Center Bar on Red Lake

[so8119]

Does anyone have the GPS coordinates for the center bar Red Lake. Just looking for the bar in general not anyones secret spot.

thanks guys

[bobbersup!]

the center bar is pretty big but here is coordinates to around the center n 48 o8.651 w 94 42.155 there is also a road out of one of the resorts not sure if i can say which. the road stops a little short of the bar but thats where we were on monday and tuesday and the three of us caught about 80 walleye in a day and a half and 1 37" pike. the fish were hitting a red northland tackle rattling airplane jig. first time ive fished all day with the same lure. it was like fishing in the spring in front of the tamarack. good times!oh and dont go wandering too far around the bar the reservation line isnt too far away.

[so8119]

thanks for your help I appreciate it, were there many other guys out fishing the center bar??

[Random guy]

Just looking for the bar in general not anyones secret spot.

thanks guys

Just look for a cluster of houses way out in the middle of the lake and that is Center Bar. Rogers Resort on the south shore has punched a road out to it this year and my guess is he will be one of few to go out to center.

[bobbersup!]

there wasnt many people out there when we were there but that was on a mon and tues. and the out fitter we went through for our sleeper was about to start moving his shacks out there pretty slow where the big community was we put in about 5 hrs in the sleeper and had 1 bite. the rest of the reports we heard around that area were pretty slow as well luckkily i dont have much patience for watching a blank flasher screen and talked my crew into checking the bar out or it would have been a long day and a half.actually we werent quite on the bar we were on the edge in 13 ft to the top of the ice

[Fisherman24]

What is it like fishing a lake with no structure? I feel like it would be extremely frustrating. What is the center bar like? Is it rocks or just some humps or what? Thanks!

[&JAG]

Oh, there is structure... Those small differences on the lake bottom are great areas to start and there is plenty to cover. Any subtle change generally leads to some action.

[Fisherman24]

Really?

Does the lake have some good transitions? Like sand to gravel or mud to gravel...etc? What other kind of subtle changes are you reffering to? I only ask because I am going up there on monday for a coupla nights and I was curious how to fish it.

[Random guy]

What is it like fishing a lake with no structure?

I don't know, I have always fished Red with its rockpiles, gravel bars, weed beds, break-lines and other hook/point structure. I have one house sitting with one corner in 7.5 feet and the other corner in 9 feet. It is not that Red does not have structure it just hasn't been put on maps yet.

Center bar to the best of our theories is a granite push. Basicly a place where the granite comes closer to the surface. Such as the quarry by Kelliher, the small one off the south shore drive and the hump in between Waskish and Baudette. Now the one thing about Center bar is the bubbles. Take a good look at the ice around center bar and you will find areas where the ice is full of bubbles. In the summer if you see a bunch of bubbles coming up you can forget the fishing, same in the winter. If you see a bunch of bubbles in the ice you might as well leave that spot and do it gently. The guys with the big degrees figure that is methane gases venting through the granite or springs that most likely come out through center bar.

[leech~~]

Has anyone tried to use the Reel-weeds out on Red to add some structuer around their houses? LOW's is a little like Red in that it doesn't seem to have a lot of structuer. One year 6 of us rented two houses side by side. One house caught most of the fish for two straight days, when about noon on the second day in that house one of the guys hit something very big and played it for about half an hour. The guy from the resort thought it was a Sturgeon! The guy had his drag set pretty light so as he pulled on it, it would seem to pull drag back. This went on for about a 1/2 hour until we put a camra down and it ended up being about a 5 foot tree branch with a lot of little branches coming off of it Some how he snagged it right on the end and we actully were able to pull it out of the hole! Well after that, no fish in that house anymore! When we throw the branch out on the ice we noticed all kinds of little crayfish coming out of it. So we think it was holding bait and a little cover the fish liked. So I wonder if the Reel-weeds would work if left down there for a while on Red?

[shaky legs2]

Somebody had a posting a couple of years ago (maybe Hanson or Borsch?) when they first became popular. I bought a set of 5 and thought they would be good in a body of water like Red. We set them up in a semi-circle around one side of the hard house with a funnel leading toward the holes that we were fishing inside the house. Anticipation was running high!! We caught some crappies and a few rough fish (WE) but I suspect we would have caught them anyway as we were in a "fishy" area. We left them out all night (35 below) and you can guess what happened. When we were chiseling them out the next morning I cut the cord on one of the reel weeds and down it went. It is now permanent structure on Red (I hope the EPA police aren't reading this). They now have a permanent place of honor right next to my popile pocket fisherman, Vibra minnow and other "can't fail" items I have purchased over the years. We didn't give them a good try so it is hard to say if they work but if I end up using them again it will be when the temps are above freezing.

