Previous Northwest Angle The Best of the Best
Being Flexible Makes for a Great Day of Fishing
We started out jigging
With a strong wind, we had to be flexible. We decided to fish some spots amongst the NW Angle we hadn’t fished before where we could get out of the wind and waves a bit. An area that looked “fishy”, yet was sheltered. Â
Our first couple of spots we had never fished before. We caught fish, but not the walleyes we were looking for. Rather, pike and smallmouth bass. Â
We were executing a “milk run”, a strategy where we went spot to spot until we found good fishing. Â
The third spot had some walleyes. Not a ton, but some nice ones. Â
We grabbed a couple of nice walleyes, a couple of pike and were bit off by a larger pike we didn’t see. Â
We decided to hit a fourth spot, a spot we had done well in the past. We missed a couple, didn’t see a ton of fish on our electronics so decided to change things up.
Switched over to trolling crankbaits
As we weren’t on a good school of fish and the day was rolling right along, we decided to switch things up and cover some water by trolling crankbaits.
Not only is this an effective technique for walleyes, nearly everything in the lake will go after what they believe is an injured minnow. Â
As the wind started to let up, we focused on trolling shallow structure off of some islands. We focused on that 6 – 9 feet of water and on wind blown points and scattered rubble. Â
You had to be quick as on these rocky shorelines and points, the depth could shoot up very quickly, but trolling at 1.8 – 2.5 mph, you could see the shallow stuff on the graph coming up and quickly turn out towards open water to it would get deeper. Â
A good GPS with a chip covering Lake of the Woods would normally tell us in details what was ahead. There were a few times a shallow rocky area wasn’t on the chip, but out of fairness, we were right next to shore.Â
Trolling Really Produced
As soon as we started trolling, we caught fish. Action was steady and also produced some really nice walleyes, pike and smallmouth bass.
We actually caught as many walleyes in the protected slot of 19.5 – 28.0 inches as we did keepers. As we caught a lot of fish, coming up with nice eater walleyes was no problem.
It was one of those days we experimented, fishing areas we hadn’t fished before. It was enjoyable fishing so close to shore, which provided not only great scenery, but a chance to see some of the cabins on the islands. Very interesting and very beautiful.
We even fished some memories
As late afternoon came, the wind laid down and running anywhere was no problem. We decided to hit a spot we had done well this time of year trolling in the past.
Basically, it was an underwater point with a series of rocks that came up to about 5 feet of water. Â
The fish were stacked on top and very willing to hit, what they thought, was an injured and unsuspecting minnow. Â
It was a great day for the memory books we all enjoyed and will never forget.
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