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2020 - Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports (URL)


Rick

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I just had the 8 verses 10 topic over pike. The last three big pike my clients have iced, a 40", 42" and a 43" have all come through a 8" hole with ease. I used to think I needed a 10 for pike but not so, plus as mentioned the 8” is safer with less chance of fish doing the backflip escape. Plus now instead of lugging around a 3hp Tecumseh powered 10” auger I have the light Honda Strikemaster with an 8”. I am amazed how much difference a lighter auger makes at the end of the day.

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Could that extra weight also have something to do with getting a little older Jonny? I'm thinking of going to plastic knives and forks smirk

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I agree on the 8" hole Traveler. Easier to bear paw them. This was really evident during the crappie days if one slipped off the hook at the hole. The only benefit I saw with the 10" hole was when fishing outside in extremely cold weather you still had a margin of error with the hole freezing over. AAAAAH! Those were the days! grin

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I just bought a 10 inch mainly for pike fishing. Yes you can get them up a 8 but a little easier to get their head started with a 10. They also work well in houses when holes shrink from freezeing. Other than that I use a 8 most of the time.

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Thinking of bringing my wife and two small children (first trip) to Red Lake this weekend for some family fun in the wheelhouse! I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as far as what roads access the best fishing (or least amount of houses sounds to be the key). Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

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I fished out there Saturday and drove about 5.5 miles through Roger's road. There was only about a 1-mile stretch that didn't have houses. Other than that - houses EVERYWHERE. Thousands. From the shoreline "drop" (very slow break), all throughout the main, totally flat basin (16 - 17 ft as shown on map), and all over Center Bar.

I typically like staying away from other houses, but the only way to do that from that road would have been to fish the TOTALLY flat basin, which does not appeal to me, or to venture way off the main road, which wasn't of interest at the time. So we found an area "all to ourselves", (no one within 100 yards) on a break and did pretty well. It was probably mostly luck. I heard from two other groups that fished the same depth on similar spots that had pretty poor results.

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Here is my report for URL. We fished Saturday out of a portable, three guys total. Got on the lake about 130 and fished the north end because it was quieter. We found a spot off the beaten path and set up in 9' of water. Since we where on our way to LOW we where selective in what we where going to keep. We ended up keeping 10 between 16" and 19.875", with a few 15's let go. Not to bad for half a day fishing. Bobbers better than jigs.

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Got up to Red on Sunday about two and began fishing. We fished our tails off for two straight days and left on Tuesday morning. We caught 7 walleyes and kept 4 of them between the three of us. Fish were marked pretty much constantly and we threw the tackle box at them and could not get them to eat.

It was probably the worst trip I have ever taken anywhere. The fishing just sucked, talked to about 10 others who said the same.

It was a reality check, the last time I was on Red we caught about 70 fish in 2 days and it was awesome.

That's why they call it fishing.

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Jeff13. Glad you understand it was simply the mood of the fish you happened to be on. The cold fronts that moved thru were largely to blame. There were others out there, not many, that did really well, but of course they happened to be on active fish.

When they won't bite, they just won't bite. It's not the lake's fault.

The earlier posts about getting away from the crowds are extremely pertinent. If ya' gotta walk a few hundred yards away go ahead and do it. Stay quiet, and fish like a stealth bomber. If they have no idea you're there you'll get a lot more fish to cooperate.

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My 5 yr old daughter caught her first URL walleye this past Sunday around 10am shortly after setting our house down in 13' of water roughly 2.5 miles out on JR's road (went to the left at the first fork and crossed two pressure ridges). Ended up with nine keepers for 10 people in two houses between 16 and 19" during daylight hours and sent another 12 or so from 9-14" back down the hole. Took a break for supper and then back to the best stretch of fishing we had for the trip starting around 8pm and slowing just before midnight. Big fish of the night was a 25" football that bit on a red #4 hook w/ a lively chub minnow just a few inches off the bottom. Quit fishing in the early hours of Monday morning after managing 23 keepers for day 1.

Monday morning started off quickly at 7am with a 13" perch followed by a 17" walleye. We chipped away at our limit throughout the day with anything glow white, took a break for a bacon wrapped pheasant breasts New Years Eve dinner and then fished into the night for the second night in a row. Ended the trip with 32 keepers, 15-19.5" and two bonus perch over 12". Had a great trip with the family and would like to thank ZapMan for letting me know that URL was an option late Saturday night for me and my father-in-law to bring our familys to for a New Years trip when the roads were not open at LOW.

Didn't have a flasher, gps or a lake map so I can't give much more information on where we fished because I really don't know. Question for those were traveled west on JR's road Tuesday morning: Did anyone notice the crack that was open roughly 6" somewhere between the lake access and the first large pressure ridge? Had the father-in-law not drove over it first, I probably would have looked for an alternate path.

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The earlier posts about getting away from the crowds are extremely pertinent. If ya' gotta walk a few hundred yards away go ahead and do it. Stay quiet, and fish like a stealth bomber. If they have no idea you're there you'll get a lot more fish to cooperate.

