Upper Red Lake Fishing Reports by Portavilla

[Iambjm]

Chris, if I bring the big yellow Sasquatch up Thur, or Friday will you point me in the right direction? There could be a warm delicious meal in it for you and Billy

[Guest]

Chris, just read your post on getting wheelhouses by the broken up ice. I may be naive but I have never heard the theory behind fishing by the broken ice. Just curious to what advantage it gives you. Thanks!

[Portavilla]

Lambjm,

Now your talking we would spot you anyways. You have been very good to us.

Rocky,

I like fishing the broken ice for several reasons.

1.) You can get away from others and leave all skid houses behind, any wheelhouses would have to be right on top of you or away from you. If you don't know where you are going through it you will take the oil pan right off the truck.

2.) There is twice as much ice below the ice sheet than whats sticking up above it, like an ice berg. With Red lake not having much structure this reverse structure normally holds fish. Light is also delivered through the ice at different angles giving the stained water a different presentation with your bait.

3.) Bait fish swim in theses areas, it is not uncommon to see with a camera that your minnow is not alone.

4.) There are things to look for in the ice that give you some real advantages and that we are not going to talk about.

[cookie129]

Back in the crappie days when I would auger in rough ice and the ice chips looked like it had ashes in it. Look out these areas were crappie heaven

[Portavilla]

Cookie Cookie Cookie for years I would just grab a handful of snow and tell a guy yep this smells fishy and they would think I was nuts. Now they know I was looking at the ice not smelling it. Last week I ran around with a tee square scraping snow off and marking areas on the GPS.

We have been fishing areas with this stuff and we have bottom structure also the fishing has been pretty good.

[cookie129]

i Have not seen that dirty ice in years. Are you saying you can find it with out augering?

[Portavilla]

The ice was perfect this year for finding the stuff. When it snowed I thought it was going to be hard to find from here out but the first snow was like powder so it was easy to push away and with the ice only a foot thick and clear it was easy to find. Everyone was so preoccupied with fishing it's all I did the first few days, mark it and move on. I marked acres of it, a guy that comes up all the time called me and we met on the ice took him out to a spot and showed him the stuff to look for and he had a blast. I like to find areas where you have white ice just off the blue ice with the dirty ice running through it. Now I will drill it and use a steal tape and try to find transitions in the bottom as you know you can feel with a steal tape measure. The fish will move out to mud here soon but they always head back it will be just as good towards the end of the season as well. I marked a lot of areas from 8-15 feet should be interesting.

[Portavilla]

January 3rd, 2011

The reports from the houses was things were much slower today and some of the guys set up portables in the broken ice and did better. The night bite seemed better than the day bite with red hooks and rainbows out performing most others. The day was slower with pink and green colors doing best.

With the storm over the guys have been fighting with generators from the freeze up. It sounds like they really got packed with snow and iced up the carbs, this causes all kind of problems with theses machines, them Hondas are great machines but the carbs are sensitive like all small engines.

They will be back on to moving houses tomorrow and making there best attempts to keep on a good bite.

[Professional Edge]

Just want to say thanks to Chris from Portavilla! We took the recommendation from this site and booked the 6 man house for two nights. Awesome house, clean, plenty of room, spring bunks, and warm. We were all very happy and will be coming back for sure.

We fished in the sleeper all day the first day but our intent was to hit the road with portables. Hate the noise of generators and crowds. Mother nature decided it should be windy instead but we still managed to keep enough to fill the stomachs for 6 of us. Yesterday after the wind stopped we took off and fished an area that looked like nobody had been. Fishing was awesome! The best part was we sat outside under the half moon and caught fish. It was beautiful outside. It did not seem to matter what bait. I did better jigging with red but some of the othes did better on their deadstick.

Thanks again. Now is the time to be on Red.

[Jeff13]

Just left this morning and all I can say was it was a great time. My brother and I rented a 2 man deluxe and there was plenty of room for us. planned on using portables but the weather did not work out for the two days until last night. Stayed in the house and hammered the fish.

Fished Monday and Tuesday.

-We got 63 walleyes

-biggest was 26"

-lots of fish in the 16-20" inch range

-best baits were large Lindy Flyer Spoons 1/4 ounce size tipped with a minnow head Probably 80% of the fish were caught on them. Perch and Red were the hot colors. Seemed like the fish would not touch the smaller size jigs, but were very aggressive with the large jigs.

Great time and it was my brothers first ice fishing trip, he got SPOILED.

[Portavilla]

Professional Edge,

Our intent with the 6 Man & 4 Man Deluxe was to provide a cottage living room experience on the ice where the customer could relax and fish with comforts unlike other experiences. After a hard day of fishing to come back and feel like you just got back to the cabin or just kick back and take in a movie and still be fishing was the whole idea behind theses units.

Every customer that has walked in the door can see what he is paying for and the only complaints we have had are from guys that don't fish with us. We believe that everyone wants to be on fish and try's to do just that. If that's what seals the deal for you we get it, but if your not getting much more you should get a money back guarantee. The price is about the same.

[Portavilla]

January 5th, 2011

Dallas and Bill moved some houses yesterday for some construction buddies and found we should of just stayed put, fishing was slow. Back at the group where fishing was slow prior to his move the fishing lite back up. With the guys getting 60-80 on average. Another of our groups headed out into the broken ice and pounded them also. With weather like this it's been a lot of fun. Dallas and Bill are moving some more today I hope it goes better and far as our buddies go I am sure we haven't heard the end of it LOL. There in a 6 man and having a few drinks they probably don't even know there on the ice yet.

