Lake of the Woods…Come On Ice!!!!

Good morning to all!

Welcome to another edition of the Wigwam Fisherman’s Blog. Well, as I’m sure all can tell, we are awaiting ice to start producing on Lake of the Woods, we need more cold weather and we need it now! I think that we will be fine to start fishing on the ice come the second week of December, but I was hoping, more like praying, that we would see it for the first week (December 4th), but I don’t think we are going to get that lucky unless we get a cold/low pressure cell coming down from our friends up north (Canada). So please buddies from up north…send it our way!

Fall cleaning has commenced at the Wigwam Resort, and as if like clock work, the reservations are starting to be called in for winter ice fishing, one right after the other. Just yesterday Colleen and Stephanie (my Wigwam co-workers) took a total of 8 group reservations…I am so pumped and excited for this ice fishing season to start, I can hardly contain myself. If you’re waiting to make your personal/groups reservations for winter ice fishing, don’t wait to long. I had a disappointed ice-fisherman on the phone yesterday that waited to long to make his reservation and we were all sold out the weekend he wanted to come…don’t let that happen to you.

I will bring this up every day until we are there, but just a reminder to all of you that want to stay with us this up coming winter during ice fishing season…we are starting to fill up. If you want your places reserved at the Wigwam Resort, book now, or forever hold your peace. We are looking forward to a record breaking ice fishing season, for the amount of fish that will be caught on Lake of the Woods, don’t miss out on all the fun. Remember, every night during the winter is like a Saturday night. Be apart of all the excitement, only at the World Famous Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Announcements…If you’re looking for some great ice fishing deals, checkout the current November specials we are offering on our website http://www.wigwamresortlow.com/. We are running a November special that will give you a discount on packages purchased for January and February 2010. The specials will only last through the rest of November…you can’t beat them! Also, every Vikings game this season, we will have a “Kill the Keg” special, specials on our bar dining menu, and prizes to give away. This will make for some pretty crazy Sunday afternoon/nights and Monday nights…LETS GO VIKINGS!!!!

Daily Fishing Report: Today will be partly cloudy skies with near record high temperatures, high 48F with winds light and variable. Tonight will be generally clear skies, low 27F with winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow we should have, except a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny, high 51F with winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph. Tomorrow night should be partly cloudy during the evening followed by cloudy skies overnight, low 36F with winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Sunday we should see an occasional shower, highs in the mid 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Monday we should see a mix of rain and snow showers, highs in the mid 40s and lows in the low 30s. Tuesday we should see snow showers at times, highs in the mid 30s and lows in the low 30s. Today’s fishing report will come from Tom Briggs, Jake Magness and me…the fish are still hanging out in the same places and they are gulping down all the shiners making their way into the Rainy River, which is plumping them up very nicely. Knights Reef is still producing some great looking Walleyes right now. My good friend Jake “of the woods” Magness was fishing out in Lighthouse Gap yesterday afternoon and got into some nice looking Walleyes. He was fishing in 28 feet of water using a gold 3/8 oz jig with a frozen shiner as bait. Jake stated that he didn’t catch anything under 17 inches and the biggest was 26 ½ inches. I had an opportunity to get up to Knights on two separate occasions a couple weeks ago and it was very impressive. The word on the street is that it’s still producing. We found a majority of bigger fish hanging out around the reefs in 18 to 24 feet of water. The jig of choice was a 3/8 oz. Chartreuse jig. If you don’t feel like going that far, or can’t drive the boat 20 miles to Knights, you will still do great on the south west side of Pine Island and Morris Gap. The Morris Gap washout in 12 to 14 feet has also been producing some nice Walleyes. The best method of catching those big buggers right now is jigging. When jigging, you will want to be using 3/8 or ½ oz. jigs. The Shiners are still being caught in the river, but the majority of success has still been on the lake right outside the gaps (Morris and Lighthouse). The Shiner run will last till throughout November, so if you don’t want to travel far and you want to catch some big fish, book today at the Wigwam Resort and experience some of the “BEST FISHING IN THE WORLD”! Don’t miss out on this great fishing that we’re having on Lake of the Woods…come visit us today at the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Happy Fishing to all, and to all a good day!

