info@borderviewlodge.com - Border View Lodge

Borderview Lodge Welcomes New Owners

After devoting 17 years of hard work to growing the Border View Lodge legacy, Mike and Lisa Kinsella are proud to hand off ownership to resort owners and business partners, Joe Swanson and Pipasu Soni.

Swanson and Soni are no strangers to the fishing resort business. They understand the importance of what the Kinsellas created, a destination serving anglers and their families who have come for generations to catch walleye and create memories. The team is dedicated to continuing the Border View services and tradition that Mike and Lisa have worked so hard to build, providing an outstanding fishing experience to long-time customers.

Joe grew up in a small mining town on the North Shore of Lake Superior and currently resides in Minnesota with his wife and two children. They love to travel and live where they are in the world. Hence, he invests in properties and appreciates seeing multiple generations of folks making memories. He invests on a 100-year plan and rarely sells.

Pipasu is equally excited about being part of a great Minnesota institution on the Lake of the Woods. Growing up in East Tennessee, Pipasu spent considerable time outdoors as part of the Boy Scouts. Pipasu currently resides in Winnipeg, MB, where he lives with his wife and three children. Similar to Joe, Pipasu takes a longterm view on investing in properties and really places emphasis on driving a culture that makes it a top choice for customers and the place to work for employees.

Joe’s passion for carrying on the Border View Lodge legacy comes from growing up in Minnesota, his love for lake life, and his early work in the hospitality industry. “I like owning vacation destination properties because building and maintaining family memories is a great business to be in,” says Joe.

“We feel that a small group of resorts on Lake of the Woods and the Rainy River will help us focus on developing a world-class team to assist our guests and solve labor shortage issues in the industry.” says Soni.

The Minnesota-based hospitality management company, Leisure Hotels & Resorts, has been hired to assist the Border View Lodge team with day-to-day management. Leisure Hotels & Resorts is a small dedicated team specializing in independent resorts. They are passionate about hospitality and have over 100 years of experience in the industry. Like Joe, this team has worked from the bottom up, and they look forward to welcoming you back to Border View Lodge.

September 19th Fishing Report

The bite last week was a little tougher than its been. We still had good catches but really had to work at it. Strong east winds made it tough to get around and fishing multiple spots was sometimes impossible. Most of our luck was drifting gold spinners. Crawlers were our main bait of choice, but there was one or two days where minnows outperformed crawlers. We caught some fish jigging, but catch rates are higher and fish are bigger with spinners. The jig bite should turn on day by day. We caught a lot of other species when we fished over rocks… crappies and perch, but also some bass in the mix. Our best success has been on rock transitions near humps and islands. Fish are showing up in their normal fall haunts and are vacating the mud spots where we caught them all summer.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

July 5th Fishing Report

It’s been a great week of fishing leading up to Independence Day…

Our guides have been targeting areas on the North side of the lake. Flats and sand bars continued to produce fish this week with the majority of our fishing taking place in 12-18ft of water. Deeper mud areas are also producing fish as water temps warm and bug hatches begin. Drifting spinners tipped with crawlers or leeches has been the choice tactic. A hammered gold spinner is hard to beat! Other good color options include Firetiger, gold/red and white/red. The bite remained hot this week with lots of limits being brought back to our docks and many slot fish being released.

The forecast for the upcoming week looks great! We expect most days to have highs in the mid to upper 70s. With another week of stable weather forecasted we expect the exceptional fishing to continue!

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

June 27th Fishing Report

Late June Fishing Report

Our guides have been targeting sand bars and flats and experiencing great success.

They have mainly moved to trolling spinners now with the hot item being gold spinners tipped with leeches. Other choice colors include white/red, gold/red, and orange. Coolers filled with eaters have been returning to our dock on a daily basis with many slot and trophy fish being caught and released as well. As long as the wind allows it our guides have been targeting areas in Little Traverse Bay.

The forecast is looking great for the week ahead! We expect stable conditions with many clear days and highs in the lower 70s. This means the action should stay hot!

Have the lodge cook your catch! We offer several choices when preparing your catch of the day including; Original, Cajun, Garlic Butter and Black and Bleu.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

Late June Fishing Update

Late June Fishing Report

Our guides have been targeting the Northern islands by both jigging and trolling spinners. They have been focusing their efforts on rock structure but deeper mud areas are also productive especially as of late. The weather and wind has been determining what specific areas our guides target. As usual the hottest colors have been gold, chartreuse, and pink. Pink/glow has been a very popular and productive option when jigging. Our water temps are still cold and a slow jigging cadence has been key. Gold has been a choice color when fishing spinners. Fishing with frozen shiners remains productive but leeches and crawlers are beginning to become good options.

