Wow what a weekend. I’ll start with the fishing report. Real good for some, so so for others. Some are finding the under 17 while others have trouble getting those under 17 inches.
We had a nice treat from the air force as a couple F 16s came over the lake twice. They have been coming over quite a bit the last few weeks. Back in the 40s? They did test bombing up here. Some cool history if you take some time to look it up. The big bog state park had a presentation a few years ago and had pics of cargo planes landing on the lake. Grama said she remembers when you would here the bombs going off up north. I have also heard they have dropped bombs in lower red but not sure about that.
In my educated guess I would say the traffic yesterday was 1/5th of last year, which may be a good thing. We need to save some fish for the ice houses.
I Have no clue if it’s my age or my car accident a couple years ago, but my Memorie is slipping a bit and I do not like it.
Yesterday was busy day trying to button up a few more things before the cold snap hits us. Blue thunder has started all summer, fall. I go to fire her up yesterday get click. turns out bad battery connection. I did get her running to gas up for the impending snow. Coming back I could tell it had a miss. Pop the hood and a spark plug wire has burnt from the exhaust. Today Jonny boy will help me take care of that. I’m sure I should have a few plugs wire around as I have a hard time throwing anything away. A Hour drive to get a part can make it a hassle.
We did get the v plow on. I got the step for north dakota done. Were waiting on a new heater for florida. The old one still works but a plastic part broke. We built the houses to last 20 years. If had not thrown the other one away that we replaced in montana I would of had the part. Trying to find the part is pretty much a waste of time. I’m going to take one more look in the sheds just in case I did not throw it out.
The phone, emails and messages has also kept me busy. I only do my emails once in the morning but may have to start checking them twice.
Were wide open all week un tell friday then everything is full again. Buddy Hillman does have some openings. If I here of any others I will put it out there. Curt from Fishbone maybe has something also?
I would like to keep writing but just too much to do. I wanted to try a harvest a deer one last time last evening but it did not work out. With all the price increases a deer would of been nice this year.

So it really begins. Sitting here this morning having my cup of coffee at the crack of dawn the vehicles are rolling buy. I was expecting it to be quite busy this morning if it is anything like last year. Although Rachele at HILLMANS POINTED OUT THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE WORKING THEN LAST YEAR SO MAYBE NOT.
Some of the resorts are allowing wheeler traffic out to a certain point. Make sure you talk to the resort you’re going out of as most have been on the ice looking it over. I personally have been out about 100 yards if that. Buddy hillman has some stakes shaped like a x and has requested to not go beyond that point.
No idea what the other resorts are asking so thats why it’s so important to stop and check in to get the scoop.
The winds did pick up yesterday afternoon. Red lake remote posted some pics of open water on their side of the lake.
We may have some lodging tonight as few of the guys are worried about the possibly of snow coming. If it gets sketchy out there Saturday eve. It would be a great idea to get off the lake as white outs can be really spooky out there.
We’re going to try a button up a few more things today before the bitter cold hits us here on the shores of upper red lake. I’ve did my no snow snow dance so will see if it works. Sometimes it does but sometimes it does not.
One year they predicted 6 inches of snow. I got up the next morning. I went outside and was like sweet it missed us. I dilly dallied around that morning before heading out to get the houses prepped for the weekend. Holes augured etc. To my surprise the snow had come across the lake after all. With that plus the winds, all the houses were drifted in with no roads or trails even going to the houses. That turned into a grueling day. That was a good lesson.
The fishing report from all the guy’s last night was ok. I do not think anyone got skunked. Jonny boy even landed a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie. I nice 15 1/4. The hammer/wife had vision of eating it, but Jonny boy released it to fight another day.
We all full again next weekend on shore, Buddy Hillman did say he still had some on shore lodging. I peeked into his new double decker, very impressive. Thinking it sleeps 4?
The guys in the ice castle nick named alaska were going to play some cards. I was still waiting for some late arrivals so I could not play a few hands. Maybe tonight if they shuffle up and deal.

