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2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)


Rick

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I will be heading up tomorrow for my 4th time. I hope to bring home enough for a small fish fry. Sounds like Im a month too late. Guess you never know til your on your way home! Gotta be better then workin!

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2 of us fished from 10:30 until 5:00 yesterday, went out of Rogers, we were about 2 miles out. basically all alone, fishing was slow from 10:30 until 3:00. during that time we picked up 8 eyes and 3 perch. from 3:00 until 5:30 the fish moved in and it was one every few minutes. ended catching 30 plus eyes and three perch. nice trip. i thought the fish was pretty good compared to the reports i have been reading.

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Some buddies and I went up to Red this weekend. For me and some of my other buddies it was our first time. Got there at about 4:30 Friday and went out of Beacon Harbor in portables, man was it cold! Got a 15 inch eye in the first 10 minutes and then nothin for the next 1.5 hours. Saturday we got to the lake at 8 am. We fished for 12 hours out of our portables and tried about 7 or 8 spots. We must of put on 40 miles on the lake. A few perch during the day and 1 what I believe to be a Gizard Shad. We didn't pick up a walleye untill about 330 and ended up with 8 eyes from 330 to 730. Six of those eyes were keepers with one cigar and one 22 inch slot. We caught those eyes at that spot that we tried first in the day. It was a couple miles off the end of Beacon's road in about 14 foot. We set up on a contour at least half a mile from other people. Marked lots of fish but they all weren't hungry. Overall it was fun but alot of work to get those eyes! I will definetly be back as I love figurin out how to get them walleyes!

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Fished the north end Sat and Sunday with not much luck. Moved our ice castle three times with hope of finding the hot spot and it never happened. This was our 5th trip and was the worst this year. 4 keeper walleyes, 5 slot fish and one little one. Even the perch action was slow and size seemed smaller than other trips. Outfitters were on the move and looked to be scattering here and there so I am guessing no one has found the hotspot....? One outing left for us the last weekend and I am thinking maybe new scenery...? The lake has been fun and good to us this winter but each trip has gotten slower and slower....

Good Luck and Happy Fishing! smile

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Same thing happens every year. It slows down, but you can't beat it in December and January that's for sure.

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Just fished last Saturday afternoon from about 1:30 to 7:00pm with my wife. we caught 1 nice keeper walleye and 8 walleyes ranging 6 to 13 inches we threw back. Caught about 6 or 7 perch, kept 3 decent ones, nothing huge. Three bite offs from pike, only got one close enough to the hole to see it. We were 6 miles out of WestWind. found some rough ice, drilled bunch of holes, marked lots of fish, so we set up our portable that was a challenge in the 40 mph winds. best luck was with red forage mininow with trouble hook and minnow head. lots of bites on jig stick and dead stick, had an especially hard time hooking the ones on the dead stick. constantly had fish on the vex, lots of lookers that would eventually run away. couple times i caught or felt fish because i would just set the hook after getting sick of watching the red object on the vex covering my jig for 5 min. Over all not much for keepers, however we had a lot of action and had a lot of fish on the vex. Unfortuantely you can't make the fish hungary. Great time on the big pond.

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The wife and I fished Saturday and Sunday in about 15 FOW in a general area that Larry at Hillman's pointed us to. I found some piled ice away from other houses so decided to give it a shot. Caught a 16" and 19" walleye w/in 5 minutes of drilling first hole! 2 to 4 pm was the hot time both days. Caught over 20 walleyes in two afternoons, brought home a limit of 15-17 inch with the others about half under 15" and half over 17". Lost quite a few too, seemed like it was bigger fish that I had problems landing cry Also caught quite a few perch and brought home 4 jumbos for the pan. The water clarity was the best I have seen on URL, the underwater camera worked pretty good. It was fun watching the walleyes come in and smack the buckshot rattle spoon. Demon jig on dead stick produced as well. After reading slow posts for the last week, we were pleasantly surprised!

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Fished URL on Friday and Sunday. Our group averaged 1-2 keeper walleyes per guy per day. Many small walleyes and a few in the slot were released. Fished out on Hillman's road from 5 miles out to the end. We had two crappies, one 15.5 inch and one 14 inch. Everybody landed a few keeper perch as well. Also had three pike including a 46" inch that I caught and released on Saturday. 35 minute battle on the walleye rig with the Lindy Slick jig. full-455-17814-fishing2012_ericwith46inc

full-455-17816-fishing2012_kevinwith15.5

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i will off road travel be this weekend? did your area get a lot of snow?

