Back From Lac Seul Outposts

When you hit a Rock at 34 mph!

It has taken me over a week to recover from last weeks Lac Seul experience but with everything coming to a head this Friday, it's just been crazy.  So the recap of what was a pretty exciting week at Lac Seul Outpost starting last Tuesday.  After meeting in Sioux Lookout on Monday night, the plan was to stay overnight at the Best Western then head into Chamberlain Narrows on Tuesday morning, fish the afternoon, Wednesday, and Thursday before heading back home on Friday.  Our first order of business on Monday night was to find a place to eat.  Monday was Victoria Day in Canada and is similar to Memorial Day in the United States except almost everything is closed, especially places to eat.  We finally found a Chinese place, New Kowloon open and for the most part it was pretty good as they served beer.  After a decent meal we headed back to the hotel only to get up by 6:00 with the goal to be at the landing in Deception Bay by 7:00, to beat the rush.  We had met a guy at the hotel that had a Range like mine, and was also going in the morning but had planned on following the camp boats.  Stating we knew the way in, he decided to follow us as I took the lead.  Well about a mile up from the Bear Narrows Red Buoy Corner, I was off a little to the left however the green buoy was still on my left as in this part of the lake one should stay to the left of the Red Buoys and the right of the Green Buoys.  Well even though off course a little I still had plenty of room between me and that green buoy.  All of a sudden a loud crashing sound, my outboard hit the bottom with vengeance as the motor suddenly stopped.  Obviously the green buoy was to far on the reef to be trusted.  The force of impact left 2 rather large holes in the front of the lower unit, quickly draining out the gear grease, therefore triggering a sensor that prevents the motor from starting when the crankcase was low.  As you see the prop didn't turn out too bad as most of the damage was to the housing.  Anyway the guy that decided to follow up must have damn near had a heart attack as this wasn't pretty.  RJ said that if I'd been over by less than 10 feet I would have been OK.  We were only 5 miles from camp so RJ decided to pull me in to less than a hero's welcome.  Well we were in camp and had 2.5 days to fish, we decided that the kicker motor would have to do as the fish were going in the Narrows and one didn't have to go very far.  We come to learn that the guy following us did the exact same thing at the same spot 2 years earlier.

26 inch walleye on

As far as fishing, it was pretty good close to the camp Admittedly it looked pretty funny with a 20.5 foot Ranger being pushed by a 9.8 hp Kicker motor but it performed very well.  Having a remote control steering on the kicker, it was interesting trying to get somewhere  as it was easy to overcompensate as we zig zagged up Chamberlain Narrows.   Later we found that if one just pointed the kicker straight, dropped the big motor into the water then steer with the big motor, it would work pretty good, at least we went straight!  There were a lot of fish in the channel and for 2 in the boat we ended up with 160 fish for the 2 1/2 days, not bad.   Also the big females were starting to make their way back to the big lake so we did catch quite a few over the 22 inch mark.  We ate good both Tuesday night and Wednesday as fresh walleye and northern pike were on the menu.  It was one of the softest bites that I have ever experience.  The fish just came in and either inhaled the minnow or took it's merry old time, often holding the minnow up to 30 seconds.  This took a lot of patience and understanding of how the fish were reacting, Yet we did miss only a few as the bite was good if you had the patience   Also a few weeks ago I mentioned the new long shank Fireball Jigs from Northland Tackle worked very good. they are perfectly set up for minnow fishing on Lac Seul  as most of my fish on Sunday morning were dead minnows and the long shank jig.     We did try plastics for some success yet I because of the weather, we stayed under the Bimini Top most of the time making it difficult to cast.  Also I was excited to try the new Genesis Live software upgrades that I installed but that never happened either.  The real excitement happened on Friday on our way out!

