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2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)


Rick

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The simple answer is water temp. On Monday the surface temp read 58 and was 68 by Tuesday afternoon. Same on Wednesday, mid sixties by the time I left. The fish are moving deeper. Follow them and you will be more successful. Fish stayed shallow longer last year due to colder temps, the reverse should be in effect this year.

Troll cranks, lindy rig or spinners in the deeper areas/mini structure till you put together a pattern.

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So why were the shallows so empty?

Because you where not shallow enough. Walleyes come in at night to feed on shiners, emeralds, trout perch and young yellow perch in 2-3 feet of water after dark and then return to the 9-12' depths during the day. Once the waters warms up past that 62 degree mark they start with this feeding pattern verses the hanging out in six foot range 24 hours. After the water stays hot say 70 degrees they cruise out deep and mid lake; this may have already happened with the recent weather.

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Thanks for the replies. It's just odd to fish Red with no activity on the breaklines or mid-depth flats when the water is in the 60's. I was expecting a pretty good sheephead bite too, but not to be. We certainly weren't disappointed as the crank bite was very good and my bud hadn't fished using rod-holders before. He found eating cookies to be way easier with the rod in a holder rather than in the hand.

We did fish very shallow--well inside the reed banks in less than 2'. As stated, no bites and no activity on the surface. Kind of expected some shallow fish as my partner said the shiners had been real active shallow near his north shore place.

Bottom line was--------another fun day on Red.

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We got up late Friday evening and only had about an hour to fish, which was long enough for a limit of walleyes smile. Found them on the northeast shore in about 5-7 FOW trolling with spinner rigs and fatheads.

The rest of the weekend was pretty slow. We saw a lot of small 'eyes coming in the boats, and we managed one more keeper (my wife's first "keeper" walleye; she was pumped). All in all a great trip, and the storm Saturday night made sleeping in the tent pretty exciting.

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Jonny P,

So after dark I should concentrate on 1'-3'? I've always wondered why it seemed that the fish shut off after 11pm. Last week I was virtually the only guy on the water after dark.

I'm thinking a planer board and a shallow crank bait run up in 6"-2' of water.

Looks like I might have a new tactic for next monday and tuesday!

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We got up to Red on Friday morning and started fishing about 10:30. By 4:30 we needed to pick up another three scoops of fatheads for each boat with two people. We tried another area for the last 4 hours and went through the minnows again. Saturday was more of the same except we took a couple hours off for lunch, using six scoops of minnows and quitting early because we just plain had enough. Sunday morning after the storm we only fished for a couple of hours and had about 10 for the boat. After the previous two days that was not enough to hold my interest and we came home early satisfied with another great trip.

We used both jig and minnows dragging and bobbers. The key seemed to be shallow and get away from other boats. We found our own fish away from the large groups of people and then would anchor over the top of them. When the fish would move so would we. Good luck and have fun.

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Jonny P,

I'm thinking a planer board and a shallow crank bait run up in 6"-2' of water.

Looks like I might have a new tactic for next monday and tuesday!

I have no idea what you are talking about. wink

imgreedboard.jpg

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well did a three day trip and 5-29 to 5-31 and only fished for 4 hours on Sat 2 boats landed 40 fish keepers were 12 in 6ft water jigging and bobbers on sun and mon the wind was unforgiving and had to drink beer and eat like pigs but know complaining here was a fun weekend on RedLake.

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Was up on red from 6/4/10 - 6/7/10. The weather wasn't very stable which slowed the fishing down. Keep moving moving and moving if you aren't catching them. Picked up fish from 10ft to 2 ft of water. My dad was fishing with a spinner and worm and he out fished us while trolling or drifting but in the evenings a slip bobber with a minnow in very shallow water was the ticket for us. Pulled in some really nice fish in the evenings. Couldn't keep any of them but it was a ton of fun to catch them.

