FTL Field Staff Pics – Pike & ‘eyes from LOTW

Jim Wernimont sent these out to us after a recent trip to LOTW. Looks to us like the fishing was mighty good Jim!

In his own words…”the fish were caught on Buffalo Bay on Lake OF the Woods. It was about 50-50 tip-ups to rods for the large jacks. Walleyes were caught on small spooons.

We were set-up on a slow break out in the middle of the bay(expansive flats.). We found a slight channel that topped out at about 10 feet down to 18. The

tip-ups were set in 10-12 and we jigged for walleyes in 13-15. We averaged 19-24 inch walleyes.

The real nice photo of that fattie jack measured 40 1/2 inches with a 21 inch girth. The tall goofy guy, his jack measured 40 on the nose. Most jacks averaged 36 inches on up.

Good fishin’,

EFN Webstaff

Hey all!

Thought I would add a couple things!

Lake of the Woods is an incredible fish factory with endless possibilities!

I have been fortunate enough to participate in a annual MArch Trip to this big lake for awhile now. A man could fish this lake his whole life and truly not fish all of the structure, bays, inlets etc etc.

One thing we noticed this past year is how the biter differs so much from the North end of the lake(Buffalo Bay) to the South.

All things considered, the Bay is relatively shallow with expansive flats. There are “channels” and reefs, but nothing drastic or as sudden as structure found near the South shore. In Buffalo Bay, we have found that setting up in subtle, yet significant structure and “slides” considering the true magnitude of this bay was the most prodcutive. Set your flags in shallower and spend the rest of your time jigging at varied, deeper spots.

OUr last day took us to the “16 mile reef”. WHat a change! From fishing in nothing deeper than 15 feet to now fishing in up to 32 feet of water. We caught a ton of fish in this deeper stuff, but all were very small! However, there were some very respectable Jumbo perch caught through out the day. INteresting change of pace to say the least!

ANother thing I have noticed more so on Lake of the Woods than anywhere else is the “Chain of Command”, “Pecking Order” or the “Chase” as I refer to it!

Every time(and I mean every) a flag flew or someone pulled in a Northern Pike, shortly there after, a respecatable walleye was landed. Early on, the excitement of large “Jacks” pulled through 3 feet of ice drew the attention of every member of our fishing team. The pattern was detected and less attention was given to 15-20 pound fish being pulled through, cause we knew the pickeral were soon to follow!

WHat “madness” these white-tipped fish create!?!

These fish, both Northern and Walleye, were feeding heavily on 1-3 inch perch! This was easily detected on the Vexilar. I called it “Star Wars”/ Hyperspace, watching the hundreds of light green flashes, zooming through up to about 5 feet from the bottom! Then the anticipation of that LARGE “mark” amidst the galaxy of perch!

I sat near a friend as we both gave “play by play” of what we observed on the Vexilar! “Oh my God”, there’s a huge mark”!! “He’s coming up, it’s gonna take it”…..(then a short pause as if we both were held in time). BAM!!

FISH ON!!!!!!!

Gotta love walleye fishing Lake of the Woods!!! I’ll see you next MArch old friend!

Keep the rods bendin’!!!

Jim W