Well here goes. Good morning
Nick and Jacks crew were here Tuesday Wednesday.. they figured they caught 20 per day. They also caught one elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie. This year I’m calling them a bonus fish They did land on the keepers. I should of walked out to where they were. Oh well hindsight is 20 20. I could see where they were so that’s good enough for me at this time.
Dan and his crew also arrived for our cabin. I will see how they did today as they were out there all day yesterday. Jason and his crew arrived around 4 30 last night. They unpacked and headed out as the sun was setting so we will see how they also did. I can all most bet they forgot something as they hustled out there.
Yesterday I spent the day cleaning all the shacks for this weekend. It’s kind of nice getting them all dialed in before they come out of the woods.
I did talk too Buddy Hillman briefly yesterday. He does have openings next weekend. We are all full at this time. We are waiting for another ice castle but I will not book it un tell it’s here.
Jonny Boy will be up today to help get more propane’s on the houses. The hundred pounders shot up in price? This year I will have to shut the heat off if they are going to be empty for even one night. I have always kept the heat on old Minnesota once it hits the lake. I also use it for my office on the lake so more than likely it will be status Quo.
I also have a couple other things that need to be taken care of before the cold snap hits.
I’m sure Johnny boy will be getting a little fishing in this weekend. I see a fish fry in the very near future say Saturday night.
The first band of snow missed us last night. just a trace so far. If you’re on the lake this weekend watch the weather, walking in a white out could be quite the challenge. All the resort have been updating what they are allowing to go out there access this weekend. I expect tomorrow to be super crazy just like last year. Please everyone use common sense a listen to what the resort say. Quite often they are soo pumped to arrive they do not listen. I can not count how many times I have told someone ok come out on the lake drive 2 miles you will see a orange cone. wait for me there. Then they call were a the end of the road by the orange barrel’s?. Kinda funny but with the early ice conditions pay attention. Have fun and save a few fish for me on a grand lake that owes us nothing

Things are starting to pick up here on upper red lake. All the resort are checking ice thickness and conditions as we approach the coming weekend. Most have facebook or web pages they are updating. We team up every year with Buddy Hillman out of Hillmans resort and bar Tall Tale tavern. Sound like they will be allowing just wheelers just wheelers out the the 3 X stakes. Buddy did find unsafe ice, unsafe ice further out. With the mild temps I’m sure it not making much more
Just like every year I’m staying on shore tell I can explore by vechicle.
We have had a few customers staying down on shore in our fish houses that had done all rite, I do not think anyone has been skunked. They save that for me.
We did have a cancelation this coming weekend. I would assume most operators are full. It’s a hassle hauling down hot water for cleaning the houses on shore, but it’s a good trial run every year.
We did acquire a ice castle again this year that has arrived so that one will be going on our web site, I nick named it alaska. cookiesonupperredlake.com;
Yesterday I had 30 phone calls with most of them wanting ice conditions? or fishing reports. Err hard to get things done sometimes. I hate not answering my phone and need to learn to let it go to voice mail.
The fishing report changes every day. One day they are biting well in 6 feet the next day 8 the next day great morning bite. Then a nice window at dusk in 5 feet for a hour. Its fishing you cannot catch any if you’re not out there trying.
Well that all for now have plenty of things to get done today. Everyone coming up just remember common sense is free

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Another ice fishing season is right around the corner. Jonny boy will be swinging by later today as we button up a few lose ends on old minnesota, I’ve cleaned the houses, fired up the heaters plus did some inventory of the houses. Again this year there are no pillows in the houses.
This year the phones have been a little quieter, the weekends are starting to fill up with more openings in feb then jan.. North dakota has again been the most requested house. It does sound like we may have 2 ice castles to rent this year also. I will not be taking any reservation on these un tell they are here on property.
The truck fleet as some issue again this year, The red baron started and ran fine this summer but now has developed a electrical problem. Barny in Kellior is taking a look at it for us. Blue thunder seems ready as well as the other 454 . I did fix the window so it stays up this season. Gets a little chilly when the window falls off its tracks and comes down. The black chevy was going to get the tranny rebuilt? That plan back fired as the price doubled to 2800 hundred dollars from last year so I will have to come up with a plan b.
This end of the lake looks like it locked up a few nights ago with lots of chunky ice. No clue how far it goes out that way. Every year I hope it will freeze nice and smooth like it did one out of the last 19 years. Guess maybe next year.
I personally do not like pushing the early ice. With last few nights temps I expect we may be pushing 3 inches of ice. Since we go out of hillmans resort I let Buddy Hillman decide on what and when is allowed out. I did see he has built another new house. I have no details on size at this time.
The new limit starts dec 1rst 4 fish with 3 under 17 and 1 any size.
It’s pretty much a guess when the houses will go out this year. Maybe by mid dec just depends on mother nature.
Jake will again be helping us out this year. I think he had a decent year with his guiding business On The pond outdoors. He also makes some musky baits that are works of art in my opinion.
The hammer and I are looking forward to spending some time ice fishing inn old minnesota again this year.
Everyone have a safe and happy thanksgiving
.

