Lower Red River of the North Report

[Guest]

The Lower Red River Basin
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The persistent Southerly winds coupled with the lack of rain has the lower Red River very low. Lower then we have seen in a long time. This has created less them optimal conditions for anglers, especially boaters.

I will let Stu McKay of "Cats on the Red" fill us in on the present river conditions and any safety advisories. He is by far the most experienced guide on the Red and knows what is what.

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The Central & Headwaters Regions of the Red River are also on the fall.

Yet it is fish-able and productive early and late in the day. Night fishing has also been good. Far Cooler too...Uf-Da!

It is very wise to take things slow and easy on the Red at this time. Many areas are not suitable for larger boats with deep drafts at this time.

I would highly recommend consulting the USGS river data prior to any trip.

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding "ED on the RED"
701-281-2300
[email protected]

[Catmendo]

This past week has been telling on the lower Red. I can't recall another time where strong southerly winds have been so dominate! For those of you that aren't in the know as to why wind direction plays such a key role regarding water levels here, I'll explain.
Lake Winnipeg is the world's tenth largest lake. The Red River enters the lake at the extreme south end. When the wind blows from a northerly direction it forces massive volumns of water into the river. The exact reverse action takes place with southerly winds as the water direction in the big lake heads north it draws down the water levels in the Red River. This wind-tide can raise or lower the water on a thirty mile stretch of the river as much as five feet!
The fact that the water levels is a couple of feet below normal this year, conbined with relentless strong southerly winds this past week, it temporally keeps the water levels extemely low here on the Lower Red. Currently and because of the south winds subsiding over the past twelve hours or so, water levels have increased by approximately one and a half feet. With this increase in water levels, so too will the action increase on the cats.
One of my guides is on the water as we speak and for those that are interested, I'll post his results later this morning on the catfish thread of FM.

Fish "Hard" Forever!