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Open Water Advice


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Will be arriving to the big lake tomorrow morning and camping at Big Bog Park. From there, we have no plan as this will be this first time to Red on open water. Looking for any basic advice from you experienced folks as far as where to start, what depth, bait of choice and so forth. In a perfect world, it would be nice to bring home pics of crappies, pike and walleyes. Thanks for any suggestions.

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Pray for lightwind,Go out far enough so you have 6 feet of water,go to the left,troll slow with a jig and minnow. If you dont get fish there move in shallower!I troll all the way up the shore past the cabins to the clearing where the power lines are,I also like to zig-zag when Im trolling.Go slow for craps and eyes,faster for pike! confused.gifIm sorry,I should have said when you come out of the river go to the RIGHT not the left!I hope sumday my wife will teach me how to edit on this thing! grin.gif

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I have also never fished up there during open water and would like some advice on what methods work the best? Jig and minow colors? Twister tail or not? What about lindy rigging? Cranks? Or just plain floating with a slip bobber?

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I am also coming up this weekend, and was wondering what I should have for live bait, shiners, crawlers, fatheads leeches? All?

Sorry to jump in on your post but thought it may help you out also.

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Fished Monday with 3 friends in boat.

On the Lake about noon out of the public access in Waskish.

Went about 500 yards north of access and drifted south.

Every fish caught was marked on the GPS.

Caught 59 eyes, (1 was 29", released) 1-15# northern, 1 crappie and 2 sheephead.

1/4 oz. chrome color jig with either shiners or fatheads bouncing them off the bottom.

Left lake at 4:00.

Awesome day for us. This was all of our first trip to RED Lake during open water.

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Like I said,go north of the river,thats where I have got all my good fishing.I used to stay at Hudecs when I camped up there and Donny always put me on fish!He may not be there but the fish didnt go no where!I hope!! wink.gifwink.gif

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We went out Saturday and Sunday.

First order of business was to get away from the flotilla of boats in front of the tamarack river. It's shallow water and crowded, and we wanted to fish somewhere that wasn't in the middle of a mob. In the area we fished there were usually only half-a-dozen boats in sight at any time.

We started by drifting jigs and minnows (shiners or fatheads) or by moving around with the electric motor and pitching jigs. And watching our electronics and setting icons over good areas. This let us identify which areas held fish, and get a feel for if the fish were along the break or off the break, and if they were concentrated or spread out. I prefer jigging over rigging but the guys I was with mixed in some rigging with the jigging.

When the fish seemed to be spread out we switched to trolling cranks. When we found fish that were concentrated or when they seemed to be tight to the break we anchored and either pitched jigs or used slip bobbers. When the action slowed we were quick to pull up the anchor and start moving around again.

We caught fish all day long and the action was incredible at times. When we were anchored we had several stretches where one of us would catch fish on 4 or more consecutive casts. We had one stretch where all 3 of us each caught fish on 6 consecutive casts each before one guy broke the streak. That was 18 walleyes on 18 casts, and we were all casting in different directions - that was incredible. And fun.

Most of our jigging was with glow pink and white, although we used other colors like blue, white and green with just as good of success. I mostly used 1/8 ounce, occasionally dropped down to 1/16 ounce with a fathead. The guys that were rigging were using 1/4 ounce weights and plain hooks with a bead. For crankbaits we mostly used shad raps, shallow shad raps, and little rippers, in colors like clown, chrome blue, and firetiger.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

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Thanks to all for the advice....leaving to go north in an hour. Will post (hopefully all good) results on Saturday.

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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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