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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Brian Bashore (00:01.386)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into another episode of Real Talk, Fishing with No Limits. It is ice fishing season is upon us and it is rapidly approaching in other places. And there's one of the most phenomenal places to go ice fishing is Lake of the Woods. So I got a good friend of mine is joining us today from Riverbend Resorts, Mr. Paul Johnson from Lake of the Woods. He's going to break down kind of what, what the guy going on up there, what we can expect for this season.
what river bend resort has to offer all the great things I've gotten ice fishing out there several times. There's some videos here on our YouTube channel. all of those are out of river bend resort. So lake of the woods is a special place and river bend resort is second to none when it comes to the dining, lodging, getting on the fish. They do it. Great, great people and excellent fishing. So stay tuned. We're to hear from Mr. Paul Johnson, river bend resort.
Brian Bashore (00:01.75)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. Today I am joined by a good friend, Mr. Paul Johnson with River Bend Resort. talking Lake of the Woods, we're talking ice fishing, maybe a little look forecast of the spring river run. All great things that happen at Lake of the Woods, the walleye capital of the world. What is going on up there at the Lake of the Woods in this early December timeframe that we're in Paul.
Paul Johnson (00:27.129)
Well, you know, we're in that early ice time frame. Hey, Brian, great to see you as usual. Always a pleasure. Appreciate the opportunity. So yeah, we're in early ice season right now. And what that means for us is so in the fall, all the shiners start running up the rainy river, right? So if you haven't heard of the fall rainy river run, you got to get up here in September, October and try it out. So all these shiners and walleye are filtering right past our docks, running up the river while I was
Saugers chasing them early ice. We're sitting in early ice right now All of those walleye saugers are are coming back out to the lake So reverse track heading from the river back out to the lake all our houses We're setting up on the lakeside on Lake of the woods North side of Pine Island there all them walleye sauger are filtering through lighthouse gap right past their fish houses and Fishing is insane right now a lot of numbers great numbers
Brian Bashore (01:25.58)
That's kind of the best time to probably come to get the big ones, right?
Paul Johnson (01:31.32)
Good question. You know, it's a good time to get on that migration back into the lake. And that's all them, the big walleyes, it's high numbers. You know, you're seeing 50, 60, 70, 80 plus days in the fish house because all that they're just funneling right past our fish houses and dispersing out into the lake. It's also, we're seeing a lot of species as well.
Brian Bashore (01:48.323)
Peace.
Paul Johnson (01:57.016)
Not only do you have the walleye sauger, you have the crappie, the perch, you have the sturgeon that are still cruising around in that sand where we're fishing. You have the big pike that are also in that same sand transition, sand mud where we're sitting. So it's a lot of different species and it's a lot of numbers.
Brian Bashore (02:15.406)
Lake of the Woods has never been short on numbers of fish. So for those that don't know, there's a slot limit there. I think it's 19 and a half to 27 or 28. So that means you can't keep fish in that size spectrum, which there's a lot of them, but that's also why there's so many 29, 30, 31 inch walleyes in that system.
Paul Johnson (02:24.322)
Yep. 28, 28.
Paul Johnson (02:39.298)
Yeah, yeah, that 19 and a half to 28 is what they considered your highest breeding fish that range. So we're protecting those, those gotta go back immediately. If you're catching them, which you're going to, you're gonna catch those fish. Be quick with it. They're great picture fish, they're fun to catch, they're amazing. Get them up, snap your pictures, and then get those fish immediately released. Those are our breeders, that's what keeps us fishery.
so profound and high in numbers as it is.
Brian Bashore (03:10.412)
Yeah. And it is, it's called the wallet capital of the world for a reason. No, and that's it. And should be called the soccer capital as well.
Paul Johnson (03:19.442)
You know, I think we should petition or at least fill the application out for that. I'm not aware of a sauger capital out there and so if it's there for the taking, why not take it?
Brian Bashore (03:29.8)
May as well because you're gonna catch a lot of saugers and guess what folks they taste the same if not damn damn they're the same but just as good.
Paul Johnson (03:31.256)
you
Paul Johnson (03:39.501)
I can't tell the difference and I think if you did a blind taste study, I don't think you could either.
Brian Bashore (03:45.58)
No, no, don't, not at all. And there's a lot of them and there is no undersize limit there. So you can keep those 14 inch Saugers that you're catching. Those are really the best ones to eat.
Paul Johnson (03:58.017)
So I always joke with our guests and when they're fishing and they say, what size should we keep? And it's like, okay, if you were to fillet these fish up and you were to put them in a basket, fried fish, which ones always go first? Which ones disappear first, Brian? It's always the little ones. Those are the good eaters.
Brian Bashore (04:11.106)
The little ones. Right. The little ones. This they are. So we'll get into that eating a little bit. Tell us listeners a little bit more. So River Bend Resort, where are you located at? What are you guys offering up there for ice or open water packages? What can we expect?
Paul Johnson (04:28.886)
So we're in our ice season. So we are located 12 miles north of Bajet, Minnesota. So if you look at Minnesota, that chimney, that tippy top part of Minnesota, that chimney, we're right where that starts, right where the Rainy River flows into Four Mile Bay and into Lake of the Woods. if you were strategically placed on the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods, short boat ride, short bomber ride, short vehicle, plowed road out to the lake.
really cool location, two great fisheries. you know, we're traveling maybe two and a half miles from the resort out to our fish houses right now, you know, that early ice, we're not that far out, past Pine Island. So it's a really short track out there. We're hauling everybody out, for safety until they open the road to full size vehicles. Then we're, you know, the rest of our winter season, we're running cloud roads. So you're driving your vehicle loaded up with all your equipment for the day, right to your fish house.
