Long Time No Red Lake

As many of you know I used to spend much of my winter on Upper Red Lake.  In past years I would practically live there.  As gas prices went through the roof my red lake trips and clients disappeared.  I never even made one venture to Upper Red Lake last winter.  

This past week I broke the year long streak.  I headed to Upper Red Lake with 3 of my best fishing friends.  Jay Moore, his dad Jack Moore, and Keith Ulstad.  If it swims or flys Jay and I have attempted to catch it or hunt it.  Jack is with MN Eye Consultants the company that performed my great eye surgery and is a large supporter of fishwithmatt.com (ME). Keith is a pilot and is a mutual friend.  He also joins Jay and I on many adventures.  Every time Keith has been along on a Jay and Matt adventure it has been great.  We did Red Lake a few years ago and hammered them.  We did the Delta Marsh this fall and hammered the ducks.  We left town early Sunday morning with a buzz in the truck.

The bite has been slow around home so we were excited to get on a good walleye bite.  We enlisted the help of a good friend of mine Mark Raveling of Raveling Outdoors to get us on the fish.  We arrived after lunch on Sunday and only managed two walleyes the first afternoon.  It started raining early Monday morning and rained all day.  It really turned the fish off for us.  The fish had a bad case of lock jaw from the front that came through.  Even when we marked one it wouldn't bite.  We only managed to catch 4 more fish on Monday. 

Jay caught a few of the better fish, this one went 20" and gave Jay the fight of his life....it pulled all the line out on the tip up before anyone saw the flag up!  Jay also managed one nice pike.

We did end up with some legal keepers which made for a great fish fry.  Nothing better than fresh walleye in the shack.  Don't mind the president in the back ground in his first presidential press conference.  Out in the middle of Red Lake and we are keeping tabs on how much money he (Barack) is planning to spend....

Tuesday we got up early and left because of the rain we wanted to get a head start on our drive.  I also had to get back and get all my houses off before they froze in from the rain. 

Whack Fest 09 Part 2

The first trip was so good we had to go back for more on Saturday when the temps hit 40!  We were back on the Mississippi River.  Needless to say it was a slug fest on some giant smallmouth.  We had doubles and triples all day!  We ran out of bait in two hours, did i mention we had 8 dozen minnows?!

I would say the average fish we caught was 3 pounds with many over 4.  The biggest fish was caught by Hotrod and measured 20 3/4"!  A real donkey of a smallmouth. 

Nice fish Rodney!  I am jealous, you always catch the big ones. 

I could not imagine living anywhere else but MN, the vast choices of fishing we have throughout every season is second to none.  

More ice fishing updates coming soon.   

Recent Corporate Outing

This is yesterday's group with a northern they caught on a tip up.  We were also able to catch some panfish so everyone got to enjoy the action.  We kept everyone well entertained and warm! 

Nice crappie! 

 Jim from North Carolina with his first ever fish through the ice!  This northern took a sucker on a tip up. 

His second fish ever.  He asked if this was "bait".   What a great group and a great time?!  Thanks to all of those I fished with this week.  The "out of towners" really were impressed with the way we fish here in MN in the winter. 

 

This was our set-up this week for all the corporate outings.  As you can see, we do it up pretty nice.  

Whack Fest 09

Yesterday Chuck, Gunnar, Smelly, Murray, and myself ventured to the Mississippi river for some unbelievable smallmouth action.  This was one of about a dozen doubles that we had through out the day.  The weather turned nice and the fish turned on!  We brought 7 dozen minnows and were out in 3 hours of fishing. 

 The fish average about 2 1/2 pounds with many fish pushing the 4 pound mark.  The shear strength of these fish is like nothing you will ever catch.  They have more energy then a 16 year old boy after a six pack of red bull!  Needless to say everyone enjoyed there day on the river.

  
Every time I looked up or down the river I would see one of the fellas hooked up and hooting and hollering, Fish on!! 

This was my personal best for the day!  It was a bruiser.  If you have any interest in getting in on this action feel free to contact me.  You will not regret it. 

Smelly said it best 10 minutes into our outing, "I could go home right now and I would tell you I had a blast!"  That was only 2 fish into the day, he ended up catching 15 more in the next hour and a half.  Thanks for the great day on the water fellas.