Wigwam Fisherman aka Jean-Paul Tessier
Wigwam Resort
http://www.wigwamresortlow.com/

The Northern Minnesota Fall Toss Up…Hunting or Fishing?

Good morning to all!

Welcome to another edition of the Wigwam Fisherman’s Blog. This past weekend was all about fishing, and yesterday was all about hunting, at least for me. For a combined 4 days last week I was fishing Rainy River and Lake of the Woods, but the only place we really got into the big Walleyes was the lake, Knights Reef in particular. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go deer hunting, which was an enjoyable experience, even though I didn’t get a deer (I saw 1 doe and threw up a hail marry, but it was to far away).

Last week and weekend I had the pleasure of fishing with Steve Fuchs (repeat guest) and his guests, Brian Lingle of Worthington, MN, Tom Lang of Clarks Grove, MN and Mark Werner of Northfield, MN. Fishing was a little tough because of the high windy conditions that didn’t allow us to get on the big body of water (Lake of the Woods), where all the fish are at, in my personal opinion. So, with less than desirable conditions we had to bide our time on Rainy River while the wind blew, and when the time came to get out on the lake, we did. For two days we were able to brave the conditions and we were able to finally get on some bigger Walleyes out by Knights Reef, which is about an 18 mile boat ride from the Wigwam…we found it worth the boat ride. I wish we could have spent all four days there…we were reading some nice fish and catching a few more. The biggest Walleye of all the trips was 26 ½ inches, but there were many caught that were just shy of that mark.

When we were stuck on the river for two days though, Tom Lang was able to latch into a nice Sturgeon, which put up a good 30 minute fight. Mark Werner latched into another nice Sturgeon, but we were unable to get it more than 5 feet off the bottom without it diving right back down and taking all the line back that Mark had gotten during the fight. This happened time and time again…Mark fought this fish for over 2 hours, but we were unable to see it before it got away. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that we were trying to lift a 60 plus pound fish, off the bottom of the river with 6 pound test line and a walleye fishing rod and reel. You need something a little bigger to get those big buggers off the bottom, but it was fun to watch.

I will bring this up every day until we are there, but just a reminder to all of you that want to stay with us this up coming winter during ice fishing season…we are starting to fill up. If you want your places reserved at the Wigwam Resort, book now, or forever hold your peace. We are looking forward to a record breaking ice fishing season, for the amount of fish that will be caught on Lake of the Woods, don’t miss out on all the fun. Remember, every night during the winter is like a Saturday night. Be apart of all the excitement, only at the World Famous Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Announcements…Every Vikings game this season, we will have a “Kill the Keg” special, specials on our bar dining menu, and prizes to give away. This will make for some pretty crazy Sunday afternoon/nights and Monday nights…LETS GO VIKINGS!!!!

