Uffda, What Just Happened the Last Week!

An appropriate Farewell

The last few weeks have been crazy busy.  The largest challenge was that on Friday, May 31st, I officially retired.  After 43 1/2 years in the business it finally came to an end.  It is sort of bittersweet but as we all know life marches on regardless what we think. one thing that is for certain, I was blessed with some of the greatest employee and they insisted on holding a retirement party for me in the lunch room with fishing as the main theme.  Apparently after all this time it is pretty hard to hide your passion, I suppose having all those mounted fish on the walls was a dead give away!  It was great, I walked into work and immediately noticed everyone was wearing black mustaches!  In my younger days my mustache was quite dark so they did a tribute to me by imitation, which is said is the best tribute.  They catered Famous Dave's for lunch and had made this huge card, a caricature of myself on the front a with everyone signing inside.  Of course I had to make a speech and usually I am pretty good at this however it was hard not to break down.  Some of these people have been with me for well over 25 years, work did become my second family.  Know this day would come about a year ago, I prepared myself for the inevitable.  Convincing myself that it is just like graduating from High School, you can't stay there forever, time to move on, all those people, well one may never see them again, that's just part of life. Of course everyone thinks that I am retired, there is something missing in my life now..........quite contraire!!! Because of the cold spring I finished the last of planting the garden this weekend.  Friday was our 17th Annual (and last) ENA Charity golf tournament, which I was fortunate enough to purchase a half day guided bass fishing trip on Lake Minnetonka, something I bought for Mark Applen and myself to enjoy.  The house needs a good power wash, the weeds are thick this year, the shed needs to be cleaned out, hopefully just in time to see my boat fully repaired!  Speaking of the boat, there was a week delay in the handling of the paper work but it finally got done.  Last Thursday was the day to get the oil changed on my truck.  Dropping it off at Pete's, I called Bruce to see if I could buy him lunch.  He agreed if he could

Goher trap

pick the place and without any transportation there wasn't much choice.  He picked me up, drove to his hanger at Crystal Airport then we took off and had lunch at the restaurant at the Eau Claire Airport, Hanger 54.  It was quite good and as well an interesting 3 hours.  Wednesday was spent in New York Mills at the funeral of my friend Lory Brasel's brother Lyle.  It was very nice and we had a great time after at Lory's homestead where he grew up.  New York Mills reminds me a lot like Eleva, a small town, farming community that sticks together.   While walking through the barn there was about 50 of these wire type pocket gopher traps which reminded me of of over 50 years ago when I trapped gophers with these traps.  Apparently Lyle, Lory's brother did a lot of trapping for his fellow farmer friends.  Seeing all the old equipment and tractors put a smile on my face.  He even had a Massey Ferguson 35, the tractor that is almost just like mine, it is the same thing except the name reflects the evolution from Massey Harris, Massey Harris Ferguson, to Massey Ferguson.  I promised Lory I'd give him some operating instructions!

Steve's Friend with a 49" Muskie

So my brother Steve ended up going to Lac Seul last week with some guys from LaCrosse.  They did a fly in to one of Anderson's outpost camps just northeast of where we stay, in Pickerel Narrows.  This is probably 8 miles from Lac Seul Outposts and because it was a fly in they used the camp boats.  The discussion about lower units came up and the camp doesn't provide depth finders but does tell you that if you ruin a lower unit it's $2200.  He sent me this picture of a nice 49 inch muskie as well stated they caught a 51 and Steve had one clamp onto his walleye for about a minute.  Often north of camp is noted for their muskie fishing but honestly in 6 years of going and fishing that area myself or anyone else I know has caught one of these.  Asking "Were you fishing for them then?" the answer was nope, all caught while fishing for walleyes.  Interesting for sure.  Oh well, it was definitely a nice addition to the trip.  Speaking of Lac Seul I got invited to go this Friday back up for a few days.  Last week the insurance information for my lower unit was resolved so we will see if it will be done by Thursday.  It would be nice but not having it, we'll just get a boat from the resort.  All my tackle is in the boat so the plan is to drive up and get an idea of when it will be done...........just one more thing to do!  Hopefully it works out well as it could be a good report for next week!  Another note, I did arrange for my Friend Paul Wenaas to get my Lorwance HDS Carbon for his houseboat trip that he is on right now, he is parked just south of Chamberlain Narrows.  Our conversation was mostly around where I hit the rock so I gave him all the details.  Maybe I will get to see him on his way home!

