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Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports by Cookie


cookie129

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Well another weekend has come and gone. It was a interesting weekend to say the least. Jake was up again to do some scoutting and enjoy the beauty of upper red lake. After spanking them two weeks ago he was served a slice of humble pie. Jake fishes out of his van with tip ups set up for walleyes. He never found a fishy area all weekend. Saturday afternoon as he headed over to help me move minnesota his van stopped running. We think his alternator went out and he had been running with his battery friday and saturday morning. Before he made it to me the van dies again. Being I run two battiers in blue thunder we switched up battiers and he was off to shore to see if he could get the alternator off. No such luck though.

I sent him home with two battiers and he ended having to buy one more to make it home.

Now for the rest of the fishing.California did the best saturday with 8 keeper walleye and 2 elusive but still catchable upper red lake slads.

I was off by 5 days as I predicted one of my house would have a crappie by the 10th.

Florida had Tom,Mike and Leonard they barly caught enough fish for a fish fry. I left florida where it was because it had some good night time action the previous two fishermen. The plan was to move it saturday depending how they did. Tom and Mike fished outside a good part of the day saturday and did not fair well at all. I offered to move the house but Tom decided they would stay put. Hindsight I wish I would of moved it last week befor they arrived. I still think it a good spot but the bite was just off.

Montana had my old boss from chominix golf course in anoka. They also had poor fishing and they were om a fresh spot. It was nice seeing Ben and Greg as it has been atleast 5 years. Jason wants to come up hunt a bear this fall.

Arizona had a few guys from mpls Darnel,Jon,Mike George and Derrick. They wre not avid fishermen. They have gooten a few fish but only 3 keepers since last night. I checked there set up last night and Jon's bait was 3 feet under the ice. I adjusted his bobber stop and before I had left he had his first upper red lake walleye a fat healthy 16 and 3/4.

Minnesota had Pat, Todd and Ryan. They have been coming for 7 years. Todd flys in from san fransisco. Ryan spanked me in two games of cribbage and playing a dime a point I ended up owing him 8 dollars and 40 cents.

They did well after the move and Pat served me up some killer chili he made.They did go home with 12 upper red lake walleyes.

All in all the bite was not that good again on a weekend. Minnesota needs to be moved today as Matt and his crew roll in tomorrow.

Jon's first upper red lake walleyefull-1934-16323-400199_341200982566049_1

leonard with one to big

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A elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie

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And a nother upper red lake sunset

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A rare night off. With no fishermen tonight I got off the lake early and it worked out well as I was under the weather today. I did move montana to a new spot and got all the snow away from california and minnesota. I'm goimg to leave minnesota where it is for Matt and his gal and see how they do the first day. Then I will move them wednesday if the bite is tough.

I also have decided to leave florida for one more night of fishing as it sure started off as a great spot. Not sure where I will be moving arizona but that will be on a fresh spot for kevin and his crew on friday.

Kellie and I will also be spending a night out there in old minnesota somtime this week. My homemade pizza is on the menue. Who knows maybe kellie can get a crappie as it has been a few years since she has caught one.

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Getting ready for the up and coming weekend. I was able to move arizona yesterday to a new area. I checked matt and jen into minnesota for two days. When I stopped in last night they had caught a couple of perch. I have a strong feeling I will be moving minnesota today if there game. I did see a spot I liked when I was cutting across the lake yesterday.

Phil and the grandsons fished florida last night and managed a couple of smaller walleyes.Good eaters though. He also got a 19 that I'am aware of. I have decided to leave it there and leroy will be fishing it for 24 hours starting later today. The red baron is up and running and needs a little front four wheel drive stuff tended to before I put the v-plow on.

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Wow today is the 22nd I think I have been a very busy guy. I been putting 16 hr days in for quite some time. When the wind blows here even with such little snow it just adds tons of work with moving snow away from house's . At this time the snow is just clipping us.

Now for the ugly news. After california did so well last week I moved arizona and minnesota just to the east for the weekend. Florida and montana were set up on a nice edge of broken ice and I also had high hopes for that spot. The fishing for my houses just plain stunk. Yesterday I moved california to 11 feet to the north. A couple of the guys rode it the house and said it was a hoot.

All the house have marked fish all weekend but getting them to bite is a whole new ball game . Maybe when I go out this morning things will have changed a guy can hope.

