New lake

Hey wondering if anyone has any tips or techniques for Bemidji lake or upper Red Lake I have a tournament up there late February and I want to try to ice fish up there have never been up there wondering if you had any tackle techniques how deep to look for our way to go on those bodies of water looking for walleyes perch sunfish I am from the metro and I am part of a couple fishing groups and I was wondering if anyone had some tips and techniques for me I finished mostly in the metro area in St. Paul looking for other techniques to try out please let me know if you have anything

Longest run on sentence I’ve seen a long time. Nice. Sorry, can’t help you with either bodies of water.

Tim J wrote:

Longest run on sentence I’ve seen a long time. Nice. Sorry, can’t help you with either bodies of water.

Same thoughts before I saw your comment!

IDO has done a couple of early ice Red Lake shows and even a crappie show.
Red Lake Blizzard Walleyes – In-Depth Outdoors TV Season 9, Episode 1
Storm Front ‘Eyes on Upper Red Lake, MN – In-Depth Outdoors TV Season 8, Episode 3
“Upper Red Lake Crappie Resurgence” In Depth Outdoors Season 9, Episode 12
These should point you in the right direction. The only other thing I would recommend is to fish there as much as possible before your tournament. Good luck.

Or check the past forums. I don’t have any experience on Burrmidji, but there is more info on Red than you would need to have a successful outing.

Upper Red Lake is pretty shallow it doesn’t have a lot of depth change at all so you won’t probably be finding key structure to fish I think most people fish the gradual shoreline break or something maybe not though you could probably find fish all over that lake if you look a lot of people fish early ice up there and they keep too many walleyes or there are too many people there fishing one or the other because the DNR adjusted the limit partway through last year but you should be able to find fish if you keep moving I would stay away from the crowds though because you will probably have better luck I’ve never fished Bemidji at all so I can’t help you there but I bet if you pull up the contour map you can find some spots to try that would be my advice for trying a new lake a lot of people use spoons and stuff on upper red like a buckshot or tingler or something like that but they also deadstick up there too I think a lot of people do sleeper houses up there and do alright and I’ve heard of some big northern caught out of that lake another little known fact about Red Lake is that the state record quillback was caught there or in one of the feeder stream/lakes I can’t remember but if you are driving through they have it mounted in the gas station in Waskish it’s worth a look I always give it a few pats on the quill for good luck on my to lake of the woods it seems to help sometimes other times it doesn’t seem to help I hope this helps your welcome!

Phil nice response Phil I learned a lot from your generous and thoughtful response to the original posters question or questions that he asked good luck to you all in this upcoming ice season stay safe and keep the lines tight Chris I hope you win your tournament up north this season remember to practice practice and scout scout

Thanks all all of you good luck on your ice season as well

One thing I like to do when exploring new water is to look at some lakemaps and pick out 4/5 spots that look like they should hold fish.(breaks, flats, saddles, etc.) and mark them on my map. Go out and fish these spots quickly and aggressively with spoons, jigging raps, rippin raps, etc. and see what comes up.

Lots of times, even if the fish aren’t in the mood to crush everything that goes down the hole they will usually come in and take a look. When you see fish on your flasher, take mental notes of the area, weeds, time of day, previous weather conditions, anything that you think could be a reason as to why the fish are there and then start to make a pattern.

This pattern could be the key to being in the right place at the right time and is what separates getting skunked, and having great stories to tell later. Don’t be afraid to relocate or switch things up if what you’re doing isn’t working!

Good luck!