From Paradise to the deep Freeze

Matt Davis and his 80 pound Cobia

I haven't posted in a while, I guess it's been busier than I like with little time in between.  Oh well, hopefully this post will get everything caught up.  First an update on my boat.  2 weeks ago it was finally finished at the axle shop, Kremer Services in Inver Grove Heights, MN.  They were absolutely the perfect place to fix the problem with my Rangertrail trailer that apparently has seen 1 too many potholes on Canadian Highway 502 from Ft. Francis to Dryden Ontario.  The last year there has been a lot of construction in the form of replacing culverts under the highway and these areas are not very friendly to trailer axles.  I am sure the hurry to get to Sioux Lookout doesn't help but the way the front tires were wearing, something had to be done.  Dropping it off on October 31st, they called to state the rear axle was well within spec but the front needed replacing.  4 weeks later the OEM axle came in and they had it installed and aligned for about 1/2 the price I had quoted from another shop that was closer.  In the meantime my dealer Frankie's Marine had done some work on getting my rims that were peeling the finish replaced, which they were successful at.  Because the tires were going to be 5 years old in March, the inside tread was wore off on the fronts, and a rough figure put the mileage at about 30,000 on them I had Frankie put new tires on my new rims.  As well I am having some broken plastic trim replaced, the battery charger looked at, my canvas top need some small repairs on the zipper, the boat is currently at Frankie's waiting for a few items including some additional touch up to the damage caused last May on Lac Seul.  She'll be just like new when it's done, which might be a few weeks yet.  So the fishing story this post is my trip to Florida to first speak at our annual conference of Transformer manufacturers and suppliers on December 5th and 6th, then afterwards drive to Naples, Florida with my great friends Matt Davis, Gary Hicks, and Glenn Collins, all associates that I have met before I retired.  The plan was to stay at Glenn's cousin's immaculate beach house in South Naples on Friday, fish on the Sea Legs, a charter we used before, then leave on Sunday.  It was quite a memorable trip, as they are all getting!

A Bunch of Snapper, Grouper, and a very nice Cobia

Our conference was in St. Petersburg, Florida starting on December 4th and ending on December 6th
at noon.  After dropping a friend off at the Tampa Airport we headed south to meet a retired industry friend, Bill Hardt, in Ft. Myers Beach for lunch. He has a beautiful place on a golf course and a great restaurant very close.  One of the things I really enjoy about Florida is there is never a shortage of interesting fish on the menus and this was no different as I had a Kingfish sandwich, absolutely amazing.  Lunch finished the caravan headed south another 30 miles to Naples, stopping to get a few supplies including lunch for the boat, some refreshments, and supplies like zip lock bags for our fish.  Arriving at the dock by 7:00 AM on Saturday we headed out for the 2 hour trip 36 miles offshore.  It was a beautiful day as the sea was calm.  we got to the first spot, maybe 45 feet deep and rigged up.  Basically the rig consisted of a 2 ounce weight, a 3/0 circle hook tied onto the line about 18 inches above the sinker, all associated with a 30 pound fluorocarbon leader tied to some 50 pound braid on a stiff 5 foot spinning rod.  Up north we would refer this to a drop shot rig.  On the hook was baited a chuck of squid, herring, or both.  You'd drop down the line till it hits and pull back just enough for the sinker to be sitting on the bottom and hang on.  It was interesting how the fish started biting immediately.  In fact if you didn't have a bit after 30 seconds it was probably because your bait had got stolen!  Circle hooks have an interesting hook set procedure, you basically reel in the line if you feel the fish has got your bait and the hook simply sets itself.  Although different than setting the hook on a walleye, it didn't take long to get the hang of it and we were reeling fish in one after another.  The predominate fish was the snapper, any where from 14 to 17 inches long they came in all sorts of varieties including Lane Snapper, Gray Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, Mutton Snapper and others.  Our main target were Red Groupers and we did catch quite a few of them but there is a 22 inch minimum size limit so most went back.  We fished in 4 different spots as one learns that because the larger groupers are territorial, you may only catch one or two on a specific piece of structure.  We did end up with 4 nice Red Grouper, one for each of us which was our limit anyway.  At the last spot of the day, the last fish of the day was a huge Cobia that Matt hooked.  We knew he had something big but never imagined what it was until it came to the surface.  The Captain was super excited as the Cobia is prized for it's good meat.  15 minutes later Matt had it to the surface and then the fun began as it tried to get tangled in the anchor rope.  This thing was huge and Matt had a somewhat smaller setup more suited for grouper.  the crew made several unsuccessful attempts to gaff it, it was making me nervous just watching!!  Finally the Captain got the gall in the back side and it took 2 guys to pull it in.  It was quite the celebration especially for the last fish of the day.  The top picture gives one a sense of how large it was.  The next picture was our total catch, the big Cobia, 4 nice Red Grouper, and a pail full of various snappers.  Of course we were the talk of the dock answering a ton of questions from the tourists just boarding an evening harbor cruise boat.  We got the fish cleaned with an audience of brown pelicans that figured out where to get an easy meal.  There is a restaurant at the city docks that will cook your fish so we dropped off about 4 pounds of fish with the plan to clean up a little then go back down to eat.  We had them blackened, simply grilled, and fried with every one tasting fabulous.

