Lake of the Woods

[sparetime]

What is the best time to book a stay at Lake of the Woods for Ice fishing walleyes? We will be staying with one of the resorts and using their houses.

[GenzisGod]

If it were up to me, I would book a trip at the end of December or first part of January. Can't beat the fishing at that time of year and the ice should be decent by then. Good luck to you.

[Green&Gold]

Yup, the earlier the better. We always shoot for our first trip right before Christmas. Could go earlier, but its iffy making reservations without knowing how the ice will be. Fishing is still pretty good into January, however. We have really gotten into some nice fish in the beginning to middle of January. Next best bet IMO would be end of March. Fishing starts picking up again late ice. Just prepare yourself, though, there will probably be slim pickings for weekends if you are looking for an inclusive resort trip. For a weekend at Sportsmans in the above time periods, we usually book a year in advance. JH

[Iceman12]

I just booked a trip for Jan 5-8 at Cyrus resort and it was there last opening for that weekend. I did call several others and about half of them had openings and half didn't. I would definitely start looking for openings soon because they fill fast.

[iffwalleyes]

There is not really ever a bad trip to Lake of the Woods. It is still better than 80% of the rest of the lakes in MN on it's worst day. However the best fishing is from first ice till about the second week in Jan. I alway go on a annual trip in Feb though and we haven't ever had too much trouble catching fish then either. I have had trips where it has been slow but the those are pretty few and far between.

[walleyes12]

Last year I had my house up there from The begining of Jan. to the End of Feb and there wasn't a time up there that I was disappointed. We caught LOTS of Walleyes every weekend.