Red Lake adventure!

 

Engel 19 qt bait cooler

Last Sunday my brother Steve and friend Mark Applen decided to head to Red Lake for a couple of days of fishing.  We weren't in any particular hurry to get there, getting set up before dark was the main criteria. Fishing the lake on Sunday thru Wednesday would virtually guarantee us a smaller crowd with less commotion on the ice.  Less activity on the ice should translate into a better more consistent bite.  The Salem was already at JR's from the last trip so we just had to take the truck, hook up at JR's and head out.  Like the previous time, we were surprised about all the houses being pulled back.  These houses were probably coming from Red Lake as the bite hasn't been that good with the weather changes we have had.  Never the less we arrived around 2:30, paid the storage and access fee's and headed out to Center Bar, about 7 miles from JR's.  I have to hand it to JR's as he had areas pre-plowed so it would be a lot easier to set up the house without getting stuck.  We found a plowed cut just west of the main road, on that headed towards the Reservation boundary.  Someone had been in there prior, we were able to get the trailer backed into a clean spot and set up.  There was no one around us at all, maybe the closest being a quarter mile away, perfect or so we thought.  Getting everything set up perfectly about the only thing wrong was I forgot to bring my Engel Bait 19 quart bait cooler.  We stopped at Fred's Bait in Deer River and had them put the minnows in an oxygen bag.  Luckily the aerator was still in the house so we just kept the minnows in the bag and dropped the aerator stone in it, they kept pretty good.  I have 2 of these and saw one in the shed before we left so assumed the other one was in the wheel house.  Unfortunately Jack took the minnows from the last time in that cooler and didn't return it but I didn't think about it.  Oh well, it worked out ok and turned out to be the least of our worries.

The last trip with Jack was delayed because the furnace in the Salem quit working on that Monday, the day before we were packing to leave on Tuesday.  Without the furnace working and below zero temperatures, we decided to have someone look at it and on Tuesday I got right in and $450 later I had a new control board in the furnace and it worked that night.  Well when we arrived at JR's on Sunday, the first thing was to heat up the house, the furnace started without an issue.  By the time we got the holes drilled and the house set on the ice, everything was working well.  The evening bite was nothing to write home about and we got a small walleye and a couple of small perch, nothing worth documenting!  Trying o get my DirecTV working didn't work so well and we were stuck with watching DVD's, The Blue Collar Comedy Tour and I was so impressed with the Director's Commentary of Deliverance we watched that as well.  Finally getting to bed around midnight we were sound asleep when Steve got up to answer one of the rattle reels.  Catching a keeper, he noticed it was cold so he reset the furnace and headed back to his sleeping bag.  When we finally got up the furnace had stopped again.  Resetting the thermostat didn't do it however we did have propane at the stove.  Cooking breakfast heated the house up however it wasn't too bad out but due to get colder that evening.  We decided to just hook the house up and head back the next day.  Disappointed there was little we could do.  Calling Minneapolis Trailer, they had me bring it in Tuesday morning.  After checking the gas flow it was on the low side so the mechanic tried to adjust the regulator however it was already at the max adjustment.  He suggested I get a new regulator/automatic tank switch and I agreed because there was something I didn't like about the one on the house.  After paying for the regulator and driving back home, the temperature was still nice enough to install it myself.  The furnace started right up and after leaving it run all night it was 12 degrees in the house the next morning.  In this whole process the front electric jack stopped working so we ordered a new one because nothing would happen without the jack installed.  The plan was to get the jack installed, run the furnace all night and try to get a default.  Got the jack on Thursday morning then  fiddling with the inside thermostat, the furnace started fine and Friday morning it was still 60 in the house.  Stopping at the trailer repair we decided to see if we could get a default then go from there.  At this writing, it is Sunday night and after installing a new thermostat that Amazon delivered on Friday, things have been working well.  Was it the thermostat, I don't know but burning propane is cheaper than the shop rate to try and figure out the issue.  There may have been something in the intake, maybe a bad switch in the thermostat, but whatever it seems to be working well.  The plan is to monitor it daily then head to Lake of the Woods, Springsteel Island in a couple of weeks.  Ben Aiona and his family have been there this weekend, they haven't been doing that great but there has been a lot of weather fronts coming through the last month.  Packers lost last night so not having TV isn't such a big deal anymore!

Negative!

