2-20-2011
Friday morning at 11 am found us on the shores of Upper Red Lake anxiously awaiting directions to our home for the night, compliments of Cookie’s generosity. Finding old “Minnesota” was a snap and other than being a little rough, the roads were excellent. I was joined on my free nights stay “compliments of my first ever poker tourney win,” by my wife Jo and Sister-in-Law Jennie.
After reading all the fishing reports, we weren’t sure what to expect as far as the actual fishing went. However, one thing we never do, is to go into an adventure limping. We had decided long before the 4 hour drive that come hell or high water we were going to make the most of our trip. So even though the weather had taken a nasty turn and greeted us with a massive cold front, the attitude in the truck, as we pulled up to “Minnesota”, couldn’t have been any better.
The house needed a few minutes of attention, but once we gave it a quick once over we were good to go. I had wanted to put a couple of tip ups out for northern, but with the cold temps and wind I just put one down one of the holes in the house. We chose to use a couple of Lindy Rattl’n Flyer spoons for jigging and then a couple of chartreuse colored jigs on the equipped rattle wheels. We had a Marcum VS825SD with and Jennie monitored the bottom pretty much continually. The water was around the twelve foot mark and the camera had no problem locating all our lures as it panned around. The Marcum worked great until late afternoon and then slowly everything disappeared. We never did see much for fish activity on the camera; one little wayward perch was the extent of it.
Things stayed quiet on the fish front until 5:30 when one of the rattle wheels decided to make some noise. I gave it my best try but I came up with a muffin. Shortly after, Jo caught a very nice Walleye that turned out to be too nice and needed to be returned to the lake. She had switched up to a jig and minnow and played the dead stick game. Jennie kept the Lindy on and certainly gave it an honest effort but, in the end, for us, the jigging did nothing. The fishing was tough, but our attitudes remained positive.
As the hours slipped by, we did end up with a few bites. For us, the rattle wheels proved to be the best. We had a short night as every time we about nodded off a rattle wheel decided to sing out. Sometime around 11 pm, Jo hauled in a fat old Walter and for the next hour Jennie sat trying to get the mother of all bird’s nests out of the short line. There was a lot of ribbing after that one as I doubt if you could have intentionally made a snarl any worse than that one. Finally the night came to an end with three nice walleyes to show for our time. I am not sure what we could have or should have done better, but I know we probably muffed at least 5-6 other bites. One thing remained certain, the dead stick was the ticket for us.
The morning came with another couple of weak bites after day light, but nothing else was added to our fish count. The house next to us ended their stay with a fish apiece so it appeared we were on par with the area. With the threat of the heavy snow we decided to call it a trip shortly after 8 am. We wanted to take a drive to Ely and check the town out before heading back home so Saturday ended up being a long one.
Cookie’s generosity was graciously appreciated. It was obvious that he cares about the success of his clients. I think he checked on everyone at least three times on Friday and he was always willing to offer any tips he could.
There seems to be a fair amount of resorts canvassing for the same dollar. In the end, customer service will play a large part in returning clientele. I think it is safe to say if you give Cookie a chance he will work his tail off trying to make your trip a positive memory. I certainly want to thank Cookie for our time on the big lake and when the time comes for another visit his services will be strongly considered. We didn’t take any pictures, but memories of our Red Lake trip will be with us always!
Bambino
