Opener ice

[MIDNIGHT777]

I know it is a little early to get worried, but the way we are going now it is going to come right down to the wire. Now I love winter as much as the next guy, but I am ready for open water!!!!!!

I'll be up on Red for opener for the second year. I will be happy if we catch 1/2 as many fish as last year. Last opener was easily the best fishing I have ever had. That does not mean that I am a great fisherman, it shows how amazing the lake is!!!!

Just some thoughts about the upcomming opener............

Matt

[PerchJerker]

HA! I keep peeking in here too for ice out reports ..... not worried about it yet though

I've been on Upper Red for the Opener ever since they reopened the lake 3 seasons ago, and I think I'd shed a tear or two if ice kept us off the lake that weekend.

[MIDNIGHT777]

Dave,

I hear ya. I just wanted to see if anyone else was thinking as I am, excited like a kid on X-mas day, but thinking santa might forget where you live . That would be just my luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt

[Traxxx]

What was the hot presentation that worked for you guys last year?

[cbrooks]

What I did last year was drag a bottom bouncer with a gulp alive leech gold color spinner blade in two and half feet of water until we came to a spot that everyone would have a fish on in the boat. Throw the anchor out and slip bobber with fathead minnows. We would fish the north to north east corner of the lake and we would catch between three guys typically about 150 walleyes and maybe 10 crappies. Thats about 8 hours of fishing. The biggest problem we had was 4 scoops of minnows wasn't enough. Alot of people would just go and anchor and they would still catch fish but I think the key is to move around to get into the higher numbers. The fishing was good like that last year until the third week of June. That lake was a blast for the first two months of last year. Can't wait for this year.

[MIDNIGHT777]

Last year we started with a jig and minnow combo. Switched to a jig and Gulp minnow about 30 minutes into the morning because my hands were freezing from going into the minnow bucket every 2 minutes. Gulp worked just as well as minnows and we could catch about 10-15 fish on 1 Gulp before it was shredded. Tried some ringworms and paddletails and they also worked well. I think we could have thrown anything at them and they would bite.

Matt

[Ogema]

Thats the great thing about RL, sometimes you can throw just about anything out there and it works...I've seen corn, bacon, cigarette butts, and even the eyes of a walleye used when we were kids to catch... Hey we were kids, and didn't have access to minnows, but some of us had access to cigs :-)

The ice is still about 3feet thick behind my house and the bite is awesome right now...I too think the ice may be there for a while with the way the temps have been.

[side_laker]

what is travel like. crappies biting well. where ya going out of.

[Quackaddict9]

what is travel like. crappies biting well. where ya going out of.

probably out of his backyard as he mentioned the ice is 3 ft behind his house...

[shaky legs2]

I remember when I was a kid and pop tops had just come out for beer and pop cans back in the early 60's. We were fishing in TRF on either the Red Lake or Thief river and my dad's friend tied on one of those pop tops about 3 inches above a bare hook and suspended the rig about 3 feet below a bobber. When he jiggled the bobber or the wake of a boat coming up the river moved the cork he would get bites. This didn't happen all the time but enough to impress upon my mind how important flash can be in attracting fish. I suppose it must have looked like a minnow darting away.

[Ogema]

We have our own landing down to the lake and it is accessible by ATV, the shore is in good shape, as the sun doesn't really hit it.

There doesn't seem to be too many crappie out back, but the walleye love to hang around there ;-) we live close to a creek that flows into the lake, and it is not very deep, with a sandy bottom a few yards out past the rocks that hug the shoreline.

I never tried that one shaky legs....

[MOBY RICHARD*]

Thats a great idea for a flasher shaky, soooo you held out on us...didn't let the secret out before they stopped making pull tops...

I guess a guy could try the tab tops...it wouldn't work the same though...

Guess I will be on the lookout for some old pull tops, with just the right curve...

[shaky legs2]

I don't think the new pull tabs would work. The old ones had that little tail hanging down from the ring that gave it a nice profile. I should add that my dad's friend was old school and still used black dacron line and a bait casting reel but still caught fish. I finally got him to let me tie a mono leader to the line for him but he thought that was too "new-fangled" I wasn't legal imbimbing age back then but the fad for us was to see how many of those pop-tops we could hang on a string by summer's end in my buddies 53 pontiac. You could call it a rite of passage.