Frosty on Red, a Synopsis of the Season

Sunday Morning Outside Temperature!

This weekend marked the last trip to Red Lake and JR's for the year.  Mr. Applen decided to join myself as the end strategy was to pull my Salem home for the year.  Typically there is a group of us who pull up our wheel houses to Red Lake the minute one is allowed to travel on the ice with single axle wheel houses and half ton pickup trucks.  That has been as early as the Friday after Thanksgiving however generally occurs around the middle of December as was the case this year when we arrived on December 14th.  Both Mark and myself had issues that first weekend which forced us to pull our house back home and get repaired as normally we leave them right at JR's till the end.  Last weekend was JR's annual Redfest, an unusual fishing contest done inside his bar and it is quite slick.  $5.00 a ticket, it is put in a bucket then drawn later.  If your name is drawn that gives you the opportunity to draw out of another bucket which has all sorts o
f fishing scenario's and instant prizes.  Say you draw a ticket and it says 8#9 ounce walleye, you can decide to keep it and enter it into the contest or throw it back which allows your name to go back into the main bucket to possibly be drawn again.  Usually buying 4 tickets my name was drawn and it was for $20, essentially I got my money back.  It's always a good chance to meet people you haven't seen since the last Redfest and this year was no exception, especially seeing Brice and his dad John.  This year is was exceptionally cold as we arrived on Friday afternoon, it was -10F.  We asked JR to plow us a spot, he accommodated us and a few of his friends near the southern rock pile in 10 feet of water.  It is really nice to have a plowed spot and not have to cross country it through uncharted snowdrifts and ice chunks.  It is really easy to simply back in and set it up, as well tearing down is a lot easier as well.  No worries about getting stuck.  Although this might sound crazy both Mark and I determined ot have a JR's walleye lunch and brought some frozen walleye from home to assure a meal as the bite has been tough on Red this year.  By Saturday morning we had 3 nicer walleyes Mark decided to keep for a relative of his.  Saturday evening I got a nice one on a rattle reel but other than that it was a pretty slow bite.  Did I mention it was cold?  Sunday morning about 4:20 one of the rattle reels went off.  Mark was sound asleep so I got up to attend to that line.  I knew it was going to

Jack Nicholson at His Finest!

get cold however looking at the clock, it was -28.5F outside.  Uffda.  I did set the hook on a nice fish but just like that the hook broke off the line.  One of my goals was to change up the line on each of my Rattle Reels, hoping to go to a heavier line and of course newer as the old stuff was getting brittle.  I didn't make it that far on that specific rattle reel.  I did go outside to finish some business and dang, it was cold! It reminded me of the picture of Jack Nicholson in the movie, The Shining, where he ends up in the end.  Luckily the house is pretty warm and we had plenty of propane to sustain us through the weekend. It wouldn't take very long to look like the picture in this weather!  Because Mark and I have the exact same wheel house, a Salem 8X20RD Ice Cabin, we make a good team as each knows exactly what needs to be done to get it ready for the road.  2 hours later we were back at JR's where Mark cleaned our last fish and we filled up on Coffee and said good bye to JR and Adam.

Sunday Morning Sunrise at -26F

As stated Red Lake wasn't necessarily a bust this year however the fishing was difficult.  As stated in a previous post, the test nets set out to evaluate the walleye population was a twice as high as Lake of the Woods, an incredible amount of walleyes.  It is my opinion that these fish were very well fed and we are seeing the top of the cycle where there is abundant bait fish therefore the fish have plenty to eat.  This was obvious by the marks we saw on our flashers, through the last 4 trips we saw plenty of evidence on our depth finders that the fish were there, just not hungary,  Maybe next year this will change and so will the bite.  I still enjoy going up to JR's and truthfully we caught fish every time and had at least 1 meal each trip, as well brought fish home.  Never getting  up with the sun much, this weekend was an exception  as I did get an opportunity to get a nice sunrise picture looking to the Southeast from our camp on the ice.  The day progressed as we stopped at one of our favorite places to eat breakfast, The Woodsman Cafe in Remer, Minnesota.  They even have Gluten Free Bread for me!  They make an honest homemade corned beef hash that is to die for!

Getting the house parked at home, there is a lot to do to make the necessary repairs, to restock the cupboards, and give it a general cleaning.  As I write this, the cold weather has followed us down as it was -29 this morning in the truck as I drove to work.  The warmth is predicted to return on Saturday with a forecasted high of around 40, that will be nice to thaw everything out before it starts to cool off again.  There are lots of things going on in the next month, I'd like to make it up to Mille Lacs once before the Perch Extravaganza, Bruce asked me to fly back with him in his airplane from South Padre Island in Texas, so I might just meet him in Dallas, visit Joe and Matt before flying back.  I'd like to go find some nice crappies soon.  This winter is certainly moving fast!