Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will be having a happy New Years. We have been spending some time on Upper Red Lake and the fishing has been pretty tough to beat. Not only are there lots of nice “eating” size fish but there are some real fat 23-28″ eyes being caught this year along with some big pike. We are normally fishing Mille Lacs pretty hard at this time of year but so far we have not set foot on that ice and don’t plan on it until things get a little safer or there. We will be adding occastional reports though out the winter but not on a regular basis. If you need to get ahold of one of us or book a trip give our cell’s or the baitshop a call. Now it’s time to enjoy some personal fishing for a few months and then we’ll be back at it hard come spring. Take care.

Where has October went? It was a month of mixed fishing results, one day you go out and really bang them and the next trip you wonder where did all the fish go. One thing for sure though was the 2 weeks of hard northwest wind in the middle of the month sure got the bigger walleyes going. Although we spent most of our time on Gull, good reports have also been coming from North Long, Pelican, and the Mississippi River. Nate spent the weekend up on Kabetogama with a couple of friends and really did well jigging minnows in 35-45 feet, with many of their fish too big to keep. Butch fished Friday with a group of 4 Nebraska Cornhusker fans who came up early to fish and then take in the Nebraska/Minnesota football game. We had one of the best days of fishing all year, lots of fish in that 17-25 inch range with the biggest measuring 27+ inches, hard to catch fish that were small enough to keep. Butch fished with Steve and daughter Rebecca both Saturday and Sunday and found lots of fish going on Saturday and then Sunday the bite lasted until about 10:00 when the rain and cold set in, wind switched, and they just shut right down. You can catch fish with a jig and minnow but the best has been Lindy rigging with a Red Tail or Creek Chub. You need to start at the weed line looking for fish and just keep moving out deeper until you mark them. One spot they will be next to the weeds and then the next spot your finding them in 35-40 feet. When you mark them, they bite, finding them is the key.  Remember when fishing that deeper water, take your time bringing them up so they can be released and not have their eyes and air bags blown. The Crappies have really started to bite also. We will keep fishing into November as long as the weather holds, sounds like next week may even be above normal temperatures. If you still have the itch to catch a few “eyes” give us a call, we’re still booking trips.

Wishing we invested in windmills at this point. The wind has just be relentless lately. But…..if you can fish in it, the fish are biting good. This wind has really cooled down the water temps the past few days. This is a good thing. The past few days the fish seem to be migrating toward deeper water. Fri the key depths were 20-22 ft, and then Sat and Sun the key depths seemed to be 36-40 ft. Lots of chunky 16-20 inch fish. Nothing monsterous yet but I think they should be showing up in numbers any day now that the water temps are around 50. Also the bite is a fun one, there is no messing around and you’ll know when a fish bites because they throttle it. The bigger the minnow the better. It seemed that a good 4-5 inch chub was the key. Again we’ll keep our boats out until early Nov. so if you would like to expirence some fall fishing give a call.

Fishing has been pretty good as of late. The past couple days were more spotty but thinking alot of that is due to the wierd weather we expirenced. We are catching many bigger fish as of late. Nothing monsterous yet as far as walleyes go but a number of them in the 24-27 inch range along with a lot of nice chunky 15-20 inch fish. Yesterday morning it took us 7 spots before we found some very aggressive fish and it was pretty fast and ferious that last hour of the trip. Again fish are spread out from 13-40 feet of water. It really takes more time to track them down now with them spread out in differing depths. The water temps went up again and I think that is why the fish are still spread out. We are near the full moon so it will be interesting to see how the guys trolling cranks at night will do. We usually enjoy sleep too much to enduldge in late night fishing but if it is nice we might have to give it a whirl Fri or Sat night. We will still be guiding most likely through the first weekend of November so if you have a fishing itch, give a call and we’ll scratch it for you.

Fall is here baby. Lots has happened since the last report. The weather has changed. The walleyes are starting to cooperate with more regularity. Nate sold his boat and Butch is putting his up for sale soon. So it looks like there will be some new exciting rigs for next year. We are still doing trips this fall though at this point. We fished Gull, Whitefish, and Pelican over the past week and a half. Some real nice fish have been caught. We are now getting walleyes from 13-34 feet of water. It really seems to vary from spot to spot. Also those little buggers are on the run, many times after catching a couple they make small moves and you have to track them down again. Happy b-day to Katie. She and her friend were troopers fishing in 20-25 mph winds and cold temps. They were rewarded with a nice batch of “eater” walleyes and had a true monster pike up to the boat 2 seperate times. It wouldn’t fit in the net and I estimate it to have been 40-43″. At least we got to see it! If you would like to book a trip give the baitshop a call. Enjoy the season! New pics are being posted as well.