Lake of the Woods Fishing

We would trout fish in the morning and end of day, but the bulk of our fishing was spent chasing walleyes, which did not disappoint.  We found them primarily on reefs and points in varied depths ranging from 12 feet to 32 feet.  While we caught a lot of fish in Yellow Girl and Sunset Channel, the better quality fish all came out of Whitefish Bay.

And of course we had to do a shore lunch.....

Well after 23 months, I returned to Sioux Narrows, ON with the Canadian border now being opened once again.  It was great to see some of my old Canadian friends at the Rod & Reel Resort and catch up.  

This was the first time I have ever fished LOTW in August, but it did not take me long to get caught up (I had my first fish in the boat in 5 seconds)

Fishing was excellent and most times, I simply put the minnows away and just fished plastics on my 1/8 ounce jigs which worked out great as I had days with 100+ fish in the boat by myself.

Highlights of the time spent on LOTW included  when I was fishing and catching walleye and perch and was bringing one in  and all of a sudden the rod got heavy.  Well in the end, a musky hit my  walleye.  Normally, when this happens you may never get either fish as  the musky either spits out the walleye by the boat or he runs and breaks  the line.  Well, for whatever reason this time I got both in the net.   Musky normally t-bone their prey, but keep in mind, my jig was in the  walleyes mouth, so somehow when the musky hit the walleye, my line ended  up going through the walleyes lip and the jig ended up in the side of  the musky's mouth, so when I was fighting the musky, the walleye was along  for the ride.  In the end when I netted the musky, I got the walleye, musky and  my 1/8 ounce jig, all done while using 6# line.  

The reason I choose to fish the Whitefish Bay area is it is very centralized on the lake.  The result is we can fish for multiple species with great success.  An example would be one day we started the day off with catching a few nice eater size Lake Trout for the  smoker (24-26 inch), and then did some Smallmouth fishing and then onto  some nice quality Walleye fishing.  Lake of the Woods is still the most  versatile fishery I have ever fished, without a doubt!  

 I will be heading back up to LOTW in a few weeks with my daughter and son-in-law and am looking forward to another great trip! 

 Spent 8 days on LOTW over the Labor  Day holiday with a group of six fellow anglers.  My time was split  between doing some walleye fishing and also participating in my first  tournament, Bassin' for Bucks.  Both were fun and productive, but  ultimately we had to withdrawal from the tournament because of a bout  with what appeared to be food poisoning.  But I have to say, I learned a  lot about tournament fishing, the build up, the planning and also about  how the team must have a common direction and be able to adapt to  changes.  I also learned that I have much to learn about bass fishing on  LOTW, as most of my time is usually spent fishing for walleye when I am  there.  But regardless, it was a very educational event for me as I got  to fish areas on the water that I had never fished before and also use  techniques I had never applied before as well.   

 As far as the fishing, the group  caught a lot of fish during the trip including walleye, SMB, LMB,  crappie, perch, pike, sauger and also a few run-ins with some muskie as  well.  I did not spend as much time walleye fishing as I normally do on  LOTW, but the fish I did catch were very solid fish with the bigger ones  coming from the Whitefish Bay area.   

The highlight of my week came on the  last day fishing by myself when I landed my fish of the week, a 29 inch  walleye that weighted in at just under 10 pounds

So  my 2019 LOTW season has come to a close.  The entire Midwest of the US  and lower part of Canada experienced one of the most bizarre weather  years I have seen which caused fishermen this year to be very adaptive.   Having to be adaptive is not necessarily a bad thing though, as it  causes one to fish in manners and places outside one's comfort zone and  in the end one learns things that one may not have known before.