Upper Red has always been a body of water that’s been good to me. Of course, it goes without saying that my "luck" there is attributed to the fact that I typically fish it with friend and fourth generation guide on the big lake, Jonny Petrowske of Outdoors with Jonny-P. Knowing that it’s always fun heading into a game with a stacked-deck, fellow IDO’er Pat Howard and I made our way up to Waskish this past week for a few days of multi-species fishing.
When we arrived, Jonny prepared us for some tougher fishing as the wind had really churned up the lake the past few days. We decided to fish another small lake a long drive away on the first day, and fish Red when calmer conditions and better weather prevailed. When we did finally get out there, we were greeted with light winds, high skies, and a rising barometer. Not necessarily great for a walleye fisherman either. With the wind out of the northeast, we decided to launch out of Beacon Harbor on the NE side. I was impressed with how nice that place has been cleaned up and renovated. A short stint up in shallow rock for the eyes brought few bites, so we decided to fish for pike awhile. Only an hour or two into that game, we had 3 good follows, and two smaller pike to show for it, but it was apparent that the larger fish were out of sorts for whatever reason. They would follow our baits to boatside, get us all excited, then disappear without biting. Perhaps trolling was in order for the big toothy critters? Maybe later, we had some walleyes to catch.
With Upper Red being such a great fishery for walleye and large pike, it’s a blast to change gameplans on a whim knowing you’ve got a legitimate shot at knocking it out of the park whichever species you decide to chase. Round 2 of walleye fishing that day was much more successful. We headed out deeper after finding a pod of fish on the electronics and proceeded to live-bait rig them to death. Making smaller passes and drifts in the concentrations of fish seen on the sonar, we were able to catch what sounds like has been a rarity as of late up there – keeper fish under the protected slot. I’ve never been one to turn down a walleye dinner, so we kept a few to clean once we got back to Beacon Harbor. Thanks to those folks for the warm welcome and nice fish cleaning station.
The key to the bite was minnows. After finding them, we truly caught walleyes at-will by using minnows until we were satisfied with the experience and moved back to some pike trolling. Your run-of-the mill fathead worked fine as well, but a slight edge went to the river-mix of assorted minnow species; especially small to medium sized creek chubs. Crawlers worked alright for the sheephead, but rigging with tail-hooked minnows was the key to our success that outing. The pike never did come around fully, but we did have a high 30’s fish boatside. With calmer weather and warmer temps so too does the pike fishing heat-up, but that would have to be for another trip. For this trip, we were happy with bringing some fillets to Westwinds for them to cook; truly the best way I can think of to end a great day on the water with some friends!
Joel