Well there is a pattern every year. Every year my reports and blogging go by the way side. There are a few reason . One I have 2 summer jobs one at the golf course in Baudette” Oak Harbor golf course” I also do the mowing around here for the township. Throw in a few guiding trips, cleaning our two cabins after guests, plus I’m addicted to golfing makes for a busy summer. The other reason is when it come to fishing reports it drives me crazy when I’m mowing homestaed park and the ball fields seeing all the day trippers launching there boats knowing our cabins are empty. They come from every where. So there you go that’s why my reports are seldom in the summer.
Fathers day weekend the fishing was outstanding in 4 feet of water. Crazy 85 degrees and sunny, I would assume the fish are gorging the young of the year classes. Every thing from baby shiners to baby walleyes plus every thing in-between.
I did get out with our boat named ‘Imagine That’ my best friend Billy boy named the boat after a saying my Granma Olga. She would say in that Swedish accent oow imagine that. I had some leaches that customers left. Headed out to my summer morning spot . Trolling a spinner, 12 feet of water I got a nice 19. A fat 16 1/2 I also missed a couple fish before I called it a day. The hammer and I had a delicious meal.
Jonny boy and I went out yesterday . I missed quite a few fish, I did keep a 16 as we want to have a fish fry again. We also tried shallow, Again I missed a few fish. We did manage to get a couple small ones so I’m assuming the fish we missed were small.
I also reached out to find some friends from my childhood on facebook. Darn if I got a response from my best friend in forth fifth and 6th grade. Paul one of the nicer things about social media. He moved away from colorado. He now lives in las vegas . Soo enjoyed talking to him on the phone yesterday.

We are also became grand parents again. Luka halvarson we cant wait to go see him in mpls. I hope to take him fishing here some day.
Update on The boat mate, my good friend Billy boy invented. I have not sold one but it sounds like there falling off the shelfs. I new when he showed us the proto type 3 years he had a million dollar idea.
Well its sunday gotta go finish the yard work before back to the grind tomorrow

Another weekend is in the books. Buddy Hillmans Dad Shorty Hillman told me 20 years ago. “You have to be honest about how the fishing is it you want repeat customers” Last weekend was hard to report how bad it was especially how bad saturday opener was. The bite sure did pick up starting sunday then carrying to this weekend. Both our groups went fishing for fun as they ate fish then kept some for the trip home.
In hind site when my brother was here maybe we should of tried trolling spinners? Oh well next time.
I never got to our crappie spot ? The window to catch them on there beds is short so I need to get out there this next week for sure. just like every year my golf course job gets in the way, as I just have to golf after work as its part of the pay.
All the kids will be coming up this next weekend. Its always confusing when I try to take them fishing as you can not take everyone on one trip. This year the boat will be leaving the dock 8am sharp then again after dinner so they will all have to decide who is going to go. Its so funny every year Oh I though so and so was going then no one goes?
Been showing the greeks boat loading invention to our customers with boats. Still need to work on my salesman ship.
Our very good friend Ole which is 81 got his turkey yesterday. Big old tom he just sent me a pic.

Time for a fishing report? As the days of the internet ,cell phones etc. the hot bite can be reported in seconds?
I / m not sure why the opener was so slow? My best guess is the fish are eating good with the abundance of bait fish in the lake. My brother Warren from Chicago was here with his friend Roy. We struggled to find a bite. We did manage to get 3 keepers with 2 of the 3 being overs. 2 were caught in less the 4 feet of water? Frank and his crew have been coming for years and they also has a rough opener. Frank said this was the first year they did not have there fish fry Saturday afternoon. Sunday was much better for them and they were able to have there fish boil which is always a treat.
We did send warren and Roy home with there fish but we had to work for those fish.
Josh and his gal came monday and struggled to find biters. Jim showed up tuesday and also struggled.
I did here the bite has picked up with again the shallower the better. With our 20 foot boat, fishing 3 feet of water can be tough some times. We have a full house again this weekend so we will see how the fishing is. Yesterday morning would of been perfect to hit our pre spawn crappie spot but my mowing job got in the way. I may get out the next few days if we get some calm water to target the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie.
My back did flare up big time last friday so it was a tough weekend to be in the boat. I fretted all weekend that my golfing days may be over? Its is much better then it was so I think I will still be able to swing a club.
Time to head to work Ii see what I can report monday morning

