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Tons of shorefishing opportunities. The river is really taming down nicely right now and your five ounces will be way too much in most spots soon. It's a great time of year to be chasing cats! Here kermit, kermit...

Scoot...that new ND state record kitty fell to a "Kermit" too. wink

Like in Moon Lake...WOW?

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Scoot...that new ND state record kitty fell to a "Kermit" too. wink

Yup, and when I catch the new, new state record, it'll be on a frog too! wink

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  • 2 weeks later...

Red River Central Region Report:

With the August fool Moon came a significant mayfly hatch. This will change the bite a bit and reports have confirmed this over the past few evenings.

My advice is during a significant water born larva hatch event such as this, be flexible. Fish tend to move up, and the cats are no exception.

Try float rigs near shore and in drift line areas that congregate the hatch and the prey. Not saying they will not feed on the bottom, just that they tend to feed all up and down the water column more in these conditions, and often feed on the surface on the hatch.

Catfish are omnivores, they go with the forage of availability...so Flexibility is key right now.

Expect walleye and other species to also react in the same manner.

Good luck and Good fish'n.

Backwater Eddy Carlson... ..><,sUMo,>

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Went out last night and tried a few spots that I haven't fished all year and found them very different than they were last fall. I didn't do any real serious fishing, just pitching a jig and twister without any luck. I had a couple hits, but nothing up to shore. I didn't expect anything to be in those spots yet, but wanted to see how they looked after all the high water.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I made it out tonight and hit a few spots. I caught 8-10 walleye/sauger with one sauger that was about 16 inches and one that was around 13. All the rest were dinks. All of the fish hammered my jig and the larger fish had all of the jig in their mouths. It was nice to get out and find a few fish. Fall is coming fast and the fishing should get better.

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Dryer weather has allowed the Red River basin to catch up from a very wet cycle since spring. The rivers are now at or near normal seasonal levels and a bit cooler already than normal for this early in the fall. Less rains have also allowed the clarity to improve and with less turbid water conditions we see an increase in pike and walleye activity.

Fall water levels dictate fish feeding behavior and location. Cleaner and cooler water lends itself to more nocturnal feeding activity and we can trust that to be a developing pattern in the weeks ahead. Day time fishing may be very good, yet some of the best to come will be after dark and in very shallow water.

I recommend testing more sight oriented lures in the weeks ahead for walleye. Keep you color choices basic, dark backs, light sides. As the water clears even more metallic patterns will show greater success even at night. Bulked up jigs with oversize plastic twister tails and or shad style plastics will do very well at night.

Catfish are on a roll, feeding up, stocking up, no slowing them down now. They will now concentrate of bulking up for winter 24/7, and will also become very active at night as the water clears.

Fall is my favorite time to fish. I enjoy the cooler temps and the glorious scenery our bountiful Red River Valley basin has to offer. I recommend you test the rivers in our region this fall for not only it's great fishing, but for it's ambiance and tranquility.

Get out and enjoy!

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Great report as usual Ed, Couple of questions: Fishing from shore at the dam in Drayton, I know later on in the night the channels come up shallow so should I be trying to cast as far out as possible during the day?, Next question is, I know frogs are hot bait in fall but should I use cut bait also? I know I can only use one pole from the ramp to the dam and maybe I just fish an hour or two and change my baits to frogs, gold eyes, cut bait. Have you ever used bull heads in the Red for channels? Thanks in advance for any advice.........

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wall_eye_assasin,

I'm definitely no expert on the Red, but I did just fish the Drayton dam less than a week ago with what I consider serious success.

If you don't mind dealing with some nasty mud (I'm not joking, you'll work to fish this spot), there is a 21' hole around 100 yards to your left when you're facing out from the ramp. Just look for where the BIG eddy swirls. I pulled several 30"ish cats out of that hole around high noon. If you look for the smaller eddies along the shoreline where little points stick out, it's really easy to catch goldeyes with a bobber and crawler at these spots....and most of my cats were caught on goldeyes. Frogs seem to be pretty much nonexistant at the dam area.

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mixxedbagg, Thank you for your help and tips on fishing up there, that is some great information and I appreciate it.

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Frogs and fresh cut Mooneye/Goldeye will be your best bets for bait now, suckers as a backup bait. You can not use live Bullheads as bait on the Red or transport them live for bait in ND, but you can use them as cut bait. Stick with frogs and cuts is still my recomondatin.

With the recent hard rains you may see a bump up in action on the dams even during the day. The deeper bends and cuts should do well as the water cools. At night they likely will move in shallow.

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Thank you Ed, I appreciate all your knowledge and you helping everyone out here. All your tips, wisdom and knowledge makes our trips to North Dakota a lot easier and puts us on fish. I hope you realize all the help you give others is appreciated and not taken for granted. Thank you Ed for all your help.... Kirk

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No problem Kirk, your very welcome.

My hope is through education and first hand experience anglers will learn to appreciate and respect the regions rivers, streams, and the surrounding environment. Once exposed to it's treasures together we all will adopt within ourselves, and foster on to others, a lasting kinship.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Red River basin Fishing report and "Backwater Eddy's Tips & Tricks"

Warmer than normal early fall weather has made the weather very pleasant for early fall fisherman. Lack of cooling temps has held off the feverish fall bite, yet we can expect it to be on schedule again very soon.

Larger Fathead minnows and Waterdogs do very well in the fall. Fatheads rig well on jigs for casting and with set floating jigs on 22" leaders and the Waterdogs rigged with 1-2 foot leaders with a 1-2 O/T baitholder or circle style hooks.

