First ever LOTW Trip next week

Taking my first ever LOTW trip next week, actually first ever “ice fishing trip” anywhere for me. Going out of Arneson’s day fish houses.

Heading to the local store this weekend before we take off next week. What should I stock up on to bring with as far as hooks, jigs, spoons, colors, etc.?

I’ll be mainly fishing with a TUCR Precision. My only other “quality” rod is a Bullwhip, if I take off my 2lb test and replace it with something heavier for this trip, think it would be okay? The Bullwhip should handle most LOTW walleye okay (sounds like we can maybe expect quantity in the low – mid teen lengths, but maybe not quality in the mid to upper 20″ lengths) but I’d hate/love to get into a large Northern with it.

You should be good with both of those rods. For tackle I bring up an assortment of spoons. For color Red, Gold and chartreuse have always been good in different sizes depending on how finicky the fish are being.

Have one rod for jigging and the other for a dead stick. I use a plane red circle hook on my dead stick hooked with a whole minnow. For my jiggling rod I’ll tip my lure with a minnow head. Definitely bring or borrow a flasher unit. That is probably the number one thing you will need.

Also I caught this on my precision rod.

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KP wrote:

Definitely bring or borrow a flasher unit. That is probably the number one thing you will need.

Thanks for the reply. We’ll be bringing a couple back up ones just in case too- hate to travel that far and have the backups at home. Do fish suspend or hug the bottom there?

Your rods will be fine. I’ve done very well on a variety of colors of #4 rippin raps and various other lipless crankbaits with rattles in them and a bit of glow on them to attract the fish. Work them a bit, but don’t over work them and when you see a fish come in on your finder, play the game of cat and mouse and try to get the fish come up and smack them. Also, if you see higher marks, quickly get above them because often larger fish are roaming higher in the water column.

It’s common to call walleyes in with something that rattles and then they’ll hit your dead rod.
You usually don’t see fish constantly but you’ll have dead periods and suddenly they are just there.
Jigging raps can be good too and they are good for pounding bottom. Again, don’t overwork them as a rule.
Another good lure for me on LOTW has been slab raps. If the fish will call in with something that rattles but won’t take it, reel it up and drop a slab rap, work it a bit and just let it hang motionless for 10 seconds or so. It’s suprising how often a fish will just be there when you jig it again.
A lot of presentations will work and sometimes a jig and minnow will work as good as anything or even your best choice. Frozen shiners are always good, but don’t be afraid to try fatheads or even frozen shiners and fatheads on the same hook.
With all the snow on the lake, no matter what you use, something with some glow may be a good choice too or at least it’d be on my list to try.
Just my 2 cents.
Have a blast!

Most of the time they hug the bottom foot but like Karry said when you see a mark up high get to it fast.

Based on my trips to LOW ice fishing, don’t expect a night bite. We’ve stayed in sleeper shacks several times and you could count the walleyes we caught at night on one hand. Best of luck.

I will have my set line between 1′-2′ off and jig from 2′-10′ off. Call in the active one’s.

You’re going to have a great time up there!

Stop by Steve’s Lucky Bait right when you get up to Baudette and he will point you in the right direction lure-wise, plus he’s one of those characters that shouldn’t be missed. Generally I like to have at least one bigger rattlin rap/chubby darter etc bait down to draw them in, and set lines or gold/red rattlin flyers/buckshots to close the deal.

Just got back from Arneson’s Wednesday. Make sure you get your digestive business out of the way before you go out to the day shack.

We had to work for our fish but in the end the trip was a success. I’ve never changed up lures as much as I did on this trip.

Most consistent lures were
UV Firetiger Slab Rap
Lindy Rattlin Flyer
Googley eye white glow jig (~3/8 oz)
Pink and white glow jig/minnow
Small glow red spoon
large gold jig/minnow
Deadstick red hook fathead or shiner – one had #8 Sureset treble with fathead

I’d find that I’d change up the lure, drop it down and that would spark a change and get a hit right away. Maybe another right away and then nothing. More often than not bites came after a change up.

I used a large shiner on a deadstick 2 solid days and got one bump on it, that’s all. Smaller minnows worked better. Arenson’s minnows are mostly crappie minnows so if you want real fatheads or shiners, bring your own.

Lots of small fish. Guide came and checked on us once and my partner said to him “I’m working on getting a 20″ walleye, 5” at at time.

Also, of the 2 days we were there, no consistency on the time when they would bite. Long streaks of not even marking fish. If that happens, don’t give up, they will move in.

Anything gold, glow green, glow red, chartreuse, rippin raps size 4 5 or 6, and plain red hooks with split shots. Tip jigging hooks with minnow heads. Don’t expect a night bite and on that part of the lake mornings are usually pretty hot. Expect to catch a bunch of small ones but don’t be discouraged the big girls will come.

BigWerm wrote:

Stop by Steve’s Lucky Bait right when you get up to Baudette and he will point you in the right direction lure-wise, plus he’s one of those characters that shouldn’t be missed. Generally I like to have at least one bigger rattlin rap/chubby darter etc bait down to draw them in, and set lines or gold/red rattlin flyers/buckshots to close the deal.

Tell Steve ron and Eric told you to swing in and he will give you a good deal. Steve is my buddies uncle. We live up there weeks at a time through out the year.

This was out fishing most anything when I was in that area.