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Rosco_B,

I too fished URL last weekend. We stayed at West Wind. We caught hundreds of 12 inch walleyes, but had a tough time finding larger fish. We only caught about 15 eyes in the 17-20 inch range. We too tried fishing deeper water but only caught sheepies. 7 fow was the only depth we consistently caught eyes. I am curious as to when you caught fish in 2 ft of water. Was that after dark? Did you target those shallow areas near bullrushes? What was the key to finding those larger slot fish?

Feel free to PM me is you want.

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Rosco_B,

I too fished URL last weekend. We stayed at West Wind. We caught hundreds of 12 inch walleyes, but had a tough time finding larger fish. We only caught about 15 eyes in the 17-20 inch range. We too tried fishing deeper water but only caught sheepies. 7 fow was the only depth we consistently caught eyes. I am curious as to when you caught fish in 2 ft of water. Was that after dark? Did you target those shallow areas near bullrushes? What was the key to finding those larger slot fish?

Feel free to PM me is you want.

For some reason I am not able to PM you. I don't get the option when I click on your name.

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well the time has come and i will be heading to upper red lake today after work.. just thought i would post to see how the bite has been and if anybody would be kind enough to let me in on a few good spots that have been hot this spring. I picked up of Jonny's favorite lindy shadlings and some other random stuff. leeches, minnows, crawlers... any idea on whats the bite on right now? I was reading a few other posts, i have been hearing shallows and deep..is it just all over the place lol? Well enough with the questions just getting amped right now. Happy Fishing.

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The bite has slowed down from what it was a couple of weeks ago but most fishermen are catching plenty of keeper size walleyes to make it worth there while. Most of our regular fishermen are trolling a spinner and minnow in 6 to 9 feet of water, a gold color blade being the most popular, the rest of them seem to be content to just drift around bouncing a jig and minnow just off the bottom. We did have a couple of fishermen from Kansas the past few days who did very good just anchoring in the mouth of Shotley Brook in 5 or 6 feet of water, they even managed to land a 42 inch pike, a pretty big feat considering their boat was only 4 feet by 10 feet, I only wish I would have been there to see it all.

I hope this helps,

Jerry@ROGERS’

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thanks a lot that does actually help out a lot, good thing i bought a few gold spinners yesterday.

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When did keeper eyes become 10-12 inches because thats what your going to catch.

Mark

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When did keeper eyes become 10-12 inches because thats what your going to catch.

Mark

Lots of quality eyes to be had. Last couple of guide trips have actually showed several 14-17" fish and a couple 22"+ fish to boot.

If you stick to the same stuff that worked for opener or any early season pattern with these water temps you are going to see smaller fish. Big fish need cooler temps and oxygen from the deeper water...or flows coming into the lake. wink

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Jonny

Your the pro up there and should have no problems catching the bigger fish. We where up last week and fish deep,shallow, west and south and had a hard time catching anything worthwhile. The biggest eye we caught was 18 and that was pullin cranks looking for northerns, you can only catch so many 10-12 eyes. We did get on a good drum bite from time to time. First time stayin at Westwind and the accomnations where excellent.

I think of you every time I use the ice house I bought a couple of years ago ,I couldn't of got a better deal anywhere. Good luck everybody the fish are somewhere in the lake hopefully you have a better time finding them then we did.

Mark

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Fished today for from 11-4. Fished the east side between the river and Westwind in 7 feet. We cuaght 12 eyes. Most of them were around 10 inches. One was 18 and the other 19.5. Hooked one that didn't move at first. Once I did I gave the rod to my son...he's 7 and did a nice job for the most part. The fish made 3 runs so I am guessing it was a pike. Cole got it within six feet of the boat and then got the line wrapped around his rod tip. The fish ran again the line broke. Sure wish we could have seen it.

Ate at Westwind afterward. Asked them how the bite was and they said a lot of small fish out in front but that things were better on the north shore.

Good Luck Fishing!

