Birthday today

 

New WiFi Thermostat

It's hard to believe but today is my 67th birthday.  It's not that I feel old, quite the contrary, I feel young however I wish my body felt the same way!  Having already received calls from my dearest friends the next thing is tonight getting on Facebook and taking care of all of those friends.  Geez, just what I want on my birthday, more work!  One of the real issues of getting old is staying up with the latest technology and how to set it up.  Yep, here you go , one can just buy a doohickey that connects to the WiFi, just download the App on your phone and voila, what a convenience.  Well sure, if you're 13 years old for a guy that grew up with a black and white television and 2 channels (WEAU in Eau Claire and WKBT in LaCrosse), heck I was 36 when I got my first cell phone, it isn't that easy.  Today I see my friends 6 year old kids maneuver around a cell phone like  it was their 3rd hand!  My latest  encounter was installing a WIFI controlled thermostat in the house.  
Simple right?  Not so fast.  Removing the old thermostat, marking the 5 wires hooked to the old base, making sure they were on the new base correctly, then easy, snap the new thermostat on the new base and it will power up, Simple right?  After an hour of diagnosing and reattaching the wires to make sure they were all in place, still no power.  Calling the 1-800 tech service, they were backed up 40 minutes but promised to call me back.  Admittedly not as smart as the Smart Thermostat, I still had some tricks up my sleeve so the next step was to call Ben Aiona, my godchild who is an HVAC guy.  After the laughter stopped he directed me to the furnace where the blue wire needed to be connected.  So why was it not connected at the furnace but at the thermostat?  I guess it doesn't matter as doing what he said fixed everything perfectly.  As I was finishing up Honeywell called me back, go figure.  It's still working, next thing is to set up the Ring Security light/camera's.  Of course they make it look so easy.  Unfortunately one need the QR code off the back and they are already mounted, getting the cart before the horse again!!

Springsteel Island Resort

As far as ice fishing, the furnace in the Salem seems to be working just fine.  It's gone through 3-30# tanks of propane without a hitch so it should be good to go.  Given this good news,  within a couple of weeks it's heading north to Springsteel Island resort for a month.  Maybe right after the Superbowl.  Then my friend Bill Dull from California is bound and determined to sleep out on the ice so he is flying up the first of March to spend a few days ice fishing again.  He came last year but the early spring forced us to fish out of portables and to stay on shore at night.  I am looking forward to his visit as he always has a nice scotch for sipping!  It's been frustrating with my DirecTV so it may just have to be old movies and conversation!  When we went to Red earlier last month we ended up watching Deliverance.  It was filmed in 1972 and I remember seeing it in a theatre yet watching it again was pretty interesting.  Deciding to play the director's comments, basically the movie reran with the director making comments about each scene, what was involved and trivia about the movie, it was quite interesting for sure.  Did I say the weather has been cold?? Usually I get to fish some local lakes but this year it hasn't happened, maybe because my portable ice house is behind the boat and too tough to get out.  My good friend Jack Taylor's son, Ben has been out a lot and maybe I just need to have him take me, just like I used to take out his grandfather, Earl Taylor.  At least he is young and could prove quite an asset!!

Speaking of Jack, we both got our money in for this year's 49th annual Leech Lake Fishing Opener.  Looks like most everyone is going to be back again, with the exception of Mason, who is in the Marines.  My two back pedestal's for the Ranger are wore out so I am going to replace them with the same type I have behind the console, WavePro's.  These are pedestal's with Fox Racing Shocks inside that are air adjustable.  My passengers will love me as they are quite nice.  A little more expensive but not much. 

