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Thanks Waskish Minnow Station


shaky legs2

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We came up on Thursday about noon. Took the wrong road coming off the Hillman access/road and ended up farther to the north in a mine field. Kelly guided us through the rough ice heaves with no mishaps and started fishing about 2:00 p.m. There is no magic area to fish so people need to spread out. We are out in deeper water than we were two weeks agon and on the mud. Fish are roaming and relating to insect hatches and rough ice. When we drove back in we saw several "villages" where houses and portables were right next to each other. That's the best way to kill a bite. You see that mentality in the metro area but there is no need for it on URL. The best bait was the rattling flyer in the purple smelt color and the slick jig in the clown or rainbow color. The deadsticks had red-striped demons on the but did not produce much. You had to create the action by jigging. Slick jigs are good during the day as fish can see them. During low-light and dark conditions the rattling flyer is better. We ate two meals of fish while we were there (Thurs -Sat Morning)and brough home a limit of walleyes plus 16 nice perch. We also released walleyes that were too big or too small. It is great to see the size of the perch increase. I remember during the crappie boom that you often had to reel up your lines as the perch would steal your bait and run you low before prime time. Kelly brought me the last tub of waxworms in Waskish to use but I caught so many of the little perch on them that I had to take them off. He told us that some of his clients from Iowa that were up this week were catching crappies on them. That's about it for a report.

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Could you guys look around your fishhouse? I think you packed something extra and hauled it away by mistake. It's called "the bite". It turned up missing the past couple of days. We've looked all over for it. Out deep, in shallow, over mud, by rockpiles, under rough ice and on smoth ice. We cann't find it. Then we remembered that you guys had just left so thought that maybe you guys had taken it by mistake. grin

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The bite wasn't as good as two weeks ago but still good enough to keep your attention. We had very little "down time" and actively jigged/fished from the time we got up until the time we went to bed. We were light and noise conscious and the nearest house was over 1/4 mile away. Maybe if the weather straightens out and you get several stable days in a row the bite will improve.

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The bite got so bad that I let Fred run to "mark the spot". We ended up going in about a 5 mile circle. He never marked a spot and finally got back in the truck and just went to sleep. When I pulled up to one of our houses one of the people said, "That didn't look encouraging". grin It turned out that a number of people were watching a dog run across the lake with great anticipation. That has to be about as low as it can get isn't it. confusedgrin

All in all people took the bad bite pretty good. We moved people, moved houses and scouted all over trying to find the key but the fish won this weekend.

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We were one group that Johnny and Kelly pointed in a direction. (White F150 topper and black ice castle) We ended up keeping 7 walleyes 8 perch and a 14" crappie. The highlight was watching my 5 yearold son catch a 27" northern!

Thanks Johnny and Kelly, you guys were busy and still each took time to stop and give us advice.

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I also want to thank you the Waskish Minnow Station. They always give us a idea where to start and a few pointers on what is currenly working. I went up on 1/6 for a day trip. Kelly took me to a spot and told us to try it here. We ended up catching 21 walleyes and a couple of big perch in about 6 hours. They said it was not as good as it was a couple of weeks ago, but we were very pleased. We went back up over the weekend and spent a couple of nights in the fish house. Fishing was slower, but me and the kids had a good time. We ended up keeping 7 eyes, 2 perch and 1 crappie. The crappie was actually given to us by Kelly. We tried a couple of other spots in the portable with no luck. The fish were down there, they just would not bite. We watched a bunch of perch and walleyes on the camera just cruising around, showing no interest in our baits. The slower fishing made it easier to go visit fellow fisherman and catch up on the past years activities. It was nice visiting with Kelly, Shakey, Doc, Labs and Hunter. Thanks again! See you in a couple of weeks!

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Jon and Kelly- we met those "iowa boys" at beacons harbor when we were waiting for Dean to buy our road pass thurs. afternoon. Pretty sure they had quite the snoot full when they arrived cuz one of them(the driver i think) urinated on the side of our wheelhouse.... gross. Hope they didnt leave you guys too much of a mess to clean up! We picked out a spot on the lakemaster and went out 4miles or so and boom- there were your houses and some broken ice... needless to say- that made our decision easy to set up in that area. We were the house about 150-200 yds to the north of a couple of your houses with the maroon jeep.

2 guys fishing- 64 eyes (22" the biggest), 25 perch, 5 pike(all snakes), 2 crappies and 1 big pout was our total from thurs. afternoon to sun. morning. Saturday morning was the best, then things seemed to get really SLOW after that. My buddy caught quite a few on the rattlin flyer with a head and i caught most of mine on a regular 1/4 oz jig with a full fathead(blue and white jig). One crappie was 14" and my buddy caught one that was 7"!!! I have never seen a small one caught like that on red lake and i thought that was a very good sign that possibly some natural reproduction was going on. I released the big crappie i caught to go and make some more! Jon and Kelly- have u guys noticed any small crappies being caught this year??

Fun trip as usual and Shaky couldnt be more right... SPREAD OUT PEOPLE, there is no magic spot, u can catch fish almost anywhere as we did twice during the day a LONG ways away from our house in the portable. I would say at minimum a 100yds from the nearest house is your best bet!!!!!

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We moved people, moved houses

AND BRIDGES!!!

Thanks Kelly - Jon and the entire Hillman crew for doing this multiple times a day... without them doing this, no one is getting on or off...

Great seeing everyone again. Missed my 1st meet and greet with Doc and Shakey by this much! ... whew!!! that was close!

Good Luck!

