Still In The Shop

First mole of the year!

I am beginning to believe that my boat loves my dealer Frankie more than it loves me.  Of course there is a probable good reason for this, in my possession it takes it's own fate in my hands yet at Frankie's, it gets the tender loving care it really needs!  If I look at the total time it has been in the shop between May 20, 2019 to May 20, 2020, it was over 6 months!  Of course there is no one to blame except me so that leaves me tip toeing around my fishing adventures.  Of course add the current Covid situation in there and I should be on Lac Seul right now on my second trip of the year.  In the meantime I simply sit around and try to get things done.  So rather than sitting around and feeling bad about the boat not being in my possession therefore not being able to fish Devils Lake this weekend with Kevin and Ben, there were a couple of interesting moments to share.  The first is last Thursday Bruce Wiley called me to ask if I wanted to have lunch.  About 50% of the time lunch means more than just meeting him at a restaurant rather meeting him at his hanger and we fly somewhere for lunch.  The first option was Hanger 54 in the Eau Claire Airport, a quick call stated they were still closed.  Plan B was fly to Voyager Village, southwest of Danbury, Wisconsin, a large development with a golf course, clubhouse, runway, that is secluded in the middle of the woods/lake area.  A quick 35 minute flight in Bruce's Cessna 182 RG (Retractable Gear), as we approached Siren Wisconsin I saw a runway and asked about it, "nope, you need to be right on top of this one to see it" and of course he was right.  We landed basically on the golf course, hoping the guys teeing off to our right wouldn't slice one as we touched down.  Luckily we were good as we taxied our way to the plane parking area, threw $20 in the runway donation box and walked to the clubhouse and had a magnificent lunch, quite an operation.  Sat next to some retired business guys from the St. Paul area and had a good discussion of the current situations.  As we took off I was looking for my phone to take some pictures, no phone!!!  Damn, did it fall out of my pocket, did I leave it on the table....I seem to be getting worse at just set it it down and forgetting.  Well, not remembering that it was used, the last time was at the hanger, it must be there.  We landed back at Crystal Airport and made our way back to the hanger, Bruce exclaimed, "Is that your phone on the Taxi way?  Uffda it was, apparently falling out of my pocket when I entered the plane 3 hours earlier.......it was still there!  Undamaged somehow there has to be a better way of my hanging onto my phone!  So no pictures of the trip but I have been working hard on trapping a mole that is making tunnels in the yard.  These creatures are difficult to trap and finally getting one, I figured I solved that problem yet the tunnel was remade the following day.  Hopefully success will find me again, but it is a challenge for sure!

Jared's 28 inch Walleye in the Trees

At this time I am expecting a call to pick up the boat either today or tomorrow.  The river is down so I have been trying to get the jon boat ready for the river.  The contingency plan is to fish off the dock of my friend John Meyer, down the street.  He has been great to allow some of us to simply drive down and fish off his dock for catfish, carp, suckers, walleye, and whatever feels like biting.  In the meantime Ben Aiona has been texting me pictures of their success on Devils Lake, North Dakota.  His son Jared is quite a fisherman and does not hesitate to get right in the action.  Apparently they arrived last Tuesday afternoon, went out and caught over 116 stripped bass in a few hours.  That is a lot of fun.  Here is a picture of Jared's 28 inch walleye caught on a leech and bobber in the trees, you can see them sticking out of the water. Ben was having some difficulties with his HDS 12 Gen 3 however it was resolved and he didn't need mine.  With 2 trips to Lac Seul cancelled, Bruce was talking about going somewhere, Ben suggested Devil's Lake as he would be happy to guide us!  that might be a great idea and we are kicking it around.  In the meantime my garden is coming along well.  Today it will be in the 90's and everything will be growing like crazy, including the weeds!  The asparagus is doing well, and we decided to try and freeze some rhubarb this year and it went pretty well.  After picking and washing, it was cut up into cubes and put in a shallow aluminum pan, then put in the freezer for 30 minutes or so.  Frozen solid, then we vacuum packed it, 4 cups to the pouch and voila, we'll have to see how it turns out in a few months.  It looks pretty good though. 

My goal for this week is pretty simple, get my Ranger back, clean out the jon boat, the annual fishing garage sale that is held in Champlin every year has been moved to Buffalo, MN this year so on Thursday morning I hope to be there as they have some pretty sweet deals.  Hopefully it all ends with a trip to Mille Lacs to fish the flats for walleye before it closes on July 1st, which is a whole new story in itself.