Weather:
Pleasant with daytime highs in the teens, sunny and light winds. The nights dipped down to around zero.
Water:
Upper Red: Not overly clear, but not dirty either. Pike Bay: Clear
Location:
Friday and Saturday: Upper Red Lake, Sunday: Pike Bay
Caught:
Red Lake: Approx. 20 – 30 walleyes 10 – 19 ¾”, Two perch. Pike Bay: Approx. 100 perch between 6 and 10 inches, kept approx. 70.
Partners:
Jay and his cousin Rick and Jay’s fried Tim and his son Logan.
Comments:
It was a new fishing experience for me. I had been to northern Minnesota before on an ice fishing trip, but I had never stayed in a sleeper on the ice. We were targeting walleyes and pike on Upper Red Lake. The lake is a walleye factory, which we hoped to cash in on. We were also hoping to catch a few of the large bonus pike that are said to swim in this lake.
We were on the lake and settled into our 8 X 18 sleeper shack by 1 PM. The shack was nothing spectacular, it was equipped with a small stove, two sets of bunks, a propane heater and 12V electric lights, but most importantly it had six holes in the floor to fish in comfort inside the shack. The ice house was definitely too small for the five of us. I think it would have been about right for three.
Friday afternoon and night was the best fishing we had, it was not great but at least it was fairly consistent. I opted to fish outside the house during daylight hours, with Jay and Rick taking advantage of the climate controlled conditions in the ice house. To me it just did not seem right fishing in a cabin, but it was fun and comfortable.
Tim and his son Logan made it to the house after dark on Friday, and we all settled in for a couple of hours of night fishing. That was the first time I had experienced rattle reels, which are basically and empty wire spool with some beads inside and line on the spool part. Bait is attached to the end, lowered to a depth of a few inches of bottom and dead sticked for the most part. When a fish takes the bait and runs the line goes out causing the reel to turn and the beads to rattle. A very simple but effective way to fish.
Saturday morning was pretty dead, so we ventured out to a rock pile in the lake and set up tip ups for pike and jigged for walleyes. Jay caught a few perch and rick caught the biggest walleye of the trip, but we had no pike action. We only spent a couple of hours here, because we got a call from the shack owners that we were being move to deeper water. We got back to the shack just before it was moved, and followed along to its new resting spot. In a short amount of time it was set up in its new location and we were fishing. We did catch a few fish right away, but as the light faded from the sky and day turned to night, the walleye bite disappeared with the sun.
After a great fish fry put on by Tim, some of the die-hard football fans, both Packer Backers and Viking fans went to one of the local bars for the game. I opted to stay back and fish. Tim’s son Logan also was not interested in watching the game so we both stayed back and fished. Logan is a good kid; he is twelve, well-mannered and loves to fish. Even though Logan did not have much action he never complained or quit, I was impressed!!
Sunday was upon us before we knew it, and that meant the long dreaded trip home. We opted to leave the lake at first light and head to Pike Bay, which Tim had suggested to us. Here we targeted pike and perch. The perch were very cooperative, but the pike were not. We had pretty much non-stop action on the perch, and when we first arrived they were so active that bait was not necessary. The fish were not huge, but perch between nine and ten inches were the norm, not bad in my book. Tonight I was looking over the map of Cass Lake and Lake Winnibigoshish and I am almost certain I had fished this exact same spot five to eight years ago when access to Lake Winnibigoshish was extremely bad.
Observations:
I had a good trip. I have always wanted to rent and fish out of a sleeper house, and now I have done it. I am definitely going to do it again, but the next time I am going to be staying in a larger and nicer sleeper house, I may even venture up to Lake of the Woods. I was totally amazed at how popular ice fishing is in northern Minnesota; it is what runs the economy in the winter time. Wisconsin is losing out on a lot of revenue from the ice fishermen. It is too bad, I think if we managed our fisheries as well as Minnesota we would be an upper mid-west destination for ice fishing.
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