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Slabfest III Official Topic!


hanson

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Hey Guys!

I really should apologize right off the bat for not getting more info up sooner. You always think your fishing trip is aways off and here it is, less than 2 weeks away already! Yikes! Winter is cruising by fast.

Here are the details...

Date: February 23, 2008

Where: Upper Red Lake

Meeting Place: Hillmans/Tall Tales

Meeting Time: 11am-Noon

We'll all meet at Hillmans and head out as a group promptly at noon. I have no clue where we will be fishing at yet, I honestly haven't set foot on URL yet this winter. Jeff 'Borch' Borchardt and I are heading up this weekend (Fri-Mon) for 3 full, solid days of fishing. Last winter we struck gold on our scouting mission. Hoping to do the same this year but, heck, its fishing, who knows what will happen. Darren 'Dtro' Troseth and I will be up Thursday night before Slabfest and fish all day Friday in an attempt to get back on fish, or still try to find them. Once Saturday comes, we'll bring all our knowledge and reports together and try to get the group on some fish.

We'll have a couple small propane grills on the ice for cooking food. Bring something to cook if you want to.

Once the fishing is done, we'll all probably head into Tall Tales to swap stories. Slabfest is really just a bunch of guys going fishing, hanging out, and having some fun.

2 years in a row now we have been dumped on with snow that weekend so be prepared! grin.gif

Any other questions... don't hesitate to e-mail me. I'll do my best to respond.

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  • hanson

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Hanson Thanks for the update,its nice to hear about SlabFest from someone I have heard about!That other post was spooky!

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Hey....is Borch from the Saint Cloud area????? Would you guys be interested in a little Central Minnesota company? My boys and I are thinking about bolting up to URL on Saturday early to fish the day....we usually stay with Kelly or Jonnny P, but they've been booked....but we'd love to do some scouting etc......I've only fished the lake 10 or so times, but I can drill holes and [PoorWordUsage] baits....

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Yes I'm from the St Cloud area.

I'll have a 2 way set to channel 7 no security code.

Email me and I'll shoot you my cell number if you have phone service up there.

jeffonthewater at aol dot com

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Well, Chris. If ya need a spare bunk house for yer dad you can grab my wheel house at Rogers. Your dad can call me at WSN and can pick up my key.

We've got a basketball tourney with CYBA in Bemidji that weekend so fishing is out.

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Nice. We'll be up with the perm that weekend so we'll have to check in with you folks and see how the bite is. Should be a good time with forecasts in the 20's and shared veni steaks on the grill...

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Have been counting the days for a week now, waiting for the 22nd to finally be here. Looking forward to my first trip to URL for this years slabfest, we will be arriving around noon friday. Probably stop into Hillmans for a BBQ and to check into our sleeper house for the weekend.

Hanson, might be looking to do some scouting that afternoon if you would like to meet up.

We are planning on meeting up with everyone Saturday, sure hope the weather is a bit less dramatic then last weekend -90 Holy !%##$

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If I saw correctly, Friday temps of around zero, BUT 20 and cloudy with slight chance of snow on Saturday!!!!!

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My dad and I will be there, along with one of my cousins. We will also be helping Chris and Darren with the pre-fishing on Friday, so hopefully something gets pegged down.

Can't wait!

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I went to the spot we ended up last year and cought only 1 crappie last thursday but that is all virgin water as they were just starting to plow roads in that area. I hope to get up there with the brother in law to catch a few more and maybe to actuall land that 40 incher this year.

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I wouldn't miss this one for anything. I'm in!!!! Driving up with a buddy of mine Friday.

Can't wait.

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Who is invited to this slabfest anyway? Can I come???? It looks like Borch, steeplechaser2, and frogtosser are all from central MN or the St. Cloud area, I am just North of there a couple miles.

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All are invited. FM get toghethers are open for everybody who wants to get together, have some fun, learn a few tips, and catch some fish. Entry fees? We don't need no stinkin entry fees.

Consider youself and your buds invited.

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Big Wade and I are heading up. Where is Hillmans/Tall Tales? We are staying with his father in-law and will meet you folks out there on Saturday. This is my first trip up so I'm pretty geeked about it.

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Hillmans is on the north Side of Waskish, on the right side of the road. Can't miss it.

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Just look for all the trucks with FM stickers or the suits of red Arctic Armor. Shouldn't be able to miss either of those things...

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Otter,

I will be on Red by 10am next Friday morning. I am staying with Club Red, give me a call on my cell so you can stop by and have a drink or 3.

I will be on Gogebic again this weekend looking for some new spots, I will let you know how we do on Monday

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 Originally Posted By: perchking
I will be on Red by 10am next Friday morning. I am staying with Club Red, give me a call on my cell so you can stop by and have a drink or 3.

