Northwest Sportshow

Sportshow from above

It's that time of year again to attend the Northwest Sportshow here at the Convention Center in Minneapolis.  It is one of the largest sportshow's in the Midwest and it is always a great time to get caught up on the latest and greatest as well, to get some of those year long nagging questions answered.  Almost everyone who is in the industry is there including the boat and motor manufacturers, bait and tackle manufacturers, resorts, vacation destinations, and pretty much anything you would be wanting for upcoming fishing season.  Frankie and Deb from Frankie's Bait and Marine are back from their late winter getaway in south Texas and I am anxious to talk about motor options for my river boat.  Lowrance electronic will be there and in fact one of the things they offer is Lowrance University, an hour long course specifically about their products and how to use them.....I have a ton of questions for them, especially after their recent announcement of the Lowrance trolling motor.  There has been a lot of changes in the industry lately, especially in consolidations of brands.  Alumacraft boats has been bought by BRP, of course Ranger Boats was purchased a few years ago by Johnny Morris's group, Bass Pro Shops, who last year has purchased Cabela's and continues to make changes.  All of these things contributes to new sets of paradigms the change the way the fishing industry presents itself.  Specifically I had a great conversation with a Lowrance guy at Cabela's a couple of weeks ago, which has me thinking about looking at the next level.  Garmin has really stepped up to the plate and it is exciting to see some of the new things they are offering and whether everyone else will follow suit. 

Shimano Calcutta Casting Reel

With it looking like I will have a lot more time this year to fish, one of the things on the agenda is to look for new adventures, maybe Canada, Central America, I don't know, something that I haven't tried yet.  The last couple of months found a couple of nice Berkley Lightning Spinning rods find a home in the shed.  One was for my friend Joe in Texas, one for catfishing on the river, as well a new crappie rod.  Unfortunately while in the shed I found a couple of older but still very functional Shimano Calcutta bait casting reels.  These are premium reels that were popular when the old Garcia Ambassadors and higher end casting reels became available.  Instead of a magnetic spool breaking system they have centrifugal weights that you slide in and out based on how much spool braking you prefer.  Today most casting reels tend to be low profile with magnet braking,  however these are still quite functional yet the problem is they are not mounted to anything.  Those Lightning Rods had some in the casting category and at $29 each would have been perfect.  Feeling guilty that they are simply sitting there without a home forces me to look at the show to see if there are any deals for  maybe a 6 1/2 foot medium heavy casting rod, something that can be kept pre rigged for catfishing on the river, dang that sounds like a great idea!  I continue to be in awe of the convenience of the whole thing. 

Our snow is finally leaving us and the threat of flooding continues to be in the forecast.  Luckily it's been pretty dry and although it melts during the day, we have seen below freezing temperatures at night, mitigating the flooding risk somewhat.  Either way the sunshine and warmth really feel nice.  I am looking forward to maybe a last ice fishing outing before the ice finally goes out, that could easily take 6 weeks or more.  Here's hoping it will be out by May 10th, fishing opener in Minnesota.

The End is in Site!