Guides are going to lead you to that fish house. They're going to make sure you get set up. You got all your bait. All of our holes are pre-drilled. So when you arrive, the fish house is heated. The holes are open. Get in that house. Start dropping your lures down. Get your dead stick, your jigging stick set up, and your fishing.
Brian Bashore (05:43.576)
Yeah, it literally is that simple. I've been there, I've done it and those things are there. There are heated. get a, don't need to wear all that ice gear to get out there boys and girls. It's a, you roll in that house, it's 70 degrees or so. And it's a, yeah, you can put your slippers in your sweatpants on and just fish for the day.
Paul Johnson (06:00.118)
We always joke that the winters up here on Lake of the Woods are really mild winters. You you're going from heated cabin to heated transportation to a well-heated fish house. I mean, the only time you're really stepping outside is in between those. so you're warm. You're staying warm the entire time you're up here.
Brian Bashore (06:12.686)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (06:19.95)
Yeah. So you guys are, want to take your kids or your spouse, your wife wants to go and they're worried. think the traditional ice fishing, I'm to be out in the wind and the blustery stuff and shovel it. No, not at all. You don't, you don't need the big ice suits. You don't need the stuff. Just call Paul, go to river bed and they'll take you from your hot, hot cabin. You know, with, with your hot breakfast, you're going to get in your warm car, you know, with the guys, you're going to run out into your super hot shack and you're going to stay busy all day. Cause I've been in it it's, and it's really.
A day bite there. mean, those fish pretty much just feed all day long.
Paul Johnson (06:53.686)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're very right on that point. you know, back to doing the work, I don't know you remember the scrubbing bubbles commercials from back in the 90s and the 2000s. We do the work so you don't have to. So yeah, we get all the leg work done. It's ready. You show up, relax and fish. Have a good time. And yeah, the houses are just, yeah, they work great. Jump in them, start fishing.
Brian Bashore (07:03.502)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (07:21.614)
And your guys, I mean, I've seen your guys working cleaning fish, know, keeping them, the holes open, bringing debate, checking up on the, you know, the, anglers are out there, but they're constantly, imagine they're fishing and moving those fish houses to just stay on a hottest buy that you can.
Paul Johnson (07:39.764)
Yep. And as the year keeps going and progresses, the fish continue to move out into the lake. They're chasing their food. Same with, we go where the food is, right? And so are those fish. And so our guides out on the lake are seeing that pattern, where they're moving, working with other businesses that are up doing the same. And we're trying to stay on those school of fish to give the best bite possible when you're up here fishing with us.
Brian Bashore (08:06.678)
It is, like you said, working with the others, it's a, a nice fishing community. Obviously there's thousands of shacks out there, but you have, if anybody's ever been there, the, the rainy river basically is out the backside of the resort, of the bar and the cabins and stuff. then you have another place, I believe in Bodette, right? motel.
Paul Johnson (08:26.932)
The Walleye Inn, yep, that's where I'm at today. The Walleye Inn, yep.
Brian Bashore (08:31.438)
Yep. So there you go. You can't, you can't miss Paul. He's up and down the, up and down the river, basically from boat end up to the lake of the woods, but it's, they're all lined up. You got docs right there. You walk out the back from the bar, you jump in the boat, you go down the river and the open water ice fishing. You'd come out the front, obviously getting their vehicles and head out, but everybody's working together. You guys don't do the bombardier thing. I believe. you have roads and then that kind of everybody takes turns or I mean,
By now you kind of, know, the fish are going to move where they're going to move, you know, where they're going. So you kind of understand the process, but obviously it's these, this outfitters tells your guys are moving. You guys are packing up and checking on it and moving as well. And it just, seems to work really well. It's competitive in a sense, I would say, but I would say it looks more like just a big family helping everybody out.
Paul Johnson (09:20.466)
It's a community, Brian. It is. It's a nice fishing community. And it's kind of like a man versus nature approach. I mean, if you think about it, there's two things that we can't control, nobody can control. And that's one is the weather. And two is the fish biting, right? So what we do is as this fishing community, we try to work together to try to conquer as much of that variable as we possibly can. So when it comes to plowing roads, we're working together.
Brian Bashore (09:37.198)
All right.
Paul Johnson (09:49.638)
So we, run off of Adrian's road. And so all the resorts that run on Adrian's road, we're all participating and plowing that, that main road up into where we break off and go to our fishing grounds, know, our locations. And, those have kind of been established through, through a process of over the years, just that, that general understanding, okay. This resort's always here. This resort's always here.
And we kind of follow that really well. And the community works together to kind of keep that. Because without it, you'd have chaos. chaos, when you're trying to fight nature, just create all sorts of not great things. So we work together. We really do. And if someone is in need of something, we're there to help. And vice versa. If we're in need of something, it's a great community. It's actually really neat.
Brian Bashore (10:27.246)
Yeah.
Paul Johnson (10:39.028)
how we all just work together for the same purpose and that's to get people out and have an enjoyable experience while ice fishing on Lake of the Woods.
Brian Bashore (10:47.04)
Is it busier ice fishing season over open water season there?
Paul Johnson (10:54.319)
Yes, it is.
Brian Bashore (10:55.36)
It looks like it to me. Every time I'm there, I'm like, this place is packed.
Paul Johnson (10:58.899)
It is. You you pick a weekend, let's say in January, and you know, the population of the lake just around the side that we're on, you know, you're looking at 10 to 15,000 people just out on the ice on a weekend. And that's a lot of people. That's a lot.
