Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow..............

New blanket of the White Stuff this morning

Oh the weather outside's delightful, or so it goes!  Winter arrived in full fashion this week with about 2 inches last week and now another 3 inches before Thanksgiving.  I barely got my potatoes dug before the cold came but I am pretty well set.  The only thing I have to do in the next week is get the mower deck off of my lawn tractor and mount the snowblower attachment and put the cab on, which is no easy task. Unfortunately last year at this time I suffered a stroke while working on these things, admittedly I'm not very motivated to get these things done however life goes on and it's not going to get any warmer, fortunately!  This weather means that the ice should be forming on the lakes and my friend Keith Holtan sent me a picture from the Brainerd MN, newspaper of a guy out on the ice............UFFDA!
I am anxious for ice fishing to start but not that anxious! With the cold weather scheduled for next week, maybe with a little luck we will be able to make it out on Red pretty soon.  I have checked the webcams around Mille Lacs Lake and there is no ice that has formed yet but I suppose this is not surprising as it was 60 out a week ago.   The Accuweather forecast shows that after December 1st the bottom falls out of the low temperatures and maybe December 17th is the more practical date Mark Applen and I can pull up our Salem Ice Cabins for a fishing weekend.  We are anxious to get up and see what JR did to the place as he called me in October to tell us he's remodeled the bar somewhat.  I have check some of the webcams from up north and the big body of waters are still wide open however some of the smaller lakes appear to have froze over.  Either way it will be what is is as going through the ice is not a desirable situation.  Last year we pulled our wheel houses up but had to fish our portables as one could only walk out on the ice.  I suppose it was good exercise!

Heather's nice 8 pointer

Deer hunting is in full swing back home in Eleva, Wisconsin.  My friend Kevin Aiona sent me a picture of his daughter-in-law, Heather, who bagged a beautiful 8 point buck on opening day.  It's nice to see someone get a nice deer, lord knows I never have and probably never will these days!  I still like to deer hunt and it would be nice to get a trophy before I leave this earth however, the chances are getting less as I am less inclined to chase them any more.  It is still fun to see others bag some nice deer. My cousin Greg Nelson's son-in-law is Joe Thomas, a famous Offensive Left Tackle for the Cleveland Browns. Greg is deer hunting his land down in Southeastern Wisconsin and on his land, Joe doe not allow anyone to shoot anything smaller than a 10 pointer, wow, that's a big deer.  Greg claims they really take some nice deer off that land but one could understand why!  Anyway, here's a shout to Heather, nice deer!  I getting ready for Thanksgiving and we are not sure where we will end up these days.  With everything sort of goofed up, mom's not doing too well, the weather is supposed to be ugly, it might just be that we stay close to home this year.  With all the things I have to do yet, it might be the best thing for getting caught up. At least the pins that one has to remove to drop my wheel house to the ice are loose and I am ready to pull it up.  The inside needs a good cleaning as well but for the most part she's ready to go.  One other thing that should be done is to hook up my satellite DirecTV antenna just to make sure it works.  A few weeks ago I did put in a new battery and the furnace has been run, so that's good.

Next week is our annual Fall TTA (The Transformer Association) meeting in Naples, Florida.  I was on the board of directors, including serving as it's President for 2 years.  In that time, instead of giving a feel god speech I started telling Ole and Lena jokes, something to highlight my Wisconsin up bringing.  Well it's been pretty successful and even though I am no longer on the board, the group expects a few Norwegian jokes to be told like this one:  Ole went into the Lumber yard to get some boards.  Sven was working so Ole looked at him and said " I need to buy some boards there, Sven"  "How long do you want'em Ole?"  "Vell Sven, a long time, see I'm building a house ya know!"
Happy Thanksgiving!!

