Tag Archives: minnesota ice fishing

Getting Ready for Ice Fishing

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Getting Ready for Ice Fishing

We are busy getting ready for the ice fishing season. It won’t be long!

Current Ice Conditions
We have had some cold days but also have battled some wind lately, so at this time only the shallow bays have a sheet of ice over them. The good news is the water is cold and the forecast keeps getting colder. The current forecast is calling for highs in the teens and twenties this week and lows in teens and single digits with less wind starting tomorrow. We just need 10 cold days with low winds for the first few and we can easily make 10-12 inches of ice. Stay tuned! We will continue to keep you updated. Do you have your reservation in? Book online or call 800-862-8602. Our season runs from early December through the end of March.

New Villas
Our new 3 new villas are nearly complete. They will be ready to rent in early December. You will enjoy these brand new comfortable accommodations. Full kitchens, log furnishings, flat screen TVs, 1-2 bedrooms per bathroom, most with gas fireplaces and awesome views. For more information, click here. These new units are filling up fast, make your reservation today.

Christmas Shopping Done Easy
Sportsman’s gift certificates are great for the outdoor person on your list. Sportsman’s gift certificates are always the right color, size and price. Certificates are available to use at any of the three locations and never expire.Order yours online today.

working_on_finishing_touches_in_villas

Working On Finishing Touches In Villas

Villas soon complete

Villas Soon Complete

New Villas

New Villas

Ice on Shallow Bays

Ice On Shallow Bays

Fish Houses Are Ready

Fish Houses Are Ready

It’s Freezing Season

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Soft water fishing has pretty much come to a close this week. A few hard core anglers are still out, but for the most part we are getting ready for hard water! It is time to start stocking the tackle boxes and re-stringing the poles.

11-12-2013-freezing-up

It Won’t Be Long Now!

We have had some real cold nights earlier this week that froze up some ice sheets on the river and some of the larger bays. Unfortunately, most of those have dissipated, but that is typical for this time of year. It is still early. The water is cold and ready! If we can get 10 days of below zero weather that usually sets us up with 10-12 inches of ice to kick off the season. Typically we start ice fishing in early December. It won’t be long, we can’t wait!

Lots of projects are going on at the lodge this fall at Sportsman’s Lodge Rainy River location.
Three New Villas are being constructed and in the completion stage. They will be ready to rent in December. Stay tuned on our Facebook page for pictures coming soon! Our 3rd floor of motel rooms is getting a face lift, some new fish houses are being built, landscaping in front the lodge main entrance has been re-done, the lodge was freshly painted on the exterior and new shingles were put on the lodge room wing over the summer too. We are excited to show you are new improvements!

Winter Reservations
If you haven’t made your reservations for winter yet, now is the time! Give us a call Sportsman’s Lodge 800-862-8602, Sportsman’s Oak Island Lodge & Eagle Ridge 800-772-8411, Sportsman’s Sleeper Division 218-634-1589 or request online. Ice fishing season starts in is less than a month!

11-14-2013-freezing-up-2

Freezing Up!

 

Ice Conditions Update 11-26-2012

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11/26/2012

Good Morning Ice Fishing Fans!
We have the first signs of ice on the lake! Last night we dipped down to -4 with a wind chill of -15.  The week ahead is calling for lows in the single digits and highs in the teens and twenties. We are making ice!  At this point based on what we know we could be out fishing with 12 inches of safe ice by as early as Dec 8. Stay tuned for our next update at the end of the week!  If you are planning on venturing out on your own, we are in no way advising anyone to go out yet. This is our first signs of some decent ice, which is probably merely an inch or less.  This time of year the conditions can change quickly. No sense it rushing it, it will be here before we know it! Stay safe and start polishing off your fishing rods ice time is soon here!