The whole fleet will be on the move again this week with florida being the first to move with peggy coming tuesaday morning. Dave and Sarha rolled in last night for there third year and first in old minnesota. Sarha was not in the house more then a minute when she said we will be requesting this house from now on. Two years ago they arrived in a brutal snow storm and the greek and I shuttled them out to montana on the sled as there was no way you could drive in the white out and drifting conditions. That was when all my house's flooded from the weight of the snow drifts. Time we were able to get to the houses the temps and plummetted adn all seven house's were flooded and frozen into the lake bed. It took the greek and I 5 days to chip and break them loose. If that ever happens again I'm not sure what I will do. I will have to hire some one to help me thats for sure. I may also move minnesota tomorrow if dave and sarha do poorly.

The red Baron is in the process of replacing a axel and bearring . Phil has been up since last week repairing everything I have broken over the course of a year. I hope to have the vplow on by tomorrow. i guess its time to hit the lake and say are goodbyes lets hope everyone started catching some fish last night.

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Well it was nice to see the fishing picked up saturday eve,. Scott caught his trophy crappie a very fat thick elusive uppper red lake crappie. Dalton had a nice run at 10pm and landed 5 keepers. Jeff and his crew did much better after I moved california. Kevin and his crew ate like kings ,played cards and had a good time but the fishing was not the best but they were not fishing as hard as they could of. I did manage to get a keeper in minnnesota saturday while prepping for dave and sarhas arrival. They did not roll in tell 9pm saturday night . I will be moving them today if they did not have a good night.

I spent yesterday moving florida,montana and arizona before the snow starts drifting around the houses. They are banked, cleaned and ready to have the holes augered out friday morning.Peg and Jim arrive tomorrow for florida. Phil we be wetting a line in one of the houses tonight just not sure which one at this time. California has only been fished one night so i will leave it there for the up and coming weekend.

We will be spending the next couple of days moving some snow as I think we got around 6 inches.

Scott with is trophy and there catch for the weekend.full-1934-16710-399623_345787558774058_1

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All the prep work before moving montana

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Yes the 4 to 5 inches of snow had created quite the work load. Phil had been here for 10 days fixing blue thunder,red baron and the silver bullit our dodge. I was hoping we could get the tranny to shift out of low but no such luck and it will need to go to the tranny shop. The red baron got a new front axel and bearing and turned into quite the job. It then got a good work out as I tried to open up 4 miles of road. It looked good until the winds yesterday filled in it. I need to find some time to check a different route to the shacks.

We have also been doing some scoutting and have found much better fishing a little closer to the north shore.Its so easy to get crappie on the brain but to much time and money is wasted with poor walleye fishing while trying to catch a elusive crappie. Arizona,California,Montana have been moved and after Jim and peggy leave today Florida will follow to a better fishey area. I plan on fishing minnesota tomorrow night"Stupid craapies" in a new location and then will be moving it saturday to a completly different area. Jim and peg have had some action and said they loved the house and will be back and recommend me to there friends, She works at the spam museum in austin and gave me a couple of spam burgers yeasterday.

Arizona will sit emptey this weekend as of now. Tony rolls in for california,Carrie and his family for florida,Andy for montana. and Tracy is here saturday for minnesota. I aquired a new print for montana and should look nice on the wall. Phil fished california last night and I fished it yesterday morning. They were getting some good action last night and I was happy with the fishing yesterday morning.

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Andy and his dad and budddy are having a good time in montana .There even catching a few fish. Carrie and his wife and kids are not doing as well and I will plan on moving them tomorrow as well as minnesota for Tracy and her friends that roll in around 1 tomorrow. Arizona is sitting empty for the weekend .Tony and Eric are catching a few fish in california and plan on have walleye for dinner. Next week Tony and his wife will be here wednesday, thursday with all the other houses sitting empty tell friday.

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That crazy mother nature sure knows how to messs things up. The wind has made quite a mess out there with every trail running north and south blown in. I gave it my best attemp to keep the berms to one side but once the snow acummalates on the road and drifts then vehicles travel on it it collects more snow and so on and so on. The timing always seems the worst. It just amazzing how a 1/8 inch of snow can make such a mess but I guess when it travels 20 miles it amounts to quite a bit. Then with that 4 inches last week and winds from every direction. Oh well with no house's rented untill next weekend other then Tony Boy coming up midweek I will have to start over. The red baron and blue thunder will be getting another work out.

