My wife Sarahand I ventured up to Red Lake in northern Minnesotaearlier this month and were hosted by FLW Walleye League anglers Chad Benson and Ryan Klein. This is one place you’ve absolutely got to visit ifyou really love walleye fishing. When we got there we were told the bite was slow. I guess slow is a relative term on Red Lakeaswemanaged over a dozen nice walleyes that first day. The second day the bite started later due to blue-bird skies, but the action was once again good and consistent.
The second night I also caught a bonus 33-inch northern that tested the limits of the drag on my small spinning reel. My only regret from the tripis that we lost two of the famed Red Lake crappies on consecutive bites. These crappies are so big and wide that oftentimes their body rubs against the8-inch hole in the ice. Asyou can imagine, that resistance is enough topop the hook out of the paper-thin mouth of the crappies.When this firsthappened to me I was dumbfounded. Thenthe exact same thing happenedto Sarah and I figured it out. Sadly, those were the only two crappie bites of the trip.
If you want to read more about Red Lake, check out my feature story titledUpper Red Lake: Paradise on ice. It is located in the fishing sectionof the site.