Upper Red Lake windy walleyes

With Upper Red Lake’s vulnerability to winds from just about any direction we are often faced with the “post wind bite”. For many Red Lake anglers this mean stay home and mow the grass, work on the chore list or worse yet go spend quality time with the Misses…and her family. I say no way to this and decided long ago I would figure out Red Lake’s wind beaten walleye as long I could safely have the boat on the water.

Now as the walleye rule book clearly states we are supposed to fish the windblown side of any structure and this of course holds true on Upper Red Lake but only to a point. I have found that once the wind has churned Red Lake’s amber water into a mocha colored froth the walleyes leave the windblown side of structure and go directly into it. What posses these fish to start acting like pocket gophers is beyond me but they will wedge themselves into timber piles, rock piles and weeds so tight you need a pry bar to wedge them out; or a good Lindy rig.

Take your standard Lindy rig and beef it up for close quarters combat to drag some walleyes out of the rocks and cribs. Run ½- 1oz no snag sinkers in the shallow water to get right down and tight. Make your eight to ten foot long snells out of 10-14lb fluorocarbon. The use of the long fluorocarbon snell will not only help trigger strikes from negative dirty water walleyes but will take the punishment from the constant dragging in and around the rocks. Dragging Lindy rigs over and through rough terrain is a snag up situation although well worth the trouble as it pays much higher dividends then any other live bait presentation in these conditions when it comes to Red Lake.

Now as you read that last paragraph you might have thought 1oz sinkers was a bit extreme for Lindy rigging a lake that maxes out at 15 feet of water, but when you are using minnows four, five even up to six inches long it is required. Creek Chubs and Redtails are truly the key to triggering these mud blind walleyes. With their bold body markings and wild action not very many walleyes can resist them even when the bite switch has been turned off. Find some rocks or weeds, rig up the Lindy rigs and work every nook and cranny at a slow pace. Soon reports of wind and slow fishing will not be bad news at all but make you smile a little as you have the key to success; and you now will have any given spot all to yourself to raise havoc with your Lindy rigs and Creek Chubs.