Waterdogs tend to produce a lot of trophy class walleye and catfish in the fall, well worth testing.

On the Red River 4-6" white suckers, or creek chubs, are also good fall bait but more difficult to find this season due to shortages in supply.

A selection of minnow bait style crank baits is wise in the fall. Husky jerk-baits, Bomber Long A's, Smithwick Suspending Roughs, Salmo Stings....all produce nice walleye and pike. Shad shapes may do well too, such as the #5 Salmo Hornets or the Rapala Shad Rap #7's .

Backwater Eddy's inside Tips' and Tricks"

For jigging I often like to use pre-packaged Salted Fatheads as they travel well and I find for hit and run fall fishing are more efficient with less weight to tote. I can carry 2 scoops of Salted Fatheads in a tub the size of a night crawler tub. Properly prepared salted minnows are firm and have good color, scent, and texture and stay on a jig or hook well. In my personal opinion walleye like the added salt.

Looking ahead a bit, Salted Fatheads are very user friendly on the ice as well, as you have no water to splash around and freeze up your gear in rout to your spot. Reusable and easy to store, a very good option for jiggers. A couple tubs in the freezer insures you always have bait on hand when you need it.

Salted preserved Fathead minnows are also useful in areas where live bait restrictions may apply and only persevered baits are allowed. As always know your NDG&F and MN DNR bait regulations as they pertain to the waters you wish to fish. For your convenience Gander Mountain now keeps Salted Fatheads on hand in the Gander Bait shop here in Fargo on 45th St South.

So grab a rod and venture out to enjoy our regions many fishing opportunities and the glorious fall scenery soon to explode around us.

Tell next time, keep your hooks sharp, and your eyes on the rod tip.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The bite is bouncing back and forth from minnows to larger baits now. We got some larger walleye sizes suckers in now and there doing well for walleye and especially sumo sized trophy eye's.

The Sheyenne, Red ,and Buffalo Rivers are doing well.

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Hot the Red last night and picked up a few with a jig and minnow. Biggest was around 18. The spots I was at will get better with a little less water moving. There is nothing better than the fall on the red!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ed, do you have a white van? If so I think you were a half mile west of my Dad's place yesterday afternoon,anything going there.

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  • 2 months later...

The few Times i have been out In Wahpeton I havent got anything i missed early ice and havent had much of an urge to go back after not catching anything. Has anyone ever been south of the Railroad bridge on the Bois de Sioux? and i mean south of Breckenridge? Going farther twards kidder and north of that you never see anyone fish that is there a reason for that?

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Ed, do you have a white van? If so I think you were a half mile west of my Dad's place yesterday afternoon,anything going there.

Mmmmmaybe?

Tried a couple places, not sure what place you seen me at for sure..sharp bend...near a Oxbow..maybe? Slow, but it looked promising, will try it again soon or just North of it a ways. Good area in general, they will be there someplace soon. wink

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Ed, this was in November when the Red was backed up into a trib on the MN side. Corn Maze ring a bell? Spent alot of time on the Red in that area growing up, mostly from the dam north to a couple north of the Wild Rice.

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Ah..ok...ya, it was deep and sloppy there after that heavy snow. I have not been in there recently...may try it again this wek and see if it yields some green.

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All this snow has made for some challenging access on the Central and upper Red River Basin.

Can get to be some real work to get into some of my favorite haunts so I am forced to pack lighter and lighter. In general it is a bit tough going so it discourages moving around as much as I would normally care to do, and that diminishes my odds.

Much slower year for me so far here on the Red, and I'm working for the fish I get.

The flooding pontiffs say we are in for a 86% chance of significant flooding in the headwaters and central Red River valley...I'll be bold and say, it is more like 99.9% even if we see no more new snow, so if it effects you...plan for it is my advice. We have far more moisture sitting on the southern basin now than we did last spring, so it greatly depends on the melt cycle as to just how fast and high it will roll...but it will roll.

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The flooding pontiffs say we are in for a 86% chance of significant flooding in the headwaters and central Red River valley...I'll be bold and say, it is more like 99.9% even if we see no more new snow, so if it effects you...plan for it is my advice. We have far more moisture sitting on the southern basin now than we did last spring, so it greatly depends on the melt cycle as to just how fast and high it will roll...but it will roll.

Ed, please don't talk like that- my right eye starts to twitch again, like it did for all of last Spring! Yuck!

On a slightly brighter note, I fished a couple different tribs on Sat. Nada, nothin', zip for me! Two of us hit two good spots that have produced fish before. We marked a total of four fish and couldn't get them to bite.

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fishing in pembina has been produceing a few saugers but no green backs yet. We have a family of otters liveing in the pembina river that i think are takeing alot of fish.

Ed i get a kick how all the attention is on fargo now. and you mentioned upper and centrel. I hope you remember there are alot of towns north of grand forks that have been putting up with this alot longer than fargo. The water stops at the canadian border. I lived out of a boat for 7 weeks last spring. And i believe a fargo diversion will just get it here faster. but we better not debate drainage of the red on a fishing report.

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riverview, you're absolutely right about lots of people and communities being impacted by this outside of Fargo. Obviously, it's the number of people in Fargo that attract all the media attention. On the individual basis, no person or family in Fargo is any more impacted than in any other community or farmstead. No matter where you are at at or how much media attention is focussed on you, flooding sucks! I hope this Spring goes better for you and for all.

Thanks for the fishing report. I'm sure those otters do gobble up fish, but they sure are fun to watch!

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