A audience and avid Lake regarding the Woods fisherman took us to process last week for a recently available tale we composed of a Campbell, Minn., angler whom boated “at least 60” walleyes over 25 ins during a June day at the lake that is big.
TJ Harig, who supported his claim by sharing a few pictures he may never experience again with me, said his two days on Lake of the Woods served up the kind of fishing. According to Lake for the Woods laws, which need fishermen to produce walleyes from 19ВЅ ins to 28 ins, Harig stated he circulated every one of the big walleyes but in addition caught eater-size fish.
I am a sucker for the good seafood tale, and section of my work is sharing the successes (and problems) of hunters, fishermen and other out-of-doors enthusiasts thus I was fast to bite whenever Harig shared their story. It had been probably the most story that is read our web site for at the very least 2 days operating.
In addition, in all honesty, amongst the pandemic and storm harm from a recently available and ongoing barrage of serious climate at our property in northwest Minnesota, come early july it appears i am being forced to fish vicariously through the stories and experiences of other people.
My buddies will attest that this unwelcome turn of occasions has made me personally quite cranky, in certain cases.
‘Pretty disappointed’
My tale on Harig’s day at Lake of this Woods, which later was included in WCCO into the Twin Cities, possessed an effect that is similar a fisherman whoever household for many years has owned a cabin regarding the south coast regarding the Lake of this Woods and fishes there often.
“Pretty disappointed,” was their reaction to the tale.
“Not yes why anybody may wish to inform that tale, specially because bad as the fishing has gotten in the last couple of years as a result of pressure that is extreme the pond,” he published. “Maybe you would wish to accomplish an account regarding the more practical side of the individual that has fished the pond for around 50 years that can’t scarcely get a keeper anymore between mid-June and September.”
Simply the week that is previous he stated he’d spent more than 15 hours fishing Lake associated with the Woods and caught just two keepers.
“when I see or read an account similar to this i recently bristle!” he had written. “we wish their next 10 trips are just like mine so he defintely won’t be therefore fast to boast.”
He included: “One thing has to be achieved to either decrease stress or limitations (or both), but a ‘one in a million’ tale like this does not assist.”
Whilst the reaction that is harsh me personally off-guard, i’ve had comparable issues, specially in regards to the degree of cold weather fishing force on Lake of this Woods. Within a mid-February snowmobile/ice fishing visit to Oak Island in the Northwest Angle, we saw plowed roadways and a town of wheelhouses most of the option to Garden Island, some 25 kilometers through the south shore for the pond.
Time was, you aren’t a snowmobile had that area of the pond just about to by by by themselves.
A number of columns we composed concerning the boost in wintertime fishing stress produced tremendous reaction from other fishermen, nearly all of who additionally had concerns in regards to the quantity ice fishing force.
The figures are staggering.
Centered on outcomes from the creel study the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources carried out this winter that is past fishermen logged almost 2.8 million hours of ice fishing time in the big lake from December through March, smashing the prior record of 2.1 million hours through fitness singles mobile the cold temperatures of 2019.
This previous cold temperatures’s number probably could have been even greater in the event that pandemic had not brought go to a screeching halt within the last half of March.
Fishermen additionally kept an approximated 243,803 pounds of walleyes and 461,240 pounds of saugers this previous cold temperatures. In contrast, fishermen during the cold winter of 2019 kept 370,000 pounds of walleyes and 479,000 pounds of saugers.
Therefore, harvest this previous wintertime was down, despite an amazing rise in fishing stress, in line with the DNR creel study outcomes.
Away from stability?
Another longtime Lake of this Woods fisherman from my hometown of Roseau, Minn., this week told me he believes the pond may be out of stability and contains a lot of big walleyes, seafood that either autumn in the slot that is protected are also bigger.
“It is a phenomenon that is strange you are fishing and you also set the hook and you also state it seems too large and no body gets the web very fast,” he said. “then you definitely set the hook and state, ‘This feels like a keeper.’ Man, (they) obtain the net today since you’re finally likely to get anyone to consume.”
We shared the 2 anglers’ frustrations with Phil Talmage, area fisheries manager when it comes to DNR in Baudette, Minn. The DNR’s annual fall population survey on Lake of the Woods, which begins the Tuesday after Labor Day and continues for 17 consecutive days, yielded walleye and sauger numbers that both exceeded DNR management goals as i reported in December.
The study produced good variety of 13- to 15-inch saugers and abundance that is above-average of- to 19-inch walleyes; 13- to 14-inch walleyes had been somewhat below historic averages in final autumn’s study.
Expected this week exactly how he would answer the declare that Lake of this Woods is going of stability, Talmage stated present laws do a job that is”great of protecting spawning-size seafood, which means that the abundance of bigger walleyes is certainly not astonishing.
“We do monitor the fishery that is entire near, and also at this time around we’ve great amounts of seafood underneath the protected slot,” Talmage stated; “keepers” significantly less than 19ВЅ inches, to phrase it differently.
If fishermen are not getting keeper-size walleyes in time-worn locations, Talmage indicates attempting areas that are different.
“They may be on the market,” he stated. “Lake regarding the Woods is a sizable and powerful pond, and walleye can maneuver around a great deal.”
Wherever you stay on Lake of this Woods, its fishing stress and present walleye populace styles, be nice to your messenger.
The final time we caught a walleye, and on occasion even had a chance to catch them, was within my February ice fishing visit to Lake of this Woods.
Perhaps i am using this pandemic too really, but i have very nearly forgotten just what a walleye seems like. And it’s really making me crankier each day.
Having said that, I would be inquisitive to listen to your thinking if you are A lake that is frequent of Woods angler; strike me up.