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Ice fishin' the Red and its tribs


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LMAO

Listen to you Ray!! I have been extremely busy chasing yotes in the Dakotas, I got 2 more tournaments coming up! I will give you a call on Sunday, I will be back in town. I suppose you will be in church all day, so fishing is out of the question!

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LOL

Did you get permission before you said your probably going fishing or is all tough talk on the internet!! LOL

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Mostly tough talk but what i say goes! for the most part.LOL Shes pretty good about letting me go hunting and fishing. I leave the house with my pants on. HA

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ray does what he wants when she tells him to. Hes the king of his castle when shes not around. Thought I would throw in a few lines from the man song. Now if you two are done when are we going fishing! grin.gif

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I have 500 ccs that says i can now go fishing whenever i want.LOL I was wondering when you Levi and John are gona ask your wives if you can go or not. I was thinking of saturday morning and sat night. Possibly friday and sun night also, but i know your wives wont let you two out of the house without doing your chores. I have mine done already.

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Ray, even with those 500cc's you better stick around the homefront ;\) I'd be game for getting out tomorrow morning around the Fargo area if you guys want to? I'm in the same boat as Ray, only have 5 days left as well eek.gif

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Ray or John

Did you guys get out this weekend?? I don't see any smart replies from Ray, so I am wondering if his wife took away his computer privileges along with his fishing poles??

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Funny guy Levi. I made it out on sat. with Loren in the morning and another buddy on sat night. Not Much going on though. A few goldeyes and a few cats.

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I spent the weekend fishing up on buffalo bay. Was pretty slow.

looking forward to getting out on the river this weekend if things work out.

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River runners, Would you be interested in sharing any advice on ice fishin the Red? I fish the river quite a bit during softwater, mainly Drayton north to the border. But have never tried ice fishing for walleye or sauger. I am definately interested in giving the hardwater a try. Have all the gear; sled and Otter so can run. Also have a fair knowledge of river depths knowing where there are some holes.

Looking for any advice on areas to target fish, bait preferences, best time of day or nights, ect. The thought of catching goldeyes or a cat or two through the ice is enough to interest me. Appreciate any tips!

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I like to fish the flats next to the deep holes out of the current. As far as baits i use the #5 or #6 chubby darters or a buckshot rattle spoon, both tipped with a minnow head. We have been catching most of our fish at or after dark. Hope this helps.

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So are the fish coming out of the holes up to the flats to feed? I'm planning on giving it a try, would you start above the hole and off to the side? I like rippin the darters up at LOW and will give it a go.

Some of the guys up here have been catching fish in as little as three feet of water under the ice.

Thanks

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Most of the spots I have fished are about 4-8 ft deep. The key n my mind is to stay out of the current. drill alot of holes around the deep water and drop a 1/4 to 3/8 jig, and if it stays in the middle of the hole. Give it a try!

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My best luck typically comes on the flat near the holes in relatively shallow water. If there's timber around in the flat, all the better. I typically fish from four to 12 FOW. Above, below, or off to the side of the hole- just a guessing game as far as I'm concerned. For me, I've done best where there's a noticable shelf to fish on.

Be careful- if it's a new area to you (at least at this time of year), fish with a buddy and bring all the safety equipment you might need- rope, picks, lifejacket, etc.

Good luck,

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Hey all, a buddy and I fish north and south on the red from the fargo area. We have done fairly well this year on the ice for first timers. I have been a river rat since 1996. We target Smallies, eyes, kittys, pike and this year we are going to try for crappies. I like the flats with drop offs and deeps holes. Any structure that goes into the water seems to always hold the fish.

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Appreciate the pointers, looking forward to giving it a try. Going to LOW this weekend to take in Hockey Day in Minnesota. Looks to be aweful cold weather around the corner. May try the shallows off of Pine for some eyes.

Thanks again!

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Just wondering how many of you think that fishing the shelf from a 15 foot hole compared to a 20-25 foot hole would be a big difference? What im getting at is fishing the shelf on a much deeper spot of water way better in the winter?

Thanks for the help

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For me, I'd generally say that deeper is better. However, where the hole falls in the general topography of the water is probably more important. If I can get on a spot that is pretty prounounced compared to the other water around it, that's more important than the overall depth. For example, a 25 foot hole sounds really impressive. However, if most of the water around that area is 15-20 feet, that hole isn't as big of a deal. The flip side of the coin would be something like a 14 foot hole that is surrounded by 3 feet of water. A 14 foot hole doesn't sound like a big deal, but compared to the water nearby, it might be a real honey hole.

Also, proximity to Fall/Spring spots is important to me too. Once you get more than a couple miles from decent Fall/Spring spots, I start to get less interested. This one is more important to me on fairly early ice and somwhat later ice. On some of the smaller tribs, I use this rule of thumb even more because the size of the river seems to limit fish movement more (not sure if that's true, but it sure seems like it).

I hope this helps! Good luck,

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i fished off a trib north of forks..figured i would try the current this time and i used all the weight i had with me including two depth finders connected to a spinner like you'd use in the summer months..caught a nice 5 lb and 2 lb eye in the middle of the afternoon..both bit as i reeled my line up

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I was out with a buddy on the mighty red around fargo this weekend and got into some nice eyes. We both limited out and caught a few extras to go along with it. They were averaging 18-20" which was great and they were just pounding the jigs. We put 2 back cause they were under 15" and had 5 spit the jig right in the middle of the hole. Was a great time... Anyone else been out?

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Haven't been down on the river lately, but was early on. Now that most lakes have kind of died for walleye action the red looks pretty good again. Nightwarrior want to shoot me a email if you don't mind giving a vague area that you have been fishing or if you woudn't mind some company for a night I can share a spot that I have also done well in the past. essig149 at hotmail dot com

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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
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • 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~~
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    • 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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