The Hodne Group: Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

7/30
The Hodne group is departing today.
Ron Hodne said "37 years and this was our best trip yet. Fishing was outstanding as usual, but I think it is getting better every year. Your staff this year is excellent, service and food outstanding and your boats and equipment are a big reason we come here.

Final count for our group which included 9 kids was over 3000 Walleye
The majority of walleye 16-20 inches at least 1000 were 20 -27 inches
caught 800 just on Sunday.
biggest Walleye 28" caught by Beaver Vollstedt
Biggest Northern 40 inches caught by Jared "Snowball" Vollstedt. "
"See you in September for our third trip of 2010".

Beautiful day today, dead calm “glass lake”. Water temperature at 68 F. Slow day for most. Mild winds from the north

Tom Chaladek and his son John, had about 54 with the biggest being a 40 inch pike, using a gold spoon and crawlers.

The Cosgrove group caught about 150 the largest at 24” walleye using crawlers on a spinner rig.

will get final totals for Cosgrove and Chaladek groups
Lots more pics to post as well.

A nice day fishing - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

It was a personal best biggest Pike ever













It was a beautiful day



















It was a perfect evening.























It was an awesome sunset.

Enjoy some Pictures - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

The Hodne Group Success - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

7/29
Clear skies in the am, and throughout the day, with a beautiful evening. It was a beautiful day throughout. Mild winds to cool off. Some of the kids in the Hodne group went tubing to cool off a bit.

The Hodne group had success today, breaking the thousand mark before lunch, with a total of about 2000 for the day. However, they will have to leave tomorrow due to the death of a family friend. Let us send prayers their way in this difficult time. We will miss this group indeed. See ya next year.

Tom and his son John had an ok day, bringing in about 80 for the day the biggest at 24, using crawlers.

The Hagen group had close to 200 with the biggest at 23” with a few pike. They mainly trolled using spinner rigs and minnows.

The Cosgrove had a good day with about 150 and later went out after supper. They used jigs with crawlers.

Al and his son Alex had a rather slow day and fished mainly for pike, the lake was dead calm, so that may of played a role in the slow day.

Cabin Pics - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

Kevin Spots a Caribou Crossing to Camp

Cosgrove Group Pike Fishing - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

7/28
Scattered clouds throughout the day, with mild winds from the north west, with water temperature at 67 F.
The Cosgrove group went out strictly for pike today fishing various weed beds and reefs towards pike alley, and had some nice ones including a 40 and a 38, fished mainly with spoons and bulldogs.

Al and his son Alex were “exhausted” from all the fish they were catching. They decided to come in around 4pm for a little siesta. Then headed back out to the hump for a little evening fishing. They brought in about 120 for the day with a few pike.

The Hagen group had a good morning, but then slowed down for them in the afternoon. They still managed to haul in a good number including the biggest at 25”. They used mainly gulp minnows.

Bret Hodne and his group had a great day, bringing in about 1000 with some good size fish including a 27” walleye caught in north bay and plenty of eaters. They used crawlers for a greater part of the day as well as minnows and suckers that brought in a few pike.

Tom and his son had a good day as well, bringing in about 80 with the biggest at 25. His son John had a pike come up and take a swipe at a walleye he was reeling up.

Hauling in 800 - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

7/27
Clear skies in the am, heavy showers in the afternoon and calm by the evening with clearer skies. Winds blowing from the north with water temperature at 63 F.

Bret Hodne and his group had the usual good day, hauling in a total of about 800 with plenty of eaters and some size with the biggest at 26 and a few pike. They fished out of north bay using a variety of jigs, minnows, and crawlers.

Tom and his son John went out to pike alley and had a good day with about 130 the largest at 23”. Mainly using crawlers.

Al and his son Alex went over to the wall and big hump. Brought in about 87 the largest at 24 and a few pike using crawlers.

The Cosgrove group went out towards big bay and brought in about 190 the largest at 25”.

The Hagen group fished out of jacks hump and the wall bringing in about 150 using spinner rigs and minnows.

Fish for everyone - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

Everyone was catching fish everywhere today.
weather was perfect southwest wind a bit strong at times but felt good with temps in the hi 80s
Beautiful full moon last night.

The Hodne group caught "about 1500 today"
"couldn't even touch bottom most of the morning and it was even better in the afternoon. The usual stuff , put your bait down , catch a fish"
After 37 years they pretty much expect it but at the same time are not dissapointed if the fish aren't jumping in the boat.
The used jigs and minnows or worms in 12-18 feet.
Mostly in big bay and the east end.

Domonic Cosgrove and his family caught hundreds all over the main basin east of the sand flats and had some big pike in north bay.

Allen and Alex Krupa caught 60 or so walleye while chasing Pike
Had several good pike and missed a couple of really nice ones.

Roger Hagan "did very very well" but didn't expand on that. I know Roger and I have a feeling that means several hundred fish with plenty of big ones mixed in.

I took the family and Belinda and Gage down to big bay.
Fished on one of Brets spots ( could have been any one of a dozen places down in that area)
We anchored up in 12-14 foot and commneced a catchin
we fished from 2.30 to 4.30
We had several quads a bunch of triples and countless doubles.
Thanks goodness Seanna and Hayden can bait their own lines and take their fish off or I woldn't have fished at all.
Now if I could just get Deb to do the same.
Deb caught about 30-40 Hayden and Seanna each caught about the same.
Belinda and Gage must have had 20 each. I caught about 60
So we were pretty close to 200 in about 2 hours.
We went thru 6 dozen worms and 8 dozen minnows.
Hayden was thrilled to bring in this Giant Pike to round out the afternoon.

all in all a very nice day.

