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2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)


Rick

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Fished for sat 10pm till sun at 8am. Keeped 4 nice 16" and 5 small throw backs. We were 2mi out of west wind. Plain hook and faty. all fish were in 2 different schools that lasted about 10min.

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fished out of morts 12-6 on sunday.....6 walleyes all pretty small....marked quite a few fish...they seem to spook easy

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i thought we did bad we were up from fri till sun morn. 3 of us and got 36 walleyes ate 10 of them at JRs and braught back our 12 that were all about 15 to 16 1/2. Now looking at how everyone else did i guess we didnt do to bad. Not as good as the previous 3 trips this year were we caught over 100 on each of the 3 weekends maybe things will pick up by the end of the month again!

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We spent fri-sun 5-6 miles out Hillman's and saw the slowest action in 4 years. The rookie in the group did the best of course and showed all of us veterans up and then some. It was always singles one every 1-2 hours and most of the time it was a little guy maybe 10"-12". The rookie did best hanging a fathead off the bottom tail hooked with a #6/8 frostie black & silver with green glow. He'd let the minnow sit an inch or two off the bottom and every so often slowly raise and lower, the strike would come after letting sit.

It was the first time I didn't catch a keeper walleye in three days of fishing, all too small, none too big. I did get a single wall mounter crappie though, 15" with a hand spread for shoulders, a true Red lake slab! I wish it was skill but honestly he hit a falling minnow that I was setting as a dead stick to so I could make myself a sandwich. As the line was dropping he smacked it. I kept fishing another half hour before I made my lunch, but I didn't catch another fish for 6 hours. It was three days of slow fishing with 5 minutes of complete excitement & joy. I guess it was worth 8 hours on the road.

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fri thru sun out of hillmans in 3 guys in 10fow. 4 walleyes 12" or less, 7 keepers 14-16" with one 18" we released. 1 24" northern and a couple 10" perch. One guy close to us pulled in a 44" gator friday ;0

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Had two of my friends come up and use portAvilla last week out of Rogers and here is their report.

We got there on Feb 2nd at 11:30am.

The house was out on Center Bar but was moved to a mud flat where we fished. The house was in 14 feet of water with the ice being around 2 feet. We got 16 Walleyes for the day, a 29 inch northern and 1 nice jumbo perch. Biggest walleyes were two 18 inchers and two 15 inchers. We had 5 bites at night on the rattle reels and got 2 of them.

Feb 3rd

We got 18 walleyes for the day and 1 nice perch. Biggest walleyes were one 22.25, one 19.5, one 19.0 and one 16.25. Plus we had a great fish fry. We had 7 bites at night and got 2 of them.

Feb 4th.

Should have stayed in bed as the morning was bad. We didn't mark fish and it took til 10:30am to catch a walleye. We got 12 walleyes for the day. Biggest walleyes were 15.75, 14.0 and 13.5. We got no bites on the rattle reels at night.

Feb 5th, we fished til 11:15 and then headed for home. We got 5 walleyes for our effort. Biggest were 15.0 and 15.5.

So for the trip we caught 51 walleyes 1 northern and 2 perch. We brought 7 walleyes home and ate 3 walleyes and 1 perch. There are lots of 12 inch class walleyes in the lake. We missed a fair number of walleyes jigging. Best jigs, none. It was one or two on each jig type of deal. The white angel eye, tingler and green glow JB weassel each caught more than two. Rattle Reels (drop lines) were pretty active at times but we missed a lot of them. A lot of them took out 8 to 10 feet of line and we still missed them. Best was a red hook during the day and a pink hook at night 18 inches off the bottom.

There you go and thanks to portAvilla for taking care of my buddies.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Thanks for the report. Heading to Portavilla this coming weekend. Now we're pumped up.

