Arvid's Fishing Report

The river opened in Baudette on Tuesday, March 31st and today it is almost shore to shore. The Timber Mill access is open and is being used by several rigs. That will take the pressure off the accesses up river. The ice goes out about three to maybe four miles a day, so the river could be open to Wheelers Point by the weekend.  The reports I’m getting is that the bite is a little slow during the day, but better towards evening. I understand there are some boats targeting sturgeon (catch and release only) and they are doing well. Even those looking for walleyes are catching sturgeon. There is still ice on the lake and the bite is like it has been all winter; some days good and many days not so good.

Don and I went to Nester Falls on Monday for a day of crappie Fishing. It was a picture perfect day; temperature in the 40’s and with warm weather in the forecast for the next several days, the snow won’t last long. The ice, however, will last a while; nearly 40″. The bite was just good enough to keep us from moving and we ended up with 13 crappies, 2 perch and 1 walleye. It’s a great time of the year to be out on the ice, sitting on a pail, waiting for a fish to show up on the flasher.

Don with a nice Sabaskong Bay Crappie

Nice 11″ Crappie

The Bosch winter test season is over and it looks like Tim’s 27″ walleye is the largest for the season. Congratulations Tim.

A couple of the guys, Tom & Ken, along with Mick, one of the Reliable transport drivers, have taken some vacation days to get in a little fishing before heading home. A couple of Tom’s brothers and friends are here, also. They fished the Lake on Friday and fishing was pretty slow. They came back in and fished the river for the evening bite. I went down and fished with Tom & Mick. It was a typical bite that lasted ten minutes about 6:00 p.m.. Mick caught a 23″ slot fish and a nice eater. Tom and I got nothing.

Mick with a nice 23″ walleye

When our oldest grand daughter, Megan, was old enough, she would come to Minnesota and spend a week with us. We would spend most of the week fishing here or there. The picture below is from 2003 when Megan was 13 years old. Now, 12 years later, Megan and husband, Chase have brought us a new great grandson, Luke. We are so proud of them. My, how time flies.

Megan, with a largemouth from a Northern Minnesota Lake

Megan, with our newest fishing buddy; a real keeper

Some of the Bosch Boys are fishing hard, trying to get a walleye bigger than Tim’s before the winter test season ends. There have been three or four in the 23″ to 25″ range, but none larger than Tim’s 27″ dandy.

Jeff’s fiancée, Lisa, was here over the weekend and like most without a lot of fishing experience, she had the hot hand, or should we say – the best hole in the shanty. She caught two nice walleyes, 24″ & 25″ and a couple of nice pike in the 27″ range. The pike and 25″ walleye are the biggest she’s caught. Jeff got out fished and I know the feeling. Maybe he spent the best part of “prime time” shoveling snow – out from underneath his pickup.

Lisa with a dandy 25″ walleye

With the Bosch winter test season winding down, it looks like we may have a new name to add to the leader board for the season’s largest walleye. The guys moved one of the shanties by the bridge earlier in the week and Thursday evening, Tim caught a beautiful 27″ walleye about 5:30 while fishing with Rob using a hammered gold jig. Tim also caught two small pike. Rob was along for moral support and to be the photographer. With fishing as slow as it has been, chances are pretty good that Tim may get bragging rights for the year.

Tim with a beautiful 27″ walleye

The following was sent to me from one of the Bosch Boys and with his permission, I’m posting it. “Co-worker David…NCAA extraordinaire”, is tall, must be at 7 foot, and would be referred to in current basketball jargon as “long” with a wing span to match. So it’s easy to understand how it was accomplished.

Monday Night Fight

So we were fishing Tommy’s house the night they cut the road in. Just as we were leaving I hooked into a feisty sturgeon. Unfortunately, I was in the north hold and it had been closing up over the week due to the banking breaking down.

I thought all was lost, but my friend and co-worker, David…… NCAA basketball extraordinaire said he could pass the fishing rod under the ice.

I thought “no way” since I’ just measured the river ice at  16 inches earlier that night, and, of course our floors sit well over a foot up off the river.

As soon as our feisty friend took his next break, I grabbed the line, opened the bail & dropped it down to Dave. A few seconds later he had us in the next hole to the south which had a good cut.

Well in total we fought for over an hour on our Lake of the Woods fishing rod, and our prize was this 49 inch river sturgeon.

Just a great time, and great way to chill out when working hard up north.

Bill

Bill with his 49″ Sturgeon

It’s been a while since the last post. We were gone for a while over the Christmas Holidays and the fishing I’ve done since has been pretty slow. All of us River Rats have found this winter’s fishing really poor. Fishing on this end of the Lake has been spotty and generally slow. The winter roads are out about 18 miles. The reports are spotty, but after all, its late January, that’s what can be expected.

I fished pike for a couple days last week. Nothing big, but a couple in the 24″ range and there’s a batch of pickled pike in the fridge.

Tuesday, Don, Vyron and I fished crappies up at Nester Falls. The weather was nice enough to fish outside. The bite has been a little slower with all the weather fronts coming through, but we did manage to catch 23 crappies and 8 nice perch. The crappies were nice; between 10″ & 12″. The first spot we stopped we fished for over an hour and Vyron caught the only fish. We moved and immediately caught fish. The bite didn’t last long and I guess that we should have moved sooner.

Don & Vyron with nice crappies

You may recall a post from last July when two of the Bosch Boys, Steve & Earl, were up here and Earl caught a 60″ sturgeon. The story was told many times after they got back home to Michigan and invariably the question would get asked: “how long did it take to get the fish in” and the stock answer was “about three beers”.

It’s winter and the Bosch Boys are here for another winter test season. The other evening I met Earl and Steve by the airport for an hour or so of fishing before dark. The three of us caught four walleyes; two of which were 22″ & 24″ slot fish and three small saugers. That’s typical of this winters catch on the river.

Steve with a 22″ walleye

We’ve had some ice making weather and it’s time to ice fish. We were gone for the Thanksgiving holiday and I just got the little shanty put down by the bridge in front of the Baudette Bay. I would like to have put it down by the airport, but that access is no longer available. A recently installed ILS (Instrument Landing System)  means no vehicle traffic across the end of the runway. The 25-30 shanties that were normally in that area will now have to find other spots. The only other nearby access is the Peace Park in town, but that means going under the bridges and that is usually not the safest ice until into January. That could be a little earlier this year as there is about 7″ of ice on the river with very little current and not much snow cover.

That gets us to fishing. I opened up the holes yesterday and fished the last hour or so before dark. I caught a nice 24″ pike, a 25″ walleye and had another fish on briefly which I think was another pike, that was it. The almanac has better fishing in the morning so I went down before daybreak and had one bite and no fish; so much for the almanac. Others that I’ve talked to are finding river fishing much the same. I suspect that the slow Fall fishing on the river may carry over to the winter season.

I’ve heard that the south shore of the Lake has a lot of rough ice, but there are fish being caught.

Always know where to go early in the winter as the ice isn’t the same all over.

A nice 25″ walleye