My First Upper Red CrappieAfter doing the required Shooks Shake at the holy intersection, we got up to West Winds at around 11:30 or so on Friday Feb. 23rd. It didn’t take us long to get unloaded in our cabin and out to our fish house. Within the first ½ hour or less I had the first bite. It was a nice walleye about 24†long! We got a couple pictures of it and released it.
Not long after that we began to catch one walleye after another. Each one over the legal limit of 17â€-so of course they went back. Now I was fishing with Steelman who is a hardcore diehard walleye fisherman. It was like taking a kid to a candy store, letting him hold the candy-but only to tell him “Nope-put it backâ€! Over and over again we released them; it was rather painful at times! (Ok each and every time).
I watched as my bobber popped down an inch or so suddenly. It slowly crept down the hole another 6†or so until I set the hook. Wham! It fought a little different than they eyes we were catching earlier. Yet it wasn’t about to give up. It gave my new Berkley Lightning rod a workout as I reeled it in. As it neared the bottom of the hole my eyes had to be as large as saucers-could it be? MY very first URL Crappie? As I reeled it up the hole, I reached down and grabbed it. Sure enough on Friday February 23rd I finally caught the elusive (Elusive to me) Upper Red Lake Slab! I can only imagine how excited I must have seemed to Steelman. I’m sure I was that kid at the candy store who finally got to keep that one piece of candy. I know I was giddy at the least. I held it up to the rule taped to the wall and it measured 13-1/2 inches. I’ve never personally caught crappie that big before!
It wasn’t long after that we each caught 1 keeper walleye. Even though they were less than 17â€, they were still nice and thick. We headed in to West Winds around 7pm as fishing had slowed/stopped for the past hour. As I was driving back the roads were hard to see as the wind had blown snow over the tracks. Thank god I had my GPS on hand to follow my tracks back to shore. As I got to the ice bridge put over the pressure ridge, I could see that it was covered with snow. I began to cross the bridge and everything was fine until the left rear wheel slid off the bridge and into the open water! My hands gripped the wheel tight, my foot never let up on the pedal-in fact I may have goosed it a bit after the loud boom of falling off. I make it across the bridge-it was rather bumpy with the rear wheel climbing over the ridge. I pulled over, grabbed the spotlight to check for damage. There was none that I could see. The trucks behind me (who followed me for the past mile or so-they must have thought I knew where I was going) stopped to make sure we were ok. Everything seemed fine. Visibility was low because of the blowing snow. But we led the pickup truck caravan back to shore safely.Â
Other than the truck falling over the edge of the bridge my only complaint would have to be the speed demons on the lake. I was traveling at 20mph. which I consider fast enough. If I had to suddenly stop-I believe I could have done it rather safely without sliding too far ahead. Still there were those who were in a hurry to get wherever and passed me. I guess people don’t understand the concept that this is ICE we are driving on. It is flexible and when we drive on ice it creates a wave. Numerous vehicles following closely together can create a larger wave. And a vehicle speeding along the ice can create an even larger wave. So if you wonder why the pressure ridges seem to open up more or close up creating a taller heave-there is your answer-hydrodynamics!
Back at the cabin I talked to the rest of the crew. They had caught some walleyes, perch and a northern. Everyone gorged themselves on some lasagna I made. Thanks to mom’s recipe it was a huge hit. I was almost too excited to sleep that night, as I knew there were more of those large crappies out there to be had. I sat there in the cabin as everyone slept watching out the window as trucks came in and went out all through the night. I eventually gave in and called it a night.Â
The next morning I got up early (5:30 am) to start breakfast-egg bake casserole. Most of the crew was sleeping off a long night of cards and drinking. Steelman and I however were there for the fishing more than anything. As we finished breakfast we saw an Otter walking along the shoreline. Then as the Otter came back he was closer about 40 feet from the cabin. Of course the camera wasn’t within reach to get picture of him, I’m guessing he was in search of food. We got out to the house shortly after 7am. It wasn’t long again and we were into the walleyes pretty heavily. Most were over the legal limit-but man was it fun to see how well the lake has come back! And once again Steelman was the “kid in the candy store-unable to keep any candyâ€. Again my bobber had popped under the waters surface about an inch and began its slow decent down the hole. Shortly thereafter I had reeled in another slab. This one measured a little over 14â€! Now I know there are bigger crappies out there, but it didn’t matter as I was having a blast! And this was the largest crappie I’ve ever caught.
