Arvid's Fishing Report

Jodi, Steve & Scott are in Minnesota for their summer vacation; taking a break from the Arizona heat. Scott and I took a boat ride on the river late Friday morning stopping a couple different places to fish for a short time. Scott caught the only bite he had; a nice eater. I didn’t have a bite, but Papa was the winner, getting to fish with the grandson.

Scott with his walleye

Willard and I went to the Lake Thursday afternoon. The weather was nice and we took only our tackle boxes; no other bait. We started out pulling plugs in Four Mile Bay and went out through the Morris Point washout and along Pine Island without getting a hit. We were almost up to the Gap when we found some fish in eight feet of water. We ended up getting a limit of nice eaters; released to 19″ walleyes and three little ones. The boats in the area were all catching fish and a lot of nice fish. It was a fun afternoon.

Willard with a walleye caught pulling plugs 

Uncle Noie & Janice were here for a for a few days visit. It was windy and there were threatening thunderstorms each day. We picked our times and fished the river once or twice each day. The river is high and the current is strong. The report is that Rainy Lake is full so we can expect the river to remain as is for some time. We fished in 13-14 feet of water using a plain hook with a shiner and 1-1/2 oz sinker to stay near bottom. We had plenty of action; caught maybe 20-25 walleye and sauger each time out, but keeping only four or five; the rest were way to small. We caught two sturgeon; Diane’s was 43″ and Noie’s a small two footer. We had a good time; enough fish for a good fish fry and a package for them to take home.

Noie with a nice walleye

Janice with a nice walleye

Diane’s 43″ Sturgeon 

After a cold, windy Memorial Day; Tuesday turned into quite a nice day. The day started out with some hard frost around the County; some temperatures as low as 26 degrees. With all the garden planted we had to cover all the peppers, tomatoes and some flowers.

There are still good reports of limits and nice fish being caught on the river. Because I’m not going to have the opportunity to fish for a few days I thought that I’d give the evening a try for a couple of hours. I called Whitey to see if he’d like to go and we the boat in the water about 6:30 p.m. and were anchored up by the airport in twelve foot of water a few minutes later. We fished until almost 9:00 p.m. and the action was non stop; mostly little walleye and sauger. We ended up keeping our limit of eight nice walleyes, but it took just about all our minnows to get the job done.

Whitey with a nice walleye on a nice evening on the river

Wednesday, I fished with Willard for a couple hours after lunch. He had fished the morning for a short time and caught nothing. The wind was blowing pretty good out of the north and he found it difficult to keep his pontoon in one spot. When I showed up he thought that was reason enough to go try again. “Persistence”, he said, “is the key; maybe we can just wait them out”. With a full top on the pontoon the wind did move us around, but being inside kept up quite comfortable from the cool breeze. We anchored up in about seventeen feet of water and the depth varied a little depending which way the wind pushed the pontoon. We used spinners and three ounces of sinkers kept us close to the bottom. All that weight about wore my arm out. Willard was right, we stayed right there and a couple hours later we had our eight walleyes; all nice eaters.

Willard with a nice walleye

Joe from Let’s Go Fishing with Senior’s was in Baudette for a late Monday afternoon meeting with our local chapter. He called about noon and invited me go fishing with he and Bill out in the Four Mile Bay area. I met them at Adrian’s resort about one o’clock and we were fishing soon after in the Bay along with several other boats. We anchored up in about 18 ft of water and in no time Joe had a nice eater in the boat. The bite was good; it appeared that everybody was catching fish. By three o’clock we had our twelve walleyes and had released two little ones and a one 27″ that your’s truly caught. The forecast for rain didn’t materialize and it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

Joe with a nice Four Mile Bay Walleye

A small sample of boats on Four Mile Bay

It was mostly a catch & release day on Thursday. Diane and I fished for a little over an hour before a cloud that looked like rain sent us for home. The bite was good, but mostly either to big or to small. Diane caught a nice 23″ walleye and I got one 25-1/2″. We did keep a couple nice eaters for non-fishing friends.

Diane with a nice 23″ walleye

A Nice 25-1/2″ Walleye

Wednesday afternoon I asked my favorite first mate if she would assist me in checking out the boat to see that everything was working properly. Other than a light on the trailer everything checked out. We took a ride down river by the airport and anchored up in 11-12 ft. of water. It was mid-afternoon, sunny and about sixty degrees; a nice afternoon. We must have stopped in the right spot because we had a good bite. In less than two hours we had our eight walleyes; all very nice. With the strong current, Diane was using a hammered gold spinner with 1-1/2 oz. sinker and she needed that much weight to stay near bottom. I was using the largest Swedish pimple that I had in my box. It was a toss-up; we each caught four, but I think she may have had a little more action than I did. It was good to be back on the river.

Eight nice walleyes

My “First Mate” with a nice walleye

A nice early season walleye

Mother’s Day weather was much better than Saturday; mostly sunny, but breezy. Fishing reports from Saturday were from good to excellent with the river being good and Four Mile Bay as the hot spot. I helped with a pancake breakfast at our senior center all Sunday morning and as we were finishing up Bill mention that he was going to fish the river for a while and asked if I was up to going along. I was and got to his place about 2:30 and we were fishing before 3:00. We fished a spot that was very good in the morning, but either the fish left of quit biting. It was slow; Bill caught two nice eater’s and I caught none. There were four or five other boats nearby and they were experiencing the same. There is a lot of current in the river; it takes about 1-1/2 oz. weight to stay near bottom and the water is dirty, but it’s getting better. It was good to get out and get some fresh air for a couple of hours.

Bill with a nice Mother’s Day walleye

It looks like a typical walleye opener in Minnesota; not very nice weather. The picture doesn’t show it very well, but it is snowing lightly and has been most of the morning. A few hardy souls are giving the river a try, but you can bet that it’s chilly and damp. Lake of the Woods is mostly covered with ice which leaves Four Mile Bay and the river as the likely places to fish; maybe the Gap if the north wind doesn’t push in to much ice. The river has quite a bit of water inflow and is dirty from runoff which may slow up the bite. A sure gauge as to how the bite was on Saturday is to see how many rigs are at the landing on Sunday morning. One or none probably means the bite wasn’t very good. The nice thing about living up here is that we don’t have to go fishing today.

The Saturday morning Walleye Opener