We awoke at 9:00 am, “fished” some more, but with very limited success – we were not even catching the right kind of fish. At about noon we discussed packing up and heading south to Upper-Red lake because we heard they were killing the crappies there… Screw it, lets go! By 3:30 we had packed up the house, ate lunch, and made the hour drive in the snow to our next destination. We stopped in at a local bait shop and asked what they’re biting on. The response: “Anything you put in the Fucking Hole!”. Nice, but seriously, where do we go, what depth etc. He said, go out 4 miles on the ice, turn a quarter mile to your right. Fish a foot off the bottom in 12-13 feet of water. With serious knowledge in hand, were ready to fish.
It was just as the bait boy described for two of us. Patches and I caught 28 of the 30 fish limit. The smallest was just shy of 12 inches, the largest was over 15 – not to mention about 10 that were 14 inches plus.
The best setup to catch them appeared to be a small white jig with a red stripe on it. It also glowed red and had a #6 hook. We used the tiniest sinker we could, extra sensitive bobbers, and jigged ’em ever couple of minutes – gently.
It was a blast. I have a pile of photos up, including a panoramic of red.
At this point it was hours awake: 60, hours of sleep: 6.