[Borch]

They can be effective in holding fish in the area a bit longer. But I'm a runner and gunner so I usually don't use them much. The big gators raise heck with them when you hook one.

[hanson]

I tried them a couple times around my permanent. Had 10-12 of them out when they first hit the market, I mean first hit the market. I seriously didn't notice any difference in catch results and ended up chiseling them all out of 4" of ice when I left them out over night. Never put them out again. Loaned them to a friend of mine and have never got them back either. Can't say that I really miss them.

[Fisherman24]

Thanks for your help Johnny P.

What kind of fishing should I expect starting next week? A group of buddies and I are going through Chad Benson's place monday thru wednesday. It is going to be my first time up there at Red and I am excited with all of the stories I've been hearing. I love to catch walleye but i would love to catch (Photo and release) a big crappie!!! What are some tried and true methods for catching both eyes and crappies up at Red?

-Thanks!!

[kevfish1]

I also have not seen a big difference in using artificial structure and have spent alot of time chipping them out of the ice

[Got crappies]

Ok heres what i want to know why are you guys fishing all this structure becase we were up there not to long ago with my uncle and we had no structure at all and we caught 40 some craps and and tons of walleyes its not all ways your satructure its how many holes you drill and im going to have to get them crappie pics up here.

[Traxxx]

Was that this winter?

[Quackaddict9]

I doubt it...maybe it was in 99' but seriously maybe last march or something. We'll find out!

[Got crappies]

No it was this year i dont think u know my uncle to well last march we left with some 80 crappies but then went up the following week and only caught 20. The crappies arent done yet you just got to work for em. But could somebody tell me how to put these pics up.

[Quackaddict9]

I was just havin some fun but yeah was it during first ice or the summer time? Two of us did well last March on a two day trip and only kept enough for a meal and didn't really have to work hard for them but that was a nice thing cause most days I'm moving around trying to find them!

go to photobucket.com create a username, upload your pics then copy and paste the URL image code then paste it here on the text screen and it should show up.

[so8119]

Well went and fishing center bar on Friday afternoon and fished from 10:30 to around 1:00. We caught three limits in about 45 min. and threw back about 7-8 that were to big or to small. We even started catching them on sucker minnows.

We used white glowing frostees and fishing in 11 feet of water on the bar. It was a very good day, caught fish 10 min after being set up and had really good action until about 1:00. We did stay longer but action really slowed after that.

[Traxxx]

Got Crappies,

What road did you guys go out of?

[goingdeep]

Sounds like fishing story!!!!

[so8119]

Sounds like fishing story!!!!

I'll agree with you there, it felt like it. I have never caught fish like that anywhere. We missed many fish and almost non-stop action for 1.5-2 hours, catching some and missing some.

I have fished on URL for 8 years now and lake of woods for the same. Have had great luck in both places but this was the best so far. There was a few houses close to us and talking to them they were also doing really good.

We went out of Rogers resort and we told to try and stay close starting out. We didn't see anyone really fishing close so we just went out to center bar right away.

Going up again on Thurday so we'll see what happens..

Good luck guys..

[woodman]

Not a Story!

[shaky legs2]

I agree with Woodman. If you have not been up there then don't discount what can happen. Thanks for the post So8119.

[Got crappies]

Some of u guys probably dont like drilling and as soon as i get these pics from my cousins because cause the photobucket thing wont let me put them up. We4 went out of aggissiz we were on the fourwheels nonstop and drilling as many holes as possible and waited for them to come in.

[so8119]

Went up and fished center bar again and did not do as well. We caught 6 walleyes total and could keep 4. We fished both 10-12 feet on the bar and did talk to a few guys that also were not doing well.

A couple of guys were out about 1/4 mile from Rogers and did well. Sounds like closer to shore was doing better, but weather changed real quick and wind was blowing very hard yesterday. Good luck guys...

( all white glowing frostees were working the best)