first timer

I’m taking my eight year old to PortaVilla ice fishing. This will be our first time to URL. Sounds like it is a little hit or miss lately around there. We will be bringing auger and a few tip ups for some chance pike. Anything advice for the first voyage would be helpful. leaving from Rochester. Must be bait on the way there I’m assuming
Thanks

Auger extension.
Get awat from the crowds if you can.
That always has a key factor for us on URL.

Good luck

Portavilla is out of rogers resort. They usually have fat heads and sometimes shiners. Keep the lights dim and the noise down.

No need for an auger extension as of last weekend. Most reports are showing 20″ of ice. Bring a snowmobile if you have one and keep mobile if you can. Portavilla has a great reputation on URL but they are limited as far as moving you around. During late January & February moving and keeping mobile seems to bee the key. We move until we find fish. Somedays its 8-10 holes drilled other days it can be well over 100. Good Luck and have fun!

Portavilla will move you around in portables. They will put you on fish. Call them early to get out in the portables.

I was up there 2 weeks ago during their warm up for 2 days. The change in the weather did not help the bite the first day which was basically non existent. Second day they seemed to get used to the change and fishing really picked up. Still most of the fish we caught were on almost neutrally weighted bobber rods or tip downs. The fish did not like the rattle reels and I’m assuming it was because of the little bit of extra weight it took to take the bait. You can pick up bait in Bemidji on the way up. Dont waste your time on expensive emerald shiners as the fatheads outfished them 4 to 1. Do to the heavy snow i would not recommend drilling too close to your sleeper shack or you will be surrounded by slush. Travel off the plowed roads is impossible without a snowmobile or track vehicle. Enjoy your trip! URL is choked full of 14″-18″ fish. We ended up with a few over 20 inches that went back too.

I just got back from URL last night. Stayed with portavilla in one of the wheelhouse. We used both Gold shiners and chubs. Nobody has shiners around Red Lake so if you want them I would suggest stopping before you get to rogers. We found shiners at river rat bait and tackle by grand rapids. We caught fish on both chubs and shiners but shiners worked better. Jigging was tough and only picked up a few. Small 1/16 gold spoons tipped with minnow head and very suttle jigging motion. Otherwise dead stick with a red hook and bobber. Small bobbers are a must because if the fish felt any resistance they would spit it. Rattle reels worked good caught a fair amount on them. Again red hook with a shiner 6 in to 1 ft from the bottom. Picked up a 33 in pike on the rattle mid day. Caught some nice perch mid day. Again small spoons tipped with a minnow head. As for tip ups I wouldn’t bother. Snow is very deep off the plowed spot for your shack so it would be very hard to see a flag and with the cold I wouldnt want to be running flags. -22 without the windchill monday night. Monday was a high of -4 without windchill. I would suggest giving brad hawthorne a call early to get out in the portables. We went out for the night bite monday night. Didn’t do very good which is very unusual for him. Guys he had set up In the shallows did good…. I guess thats why its called fishing. Great guy and he will give great advice. He said its a tough time right now so to expect 40-50 fish days like back in december isnt realistic. No need for the auger extension. Have a great trip we had a blast and will be doing it again.

We stopped in Black Duck for bait. They seemed to have a really good selection of anything you want. I think if you couldn’t find it there you wont find it anywhere up there. They have almost every lure that is made. One of the better bait shops I have ever been in. Our bait was very lively and didn’t have any problems with keeping them that way during our trip.

Thanks for all the information and advice. The boy is super excited and that alone has me pumped so we are in it for the adventure. We will call the fish a bonus and temper expectations. Maybe we will have some pics to post when we return.
Thanks