Arvid's Fishing Report

I fished the river by Hattie’s Sunday evening for about an hour and not a bite. Fishing has definately slowed on the river. The people that I’ve been talking to have been catching one or maybe none. I understand a few fish are being caught on the lake. There is plenty of ice and with hardly any snow one can go just about any place.

The Boards are up and preparations are being made for the Baudette Bay Hockey Classic game between the Lake of the Woods Bears and St. Paul Johnson Governors on January 20th. Fox Sports North will broadcast the event and the Governor may be in attendance. A rain on Saturday night may have put a premature flood on the rink and it did make for some messy ice conditions. For more information on the game go to http://www.bbhcmn.com

After a great start to the winter season, fishing has slowed down a bit. Most reports from the river are that one or two fish per person is quite common. There is about 12″ of ice on the river and 18″ on the lake and vehicles are driving most places. I heard of a vehicle going through the ice the other day in the Morris Point area where there can be some areas with thin ice because of current. I talked to a person who put their house out of Zipple Bay this past weekend and all they said was that fishing was slow in that area.

Hockey Boards in place for the Baudette Bay Hockey Classic

Ice Covered Banner & Trees

It doesn’t make any difference wheather I take Diane or Monica fishing, I get outfished. Yesterday afternoon Monica and I caught a nice limit in less than an hour. She had four in the pail before I caught one. We were having a nice fish fry after we got home and I told Gerry that I was going to take him next time, maybe I’ll catch more than he could.

Monica with our catch

We are in the midst of a warm spell and making ice is on hold. We are probably lucky to maintain what ice we have.

The other day I stopped at Gerry’s office and asked if he wanted to go fishing. He said something about fishing is not good enough yet for him to go, but suggested that I take Monica. Well, that was ok, because Monica can probably catch more fish than he can. She came over to the house at 3:30 and we were back at the house by 5:00 with our limit of nice walleyes all from 14″-16″. We each caught four with pink and white jigs seemed to do best.

Monica with a nice December walleye

I fished the river for a short time this morning; started at 8:09 and as I put the 4th nice eater in the pail I looked at my watch and it read 8:31. They sure wanted that little white jig tipped with a frozen shiner. But, it’s not always that way. Saturday evening I fished the mouth of the Baudette Bay for a while and only caught one little northern. There were four others fishing close by and all they caught were one or two little northerns. I’m probably wrong but I think there are too many northern pike in and near the Bay for the walleyes to hang around.

The winter ice fishing season has started. We have ice and the fish are biting. The report is that there is 7-10 inches of ice on Lake of the Woods and with the below zero temps that we’ve been having (-17 this morning) another 1-2 inches gets added each night. The Rainy River has about 6 inches of good ice with not much snow on top. The mode of transportation is 4-wheelers and snowmobiles; no driving big pickups and SUV’s yet. Fish are being caught in 15-20 feet of water on both the lake and river.
I fished the river this afternoon for about 45 minutes. It was about five degrees above zero, but that’s all the time I needed. I caught five walleyes; kept four nice eaters, released a little one and also lost a nice one at the hole when the line cut on the ice. Nothing was good enough for a picture.

A few of the die-hards are still boat fishing the river and the fishing has been good. We are in the midst of a few very nice days with temperatures in the 30’s and if you are dressed properly it’s not bad out there.

I received an invitaton from Mike L. to go with he and Burt L. for a late Saturday afternoon of fishing on the river. They are not related, just their wives are teachers and Burt was also until he retired this past year. We fished up river by Hattie’s along with three other boats for about 1-1/2 hours. WE (they did most of the catching) must have caught about 20 walleye and sauger, kept our limit of 12, all about 14″ to 16″ and headed home at dark. It’s cool as the sun sets and ice gathers on the end of the rods. A good blast of cold weather will freeze the river over.

Deer season is over and it was good. Five of us got nine deer. Gerry got a nice seven-point buck the second Sunday afternoon.

Burt with a nice November walleye