Several resorts are allowing walk-on access now on Upper Red (no ATVs or snowmobiles yet) and have been finding 6-8 inches of safe ice getting down to 4 the further you get out. The wind on Red has been intense this week and opened up a substantial crack along the south shore on Monday the 28th near JR’s Corner Access, Roger’s Resort, and Boondocks. Be sure to call before you try going out of these resorts as they have closed their accesses until further notice. Temps have dropped considerably from the recent warm up, so they are building ice again for the foreseeable future.
The wind was brutal today be we did really good, caught over 25 fish with two anglers but I acknowledge it can be real hit and miss. I did hear a lot of bad or slow reports, so I know we just got lucky. Don’t want to set false expectations. We got out in 9 feet on the north end out near West Wind and got lucky enough where we could sit in a few key spots that had fish passing through. Bite was off in that the fish were not overly aggressive. Couldn’t do much with traditional swim baits or larger spoons. Caught some fish on dead sticks with a plain hook and small minnow but the best lure was a small Clam Sweat Pea Slab Spoon with a single hook and half a minnow so that the half minnow could roll and sit horizontal. Fish sucked and backed up so we switched to jigging with dead stick rods and mono instead of braid so we didn’t miss many fish.
Jason Mitchell