pembina or drayton?

[pike69]

Hey guys i used to go to drayton about 2 times a year in late may to late june.... always caught lots of fish but either all small or all big...27 was biggest. anyway i went up to pembina last weekend during cats incredible and went 10-15 miles south and fished all nite sat. and went home on sunday. Caught dozens of cats all 6-11 pounds. river was from 2-12 feet deep. i remember near drayton it being 20-30 feet deep? Been 5 years since i have been on the red and i have talked my wife into a 2-3 day trip to either drayton or pembina. she has never hooked a fish over 5 puonds(northern) and i want to get her into a 15 plus cat or a big carp. I tried carp with corn last weekend and got nothing so what do you say pembina(north or south?) or north of drayton and could someone give me a hand on how to catch carp and goldeye? 'thanks"

[CatManLee]

Personaly I like Pembina better, but that's just me... I usually don't fish Pembina till a little later in the year though, like late September to early October. During this time period I have a hard time catching any fish up that way weighing less than 10lbs. It probably doesn't matter, but I usually head south of Pembina a few miles and fish that area when I go.

As for the Carp and Gold Eye, finding and catching both require about the same approach. Find some "shallow" water near some type of structure, downed tree's, etc and toss out a slip rig with a small hook and a full or half crawler, what ever you can fit on the hook...Then sit back and wait. If your gonna catch some fish, you'll get something within 10-minutes or so, if you don't get anything, move to another spot and try again.

This works good for both Carp and Gold Eye. Just make sure you cast as close as possible to the structure your fishing, it'll greatly improve your chances of catching fish.

Good luck...Hope this helps.

[pike69]

Thanks for the help catman. We will be going up there right before labor day...I have never used anything besides raw shrimp(get it in fargo and let it cook in the back of my truck on way up and i fish mainly at night)Hey i also caught a sheepshead about two pounds on shrimp bit when i started to bring my bait in..I have heard that they also are big in the red?..is there a reason the cats are bigger at different times? I went up to that bridge where 11 crosses the red and the river was high and caught 15-17 pound cats as fast as i could cast all day and all nite one time...went back 2 weeks later and caught 2 fish about 4 pounds? Do they move when the water rises? Is depth important? anyway thanks and here are some pics of last weekend......How do i post pics????

[hanson]

Sometimes you catch big cats, sometimes you catch small cats. Alot has to do with location, alot has to do with timing.

One thing I would do is switch your bait up. Red River cats predominantly prefer one of the BIG 3- Suckers, Goldeyes, or Leopard Frogs.

As the summer progresses, their preference moves in that order. Spring is typically good cut sucker time, summer is goldeye, and fall is frog. Now, we are dealing with wild critters so this isn't an exact science, but that seams to be the pattern, and I ALWAYS, ALWAYS have all 3 with me and mix it up until I find what they prefer. Just when you think you have it figured out, the fish change.

Water level is important, depth is important, flow is important, cover is important, structure is important, etc, etc. A guy needs to spend a LOT of time on the water to put all the pieces together to get on a great pattern. Thats why I love fishing the river so much, its soo dynamic and ever changing. Put simply... its a challenge.

[Little Stewie]

Hey pike 69 if you cant make up your mind try putting in at the golden grain bridge(hwy 175) and go north a few miles to where the two rivers dumps into the red. I have caught some huge cats there along with some walleyes and everything else.

[Scoot]

Yep, everything hanson said is spot on. Shrimp can be the bait of choice occasionally, but I've definitely done better on this "Big 3" bait selection most consistently. Frogs and cut sucker would be my go-to baits when you're going to be up there.

[pike69]

OK Guys i have went fishing with freinds who used suckers and frogs and i have tried fresh shrimp and must say that i ALWAYS catch 3-4 cats two 1 using shrimp that has been left in the sun in a plastic bag for about 12 hours.and if i happen to stay another day the shrimp works even better.my best fishing action has been with shrimp that makes your hands stink so bad you gotta use gas to get it off. I havent been on the red other than last weekend in 5 years but i used to go 2-3 times a year. Does anyone know how to post pics on here? I have some from last weekend and where is the closest place to get frogs near pembina? do they need to be alive?.....I will be going up that way in late sept-early-oct for one last time this summer and would love to put my shrimp to a test with someone(your boat or mine)but for now my wife is the key..she has lupus and normally dont feel this good so for 3-4 days the week of the 27th-31st my goal is a 15 plus cat for her and a big big carp or sheephead.thanks much for the help so far guys and if someone can tell me how to post pics on here i got some nice ones

[CatManLee]

The baits mentioned are the baits of "choice" on the Red. If your shrimp is working just fine then stick with it, but when things slow with your shrimp presentation...try these.

