I spent the last day and a half on Red Lake and that usually means Good Times! This trip was nothing short of that. I was joined on this trip by good friends and family. The fishing was good to say the least, but we still had to work for our fish. This picture is Paul and Ray, two of the owners of MarCum technologies, makers of the LX-3, OVS cameras and lots of other great stuff.
I planned this trip as a last minute trip because the weather looked favorable. We arrived on the lake about 2 PM and although it was cold we still spent most of the time fishing on the ice. My first spot appeared to have been fished out, as there was a lot of old traffic in that area. So, we picked up and moved after 15 minutes. Within a couple minutes at spot two we had a slabs laying on the ice. This next picture is Jon, with a nice Red Lake Slab.
As in past weeks, the bite was pretty good during the day. We used a combination of Glow Jigs with minnows and wax worms to catch almost all of our fish. For the first afternoon we ended up with 73 fish for 8 guys. This was pretty good considering Adam and I spent most or the afternoon searching for new areas to fish. This photo is Adam with a slab we found on our search.
Although you will hear the bite has slowed on Red some over the last week, it is still VERY good for this time of year. In our group, everyone that fished got their limit of slabs. We had a big fish fry Tuesday night after spending some time socializing at West Wind. After eating a big mess of fish Tuesday, Paul, Ray and Gary were out after more Wednesday AM. They all easily caught their limit of slabs while Adam, Jon and I went in search of those monster pike. In the end we only ended up with a couple walleye for our efforts, and about 1/2 the walleye the guys caught that stayed back and fished crappies. This last picture is Paul Thorne with a couple nice slabs from Wednesday morning. Good Times!!
I just noticed I had the wrong dates on the report, I got them changed now
Here is a picture of our group at West Wind celebrating our catch and telling fish stories.
Great report!
Looks like you guys had a great time!
I have wondered about Red lake and the crappies. With this lake being so great in catching big crappies is it in for a huge drop in numbers or even a crash in big crappie population in the next few years? What makes this lake so prolific in the huge crappies?
I have no idea since I have never had the pleasure to get there I was just wondering.
Those are all good questions. Will the crappie population crash? Only time will tell. There are A LOT of spawning fish in the lake. If we ever get a good spring spawn, like what happened with the dominant year class in the lake, yes, there will be crappies for some time to come.
I have not seen test netting reports for YOY crappies for several years, but I have a hunch there was a pretty good spawn in 2001.
Most lakes could not support a population of crappies as big as Red can. They are a boom or bust fish and when you combine lack of predator fish, a huge successful spawn and very fertile waters, you get what you have today, a gigantic population of crappies. Most of the crappies in Red Lake will die of old age in a few years, that is how many there are in this year class.
However, we are seeing crappies ranging in size from 11-15 inches this year, surely several different year classes. Remeber, there have always been crappies in Red and there always will be. We may not see the numbers there are currenly, but as I said, there are a lot of crappies spawning each year and it only takes one good spring and we will have another HUGE year class.
As walleye harvest starts in 2006 we will also see a decrease in predator fish, which will benefit future crappies also.
Scott,
How has the walleye fishing been? What sizes of eyes are you guys catching? I’ve talked to some guys who say they will catch dozens of eyes in a spot and no crappies. They claim to be catching 15″ fish. I’m curious if you ever have the same results.
Isn’t Red a very large structureless lake? If this is the case, what do you target for finding crappies? Are they just roaming in schools? Curious what makes a good crappie spot on Red.
Thanks for sharing the great pics and info Scott!!!
John
The walleye fishing is good as always. I usually don’t like to fish spots that I am getting a lot of walleye. If the walleye are biting, usually the crappies are not biting that well. If you set up on a spot that has a night crappie bite going, and you are waiting for the bite to start, usually you will get walleye.
I like to find good day bites. Usually in these spots you get very few walleye, but the crappies are thick. If a person wanted to target only walleye, it would be easy picking!!
Scott did you stay at West Wind ? If so, what kind of ice fishing package do they have ?
No, I stay at a friends cabin when I am up there usually. I spend about 30 days a winter on Red Lake.
West Wind does have cabins and sleeper houses they rent. Kelly Petrowski has the nicest sleepers I would say and his are always on fish.
Hi Scott.
My wife Wanda and I were up there on Tuesday as well. Same type of results. Sounds like we were leaving as you guys were coming in. We got our limits in a little less than 3 hrs(11:20 am – 2:00 pm). Large crappie minnows on glow demons or a chartruese or glow Ratso fished without live bait were our hot baits.
Definitely get away from the pressure and drill a lot of holes until you find active fish. We got lucky. I hadn’t been up there this winter yet and just picked a spot away from the crowd and started making Swiss cheese out of the ice. After about 50 holes I grabbed the vex and started checking for fish. After about 30 holes checked I found them and we started fishing. We never needed to move. They were a bit finicky and my wife who had the hot holes missed a bunched initially until she adjusted with the time she allowed the fish to take the minnows.
I never missed a fish on the ratsos. They inhaled them everytime.
Take Care. Maybe we’ll see you on the ice. Plan on being up there a couple more times this winter.
Jeff
Jeff, you better watch it, she is going to get addicted to catching those giant slabs
Where is Red Lake?
Westwind is booked for cabins and sleepers for the remainder of the winter, at least on weekends.
You might have better luck during the week. Upper Red Lake is near Kelliher MN.
What’s the daily bag limit for Crappie on URL?
The Daily Bag limit and possession are both 10 per person.
Too late.
Took her up there last February and we’ve been up a few times since. Lets just say that I don’t have to twist her arm at all to get her to go. On the ice or in a boat she loves those slabs.
Jeff
Scott,
good report, am going to try and get up there again this year. hope to at least twice this early season. keep them reports coming, thanks, Jack..
Great report. It’s always fun to get into those slabs up there.
I just want to know how you get so much time to fish? Do you have a full time job or do you fish for a living?
I think I spend a lot of time on the water but I also spend a lot of time at the office. The ol’ work hard, play hard type of thing.
This is how my wife would sum it up. He has two jobs, Sales and Fishing, his hobbies are hunting and golf
If you put it all together you can see I keep pretty busy
Very sorry to hear you are a golfer Scott!!
I guess you can now hang out with Sandbar and BrianK though. 
