Westwinds-May report

May 7, 2009

The Walleye opener is here and the weekend should be another great one. The walleye will be scattered all along the east shore line and also on the north and south shores. The majority of the fish will be on or just off the last sandbar in 6-8 ft of water. Fishing tactics this time of year can vary but a simple jig and minnow set up is always deadly. Chartreuse and gold are the best colors for Red Lake and always work good. Shiners minnows and fat-heads are the bait of choice. There will be alot of fishing pressure around the mouth of the Tamarac River as that is were most anglers seem to think is the best spot on the lake. It is a great place to fish, but for me I don’t like all the boat traffic in that area and it doesn’t leave you much room to work. Fishing along the East shore line is just as good as the river and you will find more keeper sized fish with less boat clutter. If the wind is blowing and makes it tough to fish the lake, the Tamarac River will be open for fishing on May 9th. The limit will be 4 Walleye with a protected slot from 17″-26″ that must be released. One Walleye over 26″ may be kept. The limit for Northern is the same from last year which is 3 fish with a protected slot of 26″ to 40″ with one being allowed over 40″.
Along with the awesome walleye fishing, the crappies have been very active. They are in the shallow water from 3-5 ft along the North shore line near the bulrushes. Many anglers in the last week have caught big numbers of crappies and that should continue through the month of May. Good luck this weekend and have fun!

May 25, 2009

Now we are headiing into the best time for fishing. The temps are starting to come up finally and the forecast for this week looks good. The walleye are still hanging out all along the shore line in 6-8 ft of water and around the river like always. The river it self has slowed down some but there still are plenty of fish in there for the windy days. The fish in and around the river are larger and most of them are in the protected slot. The smaller “keeper” sized fish are scatered along the break line of the lake in that 6ft range. Chartraruse, orange and pink work good and gold has been working too. Tip your jig with a shiner or a fathead and your set. If you want to cover some ground, trolling crankbaits has proven to be very effective also. Again 6-8 ft right on the break line is the place to be. Crappies have been showing up some too but we need some nice weather before they move into the shallow water so this week maybe the time. Northerns are a little deeper than the walleye now and can be found trolling the outside of the break in 8-9 ft of water. Memorial Weekend was one of the busiest on record for boat traffic. We had nearly 80 boats from here and the public access had at least triple that. It looked like a solid line of boats from North to South, and most people did very well fishing. The upcoming weeks should be real good and with the slot going up to 20″ on the 15th of June, finding keeps should be easy. Good Luck!