Dave Bennett's Fishing and Hunting Page

Lake of the Woods wolf hunts

2010-03-07T21:46:00.002-06:00

Hi all,

I had a great time this past week with Alen and Rolando of HUNT TV. They were here chasing the elusive timber wolf with me. We had a fun 4 days in the great outdoors and Rolando got a shot at a really nice looking wolf on the morning of day three. They got some super footage of the animal, but unfortunately the shot wasn't clean. Although no good hunter likes it when this happens, the fact is that it does. The guys were pumped at the opportunity though, since John Hunt had been after a wolf in Thunder Bay for something like 10 - 12 days before he finally got one. Personally, I learned even more about these awesome creatures and will be excited when next winter rolls around and I get to apply my new knowledge in some more fantastic Lake of the Woods wolf hunts.

Winter is Fantastic in Sunset Country

2010-02-28T20:49:00.001-06:00

Winter has been going swiftly here in Sunset Country. We have been enjoying one of the mildest winters we have had in the past few years. This should bode well for the whitetail deer herd in the Lake of the Woods area. Fishing has been great all winter long. Walleyes, Crappies and Lake Trout have been my main targets so far but I'm looking forward to the awesome pike fishing that late season ice usually brings. Before that happens though, I'd like to let everyone know that some new friends, Alen and Rolando of HUNT TV will be here this week to do a little wolf hunting. When they heard of the success that Dan and Chris of Minnesota had hunting with Jeff Gustafson and myself, they couldn't wait to come and take a crack at this amazing winter sporting opportunity. Check out the pictures from our endeavors on my new wolf hunting page at www.wildaccess.ca

Reel Weeds really work

2010-01-05T18:58:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all in on a fantastic new product that I got a chance to try out the other day. It's called Reel Weeds. This is a portable structure system for ice fishing. The Reel Weeds look similar to our native "coon-tail" weeds, they are weighted on the bottom, come with 40' of line and an ice free float. Very simple to use, just drill a few extra holes and drop them down. The attraction of green weeds under the ice, especially on barren mud flats, is incredible.

I was out fishing crappies the other day and was using my usual run and gun approach. Drilling a line of holes, quickly checking them with sonar, and fishing those I marked something. After some time I had several nice fish on the ice but couldn't find a large concentration of them. They where scattered though the area and holding tight to bottom. I thought this might be the right time to try out this new "structure on a string," and I'm glad I did. Going back to where I had caught a few fish in one area, I popped a few more holes with my new Strikemaster Solo auger and dropped the Reel Weeds down. I flipped open my portable shelter and sat down to wait. I didn't have to wait long though. The fish started moving in right away. I wish I had an underwater camera with me to watch the action, but I settled for red bars on my sonar rising off the bottom to eat my lure. I was using Jason Durham's "piggy back" spoon idea, where he takes a Northland forage minnow spoon and replaces the treble hook with a small tear drop ice jig. The fish seemed to like it and so did I, great idea Jason!

With enough crappies for a fine meal I headed for home but I can't wait to try my Reel Weeds out again. If you like fishing crappies or perch, check this product out at www.reelweeds.com I think I just might have to try them around my shack next time I'm at the walleye hole..... I'll let you know how it goes.

Ice Fishing and Wolves

2010-01-02T13:40:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year!

Here we are, the ice season is upon us. We finished up the fall whitetail hunt with some great success. Although there were no "monster" bucks this year, we had a great hunt with some very solid animals being taken. I wrapped up my season by taking a nice 40" bull moose on the last day. I'm looking forward to some winter pursuits now. I've been out a few times for some ice walleyes and man do they taste great. My Dad and I caught some nice crappies the other day, they were pretty finicky(like crappies usually are) but we found that tiny glow Northland forage spoons would tempt a few bites.

This week I have plans to do some lake trout fishing and I am also setting up for the first wolf hunt of the winter. This should be very exciting, the wolf population is very high in the region right now and there has been a lot of activity in some of the areas I like to hunt. Check out this picture I got the other day from one of my trail cameras.

Hello Fall !

2009-10-07T09:30:00.003-05:00

Here we go! It's my favorite time of year on Lake of the Woods. Fish are putting on the feed bags before winter, so pretty much everything is biting. Muskies are high on my hit list along with walleyes and crappies. Whitefish and ciscos are getting set to spawn and the muskies are stacking up waiting for this annual feast. A trolling approach lets me contact a lot of fish and allows me to put clients on the muskie of their dreams, even those with limited experience. With plenty of fish in the current areas close to Kenora, you can get into a hot bite very quickly. Of course, having a enclosed top and a heater in my boat definitely helps with the comfort level on those less than perfect days.

Whitetail deer hunting is my other great passion. I have been guiding clients to some fantastic bucks for the last ten years. Remote areas of the lake offer some great opportunities, and I have been working hard for years scouting the perfect spots to place baited stands for my clients. We have a great track record, so look me up on my website www.wildaccess.ca for some more pictures and info.

Duck, goose and ruffed grouse hunting round out the options for this season. It looks like we are going to have some good numbers of birds this year.