Brian Bashore (11:17.998)
That's hell of a lot. mean, but you also get two, three, four foot thick ice. mean, they're damn near semi trucks taking beer runs out there to the igloo. So if the igloo folks is the bar, there's two of them now, I believe the bar that is on the ice.
Paul Johnson (11:35.773)
So Zippo Bay, yeah, they have the igloo, which is actually really cool. It's become a destination that people have added just when they're coming up here. So you can come fish with us. You can stay with us. Of course, we want you to. But while you're up here, if you get a chance to just buzz over to Zippo Bay, stop at the resort, pay the road pass, go out to that igloo bar. That is the one that's kind of been around the longest. It's really neat. You can fish.
Brian Bashore (11:35.95)
It's crazy.
Paul Johnson (12:00.787)
They have holes drilled you can buy bait you can fish right there while you're enjoying a cold beverage non-alcoholic beverage pizza They got some food offerings out there. It's kind of neat and then Cyrus resort just the last few years ago Yeah, they they came they produced a cabin called the angry walleye. I think it's the angry walleye Same concept just a little closer and again same thing if you're up here you're fishing with us You want to just go check it out do it?
Brian Bashore (12:19.49)
Yeah. Angry walleye.
Paul Johnson (12:28.659)
drive over there, drive out to the bar, it's a neat scene. mean, where else can you go? And not too many places where you're on the ice, you're fishing, you're drinking a beer or diet coke, eating a piece of pizza, and you hook into something. I mean, it's cool. It's like the northernmost point, Booyah, with the Northwest Angle. We have people that come up here, stay with us, just for the opportunity to go up, whether they drive up or they do a boat tour.
up to that northwest buoy to get their picture taken with it. we're kind of, know, we're that highest point in the lower 48 states when we get up here. it's cool.
Brian Bashore (13:07.36)
It's cool. It's a beautiful place. got abundance amount of wildlife. We're just talking about deer and your deer season was good. There's, mean, there's just deer everywhere. I want to say I've seen a bear up there once or twice. There's a few black bears around, I believe. Right.
Paul Johnson (13:22.599)
Yeah, yeah. Black bears and wolves and moose. mean, you get a game camera out there, you get to see all sorts of wildlife. But we have access to tens of thousands of state and public land, you know, to, know, in the fall, grouse hunting up here is second to none. have, you know, three different types of grouse. We have the spruce, the rough and the sharp tail up here. You know, deer hunting, same thing, public land access.
You know, we just talking a little bit ago about going out hunting and fishing. I mean, you want to throw a cast and blast together. Fall is just magical up here. Yeah, it's a hunter-fisherman paradise.
Brian Bashore (13:59.182)
Yeah. And that walleye run up the river there in the fall with the shiners is, mean, fall and spring, I mean, is the place to go, right? It's spring's a pretty short season because you got walleye season. Uh, there's some weird regs, but it's like, a couple of weeks in April, I think you can attack that.
Paul Johnson (14:15.131)
So our walleye season on the lake and the river go until the 15th is when it's shut down. So you can fish up to the 15th of April. So it's an extended season for our walleyes and saugers. Bass and pike, there's no season on them. Those are continuous season. So March 1st is when Four Mile Bay and Rainy River, you can't keep any fish. It's catch and release only of walleyes and sauger after March 1st in Four Mile Bay and the Rainy River.
So if you're coming up for the spring, it's catch and release, but you're getting them big female walleyes and then big male walleyes coming up to spawn. You know, that's your spring migration. So catch, snap that pick, send it back down. But out in the lake, can still keep your aggregate limit of six, which is four walleyes, two sauger on the lake side up until that April 14th, 15th timeframe.
Brian Bashore (14:50.161)
you
Brian Bashore (15:09.102)
All right. So good to know your eggs where you're going folks, but it's definitely is a touristy spot for that, that spring run. know a lot of guys, I keep wanting to go myself, but April tournament, it just, it never works. I'm like, I just wish it was a little closer so I could run up there, you know, and do it. Cause it's really pretty simple. mean, could launch right there in the river, literally around the corner from the resort almost. And then you're just going up and down or even from boat at, like you said, you're 12 miles. I don't know how I'm along the rivers or Canada is the other half of the river. So I'm sure there's some.
things involved there, making sure you have, you know, each license or whatever, or to stay on the one side, right?
Paul Johnson (15:42.182)
Mm-hmm.
Oh gosh, the in the open. So ice is a little different because ice is considered land. So you got to go through all the different regulations of reporting open water. It's pretty easy and accessible. A few things you got to follow is one, you got to have the Ontario license. Two is you can't have live boat or live bait in the boat unless it's purchased. Then that's a whole nother step you got to go through. So if you have your Ontario license, you run in nothing but plastics.
You got a spot lock or trolling motor or you're just going to drift because you can't drop anchor. You can't touch foot on land and you can't come in contact with another boat. So boats can't come up and know, boat to boat. plastics, spot lock, Canadian license. You can go over there and hammer them just as easy from our dock as or on the American side, know, versatility in that open water season and those fish. Yeah, they're fondly literally like if you look at the map, the rainy river.
runs right past the resort. Those fish spring and fall funnel right past the docks. So you back the boat out.
Brian Bashore (16:46.007)
I'm sure you can go out there at night and shine a light and see them all coming through probably.
Paul Johnson (16:49.745)
It's pretty, it's such a cool scene.
Brian Bashore (16:54.358)
that's why everybody uses the frozen shiners because it's dead bait.
Paul Johnson (16:58.865)
Yep, so they changed that recently also. even if it's dead, can't have been living at any point. It's got to be artificial. When will they change that? I don't know. It's kind of a touchy subject, I think.