I will be on Gogebic again this weekend looking for some new spots, I will let you know how we do on Monday

If Pat's houses are generally in the same neighborhood that they usually are, we won't be all that far away.

I wouldn't mind chatting a bit about Gogebic. I didn't realize how close it was to the Cities until I Mapquested it the other day. When you think UP, I always thought far, far away but it really isn't. The drive is shorter than visiting my parents.

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Frogtosser-

I think that Pike was much bigger than 40"! Good to hear you found 1 crappie out there. Thats a start, 20' away might have been hundreds of them.

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Hanson and or whomever will be up,

My friends and I are going up that Wed and leaving that Sat the 23rd. We are staying with Kelly. I might come fish on Sat with you guys depending on how we did earlier and how much is left in the brain after three nights. If you would like a report on how we did look me up. If you want me to call you I would be glad to but I'm not sure if my cell phone works up there. My email is [email protected] if you want to give me your cell phone number or want mine. If you’re up earlier like I said I'll be staying in one of Kelly's sleepers and drive a red Chevy crew cab stop by and we can talk about what's working and what's not.

Chaffmj (Mike Chaffin)

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Anyone have a place for me to stay? (Hanson any room in that house of yours?)I will be up to Red for work Thursday and Friday and then wanted to stay Friday and Sat for the fest. Please email [email protected]

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Chris,

Not to digress but I'm going to Gogebic in March to fish with "perchking" for 4 days. Totally stoked!

We'll have all kinds of stuff to chat about.

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well that plan for me is to get up wednesday and stay tell Sunday out of rogers with a couple buddies comin up Friday morning. i hope i can make the trip, my grandpa is very sick and if somthin happens i might have to make a run down to Iowa for a couple of days. hope i can make it up prayin for the best. if not there will always be next years slabfest. hope to see ya all there.

iceman

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TO, Boiler, and Hanson, I will officially not be able to make it for reasons many of you know. BUT, I convinced about 9 of my buddies who are RED rookies to show up, well most are all rookies on Red, they are all now reading this topic and slightly peeing themselves at the prospects and nervous about it. I they all will have portables but need to know what to bring as far as tackle for Red Crappies and such and how the travel on ice works with your group. Could you lay out the just of what they need to know, not knowing anyone, except the avatar pictures before us. Thanks, I already can't wait til next year.

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18 Inch Crappie-

I'll e-mail you when I get some time but I've got room if you want a bed. You are more than welcome. We'll be up very, very late Thursday night through sometime on Sunday.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Basic tackle depends on what you like to use. Most folks use heavy panfish to lite walleye gear with 4-8 lb test. Glow of varying colors are popular with red being most popular.

1/16-1/8 jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head

#6 & #4 teardrops on a deadstick tipped with a fathead or crappie minnow

Plastics from 1-2" ,(Ratso, Power Minnows, Power Nymphs, 1 1/2" Tubes)

Salmo Darters in #3 & #4

#5 & #7 jigging raps

Shoud be a good start.

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muc33-

To help your group out, one thing I don't want to do is leave anyone behind or out. Last year we got on a so-so Crappie bite and I tried to round everyone up and move them into the area we were getting crappies at. Not everyone wanted to move and that was fine, but I wanted everyone to know that crowding the group was OK as well.

On Red, it seams like the "magic lure" and/or color varies year to year. Glow Red has traditionally been a very good color but some years they won't touch red. Like I said, I haven't been on the lake yet so I have no clue what is going to produce.

Borch & I are going to take an aggressive approach this weekend hole hopping from hole to hole to hole fishing big plastics (2" Berkley Power Minnows, I've even got some 3" with to try this year). We've found this horizontal plastic presentation can be much more effective than vertical jigging spoons tipped w/ minnow heads. This worked well last year. This year? Who knows.

Currently, we're going to hit the ice big & aggressive at first. We will probably throw Power Minnows, Spoons, and Chubby Darters until we learn if this will work or not. I'm not going to sit in one spot and watch fish come and look at my bait and leave unless the weather forces us to do this.

If we can find fish, rod #2 will come out which will be the jig & minnow while we work the area around rod #2 with the previous presentation. My favorite URL jig is probably Custom Jigs #4 or #6 Demon, color White w/ Red Stripe or White w/ Red Dot. Gotta have Ice Buster Bobbers for this presentation.

My preferred jigging spoons are JB Lures Varmit, Rattling Varmit, or Angel Eye. I'll take Perch color or Glow Red color any day of the week in any of those spoon styles.

If your buddies can meet up with us at Hillman's, they'll be good to go. For the most part, we'll travel with trucks to an "area" and slowly move around the area. I know we have some snow moving through the state again tonight and who knows what will happen next week for snow but I hope we can get around with trucks.

Hope this is a good starting point. Borch & I hope to learn a few things this weekend but who knows, we might not.

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