Bruce had arranged for my boat to be towed out by the barge, a large boat with twin 150's on the back.  The schedule was to be at the dock at 5:00 AM and we'd get hooked up and pulled back to Deception Bay Landing (35 miles).  Tying a long ( about 80 feet) rope to my boat, I was requested to trim up my motors and away we went.  Having my GPS on, we quickly got to 30 mph when my boat started to swing back and forth wildly.  I was attaching my life vest when the first swing threw me on the floor.  Desperately grabbing the steering wheel I struggled to stay in the boat.  The boat continued to sway violently until it was perpendicular to the tow boat, just ready to be jerked in the opposite direction and during that process the tow rope ( a 1 inch twisted rope) broke.  It was the best thing to happen as the extreme swaying stopped.  Quickly fastening my lifevest, the barge came back and checked on my condition, he said he was going back to camp to get another rope.  After getting reset, I put the main motor down to act as a keel, and we took off.  This time the tow rope was quite a bit shorter and the boat ran right up the first wake, although tracking better it also wanted to sway as well I was getting pretty wet from the prop spray.  Stopping we added about 20 feet more of rope and things settled down nicely.  It did take about 5 miles for me to settle down but the rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful.  Finally making it back to the landing we headed south and was able to drop the boat off at Frankies before 6:00.  I made the claim earlier this week and we'll see how it shakes out.  So far I am 2 for 2 this year with the motor, on opener the power steering goes out and the very next trip I take out the lower unit!  Oh well, just remember the Serenity Prayer, God grant me to accept the things I can not change, change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.  So all in all it was a successful trip!                                                                                                 

2019 Fishing Opener is Now in the Books

Nice 27 Inch Walleye for Saturday

Time sure does fly as last weekend was the official 2019 Minnesota Fishing Opener, which we celebrate at Brindley's Harbor Resort on beautiful Leech Lake.  As always we had a full house with 22 guys for what we call Team Walleye.  This was our 46th annual Fishing Opener on Leech Lake, we have 2 of the original guys that started this back in 1973.  A Lot has changed since then as I have been going since 1990 so this was my 30th year spending opener at Leech.  Prior to this it was spent on Mille Lacs Lake, and even though I was pressured to join Team Walleye, I still like hanging with my friends at Scenic Bay Resort in Isle Minnesota.  Unfortunately that group which consisted of Gary and Dennis Barneson, Brent Enos, Kevin Aiona, Barry Kolden, Dale Larson, and I believe Paul Wenaas had basically disbanded after 9 years so it was pretty easy to switch groups.  Thinking about the early years on Mille Lacs with a simple Lund S14 Deluxe and a 25 hp Evinrude, we had no electronics and the strategy was simple, hold your anchor about 5 feet under your boat then drive towards the reef until the anchor hit the bottom, then you knew you were on the reef!  The strategy at that time was to fish with lighted bobbers and leech's, we did pretty well.  Leech Lake was completely different as the accepted way to fish was dragging an 1/8 ounce jig and a shiner minnow, it proved to be quite effective.  With the wind on Leech usually present, one could drift across a point and always get fish.  Today with modern electronics and a better understanding of the lake, we employ a lot of techniques that 20 years ago would have never even been considered.  And so that theory applied this weekend, it took a while but in the end we not onl found the fish but actually caught a few as well!  For our fishing weekend, we fish 3 days, breaking each day into 2 sessions for a total of 6 session, organized by boat.  Saturday morning was windy and somewhat cool, so my guests and I headed for Pine Point to start everything.  The first drift produced a walleye however 3 drifts later and nothing more.  The water was cold, maybe 49 so it was decided to look for warmer water and Steamboat bay might be the perfect spot.  We headed there and fished a couple of areas as it was definitely warmer water but not much for a bit.  The next strategy was to find shallower water where the wind was blowing into the shore like Hardwoods Point, yet as wee got out of the Narrows area, the first point was solid boats.  To me, shallow water and boats tend to scatter fish so we headed further up the shoreline until there were few boats and the wind would work in our favor.  This was about noon and by 3:00 we had 13 walleyes in the livewell with 4 of us in the boat.  Prime rib was on the menu for the evening so we headed in to compare notes.  Actually my boat did pretty well considering the rest of the guys.  We all decided to head back to the same area for the evening fishing which turned out to be basically the same program, we would drift into the shallow areas near shore, from 6 - 7 feet then any shallower we used the trolling motor to zig zag up the shoreline.  One of the fish that I hooked was a very nice 27 inch fish.  By dark we had 7 walleyes in the boat.  Thinking this might be a good spot to troll shad raps, over the skeptical partners in the boat, I hooked up a #5 Crawfish Shad and started to troll.  Interesting, my remote controlled steering was working when I checked it out before opener however it would not work this weekend.  Suspecting that the battery in the remote was bad, brother Steve volunteered to go into town to get one.  Unfortunately on Sunday everything was closed by the time he got there.  This forced me to try and troll with the big 250 hp motor, which was a little fast but we hammered them on Saturday night as I simply let everyone take a turn at reeling in a walleye, we ended up with 6 more and the bite was fast and furious, probably caught them all in a span of 30 minutes.  Sensing the guys wanted to go, we headed in at 10:00 with another 13 fish caught, for a total of 26 walleyes in the Ranger Boat.  Along with the 27 incher, Team Dave lead 3 out of the 5 categories, Largest fish, Most Individual Points, and Most Team Points. 

