in about 12′ of water. The river is high and the current is strong, but it’s not to dirty. The water is  still cold and the walleyes have just started to spawn. I fished from about 3:00-5:00 p.m. and caught ten walleyes; kept my limit of  four; all nice fish, but no bigger ones that were  in the slot.

I understand that there is a lot of water up east that’s still got to come our way we’ll probably have these same river conditions for some time yet. That could mean some good river fishing for a while this spring.

Opening weekend walleyes

The river opened up through Baudette sometime during the past 24 hours. One wonders how that can happen with all the winter-like weather we’ve been having, but most years you can mark the calendar that the ice will go out sometime during the first week in April regardless of what the weather is like.

Fishing reports that I’ve heard are not very good; even the open water fishing up east in the Frontier and Birchdale areas. The lake ice is still solid and extensions are still needed on augers most of the time. Fishing on this side of the lake is poor to fair. The only good reports I’ve heard are from those that have been across the lake. It’s like my neighbor said; the fish think it’s still February.

The River’s Out April 5th

About a dozen years ago our school superintendent, Ralph,  introduced our area to rod building with a class in the community education program. He did that for three or four years before leaving to take a position with another school. He has since retired back here in Baudette and we have rod building classes again. We are just finishing up a class that meets once a week for four or five weeks. With ice fishing slowing it’s a good time of the year to think about building a rod for open water use. Each class has between ten and twenty students; young, old, women, men, etc. One of the first students, Dan,  to take the class years ago has made rod building into a business and now assists Ralph in teaching the class. The rods that Dan builds are beautiful; truly works of art. I’ve taken the class more than once because it gives me a good nudge to do something constructive at this time of the year. I just keep telling everybody that I’m just a slow learner and need to keep repeating the class; some truth to that.

Don and I fished the Lake last Friday. We went out of Adrian’s to the outside of Pine Island and fished in about thirty feet of water. Fishing was painfully slow. We would mark fish on the Vexilars, but they were not interested. We brought home one walleye and two sauger for six hours of fishing. We released one 23″ walleye, two tullibee and four little sauger. There were many rigs and fishermen on the ice; many of them moving around so I suspect they were not doing any better than we were.

Dan and Ralph

Ralph giving a tip on tying eyes on rod

A sample of Dan’s butt wraps.  The flags and designs are thread wraps; not in-lays.

On Saturday, Don, Sue, Diane and I went fishing crappies on Sabaskong Bay near Nestor Falls. The weather forecast was for about thirty degrees and when the temperature reached the mid forties with full sun, we were dressed to warm. It was a gorgeous day and great to be out on the ice. Fishing was alright with something going on most of the time. The four of us ended up catching 27 crappies, 1 walleye, 1 tullibee and about a dozen perch. The crappies appear to be from four class years with sizes of 8-1/2″, 9-1/2″ 10-1/2″ and 12-1/2″. We only had two of the big ones; the rest we had were pretty equally divided over the other class years.

Sue with a nice Sabaskong Bay crappie

Diane and Sue with our catch of crappies

Last Saturday a group of eight of us made a trip back into Rowan Lake looking for a lake trout. Our vehicle had Don, his son Brad, grandson Jacob and myself. Two other rigs had Dave and his son Paul; Paul’s father-in-law, Bruce; sister-in-law, Kerrie and a friend of her’s, Katie. It was a picture perfect day; sunny with the temperature in the mid-teans above zero. Some of the group needed to get licenses which delayed us a little and with a twenty-five mile ride back to where we were to fish there was no time to waste. It was a great ride and the miles went by quickly. We got set up in a couple different spots sometime before lunch and the fishing was great; it was the catching that was a little slow. The group caught only four trout. Katie and Brad each caught one that were 3-4 lbs. Don caught a small one he released and I got lucky and caught one 7-1/2 lb. It was a beautiful day and like Don said before, catching a fish is just a bonus.

Katie with her lake trout

Brad with his lake trout

Arvid with a nice Rowan Lake trout

There have been times when I’ve caught two fish at a time, but I can’t recall ever getting two larger fish in the slot at the same time. After several late afternoons of one bite, one fish, I wasn’t expecting much more when a really nice fish grabbed my lure. As I brought that fish to the top of the ice my other jig stick started to go and I soon had two on the ice. The first was a dandy 28″, the second was 22″ . That was it; a two bite, two fish day, but maybe it’s an indication that there are some nice fish moving  into the river.

Two nice walleyes; 28″ & 22″ both in the slot – released

Jonathan and his family were home for a long weekend and taking Rachel ice fishing was on the schedule. Late Saturday afternoon the three of us went to my little shanty on the river; opened the two holes and fished for better than an hour. Fishing the river for walleye in late February is not a very good way to introduce a seven-year old to ice fishing, but she was a good girl and held her jig stick the entire time. There was only one bite that we could verify and Jonathan caught that fish, a nice 16 inch walleye. One bite, one fish; that has been so typical this past month.

Jonathan and Rachel with a late February walleye

The Bosch winter test season is done and it was time for a day on the Lake before the last of the personnel leaves. Tom made arrangements with Randall’s Resort for a six person shanty off Knight Island. The group was basically the same as last year with my son, Jonathan, being the new comer.  We met at the Bosch site  and were on our way to Randall’s before 7:00 a.m. It was going to be a sunny and cold day; my pickup showed twenty three degrees below zero as we transfered our tackle and provisions for the day to the track van that was to transport us across the lake. We had a full van; the six of us and two other guests plus the two Randall’s employees. We arrived to a warm shanty with the holes already drilled open and were fishing around 9:00 a.m. Fishing was slow to start and we were beginning to wonder if we had picked the wrong day, but then we began to pick up a fish or two. We even caught two really nice walleyes; George a 28″  and Tom a 29″ that were both released. We didn’t get our limit to  keep, but did end up with about 30 walleye and sauger. We released numerous small ones; most were from a year class of sauger that is about three years old. That is going to keep winter fisherman happy for the next few years. As we left for home about 4:30 there was an otter sliding across the snow covered ice out looking for a meal. It was another good day on the lake.

George with his 28 inch walleye

Tom with his 29″ walleye

Jon with one of the strong year class sauger

The group; Arvid, Jonathan, George, Mick, Tom & Gary