Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

A couple of times each year, we head north to do some fishing on Lake of the Woods, once during the summer and again during the winter.

If you’ve never been up north, it’s quite a treat as it’s big water where there are hundreds and hundreds of icehouses on the ice, every size, shape and variety.

As a matter of fact, this year, the Zippel Bay Igloo made its appearance on the ice.

Resembling a large igloo, this large icehouse/bar is a big attraction as it has a full bar, big screen TV, tables and benches where you can not only eat a pizza, you have an opportunity to wet a line while enjoying your favorite drink.

The largest fish taken by anglers in the Igloo is a 48” northern that Desire, the young lady that runs the establishment took the first week in February.

Ice fishing is extremely popular on Lake of the Woods, part of the reason being that in the winter you’re allowed to use two rods and the limit for walleye and sauger is raised to eight (4 walleyes and 4 sauger).

Walleyes are the larger cousin of the sauger, reaching over 10 pounds with the average size probably being in the 2 to 4 pound class.

Walleyes are identified by their greenish gold color along with the white tip on their lower tail fin.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

Lake of the Woods features lots of eating-size

walleyes such as this one caught by Jon Thelen

Lindy/Little Joe representative. (Journal photo by Larry Myhre)

BAUDETTE, Minn. — The snow covered ice of massive Lake of the Woods stretched out before us like the surface of the moon.

The nicely manicured ice road was easy to negotiate. We were about five miles out from Zippel Bay to find the ice house where we would headquarter for our early morning fishing start.

Nick Painovich, owner with his wife Deanna of Zippel Bay Resort, guided us to the house which he said was located on a shallower rock rubble bar which had produced walleyes in the early and late hours of the day.

Jon Thelen, Lindy/Little Joe rep from Crystal, Minn., opened the ice house door and immediately took over the hole in the northeast corner of the shack.

I remembered then that Nick had told us last year that it always seemed the hole on the northeast produced the most fish.

Jon remembers details like that and after dropping the transducer of his Hummingbird flasher down the hole, he sent down a minnow-tipped Lindy Rattlin’ Flyer Spoon.

Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb, Nick and I were soon in operation as well.

But, we had lingered too long over breakfast at the resort and had missed the early bite. Nick soon had us on our way to another house in deeper water.

With Jon at the northeast hole, we began to jig and began to catch fish.

It was the little saugers that provided the first action. There is a huge year-class of 10-inch saugers coming on now that by next summer and winter will be in that nice keeper size. But, for now we sent them back.

Then the walleyes showed up. Jon scored first with a 15-incher on a Frostee jigging lure tipped with a minnow head.

It was a good way to break the ice (pardon the pun) and we were soon on the way to putting several eating-sized walleyes (known locally as “bucket fish”) in our bucket.

The hottest lure that day seemed to be the Frostee jig, but we also caught fish on the Flyin’ Rattlin Spoon, the the Genz worm in gold color. Minnow head or live minnow, it didn’t seem to matter.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

It was a quiet, late November afternoon when Ron Peterson, publisher of the Journal walked into my office in the newsroom.

He sat in the chair across from my desk where, as editor of the newspaper, I was scanning our news budget before heading up the meeting with the floor editors to decide what the next day’s paper would look like.

“What would you think of producing an outdoor tabloid which we distribute free throughout our area?” he asked.

As the paper’s outdoor writer since 1973, it didn’t take long for me to answer.

“I think it would be a great idea,” I said.

And so it started, a free tabloid devoted to teaching Siouxlanders more about hunting and fishing in our area and throughout the upper Midwest.

The first issue, one of six to be published each year, hit the streets in late January of 2004.

The cover photo was of Dave Genz, known as the father of modern day ice fishing. He was on the ice holding a walleye. I had taken that photo a year earlier on Devil’s Lake in North Dakota.

The whole issue was devoted to ice fishing .… Continue reading

The Big O crankbait is a fishing lure with a storied past going back nearly 45 years. It’s still my first choice of smallmouth crankbaits on the channelized Missouri and elsewhere. (Journal photo by Larry Myhre) Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

I’d like to have a penny for every time I’ve cast out a Big O crankbait.

Oh, I’d still be sittin’ here writin’ fishing stories, but the view would be a lot better. West Okoboji lakefront is what I’m thinking.

But, back to reality. Back to the Big O, one fine fish catching machine.

I first used the Big O back in the mid 1970s. In those days I opened the bass fishing season on Lake Geneva in Minnesota every year.

The Big O was my go-to crankbait then and, I’m here to tell you, it still is today.

The Big O has a long and proud history.

The lure, which is made of plastic today, was originally carved of Balsa wood. Fred Young carved the first Big O lure in 1967.

Fred’s brother Odis field tested the lures. He was six feet, six inches tall so it is easy to see how the lure got its name.… Continue reading

Gotcha! I’ll bet you are asking, “what does a fishing guide, like Duane, know about deer hunting?” Well, while I do deer hunt in the fall, I am talking about the white-tipped tails of walleyes.

In the fall, the walleyes that have been buried in the weeds all summer start to move out to where we can locate them easily. And, when we find them, they are usually hungry. They seem to be bulking up in time for the cooler water to come. However, they are not everywhere. They may be holed up in some unlikely areas where you probably haven’t looked for them in the last 12 months; in fact, you may never have looked for them in some of the spots where they are found in the fall.

As the air temperatures cool in the fall, many lakes go through a turnover. Usually in deep clear lakes, a thermocline (a steep temperature gradient marked by a layer above and below which the water is at different temperatures) develops throughout the summer. Using an underwater camera, we have witnessed a thick layer of dense milky matter that forms at the thermocline level. Low oxygen and poor light levels below the thermocline prevent much fish activity in deeper water. As the surface water cools, it starts to sink causing a turnover action with the warmer water immediately below. In shallower lakes, it usually causes decaying weeds to float to the surface. Once the water clears, it is “game on!”… Continue reading

Lake of the Woods lies along the border between Minnesota and Canada.

