Weekend at JR's Access

[HNTNBUX]

I stayed in a rental house with Battle River Lodge Resort out of JR's Access on Friday night and Saturday night. We arrived an hour early and Jerry was waiting at the house for us. Jerry gave us our choice of three available houses, two of which were brand new wheel houses with four bunks and eight holes. The house was clean and put in a fresh new spot with no garbage around. Even though we spent only the evenings in the house Jerry still managed to check on us twice a day, before we left on the wheelers in the morning and then again in the evening when we got back.

Friday we started fishing about eight miles out of JR's access at least a half mile away from anyone with the plan to move as needed to find fish. Jerry gave us a good starting point and in the first fifteen minutes the four of us had 15 fish on the ice. We started fishing about 1:30 pm until 6:00 pm when we got hungry. I caught 42 walleyes and the group of us finished with about 120 for the day.

We then went to JR's and had him fry up all of our fish and make french fries for us for only $5.00 each. What a screaming deal we did it every night.

That night one of our guys dropped an LED flashlight down the hole. Of course it was turned on and landed pointing straight up. Needless to say we did not have any luck catching fish at night. We only ended up catching five fish out of the house for the weekend. It was kind of neat having in floor lighting for the two nights we were up there.

The next day we were in no hurry so we started with showers and breakfast at JR's. Then headed out to the same spot at about 10:00. We quite about 6:00 pm with 67 walleyes for me and about 175 for the group. Fish again at JR's.

The next morning we only fished for an hour and half. We all had our limit of fish in 15 minutes and caught 40 before we had to leave.

After reading all the reports before we left I was not prepared for all the fish we got. If we would have stayed any longer I would have had to get more bait. I personally started with three scoops of shiners and four scoops of fat head minnows. Shiners on set line with either a red hook, red jig or red fat boy did the trick. Jigging rods were dominated by a red glow demon and red rattling varmint. For the most part the bites were hard and aggressive, sometimes the bobber would even pop when it went down.

Thanks JR and Jerry it was more than I hoped for.

[Team Otter]

Nearly 2.5 minutes per fish for 4 guys for 2+ days of fishing. WOW! I'm impressed...

Thanks for the report.

[walleye101]

My math says about 2.5 minutes per fish but still an incredible catch rate.

[Red_Eye]

Our story was similiar to yours. Not the great numbers as you reported but overall a very good weekend of fishing. The first day and night we stayed in the rented fish house. We caught some fish but not many. We also dropped a flash light down the hole. The second day we moved cross country and came into many many walleys almost all were in the 16 1/2" to 19" range.

We used JR's access for the first time this year. He has a very nice business. We rented fish houses from Ryans who has newer Ice Castle which were clean and moved that day. Ryan gave us the coordinates to start our second day. Overall I think we were very satisfied with both JRs and Ryans. JRs have a nice road that goes a long ways out.The key in my opinion is to mvoe,fish,move,fish. We were also very fortunate the weather was almost perfect last weekend.

[tjhunter]

Ok - you guys are killing me! 48 hours and I'll be up there! Thanks for the great report - very informative. Are you willing to give up any additional info - How far off the road were you? How deep? East or west of the road? We're headed out of Waskish. Could we get to your area on the ice?

It's our first trip up to URL this weekend and I just want to get it right...

Thanks

TJ

[HNTNBUX]

We were off the road about a half mile to the west in 13-14 feet of water. I know there must have been some type of structure under me because my Marcum showed kind of a false bottom in yellow where my jig would disappear from view but still go down several inches. I also had a walleye pull my bobber line down while I was reeling in a fish on on my jig line and the line got snagged on something.

As far as how to get out there from another resort I don't know. If traveling by snowmobile or 4 wheeler the lake is pretty much open to travel anywhere you want to go from what I saw.

Good luck I hope the bite lasts so more people can enjoy the fishing potential that Red can provide. I know I have never come close to matching it before.

[swedishpimple]

TJHUNTER.....you would be a fool to try to make it to JR's by wheeler or truck across the lake. Sleds may be ok....but take the road on the South Shore drive...go past Roges...past Morts....then to JR's can't miss it.

I never fish out of Waskish anymore, coming from Bemidji I can shave 30 miles by taking backroads to the South Shore. I typically leave Waskish for the tourists from all over the country. I just wish the Westwind was called the Northwind!!!!