Stuck Inside!

Effective Adapter Plate for my HDS 9 Live 

It is probably no surprise what the current crisis is going on today as of tonight we have a Stay in Place order from our governor.   Oh well, I have plenty to do at home.  The apple trees need pruning, the garden needs cleaning up, and with the current warmer temperatures and rain forecast, it's probably a good time to put away the ice fishing equipment for the year.  There has been a lot of interesting things going on especially as opener is coming upon us fast.  First situation is that my boat has been at the dealer since December 4th as it had some warranty issues taken care of as well some cosmetic stuff that has been bothering me.  One of those issues was the mounting of my depthfinders as I needed a new console to fit my "New to Me" HDS 12 Live that I traded my friend Bill for.  In the process of mounting it into the console I requested that they make sure to drill the through hole on the top in a different place than it was, as is it will interfere with the HDS 9 live bracket mounting.  Well, after bringing it home I was disappointed to find that the thru hole was in the same place as the old one.  Now I can either make a huge fuss or simply solve the problem myself, which I decided to do.  Having an idea and walking next door to my neighbor Todd, a self employed mechanical design engineer, we discussed the issue and maybe having him print an adapter plate to accommodate the misalignment problem.  Instead he stated drawing a 3D print of what I had envisioned, we finalized the requirements and loaded it to an online site that offers machining services. In 2 minutes we had a quote and immediately ordered an aluminum plate that was machined to print, had the holes drilled with one tapped, a quick credit card entry and 2 weeks later it shows up via Federal Express.  After mounting the adapter plate on the console it looks quite nice and functional, everything is solid and it certainly is a better and faster solution than waiting for another console, which is 8 weeks out, and with last years disaster, I am not much in the mood for having the boat out of my shed for most the summer!  Besides this was a bunch of stuff including all new trailer tires to go with my new rims that were replaced under warranty, any of the plastic interior trim that was cracked, was replaced.  Of course last November the front axle on the trailer was replaced.  The boat is like new again and ready for both the Team Walleye 47th Annual Leech Lake opener as well as the Ontario fishing opener at Lac Seul a week later.  That is of course if our current problem seems to be deemed as under control, don't hold your breath!

Smash Shad in Wonder Bread Pattern

A couple of other interesting things, Cabela's (Now Bass Pro Shop) annual Spring Sale is going on and they have some fabulous deals on some crankbaits.  One that looked interesting is their fabulous deal on a Storm product called a Smash Shad.  These crankbaits are in the same category as Berkley's Flickr Shad, or a number of shad type baits primarily used for walleyes.  Trolling at sunset on Leech is a favorite technique of mine and we have been having a lot of success with funky colors so this Wonder Bread pattern has got to be good as the light color should be a real winner this opener.  Also at $1.49 each it's a little easier handing out these for my friends to use instead of my $7 Shad Raps and they should be just as effective.  Picking up about 20 or so in 7 different color patterns  and 2 different sizes, #5 and #7, it was a pretty good deal.  My brother Steve loaded me up with some Northland long shanked jigs last Christmas when the Gander Mountain Store closed by him so I am returning the favor.  My friend Kevin Aiona laughed at me because he said they don't run true out of the box, that might be but they are easy to tune.  I also picked up some square bill bass crankbaits for the smallmouth fishing on the river as the action of these baits are quite effective as well. 

Custom Whiskey aging Barrel

The other thing that is going is I have purchased  my own personal whiskey aging oak barrel from Amazon.  Basically you can buy a small oak barrel that has been charred on the inside, the same as the big distillers use to age whiskey in.  In large barrels it takes a lot of time to age whiskey because of the barrel surface area vs the liquid volume.  In these smaller barrels that ratio of wood to liquid is much more favorable to age whiskey significantly more quickly.  At a neighbors a few weeks ago he gave me a sample of some Crown Royal that had been in his small barrel 6 months and it was quite good.  When you buy these on  Amazon the option is to be able to personalize them to your own custom details as you can see here.  This one is filled with TX from Texas sent to me by my friend Matt Davis.  The barrel needs to be soaked in water to make sure the wood expands and seals which took about a week.  You can see where the water initially leaked out with the black color of the charring leaching out.  Once sealed it was filled with whiskey and I am figuring out it will be ready for our September trip to Lac Seul.  Also it can be used a couple of times and I have some nice scotch that could benefit from a couple months in the barrel.  There will definitely be an update when the barrel is tapped! Hopefully my patience will pay off.