Another report from Red

[Fawkinnae]

Well I just got done porking out on Red Lake walleyes and perch - with some left over to eat tomorrow cold. My son Collin (Wyofish) and I went up Friday morning despite the weather warnings. Turns out they were mostly pretty right on about the weather - cold and windy.

We picked up my new (used) Clam 6800 and borrowed an auger from my brother in Turtle River thinking if things were slow we could venture out with the portable. Haaa. Let's just say it never left the roof rack. We got up to Red about 12:30 - early afternoon, picked up some minnows at Hillman's and met Pat Foster who would lead us out to our home on the ice until noon Sunday. I'm not sure exactly how far out we were but I'm going to guess about six miles until we started veering north on a very narrow plowed road. We ended up near some cribs that are marked on the gps with no other houses within probably a quarter mile or more. At that point the sky was sunny and bright and we liked our chances.

We caught a couple walleyes and later in the afternoon more perch. I won an epic game of cribbage after being behind the whole game. About 8:30 we went into Waskish hoping we might run into John Wester but no such luck. By now it had gotten very overcast - almost foggy like with some light snow. You really couldn't tell the sky from the ground. I don't think it was blowing hard yet. We headed back by 10:30 fished for another hour and hit the hay. I went out to take a pee and the wind was screaming from the east with some snow and pretty darn cold. The wind didn't let up until late Saturday afternoon. Actually it paused for an hour or two and then it blew even harder from the west until the time we left.

Pat came out to check on us Saturday morning.

For some reason I though Pat had told me he had pots and pans for cooking. Not so. We propped up weiners on the gas stove burners taking turns to see who did a better job of balancing them. Hotdogs and potato chips for breakfast. Yum.

The bobbers continued to go down occasionally. We ended up catching 12 walleyes and about a half dozen perch. We managed to drop two of our biggest keeper walleyes back down the hole in the process of measuring them. No Biletnikoff award for me again this year - geez and I always thought of myself as a possession receiver. We also had a broken line Sunday morning on the rattle reel. Note to self - always check the line and knots on a rental house rattle reel.

We left about noon on Saturday. Pat had a heck of a time getting a plow out to us. The road had been obliterated by the wind. On the way home we stopped at the Stompin' Grounds Bar and Grill in the middle of nowhere north of Akeley. I don't even know how we found it. We watched the first half of the Vikings game and I won a set of plastic Vikings plates - which we dined on tonight. They will forever after become an important part of my camping gear.

Hope I get back up there again this winter.

[Stensethfan]

I am going up out of Bear Paw Guides Sunday through Tuesday.  They are right next door to west wind and I guess we use their access.  If anyone is going to be up there I am guessing the wife and I will be in the bar at night let me know and maybe we can get together and have a few pops!