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last saturday Ryan and I did real well. We kept 5 fish and caught some awesome fish over the slot. After trying a new spot sunday we went back where we were saturday and has fabulas fishing with ryan landing a 27 1/2 walleye. We had went back to what has always worked on red and Ryan had the hot spinner a smaller gold one with rainbow beads.He totaly outfished me but I was driving the boat. I knew right where to go tuesday and Had a fish on 15 seconds after my bait hit the water. By myself I again had great fishing but the bigger fish we caught saturday and sunday did not bite. I caught 3 fish in a row as fast as I could get my line out. We were trolling 4.3 feeet of water according to my lorance. Watre temps were around 63. On tuesday it was up to 69. I did catch some nice fish in the 15 inch range but I wanted some between 17 and 20 so I got skunked. I also ran a planner board with a salamo hornet and caught a few that way.

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With the wind, will that churn up the water pretty good this weekend and negatively affect the bite for your avereage joe fisherman like myself?

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Yes it will slow the bite down, no doubt. Look to crankbaits such as the Lindy Shadling with it's big ol rattles and large live bait like Creek Chubs to put out some slow moving sound for the eyes to zero in on.

Also after the post wind slow down the fish will turn back and and do it with a vengance for a day or two after. It's a love hate deal, big time.

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It was still pretty windy Saturday!!! I did just that, trolled with a Lindy Shadling and that's the only thing that worked besides a couple off of a spinner crawler combo. I tried live bait rigging and jigging at first with no luck. I ended up cathing 13 eyes, it was a fun day, the wind died down in the afternoon and it was really enjoyable after that. I fished mainly on the north side of the lake.

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I was out of town but the guys in the cabins said they did alright saturday and sunday after the wind. They did not pound them but did manage a couple nic 18 ers

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We were up the north shore a good 5 miles from the river both saturday and sunday. Live bait only produced the sheep head and a few small eyes so we switched to trolling. kept running up the shore line until we found some productive ground. Then kept working that area and it kept producing fish. we tried deeper water > 6' with not as much luck then worked the 4-6' range with husky jerk-baits and floating rapalas. Saturday when it was cloudy, blue glass and green glass worked best, sunday when it was sunny it was the silvers and yellow/red that worked best. Probably caught 45-50 fish each day (8 hrs) biggest on saturday was 18" and biggest on sunday was 21". Mixed in about 6 norts and a 15 1/4" crappie to boot.

Even though we were up camping for 3 1/2 days but was only able to fish for 2 of them, it was still a fun weekend.

Here is a pic of the river going to the lake on Friday Morning with the 35-50 mph winds.

URL.jpg

crappie.jpg

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A buddy and I hit Red today from 10am till a little afternoon when the lightning chased us off the lake. This was my first time on Red and the water seemed really dirty IMO. We boated 30-40 fish, mainly small walleyes, but did keep 8 decent fish.

If anyone catches HUGE gator with a copper colored shiner jig and Berkley 3" perch minnow in it's mouth, that's the one that got away today. I'm sure it was at least 40-50"......maybe even bigger! wink

Johnny P, were you on the lake today? We (2 guys, yellow lab, tan Alumacraft) came up to the spot where we caught our fish and I thought I saw your boat along w/ another boat (guy and black lab). You headed south when we showed up. Would've been nice to meet you, but maybe next time.

I'm looking forward to brining the Mrs. up there.

Brian

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Johnny P, were you on the lake today?

Nope this morning I was a mechanic and then a minnow trapper, tommorow I am a minnow trapper then a guide. smile

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We were out sat a.m., and sunday a.m. and p.m. and didn't catch squat. We were up the north shore, and around and south of the river and honestly didn't even see a boat net a keeper. Not saying they didn't...but you tend to look pretty close when you've got time on your hands:)

Trolled Shadlings, did the jig thing that had been working, only action I managed was a few sub-10 inchers on long lined spinners in very shallow.

I'm surprised to hear good reports...but then again, not many guys want to report when they get shut down:(

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I can imagine from the looks of that pic the water was like chocolate milk most of last weekend. The rains yesterday should help the water clairty today.

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