*Note pic taken at an angle-fish is lined up with rulerSteelman also caught a nice crappie about the same time as I. Then I suddenly had both bobbers go down nearly simultaneously. I’ve never had a double in my life-until now. I thought to myself-“why I couldn’t I be born an octopus?!â€Â I sure could have used extra hands at this point. Steelman was busy with his own fish at this time. I quickly reeled in one crappie, let it lay on the floor as I jumped over to my other rod and proceeded to reel the other crappie in. Suddenly there we were with 3 huge crappies! I don’t think our smiles could have gotten any bigger!
*Note pic taken at an angle-fish is lined up with rulerThroughout the day we were catching walleyes and crappies. At one point Steelman’s bobber slammed under the surface of the hole. The way the bobber was moving I guessed it may be a northern. The line was peeling out of the reel-the drag was whining as the fish took off. Then it would stop, he’d reel up some line and it took off more, the drag again screaming. I sat over the hole waiting to help bring in the fish when I noticed his other bobber was dancing up and down the hole. I told him he had a double going as he was fighting this fish. The bobber quit moving, so we focused our attention on the one he was reeling in. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the worst thing happen-his rod and holder got pulled off of the floor and into the hole! I jumped over him and his rod that he was fighting the fish with and tried to grab the rod as it was going down the hole.Â
Unfortunately I was only able to grab the rod holder-the rod was gone forever!  I told him it was gone to which he replied “Well there’s my sacrifice to the Crappie Godsâ€. He took it rather well I thought-but he was still fighting this fish-so that may have held his attention more. As if this wasn’t bad enough, now my bobber was going down-and going down fast! I grabbed a hold of the rod-not about to let this one go down the hole! I set the hook and watched out of the corner of my eye as Steelman’s rod dipped down hard. I then realized our lines were hooked together. I opened the bail to let out slack and went back to help bring in this troublesome fish who had tangled our lines.Â
Finally the fish had had enough and we got it up the hole. It was a nice northern-at least 30†long if not bigger.  With it came a mess of lines. As we began to untangle the mess, Steelman was shocked to find the bobber from his downed rod wrapped in the mess! As we untangle the rat’s nest of line, I brought in the line with the bobber hand over hand. And there it was at the bottom of the hole-his downed rod & reel! We both knew that now the crappie gods were not going to be happy about this! As with any god, you do NOT take back the sacrifice, it will only anger them!
We took a couple of shots of the northern before releasing it. Then settled back to fix our lines, rebait and get back to fishing. We both laughed out loud at our luck of getting back his rod!  Our hearts were both beating hard because of all of the excitement. It was something that you’d only think Hollywood could dream up! After a lull in the fishing we managed to catch more walleyes and crappie. At around 3pm it had been dead again for over an hour, and we decided to head to shore for a bite to eat. We counted up our total catch for the day. 2 more keeper eyes, and 12 crappies-the smallest was 13-1/2â€. Originally we intended on going back out after we ate a late lunch. But after driving back in the winter storm only to be guided by the GPS (following our tracks back) we changed our minds and thought it be best to call it a night for fishing. The rest of our day and evening was spent in the temple with a few cold ones, prime rib dinner (which was REALLY tasty!) and good laughs over our adventure of the last 2 days.Â
We turned in rather early Saturday night as we were fairly exhausted. Sunday morning I awoke at 4:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I packed up my things as quiet as I could and decided to clean off the snow from the truck. We had gotten another 6†of snow overnight. The total snowfall for the weekend was around 8-10â€! Steelman came out shortly after me and we began to load up the truck for the trip home. We left at 6am and made the slow trek home.
The road between Waskish and Kelliher had not been plowed yet-so it was 4x4 all the way at slow/safe pace. No sense on being in a hurry and going in the ditch we figured. After Kelliher the roads had been plowed once, a few hours earlier. So the truck remained in 4x4 the rest of the way.
After a quick breakfast at Bemidji we made our way home. It was still snowing on and off along the way. We followed plows once and a while which slowed our speeds at times. But it was better to follow the plow than to take a chance in front of it. Our 4-1/2 hour trip ended up taking 7 hours. But in the end we got home safe and in one piece! I dropped off Steelman and unloaded his gear. Then I headed home myself. Once I got home I had a driveway to clear. We had gotten about 8-10†of snow over the weekend.
The End!Â
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Topic: What a Weekend! (2/23-25th) (Read 3501 times)