Steve's 1st Place Walleye, a 28 Incher!

On Sunday the bite really shut down on the main lake.  heading back to the hot spot the day before
found that the population of boats quadrupled.  Although we did get a walleye, the wind had all but stopped blowing,  the water temp was still about 50, we headed up the shoreline to see if we could identify any new spots. I also used that time to experiment with a better trolling technique which turned out to be back trolling.  4 bladed props do not back up very well and we could keep it at about 1.8 mph, better than the 2.5 mph in forward.  After trying a number of different places we ended up trolling at night with crankbaits on Ottertail Point, a favorite of mine.  While trolling something happened to my power steering, it wasn't there any more.  One could still steer but it was difficult. We caught 5 more walleyes which extended the lead even more as the bite was tough for the rest of the guys.  Monday was nice as we spent a lot of time looking for fish again.  Adam had done well at Little Stoney Point, another trolling area I like.  Having a chance to get back to town, the hardware store was open and was able to secure a new A23 battery, which worked perfect.  Little Stoney is quite rocky so we fished till almost dark and landed one fish but because of the amount of boats around it was decided to head back to Ottertail Point and try the kicker.  It worked perfect and we proceeded to catch another 6 walleyes.  Steve, his son Kevin, and Tom were also on Ottertail, I am sure that Kevin, who was with me the night before had given out my hotspot.  Bringing our score sheet in to be tallied it was soon revealed that Steve had caught a 28 inch walleye on a jig just before dark.  In the end it was OK, he did well and winning 2nd place plus maintaining the top Individual and top Boat award was still pretty good. 

It certainly wasn't our best opener but it also wasn't too bad either.  We were right in the peak post spawn time and it was hard to get them to bite.  The good news is we each got to take home our 4 fish limit of walleye.  The weather wasn't bad at all but admittedly getting older is taking a toll on our durability.  Monday we head to Sioux Lookout, Ontario to fish Lac Seul on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, returning on Friday.  All indications are that it should be a great year there, it always is.  As of now the boat is at Frankies' Marines as they got me right in and have the steering fixed for Monday's trip.  Things are getting crazy as there is a lot to do before heading out.

Finally Here!!!!

Spottail Shiner Minnow

Friday we head up to Brindley's to participate in the Minnesota Fishing Opener.  This morning was the final step in getting everything organized for this year's trip.  Most who know me understand that I am not much of a Global Warming, the sky is falling guy and the last 10 years seem to back me up.  These late spring's has really put a damper on the minnow supply for fishing opener, especially the spottail and golden shiner situation.  Late ice tends to keep the shiners from entering shallow waters early, therefore changes the spawning times and the ability to trap bait.  As well the heavy snows of February has put the levels of those ponds which raise various bait very high making trapping difficult at best.  In addition the traditional lakes where spottail shiners are usually harvested for bait are mostly infested with zebra mussels, that along with a ban on bait imported from other states makes it very difficult to secure our bait for this year.  Spottail shiners are the preferred like bait for Leech Lake and of course golden shiners, rainbows, and fatheads will work but the confidence factor is much higher when using spottails.  With my connection at Lundeen's no longer available we are on plan C right now as the situation changes almost hourly! I have secured some for my boat based on previous conversations because I like making decisions and moving ahead.  Two days before opener is cutting it close but we have had this situation at least 7 out of the last 10 years.