Jon Bathke's 30+ inch walleye on Mille Lacs

Well, the end appears to be in reach on my boat situation.  As of today it's been 29 days since she's last been in my garage however it looks like it is ready to pick up for my up coming trip to Lac Seul. I found out that the perpetrators of my disappearing electronics also destroyed the Sirius/XM Weather module on the boat and a new one had to be installed.  This will also require me to re initialize everything in order to get it to work.  I really like this feature as it overlays the weather on your GPS maps and will give out a warning if there is lightning near, a very nice feature, especially in Canada. The last thing needed is to replace the plastic panels that were heavily scratched in the removal process but honestly, things will operate just fine until the return from Lac Seul.  In the meantime I continue to miss the hot bite on Mille Lacs however my fishing buddies are taking full advantage of the bite, including my friend Jon Bathke.  I met Jon many years ago when he and his boss, Dave Johnson wanted to go fishing down by Alma, on the Mississippi River, and both myself and Kevin Aiona knew the area pretty well, so I took them.  That was probably in the early 1980's and we have been friends ever since.  Unfortunately Dave died in a tragic automobile accident just when the new highway 252 was opened, he was a great guy and loved to fish.  Jon has 2 daughters and he has been taking them to Mille Lacs since they were young girls.  We talked about the hot bit on Mille Lacs and he told me that him and one of his girls went up the other day and just slaughtered the fish.  I think it was over 40 fish with most of them in the 24 inch plus range.  His report mirrors a lot of reports that I and Bill Lundeen have been discussing and they don't necessarily bode well for the future of the 2017 walleye catching season on Mille Lacs.  You see it is strictly catch and release and on July 7 the lake will close down completely to walleye fishing with a planned reopening on July 27th as statistically the worse hooking mortality happens in July.  Personally I would like to see all live bait users relegated to circle hooks and limit the live bait rigs to 1 single hook only.  I have fished Alaska, South Carolina, and Florida for fish and circle hooks were required for proper fish release.  They do work great however take some getting used to as you can't just set the hook or you will pull it right out of their mouth, rather it takes a steady pull and the circle hooks simply rotate and catch the fish in the corner of their mouth every time.  I think I have mentioned this before, in Alaska halibut fishing one time, the captain would not even let us take the rods out of the rod holders until it was certain that the fish were hooked.  Simply reeling the line in worked to set the hook and it is very efficient.  I think, especially on the launches which bobber fish with leeches, this method would work wonders in preventing deep hooked walleyes, but of course, it's only my humble opinion and that doesn't seem to make much difference these days.

The other great news is the boat was ready to be picked up yesterday and the pole shed was getting

The Yellow connector was cut off

pretty lonely so off to Frankies.  After getting her home, the first thing was to check out and make sure everything worked.  One additional thing that got replaced was my Sirius/XM Weather module.  Not cheap at about $700 the perpetrators simple cut off the connector end making it virtually useless.  This meant that it needed to be programmed for the new unit so it was the first thing to do.  You see the walleyes on Lac Seul love Willies Roadhouse!  Well the satellite attached to the unit but no sound.  After a few minutes of deep thought, especially after the bluetooth worked, I decided to check the connections however they were ok.  It ended up that I needed to change the input designation in the units and Voila.....Sound.  The next thing was to make sure the trolling motor was attached to the network so I deployed it, nothing, no power, dead as a doornail.   Started tearing stuff apart before realizing to check the battery area, where there was a circuit breaker turned off, probably a safety precaution when working on the motor.  One quick flip and everything was fine.  Next was to connect the units to the Lowrance units, you know, it really is easy but you do it so little it's hard to remember what worked the last time.  Anyway, it got figured out and now I know how to fix Bruce's connection on his new HDS-9, that is if I can actually remember what I did! The other good news is my structure scan 3D does work now and I look forward to using it on Lac Seul.

With the two main electronic issues resolved the last thing left is to deploy the new bimini top, which looks great and I must say that Lake Area Canvas sis a great job.  I looked at the snaps that secure the side panels that were added to the side of the boat and my first thought was, I don't like this!  From a practical aspect it is necessary and after an hour of thinking about it, I guess it's ok as it's really the only way to do this.  Never the less, it's painful seeing things screwed into the boat!!!  So now it's a made scramble to get everything ready to head north to Lac Seul.  My friend Paul Wenaas just got back from there and I asked how the fishing was.  He stated it was great, they got a lot of fish in the 2 to 5 foot water depth.  WHAT?!?!?! Oh well, it is good to have some different information regarding this.

Boatless in Minnesota

From my Nephew, Kevin

Last Friday my dealer called to tell me that my kicker motor had water in the oil and a new seal kit needed to be installed, however it would not be done in time for the weekend fishing.  This seemed OK as I needed some quality time to get some stuff done around the house, as well I had a pretty good offer on Sunday.   Bill called me from Mille Lacs and asked if I could help him on Sunday. Seems like it would work out for all of us, my dealer could keep the boat over the weekend, I'd get the garden and other things finished, and Sunday I could head up and spend some time with Bill.  So Saturday I finished planting the garden, sprayed my apple trees with Sevin to chemically thin them out as they have a ton of apples on them, mowed, and attempted to clean the pole shed  (Good Luck with that!)  One of the nicest things that happened this week was my nephew Kevin texted me on Monday exclaiming that I should have something special in my receiving department so I left my meeting to check it out.  I pretty much figured what it was but upon opening the box only confirmed those suspicions, some Willamette Valley wines, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, both very fine wines from one of the best Pinot Noir regions in the world.  He certainly knows how to tug at his Uncle's heart strings and I look forward to enjoying these soon as I added them to my wine cellar, never the less I'm always excited to have something from him.  I will definitely post how well these vintages are as I do like Oregon wines for sure!