Daily Fishing Report: Today we will have plentiful sunshine, high around 55F with winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Tonight should be partly cloudy skies during the evening giving way to a few showers after midnight; low near 40F with winds S at 15 to 25 mph…there will be a 30% chance of rain. Tomorrow we should see showers in the morning, and then partly cloudy in the afternoon, high 51F with winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph…there will be a 50% chance of rain. Tomorrow night we should have cloudy skies early with showers later at night, low 42F with winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph…there will be a 40% chance of rain. Thursday we should have showers possible, highs in the upper 40s and lows in the mid 30s. Friday we should have occasional showers possible, highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Saturday we should have mix of sun and clouds, highs in the low 40s and lows in the low 30s. Today’s fishing report will come from Tom Briggs and me…the fish are still hanging out in the same places and they are gulping down all the shiners making their way into the Rainy River, which is plumping them up very nicely. The Walleyes are slowly moving there way into the Rainy River, but there are a few other places producing some great looking fish and those are as follows: Knights Reef is producing some great looking Walleyes right now. I had an opportunity to get up to Knights on two separate occasions last week and weekend and Knights was very impressive. We found a majority of bigger fish hanging out around the reefs in 18 to 24 feet of water. The jig of choice was a 3/8 oz. Chartreuse jig. If you don’t feel like going that far, or can’t drive the boat 20 miles to Knights, you will still do great on the south west side of Pine Island and Morris Gap. Because of the high winds we had last week the lake is a little dirty, but you can anchor up in clean water by the Morris Gap washout in 12 to 14 feet and get into the Walleyes. I was just there the past few days and it produced some nice fish. We were using Chartreuse jigs with frozen shiners as bait. The frozen shiners are out fishing live bait 3 to 1…that is my experience. The best method of catching those big buggers right now is jigging. When jigging, you will want to be using 3/8 or ½ oz. jigs. The Shiners are still being caught in the river, but the majority of success has still been on the lake right outside the gaps (Morris and Lighthouse). The Shiner run will last till throughout November, so if you don’t want to travel far and you want to catch some big fish, book today at the Wigwam Resort and experience some of the “BEST FISHING IN THE WORLD”! Don’t miss out on this great fishing that we’re having on Lake of the Woods…come visit us today at the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

My shout out will go to Steve Fuchs and the group of customers he brought up last week and weekend, which consisted of Brian Lingle, Tom Lang and Mark Werner. I just wanted to thank all of you for braving the cold and windy conditions to stay, fish, eat and drink with us at the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods this November. It was a great pleasure for me to meet all of you, and I look forward to seeing you all back again in the very near future. Thanks again for giving the Wigwam Resort the opportunity to cater to you during your stay. I enjoyed all the stories and general conversation, it was most definitely my pleasure to fish with you all...thanks again for everything.

Happy Fishing to all, and to all a good day!

Wigwam Fisherman aka Jean-Paul Tessier
Wigwam Resort
http://www.wigwamresortlow.com/

Fall Fishing on Lake of the Woods Heats Up Before Early Ice

Good morning to all!

Welcome to another edition of the Wigwam Fisherman’s Blog. Everyone in northern Minnesota is putting the boats away and beginning to clean the cobwebs off their guns for deer hunting season. Even though people are starting to get ready for deer hunting, the fall Walleye bite is starting to pick up, with regards to the “Big Ones”. Also, we are starting to get more and more phone calls for Ice Fishing season, but we still have openings and if you want to ice fish where all the fun is, book your trip today.

The past few days I had the opportunity to take a repeat guest, Steve Fuchs and one of his guests fishing. It took some work to find the big walleyes, but we finally found them. Two days ago we had to start off fishing in the Rainy River, because of the windy conditions we were having on the “Big Lake” Lake of the Woods. The river was not producing and it was getting me frustrated…I don’t know why the Walleyes hadn’t moved there way into the river yet. At 12 pm we decided to come back to the Wigwam and have lunch and warm up. While sitting down and inhaling down a great roast beef sandwich, the winds calmed just enough to let us try Morris Point Gap when we returned to the lake. While fishing in the “clean” water, we were able to get into the walleyes for a while (about an hour), we were catching them one right after the other, it was a blast! Yesterday the winds were low and we wanted to try the lake, but again, there was dirty water, but we traveled across to Knights Reef and found the big Walleyes. Our first two fish were over 25 inches and the smallest fish we caught there was 18 inches, that’s where the big ones are at in my opinion. Steve and a couple more work associates will be coming back this weekend and I hope the wind treats us well so we can head right back over there to Knights Reef to get back on the Big Walleyes.

Next week I will be sending out our November newsletter and it will contain some great ice fishing specials, so be sure to take a look at it and take advantage of all the specials the Wigwam will be offering.

I will bring this up every day until we are there, but just a reminder to all of you that want to stay with us this up coming winter during ice fishing season…we are starting to fill up. If you want your places reserved at the Wigwam Resort, book now, or forever hold your peace. We are looking forward to a record breaking ice fishing season, for the amount of fish that will be caught on Lake of the Woods, don’t miss out on all the fun. Remember, every night during the winter is like a Saturday night. Be apart of all the excitement, only at the World Famous Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Announcements…Every Vikings game this season, we will have a “Kill the Keg” special, specials on our bar dining menu, and prizes to give away. This will make for some pretty crazy Sunday afternoon/nights and Monday nights…LETS GO VIKINGS!!!!