Covid Saliva Test

 As stated last week having 2 close friends pass from Covid is unnerving.  Certainly one needs to take a deep breathe and understand that this is not normal but it is real.  With last weeks revelation that 2 of the 6 people fishing on Red last week testing positive, it starts screwing with your head.  You begin searching for any clues that might indicate any issues.  Yep, I was real fatigued, I had a scratchy throat,  and started to get worried.  Using MyChart a quick message to my doctor was not very conclusive.  My primary care doctor is fabulous yet they are under a number restrictions and only like to deal with real issues, not fears.  Plan B was to get a free test available to anyone in Minnesota, unfortunately administrated by a company called Vault Health, I won't go into that but was unsuccessful in securing a free test.  Plan C was to go to Anoka and get a free test that was set up at the Anoka Amory.  Actually that went pretty well as they use the test pictured above.  After having to set up an account with Vault, which was already done, the log in process didn't go well but the National Guard soldier that helped me was incredible.  Whatever was done in the past probably screwed up my Plan B, this guy basically bypassed all of the BS and got me registered.  You scan the bar code on the small container then fill it with spit up to the line.  It felt like it was a quart but eventually it got to the line.  You take off the funnel and screw on the blue liquid top, it punctures the seal and deposits the liquid in the container then seals it.  The whole process took 15 minutes including any wait.  The last process was to give the sample to a Vault nurse.......she got my opinion of Vault only after I dropped the sample into the large bin.  It is obvious that there is a lot of money involved in this process.  Either way about 24 hours later the email informing that the test proved negative arrived.  I am fully vaccinated with a booster however not sure that is enough anymore.  Thankfully whatever my makeup is I seldom get sick enough to put me down so maybe we'll get through this.  On Saturday it was Matt's funeral, it was nice that they had a live feed from his church.  It really felt like I was there as listening to Matt's uncle explaining the Davis family, it did bring an acceptable closure to the loss of my friend.

New Minnkota MK460PCL (L for Lithium)

During our Leech Lake trip in October there was something weird going on with the new Ionic trolling motor batteries in the Ranger.  The batteries have a Bluetooth interface and although they were plugged in and charged each night, one battery did not seem to charge.  After getting home and looking at the charger, the bank associated with the uncharged battery was blinking intermittently.   Switching banks with another one, it charged normally overnight.  The bad bank still blinked funny.  Trying to find the blink codes the manual really didn't explain it however it state that in the event of an electrical storm it is advised to tilt the motor out of the water and unplug the charger.   On Friday night we had quite a thunderstorm with lightning very close to the cabin.  Well, lesson learned!  The now one bank down charger was not set up for Lithium however if you use the AGM charge setting, it will work just fine for charging these new batteries.  Having to replace it searching online brought some interesting results.  First no one had the new model in stock.  Second the pricing was confusing as on the Minnkota site the price was $549 yet on the mk.factoryoutletstore.com site it was only $419.  Doing some research didn't indicate any issues so it was ordered knowing it would take a couple of months to get it.  The charger arrived this week and after careful inspection, it is a genuine Minnkota product.  It's too cold out to install and as well the lithium's are discharged to their ideal storage state of charge, between 60 and 80% state of charge.  Oh well, just another thing on the list.  In the meantime if anyone needs a 3 bank, 15A onboard charger, I have one to donate.

Getting off my Butt

Matt with a largemouth on a wacky rig

OK, Bring retired often means you simply find it hard to keep up with everything.  Well a changing event happened on Sunday, my great friend and fishing buddy Matt Davis passed away from Covid complications.  I have survived over 18 months without having anyone close to me pass away yet now in the last month Matt was the second, with my past production Manager Rich Rebella being the first.  Of course it is devastating as Matt was only 54 years old, Rick was 57, both 10 years younger than I.  Matt and I shared a love for fishing that was deep. We fished together in Charleston South Carolina, Naples Florida, Cameron Louisiana, and at Joe's place east of Dallas.  Not only did we fish but Matt introduced me to TX Whiskey and never let me run out! Actually I think he was disappointed when I told him they finally had it here in Minnesota, as it was only available in Texas.  If you are interested, go down to the bottom left side and there is a section called Labels, there you will find any article that Matt was referenced in, and he was one of my favorite subjects.   One of the things this blog does it records memories, which was why I started it.  Matt's passing away reminded me that it is still important to document things as I have some great memories of him through this.  Matt and I had a lot in common as he was the president of NovaMagnetics, a transformer firm in Garland Texas.  I barely remember his father, Glen Davis who passed away a number of years ago and Matt stepped into his shoes.  Our good friend Joe Stanfield introduced us and it could not have been a better match as we had so much in common.  The only thing I didn't do that Matt loved was to chew Copenhagen!  Last March I took my good friend Bill Dull ice fishing on Lake of the Woods, we had a blast.  Well Matt made me promise I would take him ice fishing as driving out 15 miles onto a lake and staying in a specially made RV for a few days was something he wanted to experience.  I was really looking forward to giving my Texas friend a taste of the north this March.  Should have, would have, could have.  Unfortunately it's too late but you can be assured that the Northland Buckshot spoon I bought him will be hanging in the house....that and a bottle of TX.

