Edge of Winter

Autumn Blaze Maple

Well it looks like there will be no Indian Summer this fall.  Indian Summer is often referred to the time after the first killing frost where the temperatures climb into the mid 50's to as high a 70 before the real cold weather starts to settle in.  Well this fall our first killing frost was quite late so we have jumped right into our pre-winter climate with lows in the lower 20's and highs in the mid 30's.   The first of October was quite nice so we'll just call that our Indian Summer!  With all the rain this fall, the Mississippi River behind the house is flowing as though it is late April.  Every lake up north is full to the brim, it should bring an interesting spring for sure.  All the wet weather has resulted in what the meteorologist refer to as a perfect fall for colors.  I don't disagree however this year with the late first frost has delayed, the trees seem to be doing their own independent thing.  Pictured here is one of about 4 Autumn Blaze Maples that I have on the property.  True to their name, these trees definitely put on a show in the fall and this year was no exception.  Each of the trees exhibited an beautiful blend of red, orange and yellow to give the tree it's name like a tree on fire, a blaze of colors for sure.  Unfortunately it doesn't last long, maybe a week before the wind and cold weather forces the tree to drop it's leaves.........leaving me with more work! The ash trees have already shed their leaves a month ago and some of my Norway Maples still have green leaves on them, they will not turn but simply fall off.  Never the less it is a labor of love as my John Deere X734 with a 60 inch deck does a great job of chopping up the leave eventually one has to put the vacuum attachment on to finish the job right.  The waning warm weather has allowed the installation of some new shelving in the pole shed as the intent is to get my fishing stuff organized a little better.  We'll see about that!  With a tempurture of 23 last night, pretty much everything is done for the year, even the grass looks done as the lawn tractor marks from the other night are permanently etched into the lawn until next April!  Deer hunting season is going to be late this year and this cold weather might just freeze the swamp and make travel to the stands a lot less complicated!

A nice flock of wild turkey's

This week is turning out to be a whirlwind of activity.  I brought my Salem Ice Cabin in last Monday the 21st but a drive through the lot on Saturday showed that nothing had been done.  Yesterday was a  doctors appointment to make sure I can still drive, a factor concerning the seizure I experienced last year at this time.  Coming out of the office at around 5:30 meant the traffic going west on 94 was going to be stop and go for at least 40 minutes, I decided to drive over to a good friends house, Mike Shields to see how he was doing.  Mike lives just about 3 blocks south of I94 and about 3 blocks east of the Mississippi River, definitely a mature neighborhood but well within the city.  Driving down his street there was a flock of about 30 young wild turkeys crossing the street.  Although this is not necessarily in the heart of the city, certainly the last thing one would expect is a flock of wild turkeys, never the less they were there.  Mike confirmed that there is a local flock around, I suspect that they traveled up the river edge from the south.  I certainly made for an interesting site.  Tomorrow the boat trailer goes in for repair, then up to Frankie's to mount new tires.  Frankie got Ranger to replace my black chrome rims as they were peeling.  It is recommended that one replace trailer tires every 5 years and this is the 5th year of use so I decided to bite the bullet and make sure that the tires under the boat are not a source of problems as we drive to Lac Seul.  Looking back those tires have about 30,000 miles on them already.   Hopefully this will be all taken care of before Thanksgiving.  Although retired, this year will find me doing a presentation at our annual TTA meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida then we head to Naples to charter a grouper fishing trip on December 7th.  This is the same guy we fished with 2 years ago when I caught the 200# Goliath Grouper.  With this cold weather it would not be surprising if Red Lake is froze over and thick enough to drive just after Thanksgiving, like it was a few years ago.

Indian Summer

The Maples are on Fire

Indian Summer is defined as the period of nice weather that occurs after we've experienced a killing frost.  Here in Minnesota or Wisconsin our first killing frost is usually at the end of September and Indian Summer happens in the subsequent weeks in October.  Well, it is definitely Indian Summer in Dayton as the weather is just beautiful, 65 during the day and frost on grass overnight.  Our above normal precipitation this June has set up the trees for a spectacular show of color.  The leaves are just peaking in the metro area as this time of the year is one of my favorites.  Unfortunately the days are getting shorter which allows little time for all the things that need to get done.  The garden is pretty well done with the exception of a few carrots still in the ground and my potatoes.  I am sort of hoping my good friend Ricky Shermer may drive over any day now with his Kubota tractor with his 3 point, 6 foot rear mounted tiller.  What would take me 4 hours would take him about 15 minutes. If not I guess it's good exercise!   With October already half gone I'm needing to get in high gear if I want to have everything done by deer hunting, which starts November 8th.   My friend Carl Le Jambre stated it very well the other day....As we get older, life seems to keep accelerating.  No truer words have been spoken as I feel exactly the same way.  The clock isn't running fast as much as life is.  Oh well, I guess there's not a lot we can do other than enjoy those moments.   Carl lives in San Jose, California and is one of my respected peers.  He is also a big football fan with the Philadelphia Eagles as his home team.  I have known Carl for 23 years now and in that time the Packers and Eagles have played 17 times over that period with the record of 10 wins for the Eagles, 7 for the Pack. Although our distance has prevented any recent friendly bets lately, last Sunday night's game where the Eagles just blew out the New York Giants just prompted me to kindle our old bet for the November 16th game between the Eagles and the Packers.  The Eagles look pretty tough at 5-1 but with the game in Lambeau, I might have a chance!  Either way it will be good to see Carl and pay or collect, I'm fine with it.

