Warmer weather spells, “COLDER FISHING”!

Recently, there’s been a lot of complaints coming from those, that have been fishing on the lower Red. The “number one” and I might say, legitimate complaint, is due to the fact that there’s very few walleye being caught. This has certainly been the case over the past couple of weeks.
Mild temperatures might be the main culprit and the reason for the lack of angling success. River’s such as the Red, which have poor visibility at the best of times, are subjected to even more discoloration when run-off occurs. When these conditions present themselves, angling success drops off drastically! I’ve seen this take place on the Red
time and time again. However, usually this occurs during open water conditions and not during the winter months. Normally the winter months present colder, below freezing temperatures and there isn’t any type of run-off effect. Under normal temperature conditions, (such as we experienced a couple of weeks ago) water clarity is good
and so too are angling results. Prior to this warm spell, the Red was producing reasonible results. Since the warm spell, in which some run-off has been occurring, angling results have been poor.
The most damaging form of run-off that is occurring at this time, is caused by the excessive use of salt that we use in order to de-ice our streets and highways. When salt is applied to snow and ice causing it to melt, run-off immediately occurs. When you take into account how many tons
of salt we use along the entire stretch of the Red river valley, it’s is simply overwhelming.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer to this problem.
We have to ensure that our vehicle transit routes are as safe to travel as we can make them. This simply means we have to try and keep the amount of snow/ice build-up down to a minimal. Salt seems to be the solution!
I don’t know what long term effects, if any, this amount of salt has on the resource. Short term effects spell fewer fish.
I’m confident angling catch rates will improve, as soon as the temperature becomes more seasonal. This will prevent any form of run-off from occurring, which in turn will allow the water quality (color) to return to a more acceptable level.
By the way, things could be a lot worse , you could be a fish trying to scratch out an exsistance in this less than
ideal enviroment!

Stu McKay
Cats On The Red

Thanks for the good info here Stu. This run-off thing happens on the Rainy River when the ice melts too and makes the fishing poor. Many times in the spring you’ll have great fising to awake to cloudy water and no fish.
Salt in the runoff…. hum. Gotta wonder hot that effects the fish too.
Peep us posted.
Do you have the river freeze up enough to walk on? Ice walleye & cats? Cats bite in winter there?
Or, are you able to fish open water all season?
Dave Hoggard

I’m pleased that you had mentioned the Rainy river. Two years ago, a long time buddy of mine Don Lamont and I were planing a trip over to the Rainy. The spring bite was hot and we wanted a piece of the action. We decided to do the smart thing and call over there before making the trek.
Glad we did, the feedback we were given was that the bite was finished. The reason! You guessed it, spring run-off had begun and the water discolored. Look what happens to the walleye bite on the mighty Miss. when she takes on excessive water discoloration!
When this portion of the Red decides to make ice, she makes ice. During an “average” winter, with normal temperatures, ice can get as thick as three feet. Some years we have to use extensions on our augers.

Walleye are the most sought after species during the fall and winter, sauger would rank number two.
The Red also offers excellant pike opportunities during the hard water season! For the most, old toothy doesn’t generate to much enthusiasm, with the locals. On any given day, you could realistically catch a twenty pond plus, the potentials are that good!
As for old whiskers thru the ice! Not really, for the most part they become very lethargic during winter months. I would have to say that those that are caught (which is few and far between) thru the ice, are incidental. They simply become inactive, kind of like an old bear!
Immediately after spring break-up, old whiskers puts on a completely different game face! If this face could be translated into a single word, I would call it, “trouble”.
Trouble for the other fish, that happen upon old whiskers!
I kid you not, these bad boys come fully loaded to the dinner table. The pre-spawn bite,(May thru mid June) goes around the clock. During this period, it could best be described as “TOTAL MAYHEM” on the Red!

Fish Hard!

Stu McKay

When Roman armies wanted to make an exceptionally poignant statement to an enemy after a Roman victory they would burn the crops in the fields and “salt” the ground, ensuring nothing would grow there for a very long time. Salt/sodium is critical to life processes but in concentrations it is quite harmful.

I’ve often wondered what kind of environmental impact comes from all those mountains of snow municipalities pile up along streams and rivers to melt each spring and trickle little by little into these watersheds. This accumulated snow is afterall scraped up off roads and parking lots that have been salted heavily to keep the roads de-iced. I’m quite sure this influx of salt, oil and other pollutants is very hard on these ecosystems and I’m equally certain that this practice is unregulated when in fact it likely should be.