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Report 2/5/10-2/8/10 fished with Scott and RLA managed 4 fish the first night, 1 perch 2-17.5 eyes and 1-15.5 eye a few missed inbetween. He moved us a lil deeper saturday and managed 10 fish all eyes ranging from 13.5-16 3/4. 1 14 inch sunday morning. when they wanted to eat they didnt hesitate, almost lost two rods down the hole and a couple times they hit two at a time. small glow demon with green head did the best. Scotts new shacks are perty nice, will be back next year earlier in the season when the bite is better. Had a great time!

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any reprts from cookies I will be coming up on the 19th never used cookies befor so not sure what to expect.have not heard much in the way of reports from there good or bad and how are the houses and the service out of cookies you can drop me a line at [email protected]

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My goal is customer service. I can not controll if the fish will bite.I do my best to have the houses on fresh spots in fishy areas then its up to the fishermen. Depending on the house I will put them up against any on the lake. Not all of them but minnesota has charactor florida has charactor montana is a crabon copy of floriday with different decor. idaho has satalite tv.California is clean and roomy. Utah could use a face lift but is comfortable. New york is our dayhouse

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never used cookies befor so not sure what to expect.have not heard much in the way of reports from there good or bad and how are the houses and the service out of cookies?

Cookies houses, service and guide service gets my approval and my business every year at least once. I'd spend the extra dough and get one of the deluxes, Minnesota, Montana or Florida. Truly an epic walleye whacking experience!

Andy

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Cookie is correct. They can scout out the goods areas and set the houses up.

If the fish decide not to play, oh well, enjoy the time out on the ice.

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The kids left for home today and Danny got another limit this morning using his lure he has been swearing by a small gold and pink doodle bug. I used the same jig during supper and got three more keepers. When the kids are up and in my house I only drill one hole, sometimes two because I have lost to many tools working on stuff and it’s along haul to get another wrench or ratchet.

The bite has been in the morning and evening with a few on the rattle reels during the night between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM. I pretty much have been dead sticking it myself but some of the guys have said jigging has been picking up some fish. The rent and go guys have been doing pretty good and our groups have been getting 10-20 a day with a couple houses not doing as well and it has been changing up every day.

We have been plowing in spots for our rent and go guys if they are going out of the resort. We have a couple of guys who wanted to try it out deeper and we will see how that’s going in the morning. I have been letting guys move around to different houses that we have open in different areas and that seams to be working well.

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My two step brothers and I went through Cookie two years ago...bout this time of year too. Him and his son were great. The night we got up there it was -29 degrees and we were supposed to be in minnesota. He didnt have anyone in florida for that night so he let us stay in there for no extra. We would have froze in Minnesota too so thanks for that cookie. Minnesota still a nice house but kinda cold. They did great with the houses and the service! We did pretty good fishing too! I now go through chad benson the last couple of years and will be up there on the 19th too! Good luck! Cant wait to crack a beer and pull in some eyes!

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Two of us just got back from 2 days with Jerry and Matt(Battle River). Every couple hours we had 2-3 Eyes come through. Had a meal on the ice and brought our limit home, smallest ones kept were 15". Total caught 38-Eyes(12-19"), 3-Pike(14-24"). Most were caught on plain red hook or a Buckshot with a whole Fathead.

Thanks to Jerry and Matt for another great trip to URL!

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Stayed with Don and John's ice fishing adventures (top notch resort I must say) 12-14th. The fishing was much better this weekend compared to 2 weeks ago at a different resort. We caught enough fish to keep us busy. Most were 12-16.5 kept the 13-16"er to eat. I caught one nice 19" slot fish, and my buddy lost a smaller pike at the hole. Dead sticking with smaller spoons with full minnow was best. Caught a few jigging but not many. I can't say enough good things about Don and John they know how to treat customers. They check on you often, and are very nice. I would reccomend them to anyone, and I will be back there myself in the future.