Sunset off of Tim's deck

Staying at our friend Tim's beach house in Naples is a rare treat indeed and definitely a paradise in itself.  The house sits up off the beach with the deck overlooking the Gulf of Mexico to the west, the sunsets are spectacular. Sitting on the deck enjoying a fine cigar and a glass of scotch, looking out at this, words are hard to describe for sure.  One definitely gets humbled as you pass Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, and other top of the line vehicles as you walk in downtown Old Naples.  We ate at a wonderful Italian place that Tim had recommended and I don't think I've ever had a better tasting sauce than I did there. Located close to both downtown Naples and the city dock it was a very convenient place to stay.  Having packaged the fish in zip lock bags and into the freezer the plan was to pack some into my checked suitcase which I had brought along a insulated shopping bag from Costco.  Carefully packaging it in a single layer and sandwiched between the clothes, I arrived home with the fish still firmly frozen, it worked out pretty well.  It was still fairly warm here, in the high 20's so it was a good opportunity to vacuum pack the fish as I had about 3 pounds of snapper fillets, 2 grouper fillets, and about 10 chunks of Cobia.  Arriving in Minneapolis about 3:00 in the afternoon a friend picked me up.  The forecast was snow and cold for the rest of the week and they were not kidding as I left 75 degrees for -11 this morning.  Maybe it's time to see a psychiatrist!  The good news is it's making ice and we'll be pulling our wheel houses on Red very soon! 

Getting Stuff Done

14 bushel lawn debris collection system.

Wow, got too busy to finish!!!   Oh well, here's what I wrote last week.  With the ice forming well but still not good enough I decided to get some use out of the 14 bushel leaf/grass collection system I bought earlier in October to help clean up the yard.  The last 2 weeks haven't been ideal however on Sunday it was almost warm enough to get the job done, It would probably be my last chance before the snow comes to get the leaves picked up off the lawn, and there were a lot of them.  The system itself is pretty slick.  It attaches to the mower via a quick hitch system and it has a blower that gets mounted to the output of the mower deck and is powered by a pulley that is attached to one of the spindles.  A belt goes on the pulley then it has a tightening mechanism to put tension on the belt.  When you engage the mower deck the blower pretty much sucks anything under the deck and forces it up a chute and into the bags hanging off the back.  It is surprising how fast it will fill up, I just take the bags and dump them into my trailer then haul it to the back of my property and dump it.  The ground was froze and I had a number of problems with moles this fall, so it was a pretty bumpy ride yet I was able to get all the leaves picked up and the grass looks ready for the snow.  My next project is to get the snowblower attachment on as I think within a couple of weeks we will have blowable snow unfortunately. 

Keith's first walleye on the ice!

