Try this great recipe with your next fresh Walleye Dinner
Ingredients
1 pound baby red potatoes
1 pound baby yellow potatoes
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup olive oil
French Potato Salad
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tablespoon each minced fresh chervil, parsley and chives
1 teaspoon minced fresh tarragon
Directions
Place potatoes in a large saucepan; add water to cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook, uncovered, 10-15 minutes or until tender. Remove potatoes to a colander with a slotted spoon; cool slightly. Return water to a boil. Add garlic; cook, uncovered, 1 minute. Remove garlic and immediately drop into ice water. Drain and pat dry; mince. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking liquid.
Cut cooled potatoes into 1/4-inch slices. Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk reserved cooking liquid, oil, vinegar, mustard, minced garlic, salt and pepper until blended. Pour over potato mixture; toss gently to coat. Gently stir in remaining ingredients. Serve warm or at room temperature.
You can enjoy French potato salad at any temperature, but my personal favorite is chilled. This light potato salad with no mayo and lots of fresh herbs is simple and a perfect side dish for any summer cookout!
If you’re looking to add a little more to your French potato salad, try capers! You can finely chop them and add them to your dressing or use them whole as a garnish. Capers add bold salty flavor, along with some acidity, to any dish.
On the south end… Fishing has been excellent. Good numbers of walleyes being caught in 18′ – 28′ of water. There is high water in the area but most lodging facilities have adjusted to accommodate. Most boat ramps are open including Wheeler’s Point.
Most anglers are still vertical jigging. Anchor up and jigging with an emerald shiner or fathead has been very productive. Bright colors like gold, glow, pink, orange, chartreuse or a combo of these colors works well.
Jumbo Perch
Some good reports for those drifting spinners this week. Try either a minnow ro half crawler.
A few anglers who are trolling crankbaits are catching as well. Gold continues to be a good color for both crankbaits and spinner blades.
Walleyes, saugers, pike, jumbo perch and an occasional pike, crappie or sturgeon in the mix on Big Traverse Bay.
On the Rainy River… The river has a lot of current with the dam wide open and high water levels. Despite the current, some have figured out where the walleyes are and are doing well.
Current breaks adjacent to shorelines or the mouth of bays have been productive for those fishing the river. Once you find fish, there are normally good numbers.
Bays have been good for pike. Rocky current break areas for smallmouth bass.
Up at the NW Angle… A really great week of fishing on both sides of the border. Most anglers are targeting walleyes and catching good numbers of fish with an occasional trophy.
Again, a jig and minnow was by far the most common method vertically jigged below the boat. Some anglers finding fish deep, over 30′. Others are still finding fish shallow, trolling spinners and crankbaits in 5′ – 18′.
Shoreline structure during the first and last hours of the day is also producing nicely.
A mixed bag with walleyes, saugers, pike, smallmouth bass, crappies and jumbo perch.
Various ways to travel to the Angle.
1. Drive through Canada to the Angle (must be vaccinated, no covid test required)
2. LOW Passenger Service (charter boat service across the lake avoiding customs)
3. Lake Country Air.(fly from various Midwest locations to LOW and NW Angle)
4. Take your own boat. (Safety first, this is a 40 mile ride over big water)
If you are interested in a fun and easy way to catch walleyes and saugers on Lake of the Woods, fishing on a charter boat might be right down your alley. Right now, one of the main techniques to catch walleyes is vertical jigging. This is not only enjoyable, it is effective. There are some nuances to jigging that will help you put more fish in the boat and in the below video, we give you just a few of those valuable tips.
Bump the bottom with your jig. The noise and vibration is sensed by walleyes as they have a lateral line that helps them hone in on a potential meal. They also have an inner ear that can hear different frequencies and bumping the bottom will give noise off that attracts them to the area.
After bumping the bottom, simply lift the jig up and hold it in the strike zone. The strike zone is that area of the water column you believe the walleyes are feeding. Most of the time on Lake of the Woods, this is the bottom two feet.
Shake it! Almost like ice fishing, give your jig lots of vibration that will attract fish as it mimics forage and schools of minnows.
Swim it up. Raising the jig up in the water column sometimes gets walleyes who are watchers to be eaters as instinctively, they strike as the minnow is getting away.
Lift and raise the jig and lower it on a tight line. So much of the time a walleye will hit on the drop. Having a tight line will help you detect these bites.
In the below video, various techniques are demonstrated and explained. While demonstrating various techniques, we actually caught a decent sauger!
Lake of the Woods is one of the few lakes you can jump on a 27 – 30 foot charter boat and fish walleyes. A Coast Guard licensed charter captain takes away all of the worry regarding navigation, lunch, bait, tackle, getting on the fish and even the fish cleaning after the trip.
Most captains have a license that allows them to guide up to 6 customers at a time, which makes this type of boat ideal for the size of the crew. With a cuddy cabin below, a small restroom if needed and big enough to handle the big water this lake is known for are all nice benefits.
If you don’t have a crew of six on a charter boat, which many don’t, most of the resorts will work with you to combine groups so you only pay your fair share. Whether you are by yourself or in a small group, jumping on a charter boat is certainly doable.
If it is just yourself or maybe a couple of you, fishing with people you don’t know can end up being one of the nicest parts of a trip. It is amazing the nice people from different parts of the world you meet while fishing on a charter boat. Long friendships have been formed, in fact, there are many groups who now plan their fishing trips at the same time.