Ricky Shermer's nice walleye

So what else is new since August?   Well in September we got back to Lac Seul with Bruce.  Having only 10 guys and 3 boats, a number of our past members did not come as either they had other plans or had problems with the Covid requirements.  I decided that I wasn't going to let that decide my fate in Canada so I got my vaccine in March.  Even though we had all of our requirements and testing in order, 6 of use were randomly selected to do a test.  Personally it was ridiculous.  One had to have a nurse view you doing the test online via your phone, assuming you still had signal from International Falls, then follow a number of confusing instructions then drop it off somewhere in Ft. Francis.  The whole process took almost 3 hours and was stupid because we were scheduled to return to Minnesota at least 2 days before the tests were done anyway.  I could go on but at this point there is no point.  We barely made it to camp with about 30 minutes of daylight left.  Fishing was somewhat slow the first 2 days.  I had 4 in the boat, Ricky Shermer, Barry Blasovic, Jerry Kiffemeyer, and their guide Me!  The first day we totalled 45 walleyes in the boat, pretty low.  The second day was better with 55 in the boat, still pretty slow.  The last day Jerry decided to go with Jack, so with 3 of use we ended up at Pecker Point and just hammered them with 85 in the boat including a number in the 26 inch range like the one Ricky is holding.  The walleyes must have turned on because everyone did pretty good that day.  We finally got across the border with little problems, usually we eat breakfast in Canada but decided to get back to the US first.  One of the things I purchased before we went was a Lowrance Active Target, a 3D type scanning device.  With a special transducer and a mount, i was able to quite accurately see how the fish were reacting to our baits and often could see all 3 of our presentations.  It really didn't do much to help catch fish but it made it more interesting to watch the fishes reactions to our lures.  

Ben's beautiful 8 pointer

In November Jack, his son Ben and I hunted Brett's land, once Rich Allen's place.  Brett has erected a number of fully enclosed stands, complete with heaters, and it makes for a comfortable hunt.  the visibility isn't the greatest but you certainly don't get cold!  Ben on the other hand is young and sat in a traditional ladder stand, which paid off as he shot a beautiful 8 pointer.  I have deer hunted for 50 years now and have never shot a nice buck like this. I am very proud of him and he is having it mounted, which he should!  We hunted a few omore times but I never saw a deer...was warm though!  Last year my Salem Ice Cabin had significant rusting through the frame, such that it needed repairs.  In September it was dropped off at Crystal Welding, known for their trailer repair.  It took a couple of months but right after deer hunting it was done, $9200 worth of iron, welding and repairs.  Although it seems like alot, new houses are ridiculously priced, if you can even get one.  It was worth repairing as it is a nice house and set up the perfectly.  Last Tuesday Jack and Ben were heading to Red with me, but on Monday the furnace stopped working.  With below zero temperatures, we decided to delay as the last thing we wanted was 3 guys found dead in their wheelhouse headlines.  Luckily the guys at Minneapolis Trailer in Rogers, MN got me in on Tuesday morning and by 1:00 it was running perfectly.  Meeting Andy Achman and his crew at JR's we got settled in for the night.  Fishing was slow as predicted a front came through and Red Lake is more affected by weather changes.  We left the house up there and headed back on Thursday with just enough fish to have a fish fry at JR's before we left.  My friend Ben Aiona and his family were on Lake of the Woods and on Wednesday did really well with 56 walleyes caught, with 3 limits between 16 and 18 inches.  the plan is to go up to Red in a week or two them haul it to Springsteel Island Resort till March before ending the season.  Unfortunately 2 of Andy's guest tested positive for Covid so I am trying to get into the doctor to get tested.  With 2 friends down, it's nothing to screw with.