Brian Bashore (17:04.788)
okay.
Brian Bashore (17:11.122)
Well
Brian Bashore (17:16.013)
EEEH
Yeah, I, I've just learned over the years that I just don't participate in Canadian waters period. makes, it makes life simple that way. Yeah. If you're going to make it that difficult, I'll just stay on this side. There's fish swim. they'll come over here eventually and plastics have come a long way. So no problem with that. mean, I'd rather just use plastics anyway.
Paul Johnson (17:24.272)
If they don't want me there, I don't want to go there.
Paul Johnson (17:38.603)
And even on the American side in the spring and fall, a lot of plastics get used because, they work just as good.
Brian Bashore (17:46.575)
That is phenomenal. we catch, we fish all day. You guys got, I've stated, you got cabins, you got the walleye inn, have motels. What kind of accommodations that would people be looking at or recommending when they come up?
Paul Johnson (18:00.089)
So in the winter time we have three different style of accommodations. We have the walleye in so you know groups of one and two if you want to come up DIY, if you want to fish on your own. We have single king rooms, double queen rooms, standard hotel setup. We do offer fishing packages through the hotel as well. Out at the resort we offer the cabins for lodging so it's cabin, lodging and then day house fishing. We are out fishing for the day, come back at night. We have Miles Lab bar and grill right on the resort property at Riverbend.
Full bar restaurant, know, bring your catch in at the end of the day if you'd like we'll cook them up for you. Great burgers, amazing food, a lot of from scratch recipes. And then we have our sleepers. Sleeper houses are where you're ice camping. Your house is out on the lake, you're sleeping in there, you're fishing, you're just, you're on the ice. You're having that full ice camping experience.
Brian Bashore (18:54.434)
Yeah. And I don't know what you use to make those fish there or what batter, but I've had them and they're fricking phenomenal. mean, part of it, ice fishing, walleye are the best. They come out of that cold water. just, they taste better than however Paul or Brandy or whoever's cooking these is, this is good. It's legit. So have them cook your fish folks. I don't, you got some secret seasoning or special sauce you're using over there at Riverbend or at Miles lab?
Paul Johnson (19:17.337)
Yeah, it is. I'm not joking when I say it. It is an old family recipe. My great aunt actually came up with this recipe and we did some finagling with it to just fine tune it in a little bit, but it's just a really light breaded, you know, it's not dipped in beer, it's not dipped in egg. It's just, you know, right washed from the bag, washed quick batter. So it's light, crispy. The seasonings are on point. It's not over salty. It's not under salty. It is. And then we...
We do a homemade tartar sauce. It's just amazing that dill tartar sauce. So if you're tartar sauce fan, definitely, I hope you like ours.
Brian Bashore (19:57.625)
Yeah, it is good. Everything I've ever eaten there has been phenomenal. The breakfast, you name it, it's good. They know how to keep your body warm by filling it full of food for the hot breakfast for the day.
Paul Johnson (20:09.145)
Well, what's the best way to a fisherman's heart? Through their stomach, right? So come up, we'll take you fishing, we'll feed you, you know, add a meal plan to any of your lodging options that you choose. You know, don't have to do any dishes while you're here. Just come up, relax, fish, we do the rest.
Brian Bashore (20:11.978)
Right through the stomach through the stomach it is
Brian Bashore (20:26.69)
You will not leave hungry folks. can guarantee you that. And you will definitely catch fish. It doesn't matter when you go to Lake of the Woods. There's, you're going to catch fish unless the weather is just absolutely horrendous and keeps you off the ice or the water or whatever it may be. But the place is phenomenal. It's not a secret. Joe Henry's done a great job with Lake of the Woods tourism, telling the whole world about it. I mean, so much that winter's your busiest time.
So, I mean, that's pretty phenomenal that that many people.
Paul Johnson (21:00.066)
Winter's busy for a couple of reasons. One, ice fishing, know, where else? There are other places in the U.S. to go ice fishing. Don't get me wrong, and there's great markets out there. Near close to some, the state of Minnesota has some really great fishing markets as well. What appeals to lot of guests that come up here is the length of our season and then, you know, the thickness of the ice. The cold, we do get a lot of cold temperatures because we need that for that ice to fish that long in the season. You know, we're the only...
Brian Bashore (21:24.867)
Yep.
Paul Johnson (21:29.294)
North along the border is the only place where you can keep fish houses out until the end of March. know, so if ice conditions allow, we can fish till the end of March in our day houses, you know, so an extended ice season. So you're looking at December, January, February, March. So it's four months we're compacting in everybody that wants to get up and taste this ice fishing, whether you've been up here for the last 20 to 50 years of your life or if it's a bucket list item and you want to try this out. Perfect. You know, give us a shout. We got the equipment.
You know, can rent a flasher, rods, reels. We have all that equipment ready for you. We get you out. Our guides will teach you how to fish, show you how to fish. you're experiencing it and you're checking that box, but you're also leaving with a new set of knowledge of how to catch fish, how to, you know, get that organic fish in the pan and eat it fresh.
Brian Bashore (22:22.314)
really, if you've ever done it, blows a lot of people's mind. My wife and I went up there last year to do, she had to do a tourism photo. So we went out, they, Joe set it up as actually out of a different resort. The bombardier thing. I can tell you I'll never do that again, but it was a long ways out because it was late season, 18 miles or something like that maybe, but just, it just blew her mind just driving on the ice, you know, that far out. And then you just look around and you just see.
a town of shacks, know, and there's just so many people. And then we went, took her to the igloo and did that whole thing. And she's like, you gotta be kidding me. There's, know, and this is the cost of flow of people coming in and it's not crowded, you know, like you can sit there and ice fish, you know, but it, they were just coming, coming and going groups, coming in, having an order and a drink, getting the experience then and heading out. this is pretty cool to see how all that, that whole place works. And then he got places like riverbed.