It’s an impressive body of water and the home of some of the finest fishing that you’ll find anywhere. When most anglers think of Lake of the Woods, the first thing that enters their mind is walleye, as this isn’t called the “Walleye Capital of the World” for no reason.

The walleye and sauger fishing on the lake is unbelievable with numerous year classes found throughout the lake.

Lake of the Woods is much more than just a walleye lake as it has excellent populations of muskie, smallmouth bass, northern pike, perch and crappie. And for those of you who want to go after “really” big fish there’s sturgeon fishing in the Rainy River

With over 6500 miles of shoreline, and 4,000 islands there’s a lot to explore on Lake of the Woods.

Fishing is excellent on all corners of the lake as the Northwest Angle, South Shore and Rainy River all offer excellent fishing.

With every trip to the lake, we find something more interesting and exciting going on in the area.

Two weeks ago, Larry Myhre, Sioux City, IA. and I made a trip up north to spend a little time with our good friends Nick and Deanna Painovich at Zippel Bay Resort.

We’ve fished several times with the folks up there and on every trip it seems like learn a little more about the lake and fishing.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

Fords Hunting
Guide Service

Chris Ford, has been guiding bear hunters since 1995. Today he also guides for deer and fish on Lake of the Woods as well as offering island transport and tours.

He typically puts out 110 to 120 bear baits and narrows that down to only the best ones come hunting season.

The first week of this year’s season he had 11 clients and nine of them took bears with 18 opportunities. The second week five hunters had five opportunities and killed three bears.

For more information about his hunts, go to www.fordshuntingguideservice.com

BAUDETTE, Minn. —  The forest had gone dead quiet. The camp robber jays had disappeared. The red squirrel which had been prancing back and forth in front of our ground blind for the past hour was no where to be seen.

I thought I saw movement in the brush behind our bait pile, a hole filled with donuts and pastries covered by logs.
And then it was there. A black bear and it was a shooter.

I nudged Gary and pointed, turning on the video camera at the same time.
He brought his Escort .270 mounted with a 3 X 9 scope to his shoulder and waited.

The camera was running and the bear stepped into view broadside a mere 25 yards away.
I heard Gary slide the safety off…and so did the bear. He was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

We were disappointed but it was only 5:30 p.m. There was plenty of time for another chance.h

We were hunting with Ford’s Guide Service out of Williams,  Minn. Our headquarters was Zippel Bay Resort where Chris Ford pus up his bear hunters.

Chris had said we were on a good bait so we were confident there would be another bear that evening.
But the real story happened in another ground blind a few miles away.

There Terry Ubben, Ankony, Iowa, was sitting alone watching his bait when there was a noise behind him.
He turned and saw a big bear poking his nose into the back window. He also noticed the bear’s paw  under the blind.
Then the bear tried stick his head under the blind.
Twice.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

Picture a lake map GPS chip that you could slip into your depth finder that is so accurate it shows contour lines in increments of one foot.

It is so precise that it literally draws a picture of the lake’s bottom.

Coupled with your GPS/sonar you can now place your boat on the exact spot on the map.

Star Wars technology?

Not any more.

Enter LakeMaster, a new company dedicated to bringing the angler accurate fishing maps.

It is a division of Waypoint Technologies, Inc., a privately-owned company located in Little Falls, Minn.

Their goal is to produce the most accurate lake maps available. Their products include high quality paper maps, PC computer software packages and digital GPS lake map cards.… Continue reading

Those of us, who have been patiently waiting for the warmer weather to get here, have gotten our wish.

This is the time of the year when the temperatures will start to rise, as will the humidity, making for perfect conditions for nasty weather and tougher walleye fishing conditions.

This time of the year, fish have a lot of different conditions they have to adjust or relate to including: rising water temperatures, rising/falling barometric pressure, high water, low water and the summers bright sunlight all making walleye fishing during the Dog Days of summer tough.

There are a few keys to locating and catching fish this time of the year.  Deeper water and areas with less sunlight penetration are where the fish will be located this time of the year.

With the rise in water temperatures, walleyes and other species of fish will head into deeper water searching out comfortable water temperatures.

These deep-water haunts provide the cooler water temperatures that the fish need to survive when things heat up.

There are several reasons that the fish will relocate into the depths. Another of these is that their food source, baitfish has moved down bringing the predator fish with them.

There are several methods that will allow you to take these Deep-water fish, those that have worked well for me are: leadcore line, snap weights or downriggers dragging crankbaits.

During this time of the year, the movement of the fish can vary drastically, especially just prior to a sever weather change.… Continue reading

Jon Thelen, walleye fishing pro from Crystal, Minn., knows the importance of properly measuring walleyes
before putting them in the livewell. Nearly every lake we fish today has some type of length limit on this popular gamefish.

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal.
If you are fishing walleyes or bass on public waters now days, a ruler important a piece of equipment as your fishing rod.

Can you think of a lake which does not have a length limit on either walleyes or bass.

Well, sure. There are some.

But, not many.

If you don’t know how to measure a fish, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law.

Jon Thelen, walleye fishing pro from Crystal, Minn., knows the importance of properly measuring walleyes before putting them in the livewell. Nearly every lake we fish today has some type of length limit on this popular gamefish.

That’s why we asked Jon Thelen to give us a short course on how to measure a fish properly.

Thelen makes his living fishing.

He’s a former PWT professional and now makes his living promoting fishing through his business Professional Angling Promotions.… Continue reading