The area I have worked this weekend seem very fishy for now and Andy his dad and david have had action all weekend. I couple portables showed up yesterday right behind them and to the south . The conditions were so crappy yesterday I did not even drive over and see how they were doing. I was able to move minnesota over there yesterday before Tracy arrived as I had pre fished minnesota twice in its new spot with very poor fishing. We will see how they did this morning but they did call when they caught a 19 1/2 and wanted to know what the slot was again. California is south east of minnesota and montana and they have also had action all weekend. All

though Tony did complain about the perch even when Eric caught a jumbo they let it go. To funny. Florida was over by minnesota with Carrie and his wife and kids. I never got there names. They had five keepers in there bucket yesterday and a few big perch. After moving minnesota moving them with the wind only getting worse was not a option. Three things keep me from moving house's, Under the weather,mother nature wind, minus 20 degrees, snow storms and mechanical breakdowns.

Other wise I enjoy moving the house from spot to spot. With such great ice this year I have gambled and not blocked the houses up as flooding has not been a isssue . I had to move some drifts but the trucks do most of that work.

Arizona will be interesting as no one fished it after I placed it where it is. There was hardly any snow where I parkd it and now theres more then enough for banking next weekend for Darrel and his crew.

I pic of andy and his 38 inch pike yesterday on hig jigging rod. He said it was a epic battle

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all and all not to bad a weekend for fishiong. This crazy lake, Tony and eric headed home early with 8 keepers, Carrie and his family took off befro I could say goodbye and see how they did the second night. Andy and his dad and daviud took home 8 and ate 4.Tracy and the gals bobber fished and only had a couple to take home. Tracy said everything was perfect and hopfully next time they will do a little better. Tomorrow Bret and his gal will be fishing minnesota ,Tony boy will roll in wednesday.

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Getting ready for another weekend. Hering the bite is so slow and having what I thought was good fishing I will keep the houses in the same general area they are now. We are working two different areas with in 1/4 of a mile of each other. Yestareday I brought florida into the area as where she was was not that good and I suckered myself into putting the house there in hopes of a elusive upper red lake crappie.

Brett and Milinda have fished minnesota two night' s and brett is stock piling the perch as has quite the bucket full. I will snap a pic of all his fish today before they leave.They also had a couple of walleyes when I checked in with them yesterday afteernoon. I thought about leaving montana on the same spot for the up and coming weekend to see if the good fishing would continue. I plan on wetting a line out there this morning as I have a few things that need my attention in the house. Tony and Leah will be fishing in florida today and tomorrow and then Tony boy will help me get all the house ready for the weekend. I think all three deluxe houses will be shifted around so there all on fresh ice for Lee and his crew that roll in saturday. The next weekend the 10th and 11th all 3 are still open? I have 10 ten days to get them rented as It would stink to have them all empty on a weekend. Where are all the fishermen on the weekend of the 10th and 11th?

California will be moved straight south about 100 yards and arizona will stay put as it has still not been augered where it is. Two guys in a portable were fishing inbetween the two on monday and had action all day with a few keepers in there bucket. If I would of had the generator out there they would of been fishing right where it would of been set up.

I thought I would share a couple of old pics I came across while going through some things. One is where my grandmother was born on the tamarac river .One is my great grandpa Norman with Jim the ox and the other is 1965 when grandma had two bear cubs staying herefull-1934-17049-421958_2811386716849_102

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Bill,

I am changing it on windows explorer. Down in the right hand corner it has a zoom option that you can customize.

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my youhgest son joe will be up this weekend and I will have him help me repost some old pics as they are kinda cool to see. The one of my great grandpa norman and jim the ox is a killer pic.

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Hi FredI will do that,and kellie told me last night you called.I will give you a call as we do have a house for the dates you were looking for.

Brett and his gal went home with a mess of fish. Bret caught them all as she was just here to relax.

Tony boy and his wife have had some deccent fishing and I think they had 7 in the backet last night. I ended up renting minnesota to Bob amnd Terry thursday, friday and Tony snapped a pic of there catch as of last night around 8pm%7Boption%7DBob called out of the blue wednesday and wanted a house for thursday friday ,He said red lake was on his bucket list.Talking to him yesterday he said the last time he was here was in 1950 with his dad.

Matt also called out of the blue wednesday and is fishing in montana I will not know how he did until later today. he was fishing outside when I left the lake last night around 3.

Busy morning today as I check in darrle and his crew and get california and florida moved . Not sure if I will be able to get minnesota and montana moved tomorrow before Lee's crew arrive but I will give it a shot. The fishing ha sbeen good enough to just make a couple of short moves to put the houses on fresh ice.

The 3 houses are still open next weekend 10th 11th.Is there somthing going on that weekend I do not know about?

