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Last minute pike tips...


musky_tail05

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Thinking about making a quick trip to Red tomorrow for some big pike. Never fished it open water before. Just wondering about any general areas/depths, baits, presentation, etc. I'm a muskie freak, so I'm pretty well covered as far as gear goes. Thanks for any info.

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Ahhh... it's always nice when a muskie freak converts over to fishing the smarter of the 2 Esox.... grin.gif hehehe

Go gettum Rob!!!! You might even tag into a nice walleye or 3, then what?

Good Luck!

Ken

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I like trolling planer boards to spread out and get away from the boat. Husky jerks and super-rogues are nice cuz they don't dive too deep. Cover some water stop if you bump into some weed beds and make a few casts. Have fun and practice CPR.

redhooks

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Well, I just got back from Red and it was very interesting to say the least.

We got out on the water at around 9:00 am, began trolling and things started out promising, with the guy I was fishing with hooking and loosing a good fish in the first five minutes. Then at around 10:40 am, I caught my personal best pike at a very stout 41 1/4 inches. She absolutely slammed the seven-inch crank I was trolling. She was a bit beat-up looking, but after a few quick pictures, she swam off like a champ. Not too bad for my first Red Lake pike. grin.gif We then continued to troll for another couple of hours with my buddy catching an 18inch snaker. And that was about it for the rest of the day. We found some decent weedbeds, some very green yet, and casted them for a little while. We even trolled the river a little. We talked to some guys out all day walleye fishing and they said they didn't have a single bite all day. confused.gif It was an excellent trip regardless and I will certainly be back in the future.

And last but not least, a quick little message for my bestest of buddies, LABS4ME..... Somehow I just knew the second I finished my phone call with you last night, you were trying to set me up. Heck, I even wrote down your excellent info..."stay to the NORTH of the markers out of the river to AVOID the shallow rocks". Hmmmmmmmm..... Your memory must be a liiiiittttle hazy..... I had a good laugh when the first thing that caught my eye to the north of the markers was the "CAUTION:ROCKS" sign. Smooooooth...... Pretty scary though...I caught the smart Esox this time, Must be them negative brain waves (or lack there of) that them polka pike here on Cass send out to interfere with my *cough* SUCCESS this year. grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

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oops... did I really say north!? grin.gif "s" / sand = south, I thought that's what I said... I'll remeber next time you call for directions... ask Kelly and Jon, I give real accurate directions, I just don't know where you'll end up!

Good Job on the 40"+ Rob! See what a real Esox feels like... they actually bite and fight! Now you can throw all those muskie ornaments in the trash. It's all polka dott pike from here on out for you!!!

Good Luck!

Ken

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Here is the pic of Rob's 41.25 x 17 inch pike. Congrats on the personal best smashing for the 3rd time this year!

rob41.25pike.jpg

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Quote:

We talked to some guys out all day walleye fishing and they said they didn't have a single bite all day. confused.gif

Hey, that was my buddy and me. We did manage a couple walleyes the day before in the river. 17 and a quarter and a 18 incher with a half dozen or so small northerns.

We finally got the locater to light up the day we seen you when we skirted the line. We drifted thru the mid lake areas with constant markings. We tried everything we could think of with no takers. Frustrating, no. I kept reminding my buddy that we could be sitting at home wishing we were there.

This was my buddy's first time there since 1999. He was very impressed with how genuine and helpful everyone in the area is. As for me, well I have been coming for quite awhile and fishing is always good and the people there always remind me as to why I continue to come back. wink.gif

See ya soon... smile.gif

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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