May 12, 2008
The opener weekend was a huge success. Even though the weather wasn’t the best the fish were still ready to cooperate. Saturday was snowy and cold but that didn’t stop hundreds of people from venturing out on the water. Virtually every one caught some kind of fish. Most were walleye but many anglers caught some of red lakes giant crappies. Reports of 50+ fish caught and released were not uncommon.
The walleye are spread out all around the lake in the 4-7 ft range just off the last break. Right now there are a variety of ways to catch them from, anchoring and jigging off the bottom to trolling spinners and rapalas. Many anglers also just drifted with the right wind condition and bounced a lead head off the bottom. I saw a couple of big northerns caught too, one coming in at 44.5 inches. The crappies are in shallow (2-4 ft) and are biting the best in the evening hours (7-9 pm). Anglers are mostly using slip bobbers with a jig and minnow set a foot or so off the bottom. The weather forecast for our area doesn’t show any major changes in temp so the fishing should stay excellent for some time!! Also the suckers are running in full force now so getting them should be easy too. If you want to come up to red lake and do some fishing now is the time to come. I just doesn’t get any better than this. All the walleyes you can catch, limits of huge crappies and trophy sized northerns all in the one trip to Upper Red Lake. Good Luck!!
Also be sure to check out the new fishing regulations for Upper Red Lake. The walleye limit will now be 3 per person with the same slot size as last year (17-26″). The Tamarac and Blackduck rivers are closed to fishing untill the 16th of May, along with several other local rivers too. Check with any local bait shop for a list of the new regs.