We are on the move – Sleepers and Day house moves – chasing fish!! Yep, that’s me (Connie) riding on the propane tank!! No room in the ranger so hopped on the tank. Photo credit to Jon and Maria!!!
Damon’s group of 8 – 3 days had a blast!!
One Happy Young Lady!!
Fred with a nice Walleye at 87 years young!!
Rod went down, later burbit bit second pole, burbit and first rod came up the hole with the 2nd rod! That is one fun story!!! Thanks for sharing Jon, Jim, and Fred!!!
We have worked hard to get all the Sleepers across the crack, crack pushed up and the “Big” bridge is now over the crack.
The cracked pushed up again last night a bit. Watching closely. All is good!
Photo’s from our Guests – Dec and Jan -Thank you so much!!
Lake conditions in the Gull Rock ~ Twin Island Area has made some ice,
however, the 5-foot-wide crack has not allowed us to open our access.
or
allowed us to bring our Sleepers to cross to the North side of the crack.
We had bridged this crack with our smaller bridge earlier and have been waiting for this crack to heal enough to bring our sleepers over.
The guys worked diligently yesterday in bringing out the “big” bridge.
and will be placing it over this pain of a crack.
We will re-access the conditions again today and will hopefully be opening our access soon.
We have had our day houses over to the North side for a couple weeks now. Dale and Tom, with the help of Shane pulling our big bridge out on the ice yesterday for us, we were able to get the big bridge out to the crack. Dale and Tom did get one Sleeper over to the North side of the crack yesterday.
Ended up with a Geo breakdown and threw a track on the Ranger but managed to get one sleeper over non the less.
We have 10 Sleepers to go and will be moving them over starting today!!
We will continue to work hard every day to get all our Sleepers over this bridge.
and to the 29–32-foot depth.
We deeply apologize to our guests who have been so good to come fish with us despite the depth of 18-23 feet,
we are getting some fish but not a great bite to say the least.
If you have reservations with us and have questions, please call Connie at 320-630-6734.
Thank you, Dale and Connie
As some know we had the lake open up quite a bit on New Years Day and then on the 2nd of January the ice slid back to the So. and pushed over the existing ice overlapping 15 feet. Needless to say, we have been unable to cross over this crack until the temps dropped, which is taking place over the last few days. Thankfully this is happening as we speak, no more 30-degree temps! We now are in the single digit temps and the high, so far today, has been 10 degrees.
The wind is only at 4 mph in hopes this ice will sit idle and freeze where it sits. So, all good news.
The plan is putting a bridge over the crack and our team is checking ice thickness! Did find the least amount 5 inches out there but up to 16 inches. That may have gained some over the last day with the nice cold temps. Dale will be heading out checking ice thickness today or tomorrow in hopes of moving houses to another new location, looking to go to deeper water.
Fish Bite has been a tough one, some nice fish being caught, morning bite, afternoon bite, makes for a long day.
Here is some pictures of the nice Northerns caught by Byron’s group Sat and Sun this past weekend.
We have not opened the winter lake access at this point in time but will let you know
when we will open for those to fish on their own.
We are off to a slow start this ice season. We have our sleepers and day houses out on the ice and we are fishing.
The bite is like a roller coaster ride.
We have 14 inches of ice that has been with us since Thanksgiving, we have areas that are not thick enough for us to venture onto. Looking at a week and a half if the temps keep dropping which the temps are making ice. We have had 3 days of 31-35 and now we have had 2 days in the 20’s and this morning we have 16 degrees right now. We are making progress, but we need to be patient and we will start checking out further once Dale feels we can start checking the areas of concern.
Increase in perch being caught this early ice. Catching mostly walleye, few sauger, burbot. Amy and Zeke caught a 23″ walleye at 8:00 p.m. 2 nights ago. The biggest fish caught was a 44″ sturgeon last week. We have had various results each day, yesterday was a poor day of fishing for everyone. As I said we are off to a later start and unable to get to venture out, but the ice conditions will improve, and we will be skedaddling to a new fishing spot as soon as the conditions allow us to move.
Wishing Everyone A Happy New Year
May this New Year 2024 bring you many blessings!
Dale and I want to wish you all a Happy New Year and Thank each and every one of you for be such a blessing to us. All of our guests that join us throughout the year and to all of that have been part of our team here at Dale’s On Lake of the Woods.
Happy New Year Everyone
Wishing everyone a very blessed Christmas.
We have all but 2 Sleepers out on the ice and Dale and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday making sure the sleepers were ready for guests. We are off to a slow start, light rain yesterday turned into a light snow, the temps have dropped a bit which will make the lake not so slippery today, we hope. Everyone have a blessed Christmas from Dale and I.
Today we had a surprise visitor, I am terrible at names and the surprise visit was so wonderful I was overwhelmed by this kind gesture!
I am sure this gentleman’s name was Brett and his young son brought us blue pails today.
Walked in – “Where would you like us to put these pails” – he and his young son unloaded them for me- and off they went!
I am sure I thanked them but forgot to wish them a Merry Christmas!
Dale and I had tried all the blue pails we had from last year and not one worked with the new Gamma lids.
With the new blue pails, we brought in the Gamma lid
and every blue pail that Brett and his son brought us the Gamm lids fit perfectly, we tried the lid on every one.
We cannot thank these two very kind young men.
Thank you for giving us such a great gift!
These acts of kindness are what makes a great world!
Pail update
We found out that the Gamma lids are for 5 gal. food storage pails only-
Lessons well learned. We thank everyone who are helping us with the white and blue pails. We found that the hydraulic blue pails will not work. Go figure!!
Lake Condition update
We have an area we are going to start fishing today.
Starting with Day house fishing only and will be 1 house only the first day fishing.
We are choosing not to have any of the big Sleepers out on the ice as of yet. Some of our guests are good with staying on land and fishing in the day house,
looks like that’s where will be start this year.
First of all THANK YOU to all who helped us
with white 5 gallon pails!
We are now in search of BLUE 5 gallon pails!
Anyone that may have access to clean- good condition BLUE COLORED pails. We are in search of them. If anyone gets hydraulic fluid by the 5 gallon pail – we would take those off your hands once the pail is empty.
We could use 30 in quantity
=========
Method to our madness for those that would like to know:
White pails: Sleepers to dispose of liquids
Blue Pails: Sleepers and Dayhouse bathrooms
Red pails: Sleepers and Day houses guests for their minnows when they arrive at their fish house.
Many of you may already know that there is a New Minnesota Law that came into effect on July 1, 2023.
Dale and I have provided all means of keeping Lake of the Woods lake free from garbage littering, debris, and sewage. There is now a $100 civil penalty for each violation. Our garbage cans, the white and blue pails are a significant part
to help anyone
be free of any fine’s.
To obtain more information we received a link to visit:
.