Ken

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Hey, I would put my money on Fred! eek It seems like everytime he visits I get lucky. Maybe it is the dog scent on the minnows I put on the hook. I got to thinking today (that's dangerous) grin With Doc being out of commission for several weeks I just might head up to do some scouting on my own. I need to look at my schedule and see what works. If it does, maybe I will come up and do some scouting, plus help with the chores like empty [PoorWordUsage] bags, help bank houses, be a gofer, talk smart to the customers, help fill propane tanks, and whatever else needs doing. I will shoot you an e-mail if it will work for me and if you want some company. grin

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Scott, It was good to see you and the boys again. Doc said that the next time we come up and you are there we have to bring up some ice cream bars for the boys. When you called we were on our way out and you said you needed some minnows, I told Doc that the bite must have picked up for you. I gave my limit of cleaned walleyes to my neighbor who was up with Kelly earlier in the week and didn't do as well. He was appreciative. Maybe we will see you again this season - I sure hope so as I always enjoy visiting with you.

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We drove by the old green house on the way out (not the new one) but I didn't see a bra hanging from the ceiling. Maybe we will connect next time.

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If it does, maybe I will come up and do some scouting, plus help with the chores like empty [PoorWordUsage] bags, help bank houses, be a gofer, talk smart to the customers, help fill propane tanks, and whatever else needs doing.

Hmmmmmm... Million dollar idea!

Kelly and Jon can charge to hang out with them so willing customers get a flavor of the glorious life of a guide on Upper Red! crazy Kinda like a Dude Ranch on ice where you pay to have the pleasure of working... but this is with [PoorWordUsage] bags and not cow patties!

You can thank me later! HA!

Good Luck!

Ken

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Quote:
Pretty sure they had quite the snoot full when they arrived cuz one of them(the driver i think) urinated on the side of our wheelhouse.... gross. Hope they didnt leave you guys too much of a mess to clean up!

They will never see the inside of one of our houses again.

Years ago I give a group a lifetime ban from our houses. They tried booking the next 2 years under false names. The first year they showed up under a fake name I gave them another chance if they behaved. They got themselves booted out in less then 6 hours. The 2nd year of their fake name plan I would not let them in the house. I would rather have a house sit empty over the weekend then them back in it. They booked with someone else on the lake that day,,,,and got booted out of that house in less then 4 hours. eek They were persistent. grin

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Sorry to hear that.... I could tell you guys were in for it right away when they told us they were booked with you guys and were asking if they were in the right spot. The driver shouldnt have even been driving at that point as he had to be at least .20. We noticed they left VERY early sunday morning and that was probably not just to get back to iowa.... Me and my buddy were joking they probably wanted to get out of there before you guys came to check on them and saw the house. If they were cards in a deck they would be Jokers, thats for sure... If they didnt out number us 4-2 there might have been more then words exchanged after urinating on our wheelhouse. Plus, a fist fight wasnt really the way we wanted to start the trip.

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My wife and I also want to thank Kelly and John for a great weekend on the Red. We had a slow start on Friday and Saturday. With Kelly's wisdom they moved us to a new spot. Did a lot better for walleyes, our limits plus 9 in the slot with the largest about 24". One 14 inch crappie, lots of large perch. It was a pleasure to get to meet you and John. Had a great time swapping stories, you won. LOL Thanks for the book, will really enjoy the read. Look forward to our next visit on the Upper Red. Crazyguy and Robin. smirk

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Hey teamfish I have a guy in the house you were in. This is his 2nd day there. Yesterday all he could talk about was the walleyes swimming right by his camara and not biting. Today the first thing out his mouth was, "They will not even look at the bait!!! They just swim right by!!! They just keep swimming by!!!!". He is starting to get some strange twitches and kind of a wild eyed look. crazy I'm afraid that we are going to have to either disable his camara or put rubberized flooring on the walls also. grin To make it better the walleyes he has caught have all been on the line his camara can not see. I figure the walleyes there are just camara shy. blush

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Had a few like that on Mon. morning before we left. Maybe knock on the door to spoke him . He will come back with a vengence and attack the bait like it did for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Me and the wife made our annual trip up to Red Lake and as always, stayed with Kelly, Patsy and Jonny. House was warm and clean when we got there. The wife caught a couple of jumbos right away and then about 330 hooked into a chunky 22"er on rainbow colored lindy rattl'n flyer. Nothing else until 6PM when we got 4 fish in a matter of 15-20 minutes, with 3 of them being under 17". 3 of them caught on glow green weasel(jigging) from JB lures and one off a glow green plain hook(rattle reel). 3 more over the slot caught between 830 and 930 on both glow green and glow red frostees on rattle reels. Nothing overnight. Rattle reels went off a couple more times about 7am, hoping they were walleyes, but ended up being a couple more jumbos. Another keeper at 10am. Slow most of the afternoon, but picked up 2 more keepers about 3-4PM hoping for a flurry again in the evening. It came about 5PM with an 18"(red lindy flyer) and then 2 pike back to back. Then nothing until about 9PM when a 20" came up the hole. Lost a keeper at the bottom of the hole this morning. We brought home 6 keepers with 7+ over the slot thrown back, plus some bonus perch. As far as the jigging went, the fish that we were marking never bit, except for the pike. We'd have a rattle reel go off minutes later. OR, we'd be watching the flashers with nothing on the bottom except for the lure and WHAM-O, they'd just come up and smack it before you even marked them. Flashers weren't really necessary this weekend, but I'd never fish without them. Thanks again folks and we'll see you again next year and maybe try to get up there early ice. Jonny-you'll need to let me know how the stogies were.

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