Gary Moeller of Ballard’s Resorts – Serving Up Grand Slams

Everyone wants to hit grand slams, but you don’t always have the opportunity in front of you. Recently, though, we were lucky to meet up with Gary Moeller of Ballard’s Resorts. He and his partners provide northern opportunities to check off your bucket list fish catches or just have a good time.  

Ballard’s operates two lodges on Lake of the Woods, which straddles the Minnesota/Canada border. Gary was kind enough to take a few minutes off the water to explain why you should get there this year. 

HPFC: How long have you hosted anglers at the Lake of the Woods? 

Gary Moeller: Let's seem this is my 32nd year with Ballard’s. 

HPFC: Tell us about the history of your business. 

Gary Moeller: It’s still family owned in its third generation. I've been a partner for the last 22 years. The original Ballard’s Resort started in 1961 and is located on the Minnesota side of Lake of the Woods, near the town of Baudette, Minnesota. Then, back in 2012, we acquired Ballard’s Black Island property, which is the Canadian version of Ballard’s on Lake of the Woods. So a little bit different in that Black Island is more multi species fishing and walleyes are synonymous with Lake of the Woods. But on the Canadian side, you can add tremendous muskie fishing, smallmouth bass fishing, pike, crappie, perch, but the Minnesota side is really dialed in on walleye fishing. Numbers and trophy sized fish is our kind of claim to fame. We're the “walleye capital of the world.” 

HPFC: Everyone’s going to want to know what is the biggest walleye that's been caught there? 

Gary Moeller: Oh, boy, you're going to tap my memory. Now, at the resort, I would say, and this has probably been 20 years, there was a 34 1/2 inch walleye caught that weighed approximately 15 pounds. And again, that's pushing 20-plus years ago. More realistic, on the Minnesota side, we catch fish that the average trophy size is going to be like 28 to 30 inches. You're looking at a 9-to-10-pound walleye. We do catch fish that go over 30 1/2 to 31 1/2 inches. This is a little more normal with what we kind of do every day. 

HPFC: How did you initially pick Lake of the Woods? 

Gary Moeller: I got out of college and I just really was passionate about the outdoor industry. I didn't really know per se that it was going to be Lake to the Woods. The thing that attracted me to Lake of the Woods was the potential to fish year-round which is lacking in other parts of the country. With our winter ice fishing industry that we have here on the Minnesota side of the lake, it allows us to be open basically 12 months out of the year. Now granted, when the ice is coming on or the ice is going off, we're not actually out there fishing but for the most part from December through March and from May through October, we're out there giving chase and having fun. 

HPFC: What makes your operation different or better than the competition? 

Gary Moeller: After being in the industry all these years I don't really look at it that way. From a competition standpoint, I think everybody kind of develops their own niche. Ballard’s Resort, I think we've found our niche in that the fishing is always first and foremost number one. We've been able to complement that with the lodging, the meals and the beverages making it all-inclusive. Whether we're talking about Ballard’s Resort in Minnesota or Ballard’s Black Island in Ontario, that's really kind of been a focal point for us -- let's get some people here, that can show up, catch fish have fun and they literally don't have to bring anything with them. We're going to provide everything. So from that standpoint, I think we've done well. For sure we’ve done well with our guided fishing part of it, where when you get on the boat, no matter if you're gonna go chase walleyes, muskies, or bass or whatever you're going to do, we have all the equipment right there for you just show up and go. And especially for the international fishermen, that guy that travels, that likes to fly because it's faster, it’s more accommodating, not having to bring all these things with him. That's been big for us and I think that may separate us from some of the other outfitters and resorts in the area. 

HPFC: We touched on this, but what makes it a great place for that first time angler? 

