Native pressure on Lower Red

[Polar Bear]

Just sitting here pondering life and I started to wonder if the Native American fishermen put a lot of pressure on the crappies in Lower Red or even on the western half of Upper Red. For that matter, does anybody even know for sure if Lower Red has anywhere close to the same concentration of slabs as Upper? Polar Bear

[curt quesnell]

There doesnt seem to be much action on
Lower Red as far a fishing goes.

From people I have talked to???????
There are huge concentrations of Crappies
where the Red Lake River exits Red Lake and
there are MUCH bigger Crappies in the river
as far as Thief River Falls.

The amount of and kinds of fish on Lower
Red is an unknown for us, we have to go on
hearsay.

How about this.....I know people who were
approached by Red Lake residents to buy
bags of Crappies for 10 bucks last winter.
(more hearsay)

Curt Quesnell

[magnum mike]

This is what I heard from last year: There are big (2 lb) perch on the native side of the lake. The natives wanted to harvest the perch for sale but couldn't get baits through the crapies to get to the perch. I have caught nice fish (walleye and crappie)in the Red Lake River as far as East Grand Forks. The fish are there. The question now is where are the fish on the eastern 1/3 of Upper Red. Another recent rumor puts the fish very shallow (less than 5 feet deep) and close to shore. Until someone finds them, we will be in pursuit of walleyes (that you can keep)! Fish is good food.

[Dan Thompson]

kind of have another rumor or fact question what is the talk of opening of the walleye fishing in URL just wondering if anyone has heard anything on this

[kelly-p]

Dan,
I would guess 3/4 years before we can keep the walleyes. They want to have enough spawning sized fish out there to keep the population going before we start keeping them. What ended the walleyes before is that they were caught before they had a chance to spawn which on URL is about 18 inches.
Mike,
Half the fun of fishing is finding them and the other half is figuring out what they will bite on. What if Billy T. thought like you 4 years ago? All his friends went to a different lake but he went out on URL and caught 4 or 5 crappies that day. Look what he started! If he hadn't done that these crappies may have never been fished. You can go catch and keep walleyes but some of us are gonna find the crappies. Then 3 weeks after we find them you can come fish where the crowd is, where we left 2 weeks before to go find the next great spot.

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Waskish Minnow Station
218-647-8652

[jigglestick]

i think if the people of native decent were looking to harvest perch for sale it wouldn't be with bait. which leads me to believe that what you heard was bunk. i'm not saying that they're arn't crappies in lower red. i believe just the opposite. but it just sounds like a bunk story.

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keep your stick on the ice!---jigglestick---

[woodman]

Guys- From my knowledge from working on the Reservation in Ponamah Elementary. I have asked kids, parents, and workers at our school about crappies. The kids say that they never catch a crappie just perch, northen and walleyes. I always ask them if they keep the walleyes, and they always say "NO, it is against the LAW". Some of the adults tell me that there are some crappies by the river on the easters side of Lower Red. I think it is the Blackduck river, but don't hold me to that!

I never heard a word about the Natives wanting to harvest perch. That is a new one to me!

I try and keep up on what is happening on the Reservation for all of you, but sometimes I am left in the dark too!

Happy Holidays, and be Safe.

I have two weeks to fish now, so I'd best go and sweet talk the wife?????

Woodman

[Brett Meyer]

Hey, about the former walleye demise on Red Lake. I'm not old enough to have fished URL for walleye's back in the day, but from everyone i talked to and from all that I can gather, the demise of the Walleye population was from OVER HARVESTING, by the natives on LRL(Main Factor). I don't know if that is because they didn't know the population of the fish, and it was too late to fix it or what. All i know is when the population gets back up to snuff, Everyone needs to manage the fish population so people can enjoy good fishing there for years to come.

I Don't want to down anyone, and correct me if i'm wrong, but that's what i've been told. I do fell that the native should be able to harvest limited numbers of fish, and they need to know if, and how they are affecting the population. after all, it's a huge lake.

[kelly-p]

There was overharvest and looking the other way on both sides of the line. We all share the blame.

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Waskish Minnow Station
218-647-8652

[PUTZ]

HEY MAGNUM MIKE
why don't you just crawl back in your hole
wherever that is ? so the rest of us fun
loving guys can go on and catch some fish
AND HAVE ARE FUN.

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just cross this line------

[nunzio]

Good answer Kelly!

mm your first post sounds like bar talk to me. It's hard to follow your point.
Merry X-mas mm, maybe ya need to hear that more often.

[Guest]

Somebody needs a nap.

[Fishbitten]

Halad kind of a contradiction of terms saying Merry Christmas and stirring the racial sediment up in the water column so none of us can fish. Merry Christmas to ALL!

[Northlander]

Never fails. You can always rely on this topic coming up at least once a winter. Its done, its over, lets just do our part so it doesnt happen again! Good fishing and Happy Holidays!!Steve S.

[halad]

Whats that saying about the truth?