Red Lake Remote Ice Fishing report 12/19 - 12/21

[Living_The_Dream]

First things first - top notch operation Jonny knows what he is doing and does it like no one else. If you get a chance to book a trip with him you will not be disappointed. I'm already looking for my next open date.

Fishing was awesome, ended up catching just a hair under 100 walleyes for the weekend with 35 walleyes in the upper slot (20+) and the biggest being 25", 9 perch and a bonus pike. They were biting on the Rattlin Flyer's glow red, Perch Talker glow white and plain red hook. The night bite for us was nearly all night, picking up 2-3 walleyes every hour with the best night bite being 1030pm - 330am.

Kelly missed not seeing you, but Jonny said you have been busy staying out of trouble, hard to believe that and I didn't even get lost getting out to the fish house, only because Jonny drove us out there. But the fish house did "drift" a bit on us, love those pressure ridges

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Ice Fishing season.

[Cloud Town]

Living........ I am looking at going up to URL this coming weekend and am trying to decide where to put the house. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews from this last weekend. Where did you go out of and how deep were you fishing?

[fishin4sum]

Simple, head out to an area where someone else is not fishing and punch a hole. Does not matter where you put out from. JR's, Roger's Mort's, Hillman's, Beacon Harbor, West Wind..... The key is to stay away form other people. You should not be able to make somones face out. If you can you are fishing to close to them. I have been out of nearly all mentioned and caught plenty everywhere!

[leech~~]

Living........ I am looking at going up to URL this coming weekend and am trying to decide where to put the house. I have heard a lot of mixed reviews from this last weekend. Where did you go out of and how deep were you fishing?

If he went with Jonny P, unless you have a Sled or track you may not get there! Jonny does his own thing and bring his folks out to where he wants with a track. Notice the post title above!

[Fishalittle]

Simple, head out to an area where someone else is not fishing and punch a hole. Does not matter where you put out from. JR's, Roger's Mort's, Hillman's, Beacon Harbor, West Wind..... The key is to stay away form other people. You should not be able to make somones face out. If you can you are fishing to close to them. I have been out of nearly all mentioned and caught plenty everywhere!

Boy I wish it was that easy! Tried 3 spots this weekend and didn't have those results!

Congrats to Jonny on what appears to be a good start to his new adventure. Hopefully the east/northeast side can get across that ridge soon and break the chain holding us a mile off shore with vehicles. Its almost as bad as last years slush!

[Scrod]

Living-

I'm heading up on Friday-Monday with Jonny. I'm excited but a couple the guys I am going with are now getting concerned about not being able to leave the shack is there any chance for a guy to drive out there with a truck? Thanks for the report I can't wait to SET THE HOOK.

[IceRube76]

Myself and 7 friends will also be in Jonny's shacks this weekend. Id suggest bringing a wheeler or snowmobile with ya. That way you can go to shore to get things like ice or a spatchula. Eveybody forgets the ice and spatchula!

[Scrod]

I have a wheeler to bring but was hoping to not bring my trailer up which would save a few bucks on gas and the trip would be speedier as well.

[Red Lake Remote]

For those that want to run back and forth to shore I suggest a snowmobile or wheeler. Lots of groups are bringing them, but I have only seen one group use them. If guys want to run into the bar or restaurant or have reservations about not having a vehicle sitting outside the shack I recommend booking with a plowed road outfitter, lots of quality outfitters around the lake to chose from. Red Lake Remote is just what the name indicates, remote. I base how Red Lake Remote operates purely on the quality of the fishing experience, we go where the fish are no matter what it takes but I do not put much effort into ease of access to on shore amenities during your stay. Red Lake Remote is a sleeping on ice fishing experience similar to a remote outpost or carry in lake in the summer, think backcountry cabins. Is it for everybody? No, it is not, actually it is a small percentage of anglers that want to fish this way and that is fine as I am a very small operation. Yes, I have had groups cancel since they can not get to the bar and that is fine, they can book with those operations directly and the road leads from the shack right to the bar, that is part of what they offer. I don't want a single angler to come to Red Lake not be happy. Every outfitter offers something a little unique. Some have satellite TV in the houses, some have ultra plush houses, some work as part of the resort/bar/restaurant experience. I/Red Lake Remote went extreme with ultra mobile shacks, isolated areas without crowds, and hopefully, with a smaller yet very mobile fleet I can keep the houses on a better bite all winter long.

For those traveling around my area or back and forth from the shacks.

Traveling back and forth to the shack, you will still need to be very careful even with the farthest house right now only 3/4 of a mile off shore. To be honest if was trying to plow to my houses this year and not run on track machines I would not be able to do it. I have a MASSIVE pressure right off of the shore that is pushing up six foot sections of ice daily and leaving a three foot wide crack in its wake when the pieces breakoff. I have hired the neighbor with his loader tractor to help remove the massive sheets of ice almost daily. (See picture below) South of me or between me and Hillman's road is what we nicknamed "Confused Crack" the crack varies from 2 inches to 3 feet wide depending on the weather and is the most jagged, winding crack I have ever seen, lots of pie shaped pieces and switchbacks that would gobble up anything it wants. For now, I am actually trapped in the area I wanted to be. I have a gentleman's agreement I will not go east towards Beacon Harbor's area crowding them as they would not come way west the 6- 7 miles to crowd into me (how it is supposed to work when neighbors get along and respect each other), I have confused crack to the south, I could cross it with the flatbed trailer load of 36 foot bridge planking I bought, but no need to as we are finding good fishing close to shore. I have a reservation line to the west. We are trapped in our little corner of the lake and I am just fine with that, actually I like how it worked out, other than the purely evil pressure ridge and it's little temper tantrums every day.

[bturck]

Good luck with the venture Jonny, you have your own corner of heaven out there. Hopefully mother nature cooperaaates a little more and you can enjoy a bit more mobility. Oh, and Merry Christmas to you

[Whopper Stopper]

Good luck Jonny!

Wishing you all the best!

WS

[fishin4sum]

Fishalittle, if you are not fishing the night bite you will not do as well as you see people posting. Landed 75% of my fish between sunset and sunrise. You need to be on the ice fishing to catch them. The night bite has been very consistant for me most everywhere. Day bite has been sporadic. Great one day, not so much the next. And that pressure ridge is very LOW like! Spooky crossing the bridge with a 17' wheel house! Saw a truck with its rear end sticking up in the air and its front end under water about 200 yards west of the bridge crossing on Sunday. Had to be drunk or stupid to try crossing like that. As they say, "can't fix stupid!"

[Frank D]

Flyers work great they have a good selection at the cenex store in waskish

[Fishalittle]

Believe me I know about the night bite, I tell the guys at work I had to come home to get some sleep! However this last trip our access of choice could not get across the ridge and so fresh ice spots were limited and we could not seem to get on the fish! Moved to tree different spots, turns out the 1st was probably the best...but night action was limited both nights we were there. The lake brought us back to reality and we will enjoy the hot bites more now. I hear the bridges are now in place and so am anxiously awaiting Friday for another go at it! I play it very safe on the ice as I usually have small kids along...so no extra risk chances for us.

[fishin4sum]

Yes, West Wind put one out on Thursday last week. I was in untouched waters for most part. i am sure that probably made a difference.

[Boreas]

Flyers work great they have a good selection at the cenex store in waskish

Captian Obvious just crashed a commercial, sideways, for his store into this thread.

[Waskish36]

This is no different than all of the outfitters posting fishing reports, bragging about the hundreds of fish they are catching. I don't see a problem with it. Good to see that there is a wide selection of tackle available in waskish.