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2/11 - 2/13 Fishing Report......


FISHINGURU

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first off thank you jonny and kelly for the sleeper...never got to see kelly though that kinda sucks cause i was waiting for the seal stories for the newbs i brought up lol!

on the way up there my altinator went out on me as we were burnin down the highway....luckly she made it right to an auto shop in cloquet before she died completely...luckily there was a pretty cool worker there and i told him the situation so he quit working on what he was doing and called napa to get my part and put it in as quick as he could...from break down to back on the road in about 1 1/2 hours...when it first happened i was thinking it was gonna be way worse!

from the reports i was reading before i left things weren't lookin that great...to top it off the day before we left was that -90 windchill day.

anyway...we arrived a couple hours late at around 3-3:30...dropped down some lines and caught an 18 inch walleye in the first half hour or so..we started to get pumped since it was prime time but not a single bite again until it was dark for awhile probably around 7 we caught the next eye...after that we averaged about a fish an hour until we went to bed around 1 or 2...few eyes and a few perch. gave us confidence for the morning bite. between 1 or 2 and morning when we woke up a buddy got up to rattles and pulled a couple more out...we heard alot of dings but by time u got up to look they already let go...they were biting so soft.

tuesday morning arrived and the eyes and perch bit decent between 7 and 9...my holes were on fire for a few minutes..caught 1, missed 1, had a double where both my bobbers went down at the same time...couple other buddies were hittin them too so i was hoping red was about to turn on but then she died off as quick as she turned on. not much all afternoon until one of my friends bobber went down and he set into a pig but it got off after a few big rod pumps...his drag wasn't set.

just a couple minutes later my buddy next to him had his bobber go down and he set into a pig and his reel started smokin..he had the big fish almost to his hole when it took off like a banshee again...all of a sudden my rattle reel way on the oppisite side of the 12 x 24 started smokin...so i ran over and set into mine and it was another pig...as he's fighting his big one and i'm fighting mine i pull up this real big pike up to my hole...as i look closer i don't even have him hooked i have my other buddies line but his jig is still in the pikes mouth so i'm fighting him and he's fighting me as the pike is just sitting there under the ice by my hole lol.....so we had him feed me line since he was just right there....i got him up my hole for a split second and we almost grabbed him when my jig must of cut my buddies line and she was gone...she was a stump of a pike i'm guessin 18-20 lber. not the long skinny type but the shorter kind that is thick and fat.

that was around late afternoon...after that the bite was dead again through the evening until dark...around 7 we caught a few eyes and a few perch and a few misses until around 11 or midnight.

action picked up pretty good for a few hours that night when i went out side i seen the stormy weather passed by and i could see the moon and stars...the wind died down too. we picked up a few perch, eyes, and managed a 13 1/2 crappie between midnight and 2 am....the crappie took down a glow red jig on a rattle reel...it only rattled a ding or two and the bobber just sat there a couple inches under the ice so they were biting super soft...got me thinking about the night before when we were all sleeping and only hearing a ding or two...might of been a few of them nice crappies.

with the weather clearing up late that night i was pumped for the morning bite....i heard a couple buddies gettin up around the crack of dawn to some rattle reels...they caught an eye, a perch, and missed one on mine and another buddies so i got up quick....as soon as i got up my other one went down and i missed it...this was all in about 10 minutes so i was thinking finally the action was gonna be hot the day we had to leave lol...look over and 1 of my buddies pulls up a decent 31 inch pike...couple seconds later my other buddy pulls up another eye and she went totally dead again.

we kept the rattle reels down as we cleaned up and started packin to leave at 11 and not another bite...seemed like when we had a fiery of eye and perch action some pikes would come stormin through and nothin else for a long time lol....we'd hit a few in a row thinkin it was about to turn on them someone would get a line breaker or have a pike and she'd go dead.

bite was slow for upper red standards but thats fishing....sometimes mother nature isn't on our side and the bite is slower then normal.

personally i'm content just being up there and knowing what can happen any given second...it can turn on just as quick as it can turn off. i know the caliber of fish that roam the lake...even with slower fishing i still don't want to leave.

the look on everyones face when they seen that crappie was fun...they finally got to see what i was talking about even though thats a smaller one on red it's a big one anywhere else...they were amazed by it...i'd like to see them if we happened to get on some of them 15-16 inchers we were pullin out like wild fire last season!!

i don't know exact numbers but we caught about 15 eyes, 7-8 perch, 13 1/2 inch crappie, 31 inch pike....3 or 4 line breakers and probably 15-20 misses along with that hog of a pike we almost had up the hole...that big pike we almost got and finally when we pulled out that crappie we were after was the highlights.

not quite the 100-200 walleye and 75-100 crappie trip u dream of but still a good time....it's almost more fun to me if u have to work for them...when they come to easy u take it for granted...don't get me wrong that is fun too lol.

red and green seemed to be the hot colors overall...we only got 1 jigging the rest came on rod n bobber or rattle reels.

glow green creep worm was my lucky lure...i caught all mine except a fish or two on that...green, red, and orange demons is what most the others guys caught fish on along with them glow red phelps jigs i think they are called...thats what the crappie bit on...the big pike took down an orange demon. plain hook wasn't workin for us.

fatheads and emerald shiners was the bait of choice...shiners caught alot of eyes, couple perch, that crappie and thats what the big pike took down.

if i was gonna go back today i'd put down a green or red creep worm with the rattling eyes with either a fatty or shiner and one of them glow red phelps with either a fatty or shiner.

tried 2 tip ups with suckers but no takers.

i'll be back to red shortly for round 2!!

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Thanks for the nice report FG. Your northern story has got me pumped. I'm leaving next Wednseday for one of Kelly's shacks and I am losing sleep in anticipation. Do you bring up portables and try anywhere else besides in the house?

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FISHINGURU,

Very glad to hear you had a good trip. Nice to hear that you were able to catch one of the famous red lake crappies. I am hoping to get into a couple slabs this weekend, along with some eyes. Great report! Nice info on the soft biters.

Matt Phelps

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thanks guys

CHAFFMJ- i've never brought a portable cause i never have the room but i'd like to...i do bring alot of clothes,vex, auger and extension hoping for a nice day to just get out and search but it never works out for me...everytime i been up there it's been brutal and windy. i was hopin for 10-20 degrees and maybe calm or a slight breeze that would be enough to get me out there but it's always 10-50 below and a whiteout for me so far lol.

when a school passes through and leaves or when the bite is slow it would be nice to go out and pop off a hundred holes and bounce around with jigs and a vex.

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I was hoping to read that you caught that pike later on! That's happened to us before. Several hours passed and a 34 incher was caught bearing 2 jigs of ours lost earlier. Good report! Enough to get the blood pump'n though!

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FG,

I know what you mean when you say you don't have enough room. I'm bringing mine up and I hope to get out and use it, if for nothing else just to get away from the 4 other guys I'm sharing the house with. grin.gif I'll post a report and let you know how we do. Thanks again for yours.

chaffmj

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sweet...definatly let me know how u do because i'm heading back up shortly....hopefully you have some better stable weather and the bite picks up...either way you'll have fun though...if it gets slow go searchin if it's nice out.

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guru, sounds like your group was on fire compared to the reports i've been hearing, especially during the time frame you were up there, that cold front was extreme! there had to be a couple of true legends in your group!

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If it does not happen next ice season, someone will hit the 30" mark the following ice season. We've landed plenty of fish in the mid 20's over the past few years, so I think it's right around the corner.

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did i miss something here? jjohnson did you accidently post in my thread thinking it was the big walleye thread or something lol?

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