By: Jeff Gustafson

It’s been a couple weeks since my first report on hookedmagazine.ca but I’ve been on the water fishing every day!  We’ve gone through some ups and downs in the weather over the past few weeks but through it all the fishing has been pretty good!

I’ve spent most of my time chasing crappies, walleyes and lake trout with a few pike, whitefish and perch mixed in. That’s the beauty of Sunset Country, there are so many great multi-species fishing opportunities.

So what is the hottest bite on the ice right now?  I’d have to give the nod to Lake of the Woods walleyes.  The walleye fishery on “Woods” is in great shape with good numbers of eater size 14-17 inch walleyes and plenty of big fish mixed in.  Focus on 22-26 feet of water early and late in the day and 28-32 feet during the middle of the day.

I usually live and die with a ¼ oz Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon but the other day I was getting a lot of lookers and wasn’t having a lot of luck hooking up.  I switched up to a ¼ oz Northland Macho Minnow – a new spoon on the market this winter and absolutely LIT UP the walleyes.  The fish were a  little bit finicky and the Macho Minnow is a much quieter spoon than the Buck-Shot - it was what they wanted.  The Macho Minnow comes with a ‘kicker fin’ metal tail on it that gently bangs against the hook to create a subtle sound.  Tip these spoons with a minnow-head, fish them on a Northland 28” medium action Pro-Angler Ice Rod, a 1500 Shimano Sedona reel and 8 lb Power Pro Braid.

I don’t keep a lot of fish, but I like to feast on a few walleyes or crappies every once in a while.  I can clean walleyes pretty fast from years of experience cleaning them for shore lunches when I guided  for resorts on Lake of the Woods.  It was always a bit of a competition with the other guides so that pushed you to do it quick as well as do a good job.  If you butchered a fillet, you would be ridiculed so you learned to do it right.

Crappies on the other hand, I hate cleaning.  It’s not that they are tough to clean, they just have thick bones, spines on most of their fins and big scales.  They just aren’t as easy as a walleye.  Over the years I’ve heard about folks using an electric knife to clean crappies but I never tried one until recently.  I got myself a Rapala Cordless Fillet Knife Set and this thing is a beauty for cleaning crappies…I can’t believe I didn’t start using one of these knives years ago.  If you like to keep a few crappies, go get yourself one!!!  These electric knives come in a hard, durable case that includes a charger and extra blades.