…and how many of you clicked on this topic looking for a fight only to find one of my mini reports. 
With one of the most unpredictable ever-changing bites we have seen some goofy stuff already but good ol Red Lake just threw us a curve ball that took me some time to pattern.
The fish are absolutely pounding down shiners and perch like fat kids at a doughnut sale and rendering themselves bloated, stuffed , engorged, overindulged and one step away from sitting on the couch and undoing their belts…if fish had belts, or even pants. With a solid forage base of shiners and juvenile perch we are seeing walleye that are well fed and getting a bit fussy. They want to swim up to your bait, give it the old stare down but they truly have been feeding well and do not need to stuff one more minnow in their mouth…unless their buddy might get it first.
Two tricks that really worked for me tonight was downsizing and what I will now call competitive jigging. One was to simply down size my presentation to bluegill sized presentations tipped with waxies, just the head of a small emerald shiner or even small plastics although the best was the real deal small minnow head. Walleyes would take their sweet time approaching and ingesting the pan fish presentations but they would take them none the less. Basically I feel they will take advantage of a small and easy snack just because they can, like the infamous “just one more cookie”.
The other killer presentation was to basically start a fight. I would put down small yet ultra attractive lures tipped with minnow heads such as a Lindy Rattln’ Flyer and get a fish to come in and look and look is all it would do until I played keep away. Then the second fish comes in on the Marcum and it was game on. The more active fish would follow but not strike until the lure was dangled in front of fish number two or the less active mark on the flasher. Instant fight and the more aggressive fish would lose his cool every time and run down the bait before the competing fish had a chance. As goofy as it sounds it filled the bucket with fish tonight. So come to Red, bring small tackle and see what kind of fight you can start…under the ice.
