Upper Red Lake Slabfest 2006!!

[18 inch Crappie]

Anyone going to have room for this Crappie Master to crash? Going up by myself or I might have to sleep in my 4x8.

[moby1]

Indeed powerstroke, be prepared for a great time. Some coworkers and myself will be up that weekend in a sleeper out of westwind. I hope to make the slabfest but that may depend on how tame the festivities are where we are. It took me 3 years/trips to finally hook into one of those crappies and never been on them fast and furious but every trip was worth it. Plan on bringing a couple gallons of gas for the auger if you really want to find the crops.

Hope to see you all up there!

[CatManLee]

I am planning on being there too. I'll have my sleeper, probably going to come up Saturday and stay through Sunday. I would like to bring my sled too, but I only have one hitch!

Sounds like fun, looking forward to meeting some more FM'rs.

Hanson, When will we know were to meet on the Ice? It is a big lake!

See ya there.

[hanson]

Quote:

---

Hanson, When will we know were to meet on the Ice? It is a big lake!

---

Stay tuned folks! I'm going to be up at Red this weekend and will probably be moving my shack. Once its moved, I'll get some directions and coordinates to the location as well as a general meeting time. I'll probably do up some maps as well and leave them inside the lodge at Roger's.

More detailed info to follow, should be posted sometime on Monday. Sounds like its going to be a cold weekend up there this week.

[Mrs Boilerman]

Hi there. I'm supposed to find out for Boilerguy where he's supposed to go on Saturday. He wants GPS coordinates or something like that. He's with our two teenage boys right now on Lake of the Woods - they're bonding, or something to that effect. He's heading for URL in a few days and will hit Slabfest on Saturday. So does anybody want to help me tell him where to go?

[hanson]

Mrs. Boilerman-

Check this link out 1st-

Slabfest 2006 Details

Then send me an e-mail at my address below and I'll give you my phone number.

He can call me if he needs some direction to find us.

[Mrs Boilerman]

Thanks, Chris. I knew someone couldn't resist getting a chance to tell Boilerguy where to go. I know I enjoy it every now and then.

[Captain B.R.K]

Can't wait, only 8 more hours of work tomorrow and I'll be headed up to URL with Hanson!! Looking forward to seeing a lot of you on the ice.

[woodman]

Bring your Shovel and 4x4!

Here on the banks of Lower Red we are getting pounded right now with the snow. We are expected to receive 3-8 inches from now until 6 pm tonight.

[huntingislife]

Oh boy, thats one thing I needed to remember.....a shovel. Well I will be heading up in about 4 hours. Hopefully the snow doesnt slow down travel

[woodman]

Attention

All the schools are closing early today due to the road conditons. The roads are nice a slipery and the snow is getting deeper and deeper.

It should be a scary ride home from Red Lake this afternoon.

Drive slow, be safe and make sure you have your winter survival gear with.

[Powerstroke]

Unfortunately I have to label this SLAB-BUST. Me and my buddy caught absolutely nothing in the 6 hours we camped out near the pressure ridge everyone talked about. We were just past the shack with the Bud Light banner but no one else came over there. Oh well.

[woodman]

The wife and I couldn't find the clan either. We arrived late, so we didn't look too long. The wife caught one eye, and two perch. Lots of lookers buy no takers. I caught zippo.

[hanson]

Powerstroke-

It ended up being a really tough bite on Saturday night. I'm not sure how many guys we had fishing and I can count around 15 total crappies caught. Its safe to put the majority of the blame on the cold front Alberta Clipper that blasted through.

Conditions were less than ideal but I've come to expect that whenever I go to Red. I've been fishing up there fairly consistently in the winter for 6 or 7 years now and I'm lucky to get 1 or 2 "perfect" weekends in a winter.

I know that myself, Jon, and Paul all saw crappies on our flashers because we caught a few of them, it was just 1 in 10 fish that would even sniff at your bait. We found them 2-3' off the bottom, they would hang there, and then slowly slide down to the bottom on your flasher and they'd be gone.

The big slap in the face is when Paul Waldowski caught 3 crappies this morning camped right outside my ice shack. We were sleeping good when Paul is banging on the door telling us he just got a big crappie. We got our lines in and had 2 or 3 fish on our flashers that acted like crappies. Captain BRK got a hookset into 1 but lost it halfway up to the hole.

