Ballard's - Lake of the Woods, Minnesota

North to Ballard’s…

Hello sportsfans.  And welcome to the weekly chase here at Ballard’s Resort on Minnesota’s Lake of the Woods.

Transition.  Late January.  Distance.  Mud flats.  Reefs.  There’s a gentle transition taking place on the south shore and for the time being it seems as though our guides have a pretty good handle on the fishing activity.

What’s the latest?  We are traveling.  Not exactly to the reefs.  But we are darn close to the first juncture of structure on the main basin.  Just south of the “nine-footer” to be exact.  And that puts us about 11 miles off-shore.

The focus in mainly on the mud flats in approximately 34 feet of water.  And what are we seeing?  A good combination of walleyes and saugers.

These past four to five days have produced more trophy sized walleyes than we have seen since December.  The largest of them being a 32” / 12 pounder that was caught and released last Wednesday.  It was the biggest walleye of the season thus far for the Ballard houses.

And since then…  There have been steady reports of 26’s, 27’s, 28’s, etc.  It’s pretty exciting.

The main focus?  The saugers are coming right on the bottom.  Pretty good table fair and lots of little guys to sort through during the day.  Our bonus has really been the walleyes.  And most of these better fish are coming in suspended.  Anywhere from a foot off the bottom to fifteen feet up.  It’s kinda crazy, but when you see ‘em on the locator, you have to reel up to the mark and hopefully entice the bite.  It’s not a given that these suspended walleyes will bite.  But when they do…  It’s most often a better bucket fish or maybe even a slot / trophy.

Bring your electronics and rent them here.  And catch more fish.

Jigging?  Colors remain pretty basic.  These past few days I’ve had good reports on glow white, and of course the mainstay gold.  You might even want to through a “rattler” or “stop-sign” into your arsenal.  It won’t hurt.

Other than making some minor bumps and moves these next few days the guides plan to sit tight until we start fishing down the numbers.  And it’s tough to tell how long that will take.  For the time being it seems as though we are on a fairly large school of fish.  How big?  Well.  Our fish houses are spread out in a 1 1/2 mile X 1 1/2 mile grid.  That cuts a pretty big swath and seems to be paying off with bountiful action.

Til next time.  It’s go time.  Fishing has been good.

Set the hook!