18 inch Huge smallie.

Sunday was gourgeous as it presented an opportunity to get out fishing in the afternoon. On short notice I stopped by Tom Olson's place to see if he'd be interested in going out on the river for a few hours.  Basically if he showed up at 4:00, we'd head off and like clockwork he arrived.  It's a quick process to move a few things out of the way and we were off to Blair's landing.  Our main focus was to troll the deeper holes with crankbaits intending on catching a few walleyes.  With the water temperature in the low 50's, it should be a trigger for the fish to start congregating.  The first area was just up river as we fished a large current break cause by an eddy.  With a #7 firetiger shad rap and the water depth of 10 feet we pulled the lures up river to take advantage of the current.  Almost immediately something was tugging on the end of my line, about a 1 pound smallmouth.  Not a walleye but it was encouraging that the fish seemed active. After another small bass we headed up to fish the hole just downstream from Cloquet Island.  This has been one of my favorite spots and have gotten a couple of smaller walleyes earlier this year yet all we could muster was another nicer bass.  One big problem was the amount of leaves in the water, as we were constantly losing the action on the baits because they would hang up on them.  It was quite frustrating however we continued trolling as we were getting fish.  The next spot was the hole above the Steven's farm.  This area is simply a deeper hole in the river with no current breaks.  Tom has switched to a Bomber crankbait and was rewarded with our first walleye, a 12 inch fish.  Not large enough to keep it went back into the water hoping there were larger fish to be caught.  No such luck as we headed back to the first spot as the sun was getting low and the temperature was dropping.  As we trolled the edge of the eddy we started coming up to the front of the hole in 6 feet of water when I saw a big fish come up and slam my shad rap.  The water is incredibly clear as you can see 4 feet down and this fish was visible for the entire fight.  It certainly isn't the longest bass I have caught on the river but it certainly was one of the thickest and deepest fish for it's size.   Letting her go we drifted back down river where I caught a couple more small bass before we headed back to the landing.  I'm thinking another trip would be nice, this time trying jigs and minnows as I think we might be more successful.  I know the walleyes are in there, it's just going to take a little more time to find them.

1971 Ski Doo Olympique

I was in Phoenix last week and it nice.  Expecting 90 degree weather it actually rained both days.  I'm not exactly sure of the fishing around the area but I did get to spend a few hours with my friend Jim Tollefson.  Jim grew up on a farm northwest of Eleva and from the time I was 15 to when he graduated from high school we hung around together almost every day.  Whether it was me riding my bike the 3.5 miles to his house to help with feeding the cattle, haying, cleaning the barn, we always found time to enjoy ourselves.  In 1970 I had enough money saved to buy a brand new Ski Doo snowmobile, at 15 years old I was on the top of my game.  We didn't have trail groomers back then however there was enough snow to keep the trail open from the back of my house to Jim's.  Passing through what we called Indian Valley, up and across Old Baldy, the landmark hill north of town, through the woods, we really put on the miles.  I'm not sure how anyone could have as much fun as Jim and I did back then.  I guess we didn't have television (just 2 channels then), video games, computers, cell phones, and all the distractions that kids have today.  At 15 and 16 our parents didn't worry about what we were doing or if they did, they never said.  Like the statement at the end of the movie, Stand By Me...I'll never have friends like I did when I was 12, well, make that from 12 to 18.

Indian Summer

Here in the Upper Midwest we often experience a nice warm spell after we have had a killing frost.  This fabulous weather is known as Indian Summer and can be some of the nicest of the year.  This is also the last push for the fish to fatten up for the long winter ahead, with the spawning season just after ice out.  Some of the walleyes I have been catching have already started developing eggs.  Although I have tons of stuff to do before the snow files, the temptation to take advantage of the Indian Summer day that last Saturday turned out to be was too much.  I decided to meet my friend Jack at his cabin on Platte Lake and check out our new deer hunting land for this year.  Just south of our old spot on Rich's land, the 80 acres proved to be significantly less wet as it was getting tough tromping through a 1/4 mile of swamp in the dark, with your hip boots, never sure that the next step wasn't going to fill those boots.   The new land is about 70% fields with the rest a mixture of popple, oak, and some minor muskegs.  It looks pretty good as we scouted the best spots, met the neighbors, and walked the parameter.  Once that was done our plan was to head to Mille Lacs to take advantage of the late afternoon perch bite mixed with some shallow water reef trolling just as the sun would disappear from view.   Jack's 7 year old son Ben wanted to go with and figuring I wasn't going to stay out late, it would be fun.  We picked up a bag of crappie minnows at the bait shop before heading to the lake and took off.   Once on the lake we headed for a relatively shallow bay to fish perch in 4 feet of water.  This time of year you can often catch your limit quite quickly with the bonus aspect of seeing the fish hit your lure, something I thought Ben would enjoy.  It was very surprising to watch Ben work his spinning rod and reel.  Most children start out with a spin cast outfit, something that is easier to handle and somewhat cheaper to replace if it happens to go overboard.  Not Ben!  From casting to setting the hook on the first perch of the day I was pretty impressed by this young man's fishing demeanor.   I remember catching sight of his bobber sailing out 60 feet or more thinking it was nice of Jack to help his son.  Looking back towards them, Jack was still baiting his hook while Ben was setting the bail on his reel.  He can only get better. 

