Red Lake River 2014

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, I was kinda thinking this might happen. With our snow runoff so late, all the rains we've had over the last few weeks, the ground seemingly saturated, and now another heavy rain last night, the Red Lake River here in TRF is shooting back up as I watch.

I don't know how much rain we got last night, but I know that every year we have a large puddle in our backyard following the snow melt. We've watched that puddle get near empty a couple times so far this spring, and finally, two days ago it was completely empty. This morning it is a sprawling lake again!

I really like to see the water level stay up for a while in the spring. I think it's good for our local walleye spawn, and it helps get more fish further up river into our neighborhood. Unfortunately, I wonder how successful the hatch will be when we have these sudden spikes of rapidly rising water, and greatly reduced water clarity?

I picked 4 dozen crawlers a couple nights ago, and was really looking forward to some fishing either at midnight tonight, or early tomorrow morning, but now it looks like fishing locally might be a roll of the dice. I'll still be down there either way, but water clarity is going to be poor at best.

Our local ag community have to be just about pulling their hair out by now. With our big gardens we typically don't put anything in the ground until the first week of June, but we haven't even been in the gardens at all doing any seed bed prep, or even any cleanup yet this spring. It's just been too wet, and after last night's rain I'm sure it's just slop in the gardens right now.

Been a wet spring. Good for our soil moisture levels, river and lake levels, and ground water levels, but when it starts to warm up we're gonna have some serious issues with mosquitoes this year.

Gonna start the fishing reports soon. Feel free to contribute whenever you get a chance! Good luck everyone. Hoping for a great year of river fishing!

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, almost a month since my last report, and I can't say I have a lot of positive fishing reports to share.

I've done a little fishing behind our place over the last week, and haven't had a lot of great success. I've caught a few decent cats, a couple slimers, and a handful of small bass, but overall things have been really slow.

My eldest son stayed up late with a few of his buds one night last week, and they finally got into a handful of sizeable catfish really late at night. I've spent a few nights out on my own, and have literally struck out! Even with nightcrawlers the bite has been almost non-existent, even for rough fish!

What a weird spring it has been! Again, just like my last post, we got hammered by heavy rain last night, and there looks to be a LOT more coming this afternoon and evening. I went down to the river bank about an hour ago, and the river has come up at least a foot since yesterday afternoon, and of course the water clarity is really murky and churned up.

With these recent heavy rains, and more on the way, I expect our river will be raging with muddy water for at least another week. I guess we can be thankful we didn't get the rains they did in central Minnesota.

Really hoping these extended high water levels bring us good fishing by the end of June! Typically, with high water for so long early in the year we see really good numbers of game fish move up our way along with the high water. I guess we can only hope. I know the mosquitoes are loving all this rain! Pesky little buggers nearly carried me away last time I was down fishing.

Look for my next reports when the river starts to settle back down a bit. Lets hope that isn't too far away!

[CANOPY SAM]

What a difference a few days can make! A good friend came over yesterday afternoon and suggested we do a little fishing in the evening. As it was a little cooler outside, I figured the cool temps might help keep the mosquitoes at bay, and offer us a little more pleasant fishing.

I thawed a small chunk of fresh sucker and cut it into small strips...about 1 1/2 inches long, and maybe 1/2 inch thick. We had cats hammering baits only moments after our baits hit the water!

The river below the dam is still running pretty high and fast, but water clarity is actually quite good, and we found great numbers of fish right in the current seams on our inside bend of the river. We only fished for about 1 1/2 hours, and had fish biting consistently the entire time. They bit very aggressively, and we finished with 8-10 really nice catfish. Many were perfect "eater" sized being about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds, and they were very chunky and healthy. We also landed a couple that were 4-5 lbs. each. Of course, all fish were returned to the water.

I'm not sure if the fish just came out of spawning and are ravenously feeding post-spawn, or if they're putting on the feed bag now in preparation for spawning? I actually suspect the latter. Either way, it looks to be a terrific year for catfish in our river system!

[CANOPY SAM]

Been catching a nice walleye here and there, and caught a dandy smallmouth a few days back. A solid 3 lb. fish that fought like the dickens, and jumped multiple times before I finally landed him. I love these river smallies.

The catfish have been very cooperative, but water clarity has been a real problem over the last couple of weeks. With Thief Lake still at flood stage the water coming thru town is very silty and dirty. Catching cats (smell and taste feeders) is no problem in dirty water, but getting walleyes and bass to hit is quite a bit more difficult.

Seemingly, the water level below the dam dropped a bit yesterday. The current speed also diminished significantly overnight. Now if we could only get the water clarity improved I think we'll see some very good fishing. The water levels have been high all spring and summer, and this should've allowed a good number of fish to move up river.

Hope to figure how to load a picture of that smallie from the other day. it's a beautiful fish, and he's still swimming in the river today.