What can you do? Thats fishing and thats the way Red Lake is at times. If nothing else, I hope you were able to listen in to our conversations and pick up a few tips. Jon Petrowske KNOWS Red Lake and I was listening intently everytime he had something to say about the lake.

I know I had a good time and I hope everyone else did as well.

I think I'm going to host "The Return of the Slab, Slabfest II" next year. Hopefully, walleyes will still be fair game by late winter.

I guess I'd just like to thank everyone for coming and hanging out. It was -27 below early Saturday morning and we had a fresh 12 inches of snow on the lake. Even those conditions can scare me away from the lake.

Here's Captain B.R.K. with a big 14 1/4 incher before the sun went down.

[RogersResort]

Hey everyone thanks for coming, Joani and I actually had a pretty good weekend, I did not have to spend too much time in the plow truck and nobody got me out of bed in the middle of the night to pull them out of the ditch.

We met a few new fishermen and were reintroduced to a couple of old ones, I have to thank everyone for leaving the lake the way they found it, it has been a real treat this year not having to pick up a truck load of litter off the lake every monday.

Too bad the weather had to change so drastically, we actually had a pretty good bite going on for most of the week, oh well at least the winds stayed down, it could have gotten real ugly with all of that loose snow on the lake.

Again thanks, Jerry and Joani @ ROGERS'

[Random guy]

Quote:

---

Jon Petrowske KNOWS Red Lake and I was listening intently everytime he had something to say about the lake.

---

First off thanks for the Kudos Hanson but I must pass that on to KellyP. What little I know about that lake I have learned from following behind him through the years. That was his spot as are the other 12,000 rolling around in his built in GPS.

Also thank you Outsider for having the roads in perfect shape so soon after the snow, and I must say your staff is super freindly...even at 6am! I also heard nothing but good things about the roads, service and good info from the fishermen on the lake.

huntingislife, send me a email so I can return you a pretty good pic of you and your fishing buddy.

[Captain B.R.K]

Who is that guy with the good lookin' marcum flasher, I mean who is wearing that Thorne Bros hat, I mean..... Nice picture Jon!

The weather probably played a big part for numbers in attendence to the 1st Slabfest! But I thought we had a pretty good turn out knowing the area had just got dumped with several inches of new snow.

Being on the ice after a post storm isn't the best time to be on the ice with high expectations, but we were all determined to have fun and try to catch at least 1 crappie on this trip to URL.

I know I had a great time hanging out and meeting some of you for the first time. A HUGE thanks to Jon for the picture taking and Kelly P for pointing us in the right direction to some active fish Saturday night and Hanson for putting this all together!!

Yes the fish didn't bite as well as Hanson had thought they would, but none-the-less we did catch some fish. The first fish of the day is my biggest crappie to date for me My eyes just bug out when I see those SLABS come through the hole!!

Again thanks for all that attended and making it a great weekend!! To bad it went so stinkin' fast!!

[iceman16]

hey just got home. had a blast even tho i still havent hooked into one of those URL slabs(i guess that means i got to go back up again this year) it was great gettin to put a couple names to faces. my buddy caught a 14" and i think he plans on puttin it on the wall. and a huge thanks to all the guys that helped push us out of a couple spots. if it wasnt for all ya i think we would still be fishin out there. even tho it was alot of fun to go flyin across the lake holdin on to the roof rack it was alittle cold. weel thanks agian looks like ill see some of ya at cool cats.

shawn

[Eric Wettschreck]

iceman16, shoot me your e-mail addy so I can send the pictures I took to ya.

My boys and I had a real good time. It was nice to put some faces to the names. It was cold, and we got a workout pushing icemans suv out, but it was fun.

Thanks Hanson for setting it up!!

[hanson]

Quote:

---

The first fish of the day is my biggest crappie to date for me

My eyes just bug out when I see those SLABS come through the hole!!

---

I've been catching them for years Brandon and my eyes still bug out!

I know we had a number of Upper Red first timers with us and I think a few of them got crappies. I know "Huntingislife" got his 1st URL crappie along with a few others. They were 14 inchers as well. Thats so cool when you can see the look on someone's face when they've never caught one of these crappies before.

JERRY- I owe you a big thanks. We pulled into the shack about midnight on Friday night and there is a nice road plowed right to it. You sure surprised me. With all the other plowing you had to do after the 1' of snow, I can't believe you found time to bust me a little trail. Thanks again!

[Random guy]

Iceman16, boilerguy,and huntingislife:

Send me a email and I will return with some of the photos I got from this weekends events.

