fishing reports 2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)

[chaffmj]

Hi Teresa,

I'll leave my number with Pat and if I forget just ask him where he put Mike Chaffin and the other knuckleheads from St. Paul. I'll be glad to share how we have been doing with ya. Good Luck!

[Borch]

Well my wife Wanda and I were up and fishing the 14-16th and really had to work for the few fish we got. Tally for the weekend was 2 crappies, 10 walleyes, 1 perch and 1 big pike caught by Wanda on crappie gear. We caught fish on both minnows and plastics. Lots of missed fish and fish lost at the hole including a couple more crappies. I think I drilled over 200 holes in 5 different areas from 6-9+ miles out on Hillman's roads looking for active fish. Lots of lookers and non biters seen. It's unreal how nice the roads are this winter. The side roads through old slushy areas are rough but easily passible. The main roads are like highways. Here's a few pics of fish we caught. I'll save the best for last.

Wanda or as Jonny calls her, "Mrs Borch", caught the biggest fish this weekend. The pike is her 2nd largest caught on URL but her best through the ice. It took 20-30 minutes and some finessing to get her up the hole. She always seems to get the biggest slab of the trip as well.

[Random guy]

Mrs Borch has skilzzz.

[Iambjm]

See the gals who wear makeup always do great. I guess I better get some Maybelline.

[THE BOZ]

I was up last weekend with my wife and son and caught 40 sum walleyes and 3 crappies... We have been home for 3 days and can't wait to go back up this thursday. We fished out of hillmans and might try rogers this time for a day or two. This is my first time posting and trying to figure out the ropes. Red lake is the place i have been fishing for years and i always seem to have a good time.

[Lisa Almquist]

Borch!! That is one heckuva fishing gal you married! That is one nice northern. Wanda looks tanned and gorgeous as usual! Please tell her Hi and hope to fish with you two again soon.

[GrizzlyAdams]

My girlfriend and I were up late fri. 2/13 thru tue. 2/17. We started on the south shore til sunday and caught about 10 to 15 walleyes with 3 to 4 keepers and the rest over 17". We left the south shore sunday afternoon and headed to hillmans road for the rest of the time and caught a few more walleyes (mostly smaller ones with 4 to 5 keepers), (4) 10"+ perch and a 37"+ northern to end the trip tuesday morning. Those red lake northern are FAT. It took about 20 - 30 min. to get it up the hole. My heart was pounding so hard the whole time. When the northern decided to make a run there was no changing his mind. It was caught on a rattle reel and almost ran all the line out. It also made a mess out of 2 other lines at the opposite end of our wheel house. A couple quick pics and back in it went. We tried every lure we could think of to get the fish to bite as we were marking fish a lot but just couldn't get some of them. We went unconventional with our lure selection and boy did it help. We started using flu flu's which we normally use for panfish down here in the Mankato area and started getting more biters than lookers. By the way the northern was caught on a flu flu. I would also like to thank shorty at Hillmans for the tips he gave us when we were in getting our road pass as we lost a lot of fish prior to the tip and for suggesting an area to park in. I would also like to thank brian from club red for plowing out our driveway on tuesday morning so we could get out without getting stuck. All in all it was another great trip to the mighty Red lake, maybe not the numbers some people would expect but fishing is fishing and sometimes you catch em sometimes you don't. Either way we will be back up time and again as there is no other lake in our minds where you can catch such healthy fish and the chance at those fat trophy northerns is priceless. See you next year!

[Borch]

Borch!! That is one heckuva fishing gal you married! That is one nice northern. Wanda looks tanned and gorgeous as usual! Please tell her Hi and hope to fish with you two again soon.

I'll pass the message on Lisa.

We'll have to get out soon.

[knucklehead]

We fished the 16th and 17th out of hillman's in 16 feet of water. we had alot of lookers and were able to close the deal on a limit for 5 of us. 4 slabs came along for the ride as did 4 perch. if it wasn't red or green then it wasn't happening. Crappie Minnows were the ticket. The bite on Tuesday was a tough as it gets but it is amazing when it gets slow like that just how fast i guy will move when a rattle wheel wakes him up from a nap. Monday bite was at sunset but tuesday was one bite every 3-4 hours. Roads were great. Thanks Kelly and Johnny for another great trip...............knucks

[THE BOZ]

How far out were you fishing from Roger's..and what was the tip that buddy hillman gave you?

