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Upper Red Lake


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Does anyone have the ambition and and spontinuity to leave Saturday/Sunday morning around 2 am and drive to Upper Red fish all day and evening till about 6 and drive back and split gas and bait costs next weekend? Jus thought with all the huge walleye up there someone would wana go lol

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Huge walleyes on Red??? Good numbers of nice walleyes is what I've heard. Still can be incredible fishing there, but I don't think you're gonna catch any huge walleyes. Pike maybe!!

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well ive heard both I guess. Not only high volumes of walleye but some ranging upwards of 28 and 29. either way what a fun trip it would be!!

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Someones pulling your leg. 26" (I think they were stretching the truth) is biggest I've heard. 21-22" average "big" with a few over, but not many. High volumes common.

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Someones pulling your leg. 26" (I think they were stretching the truth) is biggest I've heard. 21-22" average "big" with a few over, but not many. High volumes common.

Those don't sound like bad fish to me. I would go if I could but a one day run would be really tough. That's a lot of driving.

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Those are very nice fish. Just wanted Honda to know that HUGE (28,29") walleyes aren't a reality on Red, yet. I'm going up for some good times and picture taking next w/e. Can't wait.

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we hit a 25" two years ago. but that was the largest in 4 days of fishing. they could be starting to push into the 27"+ range

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Hit URL two weeks ago. Caught around 30 eyes, but the biggest was only 18". I do hear that they have bigger ones in there.

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Probably have a better shot of pulling a big one out of Mille Lacs, heck of a lot closer too!

I used to do the fly by night trip to Red back in the Crappie boom all the time. I wouldn't even consider now however.

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I was up there just this weekend. The walleye we caught were 15 - 18 inches, with only ONE (the 15 inch) being a keeper because of the slot limit. What a bummer for such a long drive.

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Red's not the lake to go to if you're interested in meat (limits of keepers), IMO. Hard to beat potential fun time catching lots of nice walleyes though. Direct result of the restrictions.

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I agree with Hanson, I does not pay to go to url for the 5 hour trip. For me I usually go and fine tune my gear for a day before heading up to LOW. My biggest eye has been a 28-1/2 inch and few bonus crappies mixed in.

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We've caught a few 27-28.It's a great lake to go and fish.If I did not have weekend plans I would go.You always have a chance at crappies enough walleyes to keep you busy and a chance to catch a 40 inch pike.It's a blast and worth a day trip.You could even fish winnie on the way back and get some Jumbos.

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I'm not dissing the lake by any means as I still have a permanent sleeper house up there and love to fish it. I moved the sleeper there as I got worn out by the up and back in a day trips.

Walleye fishing is generally good but you aren't going to catch a 28-30". Crappie fishing is still OK (although the reports this year haven't indicated much happening at all) but most folks have no clue how hard you have to fish to catch them. Everyone thinks they are a run & gun fisherman but you have no idea what that means until you do what you have to do to catch crappies on URL now. Pike are definitely there as well.

These are from 1 trip last February, still a pretty dang good weekend of fishing if you ask me. grin

slabfestiiihansoneyeqg4.jpg

slabfestiiipikehx2.jpg

slabfest2008017sp9.jpg

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yeah i heard the "jumbo" perch boom isnt what it used to be either and its not a good year for it?

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honda, maybe you are thinking of Red as in Red River for the big walleyes?

Could be... thats about a 7-8 hour one way drive to Winnipeg, MB.

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i dont know what is considered to be a big walleye, but in my book a 28 incher would be wonderful.

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I would say thats the place to go if you're trying for some monster crappies. If you can find a school of them its like heaven. I usually go out of Hillmans each winter and they do a pretty good job of putting us on fish. My pic is from 2 years ago. We limited out on Walleye and came back 1 short of our limit for crappies. Cant think of a better time I had fishing....

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i used to love to go up to URL and hammer the big crappies but now its kinda played out for me...pretty much every crappie is between 13 1/2 and 15 inches...with the occasional true beast.

the walleye are like sheephead after awhile its hard to believe but if your going for big crappies you'll get sick of all the walleye you catch lol.

the pike up there are world class...just giant....i've yet to land one of the big beasts personally but have seen a few hogs.

the walleye fishing up there in 5 years or so should be amazing for average size...the average size just keeps getting bigger every year....pretty soon your average eye is gonna go 24-25 inches with some 30 inchers to be caught.

URL is my favorite place to ice fish hands down.

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the walleye are like sheephead after awhile its hard to believe but if your going for big crappies you'll get sick of all the walleye you catch lol.

So true!

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This is the 3rd winter in a row I had plans for URL fall through. I'm getting more of an itch to go to LOW now though, and I wouldn't be able to afford enough time to fish both on the same trip. frown

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While admittedly never doing worth a squat on LOW, Red is by far my favorite lake in MN. A SLOW day is 5-6 walleyes per person! Come on now, where else are you going to do that? And unlike LOW, these are not 10" dink walleyes either. If I wanted to catch those, I would stay home and fish perch. Dude, go to Red, check it out for yourself. There is nothing like it.

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Hey JB if you can let me know 2 weeks ahead we can def go for a LOW or Red trip if ya want. split some costs and it will come out good. Im ITCHING to go ASAP!!!!!

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While admittedly never doing worth a squat on LOW, Red is by far my favorite lake in MN. A SLOW day is 5-6 walleyes per person! Come on now, where else are you going to do that?

We went up to Red this year after Christmas and fished for 3 1/2 days. Threw the tackle box at them along with still lines. Moved the house 3 times in a effort to get on the fish. Caught 14 walters and one crappie total for two guys. That is slow for red! Hoping my next trip we have a little better luck.

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Honda, will have to wait until next year. Judging by your posts, any run-ins we may have are probably gonna happen on the croix.

I actually just did some research lastnight about a combo trip, and I think I'll do a 2 nighter at LOW and the final night at URL. 365 days and counting!!! cool

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