Warmer weather is on the way! We are forecasted to have some of our highest tempts of the year so far in the coming week which means warming water and even more aggressive fish.

All of our guides hold fish packaging licenses which means you get to take home fully fileted/skinned fish ready for the frying pan!

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

Thank you everyone for a great season!

Thank you everyone for a great season! We now have all of our houses off the ice. There is still plenty of ice on the lake although travel is much better with snowmobiles or 4 wheelers. There are many slush spots and we anticipate that will be the case until the rest of the snow has melted and seeped back under the ice.

We have cabin rental available for those Anglers who want to venture out on their own.

The much anticipated spring river fishing will be coming soon. We have openings this spring for guided sturgeon fishing.

The current forecast is showing highs into the upper 40’s and lows in the teens for this week.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

We have moved closer to Pine Island and are now around the 4-mile mark North of Pine Island

We have moved closer to Pine Island and are now around the 4-mile mark North of Pine Island. As of today, we have an abundance of snow cover, the forecast for the week shows some daytime highs above freezing which should reduce the amount of snow. There is still 3-4 feet of ice which will last a considerable amount of days unless the weather is different than the current forecast.

The bite has slowed and its success is with those who are actively fishing non-stop to catch passing Walleye and Sauger. Electronics are important to have during this kind of bite. Reminding Anglers to have a noisy lure to work the water column and a lively minnow on a deadstick is also important.

Most days of this week show temps up to 40 and overnight lows in the 20’s.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

Constantly working your lures is important

Our houses are situated about 17 miles past Pine Island. The lake is covered with a thick blanket of snow, which is great for planning to have the houses out all of March. As much as we like the sun we are hoping for an overcast March.

Fishing success has varied, some groups are doing very well, while others are not catching as many. Constantly working your lures is important. The Walleye and Sauger are coming by in schools and if you are not giving them a proper presentation while they are going by you will miss them.

With so many options for lures it is almost impossible to say what has been working best. Stick with typical colors for Lake of the Woods, Gold, Glow colors, things with noise. When you are at the store trying to decide, use those guidelines and you basically cannot go wrong. At the end of the day multiple Anglers could prove a different hot lure of the day. The UV colors work well. Also, it is important to have a sonar style electronics.

This week’s forecast has temperatures between single digits and 20’s above zero.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

Currently we have houses situated from 18-20 miles from Pine Island

Another week of snow and wind! We will continue on with winter weather. Currently we have houses situated from 18-20 miles from Pine Island. It is hard to say how much further we will go or which direction at this point. Once the major winds subside, we may be able to make those decisions.

Anglers are still catching fish, with many slot sized or over being released. We had a couple of tough days this past week when the wind switched from 25mph out of the South to 30mph out of the North. As for the season, fishing has been excellent.

With so many options for lures it is almost impossible to say what has been working best. Stick with typical colors for Lake of the Woods, Gold, Glow colors, things with noise. When you are at the store trying to decide, use those guidelines and you basically cannot go wrong. At the end of the day multiple Anglers could prove a different hot lure of the day. The UV colors work well. Also, it is important to have a sonar style electronics.

The last week of February is upon us and we still have -20’s in the forecast. According to the calendar Winter lasts until March 20^th.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH

Great memories are made when you are surrounded by friends and family.

Great memories are made when you are surrounded by friends and family

More great fishing this past week. Many Anglers send pictures of their catches which are awesome to see and share! Great memories are made when you are surrounded by friends and family.

Using electronics is still a great benefit. There are suspended fish coming along at different times of the day. Keeping these fish to actively chase your bait creates great anticipation and excitement to find out what is on the other end.

With so many options for lures it is almost impossible to say what has been working best. Stick with typical colors for Lake of the Woods, Gold, Glow colors, things with noise. When you are at the store trying to decide, use those guidelines and you basically cannot go wrong. At the end of the day multiple Anglers could prove a different hot lure of the day. The UV colors work well. Also, it is important to have a sonar style electronics.

The weather forecast is showing above zero temps after tonight for the rest of the week. We hope that will not bring more snow.

FISH ON!

1-800-PRO FISH