Daily Fishing Report: Today we will have a mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon, high 48F with winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Tonight will be cloudy early with some clearing expected late, low 39F with winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow should be mainly sunny, high 52F with winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Tomorrow night we should have clear skies with a few passing clouds, low 34F with winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunday we should have a mix of sun and clouds, highs in the low 50s and lows in the mid 30s. Monday we should see a mix of sun and clouds, highs in the low 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Tuesday we should have plenty of sun, highs in the mid 40s and lows in the mid 30s. Today’s fishing report will come from Tom Briggs and me…the fish are still hanging out in the same places and they are gulping down all the shiners making their way into the Rainy River, which is plumping them up very nicely. The Walleyes are slowly moving there way into the Rainy River, but there are a few other places producing some great looking fish and those are as follows: Knights Reef is producing some great looking Walleyes right now. The word is that there were a few launches up on Knights Reef and they caught 60 slot fish (fish that had to be thrown back 19-1/2” to 28”)…very impressive. If you don’t feel like going that far, or can’t drive the boat 20 miles to Knights, you will still do great on the south west side of Pine Island and Morris Gap. Because of the high winds we had last week the lake is a little dirty, but you can anchor up in clean water by the Morris Gap washout in 12 to 14 feet and get into the Walleyes. I was just there the past few days and it produced some nice fish. We were using Chartreuse jigs with frozen shiners as bait. The frozen shiners are out fishing live bait 3 to 1…that is my experience. The best method of catching those big buggers right now is jigging. When jigging, you will want to be using 3/8 or ½ oz. jigs. The Shiners are still being caught in the river, but the majority of success has still been on the lake right outside the gaps (Morris and Lighthouse). The Shiner run will last till throughout November, so if you don’t want to travel far and you want to catch some big fish, book today at the Wigwam Resort and experience some of the “BEST FISHING IN THE WORLD”! Don’t miss out on this great fishing that we’re having on Lake of the Woods…come visit us today at the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Happy Fishing to all, and to all a good day!

Wigwam Fisherman aka Jean-Paul Tessier
Wigwam Resort
http://www.wigwamresortlow.com/

Lake of the Woods Welcomes November with Open Arms

Good morning to all!

Welcome to another edition of the Wigwam Fisherman’s Blog. Today we welcomed November to northern Minnesota with open arms. This past weekend brought us first timers to the Wigwam Resort, whom wanted to experience some of Lake of the Woods great fishing this time of year, and I wanted to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to show you our northern Minnesota hospitality first hand, here at the Wigwam Resort.

Even thought the wind was blowing and fishing conditions were a little less than desirable this past week and weekend, I was still able to experience some great fishing. I had the pleasure of taking out a couple of fishermen on Saturday and we were able to get into some fish, even though a number of fisherman were having trouble finding the fish, because of the high winds and rough conditions that we had a few days prior to Saturday. The biggest Walleye we caught was 25 inches, which was brought in by Jeff Decker of Wyoming, MN. We did get robbed quite a bit also by those sneaky fish, there were three times we set the hooks and we had hooking into “nice fish”, but we weren’t able to hook into them well enough to bring them up…I guess that’s why they call it fishing, not catching.

This week we have some special guests coming to visit us (Steve Fuchs and his VIP customers), and I just wanted to say that we are really looking forward to taking them fishing and catering to them this week and weekend. These gentlemen are guests that visited us this summer for the first time and enjoyed the “Wigwam” experience so much; they wanted to visit us again before winter. If you haven’t experienced the Wigwam Resort before, don’t wait any longer, make your reservations today to experience our awesome northern Minnesota hospitality, and by the way, arguably the best freshwater fishery in the world on “Lake of the Woods”.

