Moving Right Along!

Mr. Schubert and I with a nice Sea Trout

Deer hunting is done for me, at least this year as I hunt Zone 2 which runs through 2 weekends.  I have to admit that this years hunt was quite unusual as I really never had the need to dress warm as the temperatures were well into the 50's all 4 days I hunted.  I never saw a deer, lots of deer tracks, however as my buddy Kevin Aiona would say (I think he got this from either his grandpa Ed or Milo Whipple) "you can't make track soup!"  I am Ok with this, as I did get some venison from Deer Camp as we help cut one up.  I did make a bunch of what has turned out to be a fabulous combination, Bacon infused Venison Burger.  Simply grind a pound of good bacon with 2 pounds of venison trimmings.  It's pretty damn good if you ask me!  Last weekend I headed up to Jack's cabin on Saturday afternoon and hunted Saturday evening out of a stand at Brett's and Sunday morning on Loren's land.  I removed my stand on Sunday then headed over to Bill Lundeens and did some minor electrical work in his garage, a simple task that allows me to help repay his friendship.  Besides, I am not bad at rewiring!  Before leaving our hunting spot we drove over to Loren Tomala's farm to thank him.  He just had prostrate surgery the week before and looked pretty good.  Loren has a wonderful family and it's fun to stop in.  He had all his direct family showing up for there traditional Sunday morning breakfast so we headed out.  Of course 90% of deer hunting is hanging around your friends and through Jack I have met a lot of them. This weeks opening picture is of Mike Schubert, a long time friend and colleague, and I posing with his nice Sea Trout he caught a few years back when we were in Louisiana.  Mike just sent me these last week and it is "Fishin' With Dave" so  what the heck, it's a nice reminder of the great time we had fishing down there.  It also is a great come in to our up and coming Grouper fishing trip in Naples Florida on December 3rd, something I am really looking forward to as it's been a fishing drought as the last time I was out was October 22nd.

To be honest the weather has been extremely nice for this time of year.  Although we have had a killing frost, it has been relatively warm with nothing in the low 20's yet.  It looks like that's about to change with blizzard warnings for Central Minnesota and predictions of up to a foot of snow.  Of course the lakes are still wide open but a little snow on the ground tends to reflect the heat and make it colder out.  The map to the right shows a pretty good band of snow through central Minnesota which should get the ice making machine going in the next couple of weeks!  My Salem Ice Cabin is pretty ready to go, however I do need to let it down to make sure nothing is rusted tight and plan on having this done by the weekend.  The floor needs to be cleaned and everything put away for it's maiden voyage to Red Lake, hopefully by time I get back from Florida, maybe the week of December10th. This year's regulations for Red Lake is the same as last year, 3 walleyes with only 1 over 17 inches.  This is enough so  at JR's Corner Access we can have a nice walleye dinner and take a couple home.  Reports on Red state that the lake is full of 14 - 21 inch fish!  It's interesting as I was talking to my friends about the changing Ice fishing methods.  For years I loved pulling an ATV and my portable, unloading, driving out (sometimes 5 or more miles) then driving in at dark.  Today I really like the camping aspect of ice fishing, pull out the wheel house, fire up the furnace, get the DirecTV hooked up, pour a cocktail and fish from basically my living room. Am I getting more lazy.......you bet!!!  In February I will be 62 so no use pushing it!  Next week is Thanksgiving and in the last few years it is not been consistent what we do, oh well.  This weekend it is planned to go down to my wife's cousin's house in Fountain City so maybe I'll get to visit some of the local wineries or maybe even get to see my brother Steve who probably will do a lot of ice fishing with me this winter.

I would be remiss without mentioning that today is my dear Friend, Tom Emmon's 68th birthday. Even though he is not with us, he lives on through his memories.  Check the labels below and you can find enough pictures of the great times we had together.  I really miss this guy!