Upper Red Lake Walleye and Pike Report

Upper Red Lake to me, is every bit the walleye destination that it was a crappie fishery in the early 2000’s. With Monday’s slot opening up a bit, allowing anglers to keep fish up to 20″‘es, it became apparent that we wouldn’t be alone out there either. Even in this famed walleye water, where reports of up to 100 fish daily are pouring out, it pays to have a game plan. Once again, I had the pleasure of fishing with Jonny P on his home waters. We covered miles and miles of this expanse, doing everything from slip-bobbering and pitching jigs, to trolling cranks and pulling crawler harnesses. Ultimately, all caught fish, but some were markedly better than others. Fish were everywhere, the key was finding the right fish in the right conditions.

Even with a light wind, as most anglers know, this body of water is rockin’ with only 10mph or so of a breeze. Put that same wind out of anything quartering or directly blowing in from the west, and it’s capping out there. This past Tuesday when fishing, we fought winds of 15mph or so, but they were out of the southeast. All of our offshore spots had fish, but we had a hard time staying with them, even when anchored. We moved closer into shore and also found fish slip-bobbering the main break and east rocks, but found the boat traffic a little too aggressive and crowding for our taste. Our last move was our best and most simple, close to shore.

We found hungry walleyes just outside of the reed beds by drifting crawler harnesses in 4-6FOW. These fish were not boat or line-shy either, so there wasn’t much need to keep your rigs lighter and far away from your rod-tip. Fish after fish came from the same general area, and rather than using cranks to search and cover water, these baits ended up catching the large majority of our fish. Our hope was to possibly catch what crappies might be in the area, and instead we found a walleye bonanza. Trust your sonar, even in 4-8FOW, we were marking them steadily.

Fire-tiger was truly the hot color, especially in a #4 Rattling Suspending Shad Rap. The bog-stained, tannic waters of Upper Red have always called for the use of bright, rattling baits when possible, though later when trolling for pike, large jointed floating raps were taking walleyes at up to 4mph! All in all, we ended up with nearly 150 fish, which sounds nearly impossible to even myself. However, every spot we tried had fish, and towards the end, doubles, and even a triple or two became the norm rather than the exception.

Oh, and a rogue pike smashed my rap, and nearly spooled me on 10# test before we landed it. Were it not for net-man Mark, and Jonny chasing it down with the motor, I don’t think we would’ve even had a look at it. A second incredible day of fishing, to the point where we were no longer willing to head to Leech and try the walleye bite down there. We were ready to tackle another species!