Just as the sun set on the horizon we headed to Indian Point to troll shad raps for an hour or so.  Ben was a little chilled so just Jack and I put out rods.  About 15 minutes into the run something slammed my shad rap hard.  It felt like a very nice fish yet when I got it close to the boat it seemed to have shrunk by 8 inches or so and lost 4 pounds.  Ben wanted to net the fish so we gave him the net and he scooped up the walleye better than a lot of guys I have had in the boat.  Jack took a picture of me holding the "monster" 19 3/4" walleye and another of Ben working his net magic.  The return trip down the long reef produced another walleye for Jack.  With the temperature dropping, Ben was getting cold so we called it a day.  All told we had 8 nice perch and kept both walleyes.  It looks like this might be my last soft water trip for the old Ranger for the year.  This weekend will see Jack and I setting up our tree stands and doing some more  scouting of the land we are hunting on.  Deer season opens on Saturday, November 5th, hopefully the new location brings us luck.  Indian Summer is suppose to return next week, probably the last 60 degree day we will see until next March.

Da Bears!

Last weekend was busy with social events which got in the way of fishing.   Wisconsin bear hunting is in full swing and 2 of my friends sent in pictures of their trophy bruins.  Because I have no fishing report for this week, sharing their stories and pictures might be something of interest.  The first picture is of my good friend John Felix and his bear hanging in the garage.  John really knows how to take a picture and this bear looks enormous.  Rather than repeat the story I copied his rendition from his e-mail as it is much more interesting.

This bear was suspect of clawing the boards on Harlan’s sugar bush on land 15 miles south of Ashland. It is the same property I shot the 350 lb. 10 years ago. Same bait as well. We hung a trail cam and looked for the largest animal, which is usually the one that marks his territory. After a month of pictures and effort it was decided that this must be the one. He was coming in mostly of and on all day, and night. The first day of season it was windy beyond. Harlan sat with me in a two man ladder stand to video. We got out early because of the wind. I waited until the following Monday to let the bait cool off and see if we had turned them nocturnal. I went to the stand and was settled in by 3:15 PM. The first time he approached he was around 35 yards + out. I had my 50 cal. TC with me but also had the bow as he looked around, turned and left the way he came. I processed all this and by the time I saw him coming back I didn’t have time to turn on the video.  When he got to the 25 yard mark, he presented a standing shot between a gap in the trees about 18 inches apart (this was like a hallway of trees and his frontal area including a heart shot was visible and I could see his head on the other side).  I knew the distance but double checked with a rangefinder. I squeezed off the shot, the broad head just grazed the triceps on the left side, caught lung and pierced the heart center mass on the top fat ring. It was a total pass through. He ran 33 yards and collapsed in 5 seconds graveyard dead.

Pretty exciting if you ask me! John claims the bear was an older male, probably in the twilight of it's life.  Although it was over 6 feet long and had a large head, the bear had practically no fat on it and weighed about 240 pounds.  A younger, healthy bear would have been much larger.  This brings me to the next picture, my friend Greg Kimblom.  Greg shot this bear with his Remington 30-06 on private property in northern Wisconsin.  The bear weighed 225 pound dressed out and was one of 5 that was visiting his baiting station.  Being further from his hunting area than John, he decided to take this one.  As you see, both bears weigh close to the same however as they say, I picture says a thousand words.  Hanging in front of John, his bear looks massive.  Posing for a quick field shot, Greg's bear doesn't look as large yet in both cases they represent the average weight of a black bear shot in the midwest.  Of course they can get much larger with reports of 600 - 700 pound boars being shot every year.  Either way these will make great rugs for the living room, assuming their wives are tolerant!

Indian Summer is in full swing and Friday night is the peak of the New Moon period, time to try our luck trolling rouges on the Mille Lacs reefs.  With temperatures in the 80's, it is too nice to pass up.  Shallow reef trolling has been slow this year however with the water temps in the 50's it's got to get better.  On Sunday morning I will be running the store at Lundeen's Tackle Castle, stop in and say hi.