Upper Red sure keeps me going each year, you think you have all the angles figured out as how to fish it-then it toss’s you another curve. Where the heck did those buggers go to now??? but I have to admit this year was a darn good year compared to the last 2 years–the snow cover was way down till this last weekend and made it easy to move, but 3+ weeks of -0 and wind made it misserable for portables to get out for long and it showed on the count of fish those weeks- the warm weather the last week sure made it hard to sleep at night as it expanded and crack, heaved and shook houses like someone hitting your house with a truck and water shot up your hole 4″ above the hole. the bridges were taking a beating raising 2+ feet in the air in less than 2 hours and had to be moved twice a day (be patient if you cant get accross, it takes a couple hours to move them) the snow saturday made a lot of people forget how not to drive in deep drifts that were deep and hard-the main roads are in great shape but the sides are getting tall enough that youjust cant shoot off anywhere to head out; last week one of the guys fell in up to his waist in the rough ice-it wasnt froze between the big chunks so be carefull but we found our best luck staying next to the rough ice plies with our house’s, this year is the first yearI could rember that the bite was all day bite on eyes and crappies-6am-9pm even when the bite was hot, remember I fish,live,eat and sleep on the ice 24-7- eyes are still hitting on just about anything, but down size your minnows to small-medium for crappies now as it has paid off for us the last couple weeks, I still like to fish about 6-8″ off the bottom as I use the 560 camera to watch them, there are a lot of bait fish at 5-7′ range now and the “mud mites” i call them are turning into larvy now and the fish are feeding on them where ever there hatching and changing, the plain red hook has been in use the last week and out doing the red and green demon glows witch is hanging right in there, to much jigging hurts you more than it helps you, use slow raisig a foot up, jig it a couple times and drop it fast- it helps trigger them into biting or following you-change your minnows ofen its the cheapest thing you buy for fishing and it pays off in the long run—-
today houses come off in the lower part of the state
you need new fishing and house license
i also downsized my minnows that i was using last weekend, it seemed to help. i forgot all about your houses for sale when we were up 
. sounds like my wifes step dad will be back up there next week, so i will give him your number as he is the one looking for a house