[Note From HSO Admin: Please read forum policy (photo) before posting again. Thank You.]

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I'm headed out to move florida and montana before lee's crew arrives this afteernoon. I think I may make a bigger move as there may be a chance the area I have the deluxe houses is on the edge of burning out.

The kids are all up for the weekend and we hope to wet a line in old minnesota plus I will be making my smothered burrito's.

The guys in arizona were happy last night as well as Bob and Terry. They are a very interesting couple and photographs wolf in yellowstone park plus other wildlife www.robertweselmann.com. He has worked there for over 20 years studing bison and other wildlife. Very interesting to say the least. they had walleye for dinner the first night and were hoping for walleye dinner again last night. California was slow but they also had some action. Tony managed to go home with 5 keeper walleyes and a dozon perch. Matt the one thats fished around the house and outside has probley done the worst? Go figure.He has worked the hardest .

With only a few weeks left of the season its not to late to get up here we still have all 3 deluxe houses open next weekend plu a couple the last 2 weekends. [Note From HSO Admin: Please read forum policy (photo) before posting again. Thank You.]

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Last night making the rounds it was nice to see everyone catching a few fish. Bob and Terry headed out with just a couple more fish .They did have perch for dinner the second night. When I escorted them off the lake they turned left. Made me wonder if they were headed to low. I sure enjoyed there company and hope they keep coming back as the years go by.

we still have all 3 deluxe house open next weekend. we also have one house left on the weekend of the 17th and 2 the final weekend of walleye.

At this time I plan on leaving the house on the lake and going after some perch and crappies. Were going to have some type of get together in march and spend a day and half hunting for the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie.

The smothered burritos were fantastic.

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I'll be making the rounds this morning and saying good by to jay and his crew and darrel and his crew.they have done pretty well.I do not think they caught 100 fish though. Now May and June could be a different story as far as catching 100 fish a day.We have two cabims here on upper red lake plus 4 sleeper houses down at the lake that work well for camping on the shores of upper red lake. we also have a dock on the tamarac river .There's a fire pit for both cabins and a fire pit on the river lot and lake shore.I also can accomadate any one that would like to camp down at the lake or on the river.

I'm getting ready to head out and wet a line this morning. With all the houses empty for the next 9 days I will be doing some scoutting to find the next two fishy areas. I expect the area were at now to burn out.I could very well be wrong but would rather not chance it.

So far its been a great season as again I have made some new fishermen friends that I hope become life time friends.

Jake is biting at the bit to get back up here after being served humble pie the last trip. Thats what you get for searching for the elusive yet still catchable upper red ;lake crappie.

We did have a little excitment friday as a gentlemen crossed the pressure ridge where the bridge had been. Hillmens bridge will always have a stop sign to mark where it is as going by a gps could cause this to happen if the bridge gets moved. We have had a very active pressure ridge this year and have been moving the bridge twice a week on average.

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remember these pics are where a gentlemen tried to cross a unbridged pressure ridge. We have some great ice up here this year. The best I have seen in 9 years. Its only going to get better and withthe colder weather the pressure ridge should freeze up a bit and quit eatting into our fishing time

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Jay's crew in california did real well this weekend.They all nwent home with a big packet of fish and had fish for dinner one night.Arizona also did well and they left happy. Minnesota set empty this weekend Bummer. Montana and florida arec catching a few fish and are here until tomorrow.

Yesterday the sun came out and I was getting ill driving in all the fog the last week.Most of the week you could not see more then 200 yeards.I decided to check out all the roads on this end of the lake so I took a 2 hour cruise. All the roads were in great shape that I drove on. I stopped to talk to two fishermen working some rough ice out of westwind and it turned out to be crappie spense and his dad jahn. They were having limitted success. I then saw where bear paw ,spider chad westwind are fishing. Its nice to have a idea of where the roads are and other land marks if you get into a white out on the lake.

I then talked to 4 guys at the very end of hillmens road. They had 6 perch and 2 wallyee and were playing cards. I also scotted where I could plow from hillmens road to get to my houses so I can stop maintaining 7 miles of road along the north shore. The other observation was wow is there alot of untapped fishing out there.

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Looks I made the Cookie Report! Im the guy tryng to un hook the house. Yes that pour soul missed the bridge by a long ways. Luckily between Cookie, Tony, Kelly P and I we had him back on the road and headed for home safely for the price of a road fee.

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I always laugh when people complain about the road fee. What a bargin it is even when you don't need help and it is a steal when you do. Thanks to all on Red who maintain the roads.

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