Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.............so much to do, so little time! The sad part is that with my work schedule and this great weather, I still haven't had time to get the boat out. Fishing reports on the Rainy River has been nothing more than fabulous and somehow fitting it in seems impossible. So I'm relegated to yard work, cleaning the garage, putting the ice fishing stuff away, and getting the boat ready. One thing that I have completely ignored is my asparagus plants in the garden. Usually I am cleaning up the beds around the middle of April, hoping for the soil to warm up and encourage those tender green sprouts to show themselves. I have about 100 or so plants in my garden and on a good May/June day can pick 2 to 3 pounds of succulent spears. My usual routine is to leave the tops on the plants through the winter giving it some protection from the elements. In the spring I prepare the beds by raking the dead stuff and burning what's left to create nice clean rows. If lucky I can usually accumulate about 10 pounds to bring up to fishing opener on Leech, with some years not having anything. Well with everything greening up like it's May I looked out the window and thought to myself, man I had better get out there before those shoots start popping up as it's a lot easier when I am not digging up good ones. With Saturday slated to be in the 70's, it'll be a great day for it. On the other hand, if the asparagus is up, I might just have to cook up some. Either way this early spring has got me in a rush. Just an FYI, one of my favorite ways to cook asparagus had been to either microwave it or cook it in a special steamer made for the job. Today I simply brush some olive oil on the spears and throw them on the grill, need I say more.
So, what about fishing, it is Fishin With Dave ya know! Well things are moving along in that department. I am pleased to report that Mille Lacs Lake official ice out was Monday, March 26th. This smokes the previous old record for the earliest ice out of April 3. As a reference, last years official date was May 1 and the average is around April 26th. Leech Lake has reportedly lost it's ice cover yesterday, March 28th. With nice weather scheduled we can look forward to an early walleye spawn with the fish being on the bite by time Minnesota fishing opener begins. Man, it's awfully early. I am even hearing reports that there are boats out on the main lake at Lake of the Woods. We should still be ice fishing! With opener 6 weeks away, the big females will be deeper than normal but should be more aggressive. I did buy a new fishing reel a few weeks ago. During the 2010 golf tourney I bid and got an Ardent C400 casting reel and at $115 it was a steal. Looking to replace a worn out reel I checked them out on the website and they had a closeout on the reel in a Fishouflage Walleye color, $75.00. I ended up getting 3 of them, one each for Adam and Mark Mayerich as well one for myself. These are first class reels, made in the USA, and work exceptionally well. I have my Ranger almost ready to go and just have a few more tweaks before she takes her maiden run for 2012.
Finally on Sunday we went to celebrate my great aunt Florence's 100th birthday at the Strum Lutheran Church. Just like Garrison Keillor would describe, it was held in the church basement like all good Lutheran events. Florence is quite amazing and at 100 still retains that Fagerland edge to her. I asked her if she was coming to my 100th birthday and she gave me a resounding YES. Quite articulate, we had a great discussion and I can only hope that I age as well as she has. At 100 a person has lived an interesting life. She witnessed WW1 as a child and lived through the depression, and WW2. She saw technology change right in front of her as there were no phones, no radio, no TV, cars were a luxury to today when we take all of this for granted. She's certainly seen more than most, Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!
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