Finally Settling Down

de Havilland Beaver Float Plane

Well, they say time heals everything as it's been over a week since my star performance on Leech Lake last Monday.  I've settled down a bit, maybe being without my boat serves a good purpose.  The Ranger is at Frankies, my dealer waiting in line to get repaired.  The final damages amounted to over $6000 and I've been assured it will be as good as new.  Although my boat is 6 years old, I'm glad they didn't total it as I really like my layout.  The 2009 and newer Ranger 620T has some nuances that I don't care for and as well,  this 2008 boat is tricked out just the way I like it and it would be tough to start all over.   The boat should go into the shop for repair next week and should be ready to go by June 1st (hopefully!).  Normally the Memorial Day weekend means the first trip to Mille Lacs to pre-fish for the MTT (Minnesota Tournament Trail) that Mark Applen and I usually fish.  This year everything is tight including the slot limit at Mille Lacs and we may not even make it.  It's a far cry from our first time we fished the MTT on Mille Lacs as we took 3rd place, good for $1060 towards the Mark's charity however it's kind of been downhill from there.  Fortunately the end of May should turn out to be successful as I will be accompanying my neighbor Pete Sipe, his friend Bruce, and 3 other guys to Lac Seul Lake  in Ontario, Canada.  The plan is to meet at Surfside Seaplane Base in Lino Lakes and jump on board a de Havilland Beaver float plane. After stopping at a lake north of Mille Lacs to pick up a fourth passenger, it's back up in the air heading for the Seaplane base at Fort Francis, Ontario.  Once we have cleared Canadian Customs its off to Lac Seul Outpost located on the northeast portion of the lake on Chamberlain Narrows and about 2 air hours from Fort Francis.  The Chamberlain Narrows area is known for the early season walleye fishing as the fish travel through the channel during the spawning season.  I'm cautious in predicting anything other than a great time, Pete claims that every year someone usually get a 30+ inch walleye, that would be sweet. Although I have flown in float planes before, it's usually for only 40 minutes or so as we did this in Alaska a few years ago.  This trip is scheduled to take about 5 hours total with over 4 hours in the air.  I'm pretty excited as the guys want me to sit in the co-pilots seat in front, I'll never relax!   The plan is to fish next Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday before heading back south on Friday morning.  With limited time to write and the need to take advantage of my fishing location, I suspect next weeks blog will be late. Oh well, here's hoping the pictures will be worth it.

Team Walleye

Last weekend was spent working on the garden and attending my nieces annual dance recital in Osseo, Wisconsin.  It's quite interesting as in includes young girls dancing with their fathers to high school seniors doing complex routines.  My niece Kaylee does an excellent job as I think she's bound for stardom some day.  After having treats at the local Dairy Queen, it was off to see my mom and brother in Eleva.  We always bring mom a load of groceries as she doesn't get out as much as she would like.  Heading back home also allowed me to return my Scheels One Titanium Spinning rod that had the tip break off last week. Scheels has a no nonsense guarantee on this rod, break it for any reason and return it for a new one.  Because it broke right at the base of the tip, I suppose one could have just glued a new tip one it and it would be as good as new.  On the other hand, a deal is a deal and they replaced it, no questions asked.  This rod is a one piece 7 footer and has become one of my favorites in the boat.  Paired with a Shimano CI4 2500 reel, it's incredibly light.  I love the way it loads up when a walleye barely grabs the bait, something that happens quite a bit on Leech.  With an extra fast tip you can feel the slightest pressure without ripping the bait out of it's mouth.  Of course being 7 feet long, one has to be careful when putting it back in the rod lockers.  This Memorial Day weekend is our family reunion side on Saturday, Sunday and Monday is garden planting time as well, get everything packed for Tuesday.  The other thing to do this weekend, replace the Stars and Stripes that I fly at the house.  Buying the good embroidered flags,  they still only seem to last about 6 months so Memorial Day and Veterans Day has become my reminders to get this done.  Monday is packing day, it's going to be a busy weekend.

