Fishing with Marcus

The Ice Cabin with Russ's shack in the back.

Last weekend was the third of four trips planned to go to Red Lake this year and it was the ideal opportunity to spend it with my 2 good friends from the Eau Claire area, Greg and his 18 year old son Marcus Kimblom.  Greg is one of those guys that you meet once years ago and have stayed friend ever since.  Looking back on the archives you will see that we fished Mille Lacs last July and did OK, this was their first adventure ice fishing where one stays on the ice in a heated shack, my Salem Ice Cabin.  Arriving at 8:00 AM on Friday, we headed north via our usual route, Hwy's 169 to 18 to 6 to Hwy 2 then up through Deer River where we secured bait, then onto Hwy 46 then finally the home stretch on Hwy 1 to 72 then to JR's.  My age is really starting to show as half way up I remembered that I forgot our fillet knives.  a quick stop at Kelliher and they had some cheap but adequate knives for $4.99 so we got one of those, at the worst case I can leave it in the house.  Better yet it is a lesson in not forgetting! Arriving at JR's Corner Access around 1:30 we hooked up the house to the truck and had one of the 30 pound propane tanks refilled.  I am always amazed at how little propane we go through yet maybe it's just that I don't fully understand how much is really needed, nevertheless we were ready for the weekend.  Russ Praught had been out in his house on Red since Thursday night and the plan was to hook up with him and fish in the same area.  We called Russ and got the lowdown, drive 6.5 miles west on JR's road where it comes to an end then turn right and go north about 2 miles, I'm on the right at the end of the road.  Because we drive slow on the ice, it takes about 30 minutes to get there, looking for Russ, I see his house off the road a bit, but his truck wasn't there.  Finally we see a truck, his white half ton Ford stuck in a drift.  Apparently he saw us and decided to help establish a track in the snow to make it easier to pull the shack closer to his.  Also, Russ had been tip up fishing to see if he could find us a good place to park, which he did.  It takes about an hour to get everything set up and by 3:00 we had the DirecTV hooked up, stuff put away, the house heated up nicely, and we were fishing.  Russ had his limit of walleyes and between the nice perch and the 3 of us, we managed to get enough fish to go back to JR's for a fish fry, which we did.  JR's does and excellent job as his cooks will use the special Zatarain's Gluten Free Fish Coating for my portion and of course fresh walleye, it doesn't get any better!!

Marcus With a Nice 21 Inch Walleye on a Rattle Reel

Getting back around 8:30, we still had time to get set up for the night and by 9:30 we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a night.  The fishing wasn't fast and furious but it was somewhat steady and between the four of us we had enough to go back in to JR's for a fish fry on Saturday night.  The satellite TV is nice as we got to watch the football games that were on, and as a bonus, the fishing shows in the morning.  Marcus was pretty happy, sitting in a nice comfortable RV with holes in the floor, fishing and catching a few walleyes, 7 hours from home with his dad, myself, and all the comforts one could want.   Greg and I put him on the knife sofa for sleeping arrangements figuring he is the youngest guy, he can chase those rattle reels at midnight when they go off.  Friday night was pretty quite but Saturday night presented a few opportunities.  In the end Marcus pulled in a couple of nice 20+ inch walleyes on the rattle reels, his first ever.  Apparently one of the lines broke just as he lifted it to the surface but was able to rescue both the fish and the hook.  I heard all of the commotion however decided that these guys could handle the job, which they did perfectly.  Missing another rattle reel things calmed down for the remainder of the night, however we did end up with 6 walleyes and a nice perch to clean in the morning.  We were surprised to see Russ took off quite early as he was gone when we finally got up.  As it is when we set up the house, it takes about an hour to get it back on the truck and ready to go.  It goes pretty good when you have a couple of guys you can boss around!  We finally got back to JR's around 10:30, parked the house on his lot, filleted the fish, and headed south.  My intent was to take them home via a different route, through Walker and Brainerd, stopping at Reeds so Marcus could take a look.  Getting home about 5:30 we loaded up his car and said good bye.  It was a great weekend and the highlight was having Marcus with.  This is a good experience, being with the boys, driving 9 miles out on the lake, having fresh walleye dinner every night while staying in a comfortable house right on the ice.  It's also good to meet other people like Russ and JR, two characters for sure.  It's great to give something back to the new generation, I can just hear it now, I'll be dead and gone and Marcus will be talking to his 80 year old dad saying, "Dad, do you remember the time we ice fished on Red Lake with your crazy friend Dave?"  I guess memories are a great thing to leave your friends!