Fishing Report for Upper Red and Cass Lake

Cass Lake Report…3-2-12…The perch fishing out on Cass Lake this past week has been decent. A person has to sort through the smaller fish to get some good sized ones, but still good action. Most of the action has been in the 7-9ft range, with the fish being caught on all different spoon and jig combinations. The brighter yellows, greens & oranges have still probably been the best color patterns for lures. Some days a minnow head or half of a minnow works best and others they seem to prefer a whole minnow.

               The extended forecast for this coming weekend looks good, with a chance of snow pretty much every day. Next weeks forecast looks like we will lose pretty much all of our snow cover pretty fast, with highs in the 40’s & 50’s. This should get the bigger perch snappin pretty good I am guessing.

Upper Red Report…2-19-12…The walleye fishing on Upper Red this past week has been pretty decent for most of my guys. Anywhere from 5 to 15 fish a day has been the range I have been seeing lately. The bite has been the best later in the afternoon into the evening hours. A few fish have still hitting the rattle reels at night also. The best action has still been coming from smaller sized minnows.

 

Cass Lake Report…2-19-12…I pulled half of my houses down to Cass this past week and the perch fishing has been fair to slow. I guess I should say that there has been a lot of action but the size of the perch has been a little smaller than I would like to see so far. Most guys have been sorting through them & getting a decent number of 9-11 inch fish. The bigger perch should pick up pretty soon.

The walleye action was pretty decent for one of the groups on Cass this past weekend. They ended up catching some good numbers of eaters and also some bigger fish in the 25-27 inch range. The best presentation for the walleyes was a plain red or colored #4 hook with an emerald shiner hooked lightly in the back. They also got a few of them while jigging for perch in the same area. The best action for the walleye was in the 12-16ft range in the evening.

Good Luck to everyone during the last week of the walleye season! Take care….Chad

Upper Red Report…2-8-12…The walleye bite has been on the slower side for the past week or two. Once in a while some better numbers show up but it seems to not last for very long. The fish have been biting very light and smaller sized baits and lures still seem to be working best. It has been hard to get a hook into the walleyes as they seem to grab the bait and not hang on for too long before they drop it. Jigging and dead sticking have both been producing some walleyes. Don’t wait too long to set the hook on the rattle reels or the fish are gone. It seems like you are better off taking a stab at them right away lately.

There have still been some decent perch showing up in the mix also. I haven’t seen a crappie lately but one or two have still been showing up sporadically.

Good Luck!!.....Chad

Upper Red Report…1-16-12…The bite has still been on the slower side, but is showing signs of recovery. The best numbers of walleye I have been able to come up with in the houses has been somewhere in the 10-15 fish a day range. The most productive pattern has been dead sticking the baits on a rattle reel or slip bobber set up. The smaller jigs & spoons seem to be turning more fish also. Same color patterns have been working, red/white glow, perch patterns (yellow, green, orange) etc. Most of the walleyes have been showing up later in the afternoon and then until 9 or 10 at night.

               There have still been a fair amount of decent sized perch and the occasional pike showing up also. The perch action is much better out in the softer bottom areas of the lake. Most of them have been in the 8-10 inch range.

Still a nice slab showing up once in a while as well!

Upper Red Report…1-12-11….The past two or three days have been about the slowest fishing I have had so far this season. The day bite has been very slow for walleyes but the perch have been keeping some of the houses busy. The walleyes that are being caught have been mostly early & late in the day and also at night. Another crappie showed up in one of the shacks also. The bite should pick up once again, hopefully this weekend.

Upper Red Report…1-7-12…The bite has shifted to more of a night bite for me during the past days. We are still catching a few during the day, but from 3 p.m. through the night is when most of the walleye have been biting best.  A few nice pike have showed up lately as well.  A 36, 38, and 41 inch got their pictures taken in past few days.  They were all caught on walleye gear on light tackle.  Still a few nice perch showing up in the buckets too.

Take care….Chad

Upper Red Report…1-1-12…Fish are still biting on Upper Red. The past couple days has been more of a early morning, evening and night bite for my shacks. Everyone seems to be happy with the houses and the fishing. Not much more a guy can ask for. Happy New Year & Good Fishin!!

Upper Red Report…12-30-11…The walleye bite dropped off some today. People are still catching pretty decent numbers though. Most shacks have still been catching 10-20 a day which still isn’t too bad. There really hasn’t been one best time of day or lure lately either. One day the morning seems to be the best and the next day the afternoon or night bite seems to be best. As long as a person has a good variety of jigs and spoons and experiments a little you should find something that is working at the time.

               I still haven’t been seeing too many big pike showing up. I did have a customer catch a 42 incher yesterday though. Otherwise most of the pike being caught are under the 30 inch mark.

               There are still a good number of perch showing up also. There are quite a few 8-9 inchers with the occasional 10 incher.

               Good Luck!!

Upper Red Report…12-27-11…Hope everyone had a great Christmas & had some good times with friends and family! Things are getting much busier on Upper Red after Christmas and the walleye bite is still going good. There is still a good morning/evening bite on the shoreline break in 7-10 feet of water and if you want to have an off and on day bite the 12-14 foot depths have been the best. The best colors have still been perch patterns during the day and glow color lures after dark. There have been a fair amount of decent sized perch showing up in the buckets as well. They are hitting on the same stuff as the walleyes. I am sure if you downsized a bit you would catch more of them if you want.

               I few smaller pike have been showing up in the area the past few days, but I haven’t seen anything big lately. I forgot to mention I did have one group catch a 42 & 38 inch pike last week. I’m sure some bigger ones will show up again one of these days. I haven’t had anyone really targeting them lately either. The ones last week were caught on the walleye gear and a fathead on 6lb test line.

