It was cold and rainy as we headed through the Whiteshell on our way to Lake of the Woods on Monday of this week. Friend Phil Brake was making sure I had a pair of rain paints for him tucked away in the boat. Little did he know that he would still end up very wet and cold by the end of the day. After getting our rain gear on and launching the boat, I trolled out slowly from shore, checking to see what the water temperature was on my Humminbird 897. For me at this time of the year, the one most important component of finding fish is locating warmer water than the main lake basin. On this particular two day trip we tried a number of different areas. Our best success was once again in a shallow, mud bottom bay that seemed to attract huge schools of minnows along with the insect larvae that also provide a major food source for the walleye and pike that roamed here. With the overcast and rain, the fish were on the hunt, hitting anything that moved, including our six inch Rapala Husky Jerks. Phil had a green and silver pattern on and I had a gold one on…both worked.
Later in the day we switched over to narrowed down sections off the main lake, areas that flush water from back bays depending on wind direction. Again these spots did not disappoint. While we did catch some fish deeper than seven feet on jigs, that’s not where the main action was.
When the sun came out the next day, we had a good early morning bite but by high noon the shallow action became limited to small pike. Still it was a fantastic way to kick of the season in the south.