Fall is Finally here

This weekend was the first hard frost of the year.  This usually means no more mosquitos, all the weeds in the garden are dead, and it's time to mow the field behind the house.  My plan was to try and get out on the river this weekend however the water is still ridiculously high for this time of year.  I generally like to follow my friend Pete's strategy and get some small 4 to 5 inch sucker minnows and hang them under a bobber and fish the shore edges on the river.  With the high water, it makes it almost impossible.  Also another good method is simply using a 3 way rig and work the bottom of the holes as the cold water should be helping to concentrate the fish.  I would say the water needs to be down at least another 2 feet before the "ideal" fall conditions exist.  Oh well, plenty to do around the house!  Last Thursday at a social event for the show in Chicago my friend Glen Collins insisted that I meet a friend of his, Gary Smith, he was 78 years old and had been in the business for many years.  What was special about Gary was he really loved walleye fishing, especially in Quebec, Canada.  He had a business and in the 70's bought a fishing lodge in Quebec, and took his good customers their.  At the same time my friend Matt Davis had brought some TX whiskey from Texas and gave a bottle each to myself and Glen.  Well Glen had his with him so we poured a glass for Gary and rightfully so, he proclaimed it as the best Whiskey he had ever had.  I know I talked to him for at least 2 hours, what a delight!  Actually got to see him on Thursday as we made plans for the next time we meet each other, maybe fishing or something related. On Monday Glen sent me and e-mail and a link to the Chicago Sun Times, Gary was killed as he was driving home after the show, he had lost control and entered the opposite lane before rolling over in the ditch.  That was a big shock, just met this wonderful man who had so much in common with myself and the next day...........gone.  It really puts things in perspective, one really never knows.  Hopefully I'll met Gary again but not too soon.  God Bless you Mr. Smith.

Gift from Milan

The other thing about last weeks show is seeing all of my good friends and industry associates, including Milan Grove from Thomson Laminations in New Jersey, right across from Philadelphia.  Milan has also been a mentor of mine especially when it comes to fine red wine.  I was telling him about the Merlot I like from Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, MN, enough to send him a bottle as he really knows his stuff.  In return he promised to send me a favorite wine of his and a nice Washington State Merlot, which I received this morning via UPS.  Anything Milan recommends must be pretty good as we both have the same tastes.  I am looking forward to trying a bottle and reporting back to him what I think of it. It's a fun hobby and it's also very interesting to experiment and try new things.  Milan's company makes some products for us so we have always have some interesting things to discuss, this just adds to the conversation.  My neighbor Lory, who works for us just left for 3 weeks in our facility in China so I will probably save it and share it with him, which is the fun aspect of wine, to share with your friends.  In the beginning of the week I flew to Denver for a meeting with some potential business partners.  It was a quick meeting as we were in and out.  It has been a while since I was in Denver and I didn't even get a chance to stop at the Bass Pro Shop, maybe next time! Either way you can be almost guaranteed that the flight out of Denver will be very rough and this time did not disappoint as we got tossed around pretty good in the first 20 minutes of our flight home.  Rather than go fish I decided that it's been a while since I have seen my mother in Eleva so we drove down on Sunday afternoon then spent the first half of the Sunday Night football game at Kevin's house before we left.  Driving down Highway 93 we stopped at the Bemis Bluff winery, just a few miles north of Eleva.  There we bought some of his Cranberry wine called Cranbernet, not too bad, a little on the sweet side but drinkable.

I am hoping to get out this weekend as it's supposed to be really nice.  I still have my trout trip with Bill scheduled for the 19th of this month and the 22 should be at Long Lake in Wisconsin.  Maybe I'll take the boat out and get it ready for that trip as it is likely to be the last on before deer hunting.