Fell Marine Wireless MOB System

Hanging around my good friend Bruce Wiley and his airplane, a Cessna 182 RG, then observing his safety equipment has prompted my ordering a wireless MOB (Man Over Board) switch for my Ranger.  Not that I think about it much as these days but I do wear my Onyx A/M24 Inflatable lift vest 100% of the time in the boat.  I am getting too old and God forbid I have another seizure while in the boat I definitely want to be safe.  The biggest issue that engine cutoff's prevent is the infamous Circle of Death, it occurs when one gets thrown out of the boat for any reason and if the motor is running and in gear, the torque of the motor forces it to start making circles and it really places the guy in the water in harms way. a terrible way to go, watching the boat make circled and coming towards you....No Thanks!  Everytime I start my outboard I TRY to connect the engine shutoff lanyard to my life vest which shuts off the motor in the event the guy at the wheel is thrown out of the boat or for that matter, displaced off the seat.  Truth be told I never connect it when making short runs, which in reality is the most dangerous.  This device is wireless and get's hooked in parallel with the existing cutoff switch in your boat.  Simple easy to hook up, now as long as you keep it in your life vest, around your neck, or clipped to yourself, anytime the red FOB gets 50 feet away from the base unit the engine will shut off.  After 6 seconds of being off the unit resets itself and someone can restart the engine and come back to pick you up.  It seems like a great idea as I am not getting any younger.  Because I actually do wear my inflatable life vest 100% of the time in the boat, I'll figure out a way to keep it there which should not be to difficult.  Interesting, I have these inflatables for each passenger in my boat, I also have regular life vests in the boat to stay legal if they don't wear one.  I let them decide however I make sure they know that I'm not jumping in to save them if they don't wear it.  It reminds me of a great story but that is for another time.

Left to right, top Dave, Brothers Jon and, Steve
 Left to right bottom, brother Blake and Sister Beth,
Good Job Mom!!!

Fishing opener in Minnesota is traditionally on the second Saturday of May and usually coincides with Mother's Day, which is on the second Sunday in May, which causes a few issues with some guys.  Well every 7 years May 1st is on a Sunday so the next Sunday is Mother's Day and opener isn't for another week yet.  My Mother died on her birthday, April 18, 2017 and although living in Minnesota and celebrating fishing opener, she never really gave me any problems with missing Mom's Day.  We would eventually get there and give her some flowers but she knew my love for fishing and like a great mom, never made a big deal about it.  Mom was quite a looker in her younger years however that era of the 50's and 60's it was popular and fashionable to smoke cigarettes, which didn't do her any favors in her later years. Not having any ready available pictures of her, I stole this picture from my sister's Facebook page and am posting it for a couple of reasons.  First it represents what my mother had to put up with so Happy Mother's Day mom.  The second reason is that this is the second year without our brother Jon, at the Team Walleye Opener.  Jon had a congenital affliction that ultimately took his life.  Before the disease claimed him, Steve and I would treat him to a weekend away from everything at Leech Lake.  Although Jon's issue had left him with a number of deformities on his face, he always appreciated the chance to get away.  On the last year of his life, on opener he stayed in the cabin all weekend because the pain was enough to make it difficult to be in the boat.  I told him that if he didn't want to go fishing that it was OK, and if he didn't want to come up again, that was OK as well.  His answer was pretty to the point, Dave, I love coming here as your friends treat me like a normal person and I would never want to not come.  Just sitting on the porch watching the lake was exciting and a welcome change to his normal routine!  Not bragging but the Anderson's have done quite well at Leech, I hold the record for most years winning the Largest Walleye of the opener award and Jon has won the most DCS (Didn't Catch Sh#T) awards.  Not bad as those are the 2 plaques we give out!  If you go to the left side of the blog and check out "See Team Walleye on Minnesota Bound" or simply click here  you can watch our story and learn more about the DCS award as well, maybe you can catch Jon walking by as he has the black patch over his eye.

