Cold and Costly Opener

Heavy Wet Snow on Star Point, Leech Lake, MN

First the cold part.  As the week progressed the weather forecast became less than desirable each day for the Minnesota Fishing opener with the final insult, snow was predicted for Saturday afternoon and snow it did!  although we did not get out too early on Saturday morning, it was awfully chilly!  Although seemingly dressed for the weather, I was sadly mistaken as by 1 in the afternoon the cold, wet, and heavy snow started to take a toll on the 5 of us.  It didn't seem too bad on the drive up Friday morning as we stopped in Malmo to get our weekends worth of shiner minnows, the drive up to Brindley's Harbor wasn't too bad.  The weather reports on the radio were not so optimistic however with heavy snow predicted from the Mille Lacs area all the way up to Red Lake.  Getting up on Saturday it didn't look too bad however the wind was definitely coming out of the east, not a good sign.  My dad used to say, Wind from the west, fish bite the best, wind from the east, fish bite the least!  Well it was less than 35 degrees when we hit the water on Saturday morning, Luckily we decided to start on Pine Point, not too far from the resort.  My brother Steve fished with me and Kevin, Ben, and Jared fished in Ben's boat.  The water temperature was still below 50 degrees, we were in the heart of the post spawn period, the fish were not going to be too cooperative and not unlike last year we had to find some warmer water.  In an almost identical scenario from last year we followed the wind to the windward side of the bay, onto Star Point and yes the water was warmer there, maybe a degree, not enough to make much difference.  However the wind was more manageable so we started fishing the point, away from all of the boats.  A special note, we were surprised at the number of boats on the lake considering how "concerned" people have become.  By noon you could see the snow heading towards us as that far shore disappeared pretty fast.  In a short

Jared's Nice Walleye

time the heavy, wet snow was upon us, enough to decide after a while to put the top up.  Unfortunately that just only helped us from getting wetter than we already were. It snowed pretty heavy for a couple of hours and I was starting to get cold, feet, hands, and torso.  deciding to go in about 2:00, none too soon, we got the boats tied up and decided to take a trip to Reeds in Walker, a 15 minute run.  Being surprised it was open, they had the usual precautions but for the most part it wasn't too bad.  Warmer clothes were on the list as I returned with a light winter boot that was on sale at a great price, a pair of warmer socks, and some neoprene gloves. Sunday was just as cold but we did find some fish in the 10 foot depths including this nice spawned out female that Jared, my friend's son , managed to catch.  It was real windy on Sunday and with temperatures in the 30's it stayed pretty cold and we managed to catch enough to have fish dinner Sunday night.  The wind had died down a little bit but there was still ice covering everything the next morning,  I wouldn't say brutally cold but definitely uncomfortable for May 11th.  Deciding that Steamboat Bay might have warmer water, we headed to the area only to find the water temperature to be 43, not exactly post spawn walleye temperatures.  We manged a few more walleyes on the traditional jig and minnow but decided to go in and get ready for the last session of our trip, the Monday evening bite.  the weather as bad as it was had stabilized and there wasn't the boats around like the weekend.  by 10:00 Monday we had 14 walleyes, enough for each of us to take a limit home.....mission accomplished! It was fun fishing with my "hometown" crew again in fact I commented to Kevin that this was the third time we had been fishing this year together, something we hadn't done in maybe 40 years.  It was also fun to see Jared, 13 years old, hang with the men.  This is a good way to build his skills for the future, and of course we cut him absolutely no slack!

Bottom Damage from Banging into the rocks

Costly, what can I say?  Sunday afternoon we decided to head to Little Stony Point, a rock reef that sticks out from a point and holds fish in the deeper sand just off the rocks.  Because the wind was blowing into the rocks, we set the trolling motor to pull towards the waves in a controlled drift and was able to hold in 8 feet of water quite easily.  After trying to fix Ben's depthfinder by connecting it to my network, it really messed up my settings.  Having drifted this pattern a couple of times, it seemed like a good time to reset the electronics.  In the meantime there were 3 foot rollers hitting the front side of the boat.  Apparently the wind gust got stronger than the trolling motor could overcome so the first indication was a big thump as m lower unit hit a big rock as the boat went in the trough of the wave.  We floated up on the next wave then Thump, another hit.  trying to frantically get out of there I contemplated jumping out of the boat but that would have been dumb.  Another big thump, maybe every 3 - 5 seconds.  Telling steve to lift the trolling motor and hold it, that wasn't working so we switched and I took over while he got the net to push off.  Finally getting the trolling motor locked in and shallow running we were able to motor out of danger but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  Finally getting the boat on the trailer, it looked like someone took a hammer and chisel to the bottom.  Dropping it off at Frankie's, the estimate came back at about $8000 in damage.  My thought was that it might be able to run this summer and fix it in the fall but they said nope, water could easily seep in and completely damage the hull.  After talking to my insurance guy who was great, we decided that because my policy has already been approved for 2020 we should turn it in and deal with the nuances of the insurance later, as my fear is the $22,000 claim from last May isn't going to help me at all.  Anyway Safeco, who really was helpful is cutting me a check as I have authorized the work to begin.  Some people say my boat is bad luck but maybe I just need to up the attention span somewhat, that or buy an armored boat.  Well there appears to be some truth to what they say BOAT means........Bust Our Another Thousand!  Hopefully it will be done by Memorial Day.