A Busy Week

Two weeks ago I dropped off my ice house, depth finder, and camera off at my friend Bill Lundeen's bait shop. Bill had a rather large group for last Thursday and needed some additional equipment which I was more than happy to provide. I have always respected Bill's business and have come to respect how difficult it can be to run a bait shop. On Saturday I decided to retrieve my equipment with a possible outing on Isle Bay for some Mille Lacs crappies. After discussing this with Bill, I decided that I would have better luck heading south, back to Pelican Lake where I have been doing pretty well. Earlier I had talked with my neighbor Tom and asked if he wanted to join me if I went to Pelican and I would call him on the road if it happened. We connected meeting in Albertville at 5:45. Arriving at the lake at 6:00, we headed for the same spot that has produced in the past. Immediately the fish were on a feeding frenzy with a quick five nice crappies on the ice. I had brought minnows, waxies, and a small box of freshwater shrimp. Trying the shrimp first the crappies just hammered them. They are somewhat fragile and lasted about 6 fish. Tom was working the minnows, I switched to waxies and we ended up with 11 respectable crappies and 3 nice sunfish before the bite tapered off. I suspect that an hour earlier arrival would have sent us home with a limit each. One of the real joys of fishing this time of day is the beautiful sunsets that show themselves.

Monday saw me getting up at 4:00 heading to Appleton WI for a business meeting. Dwight, our manufactures representative decided to ride along, giving us a good opportunity to discuss business strategies. Once done with our meeting it was time to head north 25 miles and make the pilgrimage to the most sacred site in Wisconsin..............Lambeau Field in Green Bay. There is a definite aura surrounding this magnificent stadium and if you have never been there, I suggest you take the time to visit. Our destination was the Packer Pro Shop. Here it is 4:00 on a Monday afternoon in March and there must have been 50 cars parked in the visitors area. You can get things at the Pro Shop that are simply not available elsewhere. My prize was a new Packer flag for the flagpole at home. The neighbors will love it! I had Dwight take a picture of me standing next to Vince Lombardi's statue. Along with Vince is a similarly sized statue of Curly Lambeau. What a pair! Certainly there are few stadiums in the world that can compare.

The last thing I have for this week is to let everyone know that the Northwest Sports Show is starting this Thursday at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I could spend days at the show looking at all the new items, talking to the reps, dreaming of far away places to visit. This years show only runs 4 days because of Convention Center scheduling. Years ago this show ran 9 days through 2 weekends giving plenty of time to go back for a number of visits. This year I will be there on Thursday and possibly one of the weekend days. If you go please stop by Marlow's On The Kenai and say hi to Ken and Judy. They are sure to have pictures of my brother Steve, Cousin Greg, or myself holding trophy catches while fishing with them. They are also listed on the Alaskan Links section on the left. They are two of the nicest people in Alaska. I hope to see you there!