Red Lake continues it's freeze up as well as most of of the lakes north of Brainerd are frozen over.  Although it's only walkable ice, if one is careful it's not too bad and guys are getting out.  My friend Russ is planning on heading to Red on Thanksgiving, leaving his house on shore and using an ATV to get out.  So far the reports are stating up to 8 inches of ice however they did have some breakup from the wind last week, it's healing up good and some resorts have safe routes staked out to over a mile.  In the mean time my friend Keith Holtan, who lives near North Long Lake by Brainerd got out and sent me this picture of his first walleye of the year, not bad if you ask me!  So as I stated in my first sentence, I am getting caught up and quie honestly am getting ready to fly to Savannah, Georgia on Wednesday, November 18th to attend our fall TTA meeting and what usually comes out of these get togethers is a fishing trip and this year is no exception.  We are going to be fishing out of Tybee Island with Miss Judy's Charters, a recommendation we got from Phil Gordon.  Phil has a time share on Tybee Island as it is just south of Hilton Head, South Carolina, a popular golf destination.  Although our conference is Thursday and half a day Friday, Phil has got us a rental condo on the beach for Friday and Saturday night as we have booked Saturday, December 1st as our fishing day.  Our fishing day looks good as I checked the weather for the weekend and it looks like we'll be in the 70's which will be a nice change from the 15 degree weather we've been experiencing here in Minnesota.  I arrive in Savannah late Wednesday afternoon and the low is supposed to be 32, a warm spell!  Anyway we have 7 guys signed up for fishing including Bruce Thackwray, Glen Collins, Matt Davis, Gary and Steve Hicks, Phil Gordon, and myself as we will target inshore saltwater species such as Redfish, Sheepshead, and Seatrout.  I have fished with these guys before and it's always a great time!  The plan is to find a local restaurant close to our condo that will cook our fish, maybe we will even have enough to bring some home.  Either way it will be good to get out before heading up to Red to fish the hard water.  I may post something later this week or wait till I get back from fishing with some nice pictures of our quarry!

Back From Chicago

My Friend Gary Hicks and a Nice Lake Michigan King Salmon

This week was spent in Chicago at the International Coil Winding show, sounds exciting doesn't it! It gives me a chance to touch base with all of my important vendors who service our business as well cmake contact with my fellow colleagues, who own their own transformer winding companies to see how they are doing. Of course most of my friends at the show know about how much I like to fish and as well have fished with me in the past at conferences around the United States.  One of those guys is Gary Hicks, he is the owner of Dongan Electric Manufacturing in Frazier, Michigan.  He is also an avid fisherman and when I saw him on Tuesday the first order of business was talking about his salmon fishing trip on Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.  That really brought back some memories of the mid 1980's when my friend Kevin Aiona and I would meet Gary Barneson in Appleton then go over to Algoma or Two Rivers Wisconsin and troll for salmon and trout in my 16 foot Lund Pro Angler boat with a 50 hp, 4 cylinder, tiller Mercury motor.  That was some of the best fishing times I have experienced.  Gary Barneson lived in Appleton at the time and he became quite proficient at fishing Lake Michigan in small boats...........heck he had (still has) an Early 1980's S14 Deluxe with a 25 hp Johnson tiller motor, he was my influence as in 1982 I bought the very same rig.  The 16 foot boat wasn't much larger however the 50 hp Merc purred like a kitten yet it would burn a gallon of gas an hour at trolling speed.  We really never encountered bad weather as the wind was more often from the west which would blow the warmer surface water to the east and the colder water from the deep would replace it.  Surface temperatures would often be in the high 40's so the fish would not be very deep at all, often in the 20 to 40 foot range.  We had 2 downriggers, 2 large planar boards, a couple of Dipsy Divers, the two of us could legally rig up 3 lines apiece.  Our tackle consisted of very light weight spoons we called Northport Nailers, brightly colored 6 inch minnow baits like Rebels, and flashers and rubber squids, we'd alternate baits and different colors to try and figure out what the fish would hit more consistently then switch the lines to those baits or colors.Downriggers were dropped to 40 feet, Dipsy Divers took the bait down and out, meanwhile the

Captain Aiona Running the Tiller!

trolling boards would get your bait away from the boat in case it was spooking the fish. It was fun as you never knew what would hit what.  One of the nice things that you could do in a smaller boat is stop the motor and fight your fish.  If you notice the prop wash in the picture of Gary, the charters never stop their boats.  Because of the amount of lines out and the mad scramble, they would simply let the water push the fish to the top and if everything worked out right you would reel that fish up the prop wash.  Kevin and I did it differently.  If we hooked a fish we'd hollar.......FISH ON and the scramble began.  The other guy in the boat would crank up the down riggers, trip the dipsy lines and reel them in, and depending on what the fish was caught on and where it was, we would usually leave the trolling boards out as well.  Then the fight was on!  We were fighting the fish on our terms and fight they would often pulling the boat until it or we were exhausted  At that time the fish were pretty good size as we would go in Mid July when Gary could get off.  It was certainly a team effort as we'd normally take turns steering the boat as the downrigger board was secured to the middle of the boat and we needed that leverage and space to reel them up each time.  The usual bag of fish included  King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Rainbow trout, Brown trout and the occasional lake trout that showed we would try for every once and a while. The last time I fished Lake Michigan was probably in 1986 with my dad and brother as we were on a trip to visit my Uncle in Sheboygan.  Today I understand because of the water clarity most have to fish away from the boat and using super long lines and or lead or copper lines to get the bait down.  We did get some nice fish however, King Salmon in the 35 pound range, Coho's (Silver) in the 15 -20 pound range and big football shaped browns in the 16 pound range.  We occasionally went out into the 120 feet of water and hauled some beautiful lake trout up from the bottom.  It was interesting as the boat had a paper graph for a depthfinder.  I wish I would have saved some of those rolls of paper as they told an interesting tale indeed.