Hopefully there will be a great report next week.

One Week And Counting

HDS Carbon 12"

Well we are down to the final countdown.  The Okuma Coldwater 350 reel came in on Monday but not before a trip to Cabela's this weekend to use some points and find a nice matching rod to create a effective combo.  Got the reel loaded with my favorite line, P-Line CX, which tends to be one diameter less than most mono's so 12 pound test is about the same diameter as standard 10 pound test which has an effect on both the amount of line one can put on the reel as well.  In addition most trolling depth charts that give you the depth a lure will run vs the amount of line you have to let out is based on 10 pound diameter Trilene XL so the charts will be pretty accurate.  This will come in real handy when we eventually get to fish Lake Erie or do some long line trolling on Mille Lacs.  Admittedly it is pretty slick setup and I am anxious to try it next weekend.  It's getting harder to get all the things done that one needs to and luckily I can peck away at it an hour at a time.  Doing my usual horse trading with my friend, I have just got done reinstalling my depth finders in my boat before upgrading all of the software.  This takes alot of time as the entire system is networked together with either ethernet cables or via the NMEA 2000 network.  Basically I have 3 GPS/Sonar units in the boat and they are all interconnected.  This means that everything can be controlled from each unit provided they are talking to each other.  One of the issues is that it's been a year since these were last done and try to remember how it goes can be a real challenge.  Not to mention the new software upgrades have changed the menus as well as other subtle changes.  After getting everything installed, updated, connected, it was time to try and see if it all works.  Plugged my Ipod into the audio inputs and nothing.  Doing a network check it showed nothing was networked in.  Now what!?!?!?!   Well after you upgrade the software one should go into the network menu and refresh everything.  After doing that still nothing and the though was I guess I know what I am doing this weekend.  It took about 10 minutes but all of a sudden everything showed up that was networked in to my relief.  The music started to play, I sighed a sigh of relief!  Interesting conversation I had with a friend of mine's son, David Grant.  Letting him use my FL28 for a lake trout ice fishing trip to Canada about a month ago, he brought it back.  It was stupid but he commented why I just don't use my phone for the music.....Well, I don't want to use up all the memory...........which he grabs my phone and showed me where to add a high capacity microSD card for more memory.  Dang kids anyway!!  Ordering a 256gb microSD card, it's next on the list of things to learn and do.

Trapline Gopher Traps are Very Effective

Our guy did a great job on Team Walleye's hat's this year, they look fabulous.  The goal this weekend is to get the entire yard fertilized as it is supposed to rain on Sunday.  As well the outboard motors on the boat need to be started, I will probably simply use earmuffs around the water intakes and start them in the driveway.  That should work OK.  Besides spring being the time for fishing opener, it is also time for pocket gophers to be on the move.  Those pesky animals tend to move out of their winter hibernating areas to look for new ground.  You can easily tell where they are because in their process of making tunnels they create these rather large mounds of dirt on the surface.  Back home the farmers hated them because when mowing hay the hay sickle would hit those mounds and dull the cutting blades.  When I was you I used to get $0.50 a gopher from the farmer and another $0.50 from the county as there was a bounty on pocket gophers.  Back where the honeybees are there were a number of new mounds.  Digging my traps out it was time to take action while they are still active.  The Trapline style of traps has been my favorite method as if I say so myself, I am pretty good at this.  The process is to find a fresh mound, find the plugged hole and using a spade dig down till you find the main tunnel.  These traps fit perfectly in the tunnel and I usually put one into each hole, 2 per set.  The final nail in the coffin is to put some peanut butter on a piece of cardboard between the traps then cover the hole with something that keeps the light out.  The gophers smell the bait and being almost blind they walk right into the trap!  After work yesterday I checked the set and to my surprise I had one in each trap, I don't recall ever getting a double.  Thinking maybe of starting my own local Pocket Gopher trapping service, $5.00 a gopher....cash!  Oh well, I'll bet last fall I got over 10 of them on the property.  We'll see.