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I was up this weekend out of Hillmans with the Waskish Minnow Station. I would like to thank Kelly, Jonny & Patsy for their hospitality and hard work. Fishing ended up being better than I expected based on some reports that I have been hearing. We got setup at 3:00 on Friday and left the lake at 8:00 A.M. on Sunday morning. We brought home 10 eyes (13.5" - 16.5"), 1 crappie (13.5") and 1 nice perch. We also released 5 eyes over 17" and about a dozen that were 12" or less. We missed way to many fish! Saturday afternoon the tipups were going pretty good, but we were not connecting very often. I have been fishing with Kelly for 10 years now and I would recommend them to anyone. I can not wait to return....hopefully again this year. Thanks guys!

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Hey guys thanks for the recent reports. I and 11 other people are headed up there this weekend out of 3 of chad bensons houses. We were up last year and did very well between the three houses and had a blast and chad did great! Anyone got any reports from this last weekend out of any of his houses? I would think with the weather straightning out a little this week we would do pretty good! any tips would be great! Thanks!

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Shawn,

I and 3 others are headed up also this weekend out Chad's. We've used Chads for the last 3 years, as you know no complaints.

I also hope the steady weather picks things up. You never know.

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Went out of Beacon Harbor on Sunday, very nice people up there, the owner came out with the plow at about 5pm, warned us to get off the lake right away if we were going to make it, he couldn't see to plow anymore with the wind whipping after dark. Got a little late of a start and headed out about an hr later. 4 miles of the hardest driving I've ever had to do, have no idea how we actually did it, it was full power grip it and rip it. Next time we'll listen to the plow man better!!

We caught 2 nice keeper eyes and missed a few more, only one flag on tipups and didn't get it, but there were some guys very close to shore who were hitting the pike real good. No crappies for us, but some guys had been getting some there recently. Never have had great luck when the wind was howling up there, and howling was an understatement Sunday!!

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The fishing was good on Thursday and Friday but started to slow down on Saturday. Sunday was as dead; the wind started to blow pretty hard and it is finally starting to run out of steam. I did manage to get a Crappie the last three days and a few Walleyes the fishing should start to pick back up, the area we have been in has done pretty good prior to it blowing hard. We had some guys up that hit it pretty hard on the north shore looking for the mother load of Crappies but with no luck. They drilled a lot of holes but Sunday it was really blowing.

I m still sticking to the pink and gold doodle bug with a small crappie minnow and its done me well. The fish are still biting light with only three fish this year taking it to the gut all the rest have been lipped hooked. My favorite little trick with them this year is using a split shot for a marker on the rattle reel. I have been setting it on the ledge of the hole with a foot and half of slack in the line so when they grab it the sinker falls and they get that foot and a half of no resistance and as soon as I here the bells I set the hook.

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Fishing was good this past weekend. Seemed like the hot ticket was rainbows and a frosty in either gold or green glow hitting it off the bottom and then bring it up 6" and letting it sit. Yesterdays bit was decent and working to get them to bite. Today I hooked into two perch over 10.5" and caught 4 more that were keepers. The walleye bite slowed down with only 5 caught and all of them being under 12". Had a portable move just off of the houses and they have 4 right now between 16 and 14" and they are still fishing. Good luck guys and lets hope the wind settles down.

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Just came back from a three day weekend on red lake stayed with duffys for are first time. I dont know what them crappies want but there are some big schools still in there had one up to the hole and the outside of my treble hook got caught on the side of the hole though but still nice seeing em escpecially on the fish camera. We got our limit but you had to work for the fish crappie minnows would be the only thing they'd wanna bite on. Preferably the small to medium size ones with a plain hook or any type of buckshot. caught a 25 inch walleye biggest one ive seen come out of tht lake! But for being our first time with Duff hell put you on the fish and if ya aint on em hell let ya move to other shacks thanks Duffy.

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We stayed up until midnight on Friday night and had action up until then. We marked fish regularly with maybe every 10th fish biting. We had 2 rattle reels go at 3:30 a.m.(1 miss and 1 18.5" eye), and then nothing until 6:45. Saturday night was a little slower. We had rattle reels go off at 1:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. on the second night. Sunday morning we packed up and headed towards home.

