First Post on Forum

Just wanted to break the ice with my first post on this forum.

I have been fishing Red at least once a week since Christmas weekend with a wheelhouse, and will be leaving in the morning for another trip.

We have been fishing the lake for a number of years and have had our best luck this year with a strong day bite, I believe the Crappies are hungry because of the number of Walleyes in the lake, and a possible forage depletion. The larger Walleyes we have caught this winter do not look good overall and the Perch base is down in the lake.

We have gone out of Hillman’s each time between 3 1/2 miles and 6 miles.

Red glow jig’s have been the most productive in #4 & 6 tipped with a minnow. I have always hooked my minnows in front of the dorsal until a 14 year old visited my wife and I out on the ice last year and showed us how a pro had taught his dad to hook the minnows through the vent, I have never changed back and am sure I catch more fish hooking the minnows this way.

Need to get up early in the morning and will post info on this trip when I get back,

Ron

Welcome Aboard CC!!

Some great info on this site! I have been meaning to get up to Red Lake! I have yet to get up there ! Maybe this Winter I will make the 1st Voyage to the Red!

Welcome. Great to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want. Thanks for the report.
Thanks, Bill

Welcome Ron!

It was a very good post for your first. Just one question…how do you hook a minnow through the vent?

Please do let us know how you did!

Welcome Crappie Catcher,
hope to hear back from you with more reports, and pictures on here. Where do you call home???? The site is full of information, thanks for jumping on board. Jack…

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Welcome Ron!

It was a very good post for your first. Just one question…how do you hook a minnow through the vent?

I just turn the minnow over and run the hook all the way through the black spot or butt till it comes through the opposite side.

This is a very fast way to hook them, and the minnow swims good.

Another thing we use in Red is albino’s, I think they call them Rosie’s. The color of the minnow is an orange color and shows up better in darker water, we always mix some of these in with our crappie minnows in case the bite is light.

Need to pick up my fishing partner,

Ron

Please do let us know how you did!

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Welcome

Welcome Ron, I will be on Red Lake the next 3 weeks. Look me up when you are up there. I go our of Hillmans and have been fishing the same general area as you I would imagine. Still working on the day bite too.

Hi Jack,

I live in the Park Rapids area.

I just returned this afternoon from URL and this was the slowest bite I have seen this winter. We managed 9 crappies and 2 perch, with about 8 or 9 walleyes. The bite is starting to return to the traditional night bite, although we did pick up a few after daybreak this morning. The best producer was a #4 Demon in an off white, but it glows green or chartreuse when charged, tipped with a small albino minnow.

I was amazed that neither of my rattle reels went off during the night after I went to bed about 10, when I checked them this morning both lines had froze into the bottom of the hole and the minnows were stripped, that’s a first for me also.

I will post a picture of a couple of them in my avatar as soon as I figure out how to post it.

Ron

Hi Scott,

Just returned from URL this afternoon and the fish are scattered out in small schools over a large area.

We fished about 4 miles out this time, and alot of people are moving into the 3 1/2 mile area. Thats where we started this Winter and then started moving out to as far as 6 miles and now back again.

The road is out 7 1/2 miles from Hillmans with wheel houses able to get out about 7 miles.

I think it’s a little early for the Crappie Highway to start producing, maybe a couple more weeks or so.

Good luck and maybe we will bump into each other on the ice.

Ron

Hey Crappie Catcher

Send me any photo you’d like added as your avatar and I’ll post it up for you. Send that to >>> [email protected]

hi Ron,
SURE are some nice fish in your avator, real beauties, are there any hitting 16 inches or heard of any????? hope to try and get up there in a week or two. thanks Jack..

Thanks for the compliment Jack,

I’ve heard of 16″ Crappies coming out of there but I’ve never seen one. The largest ones I’ve caught are just about hitting 14″ which are beautiful looking fish.

If I get some 14″ during the Spring spawning run this year, I may mount them. Not sure how many more years they will be plentiful, the 95 year class is the dominant one in the lake, and it’s rare to get small ones while fishing.

The bite usually picks up toward the end of Feb, so you may hit it right. I hope to get back up next week.

Ron

Ron,
I sent a PM to you. click on the small flashing envelope on the top of the page. ‘
thanks Jack..

Ron, I just put our report of from the weekend. It was really hard to find those fish, took all day on Friday to find them. Things should start getting better, the days are getting longer. It seems to be getting easier to get around on the lake, so people are spreading out again. That helps.

Scott, By your posts and pictures, you make it look easy. Thats a great looking bunch of fish.

Ron

Not really easy, I am just stubborn. I don’t give up on Red until I find them. They are always biting somewhere. I can’t sit in one spot until I find fish. On Friday that had me drilling holes still at 6:20 PM. All of a sudden the LX-3 lit up