Boilerguy, you do not show up on film to well? Kinda spooky.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've been told I have a habit of not showing up. Spooky, very spooky.

[wolfman-k]

Hanson, thanks for putting this together. The bite was tough to say the least. It was nice to meet some more FM fishermen this week-end. We ended up with only one 12" crappie, plus a couple of keeper perch and a few C&R healthy walleyes. We tried out at the end of Hillman's road on Sunday, we were nine miles out. Some lookers, but few takers. I lost a beaut at the top of the hole, but that's fishing! I hope to make next years' Slabfest II.

[roadbuilder]

2 of us fished sat just east of the main slabfest group caught a few eyes @pearch but no slabs always a good time any way

[huntingislife]

First of all I would like to say thanks to Chris for putting this on. It was great to get a chance to meet you guys and get some experience on this lake. Those crappies are unreal. We are planning a trip back up in a couple weeks. That was nice of Jon to find us a spot for saturday night. We fished sunday in the same spot as saturday and ended up catching 2 crappies and losing a nice pike. We didnt really mark too many fish though. Nikki caught a 13" on sunday and was real happy. I was glad she got to catch one of those monsters. Hopefully next time we can get a few more, just as long as we don't get a big storm right before again

Oh and BRK thanks for the venison brats, they were sure tasty.

Hopefully we can get a chance to go fishing with you guys some time again.

[rockyhook]

We camped across the road from you Hanson. We only ended up with one 14 inch crappie, Sunday morning, but had a great time anyway. We caught 3 eyes in the low 20's and many smaller ones, also about 25 perch. I have to get one of those Vex/Marcums, it adds a good bit of entertainment value, and is a good tool. Of course it also added to the frustrastion, as my fishin buddy graphed so many fish who weren't hungary.

[Powerstroke]

I didn't mean to start the recap of the event with such sour grapes.

This was my first URL trip and my buddy and I caught lots of fish through Mort's, unfortunatley no crappies. We also caught lots of fish during the snow. This included a 30" northern on 2lb test and a 23.5 walleye on sat. night after leaving the group.

I will be coming back for sure next year and maybe even again this winter.

[Paul Waldowski]

Troy,

Nice to see you finally registered

Great to see you again. Now I just have to find a day and when I can drop in on Tim

[CatManLee]

I didn't get there till around 5pm Saturday, so missed meeting most of you. Hanson, I tryed getting you on the radio, but didn't get you. My GPS showed I was 1-mile south? of you. I was just north of the first side road that turned right. Anyways fishing was extremely slow. Total for Saturday Night and Sunday till about 3:00pm I caught roughly 10 Walleye, 1 Perch (10 1/2"'s) and 4 big Crappies. 3 of the Crappies came from 7:30-8:00 Saturday Night and the other was caught at 12:30am.

The fishing could have been better, but it was nice to get out. I did talk to someone Saturday Night on my radio, but not sure who it was, I was getting alot of static, so who were you. You told me I wasn't jigging my rod right!

Sorry I wasn't a little more fun to BS with, but I was trying my hardest to make out what you were saying and I had probably had a few too many beers.

Oh well. if you do another SlabFest next year I'll be there again. By the way, I used almost a tank of gas through my auger looking for fish, and every fish I caught came through my hard house!! Atleast I tried. And boy did those Crappies taste good today.

[hanson]

Quote:

---

I didn't mean to start the recap of the event with such sour grapes.

---

Don't sweat it man. I don't want to sound like a broken record but that is a part of Red Lake. You can go up there and get your butt handed to you, yet you are chomping at the bit to go back and try again. I thought if we had enough people spread out, we'd stumble into something good, rally the troops, and have an awesome time catching fish. Nobody stumbled onto something good though.

I fished Red for 3 weekends in a row around X-mas and managed 1 crappie! That 1 crappie came from Hillman's Rd as well. I don't think we've caught a crappie out of my permanent shack this winter other than Waldowski catching 3 right outside of it on Sunday morning.

The thing to remember is we are still in February and we were fishing post cold front. Not good timing. The bite generally keeps getting better through March & into April (if safe ice is still left). I held the Slabfest on that weekend as to not compete with other FM events. A Slabfest in late March would be perfect but permanent shacks aren't on the lake anymore and ice conditions are hard to anticipate.

Congrats on that 23 1/2" eye. I haven't landed one that big up there yet. All of mine are in the "cookie cutter" 16-18" range.