So a quick update on the boat, uffda.  So Joe at Frankies has reportedly fixed the network system that

Wave Pro Air Adjustable boat pedestals

is been an issue from opener.  How in the heck did a seal on a new kicker motor go, well, I guess it's possible, let's hope this is under warranty!  The trolling motor bracket is the second one I've gone through so far.  When we returned from Canada a few week back my friend Bruce experienced some terrible back issues and landed in the hospital for a few days.  We got talking about different seat mounts to help balance the ride somewhat and he ended up with Smoothmoves, something that I was looking at since the Sportsshow, but a little research and I decided to go with the WavePro style.  They seem less bulky and Frankies carries them so it seemed a bit easier just to call and order a couple, which I did!  It should make those long rides into camp a whole lot easier.  It has an optional air pump that one can use to adjust the ride softness so I am sure it will take a little getting used to. The other reason to order from Frankie's is they have said that they sell a lot of these and knowing my Ranger, I am confident that they will do it right on the selection and install.  Maybe I am just getting more lazy these days, but it will be nice and if I do get my boat for this weekend, it's going to be windy on Mille Lacs so that would be a great way to test them out.  On Monday I get to bring my boat back in to get a Bimini top made for it.  I have never been one for a top however as I get older, protection from the sun and rain seem to make more sense, especially when we fish Lac Seul where it is mostly vertical jigging off the side of the boat.  This wheel boat stuff is hard to get used to after spending 36 years in a tiller type boat!

Sunday was spent at Lundeens helping him to get his rigs ready for some up and coming guide trips. We cleaned his big ProLine first, mounted some electronics, and started it before we moved to his 16 foot Lund that we used to crappie fish last fall.  He was installing Structurescan 3D so I helped him run the NMEA 2000 network as well as fishing the transducer cable up through the side of the boat. We had originally planned to take the big boat out on the lake but there was something wrong with the motor, so it was good that we got the smaller Lund taken care of first as he ended up using that for his trip.  The walleyes have really been biting on Mille Lacs with a report in Wednesday's paper that a Launch with 20 guys went out for 3.5 hours last week, caught and released 374 walleyes.  That's a lot of fish for sure.  There are rumors that I may be back on Lac Seul on June 24th, time will tell for sure!

Quiet Weekend

Andrew Pedersen's friend Matt Payne and a nice catfish

Spending 5 days in Canada last week generally means things are delinquent around home so last week was spent getting caught up as well we had some pretty heavy rains on Sunday, especially north of us.  I talked to my friend David Pedersen and told me that the Adam's Creek Bridge just north of Eleva washed out but that the Dam in Eleva has withstood the deluge, unlike a few years ago when heavy rains washed out the dam. while talking to Dave asked about the other rivers around the area and he claimed his son Andrew and a friend went down the Chippewa River in a small boat fishing catfish.  I told Dave that it was interesting, I had received a notification of a post on Andrew's Facebook of them getting a nice catfish on the river so I decided to post it this week since I haven't been out.  It reminded me of the days when my dad, Danny Van Pelt, Art Kelley, and Vic Wenaas use to take us with when they went catfishing on the Chippewa River where the Eau Claire River dumped into it in Downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Those days were a lot of fun as we would put a hunk of chicken liver on a hook with a big sinker to hold it on the bottom and away we go.  The Chippewa River has no dams below Eau Claire so the catfish would make their way up from the Mississippi River to spawn.  It was a great place to catfish, big water and nice catfish like this one.  I personally don't know Matt Payne however any friend of Bi Dave's boys is a friend of mine.  Thanks Andrew for bringing back a lot of memories of years past!  I would have to admit that Art Kelley or Victor would be awfully proud of that fish!

