Last Minute Scramble

With the ice conditions on Mille Lacs continuing to deteriorate my friend Mark Applen and I have been contemplating a trip further north, say the Canadian Border.  After talking to my friend Pete, checking out the video fishing reports from the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods, it seemed like the place to be.  Putting something together this quickly and between Christmas and New Years would be challenging.  Calling almost every place I knew it would be difficult to find last minute accommodations for this week and as predicted, not a room available anywhere.   The guy at Wigwam was very helpful however there were a lot of options available we never explored.  First of all the lodging.  Calling back and asking about driving on the ice with Mark's wheel house (we can stay in there), they cannot guarantee however the guy said the resort will let us stay in the house as long as it's parked in the camp area on the resort.  $10 a night, including electricity seems reasonable.  If they were going to let us drive out on the ice all of our problems would have been solved.  Unfortunately they are only allowing specially equip ice transport vehicles and or snowmobiles and ATV's at this time.  Because of our last minute hair it would be dumb for only 2 of us to drive 2 trucks, one for the house and the other for the ATV's.  Yes, we could have put it in the truck but where do we put our portables,  it just presented 1 too many issues.  I had just about given up on the notion of being able to put a trip together.   This morning a light bulb went off, maybe the resort has ice shacks for rent, we could pull the wheelhouse up then use the resort services for the fishing.  Being somewhat restrictive as to where we fish, never the less it could be a good option for just the 2 of us.  A quick call this morning and voila, I have a house rented for 2 days which includes transportation to and from the heated shack, bait, and free fish cleaning!  We are heading up Wednesday afternoon, a 6 hour drive, with the hopes that the bite is still going strong.  It sure beats hanging around the house.  In the meantime my friend Pete sent me this picture of his friends 11 pound walleye they caught and released on Lake of the Woods a few weeks ago.  Pete is a friend of ice fishing legend Dave Genz and they were up for a few days and figured the total number of walleyes and saugers caught was well over 350 fish for 3 days.  Here's hoping my report will be as good as theirs and the fish are as big.  I did stop at Fleet Farm tonight and found a few potentially deadly lures to try out (of course I do that every week!).  Stay tuned

A quick word on Christmas, it was great, no snow yet but Santa found his way.  It was nice to see all of brothers and sisters at Mom's; Steve, Beth, Jon, and Blake as well as a few of my nephews and nieces.   It feels that we are all at some crossroads in life, never thinking too hard on any one issue yet understand none of us are getting any younger.   Maybe a few days away will clear the old noggin and a better reflection will pop out of my fingers.  On the other hand sometimes there just isn't much to say.

Happy New Year, stay safe and look for a a potentially amazing report in a few days!