In Between Time

Cady Cheese Factory

With walleye season done on February 22nd and as stated last week unless one heads 6 hours away, the ice fishing is relegated to panfish, which is just fine with me.  I did forget about fishing the Mississippi River in St. Paul but it's pretty locked up until we get warmer weather, which BTW is on it's way.  This week should see that last of the below zero weather for the year as next week is projected to be in the 50's, perfect for clearing out the river and it will sure make the maple sap run like crazy.  Saturday was my day to kill 2 birds with one stone, take the wife to Menominee, WI to spend time with her cousins while I headed to Eau Claire to the Sheel's Store to buy some new pants, stop at the Northwoods Brewpub to get some Walter's Beer then on to a couple of Cheese Factories to get some hard to find 10 and 15 year old cheddar cheese for my trip on March 14th.  Arriving at Sheel's they had exactly what I was looking for, a couple pairs of Kuhl brand men's pant.  They are super comfortable and can be worn for either causal or be a little more dressy.  Next was a stop at the Northwoods where they make Walter's beer.  Walter's was my beer of choice 42 years ago when I could go in the bars legally at 18 years old and order a tap for $0.15 each.  Like a lot of local beers, they succumb to the move towards beers like Miller Lite and faded a slow and sad demise. Northwoods started brewing it again for the locals in small batches and I heard it's not the original recipe but close.  I guess it's been too long to remember anyway but the packaging sure looks good! The Norske Nook from Osseo has taken over the kitchen as I noticed they had Lefse Wraps.  That's a tough combination, a glass of Walter's and a Lefse Wrap so I ordered both, the later being salmon.  It was excellent as I paid the bill and headed back west to my next stop, Cady Cheese Factory in Wilson, WI.  I took the back roads off from the I94 through downtown Menominee and up the valley to the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 29 and 128, about 3.5 miles south of the interstate.  This is a great place to buy cheese as it's reasonably priced and they have yellow cheese curds as opposed to the white ones we get at Ellsworth Creamery.  I love the way the white curds squeak as you eat them but honestly the yellow ones from Cady have more flavor.  In addition to a couple of pounds of curds I bought 2 pounds of 10 year old cheddar, 1 pound of 15 year old cheddar, and some horseradish jack which I am bringing with me to Charleston, SC on our fishing trip.  The southern boys enjoy the boutique cheeses as they are significantly better than what they get in Dallas and besides, a little once in a lifetime taste for our guide, he won't be able to help but get us all the fish we need!  I did manage to spend some time with my brother-in-law, Walter (no relation to Walter's Beer, BTW) and we did go to the Bass Lake Cheese Factory but I think they are pretty expensive, maybe at least $5 - 6/pound more.  I suspect because they are close to Stillwater, MN they can simply get more while places like Cady and Ellsworth are were the common folk shop.

Sunset at the White Cap Inn

I did get out on Sunday with my neighbor Tom Olson to do a little ice fishing while the weather was still somewhat nice out.  Because it was March 1st, our fishing licenses were expired so a quick stop at Cabela's took care of that problem.  Reading the fishing report board, I noticed that Indian Lake was mentioned so I asked Tom if he'd like to change strategies and skip Lake John to go back to Indian.  After agreeing we headed to the lake arriving about 3:00 or so.  It's nice when there is little snow on the lake as it's pretty easy to drive anywhere, so we headed to the area where we did catch a number of crappies this fall.  There were a few in the area however most were parked off the point in the middle of the lake.  Actually there were a number of holes drilled so we simply settled down, cleaned off the ice that had skimmed over and started fishing.  Although the temperature was reasonable the wind was pretty strong yet we managed without putting up the house.  By 5:30 we had only caught a few fish so we packed it up.  You could see where someone had fished walleyes earlier in the week as the top of the ice had a nice layer of large fathead minnows littering the surface, they must be in there.  Putting everything back in the truck we headed back home to the pole shed.  Upon arriving home and getting out of the truck, I walked back and the dang tailgate was down.  My 1995 Chevrolet has a hard plastic box liner and things slid around pretty darn easy.  Not knowing how long it had been down, maybe the whole way, who knows so we started to take inventory.  I had a pail with my Vexilar FLX 28 inside and that was still there.....unbelievable.  The only thing missing was my Clam Minnow Bucket with a brand new minnow scoop, and quite honestly I hated the thing anyway.  I guess we were awfully luck that's all we lost as if the Vexilar would have disappeared, that would have been a disaster for sure.  I guess I need to check things better.  My second picture is always my go to scene when I forgot to take something from the existing week, it's from last week's Perch Extravaganza as the sun went down over Mille Lacs Lac from the White Cap Inn.  Cold and crisp, it only lasts a few minutes but as you know I love these shots!

As stated earlier, this weekend should see temperatures pushing the 40's.  With my schedule for the following weekend full, I am going to try and get my apple trees trimmed for the growing season as this is very important to get good apples.  Daylight Savings Time starts on Saturday night, that will help for sure.  I am definitely anxious to get out and do some saltwater fishing soon as this below zero weather has taken it's toll!