January Thaw

Well, it had to happen. Saturday's predicted temperatures were to hit 36 and as always, the weatherman was wrong. We topped off at a whopping 46 degrees. I decided to head back to Buffalo to see if the crappies and sunnies would cooperate with the nice weather. This time I met Russ and his dad Ed for an afternoon of what turned out to be a beautiful day. I had also unexpectedly met Jason (from the last walleye post) and his wife Abby at a get together the night before and had arranged them to meet me on the ice as well. We scattered the houses in hopes to find some active fish but as usual lately, the fish thought differently. Usually a nice bright sunny day will bring out the best in sunnies with a potential for a fabulous evening bite. With Mille Lacs being slow it looks like I will need to find another lake try my luck.

Sunday was the traditional Superbowl Party at the Men's Crisis Center, my neighbor Tim's place. He has a fabulous detached garage which is heated and has enough room for a large projection TV on a screen at least 7' x 5'. Tim usually provides a number of smoked pork butts as well the beer while the rest of us bring pot luck. While Tim is providing the essentials, another neighbor Kevin Rimbey provides the reason to keep track of the score, if you get the drift. Kevin and his boys love to fish, especially Chris. Last year we had gone to the same lake as I was at on Saturday, and I invited Chris fish with me in my shack. My Wisconsin upbringing has given me some additional tricks up my sleeve and what better opportunity to pass them on to a young icefisherman. Using my spring bobber rod and a vexilar we caught a number of fish to the point where Chris did considerably better than his dad, who was in the wheel shack next to us. Kevin sent me a picture of Chris holding this nice 26" walleye he caught a few weeks on a buckshot lure. I got the picture, I got the lure, but do you think that he would add which lake he was fishing? I guess Chris and I need to have a little discussion later this week!

Prior to the game my wife Lyn and I decided to drive to Monticello to see if we could find the Trumpeter Swans that hang around the open river. According to the recent news reports over 1000 swans spend the winter on the river. Taking the backroads along the river we spotted a number of swans but private property limited our view. Not knowing where to view the swans we headed to Montissippi Park, on the west side of the city to see if they were there. Stopping to ask a resident, he only stated the swans were on the other side of the city, where we just came from. After wondering around, we finally went down a dead end road and voila', the swan viewing area was right there. Walking to the rivers edge the noise was deafening. These swans get their names from the trumpet like sounds they make, and make they do! There was at least 500 swans in this area with flocks of 2 to 6 birds landing constantly as they return for feeding treks into the countryside. To get an idea of how large these birds are, just compare them to the large Canadian Geese standing next to them. They are the largest North American waterfowl with the males weighing up to 35 pounds, have a wingspan of over 7 feet and can stand 4 feet tall. Next to the viewing area is the Swan Lady. She feeds the swans up to 1200 lbs of corn a day. It's quite the set up with a gravity box full of corn sitting in the driveway feeding an auger system which takes the corn to the rivers edge. These swans have come to rely on this food source, however the MN Department of Natural Resources is trying to encourage the swans to fly further south in a more normal migration pattern. It's an odd dilemia with these manificant birds coming back from near extinction and yet the very concentration of them has the DNR worried about a potential disease that could wipe the entire flock. If you have time it is well worth the trip to Monticello and view these beautiful birds.