Found this out BIG TIME last winter. 16 guys, four sleeper houses, pretty pathetic display of fish caught given number of lines down. Grabbed my portable, hoofed it a quarter mile, drilled two holes and proceeded to slam the perch and eyes. I was by myself and well away from any roads or houses. I'd heard about the "stealth tactic" before, but never realized just how valid it was until I witnessed it for myself. If the eyes ain't biting in the fish villas, get away for a bit and see what you can find.

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That's the nice thing about fishing with Kelly and Jonny. There closest house to you will be 1/4 mile away. No city, no road traffic, just peace and quiet, it makes a major difference in the catching ratio for sure. Nothing against any of the other outfitters, I just do not like a cluster of houses and a ton of activity

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Thats nice to hear. 6 of us heading up on Sunday with Kelly and Jonny. Can't wait to see empty ice around us... grin

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Vex post a report when you get back if you would please. I'm headed on the 16 th. you won't be able to hear the people in the next house snoring that's for sure. You will really like the solitude, sunrise in the morning is totally awesome, good luck

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Hey Bill, I'm going to be up there on the 18th through the weekend. Will you still be up there? I'm heading up to LOTW on the 24th with Bauer and the two other guys we fish with for four days out of the bend. Hope to see you out there, if we are anywhere near each other we should have a beer!

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No we're only doing a one nighter on the 16 th and then head back on the 17 th. are you going through Snobes ice fishing on LOW? I think brad and Chris were back and forth when we were there last week setting up something with Darren. Trying to get some people together for another return rip with him. He runs through riverbend but has his own operation. You'll like him. Good luck, shoot a report when you get back from there.

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You should have a similar view as we did.....

IMG_0286.jpg

After seeing Jonny P's set up this past week we will be ditching the main "outfitter" that runs out of Roger's this past week after not quite a pleasant stay and will be staying up there with Jonny after venturing up to his neck of the lake this past week.

This picture truly shows how he runs his houses.

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Anybody having much luck? I am moving all over the north side out near the pressure ridge and I can't find anything active besides small perch. Is the bite slow?

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Wondering what the bite has been like the past few days. My dad and are heading

Up early tomorrow. Probably out of beacon harbor or hillmans. Better day bite or

Night bite? Look shallower or deeper? Fairly quiet on here lately just looking

For any basic info! thanks

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It has slowed since noon for me. Fishing in the muddle of no where I have 36 and 2 low 30's pike. Waiting kind of patiently for the fish to come back.

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Was up tue-Thurs. Had some luck in 13' with red rattle n flyer and plain red hook. Maybe 30+ fish, just me, 2 days fishing. Ate good, ok fishing... Coulda been worse!

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We went out of Beacon Harbor and fished in 5 feet of water. There was a ground blizzard on Thursday and We couldn't see any other houses. When the wind went down the next morning we had a 4 foot drift on the west side of the house and Jonny P. came and plowed it off. The nearest house was 1/2 mile away. Brenda caught the first walleye in our house. She is our good luck charm! grin Jonny had customers to check on and Brenda stayed with us to fish. Thursday was slow for us but we managed to catch enough for a meal and then some. It was probably weather related. Friday was a different day. We had a decent morning bite but it didn't start until 7:45 a.m. During the day we caught a few walleyes and some keeper perch but at 3:00 p.m., all @@## broke loose! At one time we had lines going down in all 4 holes, all with with walleyes on them. The bite lasted until about 6:00 p.m. Kelly stopped in and checked

on us. We ate another meal of fish and then targeted perch as we had our daily limit. I was impressed with the size of the fish. Most were between 15 and 19" We did not catch one over 20" and let one that was 19 3/4" go as it was too close to the slot. While I have had many flurries like that for crappies back in the day, I have never seen anything like that for walleyes. The hot lures were gold and purple smelt flyers during the day and a glow red flyer at night. On the dead sticks we had glow red Frostees and a plain red hook with a bead. The fish were aggressive and attacked the flyers but we also caught a lot of fish on the deadsticks. We quit targeting WE and concentrated on perch and practiced C&R for the rest of the time on WE. We don't put rattle wheels down at night because both of us put in ear plugs and can't hear the darn things when they go off and then we have a mess when we wake up. We did fish Thursday night until 10:00 p.m. but only caught one fish. Friday night and Saturday morning we did not fish as we had all the fish we could legally have. Plus we had to leave some for BTurck, Xplorer and Panfish Guy. Thank you Waskish Minnow Station for a great trip>

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Nice report shaky, and I appreciate you thinking of your fellow fisher people, especially me, and leaving some for seed. Boy weather sounding kind of nasty for the week we are set for. Not sure yet what's going to happen, my wife has rehematoid and that deep cold is not good to her. They are saying coldest in 25 years, hmmmmm weather people are. Never wrong are they????.??.. smirk

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In shallow water like we were fishing you have to be real conscious of noise and light. We did not run the generator during prime time and only ran it to charge the batteries when we went to sleep. The only lights that were on were hole lights. Don't slam the door when you go outside and keep the radio volume down really low. Looking forward to seeing you Bill.

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