[mnmuskie]

How is the fishing in early Feb. We have never been to Red and are planning our yearly trip for the 6th to the 8th or 9th and we are looking at your 4 man deluxe.

Thanks Jay

[Portavilla]

It varies but typically a little slower. At this time we don't have much snow cover and that may help some. We are probaly 20" less in snow cover as last year and this year has been more like 2008 and we did well most of the year. You may have to go more portable it's hard to tell but I would plan on slower an ajust from there.

[Iambjm]

Boy things keep getting in the way of my ice fishing, I hope to make it up there on Sunday.

[Portavilla]

January 6th, 2011

Yesterdays moves paid off and the fishing was good with no complaints. We still have a couple houses out and wanted to move them today but re-banking efforts took priority as the warm weather has been taking its toll. One of the fish houses has some interesting ice under it with multiple layers and the fish have been shooting the layers making it a different reel up that's for sure.

Lots of guys coming in today and hopefully they can get the last couple moved. I am still recommending portables as the broken ice has provided quite a few there best ever fishing experiences.

[MNfan]

That sucks lamb you bringing the new house?

[SDS]

MNfan, you fishing this weekend?

[spinnerboy]

SDS, he should be setting up as i type this. Cant wait for the reports to start. I will be back up next weekend, Cant wait!

[MNfan]

SDS I am up with my son and grandson walleyes are SLOOOW but we did put a 47" norther on the ice this afternoon (can you say monster) it was huge tooks some pics and let her swim for another day. I will put a pic up when I get back could have now with sons phone but in the comotion he went to grab phone and dropped it in the lake (I hate it when that happens) hope the bite picks up tomorrow.

[Portavilla]

January 7th, 2011

With everything moved the guys are all doing well and have been getting about 60-70% throw backs and the rest in keepers with the guys I talked to and the guys Bill talked to they like how it was going and had some nice pics. We have still been fishing the broken ice and they have not been smoking them but it's been steady.

We have had quite a few guys with portables surrounding us and it would be nice to have a little space there is a lot of the same stuff we are fishing and I don't mind reporting about it to give everyone the heads up, just asking for a little more space. Thanks.

[cookie129]

so your asking potential customers to move? I took a drive yesterday and wow is there alot of space out there and broken rough ice every where. It is turning into one great season so far so good, knock on wood.

[Whopper Stopper]

so your asking potential customers to move?

That's what I was thinking!

WS

[Portavilla]

Cookie,

Like you said there are square miles of it. Yesterday Bill said there was 22 portables within a 150 yards of us and that's getting a little tight. We are all by ourselves and away from everyone else and the same conditions exist all around us. Just a little more space would be nice.

I do not do the fishing report for advertising as much as we do it as an informational piece and for fun. Our houses and services sell themselves as we are outfitters. We have been pretty much booked the whole time I have been doing the report and have only booked 18 trips since doing it, we have been booked forr these time frames. We made the decission years ago to set are selves up that fish were a bonus. I just what guys to do good with or without us but not at the irritation of our guests. Not much to ask is it.

[chaffmj]

Nothing wrong with asking for more space. Check out Kelly's post about everybody being spread out on the east side yesterday. That is the way it should be. When you come up and rent an overnight house from an outfitter the last thing you want is guys in portables coming close and catching fish. The guy in the renatl can't just pick up and move to a differant spot and every fish the guys in the portables catch could have been headed for the rental house. It is a big lake with lots of fish in it so spread out and let everyone enjoy.

[cookie129]

Chris I was just having fun with you. I never seem to pull in crowds around me. I think it has somthing to do with the generators

[live4chrome]

What happened to the bite? Sounds like it just went dead out there the last two days talking to a few guys whonare out there now? Any contradictory reports from the weekend?

[Portavilla]

We have been fishing like its early ice and a lot of guys have headed to the mud. We did and turned back around. The weather and snow cover is no dirrerent than it was in the begining of the season and we are still seeing fish moving in at night and out during the day. This year has been very different, our guys have not had much for complaints and the groups have been doing ok. The bite has slowed down as a whole.

[Portavilla]

January 8th, 2011

With a few houses slowing down we are going to make a move with them today. We had a guy we have not see for 24 hours so we spent sometime locating the fisherman and found him on LOW. The ice and conditions have been good but not taking any chances. With all the shifting around we have been doing like shuffling cards it was kind of who are we looking for but figured it out.

We are just going to keep doing what we have been doing as we have been getting good results. It's kind of hard with guys staying a day but the guys staying multiple days have been getting in on some good fishing. We have had several week long stays this year and it's pretty much been everyday is no different than a weekend with the booking. This has been very consistent the last 3 years and our guys are use to the routine. We had to move houses with the guys in them all year, but it works really well, fresh ice is always nice.

The only thing we have seen different from the last year is guys asking where is the fish and from the last couple are, we are catching to many bigger fish. We consider this a good sign so far. For us the snow plowing has been great. We could probably use a little bounce in the barometer. The most unusual has been the tailgating atmosphere.

[Portavilla]

January 9th, 2011

With Bill & Dallas moving more units today it's been a little hectic but they have been keeping the camps alive. The guys have been doing a fantastic job in the field finding good fishing with there portables catching fish. The houses are getting some, but those following Bills instructions on making the move to his spots have been doing great. I just got three emails from guys who got over 50-60 fish keeping to the game plan. Rattle reels at night and hit the broken ice by day.

Those in the camper style fishing we provide have not been getting as many as those active guys chasing those active fish in the field. The only problem Bill has had this year is getting guys to leave the new 6 Man units, once they are in that house they don't want to go home. The weather has been great and so has the fishing with a little work/play in the broken ice.