Where you come in at night and you eat, you guys have entertainment. The bars is massive. got pool, phenomenal jukebox things to do. And I mean, it's not, it's not small. It's isn't like you're just rolling into some little town bar. The place is big. It's beautiful. It's clean. And you do, I know during the summer, you guys do a ton of entertainment.
Paul Johnson (23:39.553)
We do that, that rainy river Canadian backdrop, you know, it took me a lot of years to realize that we're looking east into Canada. When you look over the river, I always thought Canada was North, Neighbors to the North. Well, this is one of those few places where the river is actually flowing North and we're looking east into Canada, but the backdrop is so cool. So we'll set bands up on the patio and then all the tables, you know, right in front of the lodge on the patio as well.
Brian Bashore (23:48.302)
All right.
Paul Johnson (24:04.589)
And the bands are playing on the deck with the Canadian backdrop behind them. It's a beautiful scene, boats driving back and forth. We do a fish fry every Friday night from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend. And it's an all you can eat walleye buffet. We call it a bacon buffet because there's thick cut bacon on it. So we like to joke and say it's an all you can eat bacon buffet with fresh fried walleye as an option as well. And a bunch of other sides. so yeah.
Friday nights, people come out and listen to live music on the deck, sit along the rainy river, get their fill of walleye and bacon and all the other fixings. And it's just, it's a fun scene.
Brian Bashore (24:46.572)
Yeah. You're making me hungry, but hard, hard to beat. all you can eat bacon feed, right? With the walleye in it. That's a, that's a, that's a hell of a combo right there. So it is a phenomenal place. And like, yeah, that, that always throws me for loop is since that way that, you know, the state is shaped and how you see it. Then the river runs north, which is weird.
Paul Johnson (24:52.652)
you
Paul Johnson (25:08.512)
Right when it hits bedette, yep. And that's where that chimney, you know how you had that, that's right where that chimney on the east side shoots north is right where the river hits bedette and starts angling north.
Brian Bashore (25:12.664)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (25:21.806)
No, I've, I've fished there in the fall in the open water. were way up in Knights Island, I think area, something like that. And that fishing was, was nuts. And it seemed like, you know, I don't, I don't, it's hard to remember. It didn't seem like it took all that long to get out there, but it seems like it takes forever to get out there when you're driving on the ice, but that's cause you're going slow. You're not going 60 like you in a boat and you're not necessarily making a straight line, even though your roads are massive and they're going to be pretty straight.
I would say easy to get, not easy to get lost in open water, ice, everybody, all the resource. Y'all do pretty good job of putting maps. And if you just pay a little bit of attention, it's pretty simple. But I do keep my graph on if I'm coming into the dark and use my map, because that can be tricky.
Paul Johnson (26:10.22)
Oh yeah, yeah. Anytime you're navigating in the dark, know, um, when you can see in front of you, it's obviously easier if you've got a dead head in the river, you can navigate around it or, um, so we always advise, you know, in the open water season, if you're in your boat, try to get in before dark or at least get within an eyesight of the resort, um, and the docks and then, you know, we got dock lights so you can navigate in and see that way. Um, but if you're out on the lake, yeah, use some extreme caution, you know,
Use your screens use your your navigation anything that you can the the the buoys and the placards and Yeah, red right return don't ever forget that
Brian Bashore (26:50.154)
And I returned. I, I was, I know I took my little hummingbird and I turned on the map on it when I was on the ice coming back in. Cause one time I came in at night and I was like, I'm so turned around. like, cause it's just, and even in the day when it's just a giant sheet of white, know, and if you got a lot of sun, you're like, I don't know. Everything's marked pretty good, but it's that much harder to see at night. So yeah, having your graph with your map on it and save your trail as you go, or even onyx on your phone or whatever it is. mean, it that's tool.
Paul Johnson (27:18.891)
So if you're coming up and you're doing a trip on your own, definitely run tracks. It's going to save you. you do stick around and say you do get a little later bite and you want to stay on it or try a little later, you can always go back to that track to get you back in. You can go slow, but you know you're headed in the right direction. If you're running on the plowed roads, the resorts do a great job of marking their roads. We got stakes that are in with reflective tape.
Adrian's runs reflective tape and stakes. We run, same thing, orange painted wood stakes with reflectors. And so we're doing our best to mark those. And as long as you have that track saved if you're on your own, one of the features, like when you're fishing with us, like our guides, we leave at 7.30 in the morning, everyone's behind us. All the guides are leading everybody directly out to their houses.
You don't have to be afraid that you're going to get lost or that you're having to go out to our houses on your own. And then same coming back in, we'll get everybody rounded up and head back in. And those that are comfortable and have the track saved, they've been fishing with us for many years. They understand how the process works. But even if you haven't, our guides are there along with you. You're not getting sent out to the elements to fend for yourself. We're here. We're here with you. We guide you through this whole process.
Brian Bashore (28:37.358)
And there's definitely elements there in your guides are, are working overtime on that stuff. I've seen them and I have some video here on the wall. guys YouTube page of, went out and watched them move some of those shacks and I'm like, that's, that's way too much work. I'm an open water guide. just hook up the boat, dump it in the lake, put it the trailer off you go. But he's got the huck, the truck, the jacks, the cause they, they drop and then
They get hot, right? So everything freezes to them and then you get snow drifts coming in and obviously they're making rounds, pulling, you know, the propane tank, keeping everything full. it's like, it's not a lot of break time involved. Those guys are it's go, go.