[GrizzlyAdams]

Boz

We were fishing out of Greater MN Rentals on the south shore 1/4 to half mile out. Most fish caught there were too big to keep which is a good problem to have. The simple tip shorty told us was to bend the hook out just a little bit on the jig and to hook the minnow from the bottom up. We missed a lot less fish after that simple fix. Hooks are not angled properly when made which makes for a tougher hook set and it really made a difference. Hope this helps and good luck.

[bak2MN]

Went out on wed til today at Rogers and 3 of us kept 10 threw back a 17, 18, 20. Missed 10 or so had a big northern on for about 15 minutes before it broke off at the hole man was it big!!!! Also caught a 14" crappie!!!!!!!!!!!! That was the highlight of the trip. Best colors were orange lead head and plain orange hook, and the white glow creep worm. Good luck to all and be safe.

Oh and the ice travel was good once got off the main road I was able to take my 18" Ice Castle anywhere I wanted went way away from everyone else.

[Bigslugger]

I am heading up in 20 minutes. Will be back Sunday evening. Report to follow.

Maybe even a video

[DancesWithWaves]

Hey baktoMN you were over the limit.

[fivebucks]

They could have kept 10 over the 3 days and ate a few fish, which would be well below the limit.

[bak2MN]

We ate 4 on Thursday and took home 6 on Fri, so we were well within our limit, thanks for your concern.

[Glockwinger]

Went out of Agazzis road on 2/18 - 2/20. Caught our limits of walleyes plus ate fish that we brought to Westwind. Heckuva deal they have, you bring the fish, they cook it. They did a nice job too, tasty! Caught a shower after supper there on the second night.

We had to throw back five that were over 17. Had one line buster. Missed 5 on rattle lines. Saw one huge northern on the camera, but couldn't get it to bite. We were fishing shallow, so no crappies. Didn't get any perch this trip either. We did get one cute "dink" 9" walleye.

Can't wait for next year to do it again!

[whitetail_freak]

have been fishing url for about a week now, looking for mainly crappies and pike, biggest northern of the trip was probably about 35 or 36 inches, was hoping to get one like i caught earlier this year up there 42+ incher, but it was alright, caught 11 crappies the first 2 days combined, and the last 2 days we got 36 combined. fish were really scattered, i have no idea how many holes i drilled but it was alot!!!!!! it was definatlly worth it! i will be back up the first weekend in march and most weekends will hit url on the way back down from lake of the woods. should be fun! good luck fishing!

[The Donk]

Fished Saturday from 8am to 8pm, found the fish to be finicky with only one perch hitting a jigged line. The slow bite was upon us as well as we marked plenty of fish, but jigging only scared them away. Caught 3 walleyes and 1 crappie, kept 1 perch. Kept one walleye, other two too small. My Uncle was out and fishes the lazy way with only rattlereels down all day, doesnt even put his flasher in the water and he caught about 12 walleyes with 6 able to go in the bucket for the same time period. We moved to 4 different spots, caught the crappie when we tried out deep.

[Bigslugger]

Was out 10am-8pm Sat. Fishes the north end reefs caught 2 smaller walleyes and missed a big pike on the tip up. He felt like a log when I went to set it. Then went the the SW reefs and had a few fish on but lost them at the bottom of the hole

7-4 Sunday

Went right out in from of the pressure ridge on the south side. Right in front of the cabin we were staying at. And caught a few

Then headed to the center bar and caught one

[Iambjm]

Hi Teresa,

I'll leave my number with Pat and if I forget just ask him where he put Mike Chaffin and the other knuckleheads from St. Paul. I'll be glad to share how we have been doing with ya. Good Luck!

Never got a chance to meet up with you, we hope your fishing was more productive than ours.

[Slabineye]

i was out on hillmans road from friday night till sunday night friday did well right after the holes were drilled the g/f started catch in some eyes while i was settin up yet ended up eating 5 for supper the first night and threw back a few biggest was 19 inches saterday drilled a bunch of holes lookin for the famous crappie didnt succed but did get 11 more eyes so we kept our 6 and gave up on the slabs for the day sunday wasnt the best drilled alot of holes and only caught 7 pearch 3 bigger waleyes good thing we kept our limit on saterday bobbers seem to work the best the g/f caught more fish then i did with the vexilar

just wanna says thanks to hillmans for the great service of plowed roads house storage and the tips shorty gives out. high class operation those boys run up there

[chaffmj]

Quote:

Originally Posted By: chaffmjHi Teresa,

I'll leave my number with Pat and if I forget just ask him where he put Mike Chaffin and the other knuckleheads from St. Paul. I'll be glad to share how we have been doing with ya. Good Luck!

