I guess its the old adage careful want you wish for. We wanted cold and got -10 this morning. Mother nature reared her ugly side yesterday. The winds picked up out of the west and a few times it was white out conditions out there. From the looks of it winds out of the west and nw for the next 5 days at least. With the way the ice is building I expect I will be getting the houses on the lake with in the next 7 days. I guess I better put the golf clubs away. !0 below this morning and blue thunder clicked for just a sec and fired right up. The red baron also fired right up so those are good things for sure. I’ll be spending the day putting propane on all the houses, Old Minnesota, North Dakota, Florida, Montana and North Carolina. Still have openings in Jan. and Feb. has plenty of weekend dates open. I think I’m ready for all the hard work and Fun, Fun, Fun, on such a grand lake. I Know Wayne can not wait to play some poker in old Minnesota while on the lake and The hammer not only fishes well but is a darn good poker player. I’m looking forward to seeing my repeat customers and meeting new ones.
I also want to run the generators again and fire up number one and two augers.

Just like that and we now have ice here on the shores of upper red lake. I’ve walked out on the lake Friday to look at some ice that had piled up in front of our place. It in real shallow there and I should be able to plow right through it. With the snow that drifted around it was not frozen underneath at all. There is also quite a bit of it in front of Hillmen’s we will have to smash and move that asap as it will catch snow all year and just keep making a mess. Buddy has the road started and has been dragging it since Thursday. He all ready has it staked out quite a ways. I have not talked to him but I will assume wheelers will be aloud out this week. Adam was up yesterday with a few buddies and they only went home with 7 fish. I would guess there were 20 portables out there Saturday. Sounded like there were quite a few fishermen out of jrs. I stopped in westwind yesterday to check out the new bait shop. Wow its huge they sure know how to keep upgrading there resort. I guess that’s what makes them the premier resort here on the shores of upper red lake. Chris the owner of Rodgers also keeps upgrading and have put in a restraunt. I’m pretty sure they will be frying your catch and will be looking forward to having them cook up my catch .
Two of our trucks blue thunder and the red baron are ready to go once we can drive on the lake. Of course there are a few bugs to work out. I started blue thunder and moved it a half dozen times this summer. Fired up every time. 5 below Thursday morning hit the key and click nothing. Bad/dirty connection I would assume. We rewired the plow lights yesterday and I cleaned up the battery connections so we will see if that was the problem……….
I’ll be putting fresh propane’s on all the houses this week and getting them ready to come out of the woods. We have some guys coming for the cabin Friday, Saturday. I also expect Jake to be coming up with in the next ten days . With the cold weather sticking around were looking real good here on the shores of upper red lake.
I also have tried to create another face book page so check it out. cookies on upper red lake. Maybe this time it will work

Fall is in the air that’s for sure. Fall fishing for me here on upper red lake has not been the great fishing you always here about. I guess I have to think about pulling the boat and getting here put away for the year. I have been bow hunting this year after skipping a couple years here and there. I was treated to a rare occasion as this weekend I had 3 of my best friends here. The greek came up for a couple days. He moved to Alaska a few years back and started a new business. If you ever want to go to Alaska near Homer give me a shout as he is a outstanding host. From here he is headed to Florida where him and his sweet pie spend the next 5 months living on a 30 boat he purchased last year. Bob and the greek were high school friends and I have known them both for 39 years. Bob will be up for deer hunting next weekend as we prepped our hunting spots this weekend. Wayne comes up just about every other weekend. I have known him since the mid 80s when I painted cars. He is one of the best fishermen I know. He’s not into hunting but loves to fish. We also play a lot of cards when he comes up. He is also the one that helps me find all the trinkets for the fish houses to doll them up as he has a great eye. He could be a excellent picker that’s for sure.
I had two good nights hunting out of my new used ground blind that the greek gave me this weekend. There’s good sign where I’m hunting so time will tell as I try and stick one with my recurve bow. The reservation books are starting to fill up which is always a relief. Having return customers has always been my goal so looking forward of seeing some of them again this year.

Well it was great to have family up this past weekend. My Sister Lavon, her friend Cindy, my nephew Larry jr. and my niece Karmon arrived Wednesday evening. We did get out for a bit Thursday but it was a tough bite with only landing 4 fish in a couple hours. My brother and his friend Shannon arrived thursday late afternoon. After dinner us guys went for a ride so I could go over the boat with warren as I had to work Friday and he could take the boat out. They ended up trolling spinners in 7 feet of water and kept 8 fish. Saturday was a bit windy but we trolled for big pike for a bit and landed one smaller pike. Saturday eve we attempted to get out . With the winds out of the west just over 10 mph it was a little rough out there and we gave up after a bit. The guys in the grey cabin only ended up with 7 fish for the weekend. So to sum it up the bite was a little tough. We did manage to have a great fish fry but know one went home sunday with fish.