Paul Johnson (29:14.044)
And they're stopping in to see how you're doing. How's the bite? I'll be right back. I gotta go move this other house, but I just wanted to make sure you guys are doing all right. Or come lunchtime, they're leading the half day out. That might be they're fishing for the afternoon, just getting in early and they wanted to add a half day, because they wanna fish while they're up here. Add a half day the day you arrive, why not? Or they're delivering hot pizzas. We deliver hot pizzas out to our day shacks in the winter time.
Brian Bashore (29:16.875)
Right.
Right.
Paul Johnson (29:42.402)
And it's super simple. If you call them before 10 to the lodge and give them your order, the guides will pack them all up. They're hot, fresh, delivered. It's not a Domino's vehicle, but it's a pizza bag that keeps them warm and will bring you a hot pizza. If you're on the meal plan, day two, your lunch is a hot pizza. So they are, they're working hard. They're moving the houses. They're staying on the fish. They're trying to keep up and try to touch the guests.
Brian Bashore (29:43.295)
art.
Paul Johnson (30:11.624)
By touch, mean, stop in and say hi, see how things are going. It's a long day for them. They work hard, but it's a short season. understand it. And props to these guys, all the resource, any of these lakes that people are guiding, you know what it takes. It's a lot of hard work, but that's what we do so you can come up and have fun.
Brian Bashore (30:33.198)
It's a river been door dash on ice, right? There you go. We, we deliver fish and pizza right to you. We take the work out of it. Couldn't have, uh, put a better phrase to it than that. We just take the work out of it, make it easy for people. And that's what I think most people are looking for when they sign up for, uh, an excursion, an adventure, a fishing trip, or a destination, whether it's fishing or a hunter is to show up and not have to worry about anything. We allotted to do it yourself. So that's fine.
Paul Johnson (30:35.306)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (31:01.23)
And I'm that guy and many of we want control and do things, but even with those folks, you're to be able to direct them to do it themselves. But maybe they're going to rent the shack from you. You know, the shack, you know, is already there and your guys are great at saying this dropper or this jig or this color, gold people. you're going to like the woods, you just take gold color with you. Period. Um, you know, this is what's been working best and ice fishing can be tricky.
But then again, it's really not that hard. We overcomplicate it when you really just need a jig and a minnow majority of the time.
Paul Johnson (31:32.872)
Yeah, yeah, I always have asked myself, why do we have to use a jigging spoon in the winter and a round ball jig in the summer? You don't have to, but we do, we do. You know, and yeah, even if you just want to try fishing for the first time and you don't want to, like I said, don't want to go by the gear, you don't have to come check it out. And then if you love it, you fall in love with it, then you can go out and start, start.
Brian Bashore (31:39.598)
Right. don't know. You don't know. Right. Yep.
Paul Johnson (31:59.834)
shopping around and start building your little arsenal like we all have done through our lives and then go out there and drill your holes. Spend our small fortune.
Brian Bashore (32:04.569)
yeah. I don't know if it's little, but.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is little in the sense of ice fishing gear is typically pretty small, but the amount of it, they say those ice fishing jigs catch more fishermen than they do fish. And that may be true in some cases, because I always end up back to this simple simplicity of the jig or the hook and the minnow on the dead stick seems to do really well. But there's days where that Rippin Wrap or whatever jig and wrap or a certain spoon was definitely
money and that's what they wanted. And that's why we have a whole arsenal of all those tools to keep filtering through it. And, I must say with the, you know, the coming of the live scope stuff is really made ice fishing. Ice fishing has been known for not necessarily up there, but other places where it's not as abundant fish. Do you have a couple of bite windows? So you have a lot of downtime between that morning and evening bite. Sometimes, sometimes you get on a pod that can go all day, but that, is super fun up there. Like the woods, when you have.
targets all day long and you're basically playing your video game and it's like, Oh, here they come. Here they come. You don't get ready and you can see everybody's baiting the entire fish house, you know, and then it's a matter of who's, who's it going to get. And it just, it never ends. It's pretty fun.
Paul Johnson (33:20.85)
Brian, he's under yours. Get him.
Brian Bashore (33:22.478)
Mm hmm. Yeah, he's there. What? I remember that up there once in the gadgets. I was like, you got one coming. They're like, how do you know? Like, because they're on the other side of your bigger shack. I'm like, because I can see him. I'm like, lift your rod. Oh, they lift. They're like, oh, OK. I'm like, yeah. So it's a game changer. Not needed by all means, but it is definitely fun. So.
Paul Johnson (33:39.472)
It, you know, what's really cool too, is you look at like younger children and when you, when you're bringing your kids out fishing, what's the number one task that we have to try to do when we do that? It's keep them occupied, right? Keep them engaged, keep them busy. So when you, when you look at technology, you know, we run hummingbird flashers, the Helix is, and then you look at the live scopes and you look at all the other forward facing or down facing sonar.
Brian Bashore (33:51.884)
Keeping busy. Yep. Keeping busy. Lots of snacks and keeping busy.
Paul Johnson (34:06.617)
It keeps them engaged. It really does. We've noticed that parents who bring younger kids up actually have better, funner days with some of the technology. And I get it, it's controversial when you apply it to the, know, tournament series and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when it comes to just traditional fishing with your younger kids or even yourself, the electronics have really made it a lot funner and more engaging for all age demographics.