Inside of my Rod Storage Lid delaminating

This weekend is my cousin Paul's daughter's wedding, as well I have plenty of apples to pick and process.  With little time available, I have been cleaning the sand out of the boat from the Lac Seul trip a few weeks ago.  Opening the rod locker, something didn't seem right so I forced it open and apparently the fiberglass is delaminating.  I sent this picture to Frankies and told them to order a new cover, thy said it should be covered under warranty.  Pulling the carpet back in the cockpit area to dry out, I decided to look at the batteries. sure enough the latch pulled right out.  These latches are very heavy duty and I have never had one do this on my last 3 boats.  I found the back flange the keeps it in place, stopped at my neighbor Todd's and he gave me new stainless steel replacement bolts.  A little blue Loctite thread locker on the threads and it's good as new.  Today was the day to get the trailer step welded but the weather doesn't look so good that will have to wait till next week sometime.  We haven't had a frost yet so everything is pretty green, that will probably change next week.  Bill and I usually go trout fishing in October so I have committed to go in a couple of weeks however both of us are quite busy so we will see what happens.  Deer hunting is in 4 weeks and the long term forecast is for a cold winter, maybe enough to allow us to pull the wheel house out on Red Lake over Thanksgiving like we did in 2015.

Three Times a Charm

Ben's first Walleye on Red Lake

It's been a really busy week, especially since we fished Red Lake again for the third time this season and it's like they say, three times a charm. After spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with friends my brother Steve and I had planned to take advantage of the long holiday time off and head back to Red Lake.  On Christmas Day we had the pleasure of spending the evening at Matt and Christina Taylor's home, which was right on the way back home.  It's always fun to get together with the Taylor's our long time friends.  Jack was there with his 10 year old son Ben and the subject of Red Lake came up.  Our plan was to head up on Saturday the 26th and fish till Tuesday morning the 29th.  Jack stated he love to go and I suggested that he and Ben drive up with us and fish till Sunday as he had to work on Monday, they would be at the cabin and it's not really that much of a drive.  Well it worked out perfectly as we connected on the road heading north.  Also joining us was fellow Team Walleye member, Andy Achman and his wife Cheryl from St. Francis, MN.  Andy arrived an hour or so earlier and was anxious to get out after waiting for us to arrive.  Greeting us at JR's were Mark and Jan Applen as well as Russ Praught and his friend, all were waiting to have their fish fried up and suggested we wait and join them. Apparently the kitchen was changing oil in the deep fryer and it was going to be a while so after paying JR we hooked up the house that we had stored at the resort and headed back to the rockpile where our friends were parked.  Andy had arrived an hour or so earlier and was anxious to get out so we decided to go set up then come back for fish.  Although we didn't make it back in time there were still enough walleye to satisfy ourselves till breakfast.  Everyone headed back to our spots and getting  the poles baited it wasn't long before the first rattle reel went off and Ben went to work.  He's quite the fisherman for 10 years old and he pulled in the first walleye, too big to keep as it was over 17 inches. We took a quick picture with the phone and threw it back, ready for the next one.  Admittedly the bite had slowed somewhat as the fish weren't attacking our baits, the rattle reels proved effective. Ben had a great time pulling up our fish and he did really well as they visited both Andy and Mark to take advantage of any opportunity to pull one in.  After getting a few in the box it was time to get some sleep for the next day although I'm not sure how much Ben slept as he was on those rattle reels constantly.