               I am pretty sure Upper Red has about the best ice conditions in the state for driving full size vehicles out right now. There is 14-20 inches of ice in our area. The darker ice is the thinnest and the areas with broken ice or white ice is the thickest. I have also heard there have already been vehicles driving out to Center Bar. The bite is always good early out there but in the next week or two it will be a big circus and the bite dies off fast when the circus arrives.

               Good luck out there and be careful!...Take care….Chad

Upper Red Report…12-24-11…I have had a little more time to fish during the past couple of days and the walleyes have been cooperating fairly well. I have mainly been fishing during the midday hours and have had a pretty consitent bite the past two days. The best color for me has been anything gold or a perch pattern jig or spoon. I have been having the best luck jigging fairly aggresivly to pull the fish in from the surrounding area and then letting them tell me what they want once I get them on the electronics. Sometimes they come in and just nail it, sometimes they like to play cat & mouse for a while and you have to try different actions to get a bite out of them. Keep tinkiering with various things such as jiggling the spoon or jig, pounding the bottom a few times and then slowly lifting, and if the fish starts to fade away, many times they will come back to look again with a few fast higher jigging motions. Not every fish is going to bite when they show up, but it is knd of fun to see if you can figure out something that gets them to bite. Yesterday the fish would come through in waves and you would catch 2 or 3 fish fairly quickly then have to wait for a little while for the next flurry. They definitly preferred a whole minnow hooked near the tail on the jigging spoon yesterday. I tried just a head for a while and then switched to the whole minnow and got much better results.

               There have been good reports pretty much across the entire lake so no matter where a person chooses to go out of you should be able to catch a few  walleyes and hopefully a lot of walleyes. Most accesses have been letting ˝ ton trucks out and the ice is slowly but surely getting thicker. With the lack of snow this year travel is very easy for now. Be careful out there, go slow, and if venturing off marked roads be careful for new cracks that can show up quickly.

               Good luck to everyone and take care….Chad

Upper Red Report…12-19-11…The walleye bite has been fair to good during the past week or so out of the Red Lake Adventures access on the east end of Upper Red. The bite has been primarily a night bite for most of my guys for the past couple of days. Today things picked up during the day though. Everyone was catching some nice fish during the middle of the day when I checked in on them & everyone was pretty happy with what they were catching. The small perch that are also in the area were also keeping the guys busy. Most of the walleyes being caught are in the 14-17 inch range with a few 17-22 inch fish mixed in as well. Most people have just been using fatheads & shiners to catch their fish. Perch pattern, red glow & gold have all been producing the best for my guys. Some days jigging with a spoon and minnow head have been working well, but other days they are kinda lazy and prefer the bait sitting more still on a bobber or rattle reel. I haven’t seen any big pike caught in the houses so far this year, but I am sure some will show up eventually.

            The ice conditions are looking good as well. Today I checked around the area quite a bit and couldn’t find anything under 13 inches where we are fishing. I know there are thinner spots out further and hopefully we get some colder temps to thicken up the entire ice sheet on the lake. For now the bite is still good on the shoreline break in 7-11 ft and a person doesn’t have to head out any further anyway. Good Luck to everyone & take care….Chad

Upper Red Report…12-11-11…The ice conditions out of the Sandberg Road Access are still not looking good. There were still pockets of open water late last week and the ice is extremely rough. The ice gets better the further east you go so I have decided to pull the shacks over to the east side of the lake and run them out of Red Lake Adventures Access off the Kansas City Road just south of Waskish. The ice conditions are very good and the fishing reports have been pretty good also. The ice ranges from 9-13 inches and travel is easy.

            I pulled one house out yesterday and probably a couple more today. I haven’t had much of a chance to fish yet but will do quite a bit today & early this week. The reports from most people fishing the east side have been good, with most of the walleyes being caught in 8-11 ft. of water.

            I’ll keep you posted on the fishing and good luck out there! Take care..Chad

Upper Red Report…12-03-11….Ice conditions out of the Sandberg Road Access off the south shore are not looking that great right now. Yesterday the ice sheet separated about a 100 yards out and now there are some pretty good areas of open water running east and west along the south shore. The open water band ran from the reservation line to Mort’s/JR’s area and then stopped in that section of the lake. Roger’s ice looked pretty good as of yesterday.

            We definitely need some colder/calmer conditions to get the ice sheet stable enough for safe travel on the South West end of the lake. Things are still sound pretty good over on the east side of the lake & the ice has been stable there. The fishing reports have still been good on the east side as well.

            Hopefully things firm up on the south west part of the lake this week and we can get out and see if the fish are biting out there also!

            We’ll keep you posted and be careful out there. Take care…..Chad

Upper Red Report 12-1-11……Ice fishing has been underway on Upper Red for the past week or two. Walking has been the only been the only way of travel thus far and the fishing has been limited to the East side of the lake where the ice has been stable. The North and South sides of Upper Red should be good after this coming weekend for foot travel and possibly ATV travel depending in the temperatures we get in the coming days. The forecast looks good and hopefully we don’t get any significant snowfall too slow down the process.

            I have not ventured on to the lake myself yet, but there have been good reports coming in from the Waskish side of the lake. It sounds like 8 feet of water has been working pretty well for the guys who have been venturing out. The evening bite has been the most consistent from what I have heard. I will get out on the south shore in the next couple of days and let you know what I find.

            The weekends have booked up pretty fast for the month of January & I still have a couple openings for the last two weekends otherwise everything is full. I still have a few openings between Christmas and New Years if anyone wants to squeeze in a little ice fishing between the holidays. I also am planning in having some houses out before Christmas, so if you would like to try some early ice fishing on Upper Red lake I should have a few shacks out as long as we don’t get any major snowstorms.

             Good Luck to everyone during the early ice period and be careful out there!

            Take care……Chad

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