Brian Bashore (34:36.93)
Yeah, for sure. I think it's, it's up the game and the ice fishing world to make it really just a more enjoyable or especially not just the younger generation, just kind of everybody that gets it just to see kind of what's going down there. And you can drill your hole and turn it to forward mode and kind of look to try to find them instead of just drilling 400 holes and spooking all your fish. It can, it could take a little bit of that out of the game as well, which then again, that's part of it. I'm a, know a guy that likes to just drill a handful of holes and set tip ups all over from where I'm fishing and see where kind of where they're.
where they're going, but a little research will help minimize your search or hunt for the fish before you show up. Or just hire a guide. I mean, it's really the simplest way to do it. From guide to guide, just hire a guide, right?
Paul Johnson (35:22.533)
Back to the summer, know, just even on the boats too, you know, we run 27 foot charter boats and then we also work with some small boat guides, local small boat guides for smaller groups and a real common practice when guests come up, they'll book their first day of fishing with one of our guides. And if you've never fished the lake, it's a great opportunity to get out and see the lake with somebody else, let them do the navigating, pay attention, find out what methods, techniques are working.
Do that on that charter or that small boat option and then take your boat out the next two, three, four days. Just get that information, get that knowledge and then go fly it.
Brian Bashore (36:01.305)
Yeah, I get that a lot too. Or I know they're on a three day trip and a lot of times they're like trying to hide that fact or something. like, it's perfect. That's okay. I would do the same. I recommend that you hire a guide on your first day. If, your schedule works, I've had some that ended up being on their second or third day. Cause they were all booked up. I'm like, we're going to go show you the spots. just tell them one thing I asked is you just don't crowd, you know, me and the guests tomorrow because they're paying people just like you are today. Cause not on a place where it's, it's necessarily big enough for, you know, three or four boats at certain times.
and, there really isn't a lot of secrets on the Blake blue scarlet quarter guides. It's just kind of a straight shot lake. And that's all there is to there's no hiding. There's no coves and whatever. It's really the methods and the techniques and the speeds and depths and things that you present your baits to them. But totally like if you're coming early, I always say, just tell me that. then we may even wrap up fishing a little early and I'll go show you, you know, six other spots that you can try to hit over the next couple of three days in case.
Paul Johnson (36:46.492)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (36:59.692)
What we did today isn't, isn't working because there's a good chance the wind's going to change, weather's going to change, occurrence is going to change. And now you're thinking, well, this is just what it showed us. And now we're going to sit here for three days where no, need to take that pattern and go here, here, here, here, you know, other places. And obviously like the woods is much bigger, but it's still depends on how far you go. got 10,000 islands or some astronomical number like that. And then if you go to the Canadian side, but it's really a big bowl in a sense, but you all mean.
Obviously, you have the river you can fish to if the weather gets too bad on the lake.
Paul Johnson (37:33.209)
Yeah, and I'm guessing your guests, your clients enjoy that ability for you to kind of just show them a little bit. And you still have repeat customers that probably come every year and they just, know, the first trip out is the update of where they're at at that time, you know. And it's great. I know other markets are a little bit different, but we do that. encourage it. We would rather have a positive guest experience where they left with a favorable fishing experience than, you know, the...
Brian Bashore (37:38.862)
Mm-hmm.
Paul Johnson (38:02.573)
Hey, don't fish in my spot. Approach, but...
Brian Bashore (38:04.75)
No, I a hundred percent. good for, I just went to everybody. It's good for everything. If you call me and ask me, I'll give you a little bit. It's gotten kind of crowded in the last few years. So it kind of quit doing the radio forecast because the amount of people that would follow the, or guide boats around and, get so close so you could poke them in the eye with your rod. Um, we're like, this is getting a little out of hand folks, but if you don't already give you GPS cord is, but yeah, we'll give you the, you in the right direction. want you to go out and catch fish.
Paul Johnson (38:21.349)
Hahaha.
Brian Bashore (38:30.602)
know, especially if you're bringing kids, once you have a positive experience, it's going to keep you coming back to the area. It's going to keep you, you know, at our resort. It's going to keep that money in the community, more fishing license. mean, it just, everybody in the fishing or hunting sport outdoor industry benefits from it. So to make it a bad experience, nobody wins at all.
Paul Johnson (38:52.611)
Nope, and Joe Henry says quite often, we like to create that win-win situation.
Brian Bashore (38:58.85)
Yes. Yes. And it's hard not to when you go to River Bend Resort and you're on Lake of the Woods, because the place is freaking phenomenal. just, wish I lived so much closer, the amount of fish in that system and big fish and, and the, and the small mouth man. And you got sturgeon, you got a whole sturgeon thing going on up there, which you get a ton of people that come for that. imagine most of that's most I'm targeting them in the river, I assume. Right.
Paul Johnson (39:07.13)
Yeah.
Paul Johnson (39:23.143)
yeah, yeah. Mainly river just because of the concentrated areas. But some of these guys in the spring are realizing there are different methods and where you need to be to be the most successful in their spring run. And, you know, so they're venturing more further out into the lake as that ice is thawing and finding a bunch of fish out there as well. But sturgeon is so cool. mean, they're huge. a lot of, I'm assuming most of your viewers listeners know what a sturgeon is, but if not, they're almost a prehistoric.
Brian Bashore (39:45.9)
Are you?
Brian Bashore (39:50.03)
Yep.
Paul Johnson (39:52.269)
species of fish and they get huge and you know, it's they say it's the closest to like an ocean fishing experience in a freshwater body of water so If you haven't and it's super simple I mean you can hire a guide to have them take you out there and show you you can stand on our dock and flip out a weight with a you know 18 inch leader and a bunch of worms and catch sturgeon right off the dock Or just bring up your your 16 foot 18 foot 20 foot whatever size boat you got
and just drop an anchor and soak some worms and catch a sturgeon.