Mark's 15 inch Crappie

Sunday brought another nice day and the surprise breakfast that Mark Applen brought over to our house.  He's an excellent cook and makes the best fried potatoes, bacon, and eggs.  With Russ leaving and Andy heading to Center Bar, Mark and I decided to move closer to the Reservation line as quite a few people had left the lake in the morning. During the evening Mark had caught this nice crappie, something that Red Lake is famous for prior to the comeback of the walleye populations.  I caught one of these last year and they are quite a sight coming through the hole. Our plans for the day were set, with the DirecTV working, we were looking forward to a day of football as both the Vikings and more importantly the Green Bay Packers would take up most of the afternoon.  After watching most of the Vikings game Jack and Ben bid farewell, something that Ben wasn't too happy about as he was having a blast.   Because Steve and I wanted to watch the Packer game in it's entirety, it was compromised with Mark that we would go back into JR's for fish at 6:30, which suit me just fine.  It was definitely worth it as the Packer's won 30 - 20 over Detroit and more importantly I won a bet with my 2 friends Glen Collins and Gary Hicks, both die hard Lions fans.  At 6:30 sharp we headed back to JR's, ate then drove back to the houses to settle in for the night.  Fishing was pretty slow and Andy's reports from Center Bar were more positive, we decided that a move was scheduled for Monday morning. We were really only a couple of miles away yet I never trust traveling cross country on unknown ice.The temperature was dropping and by morning we woke up to -14F with my Honda generator shutting off sometime in the night.  I have had this happen before and I think the carburetor get's iced up so I threw some gas antifreeze, brought it in the house and it started right up and ran good for the rest of the trip.   Fishing was OK on the rattle reels overnight, enough to pull them and attempt to get some sleep but in the morning fishing was slow.   By 9:00 we were getting ready to move and also helped Mark pack up in the now very brisk wind, definitely the weather had changed quite dramatically from Saturday's arrival.  We got the house connected to the truck and made our way back to JR's main road to the Center Bar.

Monday night walleye

Andy had been catching fish in the morning as we approached the waypoint he had given us.  Now packing up to leave,  Steve and I set the house near a small patch of snow so we had enough to bank. I made the big mistake of setting the house on 4 x 4's rather than directly on the ice.  Because we had enough snow to bank and the temperature was not going to get above zero anytime soon I thought it would be best to simply do the 4 x 4's incase we would have been frozen in.  Our problem was the ice was at the air temperature and the extra room just allowed plenty of cold air to circulate under the floor much easier.  We had a constant battle to keep the holes from freezing and the wind certainly did not help the situation at all.  Up to this point we had been pretty spoiled by the nice weather while fishing and now we were stuck with conditions that made fishing, even in the house a challenge.  By 4:30 on Monday afternoon we had enough fish to go into JR's for our nightly walleye feed and luckily there were only a few people left.  I was nice as we got pretty good service and was able to spend a little quality time with JR, Adam, and the rest of the crew.  One of the bartenders brought out a jar of his concocted horseradish pickles using Milwaukee Baby Dills.  They were excellent and I'm anxious to try them as the recipe is pretty easy.   Through Monday night the furnace never stopped running and even though the fish were biting I finally had to close up all but 2 of the holes and put the insulated covers back on.  Surprisingly this helped quite a bit as before doing that the temperature had fallen to under 50 degrees in the house and by morning we were back to the low 60's.  Even though it was still well below zero and the wind was crazy, at 7:30 Tuesday morning the fishing was great and stayed that way for the next 2 hours.  I suspect we caught about 20 walleyes and perch in that time period, enough to each bring home our limits.  Packing up once again we were faced with limited parking and JR was good enough to help take care of us.  We were on the road by 11:30 and counting our stops pulled into my pole shed at 4:00, not bad.  My strategy is to head back up one more time, maybe either January 10 or the 17th, depending on the weather and will probably pull the Salem home.  My schedules pretty full for the rest of the winter and I'd like to try Mille Lacs a couple of times as it's not so far to drive and I hear the fishing is pretty good.

Sunset on Red

So here's wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year.  I'm going to try and find some crappies this weekend, hopefully I'll be successful.  The St. Paul Sports Show starts on January 8th and I'm looking forward to seeing Keith and Jane again and have our usual Guinness at the Liffey Bar in St. Paul.  We still have remarkably little snow for the winter as Red Lake basically had no snow and we have about 3 inches on the ground around home.  It's certainly a lot different than last years record snowfall and I'm not complaining.  I suspect buying that new cab for the John Deere has something to do with it as you see when I bought a brand new 47 inch snowblower attachment for my John Deere lawn tractor, we didn't have hardly any snow that winter and I really had to wait until the following year to use it.  I'm just saying!  I'll leave you with a gorgeous sunset on Red Lake, taken at -10 below zero.  I love it because the air is so clear and crisp, it's too bad they only last a minute or so.