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!