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looking better...


traveler

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took a run up to the cabin this weekend...been too long:) It sure felt like spring, most of the snow in the yard is gone now, the river looks like it could open up any day now (a little rain would sure help), birds everywhere, but the lake...I dunno. Still looks pretty tight, if I had to pick a date, I'd go with May 14th. But what do I know?

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The Tamarac would be open if there was any normal runoff flow. It is looking like our Spring runoff lasted 1 day as the flow in the ditches is dropping. At my dock the Tamarac has only come up about 4 inches. The ground is very dry and sucking it up. I dug into a peat dike yesterday and 4 inches down it was still dust. Chance for rain tonight. Seems strange that after all that snow we are hoping for rain.

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Yeah, the river still being SO low surprised me too.

Heading home, the remaining snow pack and running water/rivers seemed better ...pretty much everywhere else back to Duluth!

rain, rain, rain. c'mon rain:)

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Kelly, I was told that in an article in the outdoor news they are talking about closing fishing on the tamarack and URL until? Have you actually heard anything about it or is this just a bunch of hooey? I am hoping to make it up there, but it is probably going to be a couple weekends after the opener anyways so hopefully it stays warm for awhile...

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I'd venture a guess they'll button up the Tamarac and river mouth to walleye fishing for a little while. I haven't seen anything, but I've been away for the last 4 days.

I too was surprised to see so much of the melt in the area soak in. But I'm glad that it has.

They sure are letting a lot of the lake water flow down the river our way. Wish they'd close up that dam and let the lake level climb back up again...at least a little.

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Quote:
was told that in an article in the outdoor news they are talking about closing fishing on the tamarack and URL until?

The Tamarac River, Shotley Brook and the Blackduck River will be closed for fishing until the walleyes are done spawning. They are almost always closed for fishing on years with a late Spring.

The lack of runoff from all the snow we had is amazing and more then a little spooky. I didn't think that we could ever have a Spring with less runoff then last year. I was wrong!! The ditches, creeks and rivers look like mid July during the hottest and driest time of summer.

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Either way we are planning a few trips up this year. Hopefully we get to experience the amazing fishing we had this winter up there! Not much better than pulling in a walleye, and spending time with family while doing it!

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How much rain did you get up there?

How far has the ice pulled back from the east side? wink

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According to the weather channel we got a whopping .13 inches of rain. frown

Yesterday when the Tamarac opened up the current was so slow that some of the ice chunks were traveling upstream with the wind pushing them against the current. I can see huge flocks of pelicans up where the Tamarac goes into the woods and gets shallower. It will be very easy picking for them in only 6/8 inches of water. This year they are at least studying how many fish those pelicans eat/kill every Spring in the Tamarac.

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Kelly, are the cormorants problem on Red? Looks they have become a big enough problem on Vermilion that the DNR is now involved over there. We have some on the lake our cabin is on. Not sure how that problem is addressed, or how many It willl take to have someone taking a close look. We get some pelicans early but they don't stick around very long. Right now I'd welcome them back, it would men open water. frown

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careful what you wish for Bill!

and look on the bright side... it's only 8 short months now and we'll be out on the ice again grin

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Traveler, going to be a short summer. whistle we missed the snow here but south near the Twin Cities and south of that pretty heavy....they are reporting anywhere from 2-15". I put my blower away last week and brought out the rider, must have helped..... crazy

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are the cormorants problem on Red?

As far as I know only during the spawning run. The pelicans and cormorants are swarming the Tamarac River worse every year.

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Are those cursed birds eating up the walleyes we're putting into the lake? mad

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5 to 10 pounds of fish per day per pelican (2000# of fish a day for 200 pelicans) is what I was told they ate. You do the math on how many fish that equates to based on numbers of pelicans. IMO they are every bit as dangerous and possibly worse than cormorants.

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I am a believer that cormorants and pelicans can do damage to fish populations. I saw the huge numbers of the birds on Leech lake and witnessed birds feeding on schools of bait fish or small game fish. The numbers that they can eat are very large. I have no doubt the birds almost wiped Leech lake years ago. The problem was addressed too late and, well we know what happened and what needed to be done. Not to many days ago there a pic posted somewhere of a cormorant swallowing what looked to be 12 inch or larger muskie. If a cormorant can eat fish that size I would think a pelican can eat larger fish. Although numbers of cormorants out do the pelican.

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5 to 10 pounds of fish per day per pelican (2000# of fish a day for 200 pelicans) is what I was told they ate. You do the math on how many fish that equates to based on numbers of pelicans. IMO they are every bit as dangerous and possibly worse than cormorants.

The math here doesn't make sense to me. A pelican is a 30 pound bird. I'm 6 feet tall and 250 pounds and I can't eat 10 pounds a day even if it was Sammy's Pizza!

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The white pelican consumes 3-5 pounds of food per day when available. Now to be clear when these birds are up river it is not 50 or 60 fishing a line. It is beaks to butts for miles of river. I would not hesitate to say 1500-2000 birds at any given time. You can hear and smell them for miles before you see them.

What really makes it bad is the predators have figured this easy food source out. Now you would think the coyotes, eagles and wolves picking off a few birds would be great, correct? Well it actually causes them to eat twice as many fish. These Pelicans are so gorged on walleye when they are startled, such as a wolf charging over the bank or a boat coming around the corner at them they vomit. They vomit every last bit of food in there stomach so they can fly. Vomit then lift off to make four circles before setting back down to refill the belly.

Some birds will consume 8-10 lbs of food a day as they expelled the first 5 pounds to flee or take flight. This is actually a problem the researchers talked about as they need to catch the pelicans AND what they vomit to get a good calculation on just how many pounds of walleyes are turning into the smelliest mess you have ever seen or smelled...and it is a god awful stink.

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that sounds like a good time...do you take people on river cruises to expierience this great smell? haha just kidding

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Geez, sounds way worse than "pooh patrol". So much for outside grilling, especially if the wind is wrong smirk

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I've come up on a mess of pelicans in the boat and they dump ballast to lighten the load for takeoff but it wasn't vomit. I have seen coots do the same thing. It's quite a chum slick when a few hundred are all "pickling" at the same time.

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Any new pictures/progress on the ice?

Thanks to all who have been keeping us updated.

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Lots of desperate wishes as of late but the truth of the matter is.

full-10775-32796-may6th.jpg

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Yep I looked at that as well...at least we aren't coming up until the 16th, so we've got that going for us...which is nice.

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Here is a picture showing the ice hanging tough right at the drop off mark, makes as that is where the ice gets thicker.

full-10775-32882-dsc00823.jpg

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I see legal fishable water in the picture.

Let's all go line up along the channel and hammer the eyes as they work their way up stream.

I'm loath to cancel my reservations. It looks like I can bring my jon boat and drag it out onto the ice, drill some holes and have fun off the first break.

Heck, I can even use two lines on opener this year. sick

And I won't have to worry about that west wind whipping up the lake!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • mulefarm
      With the early ice out, how is the curlyleaf pondweed doing?
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • leech~~
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    • Rick G
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    • monstermoose78
    • monstermoose78
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    • monstermoose78
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    • monstermoose78
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    • smurfy
      good......you?? living the dream..in my basement playing internet thug right now!!!!!! 🤣 working on getting the boat ready.......bought a new cheatmaster locator for the boat so working on that.   waiting for warmer weather to start my garden!!!
    • monstermoose78
      How is everyone doing? Holy moly it’s chilly this morning I stayed in bed and will hunt later today when it warms up.
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