Our small crappie get together proved just how elusive the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie can be. 2 and 1/2 days of hard fishing yielded only 5 . Jake and I fished the area I first met Jake. One small crappie was caught. We did have some action but they were the wrong specious . Coming in we did talk to a few other die hard fishermen . They also struggled to find them. The walleye population seems to be fine with numerous sizes caught the last few days.
Johnny boy and I were able to get all the houses on land and put into the woods for another year. Its hard to describe how good it feel to have them safe at home. I have had nightmare’s waking up after dreaming that the houses are still on the lake and its all open water as far as you can see.
All in all it was another successful season. We did have some bad fishing but also some good fishing . Catching 20 fish a night in my books would be fantastic. Johnny boy did another outstanding job looking for fish. Plus the many nights spent out there gives a good report of the best times they seem to be biting. Every year is different. This year catching walleyes during the day was all most impossible? There were a few early afternoons where they put on the feed bags but 90 percent of the fish were caught after sunset or early in the morning.
Our good friend Jake also was a huge help ,prepping, and moving houses to fishy areas. He also brought his boys up quite a bit, Laken and Gabriel. Gabriel did a nice job helping out as well.
We owe a huge thank you to all our new and repeat customers again this year. I was not able to visit as much as I have in the past. Lets all hope and pray that things get back to normal as the year goes buy.
Our fleet of vehicle’s had some issues again this year, that is to be expected as the lake can be hard on them at times. Blue thunder had to be limped the last week with a wheel bearing issue, The red baron broke a front axle/u joint. I had decided to get the same v plow mount installed on our other 454 chevy. She does not have the weight of the red baron but did her job.
Our good friend Bill aka the greek launched his new invention. When he showed me the proto type a couple years ago I was like that’s a million dollar idea. It called the Boat load mate. It illuminates using your bow mount catch. Here’s the web site www.boatloadmate.com.
Another year is in the books. Again a huge thank you goes out to all the customers and help we had again this year

The hot bite continued right into the last weekend of game fish season. All our guest did pretty well with quite a few fish caught through out the week into the weekend. The elusive yet still catchable crappie were not in the area with just one here and there. Dan and Mel had good fishing for over a month in the same place.
The last weekend we had Nick, Butch and Jim in north dakota, they did really well thursday evening.
Friday saturday were a little slower but they still caught some fish plus ate a few.
Florida had Rick and Aron friday saturday. They also had good fishing.
Jonhny boy and Jimmy fished california where jimmy figured they landed over 35 fish.
Montana had two couples. they had a blast with there best fishing the first night. They said they would love to come back next year.
kentucky had Joe and Zach and Seg? They use too work with johnny boy and have been coming up for a few years now. Joe just loves it as he also comes up with his dad. He caught a 24 inch walleye the first night , saturday they all had a fish fry.
Old minnesota was only saturday night. with Randy and his daughter Zoey. They also got there 6 fish to take home.
We also plowed a few spots for wheel houses with all of them doing pretty well.
Sunday we moved old minnesota and north dakota for the last night to a area I figured we might be able to land a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie. The hammer and I fished in minnesota while I had Ryan and his wife Mollie and north dakota Ryan did land a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie but it was again just a loner. They did go home with the 6 walleyes.
This week we moved all the houses to a new area hoping to find a few of those trophy crappies, Jake was here fishing like a mad man as he just wants to land them, get some picks then release them to fight another day. I would say he drilled over a 100 holes give or take. He finally found a few the last morning he was here. Next weekend we have a few of the guys coming to find the mother load, Jake is pumped as he has found 3 or 4 spots he would like to get everyone fishing.
Last night the hammer got to catch a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie she then released it to also fight another day. It was the only one we caught last night but I got a great picture of her holding it .
This weekend we have our daughter her hubby, grand kids, great grand kids coming up. Johnny boy and I have all the houses set up close together as we all get to spend some quality time together. Once again its time to get busy as we prep for the weekend.