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Four of us went out of Rogers Friday midmorning and stayed until Saturday evening. We caught around 50 walleyes, couple smaller northerns, and 1 huge crappie. Most of the walleyes were on the small side...less than 12". We ended up with 13 between 14" and 16.5". We had one at 17 1/2" and another at 18". Caught a lot of eyes on tipups with fathead minnows and #6 red hooks with small split shot. The bigger fish actually came during mid-day on saturday on tipups. Also had good luck jigging at times with a 1/16 oz red glow buck shot spoon and minnow head. We were fishing in 16 fow (vex read 14 or so). Fish seemed to bite sporadically...prime times were decent of course. We didn't do much after dark or during the night. First time on the lake....had a good time!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Well three of us were up last weekend chasing walleyes and the elusive URL slabs. We stayed at Portavilla Rentals out of Rogers access on the south shore. We had our best walleye bite right in the big 6 msn fishhouse. By far the best bite was from 4-8 pm. We caught fish both jigging and on deadsticks/rattle reels. After that we had far more lookers than biters. Most of the walleyes we caught were 10-14 inches but we found enough eaters to keep us happy and our biggest walleye was a fat 20 incher.

We made a couple trips to the northshore and met up with Kelly for a quick chat and last minute advice and touched base with Scott-z before we torn into the ice along the crappie highway. Saturday we covered a lot of ice and had more lookers than we could ever count. We just couldn't get anyhting to go. Sunday the weather turn nasty with very gusty winds which limited our mobility. We again found lots of lookers with a few walleyes hitting the baits. Two days of searching and not a crappie put on the ice. Although we headed back to the sleeper each afternoon to get in on the walleye bite and eat dinner. So we weren't there for prime time to see if those lookers would eventually turn on.

A big thanks to Chris at Portavilla Rentals! All of us, especially my wife Wanda, were very impressed with the setup. A big clean, well lit, warm house with a quiet Honda generator, rattle reels and the most comfortable beds I've ever seen in a sleeper house. It was nice being able to plug my C-PAP machine into 110 and not worry about running out of juice. Wanda definitely liked the sound system and all the cupboard space. We all appreciated the heated bathroom with flush toilets.

Our home for the weekend.

DSC00629.jpg

Definitely not roughing it here.

We'llbe back for sure. Hopefully the temps warm up a bit in the coming weeks and the snow pack settles a bit. We'll be up again targeting the slabs exclusively in March.

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Our group of four fished out of Hillman's on Friday and Saturday. We headed to the northwest on their roads and found an old road that was not being maintained any longer. We were able to get away from everyone else by at least a quarter mile ... I like my space! Had lines down by about 3 pm on Friday afternoon. The bite was spotty, but the first fish on the ice ended up being one of the famed URL crappies. They're still there!! We ended up catching six total with all between 13-14".

Walleyes were around, but had more lookers than takers. I didn't have many fish come rocketing off the bottom to the inhale a falling jig, and they seemed to react poorly to jigging. A dead stick definitely out-produced active jigging. I had a double on two lines when I walked away for a few minutes to start setting up the house towards dark on Friday.

We had one permanent house and the rattle reels didn't go off at all until 6:50 am on Saturday morning (nice 19" walleye landed while lying in my sleeping bag). The second night, there was a flurry of rattles at midnight (10, 15, and 18" walleyes).

All in all, an AVERAGE trip for catching. BUT, the weather was awesome with calm winds and decent temps. I hole-hopped all day on Saturday and have a tanned face for the first time since September. The infamous Kelly P. stopped by and I was glad to finally meet him. His reports for the rest of the lake weren't very good, so I guess we picked as good a spot as anywhere. We contemplated shallow, but in the end decided to head to an area that has always produced a few crappies in the past.

I miss the heydays of the crappie boom, but something about that lake still gets me driving north at some point during the winter. Looking forward to next time...

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  • The title was changed to 2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)

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