What better time to book a trip to Lake of the Woods than right now.

Summer wrap up.

2009-10-07T08:10:00.004-05:00

Well, it seems that another summer has come and gone. While the weather wasn't always the greatest, the fishing sure was. With cool temps thru mid summer, walleyes stayed shallow for quite awhile longer this year than they have in the past couple of summers. Once they hit the mid-lake humps the action stayed hot all summer. The numbers of 1 lb to 2.5 lb walleyes in Lake of the Woods is just astounding. Smallmouth bass were a little different this year. It seemed that they were constantly on the move. Transitioning from classic summer points and rocks to the shallows and back with every little swing of the thermometer. At times they could be a little hard to pin down, but when you got on them, it could be bronze back bonanza! I spent quite a bit of time this summer fishing for largemouth bass with some great results. These fish just seem to be getting bigger and bigger in this system. While not found in large numbers, there were some huge fish coming to tournament scales this summer, 5's, 6's and a 7 lb 10 oz brute recently brought in to a Sioux Narrows tournament. Pike, with ever steady numbers, have enjoyed the slot size regulations, showing an average size better than any time in the past decade. With muskies, crappies and lake trout cruising these waters, there is no better time to be on Lake of the Woods than right now.

First win of the year.

2009-07-11T11:39:00.003-05:00

Returning home from the giant waves of Lake Michigan, Jeff and I didn't have much time to spare but were right back on the water for the annual Falcon Lake (MB) Bass Challenge. Though the bass on this lake were still transitioning from wintering grounds to pre-spawn staging areas we managed to catch 25-30 fish. Jeff was nailing them with his favorite cold water suspending jerkbait, and I caught the big fish of the day (4.01) classically dragging a tube up a sandy transition. We held off all other competitors to take home the win.

Kicking off the season right

2009-05-25T11:38:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. Jeff Gustafson and I were just down on Lake Michagan for the annual Sturgeon Bay Open bass tournament. This is the biggest open format tournament in the Mid-Western United States. It features 200 teams from all over the States as well as a few teams from Canada. The smallmouth bass fishing is just incredible with many fish topping the 5lb mark. Here is a picture of Jeff and I with a couple of GIANT smallies that we caught pre-fishing. The one Jeff has was 6.24lbs and I caught a 7.36lber that easily topped my biggest smallmouth.
Several days after this picture was taken, we competed in the big tournament that was shortend to 1 day due to extreme weather. We put together a 6 fish limit for 28.24 lbs which was good enough for 9th place. The 1st place team cranked in a whopping 32.24lbs for a new one day record. Talk about giant smallies.

Nearing the end of the ice

2009-04-15T09:23:00.003-05:00

Just a quick wrap-up. The weather has finally turned to spring and the ice is starting to soften up. Taking advantage of the late ice we have been targeting big walleyes as they move towards spawning areas. Many big fish in the last few evenings. numbers of fish in the 18" to 24" range with one to four fish 25" or better each evening. Yesterday was the last day of walleye season and I capped it of with the biggest walleye of the ice season. Forgot to bring a tape, but a conservative estimate would be 30" and 10lbs, it was a beauty.
Might get out a few more times for some big pike, but with the nice weather it's time to switch gears and get the summer equipment ready to rock.
Look for some open water updates coming soon.

It just keeps snowing and the fish keep biting.

2009-04-07T11:11:00.003-05:00

Wow, another fantastic week on Lake of the Woods. Kenora, ON.
Once again I hooked up with my friend Jeff Gustafson, who had put together a trip for some outdoor writers and photographers from In-fisherman and Ontario out of Doors magazines. Joining the group were Davis Vebeck of the MNR in Thunder Bay, Chip Leer of In-Fisherman TV and our buddy Dean Howard of Campfire Island Lodge on Rainy Lake
Let's just say the fishing was incredible. Three or four Lake Trout topping or closing in on the 20lb mark. Several more in the mid-teens. Fantastic crappie action with many in the 13" to 14" range and the highlight of that day a 48 1/2" Muskie caught by Dan Johnson(Walleye In-sider) on a walleye rod. Big pike were coming in every evening on our tip-ups and jigs as we fished one of Gussy's favorite late-ice walleye spots. Walleyes in the 24" -25" came as well and Jim Pfaff and Tim Allard (Ontario out of Doors) had their cameras smoking by the end of each day. Two baits really shone as we caught almost everything on Northland Buckshot spoons and Puppet Minnows of various sizes. Jeff Gustafson stared in two shows with Chip on Lakers and Crappie and I did one with Chip on multi-species locations in which we nailed 7 of 8 target species in one day. (Trout, crappie, perch, bass, walleyes, pike, and tulibees, we ran out of time on the whitefish due to camera problems, but we nailed them the day before with the other guys.)