I will bring this up every day until we are there, but just a reminder to all of you that want to stay with us this up coming winter during ice fishing season…we are starting to fill up. If you want your places reserved at the Wigwam Resort, book now, or forever hold your peace. We are looking forward to a record breaking ice fishing season, for the amount of fish that will be caught on Lake of the Woods, don’t miss out on all the fun. Remember, every night during the winter is like a Saturday night. Be apart of all the excitement, only at the World Famous Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

Announcements…Every Vikings game this season, we will have a “Kill the Keg” special, specials on our bar dining menu, and prizes to give away. This will make for some pretty crazy Sunday afternoon/nights and Monday nights…LETS GO VIKINGS!!!!

Daily Fishing Report: Today will be cloudy and windy with a few snow showers this afternoon, temps nearly steady in the low to mid 30s with winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph…there will be a 30% chance of snow. Tonight will be partly cloudy, low 24F with west winds at 10 to 20 mph, diminishing to 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow should be mostly cloudy with a mixture of light rain and snow developing in the afternoon, high 41F with winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph…there will be a 50% chance of precipitation. Tomorrow night we should see rain and snow in the evening, overcast late, low 28F with winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph…there will be a 50% chance of precipitation. Wednesday should be mostly cloudy, highs in the mid 30s and lows in the mid 20s. Today’s fishing report will come from Tom Briggs and me…the fish are still hanging out in the same places and they are gulping down all the shiners making their way into the Rainy River, which is plumping them up very nicely. The Walleyes haven’t moved into the Rainy River as they have in past years, but there are a few other places producing some great looking fish and those are as follows: Knights Reef is producing some great looking Walleyes right now. The word is that there were a few launches up on Knights Reef and they caught 60 slot fish (fish that had to be thrown back 19-1/2” to 28”)…very impressive. If you don’t feel like going that far, or can’t drive the boat 20 miles to Knights, you will still do great on the south west side of Pine Island and Morris Gap. You want to be right out from Morris Point Resort and about in the middle of Morris Gap in 19 to 24 feet of water. The method of fishing will be anchor and jigging. The best colors have been Orange and White jigs with FROZEN SHINERS as bait. The frozen shiners are out fishing live bait 3 to 1…that is my experience. The other hot spot is Lighthouse Gap where I have been able to catch fish in 19 feet to 31 feet. A few nights ago, I had the opportunity to go fishing with Tom Briggs, and 27 feet right on the US/Canadian line was the “Golden Ticket”. We were catching 18” Walleyes one right after the other from 4 PM to 6 PM. Everyone should mark that one on their radar. The most successful jigs were Orange and Chartreuse…as always we were using frozen shiners as bait. I went to Graceton Reef and gave that a shot this weekend and we got on a number of nice Small Mouth Bass hanging out in the rocks. The best method of catching those big buggers right now is jigging. When jigging, you will want to be using 3/8 or ½ oz. jigs. The Shiners are still being caught in the river, but the majority of success has still been on the lake right outside the gaps (Morris and Lighthouse). The Shiner run will last till throughout November, so if you don’t want to travel far and you want to catch some big fish, book today at the Wigwam Resort and experience some of the “BEST FISHING IN THE WORLD”! All this great fishing will take place right in front of the World Famous Wigwam Resort, in Four Mile Bay, right at the mouth of the Rainy River! Don’t miss out on this great fishing that we’re having on Lake of the Woods…come visit us today at the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods!

My shout out will go to Joe Wagner of Rosemount, MN and Jeff Decker of Wyoming, MN. I had the opportunity to take these fine gentlemen fishing on Saturday and even though it was a little chilly, we had a blast. Even with terrible conditions (very windy) we were able to catch a few nice fish. I just wanted to thank you two for being such great and gracious fishing partners. I hope that all your expectations were met while staying with us at the Wigwam Resort this fall. I am looking forward to seeing you both back here in March…take care and best wishes till then.

Happy Fishing to all, and to all a good day!

Wigwam Fisherman aka Jean-Paul Tessier
Wigwam Resort
http://www.wigwamresortlow.com/