Hanson's URL Report (Feb 9-11)

[hanson]

Every time I make the long journey to Upper Red Lake, old man winter is there to welcome me. This trip was no different. It was cold, lows down to -15 and it was windy, gusts up to 25mph. When you do the math, that adds up to a cold wind chill.

My fishing partner for the weekend was FishingMinnesota Pro Staff Tyler Holm. This was Tyler's first trip up to Upper Red Lake and after the fishing we experienced, I hope it wasn't his last.

Fishing was tough to say the least. Mobility on the ice was severely hampered by the cold and the wind. When you are trying to hunt the crappies down, mobility is your greatest ally! Having to sit in your portable to escape the elements isn't the most mobile way to fish.

In typical Red Lake fashion, walleyes were not difficult to find and catch.

We caught walleyes in my portable shack!

We caught walleyes in my permanent shack!

We caught walleyes at Roger's Campground, we caught walleyes on Hillman's Rd.

The funny thing about the walleyes though, is I was catching the big ones and Tyler was catching the small ones. Most of my fish were running 16-19". Most of Tyler's fish were running 8-12". I guess if you ask Tyler, he would say that wasn't funny! In all my years of fishing Red, I've never seen anyone catch so many small walleyes!

Well... Here's a walleye Tyler finally caught that was camera worthy!

Of course the highlight for the trip was catching the crappies, or maybe I should say crappie. That is singular. Crappie. 1 Crappie. And unfortunately, it took my bobber down. I should have passed the rod to Tyler so he could catch his first but I didn't know it was a crappie until it was flopping at the top of the hole and we were both yelling at the top of our lungs while scrambling to grab it.

The weekend was fun! We met up with some old friends at Hillman's Tall Tales- Norm (fiskyknut), Ken (Labs4me), Jonny P, Kelly P, Matt (huntingislife) & Nikki. We told some stories, or I should say listen to Jonny P tell stories, ate some pizza and had a few beers.

It was a good weekend but I think Tyler is ready for a rematch already!

[Tyler Holm]

It was a truly eventful trip and I thank you for that Hanson. We caught a lot of fish, and shared hundreds of stories. It don’t get much better than that (except the crappies could have cooperated a bit more)

Those smaller buggers just seemed attracted to my side of the shack. It was so frustrating, it became funny.

We put a few perch on the ice as well, with some of then nearing 11”.

Thanks again hanson, I’m already pondering a “revenge” trip but it’s looking like it will have to be next ice season.

It was great to meet everyone else that Hanson mentioned as well. That was so neat to walk into a bar that I'd never been in and immediately know 4, 5, or 6 people.