searching for the elusive upper red lake crapiie

Well it’s set in stone march 9th and 10th Jake has a couple of guys coming up. I offered them lodging for 25 a man per night .We will be spending saturday searchiong for the mother load. We found them a few years ago or should I say jake and spense found them. They forgot to tell the rest of us though and they landed 40 that late afternoon. Should be a great time on a grand lake. We will all meet at hillmens in the am and head out from there. Bring plenty of gas and a extension as we will be working rough ice more then likly. I will be putting my extension on tomorrow as its that time of year.

The wife Kellie and I spent 3 1/2 hours fishing in minnesota last night and having valentines dinner. The dinner was wacking ,shrimp,baked potato and broc;y.We enjoyed watching the movie Money ball which the wife liked witch surprised me
.We each even managed to catch a keeper a piece.

Today I will be moving florida and minnesota to new spots as my brother will be arriving from chicago tomorrow. California and montana will be together for Bob and his sister.
Peg and Jim arrive today for montana and will be here two nights. I’m thinking of moving arizona next to the north shore pressure ridge .
I would like to find a spot a little deeper for California and montana next to rough ice for the weekend as Bob is a dedicated fishermen and will be pounding the ice for two days looking for a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie.

I heard a rumor of 30 crappies caught by three guys out of hillmens access. I just talked to Buddy and he said Larry saw them so it was confirmed they were caught. Buddy said he tried to find the spot they were fishing but had no luck.I guess thats good news and bad news. Bob, Steff and the kids are working a area of rough ice all most to th ereservation line where I did well three years ago. Bob thinks he has lost a couple and also may of lost one in montana last night. Californa with tony kristi and maddison also had better action last night after 8 . They also had a wonderful time enjoying the northern lites last night.
Minnesota is now on a new spot and we are awaitting the arrival of kellies brothers and sis.

Our group is going to Winnie Thu to Sun this week. Might take a run up to Red one afternoon to chase walleyes. Are there a lot of ice heaves this year restricting traffic? We had hoped to hit one of the many rock piles.

There is a lot of rough ice this year. The pressure ridge has a bridge at each resort. You can cross country all most any where. The rough ice areas have more snow so you have to keep a eye out for them. All so some of th eberms may have slush under them along the main roads.

Wow have i been busy. The wife sister and brothers did not do as well and went home with 8 keepers plus a dozen perch. We got dumped on with snow monday night and tuesday and wednesday were spent opening up the main road and the trails running to my houses. Tuesday I took the red baron to the houses to make sure there was not flooding from the drift and buried the red baron. I guess I should of called somone as it took me a hour and half to dig out and it wiped me out. I was totaly drained. Yesterday I spent the day moving snow and moving montana and california to new spots. Today I will prep montana for Julie and her husband and then get the other 3 houses moved for the final weekend of walleye.
Jake will be up tonight chasing crappie for two days so I will be cutting a few trails for him.

These three were caught with in 200 yards of montana and minnesota plus they caught two more today

The boys are up to 10 yes ten .They even caught a small 10 incher

I wish I could say one of us caught a elusive upper red lake crappie this weekend but it did not happen.Matt and Mark did go home with a nice bucket of perch so they have a couple of good meals.
The depth of the snow has taken its toll on running and gunning as at this time it is a chore to move around on foot. Good exercise though.
I will be leaving the area I have been working as the crappies have moved on.
Today I will plow into a new area and set up florida for steave and his buddy, Then off to get minnesota and bring it over so the wife and I can enjoy the house for the week..
There were not many fishermen out there this weekend as you could count them on one hand. On a good note there were a couple of crappies caught but the guys had to work for them as there is no road into that area as its being saved? Jake did take the prospetor over there but he had to stay on there tracks and I know he wanted me to plow in there.
There was also a hard house set up on some rough ice.They sadi they did not catch any crappies but I wonder. Working the broken rough ice has worked all season.The biggest problem is the so much of it it would take a army to fish even a fraction of it.10 guys on the lake just will not cut it. Will give it a try next weekend as Jake has 5 guys coming up friday eve,He says there die hards so will see.

It had been a interesting start to our hunt to say the least. First this is what I had to deal with thursday.

good ol mother nature making a mess o of things.
Then the 5 guys that were coming with Jake turned to two plus Doug bailed at the last minute. Heres a pic of the guys working it hard looking for the elusive upper red lake crappie

We brought the grand kids out with us and Kellie did manage to get here crappie

The plan is to have dinner with the kids again out there today and enjoy the lake and house

Its that time a year to give a valent attemp to land a few of the elusive upper red lake crappies. Last night was the first night I targetted them. Working the north shore in 3 feet of water with a whitle flu-flu was the ticket as I landed 4, Jen landed two and Jake landed four. We kept 7 for dinner tonight and released three that we figured were females. All in all a

good start as we only fished a little over 2 hours.