July 25

I fished with Al and Alex Krupa
I showed them a few spots to fish for the week.
Then stopped at Ferrit island
sat in 14 feet and cast jig and minnows up to the edge of the rock bar.
caught a bunch of walleye
the walleye quit biting
I saw the big pike on the graph
I suggested Alex get out his casting gear.
On his third or fourth cast bang a rather nice pike.

I took Deb and Seanna over to the back side of Wolf Island
We sat on a mud/sand bar coming off the island near the tip where it dropped
into 28 on the side and 22 off the tip
we sat in 14 foot
Had 4 pike grab walleye.
biggest one was in her mid 40s
lots of fun.
Would have stayed out longer but Belinda called and sold us on the Prime ribe dinner.
It was awesome, maybe even better than catching a few more big pike or walleye.
(did I actually say that?)

Bret Hodne and the guys are in camp
they said for a few hours they literally could not touch bottom with their jig and minnow or jig and worm. They were fishing 12-16 feet mostly in big bay and that area.
"probably about 800 for our group, today"

Domonic Cosgrove said they caught hundreds all around the mid lake basin, biggest was 26.5

Tom Chaladak and his son did very well yesterday with their first walleye being 25 1/2 but were a little off today. I'm sure they will do well tommorrow.


I didn't get a chance to talk with Roger Hagan and his son and friends this evening but they've been here before and I'm sure they did quite well.
I'll check in the am and update this.

Maps with Pics

View maps with pics in a larger map

View Maps with Pics

View maps with pics in a larger map

July 17-24

7/24
Clear skies in the am and afternoon until about 4pm. Strong winds came in with out warning from the north east. Winds died down after about 20 minutes. Scattered showers for a moment, then clear and beautiful evening. Water temperature was at about 66 F.

July 23 -THE MONSTER WALLEYE HOUR - Ontario Red Lake Fishing Report

I took Seanna and Dennis out this afternoon.
Hayden guided his mom in his boat.





I wanted to do a little exploring around the sand flats. ( The Hoekstra group caught literally hundreds of big eyes around the flats this week)
however the kids wanted immediate results.
So after dodging a small thunderstorm I went a proven mid lake hump.
I spotted a bunch of big fish off the southwest corner and anchored up.
Within minutes Seanna had a Huge walleye.

I had to return to camp to take care of some things for my guests.
I continued to see a bunch of big active walleye and baitfish on the sonar unit.
I rcognized the kind of thing you don't see everyday and didn't want to miss what was going to happen.
I left my anchor in place and tied a small noodle on it. Dennis and Seanna jumped in with Hayden who tied his boat to my anchor rope so they would be in exactly the same spot
I was gone about 25 minutes and in that time Seanna had caught 2 more monster walleye.
Hayden had put them in the livewell so I could photograph them when I returned.
So here is an unusual photo of Seanna with two Giant Walleye.
Because we release all walleye over 18 inches this is a rare event.

















Hayden got in on the act and Dennis also caught two or three nice big walleye
They also caught about two dozen nice eaters.
All within about an hour.
They were on the edge of the drop on the south west end of the hump
all in an area the size of one boat.
In 20- 26 feet of water.
All on orange jigs and frozen shiners.
When I returned and tied my boat to Haydens it altered the swing and moved them slightly off the spot maybe about 30 feet. No big walleye.
As soon as I untied my boat and Haydens boat swung back into optium position Dennis caught two more Giant Walleye.


























This was a prime example of being in EXACTLY in the right place.
When going over the map with my guests I've often said to people that when I say right here I mean RIGHT here. THE spot on the spot is often a very small area. Even on spots that I've fished often I will criss cross looking for fish with my sonar unit then try to place the anchor to put the boat in EXACTLY the place I want. Sometimes I need to reset the anchor 20 or 30 feet one way or the other to get the boat exactly where it needs to be.
Big walleye action on these small areas is often for only a short period of time. So timing is critical and it is imperative that you "stay on em"
Typically what is happening is that the walleye have a school of perch or ciscoes pushed up against the edge of a structure. They will feed voraciously on them and then the school is either eaten or scattered and the fish catching subsides as the big walleye move on.
When you find them spread out over a large feeding shelf it can last all day while you catch one here and another 20, 50 or even 150 yards away.

A SLIDE SHOW OF ALL THE PHOTOS ON THIS BLOG

A NICE LITTLE NOTE I FOUND FROM A PAST GUEST, THANKS PAUL

Paul Coleman says:

Monday June 14th 2010 at 3:14 pm

Myself, brother, and father had the privilege of fishing at Anglers Kingdom for a week in early September of 2009. This was by far the best walleye and pike fishing we have ever experienced and we have been to numerous fishing camps in the states and canada. All of us boated the largest pikes(all over 40″) of our lives on this trip. I would strongly suggest having Kevin Geary guide you for a day (earlier in the week), his knowledge of this lake along with fishing in general is priceless and will be worth every penny! The accomodations are very nice and clean, the staff is great, the food is excellent, and the equipment (boat, motor, trolling motor, live well, fish finder) is the best we have ever come across at any camp period.

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