Jigging on a charter boat, as some say, is cheap psychology. Yep, the fishing has been very good, but there is so much more. Being amongst the fresh air. The birds were all around. Ducks, geese, seagulls, terns, pelicans, eagles, hawks, and various varieties of shore birds are common when you are out on a charter.
Charter boats run on Lake of the Woods from the spring when the ice goes out to about the end of October. Summer is a great time to pull together friends and family and experience what many look forward to each and every year.
“The texture and flavor of the walleye is only enhanced by this recipe‘s savory-sweet topping. It takes only a few minutes to grill.”
Ingredients
16 bacon strips, partially cooked
4 walleye fillets (2-1/2 pounds)
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Directions
Fold four 18×15-in. pieces of heavy-duty aluminum foil in half; fold up edges to make pans about 12×7 in. Place four strips of bacon in each foil pan; top each with a fillet and 1/4 cup onion. Drizzle with butter and honey. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Grill, covered, over medium heat 12-15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. Cut fillets in half; serve each with two bacon strips.
Wonderful Wild Flowers are starting to make their appearance at Lake of the Woods. The woods and the ditches come alive with vibrant colors and start dotting the landscape with their beautiful adornment. Various Gardening Clubs start using their expertise in beautifying the land and also want to educate others to the natural beauty that is provided by Mother Nature.
Brakken Fern
The plants of the wild flourish alone and unattended. The humus of the forest floor provides nutrition; the rains offer need water. They form buds, bloom, develop seeds, in their own way and in their own time.
Come out and breathe deep, explore and greet the wildflowers and see what nature has been up to after the winter of 2022. You might see a lady slipper, a wild rose, yarrow, bracken fern, just to name a few.
Minnesota’s State Flower is the Showy Lady Slipperand Lake of the Woods is the spot to view this spectacular flower. Since 1925, the state has regulated the collection and commercial sale of this species. The showy lady’s-slipper is one of 43 orchid species that grow in Minnesota. Many people consider it the most beautiful flower in the state.
This wild flower is a brightly-colored orchid that has one or sometimes two blossoms on a single stem. White petals sit on top of a white pouch (slipper) streaked with pink. Hairy oval leaves clasp the stem. It usually grows one to two feet tall. It features the colors of pink, red, white, and green.
The lady’s slipper flowers from early June to mid-July. It flowers best in bright sunlight, although it will grow in semi-shaded areas. In its first year, this orchid grows only as tall as a pencil point. Each year, the lady’s slipper may produce a half-million seeds, which are as fine as flour dust. This flower has a long life span; some may be 100 years old.
The lady’s slipper grows in spruce and tamarack bogs, swamps, wet meadows, wet prairies, and cool, damp woods. It may be found anywhere in Minnesota where these habitats exist.
State Flag of MN with Showy Lady Slipper
They became the state flower of Minnesota in 1902, where there were favored adornments of rural, church alters until it became illegal to pick the flowers or dig up the plants in 1925. It has been adopted as a border on the state flag.
Another favorite along roadsides is the “yellow lady slipper”. It has a bright yellow lower lip, the slipper, that is red-spotted inside. The upper sepals are light to dark burgundy and twist outward in spirals. Deer love to eat this plant. The plant varies per region as to the size of the flower and leaves and the amount of hairiness on the leaves and stems.
Each year the Williams Garden Club of Lake of the Woods sponsors a Wildflower Tour featuring flowers of all kinds that are native to this area. Of course, the feature flower is the Lady’s Slipper but many many other species of flowers are noted and ready for view. This year’s Wildflower Tour will happen on June 18th. People from all over the country travel to this area to take part of this event.
As mentioned before, the Pink Showy Lady Slipper is always the star of the show. The Williams Gardeners go around the tour route in Williams, MN a few days before the event. They always hope to find them in bloom. Sometimes Mother Nature cooperates and sometimes not! The Lady Slipper’s bloom is spectacular with three white, pointed, upper petal-like sepals and one large, inflated petal and white lower petal often veined in deep pink and hairy flowering stalks. They love wet areas, lots of sun and swampy soil, moist woodlands and are frequently found in the ditches along our railroad tracks.
Yellow Lady Slipper Clump
These precious flowers that are protected by the state take 15 years to mature and produce flowers. Therefore, these flowers should never be handled. When road construction happened years ago, gardeners had to receive permission from the state in order to transplant these precious flowers so they wouldn’t be destroyed.
Lady Slipper Park in Williams, MN is a great place to view this spectacular flower and will also be the spot to register and start your tour. Registration will be from 1:00-3:00 p.m. and you can come any time during that time frame. You will be given a map of the self-guided tour which is approximately 4 miles long. You will be able to view over 100 types of wild flowers that will have stakes by them. A Garden member will be stationed throughout the route for education and pamphlets will be available.wild-flower-map-2022
A new Scavenger Hunt for flowers will be available also as well as a water station and goodies. Did you know that even poison ivy is considered a flower? Yes, and education will be given out concerning that as well. For more information contact Pat at 1-218-783-2091 or troskey@wiktel.com.
Why not plan an outing to Lake of the Woods!?! We have over 50 resorts to serve you with great accommodations, great restaurants and of course, there’s always great fishing here. Check out all of your options at www.lakeofthewoodsmn.com/lodging
