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

[Hawg]

That's way better HL! We should be at JR's about noon or so. Very anxious, wanted to last night.

[harvey lee]

Not sure if it was luck or not but on one rattle reel for a hook, I went to the color pink. That outfished the other colors last night about 8-1. My neighbors on the ice suggested the color change as it was really doing well for him. I used 3 different pink ones and they were all a vertical profiled jig.

[BLACKJACK]

How thick is the ice?? Are people driving all over??

[ozzie]

on the south end they are driving all over as of last Saturday...not sure about the east side of the lake

[Iceman1026]

Any perch last time we was up got some nice ones

[harvey lee]

I am on the south side, out maybe 1 mile and I just checked, 18 inches in the spot I am at. Spot where I was at the last 2 days right at 18.5. Far as perch for me, big zero just a few pike and lots of nice fat walleye's. I can see houses out much farther than I am. Lots of fisherman.

[Getanet]

Do you guy generally use fatheads or shiners up there? Heading up for my first time and I'm hoping fatheads will do, based on price and how much longer they tend to live than shiners. But I'm spending enough money on the trip that I won't skimp on bait if shiners are the ticket.

[ozzie]

fatheads and/or rainbows are what we used last saturday

[harvey lee]

I have always used flatheads and or rainbows, never noticed a big difference in the nbers of fish iced on one or the other. I would use shiners but they cost a lot more and flatheads do get the job done, least for me.

[harvey lee]

Well, with the sleet or whatever is moving in Sunday, looks like a good day to pull the pin tomorrow . Had the best trip up for the ice season maybe ever, caught a pile of walleye's wit 6-8 over 20 and 2 pike, one at 36 inches, this evening the eyes were going for me like panfish. Put my 3rd slot in the pail so that's it. Haag and Bass, did u get up today? Hopefully u have half the luck or better than I did, it was awesome. When I switched to a pink hook in uv color, the fish could not swim by it without taking a swipe at it. Went through 4 big scoops of flatheads in the last 3 days and they were very big scoops. I love the smaller slot and low limit number with the end result being fishing like this, no hog eyes but I sure had a blast.

[Boar]

Harv, your killing me, I just had to turn around cause I blew my #3 coil pack on my rig, I was making a weekend of it, still migh make sta afternoon an sunday. Good for you!!

[Boar]

Stable weather pattern for 3 days plus always dose it.

[Hawg]

Truck went threw at JR's. Crack opened. They are getting him out and bridging now but expect a delay. Crack is at Morts too, road closed till bridged.

[Web.the.CableGuy]

I have been set-up in 13 fow for 24 hours now at the end of JR's road about 100' from the boundary line. I have managed to bring up 23 walleyes with only 3 OVER 17", so no problem getting keepers out here. Only one of those fish came while the sun was up. Once the sun was down it was pretty constant action, if a fish came by on the radar screen it almost always took a swing at whatever I had down there. Had the rattle reels down all night and had one of them going off about every half hour with a couple of doubles. Only 11" of ice out here.

For what it's worth that's my report! Pretty good first trip of the year so far.

[Hawg]

Road is back open. Lots of people heading way out to center bar.

[BuckSutherland]

Road is back open. Lots of people heading way out to center bar.

Bunch of fools to drive all the way out there when they pass right over a million fish to get there.

[kelly-p]

Quote:

I have been set-up in 13 fow for 24 hours now at the end of JR's road about 100' from the boundary line.

Don't forget that there is a 1/4 wide "buffer zone" along each side of the Boundary Line that people are "recommended" to stay out of so that there are not any trespassing issues.

A few years law enforcement called and asked us to check everyone along the north side of the lake because there had been an unanswered 911 call. The 911 call turned out to be a little kid playing on a phone but in checking people I got out towards the "Line". There were some Red Lake Band members fishing out there and as we talked we noticed that their GPS showed that we were on the Band side of the "Line". My GPS with a chip from a different company showed that we were on the State side of the "Line". So do not trust your GPS that you are 100 feet from the "Line". With 48,000 acres that we can fish there is plenty of room to fish without taking a chance that you are on the wrong side of the "Line".