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I’ve had the best success in using something that’s not common. Best thing to throw at them is something new that they might not have seen before. I’m curious to see how the bite is going and how far they have the shacks out.

Bite was good for us on Saturday but Sunday was slow. Was out about 18 miles.

3 trucks went through in warroad the last 2 days

Bearcat89 wrote:

3 trucks went through in warroad the last 2 days

Did they venture off the roads?

KP wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
3 trucks went through in warroad the last 2 days

Did they venture off the roads?

The video looked like it was on the road

how does that happen? isn’t there like 3 feet of ice?

Yeah, curious to hear how that’s happening? Wind and snow breaking up the roads?

We do an annual “first week of March” guys trip every year. Most years ice is good. Year before last it was so slushy they were only taking the Geos out and constantly getting stuck.

Really looking forward to this years trip since February has been a bust for me getting out much.

phishingruven01 wrote:

how does that happen? isn’t there like 3 feet of ice?[/quote

Snow and water on the ice. Lots of weight. I’d assume it creates bad pockets. Constantly driving through standing water and moving it back and forth probably causes a bad spot. But I’m not sure I am only a fisherman not a scientific ice researcher

mnrabbit wrote:

Taking my first ever LOTW trip next week, actually first ever “ice fishing trip” anywhere for me. Going out of Arneson’s day fish houses.

MNrabbit how did you do? I’ll be heading to up Thursday and staying out of Ballards.

KP wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mnrabbit wrote:</div>
Taking my first ever LOTW trip next week, actually first ever “ice fishing trip” anywhere for me. Going out of Arneson’s day fish houses.

MNrabbit how did you do? I’ll be heading to up Thursday and staying out of Ballards.

I was hoping for more fish, but overall it was okay and lots of fun. For 3 guys, day one we kept 8 walleye and 3 nice perch, day 2 was 9 walleye and 2 perch. Looks/sounds like most groups were similar to us. Caught 2 that were in the low 20s”, one just under the 19.5″ slot, a few in the 15-18″ range, and lots in the 3-8″ range and 10-13″ range.

Nothing really stood out being too consistent as far as colors or jigs. I switched jigs constantly, set myself a 5-10 minute limit with each jig if a fish wasn’t caught. One guy in our group did not switch jigs more than a couple times the entire 2 days, he caught significantly less fish (day 2 was only one the entire day for him). Seemed that most fish were caught within the first 0-30 seconds of the new jig being presented. Tried pretty much all of the different jigs, spoons, raps, etc. and colors that have been commonly mentioned on here. My “confidence” jigs that I kept going back to and seemed to catch a fish each time I presented it were a pink glow buckshot and a red glow buckshot. Also caught a fair amount on the bobber line, plain red or green hook with minnow- seemed to catch more on this line when VERY aggressively jigging a rattlin flyer spoon next to it.

Didn’t see much for marks for suspended fish, everything was right off the bottom. Most of our fish were caught between about 7:30-noon. The afternoons were very very slow. However our two nicest fish were both caught about 4:30-5:00 while we had the whole shack packed up minus one rod each and flasher, waiting for the track van to come pick us up.

Glad to hear it was a good time! It definitely pays to change up lures as much as you can but it can get old doing so.

How far out on the ice were they taking you out? Normally this time of year they take you out pretty far.

KP wrote:

How far out on the ice were they taking you out? Normally this time of year they take you out pretty far.

Day one was 2 miles, day 2 was just under 3 miles. I was a little surprised, lots of reports I read were saying 20ish miles so I assumed we were in for a long ride.

mnrabbit wrote:

Day one was 2 miles, day 2 was just under 3 miles. I was a little surprised, lots of reports I read were saying 20ish miles so I assumed we were in for a long ride.

Thats interesting because normally this time of year they are farther out on the ice. Most time its a 40 to 50-minute bomber ride out. But I bet it was nice to have a short ride out which means more time fishing.

KP wrote:

Thats interesting because normally this time of year they are farther out on the ice. Most time its a 40 to 50-minute bomber ride out. But I bet it was nice to have a short ride out which means more time fishing.

At Arnesen’s? I’ve only been there once, but I thought they always stuck pretty close to home. I know the Wheeler’s Point area resorts were running out a long ways up by the islands, I didn’t know Arnesen’s does that as well…

BigWerm wrote:

At Arnesen’s? I’ve only been there once, but I thought they always stuck pretty close to home. I know the Wheeler’s Point area resorts were running out a long ways up by the islands, I didn’t know Arnesen’s does that as well…

Didnt just mean Arnesen’s. Thought in general, most resorts went farther out this time of year but I’ve only been out of The Wigwam and Sportsmans.

KP wrote:

Didnt just mean Arnesen’s. Thought in general, most resorts went farther out this time of year but I’ve only been out of The Wigwam and Sportsmans

No worries, that’s what I figured. Arnesen’s has a ton of structure close to the resort, and as far as I’m aware they keep their houses in that area all year.

We just got back from Ballards on Wednesday fished Monday-Tuesday. Took us out 20 miles 50 minute ride. No slot fish but 3 of us took our 2 day limit. And also caught some ice perch in the 12 to 14 inch range a few northern and a burbot. We were also switching baits constantly and using minnow heads. The gold spoon with glow sticks worked best. Wardens were out checking licenses on Monday.