Bowstring Lake, Itasca County (all postings)

I finally made it out after staying home on opener. It is the second time in all the years we couldn’t get out on opener because of ice, Leech at sugar point was locked up. Monday I figured we could get out some where and heard Bowstring was open, but when we arrived at the landing it was iced in. So we went to the other landing and the ice had moved in there also. We then went to little winnie I figured we could land at the river and get down river to the lake but that was too low for my boat. Next stop was cutfoot. I had heard there was some open water there, finally we could fish. there wasn’t a lot of open water but we thought we would give it a try. I had 1/16th oz fireball and a small chub or shiner. We would get out in the 10ft of water and cast in to the shallow water and pull our way back. the fishing was decent, with a lot of big fish and a few eaters. The next day we went back and had the same luck,but with the new wind yesterday we lost a lot of ice. It actually switched mid way through and started to come in on our spot we were fishing it was very interesting. From now on most our lakes have opened up and we can get back to normal.

Good luck fishing

Spent last wednesday thru sunday at Bowstring Shores Resort. Darv and Marjean are great folks. Fished perch thursday and friday which was kinda slow. Caught alot of tulibee and northerns. Saturday moved to deeper water and fished crappie. Hammered them most of the day. Kept 17 crappie and 1 perch(2 guys) caught well over 50.

Hey Fellow ice fisherman I am coming over to Minnesota to ice fish for the first time at the end of Jan. Have always envied the fishing opportunities you guys have there so I thought I would give it a try. My question is what is the scoop on Portage Lake?? Is it a good Lake with sizable fish? I assume it has its share of Walleye? Perch? Crappie? Which end of the Lake is best? Appreciate any info Thanks

GG, pm sent.

abacab, went to the ice show in WI last weekend. Lost the info for the lodges on bowstring lake. Which one are you going to.

Just booked a cabin/fishhouse for january 23rd. Any new updates on this lake? Never been there before. Just ran into a resort owner at the WI Ice Fishing show and decided to give it a shot for something new.

Crappies have been hitting on Bowstring this past week in 7-8 ft on the rocks. Northern pike has been very good, casting or trolling the cabbage beds, along with a good bite the sizes has been very good, with quite a few over the 30 inch range. Be safe and have some fun.

I have been to bowstring fishing the weeds in 6-8 ft of water looking for the weeds pulling spinners with a crawler or a minnow. They seemed to like the minnow a little better.

Hi everyone. Spent today on bowstring. The fish are on the deep sides of the hubs on the lake. We caught a lot of nice size walleyes with still a jig and shiner. But it will not long before the shinner bit will be over. There is a bug hatch starting. Good luck to you all.

Hi everyone. Well bowstring lake is still holding up well. A lot of fish from 12 inches to 23 inches. We have been using jig and shinners in that 5 to 8 foot of water. It won't be long before the break line will be the place to work for them

Bowstring has been the most consistent bite in the area, If you can't fine the walleye along the shoreline, try the deep water breaks 18 to 25 ft. again, jig & Shiner work well, I believe you could rig this fish with leech or crawlers, I just haven't tried it myself.

The wind hit us all on Sunday but walleyes were bitting. We use a jig and shinner in 8 to 10 feet of water. My group filled out in 3 hours.

We came back on 3/7. We had been there a week. The perch fishing on the north end of Bowstring was pretty tough. We were picking up a few but they were far between them. Picked up some real nice Crappies 12"+ on the north end. 3/6 was our best day out.

WalleyeHammer

Oh , i'm sure we've seen each other on Metonga. Whats ur e-mail ?

We will be heading up there over St. Patrick's. How is the ice? Need an extension? The crew I'm going with has been up there for years, but this is my first. Sounds like Winnie has been producing well, but not much info on these "smaller" lakes. What do you know? Looking to have a great time with good people.