It was the hottest bite I had experienced all winter. My jig never reached the bottom before a hungry perch snatched it up. And this had gone on for more than an hour.
About 50 feet across the Lake Winnibigoshish ice, my fishing partner, David Lofgren, of St. Croix Rods, was just as busy.
We had spent the March morning dotting the northern Minnesota lake with auger holes in every imaginable direction within walking distance of our rendezvous point. Unfortunately, we found the same result in nearly ever hole — hoards of aggressive 4-inch perch.
I briefly ditched my jig and upsized to a 1/8-ounce Custom Jigs & Spins Slender Spoon, but while I had been very successful wooing perch with the lure earlier in the week, there simply were no jumbo perch here to strike it. I decided catching tiny perch was better than catching none at all.
The incoming crunch of tracks directed my attention east. Fishing guide and ice fishing innovator Brian “Bro” Brosdahl was cruising over the deep snow in his Toyota FJ Cruiser equipped with American Track Truck tracks — truly the ultimate ice fishing machine.
“Anything?” Brosdahl asked as he hopped out of the truck.
“Does this count?” I answered as I pulled yet another puny perch from my hole.
“Let’s load up. We’re going to try something else,” the Frabill pro replied.
A Thousand Choices
On the way back to shore, Brosdahl informed us that the rest of our group was even less successful at their location on Cut Foot Sioux — a smaller lake extending off the northeastern corner of Winnibigosh — than we were.
We could have continued searching for the bite, but Brosdahl had already burned up two of his favorite spots in the area with no success.
“Perch, bluegills, crappies — unfortunately, they have that little tail and they swim to different areas,” Brosdahl said. “When they swim away, with all of our technology, we could still find them, but how much time do you have? Sometimes it’s just easier to move to that new spot than it is to fight it.”
And there might not be a better place to call an audible on the Ice Belt than in Itasca County, Minnesota. With more than 1,000 natural lakes within county borders, and other popular ice fishing destinations like Leech Lake, Mille Lacs Lake and Upper Red Lake within an easy drive, it is an ice fisherman’s dream.
“If you run through the options, you start over because that lake already has different year classes since you’ve been back to it,” Brosdahl said.
Bowstring Beckons
Brosdahl directed us toward Bowstring Lake, the county’s second largest lake behind Winnibigosh. The 9,220-acre lake is known for being a multi-species hotspot.
“It’s a mini version of Lake Winnibigosh,” Brosdahl said. “It has structure. It has muddy basins. It has vegetation. It has rivers flowing through it. It’s a healthy lake.”
Reed Ylitalo operates Wings & Walleyes Guide Service in the area and guides out of Geiger’s Trails End Resort during the ice fishing season. The resort, which is located on the north end of Bowstring, plows a road system for ice fishermen during the winter.
“It’s a great all-around lake when it comes to ice fishing,” Ylitalo said. “You get some great panfish, bluegills, real nice crappies, big perch.”
Ice fishermen should have no problem finding classic fishing structure, including weeds, mud flats, rock points and rock piles, in Bowstring.
“The humps on the north end are home to a lot of fish,” Brosdahl said. “The basin is a good area. If you look on the lake, there are opportunities everywhere.”
Winnibigosh, Leech, Mille Lacs and Upper Red can be unforgiving when the weather gets ugly, and they are intimidating for many ice fishermen who aren’t acquainted with the giant bodies of water. Bowstring, on the other hand, provides a nice escape from brutal weather and is manageable even for those unfamiliar with the lake.
“The lake is pretty good sized, but it’s not so massive that it gets out of hand for you,” Brosdahl said. “Even on a real windy day, it’s not too bad. You can always go to one side or the other. If you can’t fish the reefs, you can always fish the shoreline structures.”
Above all else, you can usually count on consistent action on Bowstring.
“A day on Bowstring is a day of catching fish,” Brosdahl said.
Pulling Up Paper Mouths
Bowstring Lake is perhaps best known for its crappies. There are huge schools of the fish throughout the lake, and they can grow to more than a foot in length.
“We tend to target those 9-, 10- or 11-inch crappies for our clients,” Ylitalo said. “They make great table fare, and they’re a blast to catch. You can get into the 12s and mix it up with a 13 here and there as well.”
Ylitalo chases the paper mouths throughout winter.
“Early in the season, we are targeting weeds anywhere from 14 to 18 feet of water,” he said. “And we are catching them either on (Custom Jigs & Spins) Chekai small tungsten jigs or the bigger jigging spoons made by Northland Tackle just tipped with a minnow head.
“Some days, the bobber bite is absolutely phenomenal, just a dead stick with a float above a small tungsten jig with a full minnow. Other times, we have to run and gun.”
As the season wears on, Ylitalo follows the crappies into deeper areas.
“When we’re fishing crappies in midwinter, we are fishing fairly deep,” he said. “As a guide, I try to stay out of anything over 25 feet because if you pull those fish up too fast, then they’ll get where they don’t go back down and survive.”
Many of Ylitalo’s go-to crappie spots are on the north end of the lake.
“Out of the Trails End Resort, there are a couple of good breaklines and then some holes in the area,” he said.
Chasing Perch
If an ice fisherman on Bowstring isn’t targeting crappies, there’s a good chance he’s after perch. The jumbo perch bite on the lake is phenomenal, especially in the rocky areas near the middle of the lake.
“I really, really love the perch because they’re nice sized,” Brosdahl said.
He has the most success using Northland Tackle’s Forage Minnow Spoon in the Super-Glo Perch color tipped with maggots or wax worms.
“A chandelier of maggots works really well,” Brosdahl said. “That’s where you just gob it on. Or you can hook one or two waxies, not gobbing them on, but leave them hang. I like to snip their heads to get a little action out of them, and it makes a mess.”
If the action is slow, try switching to minnows hooked to something that glows.
“I use small, lively crappie minnows on a small (Northland Tackle) Super-Glo Attractor Hook or a (Northland Tackle) Doodle Bug,” Brosdahl said.
Walleyes and Pike
Bowstring’s walleyes are the lake’s main attraction in the open-water season, but the marble eyes tend to take a backseat to panfish in winter.
“They don’t get picked on as much in the wintertime, but anyone who wants to target walleyes through the ice, Bowstring is under utilized for walleyes in the wintertime,” Brosdahl said. “There will be a handful of houses fishing walleyes, and they’re all happy.”
Simply seek out the mid-lake structure, and you should find some walleyes.
“If you know how to walleye fish, the classic features that you fish anywhere else are all going to hold fish,” Brosdahl said. “I’ve never had a bad day on Bowstring.”
The northern pike are there for the taking too.
“There’s a ton of northerns per square acre,” Brosdahl said.
The size of the pike isn’t what you might find on some other nearby bodies of water, but they will keep you busy.
“It’s definitely an action-filled bite,” Ylitalo said.
Giant Gills
Numbers wise, Bowstring Lake is average at best for bluegills and sunfish, but when you do find schools of the panfish, they are usually very big.
Brosdahl typically targets the bluegills in the morning or early evening.
“There are short windows,” he said. “They’re not something that you’re going to catch all of the time. They orientate to structure and points. They hold to that. Small depressions near points are really key.”
Northland Tackle Bro Bug or Gill Getter jigs are Brosdahl’s go-to options for bluegills and sunfish. He adds a Bro’s Bloodworm tail to the jig, often in green.
“Always start two feet above the bottom and work your way up,” Brosdahl said. “If you get a fish interested, slowly pull away. And be consistent with your jigging strokes. Don’t jig too sharp. You can spook them.
“If there’s nothing on your screen, jig hard to bring them in. Then use subtle, consistent jigging strokes. If you swim it away too fast, they’ll give up.”
Brosdahl and Ylitalo emphasize that for the population of bluegills and sunfish to remain stable, fishermen have to be willing to throw back the biggest fish so they can reproduce.
“We’ve got to keep them in the water,” Ylitalo said.
Mixed-Species Fun
After we got to the lake, our group split off into several factions, each pursuing a different species. Surprisingly, we basically had the lake to ourselves.
Brosdahl put me and several other ice anglers on top of a phenomenal bluegill bite. We caught beautiful bluegills and sunfish throughout the afternoon with an occasional crappie and perch and even a couple of bass mixed in. Other anglers had equal success targeting crappies or perch closer to the middle of the lake.
Thanks to Bowstring, we salvaged the day after a tough start. And things got even better when we sat down at the Gosh Dam Place for a fish fry a few hours later. The restaurant located northwest of Deer
River on Highway 46 fried up the filets we brought in from our day on Bowstring. It was one of the finest fish fries I’ve ever had.
IF YOU GO ACCOMMODATIONS
Geiger’s Trails End Resort
Bill and Erin Charlton
51713 Trails End Road
Deer River, MN 56636
Phone: (800) 617-4589
Email: info@geigerstrailsend.com
Website: www.geigerstrailsend.com
Bowstring Shores Resort
Darvin and Marjean Oelke
49231 County Road 173
Deer River, MN, 56636
Phone: (218) 832-3101
Email: bowshore@bigfork.net
Website: www.bowstringshores.com
White Oak Inn & Suites
201 4th Ave NW
Deer River, MN 56636
Phone: (218) 246-9400
Email: stay@whiteoakinnandsuites.com
Website: www.whiteoakinnandsuites.com
FISHING GUIDE
Wings & Walleyes Guide Service
Reed Ylitalo
Phone: (218) 259-0354
Email: Rylitalo12@hotmail.com
Website: www.wingsandwalleyesguideservice.com
RESTAURANT
Gosh Dam Place
38589 Minnesota 46
Deer River, MN 56636
Phone: (218) 246-8202
Website: www.goshdamplace.com