Gary Moeller: Lake of the Woods itself being the walleye capital of the world, as far as Minnesota goes, it's the number one fishing destination of any lake in the state of Minnesota. When you're talking about our Canadian camp on the Ontario side, Lake of the Woods, Ontario is the number one Ontario fishing destination in Canada. Those two things in themselves will tell you that the fishing here is going to be quite above average, as far as success rates, numbers of fish, size of fish, things that you would hope to be able to enjoy. When you come to an area like this, there are certain expectations. When people show up and you actually meet those expectations, that makes it pretty special. 

HPFC: What are the seasonal targets?

Gary Moeller: As far as the species of fish, when we're talking about Ballard’s Black Island on the Canadian side, it’s unique in that during the springtime, I feel like we get a lot of focus on the walleye fishing and those trophy walleye fish. This would be from the traditional opener on the third weekend in May through the first part of June, we get a lot of walleye guys.  

Then when we flip the calendar over, we go to June, it's bass time. It's smallmouth bass with impressive numbers of fish. The size always amazed me that the number of people that travel from all areas of the United States that come and experience the smallmouth bass fishing that we have. I'm talking people from Texas, California, New York, Tennessee, Alabama, California. People are coming from all over and all they want to do is go out and catch a smallmouth bass, regardless of the other species that we could be catching. This is what I find unique.  

Then we flip the calendar again to July and that's when we see all the muskie guys show up. I’m not saying that we can't catch walleyes during that time, or we can't catch bass during that time but the muskie fishing in general, when that water heats up on that big lake, and those big fish start to come to life, muskie is definitely the dominant species to chase during July. I'm a huge fan of July for multi-species fishing.  

Then when we go to August, it’s really a mixed crowd. That's kind of when the people that show up, they just want to catch a little bit of everything. Let's go catch walleyes in the morning, have a shore lunch, and in the afternoon let's go see if we can snag a muskie or see if we can catch some bass on a reef or on the shoreline, maybe we'll pull some crank baits out and try to get a big pike. So August is just kind of a mixed bag of whatever you want to do.  

Then September, we go back to the jig fishing, predominantly a lot of walleyes are caught during the month of September. Not to say that you can't do the muskie, pike or bass fishing but I would say the fall season, September specifically, is pretty dominated for those walleyes. 

HPFC: Can I take fish home? 

Gary Moeller: That's a good question and yes, you can but it depends. I think with most people, whether or not they're traveling from a long or short distance or whether you're talking Minnesota or Ontario, both sides allow you to catch some fish to eat while you're here. You can package and freeze a few to take home with you but it's certainly not an Alaska adventure where you're going to buy a coffin sized cooler and fill it with fish. Realistically, like on the Minnesota or the Canadian side, we have a four fish limit, so shore launches are very popular, where people are going to eat some fish while they're here as far as walleyes and they're going to take a few home with them. I think more so than anything it's just the unique experience of the sheer size of the lake, a million acres of shoreline,14,000 Islands, a lake that's 90 miles long and 60 miles wide. Just so many opportunities and unique opportunities is that you can virtually go and fish different parts of the lake every single day and not fish the same thing twice and that's I think a big attraction for a lot of anglers also. 

HPFC: What different fishing styles are available? 

Gary Moeller: When you're talking about walleye fishing, that's going to be a lot of hands-on jig fishing, vertical jigging. Whether you're anchored or drifting or back trolling or we'll do some spinner fishing with bottom bouncers, in line sinkers and spinners and we'll do a little bit of long lining. Maybe a little bit of crankbait fishing where we’ll just have a pole in hand or drag a line off the back of the boat. That kind of covers the walleyes.

Muskies, it's all about casting. We're gonna cast and cast and cast until your arms fall off. Lake of the Woods is one of those lakes where when it's good you're going to see fish every day and you're probably going to boat some fish every day. They always like to call it the “Fish of 10,000 casts.” Well, on Lake of the Woods generally, that's not the case. I would say as an average person going on a trip during a prime muskie season, as a guide, I would hope that you would see anywhere from five to ten fish during the course of a day. Hopefully you're gonna boat two or three or four of those. I've seen better, I've seen slower. Obviously, the muskie bite is dictated immensely by the weather and the patterns.  