I have never had much luck with shrimp, atleast not compared to the "regular baits", unless it's targeting smaller fish. Again, were not telling you what to do or knocking your choice of baits, just saying what works best for us on a regular basis on the Red River.

I'll take you up on your challenge of (shrimp vs ?)...if I'm fishing the same weekend as you, I think it would be fun! I'll be up to Pembina a couple times this fall, not sure on the dates yet though, I'll post when I know.

As for posting pictures...You have to up-load your pictures to a host site like Photobucket, then all you have to do is copy the link to the photo and paste it to your post...It's really easy to do.

I'll talk to you later.

[Scoot]

Yup, I'd echo everything CML said above. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. However, size tends to improve with frogs or cutbait vs. shrimp (in my experience). Also like CML said, if your shrimp isn't producing, you'd be making a mistake not having some or all of the Big 3 along. Personally, I like to toss out a smorgasbord of baits and let the fish tell me what's working best. If I'm on a good bite of a particular type of bait, I'll start the day with mostly that bait out, but usually have at least one line of something else out. If you're doing well on shrimp, you might have been doing amazingly well with frogs (or cutbait). Mix it up, try it all, come prepared, and let the fish dictate what bait you're using, not what you bothered to bring along (or didn't bring along).

If you and CML have your friendly competition, I'll bet you do as well or better than CML for numbers, but that he beats he heck outta you in total pounds of fish caught. Shrimp-caught fish tend to be... shrimps. (BTW, I've caught some very nice fish on shrimp, but average is considerably smaller).

Good luck when you go next.

[pike69]

Hope this works..The one with me putting my knee on side of boat is one that got a little wild on me had to use my knee to keep from falling...little guy is my 12 yr old and his first cat other guy is friend from work..CML I think we would have a blast doing the shrimp challenge and i will be bringing the big three as well as shrimp and crawlers with for my trip...Do the frogs need to be alive and are carp very common in the red or only in a few places..i have heard both thanks jim murphy sebeka mn.

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[Little Stewie]

So you know dead frogs do work well, had some trips to the red where cut frogs out produced live ones three to one. Plus it will be hard to find live frogs in late sept or early oct unless it is warm out. I cant think of many places around here that sell live frogs that late in the year, so if you can catch some now freeze them. By the way another great cat bait is cut goldeye. If you can catch any cut them into strips, and save the head for the big cats.

[pike69]

ok lets try again

[CatManLee]

I see you got the picture thing figured out, but whats with the glove? Be a man and get the "sandpaper" marks from those big mouths. LOL...Nice fish though.

Yah, dead frogs work fine, I like fresh dead frogs though, but thats me...I kill my frogs before puting them on the hook by cutting them in half.

As for Carp, tons of 'em in the Red. If you specifically targeted them, I'd say a 20+ Carp day would be fairly do-able. The only problem is you catch evrything else in between Carp, so you'll need a whole lot of crawlers.

When are you gonna be up around Pembina fishing? Maybe I can schedule my trip around the same time.

[pike69]

It was cold that nite!! we all did not dress for it, my son had shorts and we all had light sweatshirts....ended up taking turns hugging the lantern but fear not when we go ill make sure i get scratched..the freind i took with us did manage to get the palm of his hand impaled by a 4 pounder though(took him out for at least 10 min)...lol He never went catfishing before and was tring to avoid the wiskers because he thought they would sting him...I think mabey the last weekend of sept. or the first weekend of oct may work for me(by the way..the shrimp i use are the size of a 4-5 inch sucker only fatter)let me know when will work for you...later

[ibwhnt]

I would have to agare with you one that one Catman, Lose the glove and be a true cat fishermen. Scars tell great stories. But it still looks like you had a good time.

[CatManLee]

I got stuck in my middle finger by a small cat during the Cats Incredible Tournament...yooouuuch! I've been stuck before, but this one went really deep, and it was right between the joints in the middle of my finger and I know it hit the bone. My finger was really sore for the next 3 days and it swelled up to about the size of my thumb for a couple days...Did I wear gloves after that, nope! But, I probably would have if I had them though! Infact, my finger still hurts a bit right now if I make a fist!!! Those little fish suck!

I was thinking late Sept or early Oct too...Sept 22nd or 29th possibly...

Talk to you later.

[Scoot]

Cool- looks like a ton of fun!