The Boat is Back

Example of a Bow Fishing Boat

After 4 weeks of being in the shop I finally picked up my boat from Frankie's on Friday night.  It was pretty hectic at the dealership as they were sponsoring a Bow Fishing Tournament for carp, dogfish (bowfin), and gar.  The tournament started at 10:00 that evening and ended at 10:00 the next morning.  It looked pretty interesting as they had 37 team entries which drew which lake they were allowed to fish on, which keep the amount of traffic on any one lake to a minimum.  Bow fishing carp consists of going on the lake at night with a special boat rigged for this type of sport.  Generally there is a platform for the shooters, lights to shine into the water, and a generator to power those lights for an extended period of time.   Once the sun goes down the carp cruise the shallows in search for food.  Using the lights, it's pretty easy to see the fish but it takes a knack to actually hit them with an arrow.  The water causes the light to refract and if you are looking at a fish under water its actually closer than they look.  Therefore you must shoot below where the fish appears or the arrow will go right over the fish.  It takes a few shots to get a feel for how much refraction verses the depth verses the distance and most people tend to miss a lot of fish at first.  When I was about 15 we all had re-curve bows and in the spring the carp would come into the back sloughs carved out from the meandering Buffalo River which ran through Eleva.  Carp Slough (later we named it Northern Slough) was a favorite spot as it had a wide opening into the river and the carp would be in there thick.  Today carp shooting is much more advanced and it looks like fun as you can hire a guide to take you out for a few hours.   Well, when I got my boat home and started putting it back together I discovered they had given me the wrong stern light.  Back up to Frankie's in the morning, I arrived just in time for the weigh in.  Set up like a bass tournament, all the guys lined up as they drove their boats into the shop area where the guys would unload their fish, count and then weigh the largest.  To win the tournament, you had to bring in the largest fish.  In case of a tie, the number of fish brought in was next.  All together it was a slow night as a cold front came through and the wind made the conditions tough.  326 fish were shot and the winning carp weighed 34.18 pounds, a monster.  I was thinking about grabbing a couple of the smaller ones to take home and smoke but with having to get the boat ready and dealing with the rain,  I decided it would be too much work.

Rockin' and a rollin'

The boat looks great and pictures would not do it justice.  My earlier post showing the damage included a number of deep gouges in the gel coat, which is poly-flake to make it nice and glittery.  The finished product looks just like new and you cannot even tell there was any damage.  It's impressive what they can do as I feel like I got a brand new boat back.  Of course, for $6400 I suppose it better look good!  The nice thing is it forced me to reorganize the boat, vacuum out everything, rearrange my rod storage, clean up the anchor storage area, and throw away all the stuff that seems to accumulate over time.  With everything back in order the plan was to head to Mille Lacs on Sunday and see if she still recognizes me.  Sunday morning was greeted with rain, something we have been inundated with lately, and by the time it lifted north a 30 mph wind took it's place.  Too rough to fish I decided to simply drive my motorcycle up to Lundeen's and finish some electrical repair work that I had started the week before.  Going up Hwy 47 I arrived at the lake stopping at the Scenic Overlook just north of Isle, MN.  I'm glad the boat stayed home as there were 4 - 5 foot rollers coming into shore, it would have been extremely uncomfortable fishing in this wind for sure.  It turned out for the better as it gave me enough time to fix both Bill's commercial coffee maker and cappuccino machine the right way and not just kludge it together. With my mission accomplished it looks like next week will be the first time since opener that the boat will be out.  I have made arrangements with my friend Hondro to meet him at Mille Lacs on Saturday, providing the rain stops.

