Tips for catching fall Red River Greenbacks

By most accounts fishing has been pretty good this fall on the Red River north of Lockport Manitoba. A variety of techniques have been working, including trolling crankbaits into the current. Veteran Red River walleye fisherman say if you have an option of when to come out to fish the Red, wait for days when the north wind is blowing. It’s been proven over the years that when Lake Winnipeg flushes water into the river and backs it up to Lockport that the walleye fishing is substantially better. Given the forecast of a huge north wind for today and tomorrow, this could be the week to catch your trophy.
Anchoring in the Red is a time honoured tradition and most big walleye are caught this way. It does help to have two anchors if at all possible. Put your heavier anchor off the front and drop a lighter anchor off the back to prevent your boat from moving back and forth with the current surges. Some anglers will drop two anchors at the same time in order to get their boat sideways into the current. This allows anglers in the boat to spread out their lures,covering more area. Jig size will vary at this time of year depending on wind direction and current flow. Many veteran anglers of the Red fall walleye run will pound a heavy jig off the bottom to attract fish from a distance away. Many also bulk up their jigs with some kind of power bait over the shank of the hook, then add a couple of salted shiners over the back point of the hook. Since it is barbless your best option is to take an elastic band and cut it in short pieces. Once your bait is on your hook, add the piece of elastic over the point of the hook to keep your minnows on. I will sometimes hook my two minnows through the eyes for more action. Other times you can put the point of the hook through the mouth of the minnow, down through the gills , turning the minnow over to make sure the point of the hook then goes through the main body of the bait. This will help with short striking fish especially, eliminating the need for a trail or stinger hook. Vary your action with the jig, remembering that in heavier current conditions, fish will tight to the bottom and in shallower water. When current flow is slow, trying working deeper water along the main channel. If you can anchor on a channnel break with one angler shallower and the other deeper it will increase your odds of catching fish.
Anglers from shore are also reporting excellent success in the stretch of river between Lockport and Selkirk.

Cross Bay is better than ever!

I should know better, I really should! Blood was dripping down my wrist, making the butt of my level wind rod sticky and red. It wasn’t anybody else’s fault but my own, having forgotten to bring gloves along to handle the big stout Cross Bay pike we were catching one after another this last day of September. A gale force south wind was blowing, making boat control a challenge as we tried to find a concentration of fish in an inlet on the west side of this massive bay. After spending about half an hour drifting then back trolling we had zeroed in on a big rock pile that was surrounded by weeds and sunken timber. This spot topped at about five feet, then dropped off to about 15 feet rapidly on the deep water side. I marked the spot on my Humminbird 997c as # 18 and then slowly motored around the area, checking out the structure on both my side and bottom imaging mode. When fishing these types of spots you want to try and position the boat just far enough away from the edge of the drop so you can drift your baits quietly up through the fish zone. Moving up wind, friend Jim Price slipped the 30 pound Navy anchor over the side in 12 feet of water. Slowly letting the rope out, I waited until we reached 10 feet before telling him to tie off the rope to the front cleat. We still had plenty of rope to work with so we could either back off the structure even more if we need to or let more rope out if we need to get more on top of the structure. Rigging up small ciscoes we had bought at a tackle store in Winnipeg, we drifted these baits on quick strike rigs under a large bobber. My bait was set at about six feet below and Jim’s had his at about five feet. We wanted the baits to be slightly off the bottom so these active pike could see the baits from a distance away. One thing you have to remember about pike, is that when a bait is slightly above their head they can see the bait three dimensionally. If we were to drag them on the bottom in this particular situation, the pike would have a much harder time finding the ciscoes.
In no time at all we were into a double header and after about three hours of this type of fishing we had gone through the 28 ciscoes that we had brought along. No matter, we quickly changed over to swim baits from Berkley. Jim used a Berkley Hollow Belly Pearl five inch shad and I had something similar on. Since the pike were targeting ciscoes on this particular spot, we were offering the pike exactly what they wanted to eat. Finally around three p.m. we braved the four foot rollers back to Moak Lodge and loaded the boat back on the trailer, another unreal day had on Cross Bay.
For a great place to stay visit their website at http://www.moaklodge.ca/