Two things to leave you with........one, a picture of Team Walleye.  We almost forgot to take it as 3 of our guys had already left.  Shows you what happens without our fearless leader Ron Edberg.  The other thing is this is the last post of my 6th year of writing the blog, next week will start my 7th.  I appreciate the support as Fishin' With Dave approaches 60,000 hits.  Time sure does fly.

Another Year!

Although I started Fishin' With Dave in May of 2008, I consider the last post in April as the end of my Blog Year.  For the Christmas Season in 2009 I was perplexed as to what I could give to my father.  At 79 there isn't much that he needs that is personal in nature, sure he loves the year subscription to the paper but I was looking for something special.  An e-mail came one day promoting a site that would actually print your blog in hardcover book form.  Called Blog2Print, I decided to check it's validity not knowing what to expect.  It was surprisingly simple, give them the URL of your blog address, pick the dates, add a few pictures and dedications and Voila, your blog has been just published.  Deciding this would be a good gift for my father, I downloaded Fishing With Dave, Volume 1, spanning my posts from May 1, 2008 to April 30, 2009.  Adding a dedication to my dad, it turned out to be one of the best gifts he has ever received, as he even made me autograph it.  In my posts are often people from Eleva mentioned.  Dad would go downtown everyday for coffee and bring the book with him for others to read.  Not having Internet, it was a fun way for him to see what I was writing about.  It went over so well that in 2010 I printed volume 2, May 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010.   Having learned a few things from doing the first one, I changed a number of things and printed 3 copies, 2 hardcovers and 1 soft cover.  Getting more winded with my posts made Volume 2 larger and more expensive (you pay by the page).  It made the perfect Father's Day gift that he continues to enjoy and it is my plan to start Volume 3 as soon as I am done today.  At 81 and struggling with throat cancer it's nice to be able to do something special for him.  My dad grew up in Eleva, a pretty strict Lutheran community.  I have said before it was not necessarily his job be my friend but to make sure I grew up to be a responsible, self sufficient adult.  Along the way we had issues and admittedly saying I love you to your dad wasn't something you did, I am sure he didn't to his father.  I think I need to take care of that before it's too late.

So the electronics install saga continues with my boat.  Having decided that repairing the holes cut into the panels would be too much work, I ordered new ones from my dealer Frankie's.  In the end it was a smart move on my part as now the installation is looking much better.  I did get the Ipod dock mounted and ran the ethernet cable from the front HDS5 to the back HDS10.  That works pretty well but there are a few bugs to work out.  On Tuesday, Lowrance came out with a software update and now the units are up to date with a lot of extra features.  Last night I finally got the Sonic Hub working and is it ever slick.  I can now control my audio system (radio, Ipod, speakers, volume) all from the HDS unit.  Thinking I could control the audio from the front via the ethernet was a mistake and now I have to install a NMEA2000 network cable from front to back.  Hopefully this will take care of it.  I still have to mount the transducer for the LSS-1 (Structure Scan) and network the system into the HDS unit, I am about a week away from that and will post pictures when I am done.  It is proving to be interesting and fun as long as I don't run out of time! 

My last picture is of the new pickup truck I took delivery of on Tuesday, a GMC Sierra 1500.  My Suburban was pushing 6 years old and had over 130,000 miles, it was getting to look well used.  I found myself hauling more stuff and with the gas prices rising, needed something to easily transport my ice fishing gear without always having to take my trailer.  Things really change in 6 years.  The engine is a 5.3 liter V8 (327 for all you guys my age) with an engine  management system that when cruising under light loads the engine drops to 4 cylinders. Coupled with a 6 speed transmission it claims to get 21 mpg on the road.  My brother Steve has the same truck and has confirmed up to 22.  Having all the latest electronics gadgets like built in bluetooth for your cell phone that actually comes through the radio to the USB port allowing you to plug in your Ipod and control it from the radio control, it's pretty slick.  Heck even my salesman Clyde, who is my age, was amazed at what you could do.   It's still snowing in Minnesota and Leech Lake is still ice covered, maybe going out next week.  I am hoping I can get out before opener and try all of my new stuff!