Motorguide Pinpoint anchor function

Monday I brought my boat into Frankie's to have my Structure Scan 3D transducer installed.  I had some other minor work that need to be done like a possible recall on the motor, I ordered some new bearing hub covers, and a new cover for my spare trailer tire.  Lowrance came out with a new 3D structure scan and it looks very interesting.  Not that I necessarily need it, this device could come in very handy in Canada when searching for new areas to target walleyes.  It's like anything else however, it will take some time to get to learn it but maybe............just maybe it will make me a better fisherman in locating those elusive walleyes!  Also this week I finished helping my friend Bruce Wiley in his decision to modernize his anchoring function on his boat.  I have the Motorguide i5 trolling motor with an anchor position function.  Simply arrive at your desired spot and push the anchor button on the remote control and the electric motor will hold you in a position plus or minus 5 feet, that's pretty accurate!  Also if you want to change your position slightly you can simply push any of the forward, back, right, or left buttons and the boat will move in that direction 5 feet and hold. Punch the forward button 4 times and it will go 20 feet then hold.  It's great in Canada where we fish rock points and humps and you want to move around alot.  My first year wasn't so good as usually the second day the motor would go haywire and wrap itself up.  Motorguide sent me out a software dongle to plug into the motor to update the software.  That has seemed to really take care of the problem.  Anyway fishing next to Bruce is painful as unless he has Wayne in his boat I see him running the motor and resetting the anchor.  With his new motor he can simply deploy it and us the remote from his seat or from the display on his Lowrance and control his anchor position.  I think he's tired of me giving him crap but admittedly my method is significantly more practical and easy, but certainly isn't as cheap!  I am sure that I will be giving some lessons on Lowrance HDS and Motorguide Technology soon!

Blueberry Picking time has arrived in Eleva so we may go down this weekend to get a few pails or so. As you see I have been talking to Big Dave and he states that the Adam's creek bridge on highway 93 was washed out just north of Becker's place so getting into Eleva requires a trip through the backroads, something I still remember.  Probably will pick up the boat on Friday and see if I can get out, if not Mille Lacs, maybe the River yet I am concerned about the level as we have got alot of rain lately.  Also it would be good to stop by and congratulate Frankie and Deb on being named Ranger Dealer of the year at this week's dealer meetings.  They always treat me special and that explains why I have dealt with them exclusively since 1989.

Opps

Well, I quickly rewrote the introduction to this post, I was suppose to post it last week however I just got too busy!

Frankie's new showroom!!

Last weekend was a reprieve from ice fishing as my boat dealer Frankies Marine had their open house on Saturday.  Frankie is a long time dealer in Chisago City with a lot of outdoor storage but little in the line of indoor show rooms so he built a new building that houses his new indoor heated show room as well as sales offices.  It is very nice!  Since most boats are ordered in January through March time frame and the main shows are in January it only makes sense.  Planning on spending at least and hour milling around Lyn and I stopped there around noon on Saturday, with the plans to heas to our friend Jessica's to have her give me a haircut.  We spend about an hour at Frankies and met the usual people that I enjoy talking to, Frankie's wife Deb and his son Joe.  They had a Ranger 620FS in the show room with a front stand up pedestal and seat which looked very nice so I asked them to order me one.  It nice because all they have to do is look up my Ranger serial number and can order a matching seat right from the historical build information.  I really like Frankie's because I can just ask them to do this for me and because they know me, they can order it on my word, which is good enough and I will pay them when it gets in.  I really enjoy that kind of relationship with businesses as I like it when you can be trusted.  I spent over an hour there and the highlight was spending some time with Debbie and Joe and talking to Larry Dahlberg, star of Hunt for Big Fish.  Also there was Dennis Anderson, outdoor writer for the Star Tribune.  A couple of observations, Dennis was taller than I though and Larry was shorter than I thought, oh well, it was a pleasure meeting them both!!

The cold weather has really put a damper on things as it's tough to get outside after work and get things done.  My plans for the rest of the week is to head down to the St. Paul Sportsman Show on Thursday then up to Red this weekend with m brother Steve and maybe Keith Holtan.  The weather isn't looking too warm but at least it's making ice!  I will probably leave my house at JR's till the end of January and pull it back then as I hear the fishing on Mille Lacs is picking up, which would be nice.  I have to travel to California on February 8th and will also go back there in the middle of March, hoping the guys can get a fishing trip scheduled for then!