Moved to Lake Of The Woods (LOTW)

Ben's nice 26.5" Walleye

Last Friday was the time to shift gears and retrieve the Salem wheel house from it's parked location at JR's and haul it up to Springsteel Island Resort on the southwest side of LOTW's.  Knowing Ben Aiona was going up there, his dad Kevin and Kevin's friend John Felix decided to join me.  The cold weather made a point to linger into the weekend with -35F predicted for Saturday night.  Meeting me at the pole shed we left by 8:00 AM on Friday with our intent on being at JR's by 12:30.  Arriving at JR's we backed the truck up to the wheel house only to see that my propane storage doors were wide open.  Damn, someone must have gotten in and took the 2-30 pound cylinders.  Kevin got to the doors and said Oh oh!  My heart sunk but he laughed and said he was sorry!  After hooking it up and securing the doors the plan was to start the furnace and let it run the 90 minutes to Warroad.  After bidding Adam at JR's a good bye till next year, I paid the storage fee and took off.  It never got warmer than -11 F and that was near Deerwood, MN and   by the time we hooked up it was back down to -15.  Our next stop was the Warroad Cenex station to get minnows, fill up the truck, and fill up the assumed now empty propane tank.  Part of the idea to start the furnace was to get it warm but also there was still propane left in the original tank and wanted to empty it.  Everyone said I should not run the furnace while pulling the house but it seemed to work out OK.  At the Cenex they are gracious enough to only charge you for what they put in it and to my surprise it still had 5 pounds left.  That was a lot of run time on that cylinder, 2.5 days on Red and at least an hour and a half of steady running on the road.  With the propane full, the minnow bucket running, the truck full of gas we were ready for a cold adventure.  After paying the road access we called Ben who had met us 6 miles out on the road and guided us near where he was settled in.  Kevin is getting pretty good at helping to get set up and did a great job as we were fishing within 20 minutes of arriving, just in time for the evening bite.  We managed a few keepers the rest of the day however the cold weather kept the bit to a minimum.  The next day, Saturday, would prove to be more eventful.  We caught a number of nicer 15 - 16 inch saugers and walleyes while Ben, just 20 yards from us managed to bring in a nice 26.5" walleye.  It was definitely chilly out but we managed to keep more than enough fish to go in for a fish fry at the resort.  It's a pretty good deal as one gets diced fried potatoes, cole slaw, beans, and they fried my fish in the gluten free batter for me.  It was a nice change not to have to make and clean up after eating!  After a filling supper we headed back 7 miles out on the ice to turn on the television and relax for the evening.

Sunday's catch

Ben got up and left Sunday morning while our plan was to stay and leave Monday morning.  It still never got above zero with Saturday night low was -34.  By the time we got up it was already up to -28!  We stayed the rest of Sunday getting a fish here and there.  I would not say that it was on fire but it certainly was better than Red Lake was 4 weeks ago and although the numbers were not as good as fishing Lake Winnebigoshish 2 weeks earlier, the number of keepers was significantly better, as we had fairly consistent action throughout the day.  We were surprised at the clarity of the water as LOTW tends to have dingy water.  This lead to a few rattle reels going off after dark.  AT midnight on Sunday one went off and no one got up to service the line so I got out of my warm sleeping bag and found the reel that had my line marker bobber underneath the water, felt it and set the hook.  It was a nice walleye and when I got her up I was impressed, nicest one of the trip in our house.  I put it in the fish pail, reset the rattle reel and hopped back into the sleeping bag.  After about 30 seconds the thought came to me, damn that was a nice walleye, but I failed to measure it.  On LOTW all walleyes over 19.5 inches have to be released.  So, back out of the sleeping bag and over to the fish bucket, pull her out and got the measuring tape that is on the slush dipper, 21 inches, back in the hole she went.  Luckily she swam right away.  No need to get the ice house confiscated over 1.5 inches of walleye.  Again we woke up to under -20 but decided to get packed up as Keven and John had at least an 8 hour trip ahead of them.  Stopping at the Springsteel Island fish cleaning house they had made some improvements such as running water to clean up everything.  We ended up parking the Salem at my friend Dave Johnson's place at the resort, ready for the next trip.  I suppose we caught around 30 - 40 fish total with 20 keepers that we either ate or brought home.  The plan is to leave it there till the middle of March when my good friend Bill Dull from Southern California is flying up to try ice fishing.  It's too bad he didn't come this time and experience what the real cold feels like!  I am trying to arrange a big group so he will have the full feel of an ice fishing adventure in Northern Minnesota.  As a side note the road we were on is the beginning of the ice road that runs across LOTW to the Northwest Angle, an isolated part of Minnesota the is usually only accessible by going through Canada either by highways or motoring across the lake via the portion that is in the United States.  The ice road has been important for the residents of the Northwest Angle as the Covid restrictions have limited their options to return to their properties.  It's a pretty good deal as the road provides easier access to those resorts in that area for guest to get there.  Snowmobiling is an option but it limits what  you can bring.  I know last week's weather sure made ice!

