Family Style Red Lake Walleyes – Little Things

Just got back from Red Lake fishing from 12/30/12 to 1/1/13, driving conditions on the lake are excellent with 16-20 inches. 3/4 ton trucks and 20 ft wheel houses were common to see, lots of houses out there but plenty of room to find a spot. This was a trip with both my dad and my brothers new wheel houses in addition to my wife, my mom and my 5 year old niece who were all experiencing the “big ice trip” for the first time. Got up to West Winds road and set up about 2.5 miles out…10ft of water by 3pm on Sunday 12/30. Started catching 16-19 inch walleyes immediately. Ended the first night with 38 fish with 70% of the fish hitting set lines with a plain red/orange hook with a shiner. The rest of the fish were caught with jigging spoons (CJ Spins-Demon Glow Spoon, Slender Spoons-daytime, and Northland Forage Minnow’s. The fish were active from 3-6:30m. They took a break and started in again around 10pm and continued to bite off and on until 4 am. Picked up 11 fish on the late night run.

Monday morning brought in a nasty cold front with high wind, -20 below temps. I thought the fishing would slow down as I was having a hard time not letting the major cold front system get to my head and ultimately my confidence level. I was proved wrong, the fish continued to bit consistently from 8am-11am. The common size was about 15-18 inches overall, I note that a 15 inch walleye on Red lake is chunky and thicker than most other lakes that I have commonly fished in MN. It was soon difficult to guess length’s as the “potsticker” Red Lake chunkers’ were throwing off my eye. I must note- All fish as best as we could were counted on a clicker in each fish house. It is a personal pet peeve of mine to hear people say we caught over 100 or over 20 etc. So with that said, we caught 98 fish over our two day run. I can honestly say that the slot on Red Lake is working and there was a ton of fun had up there! Numerous people in our group catching many walleyes for the first time.

The simple little things that made a difference . 1. We attempted to fish away from the crowds of houses and commotion. 2. The fish were changing their preference within a couple of hours going from a jigging bite, to a set line jig bite, to a plain hook shiner bite. I was constantly switching up the tactics based on how the fish were responding on the flasher. 3. Be open to new ideas! and have a positive attitude even when the weather throw’s a curveball! I noticed if the “set” lines were not set within 6 inches of the bottom, the line did not get hit at all. This may seem like a really simple concept, however I determined this while using our Marcum underwater camera that the shiners’ were attempting to swim up and were not staying near the bottom. I decided to break my own rule and “add an extra splitshot” within 4-6 inches of the hook. I typically use the least amount of weight as possible to get the hook down there, however it was an absolute must to add an extra, to get the bait in the “zone” where the fish would have a chance at seeing it. This “zone” is especially important to follow on a lake such as Red, as the water clarity/tint was a factor on the spot we were fishing. To further prove the “6 inch” theory, I wondered over to my dad’s house and checked in on the action, he was catching fish but nothing on the two shiner set lines. Having fished many times as a kid fishing with my dad, automatically a bell went off in my head…”I bet dad has his lines about a foot off the bottom” as we typically did growing up which is fairly common and typically productive. I decided to ask the old man the question; although I already knew the answer. Sure enough he was fishing a foot off the bottom, so I re-adjusted the lines and added a split shot and within 40 minutes he had a nice eye on both lines. Once again, a simple subtle change that yielded big results the rest of the trip. My dad ended up catching the biggest fish of the trip which was 23″ inches one of his set lines. Red Lake is not typically known for 10 lb monsters, however this was not the goal of our trip.

Get up to Red Lake and get in on the action, we made many memories with the family. I am still not sure who was more excited seeing a 5 year old “limit out” on nice walleyes; myself, her dad, or grandma and grandpa! The day-time bite on Red Lake offers a family friendly approach that does not involve early risers and night owls…Something to think about for the next family trip! Teaching rookies and children how to “set the hook” on a set line is sometimes easier as they can watch the bobber slowly cruise away, they can feed the fish some line and watch how it is all done vs the jigging minnow head presentation style! You would be surprised how quickly the little ones get used to “hearing the rattle wheels”! Fish ON!