December's Flurries

Happy Holidays !!
  With Christmas 2012 come and gone , hope you all have something to be thankful for.
  I personally had a wonderful Holiday Season, and have been fortunate enough to hit the hardwater quite often. The fishing has been very good up in the "Great North" of Minnesota.

 The crappies have been very aggressive as of late and seem to be en grained in there deep water patterns.The key to cashing in seems to be drilling alot of holes and covering a large area of a main lake basin, then go through each hole with your depth finder to locate the fish. I have had very good results with both vertical and horizontal presentations.

 Let me explain that statement, vertical being small jigs tipped with small plastics that on rest lay on a vertical plane and horizontal being small jigging spoons tipped with plastics riding horizontally.Rigging a rod with one of each will usually let you know what the panfish have a preference for.

 I have the privilege of having a friend that provides a guiding service on Red Lake about an hour north of us called Bearpaw Guide Service. Steve and Tyler Brasel are the proprietors of this business and I have known Steve for some 30 + years. Anyhow, I have been lucky enough to chase walleyes on the popular Red Lake a number of times this year with very good results. The walleyes have been hitting small spoons tipped with a minnow head  or dead-sticking with a plain hook and minnow combination.Currently, they are fishing 3-4 miles out from the east shore in 11 - 12 FOW. Another thing that has been working is the small vertical jigging baits such as a Salmo Chubby Darter.It has been my experience (up there) that these baits seem to produce better on the evening bite, again the smaller sizes being better.If you have the urge to fish Red and need a house rental or guide give Bearpaw a call, you won't be disappointed.

 I have been looking up  alot of test netting reports this last week or so and have been gathering lakes to explore for big gills. This means an exploration trip to virgin ( to me ) waters is coming up very soon. I always enjoy the challenge of new waters, sometimes the thrill of the chase is as much fun as the catch. I'll keep you posted on the explorations.

              Have a great New Year and make more fishing trips a resolution of yours!!!!
                                                                        Shawn