Hotspotoutdoors

I will be heading up tomorrow for my 4th time. I hope to bring home enough for a small fish fry. Sounds like Im a month too late. Guess you never know til your on your way home! Gotta be better then workin!

2 of us fished from 10:30 until 5:00 yesterday, went out of Rogers, we were about 2 miles out. basically all alone, fishing was slow from 10:30 until 3:00. during that time we picked up 8 eyes and 3 perch. from 3:00 until 5:30 the fish moved in and it was one every few minutes. ended catching 30 plus eyes and three perch. nice trip. i thought the fish was pretty good compared to the reports i have been reading.

Some buddies and I went up to Red this weekend. For me and some of my other buddies it was our first time. Got there at about 4:30 Friday and went out of Beacon Harbor in portables, man was it cold! Got a 15 inch eye in the first 10 minutes and then nothin for the next 1.5 hours. Saturday we got to the lake at 8 am. We fished for 12 hours out of our portables and tried about 7 or 8 spots. We must of put on 40 miles on the lake. A few perch during the day and 1 what I believe to be a Gizard Shad. We didn't pick up a walleye untill about 330 and ended up with 8 eyes from 330 to 730. Six of those eyes were keepers with one cigar and one 22 inch slot. We caught those eyes at that spot that we tried first in the day. It was a couple miles off the end of Beacon's road in about 14 foot. We set up on a contour at least half a mile from other people. Marked lots of fish but they all weren't hungry. Overall it was fun but alot of work to get those eyes! I will definetly be back as I love figurin out how to get them walleyes!

Fished the north end Sat and Sunday with not much luck. Moved our ice castle three times with hope of finding the hot spot and it never happened. This was our 5th trip and was the worst this year. 4 keeper walleyes, 5 slot fish and one little one. Even the perch action was slow and size seemed smaller than other trips. Outfitters were on the move and looked to be scattering here and there so I am guessing no one has found the hotspot....? One outing left for us the last weekend and I am thinking maybe new scenery...? The lake has been fun and good to us this winter but each trip has gotten slower and slower....
Good Luck and Happy Fishing!

Same thing happens every year. It slows down, but you can't beat it in December and January that's for sure.

I heard this weekend is gunna be the most epic bite of the season

Just fished last Saturday afternoon from about 1:30 to 7:00pm with my wife. we caught 1 nice keeper walleye and 8 walleyes ranging 6 to 13 inches we threw back. Caught about 6 or 7 perch, kept 3 decent ones, nothing huge. Three bite offs from pike, only got one close enough to the hole to see it. We were 6 miles out of WestWind. found some rough ice, drilled bunch of holes, marked lots of fish, so we set up our portable that was a challenge in the 40 mph winds. best luck was with red forage mininow with trouble hook and minnow head. lots of bites on jig stick and dead stick, had an especially hard time hooking the ones on the dead stick. constantly had fish on the vex, lots of lookers that would eventually run away. couple times i caught or felt fish because i would just set the hook after getting sick of watching the red object on the vex covering my jig for 5 min. Over all not much for keepers, however we had a lot of action and had a lot of fish on the vex. Unfortuantely you can't make the fish hungary. Great time on the big pond.

The wife and I fished Saturday and Sunday in about 15 FOW in a general area that Larry at Hillman's pointed us to. I found some piled ice away from other houses so decided to give it a shot. Caught a 16" and 19" walleye w/in 5 minutes of drilling first hole! 2 to 4 pm was the hot time both days. Caught over 20 walleyes in two afternoons, brought home a limit of 15-17 inch with the others about half under 15" and half over 17". Lost quite a few too, seemed like it was bigger fish that I had problems landing Also caught quite a few perch and brought home 4 jumbos for the pan. The water clarity was the best I have seen on URL, the underwater camera worked pretty good. It was fun watching the walleyes come in and smack the buckshot rattle spoon. Demon jig on dead stick produced as well. After reading slow posts for the last week, we were pleasantly surprised!

Fished URL on Friday and Sunday. Our group averaged 1-2 keeper walleyes per guy per day. Many small walleyes and a few in the slot were released. Fished out on Hillman's road from 5 miles out to the end. We had two crappies, one 15.5 inch and one 14 inch. Everybody landed a few keeper perch as well. Also had three pike including a 46" inch that I caught and released on Saturday. 35 minute battle on the walleye rig with the Lindy Slick jig.

i will off road travel be this weekend? did your area get a lot of snow?

I am wondering the same thing. I will be up with two buddies of mine for their first time to Red, one who has never spent any time ice fishing (what a shame). I'm hoping to be able to get around like last weekend but it sounds like this snow might limit the off road travel?

If there is no off road travel, is there anyone outfitting out of Rogers that would plow me a spot when I get there?

Off road travel is limited, you can get around good, but rough ice etc is hidden if you run into it you will get stuck. Bring sleds unless you can find someone to plow

Was out along the north shore hoping for crappies and couldnt keep the walleyes off. Was able to land one(crappie) to admire and release but quit after an hour or so of moving around and having the same result. Water is extremely low. My kids are gonna love the lake this year. Should be able to walk all the way to the first break.

You can go a long ways this year. Something I have also noticed is the lack of major sandbars this year. Last year's high water and winds leveled the lake pretty flat and it is going to take some wave action to get things back to the norm.

Managed limits Saturday and Monday. Too windy Sunday and today. Fish were scattered but dragging jigs seemed to be the approach working best. Lots of smaller fish with a couple 25's and lots in between. This wind will keep the bite subdued for a while but hopefully bite will pick up when the water settles. Slow opener in quite a while for us. Hope everyone had a good weekend. See you in a week!