Moved to Lake Of The Woods (LOTW)

Ben's nice 26.5" Walleye

Last Friday was the time to shift gears and retrieve the Salem wheel house from it's parked location at JR's and haul it up to Springsteel Island Resort on the southwest side of LOTW's.  Knowing Ben Aiona was going up there, his dad Kevin and Kevin's friend John Felix decided to join me.  The cold weather made a point to linger into the weekend with -35F predicted for Saturday night.  Meeting me at the pole shed we left by 8:00 AM on Friday with our intent on being at JR's by 12:30.  Arriving at JR's we backed the truck up to the wheel house only to see that my propane storage doors were wide open.  Damn, someone must have gotten in and took the 2-30 pound cylinders.  Kevin got to the doors and said Oh oh!  My heart sunk but he laughed and said he was sorry!  After hooking it up and securing the doors the plan was to start the furnace and let it run the 90 minutes to Warroad.  After bidding Adam at JR's a good bye till next year, I paid the storage fee and took off.  It never got warmer than -11 F and that was near Deerwood, MN and   by the time we hooked up it was back down to -15.  Our next stop was the Warroad Cenex station to get minnows, fill up the truck, and fill up the assumed now empty propane tank.  Part of the idea to start the furnace was to get it warm but also there was still propane left in the original tank and wanted to empty it.  Everyone said I should not run the furnace while pulling the house but it seemed to work out OK.  At the Cenex they are gracious enough to only charge you for what they put in it and to my surprise it still had 5 pounds left.  That was a lot of run time on that cylinder, 2.5 days on Red and at least an hour and a half of steady running on the road.  With the propane full, the minnow bucket running, the truck full of gas we were ready for a cold adventure.  After paying the road access we called Ben who had met us 6 miles out on the road and guided us near where he was settled in.  Kevin is getting pretty good at helping to get set up and did a great job as we were fishing within 20 minutes of arriving, just in time for the evening bite.  We managed a few keepers the rest of the day however the cold weather kept the bit to a minimum.  The next day, Saturday, would prove to be more eventful.  We caught a number of nicer 15 - 16 inch saugers and walleyes while Ben, just 20 yards from us managed to bring in a nice 26.5" walleye.  It was definitely chilly out but we managed to keep more than enough fish to go in for a fish fry at the resort.  It's a pretty good deal as one gets diced fried potatoes, cole slaw, beans, and they fried my fish in the gluten free batter for me.  It was a nice change not to have to make and clean up after eating!  After a filling supper we headed back 7 miles out on the ice to turn on the television and relax for the evening.

Sunday's catch

Ben got up and left Sunday morning while our plan was to stay and leave Monday morning.  It still never got above zero with Saturday night low was -34.  By the time we got up it was already up to -28!  We stayed the rest of Sunday getting a fish here and there.  I would not say that it was on fire but it certainly was better than Red Lake was 4 weeks ago and although the numbers were not as good as fishing Lake Winnebigoshish 2 weeks earlier, the number of keepers was significantly better, as we had fairly consistent action throughout the day.  We were surprised at the clarity of the water as LOTW tends to have dingy water.  This lead to a few rattle reels going off after dark.  AT midnight on Sunday one went off and no one got up to service the line so I got out of my warm sleeping bag and found the reel that had my line marker bobber underneath the water, felt it and set the hook.  It was a nice walleye and when I got her up I was impressed, nicest one of the trip in our house.  I put it in the fish pail, reset the rattle reel and hopped back into the sleeping bag.  After about 30 seconds the thought came to me, damn that was a nice walleye, but I failed to measure it.  On LOTW all walleyes over 19.5 inches have to be released.  So, back out of the sleeping bag and over to the fish bucket, pull her out and got the measuring tape that is on the slush dipper, 21 inches, back in the hole she went.  Luckily she swam right away.  No need to get the ice house confiscated over 1.5 inches of walleye.  Again we woke up to under -20 but decided to get packed up as Keven and John had at least an 8 hour trip ahead of them.  Stopping at the Springsteel Island fish cleaning house they had made some improvements such as running water to clean up everything.  We ended up parking the Salem at my friend Dave Johnson's place at the resort, ready for the next trip.  I suppose we caught around 30 - 40 fish total with 20 keepers that we either ate or brought home.  The plan is to leave it there till the middle of March when my good friend Bill Dull from Southern California is flying up to try ice fishing.  It's too bad he didn't come this time and experience what the real cold feels like!  I am trying to arrange a big group so he will have the full feel of an ice fishing adventure in Northern Minnesota.  As a side note the road we were on is the beginning of the ice road that runs across LOTW to the Northwest Angle, an isolated part of Minnesota the is usually only accessible by going through Canada either by highways or motoring across the lake via the portion that is in the United States.  The ice road has been important for the residents of the Northwest Angle as the Covid restrictions have limited their options to return to their properties.  It's a pretty good deal as the road provides easier access to those resorts in that area for guest to get there.  Snowmobiling is an option but it limits what  you can bring.  I know last week's weather sure made ice!