Fire
In the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day some of our vehicles and trailer we use for early ice were lost in a fire. The cause is yet to be determined at this point.  This of course was very disheartening to us but we were thankful no one was hurt. We want all of our guests to know that this WILL NOT delay our ice fishing season. Our phenomenal staff, friends and neighbors have pulled together and we plan to start the year as planned as soon as we have safe ice.

Check out some of the pictures of the start of the ice formations taken this morning. We hope to get a satellite picture this afternoon of the lake. So be sure to log on to our Facebook page or website later today.

Front of Lodge Four Mile Bay (place where we
access the lake early in the year)
Four Mile Bay (place where we
access the lake early in the year)		 Graceton Beach
A south shore view of Lake of the Woods

11/26/2012

Good Morning from Oak Island!
We dipped down to zero last night and the bay in front of the lodge closed up and we have a layer of ice as far as we can see. The weather forecast looks cool in the week ahead. We are looking forward to some good ice making weather! We usually start about a week later than the Sportsman’s Lodge location, so around the 15th is in our sights at this point. Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Ice Fishing Season starts Monday, Dec 12

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12/9/2011

Are you rrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeady for some ice fishing?
The ice is shaping up good! We have had some nice cool temps over the past few days.  We will start ice fishing on Monday, Dec 12 for the season!!!! We currently have 10 inches of ice on Four Mile Bay and 7-9 inches on the lake in the areas we travel and fish. We anticipate by Monday that we will have 12 inches to start safely.  We will start pulling houses out tomorrow and be ready for you on Monday, so make your reservations to arrive Sunday night to get in on some incredible early season fishing!  The guides have been out doing some pre-fishing and the results are excellent!  We have good clear water and ice. They are seeing lots of nice walleyes and saugers.  It is going to be a fun year!  Keep in mind early season is usually excellent for trophy walleyes too!

Trail Conditions
At this time we have very little snow on the land or lake trails. The land trails are closed.  Many resorts are working on getting their lake trails staked over the weekend.  The snowmobile club will start staking their trail to Warroad and across to Oak Island in a week or so based on the ice conditions.

This Weekend
If you plan to venture out this weekend, please use caution especially in the areas where the ice broke up early in the week. Light jeeps and ATV’s only are advised. As always remember the entire lake is not treated equally when it freezes so make sure you stay on the trails and know where you are going.  Keep it safe!

Fishing, Ice & Trail Report Lake of the Woods

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For the Areas of Four Mile Bay and just outside of Pine Island on Lake of the Woods

12/13/2010

ICE!!!!
It’s here, it’s nice and think and the walleyes are just waiting to be hooked at Sportsman’s Lodges.
We currently have 12+ inches on the lake right now in the areas that we travel and it was -31 below this morning! We are making more ice every minute!

Walleyes!
The fishing started out fair last week, but over the weekend it really picked up and limits of fish was not uncommon.  The guides found the fish out deeper than in normal years at this time.  Chubby Darters, stop signs and gold jigs have been the hot tackle lately tipped with a minnow. Check out this beauty caught last week, Joe Cooper from Baudette, MN caught this 11 lbs, 31 inches! Wow! It was released, and is waiting for you!

A few tips from the guides, jigging helps, change up your tackle after awhile if you don’t get any bites and the morning and late afternoon bites are the best.  Vexilars are also a helpful thing to bring along or rent from the front desk.   Also keep in mind last winter we had quite a few fish caught not just at bottom, but also suspended 1, 2, 3, and even 6 feet off bottom.  The best technique to catch one of those is to leave your jig on the bottom, have a vexilar and watch it, when something comes up, reel up. The most popular seasons on Lake of the Woods is here!

Trail Report
The Lake of the Woods Drifters snowmobile club is planning on staking the trail from Wheeler’s Point to Oak Island this Saturday.  The land trails have 12-14 inches of snow but are just starting to be groomed. Hopefully by the weekend we can have our first nice grooming done. No word yet on when the Wheeler’s Point to Warroad trail will be marked. I am sure it will be soon. Stay tuned.