It had been a week since my last trip to the mighty Red. But a forecast of 10 Celsius along with some sunshine, not to mention the chance to catch some more trophy walleye was all the encouragement I needed. This time along were friends Jim Price and Phil Brake. Over the period of a week, a lot had changed. Water quality was not quite as good but current flow was still decent. There was quite a bit of debris in the water as water is released through the gates at Lockport.
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| Notice water quality, down from a week ago |
We hit our first spot on the “Miracle Mile” not knowing what to expect. In the first hour and half we only had two walleye, both caught by Jim. We then pulled anchor and did a controlled drift. Fifteen minutes later I was into a real good fish which let go just before we could see it. Five minutes later Phil landed a nice walleye, his first of the day. On our next drift in 11 feet of water, I was smacked by another good fish! This time we got it the net, a nice chunky 27 inch greenback.
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| Phil with a nice fish caught on the troll |
Two more drifts later we decided to re anchor were we caught those two fish on the drift. Fish were being caught around us on this stretch as well with a fair number of big walleye being caught. Jim and I decided it was time to put the crankbaits down and see if there were any fish up on the flats. I put on a blue Berkley Frenzy diving minnow bait, while both Jim and Phil had on the #7 Flicker Shad, one in shad colour and the other Fire Tiger. Moving up to 10 feet, I had landed the first fish, a good eater. A short time later, Phil wacked a real nice 24 inch fish on his Fire Tiger Flicker Shad. After landing and putting the boat in gear my rod bent over with the weight of a big fish. Up from the depths came a trophy greenback, rolling over and spitting the hook just before we could get the net on it. My lure went flying by Jims head and she was gone!
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| 31 inches of green! |
On a couple of trips last week, friend Dan Macrae landed large fish of three different species. One 31 inch walleye, one nice sturgeon and a couple monster catfish, all on a jig in 14 feet of water. Wow, that is what the Red River is all about.
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| Now that is a catfish! |
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| Dan with bonus sturgeon |
Count on the fishing to be good right until ice up. Current water temperature is 42 Fahrenheit, up two degrees from the previous week.