It’s definitely a lake that you can have success on the bass fishing. A lot of casting early on, we're pitching crayfish tubes up shallow and we're throwing inline spinners or spinnerbaits. Later on, we're gonna go to a crankbait bite where we're casting and then midsummer we'll do some trolling for the bass. We'll again do some longlining and put a rod in your hand and put a Shad Rap or a Berkley lure out the back and we'll cruise around the shorelines, the points and reefs and we'll catch bass doing that.  

Then the fall, you can go back to the jig fishing actually with the bass. It's kind of kooky in that in the fall of the year, you can put that crayfish tube back on a jig and you can go back to the reefs and you can jig those smallies just like you would a walleye. So that's kind of different in that respect. We do a little bit of trolling for the muskies in the fall. Pike fishing, definitely casting early on in May through the middle of June and towards the latter part of June. And then if you want to catch big pike on Lake of the Woods during the summertime, you really need to troll. You need to put on some big baits and cover a lot of area and do it fast. The more time that you can spend with a crankbait in the water cruising the better your chances of catching a big pike. A jig bite with big plastics or you can keep trolling for fish, there are lots of opportunities to fish in many different ways. It's really just a matter of what your preferences and your availability of when you can come up and visit. 

HPFC: What is the typical package? 

Gary Moeller: As far as Ballard’s Black Island goes, it's kind of split. It seems like people that come from further away have a tendency to stay longer. So I would say half of the camp will fill up with people that'll stay for six or seven nights, and then they'll fish for five or six days. Then I'd say the other half of the camp is filled with people that come from maybe within a day's drive, where they're going to stay for four nights and fish for three full days, that's pretty popular. You'll get enough time on the water that you get a taste of that multispecies fishing and that potential to catch what we refer to as the Grand Slam, which is when you go out and in a single day and catch a walleye, a muskie, a bass and a pike. 

HPFC: What does a typical day entail, from start to finish? 

Gary Moeller: Ballard’s Black Island, we are usually up and at ‘em with the coffee on at 6:30 in the morning, and we're going to have breakfast at 7:00 in the lodge. The guides are going to be busy getting the boats and everything ready to go for the day. At 8:00 am we're leaving the dock and we're heading for the fishing grounds.  

A lot of people do the shore lunches so we're going to probably chase around for an hour or two to at least catch some walleye. Then we can have a few fish to eat around the noon hour. But after that people might just want to go and specifically target something else. Generally by noon, we're going to find an island somewhere where we're going to pull up on shore, we're going to do a fresh Lake of the Woods shore lunch, cook up some fish and usually be back out on the water by 1-1:30.  

Then it's kind of dealer's choice in the afternoon, whatever the preference is for the anglers. We're usually in between 4:30 and 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon. The other thing that's unique about Lake of the Woods, especially in the summertime, we're so far north, it doesn't get dark up here until way late into the evening. So the example would be say, June, July or August, during the prime time, when it doesn't get dark until 9:30 10:00 10:30 at night, a lot of the anglers will fish with a guide during the day, then come in at 4:30 or 5:00 o'clock, take a break, have supper at 6:00, be done by 7:00 and then we always make sure we have boats ready to go for everyone in the evenings if they want to hop back in a skiff and go out on their own and fish for a couple hours before dark, they're welcome to do so. 

HPFC: Are there any other things to do besides fish? 

Gary Moeller: Fishing is number one at Lake of the Woods, that's really what people are here for. You obviously will become immersed in the natural setting: the islands, the birds and the wildlife and everything that goes along with it. So it's just a unique nature experience. It's definitely not urban fishing, per se, like some of your saltwater trips in the Florida area or Texas. I compare the Minnesota side of the lake to say, Lake Erie, it's just a different vibe. When you get to Lake of the Woods, you know that you're at the end of the road, literally, and that you know, it's time to put a rod in your hand and catch some fish. 

