Walleyes up to 34 inches and countless smaller walleyes call Red Lake home. We catch walleyes from opening day to closing day thanks to a great variety of depths and habitats. Walleyes love lots of food and Red Lake is loaded with it: smelt, shiner minnows, perch. If you were a walleye, this is where you would want to live! (And if you are a walleye angler, this is where you want to fish!) Our policy is to encourage anglers to keep the smaller walleyes to eat and only keep the big walleyes to mount.

Tips and techniques for catching "Ol' Marble Eyes" in Red Lake

• Red Lake produces eye-popping walleyes, many in the 7-12- pound range. They grow fast due to an abundance of bait fish.
• Probably 90 per cent of walleyes are caught on two types of lures, the jig and the Little Joe spinner.
• For jigs, use 1/8 and 1/4-ounce weights. Rig the jig with a twister tail (2 inch for 1/8 ounce, 3 inch for 1/4 ounce jig) and/or a leech or bit of worm. Cast, let the jig reach bottom, move your rod tip a couple of feet and pick up the slack. Set the hook on the first sign of resistance. You can also troll a jig by continuously working your rod tip back and forth making sure you are in contact with bottom.
• Leeches and worms are the favorite live-bait from May to August. Minnows are best in September.
• The Little Joe spinner is a single hook with a spinner blade fixed on the same piece of monofilament leader. This is fished behind a weight and usually trolled. It is almost always used with live bait.
• If using a bottom-bouncer sinker, make sure your lure is well-behind, say 3-9 feet.
  Minnow imitations such as the Rapala work well, especially trolled. Try a 3-5-inch size.
  Where to fish: Walleyes here move with the wind. They like the windy shoreline where the water is muddied or along shorelines parallel to the wind. They also like rock piles either in or adjacent to weeds.
• Colors: black, white, chartreuse, orange, yellow, blue, pink.
• Walleyes are almost always plastered to the bottom.
• Best eating sizes: 14-18 inches.
• Real trophy: 27+ inches
• Rod and reel: Light to medium action spinning rod with 6-8 lb. line. Ultra light rigs are a blast.
• It is a good idea to use clear monofilament rather than colored mono or braided lines.
• Biggest mistake made: looking for walleye on fish finder before fishing. Most of our walleyes are in such shallow water they never show on a fish finder. The exception is September when they move to about 30 feet. Use the fish finder in spring and summer to note depth, rock piles, etc., not for locating fish.