Something different

Bill's First Introduction.

With the wheel house still parked at JR's and some family stuff to do last weekend it was pretty quiet around the fishing front lately.  That will change as Mark Applen and I are heading up to Red Lake for our last fishing trip of the year to Red, which will result in pulling it home then spending some time on Mille Lacs Lake in February.  One of the things that I have come to learn to enjoy is a nice whiskey.  Traditionally beer was the beverage of choice when I was young, Walter's Beer happened to be my favorite.  Brewed in Eau Claire Wisconsin it was a popular local beer, especially with some of the guys I worked for when I was young and helping Bud Tollefson and Ronnie Petersen to whitewash barns on the weekends.  Walters was a full bodied beer but met its demise when the light beer craze pretty much wiped out most of the traditional style German beers.  From there I followed my mentor in life, Vic Wenaas as he always drank brandy, and it became my choice of refreshments for many years.  Today I really don't drink very much beer, actually liking a good glass of dry red wine, and have started to enjoy the taste of various whiskeys these days.  My fiend Mark Applen started this business with his choice of beverage, Maker's Mark Bourbon.  It's not bad and Mark has gained his own notoriety as Maker's Mark himself!  I do not like a lot of that burn offered by the standard types that are better mixed with something to tame them down with.  Yet over the years and with the help of some good friends like Bill Dull, of California fame, or Matt Davis, from Texas I have learned that there are a lot of good stuff out there, deserving of a simple glass of Ice mixed with a dash of time.  Bill and I had spent some time in Savannah a few months ago and he introduced me to a California based whiskey, a smooth blend of Bourbon, Rye, and American Whiskey called St. George Breaking and Entering.  It is quite nice however difficult at best to find in Minnesota. After getting back from Savannah I found it on line and picked up a bottle for myself and my friend JR at JR's Corner Access.  He absolutely loved it and I suspect that he would be really hard pressed to find this around St. Cloud, MN.  Bill Dull and I have a common thread via our Taiwanese business Partner, Axis, whom we have been doing business with since 1998 and as well, Axis bought the company he was working for, Triad, is Perris, California.  Bill has always been a friend as we typically meet a couple times a year, once at the Medical Device

Angel's Envy is as it says!

and Manufacturing  (MD & M) in Anaheim.  It appears as though I will not be attending that event this year as seeing all my industry friends had been a staple for the last 10 years.  Bill and I usually catch dinner one of those nights and this is where he tends to surprise me with his new discoveries.  I would say that we both have the same tastes and it's always an adventure being with him.  A couple of weeks ago he sent me this belated Christmas present, a bottle of Angel's Envy, Caribbean Rum barrel finished Rye Whiskey.  I have to admit it is pretty incredible stuff, as I opened it an took a whiff, it smelled as though someone inserted a caramel apple in the bottle.  It is incredibly smooth and with that heavy base of caramel mixed with spices ( Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves) and a nutty base, it is very hard to describe.  All of these flavors are not added rather the result of the proper distillation and knowledgeable use of the proper wood barrels to age the liquor.  It's truly hard to believe but I guess one has to try it to realize how well made this stuff is.  Checking on line as it is a very limited release product, the dang stuff is $80.00 a bottle.  Well, this is typical of my friend Bill as a few years ago we had dinner and insisted on buying me a bottle of a nice red wine he liked, Quintessa Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was absolutely amazing but also about $150 a bottle in the stores.  I guess you get what you pay for and hanging with Bill is a lot of fun but it can also be very expensive!!! Never the less it's a great learning experience and hopefully I will get to see him again soon as I really don't mind being spoiled by him!