Quote:

Never got a chance to meet up with you, we hope your fishing was more productive than ours.

I gave Teresa a call on Friday about 6:15 but nobody answered and it said that voicemail wasn't set up yet so I couldn't leave a message.

We did ok on Wednesday in shallow just north of Hillman's road and better on Thursday when Pat moved us North and shallow but when Pat moved us out to deeper water on Friday we got skunked. We had a nice breakfast of fryed walleye Friday morning and took home 5 walleyes and one perch Saturday.

We drank, ate ribs, drank and bbq'd brats, drank and had fish for breakfast, drank some more and grilled up some beef tenderloin and had many a good laughs. I would have to say it was another succesful trip to Red.

[Bisman]

Spent Tues 3/3 (3pm) - Fri 3/7 (8am) in one of the minnow station sleepers. It was my (and my Dads) first time on Red. We had a great time. Kelly and Jon run a first class business. We ended up c&ring 52 walleyes (6in. - 20in.), 4 crappies (13 1/2, 14 1/4, 15, & 15 1/4), 2 perch, 1 northern (10# also had a giant on we couldn;t get up the hole), and one sheephead between 2 of us. We were both pretty ashamed to say we probably lost twice as many fish as we caught, so the action was fantastic. Best fishing was from 6pm until 1am (with the acception of Thurs night - action was fast and furious all night). All of the crappies came after dark on a plain white glow hook and a crappie minnow. Lost one crappie in the hole on a rattlin flyer spoon. We didn't pound the crappies, but we sure had a great time. Thanks a bunch guys!!!!

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Sounds like an awesome couple days of fishing. Thanks for sharing.

[skies_and_eyes]

We where up 3/8-3/9 fishing crappies was slow, we ended up with 2 14 inchers, a bunch of walleyes and broke off a few pike. Driving off road 3/8 was easy with a 2500HD, conditions started getting worse as it got warm, on the way back to the house the warm sun had made the snow soft, but it really wasn't to bad. 3/9 conditions where terrible, soft snow, new snow, 50 foot visability. When we left this afternoon, it was snowing like crazy. Overall we had a great time!

[SCONASOTAN]

where abouts you fishing? FOW? miles out of Hilmans? or somewhere else? Just looking to get a few hours of fishing in while I wait for buddies coming from Wisky to go to LOW.

thanks for the report.

[Aces In The Hole]

My friend and I went up to URL on 3-4 to 3-6. We went out of Hillman's road. The trip started out good. Talked to one of the outfitters when we first got on the road for a bit and he said the fishing was slow. We asked him if we need a spoted plowed for our wheelhouse and he said that we could drive anywhere on the lake. We already had a spot picked out on the GPS and headed to the spot. Once we got close there, we saw a road that looked like it blew over. We decided to take that road to get to our spot. We were about 300 feet from where we wanted to be when we get stuck. So we detatched the wheelhouse and spun it 180 degrees so once we get the truck out we could drive the truck back and attatch the wheelhouse back on. So after about an hour of digging out the truck, we were still stuck. We decide to just call it quits and set up shop right there and dig out the truck more the next day. [Note from admin: edited. Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

So right when we decided to call it quits we see a plow truck coming down the road. It was the same plow truck guy we just talked to about an hour ago. So we figured he would come and pull us out. So he jumped out of the truck and he gets in and starts plowing a spot to get the truck and wheelhouse out.

So after the plow truck driver called the other plow driver to pull him out, he continued to plow us out. We got out about 5 minutes later.

To the person that helped us out, Thanks for getting us out.

Now for the fishing, we were on the edge of a 16ft hole. The fishing was great if the walleyes were in season. We caught 30 eyes, biggest was 20". Caught a 14" crappie. 5 Perch between 9" to 11". 1 pike that was around 24". The fishing was steady all day. It was still a great trip regardless to what happened when we first got there.

[cbrooks]

Well at least you have a good story along with the fishing.

[kelly-p]

I just got off the lake so I don't know what was edited or what and Jon is still out there getting people off the lake. I know I was called out from my recliner, broken ankle and all to go on a rescue mission that day. Some of our customers saw what happened first and called me. I called Buddy and Buddy went out from shore and looked at it and knew he couldn't get in there to pull him out. Buddy called Jon and Jon went out from home and tried to get them plowed out and got stuck so he had to call me to come try pull him out.

Moral of the story is that it's not a good idea to try pull a wheel house down an old abandoned road that has flooded is drifted shut. If you are not sure what is ahead of you dolly off the wheelhouse and check with your pickup first before you bore straight ahead into a disaster.