[harvey lee]

Good to know Kelly, thanks for the tip. I get wandering around some times and I may trust my GPS a little to much.

BuckSutherland, some drive out as the bite can be better or there are better sized fish there. They could also be out there for nicer perch and or crappie. Not looking for a argument but trying to explain why many go to different area of the lake. Like any lake, some areas offer a different size or specie, nothing new there.

I fished in close for 2 days and iced a lot of fish but many smaller eyes, so I moved out quite a ways and caught more fish and the size was also better. Guess that could be why some drive over those millions of fish you speak of, all depends on what people are looking for in a specie or size. 2 others were next to me and we fished together for 2 days, I moved and low and behold, few hours later they were about 100 yards farther out than I was. The move paid of for them also as they had a better catch than I did, guess I could have drove over another 200,00 fish for an even better bite and size.

[harvey lee]

Harv, your killing me, I just had to turn around cause I blew my #3 coil pack on my rig, I was making a weekend of it, still migh make sta afternoon an sunday. Good for you!!

That stinks, on my way up, I stopped for gas and noticed a tire was low on the fish house, so, I ended up buying 2 new tires and had the station put them on. I do not like changing tires on the hwy and they were weather cracked pretty bad, thought I could get a few more trips out of them but nope, time for new ones.

[magnum mike]

Bunch of fools to drive all the way out there when they pass right over a million fish to get there.

[Web.the.CableGuy]

Some knucklehead in an airplane came over my house yesterday and scared the dump out of me;-) Next time maybe get more than 30 feet off the ice:) Thanks for the heads up on the "buffer zone". I figured I was good but there is a couple guys a 1/2 mile west of me that gotta be over. Got 44 fish so far for 2 days, so can't complain.

[magnum mike]

Sorry we spooked you Web. You need to get pretty low to look for a safe spot to land. A 6" ice heave can spell disaster and the brakes don't work too well on ice so it takes a long flat area to set down.

[fishing tech]

We fished 8ft of water between Hillmans and Beacon harbor. 3 guys 4 hours 93 walleyes. I am not sure if it was the weather change or the fact that we were all by ourselves but it was awesome. Thanks to hillmans for the hot tip.

[BuckSutherland]

We fished 8ft of water between Hillmans and Beacon harbor. 3 guys 4 hours 93 walleyes. I am not sure if it was the weather change or the fact that we were all by ourselves but it was awesome. Thanks to hillmans for the hot tip.

Yep, they dont get all the publicity cause they arent on the internet, dont have all the fancy houses, dont have prostaff members on all the websites doing plugs for them, but them guys sure know the lake. I had some friends at Hillmans last week and they quit counting after 200 in about 40 hours. 6 of those were over 25" and 2 northerns over 39" with 2 12" crappies and some perch.

[BigDogRob]

Hmm, sounds like they just got a plug to me...are you a staffer in desguise Buck?

[Boar]

Fished in ten ft of water........i caught a rock.

[bassNspear]

we went out of rogers as we always do and we down right jacked the fish. 50 plus a day for the house and it was just so much fun. we went west out of rogers and to be honest was just east of JRs access. Not even a 1/2-3/4 mile out from shore fishing in 8.5-9 fow. never moved my house over the 2 days we were there. Dead sticking a clam spoon jig and a plain purple or pink hook was the best.

[53orbigger]

A buddy and I went out of Rogers in about 15 feet of water away from the crowds and fished from 1pm on Friday until 8am on Sunday and iced 76 walleyes and 2 perch. We had a lull on Saturday afternoon, but the action was pretty steady otherwise. I fished a rattle reel with a chartreuse hook and a pink slender spoon with a minnow head and they both caught about an equal number of fish. Used both fatheads and shiners and it didn't seem to matter. The bite was so consistent I never changed lures. Most were in the 15-17 inch range with a few smaller and a few bigger with the biggest being 21 inches.

[srj]

Way to go Boar! Anyone can catch walleyes on Red, but rocks are much harder.............

If only I could get those L-O-W rocks to move a little, I would buy lots less tackle.

[bturck]

Only Boar could pull this off. I believe he'll be giving free seminars in Waskish next Saturday. Sign up because seats fill quickly.....