Straddling the borders of Minnesota, Ontario, and Manitoba, Lake of the Woods (LOTW) is a massive, world-class fishery.
Covering over 300,000 acres of water and featuring more than 14,000 islands and 65,000 miles of shoreline, it is a complex network of deep basins, shallow muddy bays, and rocky reefs. It is universally recognized as the “Walleye Capital of the World,” but it also holds a staggering population of trophy-class muskie and northern pike.
It also houses a wide variety of species including Atlantic salmon, catfish, lake sturgeon, trout, whitefish, largemouth bass, one of my personal favorites… smallmouth bass, and more.
Walleyes are the primary draw for the vast majority of anglers on Lake of the Woods. Prized for their golden-green color, low-light vision, and incredibly flaky, delicious white meat, they are the ultimate target for a northern fisherman looking for a meal.
Walleyes are schooling fish that relate heavily to structure and light penetration. Because they have highly light-sensitive eyes (which give them their cloudy, glass-eye appearance), they avoid bright sunlight. During the day, they push into deeper water, muddy basins, or hug the edges of rocky reefs.
During dawn, dusk, or heavy overcast days (often called the “walleye chop” when wind breaks up the surface light), they aggressively push into shallow water to feed.
The most common method on LOTW is vertical jigging. Anglers anchor over structure and drop heavy, brightly colored lead jigs (tipped with a live minnow or frozen shiner) directly to the bottom, popping it up and down to trigger a strike. Trolling is also pretty common too.
I’ve also caught them on minnow soft plastics, jerkbaits, and once on a swim jig in dirt shallow water… which I thought was rather odd, but hey, that’s fishing.
Walleyes are not known for explosive strikes but they can be tough to catch. The bite is notoriously subtle, often feeling like just a light tap. They aren’t particularly hard fighters, but they’re fun to catch and even more fun to eat.
Aside from them having teeth, northern pike fishing is quite the opposite. Built like underwater torpedos, they are highly aggressive and incredibly fast.
Unlike walleyes, pike are solitary, visual hunters that thrive in the weeds. They dominate shallow, weedy bays, cabbage beds, and rocky points where they can hide in the vegetation and ambush passing baitfish, ducklings, or of you’re lucky… a Chatterbait.
Fishing for pike, well… big ones… requires heavy tackle. Anglers cast bold, flashy lures to trigger reaction strikes. Red-and-white spoons (like the Daredevle) and large bucktail spinners are some classics, but you can catch them on just about any kind of moving bait. Chatterbaits, swimbaits, soft plastic jerkbaits or minnows, they’ll even hit topwater… buzzbaits, ploppers and frogs.
As a bass angler, pike can be pretty annoying… tear up your bait, shred your line, they stink… but if you fishing for trophy pike, it can a ton of fun. A pike strike is violent and explosive. They often hit the lure at full speed, sometimes right next to the boat, which creates high-adrenaline visual strikes and aggressive, thrashing fights.
And since they’re hyper-aggressive, they’ll sometimes hit a fish that’s already on your line.
Linda Russell was out fishing with some friends when one of the guys on the boat hooked up with what looks like a good, eater-sized walleye. Obviously, that’s a great enough feeling, but when he was reeling it in, something else grabbed on and made the fight much harder.
The video begins with the fish at the boat’s edge and we can see a big northern pike latched on to the backside of the walleye. The walleye was a good size and the pike was at least 3 times larger, not the biggest we’ve seen, but still an absolutely gorgeous fish.
Oddly enough, the people were more interested in getting a picture and video of the two fish rather than grabbing the net and trying to land the pike, which would have been my first thought, but given the location (and those signature accents) there’s a good chance these guys are Canadians and just too nice to take credit for landing a fish this way.
Regardless, the commentary was incredible.
“Look at this now, holy mackerel! I’ve got a video. Look at that, eh? He won’t let it go… That’s funny, eh?”
Gotta love it.
You never know what will go down on a day on the water. If you needed a sign to go fishing, let this be it.
Looks like she landed another the following day:
