First trip, any suggestions?

[fishingguy]

I hope to make my first trip ever to red in a few weeks. I'm wondering about type of tackle, rods, ect... to bring? Standard pan fish tackle and lite rods, or something heavier. Any thoughts? Thx!!!

[Juan Grande]

fishingguy,

We fish primarily with panfish set ups, but it's not a bad idea to use a little heavier line in case you hook into a walleye or pike.

Stop by a bait store in the area and ask what they're biting on. Usually, we buy some red or blue glow jigs at the bait stores up there. If you're using a dead stick then ice buster bobbers are a must. You can pinch them off for less resistance. Made all the difference in the world for us last year.

I'd also suggest getting a mixture of crappie minnows and fatheads. If you can find the slabs, they're not picky between the two and you might get more action from other species on the fatheads.

Just make sure you have a variety of jig colors and sizes. If you find fish you might have to switch baits until you find what they want. For us, it was red glow jigs two years ago and then only blue/white ones last year that worked.

Good luck!

[aanderud]

Good tips, here's our report from the weekend, which backs up the fact that panfish line you're used to might be too weak!

We stopped at the minnow station Sat a.m. and got some bait and food. Went out to the end of the road plus about 1/2 mile further and maybe 3/4 mile south of there. We were at least 1/3 mile from the nearest houses and about 1 mile from the reservation. Caught 2 craps in the a.m. plus a couple of walleyes and some perch, but then nothing between 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. except perch. Moved to 4 different spots during that time looking for them, must have drilled 100 holes or so. Oh, I forgot there was about a 29 inch northern in there at lunchtime, he wouldn't eat a minnow but he chomped on a euro larva after my buddy switched to that due to lack of a better option. The thing was hanging out under his vex for like 30-35 minutes before he bit. It was hilarious. We both ate lunch while it stared at the minnow not eating it. Anyway, so things were REALLY slow in the daytime.

Oh, be careful out about 1/4 mile from the line -- there's a huge North/South running crack and not a lot of ice. In fact, we kicked a heave and there's open water in that 5 foot section now....not a good sign, but we saw a minimum of 14 inches everywhere else and a max of 24 inches or so. Plenty other than that cracked spot.

Then at 6 pm we got into some action. Had 10 more crappies and a couple eyes iced between then and 8 pm -- too bad a couple of the craps decided to break off the line as we were pulling them out of the hole -- note to self, URL craps can't always hold their own weight by their lips, and 2 lb test isn't good enuf...

Nothing biting after 8 pm. Finally gave up at 9:45. I don't know what it was, maybe they would have picked up again later, say midnight or so. We should have slept during the day and fished all night I guess. Didn't know the fish were so daytime-shy. Oh well. All in all a great trip. Ended up with some eatin slabs, a few wallguys to throw back, keeping the action up, and some good conversation with a good buddy. Pretty much what fishin is all about.