This Friday is our annual ENA golf tournament where we raise money to help families of children who are suffering from cancer or other devastating conditions.  We raise close to $25,000 each year and this is our 12th annual.  Our projections should put us at over $300,000 raised for a great cause.  The nice thing is we give 100% of our proceeds as everyone works hard as a volunteer for the simple satisfaction that the work is gratifying.  The garden is a mess as we have had at least 10 - 12 inches of rain during the last 2 weeks and every time I try weed or plant the mud swallows my shoes.  It looks like my second crop of sweet corn is going to be pretty late.  On the other hand, as I said last week, those onions are blue ribbon bound!

Close to Home

This week featured a full day on Friday working at the ENA Memorial Golf Tournament (more on that later), cleaning up around the house on Saturday, and taking the Ol' River Runner out for her 2012 maiden run on Sunday.  I'll start from Sunday and work backwards.  After the heavy rains from a few weeks ago the Mississippi River level has finally receded enough to make it feasible to fish for smallies and whatever else could be biting.  My hectic schedule put me in lazy mode and after discussing with my neighbor Tom, should we go to Mille Lacs or the River, the weather man decided for us.  With rain in the forecast we stayed close to home, hitched up the jon boat and launched at my neighbors landing.  On Saturday I finally got the boat cleaned out and bought it outside to see if she would run.  A little stubborn, the motor finally came to life after about 10 pulls on the recoil, then purred like a kitten.  Once on the river our strategy was to motor 5 miles up the river then drift down, casting the shorelines.  The water level was still 2 - 3 feet higher than normal and somewhat dirty.  With the current running around 2.5 mph, the top speed going up river was a gut wrenching 12.3mph.   25 minutes later we arrived at our starting point just as the clouds opened up, just my luck as I left my rain suit back in the pole shed.  Thankfully it was a nice warm summer rain and actually felt pretty good!  Because of the poor river clarity we decided to cast medium running Bomber A's in a hot fire tiger as well as a bright orange crawfish pattern.  Figuring the fish would hold tight to the bottom and needed some sound to help them locate the bait, the Bomber's have proved to be our number 1 crank bait on the river.  Within 10 minutes Tom hooked a young smallmouth bass, then nailed a nice one.  I had a nice catfish hit my orange Bomber hard enough to break a hook off the back treble.  I decided to change to the same green fire tiger pattern and within 10 minutes this nice 3 pound smallmouth plowed into my lure.  As we continued to drift the river a  few more smallies were caught, 2 very small northern pike (8-12 inches), and Tom had this nice 5 pound catfish hit his lure like a freight train.  I am always amazed at the tenacity these channel cats will hit a standard crank bait as the standard mode of catching them are more related to stink baits and bottom fishing.  Catfish are actually good to eat however the ones out of the river are pretty fat and tend to be mushy.  Maybe I am cooking them wrong!  My brother Steve is a great catfish connoisseur and maybe I need to get a recipe from him.  It was a successful couple of hours on the river and now that the area has been dumped on again, I see the river reports predicting the water levels may go back up another 3 - 4 feet.  It could be another couple of weeks before the levels get back to normal assuming we don't have a lot of rain in the forecast.  Fishing the river is a lot of fun as you never know what you'll catch, which keeps it interesting.

Friday was our 10th annual ENA Memorial Golf Tournament.   Each year we raise money through the golf tournament which is used to assist families who have children battling cancer.  We do not fund research, we have zero administrative costs as 100% of the money goes to helping these families cope.  It may be helping to fix a car, providing critical transportation that the family cannot afford, anything to help them deal with the day to day struggles of dealing with cancer.  Most of our funds are administered through the Fairview Foundation, an organization based with the Fairview Health Services, including the new Amplatz Children's Hospital located at the Fairview Riverside location in Minneapolis.  Our goal was to break the $250,000 amount raised with the 2012 event and by all indications we blew by that number.  It is a very rewarding experience, one that I hope to continue and see us break the $500,000 goal.  The above picture is our team of dedicated individuals with Mark and Jan Applen in the middle.  Great job!

Friday and Saturday I will be helping my friend Bill Lundeen entertain a corporate event by trying to catch some walleyes for his clients.  The bite is still on and hopefully it won't be too windy to make things uncomfortable.  I should have more pictures and stories next week.