I am wondering the same thing. I will be up with two buddies of mine for their first time to Red, one who has never spent any time ice fishing (what a shame). I'm hoping to be able to get around like last weekend but it sounds like this snow might limit the off road travel?

If there is no off road travel, is there anyone outfitting out of Rogers that would plow me a spot when I get there?

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Off road travel is limited, you can get around good, but rough ice etc is hidden if you run into it you will get stuck. Bring sleds unless you can find someone to plow

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  • 2 months later...

Was out along the north shore hoping for crappies and couldnt keep the walleyes off. Was able to land one(crappie) to admire and release but quit after an hour or so of moving around and having the same result. Water is extremely low. My kids are gonna love the lake this year. Should be able to walk all the way to the first break.

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You can go a long ways this year. Something I have also noticed is the lack of major sandbars this year. Last year's high water and winds leveled the lake pretty flat and it is going to take some wave action to get things back to the norm.

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So anyone have any reports for the Big Red on opening weekend? grin

Heard it was windy.

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Pretty slow compared to previous openers. Yes was windy and today (sunday) i dont think we will get on the lake because of wind.

Matt

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I only caught few sheephead, one perch, and one little eelpout. It was windy but doable yesterday. I left the lake at about 8 last night and went around the lower lake as my fishing partner was staying in Red Lake to the casino hotel and we drove through massive waves of mayflys.

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Managed to catch our 12 eaters for three guys, but it took most of the day.4 or five fish released in the slot around 18 inches. The larger fish were noticeably absent on Saturday but man the sheepshead were on a tear! Must have caught close to thirty of those buggers, fun to catch and helped pass the time between walleyes.

Fished the east side with the rollers and wind. The fish we found seemed to be spread out over the structure. Spent the day making long drifts rather than trying to hold on one spot and picked up a fish here and a fish there. Jig and minnow pulled along the bottom.

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Out report is exactly the same...3 people, 3 limits of eaters and worked very hard for them. Couldn't find any pattern and they seemed to be scattered. Not may bigger fish either. My daughter did enjoy catching the sheepsheads though. Waves were getting pretty big at the end. I can't imagine what it was like on Sunday.

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A windblown Red Lake is always slow as fish scatter as does the bait fish and the silted water puts them into a nasty funk. Reason the mouth of the river was catching a few was the clear clean water coming out of the river. Those that followed the clean water as it flowed out into the lake did ok but not great. Those that anchored directly in the boat canals I cannot believe made it through the weekend without an altercation. Several heated up anglers that had to drive around anchored boats in a canal and ran their motors into the sand.

Let the winds die down and lake clear up and the walleye bite will fire up again. Most baitfish will stage on the last break where they always do, once the winds stop making their world a blender.

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Managed limits Saturday and Monday. Too windy Sunday and today. Fish were scattered but dragging jigs seemed to be the approach working best. Lots of smaller fish with a couple 25's and lots in between. This wind will keep the bite subdued for a while but hopefully bite will pick up when the water settles. Slow opener in quite a while for us. Hope everyone had a good weekend. See you in a week!

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Yesterdays reports along the eastern shore was good. Dragging jigs with shiners was the trend but not the onl thing they would bite on. Lots of happy anglers.

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Slwo johnny where are the fish? Fished east side yesterday by the river

It was slow picked up some outside the slot but slow very slow this morning

Nice to not have the wind.

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Had our second good day today. Had a walleye frenzy tonite just before the storm went by.

Hopin that the wind doesn't keep us off the lake tomorrow.

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Yep it was true frenzy. Gary at tall tale taver /Hillmens said they were jumping in the boat. All the guys down at the lake also did well. I have not talk to the guys in the cabins but I imagine they also did well as I saw they had the cleaning board out.

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Is anyone getting any crappie? I just cant see going up for 4 small fish when i can do better than that close to home

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Hit and miss.. Ya have to work for them. A group got 20 that were staying at beacon harbor, Kenny got 9 yesterday we got the big goose egg yesterday, 10

wednesday. 1 thursdAY I guess we did not work hard enough for them

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fishing can be good between winds, the few times it happens. "Lake of Wind" has been pretty tough lately with churned up water as the wind just will not stop. Give it a calm day or two and the fishing should be pretty good, as for today and yesterday pretty sad compaired to what Red Lake should be right now.

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

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