 As stated earlier, my good friend from Garland Texas has graced my palate with a nice smooth Whiskey from Fort Worth Texas called TX.  It is quite nice and a lot more reasonably priced than the stuff Bill gets me tied up with!  Nevertheless he definitely keeps my cabinet well stocked as it is only available  in Texas, Louisiana and it's starting to make it's way up north.  It been awarded the best American Whiskey with a double gold award, and well deserved.  One interesting aspect it the cork cap that they use on the bottle.  It's best described by their story on their website:   First, we select the leather. In the beginning, most of our leathers were re-purposed from boots donated by some of our friends in the community and by visitors to the distillery. Now we primarily use leather pieces from the best boot and saddle makers. We acquire exotic skins and different colors of leather from those extra pieces that the boot and saddle makers can no longer use. Next, we use unique tools to punch out a circle of leather. We then measure the thickness of the leather to determine which cork size to use. Then we hammer a custom-made wood ring over the leather to secure it to the cork. Finally, we add very small pins for reinforcement. Every resulting bottle cap is a unique example of fine Western craftsmanship – just like our whiskey. Stop by the distillery and swap stories with us – maybe even bring your own boots for topping off a bottle of F&R spirits; we’d love to make you a part of our history. It is actually quite interesting as each cap is unique in its own way and definitely represents the state where it derives from, Texas as this is where many of the great and classic cowboy boot manufacturers are located. 

Auchentoshan Three Woods.

Finally not forgetting an experience in Savannah with the new owners of my business, especially David Ashton, an industry consultant who is from Scotland.  During an event in Savannah we stopped at a Scottish Pub called Molly MacPherson's.  Being of Scottish descent, David decided to treat us to a single malt scotch of his liking.  It was Auchentoshan Three Woods Single Malt Lowland style scotch, one that did not exhibit that traditional smokiness associated with Scotch Whiskey's.  The Three Woods title comes from the fact that it is cured in 3 different wood barrels, first in used American oak bourbon barrels, then it is transferred to a used Spanish Sherry wine barrel before finished in a different sherry wine barrel.  Again incredibly smooth, flavorful and with no burn, it's a perfect after dinner treat.  Of course I had never heard of this and definitely found it in the Minneapolis area.  It is a little on the expensive side however their American Oak brand is almost as good, 100% cured in used American Oak barrels it is more reasonably priced and one can overlook that extra Sherry barrelled cure for $30 less!  Admittedly it's been and interesting year learning about different types of Whiskey's especially breaking the old assumptions of what was called whiskey, Jack Daniels, Windsor, Canadian Club, and Seagrams..........all needed Coca Cola or Seven Up to make them palatable!  Here's hoping the fish are biting on Red as many of the ice houses have left the lake which means less traffic and maybe a better bite.  A friend Chris Worms called me earlier this week stating he was going to JR's this weekend and it would be nice to see him again as the last time was at Lac Seul Outposts, on the 2018 Ontario Fishing Opener.

Fishing the Kelp Beds

Red Rockfish matching my shirt!

Last week was a tough one as the flu or something as diabolical hit me on Tuesday, just in time for my flight on Wednesday to attend our annual fall TTA meeting in San Diego, California.  Limping through the conference, I wasn't in very good form yet was able to pull myself together for our planned fishing trip on Friday afternoon.  The last speaker on Friday was done by 11:00, it was time to head to the harbor where we hooked up with Sauerfish Charters located in one of the harbors just minutes from downtown San Diego.   On the trip were a number of important colleagues including Bill Dull, Randy Eller, Chris and Jeffrey Chen, CK, Lyle Shaw and myself.  Although the December/January time of year is not the best time to catch fish off the entrance to San Diego harbor, there is no better time to fish than the time you get to go!  Our host was Eric Sauerwein, captain of the 42 foot twin diesel "Classic Fishing Battle Wagon" was extremely gracious and worked very hard for our fish.  Eric had a very interesting setup on his electronics which included a Furano 12 inch depth sounder and a Nobeltec computer based navigation software that was separate but tied into his systems.  With a computer screen in the helm, it would show our position as well as the bottom contours, not as lines but rather in 3D as we could easily see the shelves, drop offs, canyons, humps in real 3D, it was pretty awesome and something that would be nice for around Minnesota for sure. As we pulled out of the San Diego harbor we were greeted by the USS John C, Stennis (CVN 74) aircraft carrier coming into the San Diego naval base.  These ships are huge and this one was no exception.  Coming within 100 yards as we passed by it was interesting to see the escort gun boats, complete with a person on the 50mm machine gun staying between us and the carrier.  Many waves to the sailors we continued to the 70 foot level and started fishing.  Our rigs were pretty simple, a stout rod with a open spooled trolling reel with about 20 pound test and a 3 ounce sinker tied to the end.  Looped at both the 1 and 3 foot location above the sinker was a horizontal line with about a #2 octopus hook.  The hooks were baited with cut squid and dropped to the bottom, much like fishing halibut or rockfish in Alaska.  Right away I had a tap tap and pulled up a calico bass, a type of rockfish.  It was pretty small and I released it but coming from 70 feet of water, it ended up as seagull food.

