We were on a mission. The goal… Filming a TV show which will air on Larry Smith Outdoors showing viewers how awesome it is fishing on a Lake of the Woods charter boat. I have to say, stepping aboard not having to think about weather, navigation, where to fish, where the fish were at yesterday and everything else involved in putting guests on fish is relaxing. Literally, step aboard. The rods, reels, bait, tackle and licensed charter captain were all included. Here is how the day went.
First thing in the morning was breakfast. Many of the resorts in the area offer meals, along with a nice bar. We left the bar behind our given morning and simply enjoyed a delicious breakfast.
After making sure everyone had what they needed, in this case rain gear (just in case), sunglasses, cameras, and video gear, we boarded the charter boat and were off.
The charter boat captain, in this case, knew of some nice eater walleyes that had been up north. It’s a bit of a boat ride, but on a charter, good conversation, checking out the great scenery and in today’s world, checking your phone were all activities as we headed north across the lake. Our destination was the edge of a rock pile north of Garden Island.
The technique, which is popular all summer into fall, is pulling crawler harnesses. The rig was a two ounce bottom bouncer with a two hook harness loaded with a juicy night crawler with the tail pinched off just behind the back hook. The blade was a #3 Indiana style in gold with a bit of red in it. It was deadly!
For a bit, Larry tried using a spinner (which is a harness or snelled spinner with one, two or three hooks combined with a weight to get it down towards the bottom) with a frozen emerald shiner for a while, and that caught a couple of nice walleyes. It seemed crawlers were catching the majority of fish. Crawlers are also what the larger walleyes came on.
Right away we started getting bit. A lot of small fish, some perch and some nice keeper walleyes mixed in. We caught numerous walleyes with a few perch and saugers. After some time, it seemed the bite tapered off a bit. The captain, after talking to other charter captains on his cell phone (they don’t like using the Marine Band radio if possible for secrecy), decided to hit spot #2, a bit further north.
This spot held some really nice walleyes. Just like spot #1, there were a few other charter boats working the same area as the walleyes were in good numbers and nice sized. We continued to fill the cooler with our limits along with a couple of bonus jumbo perch. With a few limits of walleyes and just a few saugers to still get, we decided to go big fish hunting. For this, we headed to spot #3, down on the big basin called Big Traverse Bay.
This area held a combo of mud and rocks. The captain made the comment about the nice fish he saw on his sonar, hoping they would cooperate. Cooperate they did, with numerous big walleyes being boated.
It was a day never to be forgotten. Fishing with Larry Smith on a charter boat. Quickly catching three limits of walleyes, then shifting over to big fish and scoring big. That is how this time of the year can be up at Lake of the Woods.
If you haven’t given a charter boat a try, I encourage it. It is easy, enjoyable and has a high level of fishing success. It is great for newbies to fishing or experienced anglers looking for a break or something different. No worries on a charter, simply sit back, relax and catch walleyes!