Ii did get out Tuesday Aug. 2nd for a bit. Trolling for pike was on the agenda. In my haste setting up I forgot to snap the clasp on my leader. Wouldn.t you know it I got a strike and it was goodbye to my favorite trolling lure for pike. At 35 dollars it will be a while before I order a new one as if I go on there site I.m sure I will order a few lures.
I did see two guys trolling spinners for walleye and got a nice keeper in 6 feet of water. I also talked too a local that did real well down by the popples trolling spinner baits in 6 feet of water. It looks like the winds may make fishing tough the next few days

Well another weekend has came and gone and its back to the grind today. Our friends Wayne came up for a little fishing as well as our friend Boar. Paul, Nik and Nate were in the grey cabin for the weekend. They arrived Friday evening and the hammer checked them in while I was still at work. They got the boat launched and got out for a bit where they landed 2. Adam called out of the blue friday eve. and wanted to know if he could come up with Justin and pitch a tent down at the lake. They rolled in around 10 30pm. Wayne, Boar and I headed on the lake about 730 am as I wanted to troll for a big pike for a fishing contest I’m in. We made 1 1 mile pass with 3 lures out and nothing. The wind was blowing pretty good out of the south . Off we headed to one of my go to spots this time of year. We all decided a dollar for the first fish, a dollar for the biggest fish, and a dollar for the most fish. The first drift and it was fish on for Boar. A nice keeper walleye was in the live well. Wayne got snagged and broke his line. the second drift and again Wayne snagged his line again. The third drift and again wayne got snagged while I put a fish in the box. There were lots of yucks as we made drift after drift landing a fish here and there. We had our 3 over 17 in the live well and a couple under when wayne landed a nice fish well over 17. Because we had our three over wayne threw it back before measuring it. It was to funny as we agreed it was not measured and did not count as the biggest fish. Wayne got on fire and took the lead with most fish at 11. I ended up with 9 and Boar ended up with 7? I had took a pic of my biggest over 17 on the measuring board for the contest I’m in and through it in the box. When we pulled off the lake we had our twelve with boar winning first fish, wayne winning most fish. We decided that the biggest was a tie for wayne and boar at 18 1/4 inches. Later in the day Boar was looking at our pics and took a closer look at my fish for the contest and it turned out It was 18 3/8th. I won the biggest fish after all. Man did we have some good laughs. Paul ,Nik and Nate ended up with 10 fish and were happy. Justin and Adam/Ginger did not do well and only landed a couple smaller fish. We did a fish fry Saturday eve, and all ate like kings. Sunday boar had to hit the road so wayne and I headed out and placed the same bet. Wayne landed the first fish, the biggest fish and the most fish. I on the other hand could not buy a fish and at one point got snagged 4 times in a row and all 4 times broke off my gear. Wayne ended up with 9 fish and we kept 3 . I did have a fish all most to the boat when it got off and again we had some good yuks about that. As of now the cabins are wide open this up and coming weekend. Ted and his crew come up on the 11th and my sister and nephew are coming up on the 10th for a little r@r

It was such a beautiful morning today. I decided on the spur of the moment to wet a line. I never have my plan until I pass the last marker buoy. I decided to fish for some pike. I started with a bucktail. With nothing to show for I switched up to a jointed salmo, again nothing then I switched to one of my favorite lures and bam 3 fish in a row with in a few minutes of each other. Fun Fun Fun. One 37, One 38 and a 28. roughly. My tape measure was not in the boat so I had to use my 20 inch walleye board

Well she been a little quiet around here as of late. My buddy Wayne made it up for the weekend of the 15th. We did get out and do a little fishing but after all those days of wind the bite was a little tough for sure. We only managed to land 4 small walleye with the biggest just over 15. I was a little surprised as we hit a couple of my go to spots. I spose there’s plenty of food for them to eat out there this time of year so maybe trying some leeches may be the ticket. Sunday Wayne was not feeling to well so we skipped the fishing. We did go check out a few blueberry patches, I ended up picking about two quarts. Wayne is possessed with those small wild strawberry and was on the hunt for those. We did stumble on to a juneberry tree that had so much fruit on it, it was bent over all most touching the ground. Tuesday I got out fishing by my self and with leeches managed to get 4 for dinner but it was tough. Friday Boar and his wife Laura camped down at the lake. Boar and I went out Saturday morning and again managed to keep 4. Jeff did loose 3 fish and I missed a couple bites so the fishing was quite a bit better. Sounds like Boar will be up again this weekend and we plan to wet a line. Were also going too do a little scouting as he may come up and do a little hunting this fall. Lee and Nick came up Sunday and the wind kept them off the lake. They had a very small boat, but they had a plan B and brought the golf clubs so they headed to Blackduck where the played 27 holes. Marty and Shelly showed up late Saturday as they were at a wedding in grand rapids. we all set down at the lake for the sunset and then set in Boar and Laura’s Clam screen house when the skeeters came out. Wow is that thing nice and goes up easy peasy. Sunday we all set down at the lake and just chilled. Jeff and I went for a swim while Kellie and Laura got a little to much sun. Monday Nick and Lee got out fishing .Again the wind got the best of them and they showed up at Oak harbor golf course where I work to play another 18. I told them we could go fishing in my boat Tuesday morning so they just pulled there boat Monday evening and we went out early morning where again we managed to catch a few fish. Lee left me two jars of home made maple syrup .Thanks Leo.

This weekend is Hillmens 31rst annul Billy Hillmen softball tournament, with festivities starting Friday evening. There still looking for more teams. Saturday after softball they play a mean game of 4 man tackle football in the mud pit and its always a big turn out. August 6th Westwind is having a 32 team Kornhole tournament, You can check out there website for details.

Paul and his two boys are coming up fishing this weekend and Jeff, Wayne and I plan on wetting a line also

No takers on the play and stay yet. I have not been fishing as of late but will be putting the boat back in the water this week. My buddy Wayne helped me give her a good cleaning. I changed the oil in both motors and also installed new plugs.
Looks like this weekends weather should be good for fishing upper red lake. Light winds. Talked to a couple locals and there still catching fish. Were still wide open with the cabins the rest of the summer. I have plenty of projects around here to keep me busy. Going to check the blue berry patch down the road as I would like to can/jar some this year. Also dong some work on the river lot and dock

Here”s the deal stay two nights here and I can get you 2 free passes with cart to Oak Harbor golf course. The course is 52 miles away one way from the shores of upper red lake. I have not gotten out but I here there still biting pretty good