Fishin' shows and more Snow

2009-03-30T07:48:00.004-05:00

This past week was really fun. I got the chance to hook up with my good friend Jeff Gustafson, who besides being an awesome fishing talent is an accomplished outdoor writer and promoter. Jeff had set up a few days of ice fishing on Lake of the Woods for crappie and whitefish with Bob Izumi's Real Fishing Show. At the same time James and Daniel Lindner, and Jeremy Smith of Lindner's Angling Edge were here to do a few segments of their own.
Tuesday evening I was out looking for some walleyes with Dean Howard another area guide and good friend of Jeff and I. We ran into Jeff and Bob Izumi who were coming out for the last light walleye bite after an afternoon of filming whitefish action. While we were chating on the ice we mentioned a hot crappie bite that Dean and I have been enjoying this winter. Bob was pretty interested.
Wednesday morning had some low clouds rolling in as Jeff and I took Bob and his crew to the crappie hole. Meanwhile Dean took the lead for the Lindner crew to chase down trophy Lake trout.
As we arrived at our destination the snow started coming down, it wasn't that cold but the air was damp and the wind had picked up. We started in the area that I had last caught the crappies but after a short time we realized that the fish had moved leaving only a few small stragglers behind. Knowing that crappies don't move that far in winter, Jeff and I began drilling series of holes through the deep trough of water that runs through this area of the lake. After bouncing around for several hours and catching only a few more little ones Bob was starting to raze me saying "do all you Canadian guides think this is 10 inches?" while holding his fingers about 4 inches apart. There was a brief discussion of packing up, but I knew that we just had to stick with it. Returning to where we started, we made the right move. Under the low pressure system the fish which had been suspended over deep water had pulled into the deep edge of a sand bar adjacent to the "hole" we were fishing. Once we got on them, the action was hot and since the snow was coming down so hard Bob and Jeff shot an episode of The Real Fishin' Show from the comfort of Bob's SnoBear. I loved the premise of the show talking about selecting a few fish for the table and releasing the rest to preserve the species. Look for this show on WFN in the future. Bob and his family are really nice, easy going people, and as genuine off camera as on camera, it was a pleasure to work with them.
Thursday morning saw Jeff off to finish up some whitefish action with Bob. I took the Lindner crew out in search of big pike. We headed out by snowmobiles and by the time we got to our desination it was near whiteout conditions (seems I only get to guide on the nasty days). Looking for some fresh bait for our tip-ups, we stopped at an open water hump near a deep basin area. These are areas that pelagic fish congregate around during winter. The whitefish were rockin and at one point James was catching them so fast I don't think the fish he released had even turned in the hole before he had another.
Moving down the lake to the mouth of a big shallow bay we set a few tip-ups and continued to fish over some deep water. More whitefish were caught and Dan came through with some nice size tullibees (ciscos). Setting a spread of tip-ups across the mouth of the bay produced one nice pike around 8lbs and a couple of missed fish but this wasn't the action I expected. Re-locating to the points out from the bay produced one more run but it still wasn't right and with the snow coming down even harder we decided to head back towards town and try the walleye fishing.
While fishing the flat off the end of a small island we were just getting into the walleyes and perch when Dan hooked into something good. After a bit of a tussle ending with Dan up to his shoulder in the hole, a beauty pike came through the ice with just enough light to snap a few pics before we called it a day.

Working thru the blizzard

2009-03-15T11:09:00.002-05:00

They say that timing is everything, and this past week that was certainly true. I had some clients arrive from Minneapolis Tuesday morning ready for an ice-fishing adventure. By the time we got them settled into their rooms and purchased licences the temp. was already plummeting, and the wind was gaining momentum. Wanting to start things out right, I decided to make use of my wheeled fish houses that I had recently re-located to an island shelf and adjacent open-water hump, about 10km SW on Lake of the Woods via ice road from Kenora, ON. Action was immediate with some nice walleyes coming in small schools to feed around the rock structure. Walleyes of varying size were caught, most on Northland buckshot spoons tipped with a minnow head, with a beautiful 26 1/2" fish topping the day. In the warmth of the houses it was easy to forget that it was near whiteout conditions outside, but the threat of getting drifted in kept me busy driving between the houses keeping an open track.
Day 2 started out right where the first day ended. Wind chills had the temp. pushing the -35oC mark but the action was going strong in at the fish houses. No real big one this day, but a bunch of quality walleyes in the 20" to 23" range. The day was capped off when one of the tip-ups I had set went off and Scott got the thrill of hand lining a 40" northern pike which he handed to Ben for a few quick pics before we released this beautiful giant.
Day 3 was still bitter cold but the wind had finally let up. After a quick stop back at the fish houses to catch the early morning bite, I led the guys into a clearer water area of the lake. Setting up a couple of Otter portable shelters off a steep breaking shoreline we settled in waiting for a Lake trout to cruise through the area. With no action for about an hour we took a quick break for some BBQ burgers and got back to the warmth of the shelters. Almost immediately I hooked into a good fish and quickly handed the rod off to Brad who was fishing beside me in the Otter. After a good 5 min battle, Brad landed a nice 12lb trout. Scott had a good fish on but lost it shortly after, but our time was up and the guys had to return to Minneapolis.
Although the timing couldn't have been worse weather-wise, we made the best of our time and had a fun couple days of fishing.