Brian Bashore (40:23.554)
Yeah, they are priest or paddle fish, spoon bill, whatever you want to call them. And sturgeon are basically the biggest, most prehistoric looking fish out there. The difference is you snag paddle fish because they eat plankton. You're not going to catch them on the crawlers and the sturgeon bite and fight like, holy hell, hang on. And I've caught a few and I've snagged a few by accident jigging. well yeah, that, is a strong, tough fish. So, and six foot long. mean, these things get big, real big.
Paul Johnson (40:50.891)
gosh, yeah, so much fun.
Brian Bashore (40:53.614)
I know it's big, a lot of guys ice fish them and spear them, you know, in Wisconsin and wherever else they do that up there. have a season for spearing them through the ice.
Paul Johnson (41:03.745)
Nope, to my knowledge, don't believe Minnesota allows a spearing season. think that's Wisconsin, but we do have catch and release seasons. Yep, we do have catch and release seasons. have keep seasons. So, so the first keep season is April 24th to May 7th. And you can buy a tag and you can keep a sturgeon and possess it. You can bring it home, clean it, process it, eat it, whatever you want to do. There is a protective slot on those as well. So 45 to 50 inches.
Brian Bashore (41:08.866)
This Wisconsin.
Paul Johnson (41:31.203)
They have to be within that five inch range to keep them. Otherwise they have to go back and then one over 75. And then we have a summer keep season, which is July 1st to September 30th. Same rules as far as slot limit is concerned, but now you have three months during that summer timeframe to catch and tag one if you so choose to do. If you don't, just your regular fishing license, state fishing license, you can catch and release sturgeon. You only have to buy that tag unless you intend to keep one.
Brian Bashore (41:34.552)
now.
Brian Bashore (42:01.423)
Okay. Yeah. So pretty much like paddlefish. It's a season, it's a few weeks, a slot, real particular slot they got to be in. We have an archery season, we have a fall season, we have a spring season, and some of those are at different locations. You're not really supposed to target the paddlefish because you're snagging them. So you're driving hooks into them versus the sturgeon that bite, you know, release, but it's inevitable you're going to catch them. I've seen guys catch them ice fishing, you know, they tangled up in a tip-up line and they pulled the
big paddlefish through the eight inch hole, which I, you know, I saw happen back to back, same guy and he didn't know what to do with it. I'm like, well, you got to throw it back. It's January. And he's like, okay. I'm like, I don't, how the hell did you get that up out of that hole? Anyway, I'm just, like four foot long, what Tim is later and he got another one. And I'm like, all right. That's, that's tricky. That's a lot of effort on some ice gear there. So, very, very cool fish.
Paul Johnson (42:32.995)
Thank
Paul Johnson (42:42.883)
Yeah.
Paul Johnson (42:53.027)
Like trying to fit a turkey through a Pringles can,
Brian Bashore (42:57.688)
Yeah, pretty much, but he did it, did it twice. And it was a, but for Randall, it was interesting. nonetheless. All right, Paul, where can they find your information? People want to get in touch with you. They want to book some ice fishing trips. What's the, where are we at? What's our contact info and website.
Paul Johnson (43:00.931)
you
Paul Johnson (43:13.739)
Awesome. So super simple, riverbendresort.com. That's going to give you access to our online booking system. So if you're familiar with online booking, select your dates, pick your packages, whatever you want to do, real simple process. If you want to talk to somebody, have call agents always standing by. Call us 1-800-292-3084. And then we're always posting on socials, fishing reports, YouTube channels, all that great stuff. If you just want to...
see what we're doing and what's going on and what season we're in. We're always posting pictures of fish and types of fish and all that great stuff. So yeah, riverbendresort.com, Brian.
Brian Bashore (43:51.308)
Awesome. It's always fishy at Riverbend. So there you go. Always fishy. Paul will get you set up. So, all righty. Well, thanks a ton for breaking all that down. Paul looking forward. Hopefully we'll get up here again. Sometimes usually late winter by the time I get a chance to get up there after kind of before open water, wrap up some of the sports show type stuff, but it'd be nice to get up there a little earlier and maybe right around Christmas or New Year's. Hmm. We'll see. They could see a guys trip coming up.
Paul Johnson (43:54.019)
You
Brian Bashore (44:20.59)
So I don't know.
Paul Johnson (44:21.154)
We always got a spot open for you, Brian.
Brian Bashore (44:24.374)
All right. Well, I will try my best to fill it. I know I kind of need to take some of my guides on a little winter getaway and I already told them I know where we're going. We just got to find time to go. So, but it's fishing. The best time to go folks is anytime you can. So, cause they're always biting. It's always fishy river been. So, all right. Nonetheless, thank you. ahead.
Paul Johnson (44:34.986)
Awesome, awesome.
Paul Johnson (44:43.34)
We always say that a slow day on Lake of the Woods is still a better day than a lot of other places you could be fishing.
Brian Bashore (44:51.63)
This is true. I say same with Feza hunting South Dakota. I'm like, yeah, bad day of Feza and South Dakota is probably better than most of your season in any other state. So I'm like, there's still plenty of opportunities. So, all right, there you go. You heard it from Mr. Paul Johnson himself, Riverbend resort folks, check them out at riverbendresort.com. Give them a shout, follow along on their Facebook social media pages and see what is happening with the bite is it is almost always good Lake of the woods. So thank you for tuning in and thank you for joining us, Paul.
Paul Johnson (44:59.511)
Ha ha ha.
Brian Bashore (45:21.536)
Stay safe folks and we will see you on the ice.