First trip to Lake of the Woods

Hey everyone, some of my college buddies and me are heading up to Lake up the Woods on March 5th through the 8th. We all go to college at UMD but are all from Wisconsin and have never fished Lake of the Woods before.I fished Upper Red in early January but have yet to get to Lake of the Woods. We are renting a shack through Dales fish house rentals. If anyone has any tips it would be greatly appreciated as we have never fished this body of water before.

- Best colors and spoon sizes?

- Best fishing times?

- Is it worth trying to use tip us mid day for pike?

I understand there is not a night bite but we rented a sleeper shack based on the cost being cheaper and being in  the tail end of college. Any info and tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you ahead of time!

Four of us just got back from Ballards today 2 days fishing and put 27 eyes and sauger on the ice and one 13” Perch. Guide said opening holes in the shacks there was 42” of ice be sure to bring a couple of extensions. The hot bait was buckshot rattle spoon in blue a Fleet Farm exclusive. 2 fish were in the slot and I lost 2 slot fish. Had a good time. Fish were tight to the bottom and I would bang the bottom until I marked a fish and then twitched the spoon less than a foot above and some would take it just holding it still.There was a group of 50 on bus trip and 29” er was biggest of the group. Good luck

LOTWs is a blast.  Great Lake to ice fish if you like to stay up, drink beer and play cards.

Baits: vertical jigging spoons like Buckshot rattle spoons tipped with Minnow or Minnow head.  A local favorite is the JR Tackle Stop Sign Jig.  The glow red worked the best.  You can pick them up at any of the bait shops in the gas stations when you get closer to the lake or you can buy them online if you want to be safe.  Smaller jigs worked better.  Like 1/8 and 1/16 oz.  I even caught fish on a 1/32 oz glow red Forage Minnow.  

Time of Day:  Best time for walleye and sauger was 10 am to 2 pm.  There is an evening bite for eel pout until an hour or two after dark.  We had tip ups out for pike but never caught one.

We were there the second week of January and were off of the south shore in sleepers.  March and/or a different location could be different for you.

The handiest thing that our group brought was a small gas generator.  It was nice to be able to put a charge on the Vexilar battery and phone every evening during supper.