Every Other Week

Ben and a nice 27 inch LOTW's walleye

The schedule is working out such that my fishing outings at Red Lake turn out to be every other weekend starting December 14, 28, January 11, and the 25th will probably be my last trip.  So last weekend with the nice weather, there was an attempt to get some things done.  The rainy weather we had after Christmas really messed things up and the 45 degree temperatures of last weekend helped to loosen things up a bit and get the sidewalks and driveways cleared of ice.  Whilst I was busy chipping away my friend Ben Aiona headed up to LOTW (Lake of the Woods) with his wheel house and to my surprise fished out of Morris Point Resort, on the south side of the lake.  Lake of the wood has been a lot like Mille Lacs, very slow to embrace the technology of portable wheel houses as their business model has been more directed towards semi guided trips where the resorts would charge you so much a day for lodging, a ride to and from what we would call a skid type ice house, fish until sunset then a ride back into the resort for lodging.  Most if not all of the transportation would be via a vehicle called a Bombardier which is basically a van with skis in the front and tracks in the back to push it along.  The advantage is that they could charge by the person, usually around $80 - $100 a day for the combination of everything and unless you had a snowmobile, it was usually difficult to travel via your own vehicle to get anywhere on the lake.  Today things have changed from 20 years ago, most serious ice fisherman have their own wheel houses (Like myself) and they are getting more family focused whereas they have dual use as an ice house in the winter and a camper/RV in the summer.  Wheel houses were the curse for the traditional resort operator as now their customers had their own accomodations.  Red Lake was probably the first lake to really popularize the welcoming of wheel houses, for no other fact than they did not have an established resort business that counted on the combination fishing model.  It is amazing to see Red lake, often times there are thousands of wheel houses parked across the lake.  Many of these guys were ardent Mille Lacs, Leech Lake, Lake Winnibigoshish, and Lake of the Woods fisherman.  Honestly a few resorts on these lakes worked with wheel houses however many of them viewed them as the enemy to their livelihood.  Unfortunately this form of ice fishing is here to stay as more and more resorts are seeing this as a sign to help develop a better business model using individual houses.  Traditional means of ice fishing requires a lot of work and maintenance yet with wheel houses one only needs to offer a decent road system and take advantage of the needs of these guys, stuff like propane, fish cleaning, a place to sit and eat.  I definitely can't say which is a better model however it is becoming more obvious that things are changing and those who adapt are the survivors.  Based on Ben's report I would like to get up there and fish, maybe in March as Morris Point was one of our places I used to fish with my friend Mark Mayerich, where we would use our portable ice houses and stay in their facilities.  Ben did very well, a lot better than we have been doing on Red.  Although he caught a lot of fish, many of them were small but mixed in was enough to take some home as well a couple of dandy's including this 27 incher.

Upper Red Lake (BLue) is Fishable Area

Friday I am heading back to JR's for the weekend with my bone collector friend Greg Kimblom and his son Marcus.  My friend Mark Applen went up last weekend and really did not do very well.  I question his going up alone, with the snow on the lake, it's sort of dangerous, as he told the story of getting really stuck in the snow and what we call "Shale" ice, flat thin sheets of ice chunks that blew together then froze, hard for the truck to get any traction and he claims that the rear end got hung up.  This is why I carry a set of easy to install chains with me, just for these situations.  Luckily I have never had to use them except once, and I guarantee that they are nice to have when one needs them.  He has some commitments this weekend however our friend Russ is heading up on Thursday and hopefully he will have a better report as his strategy is to fish south of where we have been since December 14th, near the rockpile in shallower water.  Our theory is the vehicle traffic to Center Bar just keeps pushing the fish west into the Reservation side of the lake, so maybe a little further south might just be the ticket.  It hard to say and it isn't too bad to move yet it does take an hour to set up and an hour to pack up so the older we get the lazier we are! I think if I had the energy it would be more successful heading to Lake of the Woods, yet that's another hour's drive north and a new experience to learn.  Maybe in March, like the good old times!  Here's hoping for a good report for next week.