Over the weekend we had some good fishing. The crappie bite was your typical Morning and Evening low light hour bite. Customers caught crappies that ranged in size 9 inches on up to 13 inches. Customers also caught a few pike along with a nice bass that put up a good fight. The houses were set up in 19 FOW to 26 FOW. We plan on chasing crappies for the next week.
I had some guys come in and fish as the cold front was pushing back in and they Hammered the Crappies! These guys were fishing on Washington for walleyes and the only eyes biting out there were small so we went to one of my favorite crappie holes. Crappies ranged from 9 inches on up to 13 inches. They had a great time!
I had a couple guys come up from Iowa fishing for two nights. When they arrived it was -10 degrees. I set there shack up in 13 FOW and they were catching a few crappies and small pike. They wanted to try for Walleye so we moved out to Lake Washington. I fished with the guys for awhile. Lots of Marks not many active fish. One 16 inch eye got nocked off at the ice. I think the customers were not used to cranking up eyes in 8 FOW. The bite on Washington was slow. We have not had stable weather conditons on the 24th we warmed up to 33 degrees. We had about a 50 degree temerature swing. They did catch a 15 inch Crappie posted in picture below.
I had a few customers come in today from Nebraska. I moved two of the Ice Houses out to one of my spots that has been doing well this year! The bite was a little slow. I fished for 2 hours and 3 northern were caught, 2 crappies, 3 sunfish. It was -10 on the ice but nice and toasty in the Fish House. I expect the crappie bite to be consistent through the night with the warm front coming in. Stay tuned you should get another report soon!
I had a group of guys fish on Red over the weekend they said the bite was slow. They fished 2.5 miles out from Rogers. The weather was nice and the wheel house comes in handy but to get the fish when you have nice weather you need to get out of the house and auger a few dozen holes and hole hop. I noticed the walleye will come through every couple hours. Currently there are plenty of fish to be caught on Red you just have to go mobile this time of the year and get on the ice when we have those 30 degree days. I fished for 24 hours in one of the houses and caught a dozen walleye ranging from 10 inches up to 16 inches.
I had a couple guys fishing for 48 hours out on Lake Francis and Clearwater. On Francis they caught a mess of crappies and sunfish, along with a few northern. The last 24 hours i moved them to Clearwater and we tried for walleyes. The fishing was on the slower side on clearwater. They caught one walleye and claimed they caught a small musky. I checked a few of my spots on GPS and put the camera down there and noticed the weed lines and weed beds looked to be pretty dead. So this kept the fish out of them. I moved off Clearwater and have a few new spots to go on other lakes.
I had customers who fished for 24 hours in the Annandale area in one of the rentals. They caught a handfull of sunfish, 15 crappies, and northern. They kept 9 Crappies. They said they had a great time. The weather was also very nice to be out on the Ice!
I had customers just check out of a house on Red Lake. They said they caught around 25 Walleyes. They told me they caught a few jigging but most fish were caught on the dead stick. Jigging they were using the red/glow hook with a gold bead.
We currently have a rental slot open for Upper Red Lake January 14th – 17th 2014. I will have a new Red Lake Report on 1/12/2014 along with a new Annandale report!
First day Started fishing today in about 15 flow out of rogers 3ish miles out started at 3. Slower bite and smaller fish from two weeks ago. 15 fish so far 5 keepers. Fried 3 for dinner. Only keeping fish that are above 15 inches. No hot lure of choice we have used about everything from plane hooks pink frosty forage minnows every color. Seems like we switch a lure and catch a fish. Hoping to figure out what jig outperform others by 10 a.m. on 1-10. Hoping the warm front turns the bite on! Stay tuned!
We ended up with 32 fish caught in 42 hours. We could have done better if we were mobile in portables and moved around we basically had schools o:f fish coming through every hour. The fish that came through during the day hit our dead sticks And rattle reels. I think I could have put a 100 fish on the ice if I had the portable. If it went for the wind today we would have punched 100 holes and just bounded around. We left at 10 a.m. most fish were caught between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. good luck this weekend red Lakers. Get on the ice and move around with the warm up! For the picture below we kept 11 walleyes and 2 perch.
Cold front came in and slowed the bite down. The norherns and bass were still bitting with a few blue gills. The bite should pick up later in the week!