HPFC: How do you get there? 

Gary Moeller: First and foremost, you can drive. The nearest town, which is located on the south shore of Lake of the Woods, is Baudette, and it’s just a small rural area, right on the Canadian border. Our Minnesota Resort is located about 12 miles northwest of the town of Baudette and to get to the Canadian camp, to Ballard’s Black Island, you cross the International Bridge in the town of Baudette and you go into Ontario. Then it's about 35 mile drive up the east side of the lake shore to a small town called Morson and that's where we have our dock located. We leave our passenger boat parked there as our island property is about six miles offshore. People will either drive to Morson to get to the island and then we will pick them up or people that come from greater distances they're gonna fly into International Falls, Minnesota, or into Bemidji, Minnesota, and then we're gonna make arrangements or help them make arrangements to get them to the camp. 

As far as getting to either one we see people do both. There's actually an airport in the town of Baudette and for people that have access to their own plane or a charter plane, we can actually pick people up right in the town Baudette. We see that happen, probably just as much, if not more, with groups that come to the Minnesota resort, if they're coming out of the Midwest, like the Minneapolis metro or the Chicago or Des Moines area. It's kind of a slick deal to be able to just pick them up and bring them right to the resort. 

HPFC: Why should someone make Ballard’s their next vacation destination? 

Gary Moeller: That's a good question. I, myself, as someone who loves to travel and loves to fish, it seems like no matter the trips that I go on, I always end up coming back to Lake of the Woods. Whether it's just my fondness for it, or the fact that I've been here so long, I think the reality of it is just the success that you have and also the affordability. I think that those two things are pretty key attractions for people. They know that this a quality fishery, that’s been time tested for years and years and years. As far as the Minnesota resort goes, just the opportunity to catch trophy walleyes, it's really second to none. Honestly, we do more guided walleye fishing out of our Minnesota resort than anybody does anywhere in the country. You've jumped across the border to the Canadian side, and you open up that whole potential of multispecies fishing and just the combination of the walleye fishing to go with the muskie, bass and the pike fishing, it's just a unique opportunity that you can go to one area and catch all those different species of fish. I really think that's what keeps people coming back year after year. They know for the most part, that weather permitting, they're gonna have a good trip, they're gonna have a fun trip and they're gonna get good service. And they're just gonna keep doing it. 

HPFC: To get the best of both worlds, can you do a split trip? 

Gary Moeller: You know, we do have some groups that do that. I think we see it more with people that have been longtime customers of ours because we tell people all the time, if you want to catch trophy fish, if you want a legitimate shot at a 10-pound walleye, then you need to come to Ballard’s Resort on the Minnesota side. But if you just want to catch numbers of fish, kind of like Lake Picachos vs Lake El Salto, in Mexico, even though we are on the same lake, Ballard’s Black Island is your destination. 

If people say, “We want it all,” then we're going to do our normal walleye thing for two days, Ballard’s on the Minnesota side and then we will try this muskie thing, Black’s on the Canada side.  

People have heard about the incredible June shoreline fishing for smallmouth bass, when do we need to be there? And when we do that, can we get a couple of days to walleye fish back on the Minnesota side, where we can do the guided charter fishing? So yeah, that's a possibility. 

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After speaking to Gary, I told Pete we have to find a way to get there this summer. This trip and these resorts sound like the “Mexico of the north” and you all know how much I love Mexico. 

If you don’t already have plans for Labor Day weekend (plus a day or two on either side), please join me and Pete on our first adventure to Ballard’s Resort. Come experience a fun new fishery with Half Past First Cast and be the first to get your picture take behind our banner at Lake of the Woods. Shoot me a message to get more details.

Also Please make sure you read next Wednesday’s blog about how Gary took Ballard’s Resort to Lake Picachos, Mexico. It was a real eye opener for me to hear what an established resort owner and smallmouth fisherman thought about largemouth fishing and the whole experience at Anglers Inn Lake Picachos.