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Weekend Report 2/16 - 2/18


BLACKJACK

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I love the big tug and arch in your rod as you're setting the hook on those big Red Lake crappies (and walleyes)!!

Got back yesterday from another successful trip, my brother and I rented a house from Kelly and Jon. We ended up with 22 crappies (8 Friday, 9 Sat, 5 Sunday morning), approximately 26 walleyes, and one 27 inch northern. The walleyes were all in the 12-19" range, we ended up taking home four nice 16 inchers. We didn't catch any really big ones but those 17-19 inch fish were nice and plump and fun to catch!!

We had to work for the crappies. Most were caught outside the hardhouse, we set up a 60 yard loop outside the house, at the end of the loop was my portable (The Outpost) with fresh bait, then we had holes drilled every 20 feet in a circle. Every 15 minutes from 4 until 6 I'd make the loop with my Vexilar and rod/reel. It was 'combat fishing', windy and cold, the snow was blowing in my holes, it was cold enough to freeze them up, when I couldn't bust thru with my transducer, I'd get my brother to run around and skim them all again. I'd make the loop, go warm up, get some liquid refreshments, and swap out rods so the first one could defrost, and then go back out. It was work but it ended up paying off, I caught most of our fish on the outside loop while my brother, sitting in the house caught next to zip. At one point on Friday night, I caught three crappies in a row, the last two without a minnow head on my jig!! Rebaited and tried the next hole, caught two more right away!! One of those fun crappie times when you’re trying to get your jig down the hole ASAP, the Vexilar wasn’t lit up but the minute my jig hit the bottom, a fish would show up and chase it.

Best time of day for us was the normal crappie time of dusk, right about the time I needed to turn on my headlamp. By 7 PM the bite was done. We did get a flurry Sunday morning. I had set my alarm for 5:30 AM, caught nothing. About 7:30 (sunrise) when my brother leisurely rolled out of bed, he started catching walleyes right away, and I picked up 5 crappies. We had to leave by 9; it would have been fun to fish longer to see if the crappie bite continued during the day. I'll always wonder what would have happened if I had popped those outside holes open and moved around, whether we would have continued with a good day bite. Oh well.

Jig color didn’t seem to matter, red, green, plain, when the hot bite was on, they bit anything. Rattle reels actually produced better during the day, especially for walleyes. Only caught one walleye at night on the rattle reels.

Kelly and Jon provided good service, as per usual. Jon fixed our heater on Sat, and then came back and double checked us before dark. Kelly seems to have assimilated Jon into the business just fine; it gives him more time for wandering and BS’ing!!!

Overall a very fun trip!! Caught lots of fish, had a nice fish fry, had fun!!! Wish I would have reserved another weekend in March! I REALLY wish the Red was only a two hour drive instead of 4 1/2 !!!! I’d be there every weekend!!!

Gotta love the big tug and arch in your rod as you're setting the hook on those big Red Lake crappies!!!!!

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Nice I am glad you caught fish.

I was up there on Friday night to early Sunday. We did not get into the crappies but we did well on the eyes. We caught 40-45 walleyes (only about 12 under 17", the rest over 17", biggest was 22"), one 13" crappie, a few small perch and one 36" northern.

It was a blast. It was my first red trip, and I will defintely be going back. The sound of rattle reels going off is such sweet music.

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You and Northsider#13 had the same house. It is interesting how the bite changed over the weekend. Brian was able to sit in the house and you guys had to work hard outside.

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The fishing in the house seemed to be picking up Sunday morning, I sure would have liked to stay a couple more hours to see if a day bite developed....

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Well I WAS UP THERE FRIDAY TO SUNDAY IT WAS SLOW ON THE CRAPPIES 8 FOR THE THREE DAYS TWO LIMITS OF WALLEYE

THREW BACK ABOUT 50 WALLEYE WITH A LOT OF THEM KEEPER

STILL FUN 6.5 MILES OUT OF HILLMANS JUST NORTH OF THE YELLOW PLANE THAT LANDED THAT WAS COOL!!

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We were up all weekend, managed 14 slabs and 40 eyes. Our afternoon and evening bites were horrible, but the mornings were very good, starting at about 6:30 and going until about 9. But we can't complain, we caught fish and ahd fun!!

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Group of 3 went up Sunday night fished through Monday mid-day. Ended up with a lot of nice walleyes! The morning bite was good and steady with lots of keepers and some too big up to 20". We had our limit before noon Monday, but could not catcha crappie. It was a fun trip and we will be back. Most fish on the rattle reels but about 1/3 on jigging spoons, when you saw them on the flasher most bit but not all.

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Kelly, the important thing was you had the house in an area with fish, I didn't mind working for them!!!

Thanks again!

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yeah, I have only rented a house once in my life and it was from kelly and jon. Had a heck of a time in a great set up.

Anyways, was back up friday, got on the lake at about 7am and went out a little farther than 5.5miles. Found a spot that put the two of us away from everyone. Popped some holes and liked what I was seeing on the 20th hole. set up and first 5 minutes had a 30" pike through the hole. No longer than 5minutes after that pike swam we pulled our first slab up. In the next 30min we ended up with 6 on the ice. Caught them on both the eye dropper fire tiger colors and a pink demon. Nice to have 16" come up through my hole, biggest for the year for me. The rest of the day was steady walleye bite picked up numerous 14"-18" eyes. biggest around noon on a varmint 22". Also caught 10 jumbo perch that found the bucket. About 3:00 to go to the bathroom and when I was coming back in the house I seen the other guy loosing a nice slab on my rod down the hole. The walleyes continued and that was pretty much it, picked up 2 more slabs at 7:30pm and that was it. We ended up leaving the lake around 8:30 with 8 crappies, 4 eyes, 10 jumbos between 2 guys, enough for a good nights meal.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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