The Sconnie Fishing Opener

Loon on a Nest

I decided to use the Wisconsin Fishing Opener as a great excuse to get together with my cousin's Paul Anderson and Greg Nelson.  Paul lives just east of Hudson Wisconsin and Greg has a lake home on Clear Lake which is part of a connected group of lakes just north of Bloomer, Wisconsin.  I haven't seen Greg in a while and I was looking forward to getting together again with both of them.  Truth be told it was also a good excuse to get my boat out and run it prior to this weeks Minnesota Fishing Opener.  I packed up everything the night before and picked Paul up around 8:30 and we were at Greg's by 10:00.  Greg's place is beautiful and we had some chocolate chip cookies he had made that had the baking soda missing.  Apparently the baking soda helps cause the cookie dough tho flatten out when heated and his cookies were more like scones than cookies but that's ok.  We loaded up my boat and we headed for Chain Lake, the southern most lake in the group.  It was fairly windy and admittedly I still have a difficult time with boat control with the wheel boat but luckily the company of my cousins was more important than catching fish, which proved to be a good thing.  We tried a number of spots without much luck, I guess it probably would have helped if I tried harder, maybe tying on a bobber/minnow rig for crappies but it just never happened.  When we launched the boat, right next to it was a weed bed and a loon nest with a loon sitting on her eggs.  It seemed an odd place for a loon considering all of the boat traffic from the landing however she never even paid any attention.  That was pretty cool as we were pretty close to her.  Sometime on Mille Lacs the loons come very close to the boat often times swimming right under it.  They are a beautiful bird and this weekend we will blessed with a constant chorus of their haunting call.  Although this has music, the first part is pretty good Loon voices.  One of the things Greg asked me is if we were going to stay for supper and have hamburgers?  Well of course, anything to watch Greg work.  About 5:00 he asked to drive the boat down to the end of the lake to Hawk's Resort and bar.  There he ordered a beer for us and said this is who is going to cook your hamburgers!  Admittedly they were pretty good and even better as Greg bought.  I love these old Wisconsin resort/bars on the lake.  I con't care which one you go into, they make you feel as though you've lived there all you life.  By 7:00 we had the boat loaded and headed back to Hudson then home.  We left promising this would not be the last as we didn't get any fish yet Greg insists it's a good lake.  I was very happy at the outcome and as stated before, I am still having an interesting time learning to fish out of my boat.

Our Magnetic Signs for our Trucks

Friday is the day we take off for our 43rd Annual Leech Lake Opener.  It's pretty exciting as both Mark Mayerich and I have got everything pretty well set.  We have the hats, shirts, food, assignments, we'll pick up the bait on the way up.  Pretty much everything is done.  This year we have a full cabin again, 22 guys and it looks like it should be a great opener. As stated in the past we were selected as the winner of the  2011 Minnesota Bound fishing traditions contest. It is a lasting memory to our friend Ron Edberg who was tragically killed in September of 2012 at a workplace shooting.  This year we had to find a new company to embroider our hats as Ink Monsters went out of business. Accent Sign, Ron's company that he worked at, continues to do our signage like Ron used to do for us, which is really nice.  We met the manager on Tuesday night and it was obvious that he enjoyed doing our stuff and it's fun to have all of the things Ron would do, which was alot! We still have the travelling trophy and Accent does the engraving for the winner as well.  This year was early ice out however April was cooler than normal so it has pretty much evened this out making it look like a fairly normal walleye opener.  This is the first time at Leech with my boat as I did spend some time last week practicing trolling with my kicker motor.  I like to troll the shorelines at night with shad raps, it's been a pretty successful strategy for sure.  The weather is looking to be somewhat cooler than normal as the opener is as Late in May as it can be.  Oh well, better than working!  I come back on Tuesday the 17th then on the following Monday I head to Lac Seul for a 5 days of nonstop fishing walleyes.  That's always a great trip and this year should be no exception.  Good Luck everyone!

Deer Hunting and Stuff

Sunrise on the Stand

Last weekend was the 2015 Minnesota Deer Hunting opener.  Since 1979 I have been deer hunting with my friend Jack Taylor and the last 12 years we have hunted around his cabin on Platte Lake, which there are a few posts if you go back in the history.  Although it gets more difficult every year to get oneself out to hunt, I enjoy the comradery of getting together at  Rich's old place and hanging with the boys and this year was no different.  Brett now owns the property and there is no one that makes us feel any more welcome than he does, excluding Rich of course. As it has been for all the years I have hunted, the swamp you have to maneuver across isn't any drier now that is ever has been. Unfortunately my ability to trudge across isn't any better.  The last few years Jack and I have hunted his neighbor at the lake Loren's land, 80 acres about 10 miles down the road. It's not a bad place to hunt however it is quite surrounded by hunters, especially the neighbors that post right on his property lines to take advantage of  his open fields.  Last year he found a gut pile in his field, not that it was much of a problem but the slob left his cleaning gloves and other garbage that the coyotes don't eat on the pile.  Some people are pretty stupid.  This year I set up a tree stand on one of the corners of the field looking east.  In years past I would go up anywhere from 16 to 18 feet however I have gotten wiser in my old age and only put up 12 feet of ladder and reduced my height by half, although I am not sure falling 8 feet would be any less painful these days.  Part of the lure of