Bill's bonus fish, a nice yellowtail

The swells were actually pretty good sized, I suppose 6 to 8 feet and it made standing on the bow, fishing off the rail somewhat challenging as we were about 8 feet above the water.  It took an hour or so to get my sea legs and by 3:00 it was pretty comfortable.   I did manage to get about 5 fish including a keeper bronze rockfish and the red rockfish in the above picture.  Although not very big I have been assured they are very good to eat so we keep most of what we caught.  The highlight of the trip was when Bill Dull hooked onto something considerably more substantial than the smaller rockfish we were catching.  The captain speculated that it might be a nice halibut, considering where we were fishing but having caught halibut before, they don't run like this fish did.  Trying to follow the fish around the boat, Bill headed towards the bow as the captain followed him with the gaff.  All of a sudden the first mate notices a large shape in the water, a damn California Sea lion.  These things are notorious for stealing fish and whatever Bill had on would probably make a nice meal for the seal.  As Bill rounded the bow the fish made it's presence known, a Yellowtail. CK and Jeffrey were very excited as the yellowtail makes some of the best sushi in the world and is known as Hamachi and they are huge fans of raw fish.  The critical factor was to get to the fish before the sea lion did and as you see in the picture, we were successful.  The yellowtail is a member of the amberjack family and is a very strong swimmer as you can see by the shape of the fish, almost like a longer tuna.  Everyone was pretty impressed with the catch including the captain as a fish like this is a real bonus this close into the harbor. Actually you can see the video of Bill catching the fish and the excitement HERE, it's pretty cool. My excitement came when I was reeling up the red rockfish pictured in the top photo.  Just as it came to the surface a huge sea lion lunged for the fish, normally I'm not very fast but a quick snap and I was able to deprive the swift mammal it's dinner! It's pretty impressive to watch them swim around the boat, searching for an easy meal but there wasn't anything this time around.

Jeffrey, CK, Lyle, Bill, Dave, Chris, and Randy

After catching a mess of fish that included the yellowtail, 5 red rockfish, 2 bronze rockfish, 1 white sea bass, 1 calico bass, and 4 mackerel we headed back to port. The first mate simply gutted the fish as Bill was going to finish packing them when we got back to Temecula, CA.  I'm sure there was plenty of fresh sushi to be eaten sometime later in the weekend.  It was interesting to watch the seagulls and pelicans follow the boat as they would fly parallel to the side of the boat and look over at the fish as it was being gutted. Once the entrails were thrown over it was a battle royal to see who would get the meager scraps.  It was a lot of fun to watch for sure.  Even though the fishing wasn't spectacular, it was fun to get out for the short amount of time we had.  I can definitely put San Diego as one of my "been there, done that" spots as I continue to explore new and different places to fish.  We left California on Saturday coming back to the colder weather, quite a change.  In turn Jeffrey flew to Minneapolis on Sunday so I picked him up and we went to the ice fishing show in St. Paul.  He found it interesting as they have no ice fishing in Taiwan.  He left on Tuesday as it was nice to show him a little bit of Minnesota while he was here. This weekend is supposed to be warmer than normal, actually they are predicting as high as 50 degrees, now that is a change!  The ice will be heaving like crazy as everything heats up and expands. I will probably fish around home this weekend looking for some crappies and sunnies using the new rod I bought at the show.  Next week will find my brother Steve, his son Kevin, and I back up to Red Lake, here's hoping the lake gets settled down by the time we get there.