Also, with river levels finally coming down, and reaching a fishable level, I'll try to post more reports and pics as I am able to fish more often.

[River Rat (dan)]

The smallmouth have been awesome especially on the fly

crawler on bottom is always a good time never know what you gonna get.

After that big storm when the water was high the cats really strapped on the feedbag for a few days.

[CANOPY SAM]

Well, after a 3 year hiatus my eldest son convinced me to make a run at the local Lion's Club Fishing Derby again. Found myself about a dozen frogs on Friday evening, and pulled a bag of frozen Goldeye out of the deep freeze.

Decided I'd just fish from shore this year, and try a few tried and true spots. Started out right behind our place and put a decent walleye on shore within my first few casts. My son and a friend of his also came down shortly after I started. Just when they arrived I hooked a pretty nice cat on a jig and a frog. Put my walleye and the catfish into a cooler on ice, and rolled onto my next location.

Long story short, I spent the rest of the day catching really nice smallmouth, and handful of smaller catfish, about a dozen hammer-handle pike, but not another walleye! I was surprised and disappointed to say the least. My little walleye made the board at the weigh-in, but was quickly knocked off by larger fish. My catfish was a tad over 4 1/2 lbs., but didn't even make the board.

An old fishing buddy had told me prior to the start of the tourney that the cloudy water would push the walleyes further down river. When I connected on a walleye right away I kinda figured maybe I was onto something, but he was obviously right. I fished several really good spots that normally hold nice fish, but couldn't connect with another bigger walleye after 7 hours of hard fishing.

Anyway, it was fun to see so many folks at the tournament. Some real nice fish came in, and it's always fun to see all the little kids get to pick out prizes. The local Lions always do a great job of this tournament, and I'm always impressed by how "big time" it looks and feels.

After so many years of competitive angling I still find my blood pressure rising, and I get way too wound up about these things. That's really one of the main reasons why I stepped away from tournament fishing several years ago. I just get too worked up for my own good.

The river continues to be murky, so I hope they close up the locks at Thief Lake sooner rather then later. Not sure why, but the river level below the dam seems to have jumped up about a foot since yesterday afternoon. There are a good number of big smallmouth bass in the river, and of course the catfish are still thick, but I'd really prefer to see our local walleye numbers climb back up again this fall. The valley weather folks are saying we're all going to see significant rainfall over the weekend, and we could actually use a good soaker right now, but these see-sawing water levels are making the fishing kinda erratic.

At least we're looking forward to our sweet corn plumping up nicely with the coming rain. Should be a really nice crop, so if anyone in the area is interested in a lot of crisp, crunchy, super sweet corn just gimme a holler!

[River Rat (dan)]

Thats what my wife caught the winning cat on was cut goldeye. Been getting alot of SMB great time on a fly. Secret to finding eyes ive found is after dark very shallow chasing minnows.

[CANOPY SAM]

Dan,

Your wife caught the winning catfish? Good for her man. That's awesome. A $1000.00 catfish is a heck of a fish!

I'm fairly sure I coulda found a bigger cat, but for some reason I always wanna pull in a big walleye and/or pike as well. Every time I've done this tourney I always shoot for the stars...trying to catch a big fish in every category....and I almost always end up with no fish that stay on the board! Ha ha ha!!!

It's fun anyway, but I really doubt if I'll take another run at it. My heart just isn't into competitive angling anymore. At nearly 50 years old I really prefer to just go out and enjoy a day of fishing ... especially with my kids or other good friends.

Thanks for the tip on the walleyes Dan. Looking forward to fall fishing, lots less mosquitos, and cool nights next to the campfire listening to the geese fly out to the fields. The river has just recently dropped to a fairly comfortable fishing level, and even the water clarity is starting to improve a bit. Thinking of doing a river float soon just for big smallies. Caught some real dandies during the tourney. A couple pushing 4 lbs.

I've been pushing the Lion's to add a division for smallmouth bass for several years now, but for some unexplainable reason they just won't do it. It's really too bad. In nearly ALL of North America, Smallmouth Bass are one of the most highly prized, and sought after tournament gamefish. Yet, with an abundance of great local fish, and a smallmouth fishery that gets almost no recognition what-so-ever, the bass get no respect in TRF.

I guess that okay. Just more 3-5 lb. incredible fighting smallies for me to enjoy!!!

[River Rat (dan)]

I love the fact nobody targets bass we have the whole fishery to ourelves I guess. Been having a blast smallies on the fly all fall.

[River Rat (dan)]

This one was just tonight

[CANOPY SAM]

Hey Dan. Nice fish.

I was planning to do a river float on Thursday morning for walleyes and smallmouth bass, but I went down for a few casts this afternoon and there is SO much leaves, weeds, and debris floating down river it's not even fishable right now!

I even tried simply floating a jig and frog along with the current under a small bobber, and still couldn't keep all the junk off the line. It's a mess! Looks like it'll be a little while till the river is fishable again.