Deer Camp Deer

deer hunting is actually experiencing the outdoors at it's finest.  Looking east I could watch the sunrise each morning from my stand and it was quite a show.  If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the beautiful alignment of the Moon, Venus, with Mars and Jupiter (not visible on the picture)  all in a straight line at a 45 degrees.  Except for the occasional mufflerless pickup truck roaring by the show was well worth getting up at 5:00 for.  Jack and his son Ben were in his ground blind about 200 yards from me and for both Saturday and Sunday neither one of us seen a deer.  It was really windy on Sunday morning and although the rut had began, nothing was moving around us.  That story repeated itself with the conversations that we had with some of the other hunting parties around except for Brett.  Back in the swamp he was seeing deer all over the place and both him and his son Trenton bagged a nice smaller buck and a doe on Saturday.  On Sunday afternoon I was near Brett's stand when he texted me that he had a nice doe in range and was I interested in it.  Of course....bang, it was down and I had a deer.  Brett was gracious enough to get his ATV and pull it out for me, I gutted it out and hung it up to cool (the one on the left).  With success defined as the chance to have some fresh venison this year, Jack and I left deer camp and headed home.  With the temperatures in the upper 50's we scrambled to get the deer skinned, boned and package on Monday.  I talked to my brother Steve on Tuesday and he mentioned an idea that's worth trying.  When making venison burger instead of adding pork or beef fat simply grind 3 pounds of bacon to 10 pounds of venison meat.  Man that sounds delicious and I report my findings next week.

Uncle Loren Nelson

On Friday my dear uncle Loren Nelson died at the ripe age of 87 at his home in Eau Claire.  My wife and I attended the funeral on Tuesday and it really became a true celebration of his life.  Loren and Lavonne (my dad's sister) were my Godparents and for years I was alway wondering why they were my only aunt and uncle that gave me a birthday present. One year when I was about 8 they gave me a book on pirates and for sure it was the first book anyone gave me except the bible my grandmother did.  I was fascinated by it's content about Blackbeard, Black Bart, Captain Kid and a host of others that made a definite impression on my young mind.  The best part of being related to Loren was having his children as my cousins.  Back when we were kids the big events were getting the families together and just hanging around. This is were we got very close to our cousin's that were around the same age and there was no shortage.  Loren's son's that I had the most interaction was Greg and Tom Nelson. Although Tom had left the area after college Greg settled down in Hudson, WI and it was pretty easy to find an excuse to get together.  From ice fishing to Alaska, we always found time to stay up to date on the family.  After a few years we finally got Tom up to Alaska and now he's wondering when we are going again! A few years ago Loren was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Although we had seen him a number of times at "Booger Hollar" it was difficult to stay in touch. Time flies so fast and when we got the news of his passing two things come to mind. First was wow, 87 years old, I didn't realize he was that old.  The second is the guilt associated with the fact that one hadn't seen him in the last couple of years, something we should have done.  In the end there is little one can do other than try to be better with those valuable relationships while you still have a chance.  Loren was a great guy, a fantastic uncle, and we always enjoyed each others company when we had the chance, and I'll never forget what he called be all the time..........Hey Anderson!

Windy in Wisconsin

Minnesota Fishing opener is always 2 weeks before Memorial Day weekend and Wisconsin Fishing opener is always on the first weekend in May. Because Memorial Day is on May 31st this year Wisconsin's is May 1st, as early as it can be and Minnesota is May 15th, as late as it can be.  This happens about once every 7 years on average and when it does I like to cruise over to my cousin Greg's cabin (actually a house) on Clear Lake and try my luck.  This year was no exception so picking up my cousin Paul in Hudson we headed over to show Greg how to fish.  Paul suggested I be there at 6:00 but after telling him he's crazy as I am an hour away we compromised at 6:30.  A fresh hit of coffee and we took off.  Paul is my first cousin, as Greg is, and we spent a lot of time together when we were kids.  He had 3 sisters so my brother Steve and I sort of adopted him as our honorary brother.  Paul has come with me to Wyoming snowmobiling and in 2008 joined us for our Alaskan fishing trip, which helped make it one of the best yet.   Arriving at the landing, we decided to launch the boat first and look for Greg later.  The lake is really a small chain of lakes consisting of Island, McCann, Clear, and Chain Lake.  Clear Lake is the smallest of the 4 and as we came out of the channel onto Chain Lake ran into a man wearing a blinding chartreuse sweatshirt driving a Tracker boat with 125 Merc........both sure signs that we had found him.  In the boat were his dad (my uncle and Godparent, which BTW is so anointed because every time he saw me he said "Oh My God"!) Loren Nelson of Eau Claire, Greg's father in law, Norm Hanson and his neighbor Mike Brott, both from Cleghorn Wisconsin ( a suburb of Eleva!).  These guys have been going to Greg's cabin for at least 16 years now and it was fun to see them all again.  Loren is 82 now and still gets around pretty well.  It was fun to be with these guys as they had all sorts of goodies brought from their food plots.  Canned potatoes, fresh laid eggs with those deep orange yokes, home made cookies, I could not wait to eat.  The top picture from left to right is Cousin Greg, Uncle Loren, and Cousin Paul

Windy in Wisconsin was putting it lightly.  This small chain of lakes stretches north to south, perfect for riling up the whitecaps from the 30 mph south wind.  We were able to find some shallow bays and shorelines to try our luck with crappies but despite water temperatures in the 60's they were not around.  We tried the range of 1 foot water to 5 feet with little to show for it.  By the afternoon I had 2 - 4" perch, a 4" bass, and had exhausted any fishable water that has some protection from the gale force winds, which by the way were getting stronger as the afternoon went on.  Deciding we needed a break I headed to the very south end of the lake and told Paul we were going to troll shad raps on the weed edges, traveling with the wind.  It was our only hope to salvage a tough day of fishing.  Going with a crawfish colored glass shad, within 3 minutes I had a fish on.  Certainly not the largest northern I have ever caught yet today it would prove to be the big fish of the opener.  He was a tough guy breaking off the rear hook as he stayed secured to the front one.  Throwing it into the livewell I thought to myself, wow that was fast and we have about another 1/2 mile to go.  Thinking too quickly can be a big problem and this day was no exception.  Neither Paul or I had any other hits.  Being blown around for about 5 hours we decided it would be best to load the boat up, head to the cabin and have a cocktail before the fish fry started.  Lucky Greg had some walleyes and perch from Lake Erie or we would have starved!  Still it was a successful day for sure.

Finally I have some surprising news to report.  My brother found that first nickel he made and bought a brand new Lund 1725 Explorer SS, loaded with a 115 Merc Optimax, HDS7 sonar/chartplotter, Terrova 24Volt front trolling motor, and a custom cover to boot!   This is a pretty interesting development if you know my brother.  I figured something was going on when I got a call from him this weekend from the Stark's showroom in Prairie du Chien, WI.  His first attempt was a 1675 with a 90 Opti, however I am not a fan of 16 foot boats and big water.  I know, I am the one who used my 16 foot Lund Pro Angler on Lake Michigan for downrigging salmon, yet I just think and extra 8 - 12 inches really makes a difference.  Telling him he could do what he wants, my advice.........look at the 17 footers before you do anything.  Sure enough my next call was that he had taken my advice, checked out the 1725 and for $1000 more he got a longer, wider boat with 25 more horsepower, not a bad upgrade.  For listening to his older brother I have a very good Garmin 240 depth finder for that trolling motor ( has the built in transducer) complete with a Johnny Ray mount and the correct adaptor cable.  Truth be told that in 1982 he let me use a new trailer he had and I never paid him for it.  Although it was a smaller trailer for a 14 foot boat, I suspect that if you added the interest for 28 years, I would owe him about $50,000 today.  Unfortunately the depth finder is all he's getting!