Getting off my Butt

Matt with a largemouth on a wacky rig

OK, Bring retired often means you simply find it hard to keep up with everything.  Well a changing event happened on Sunday, my great friend and fishing buddy Matt Davis passed away from Covid complications.  I have survived over 18 months without having anyone close to me pass away yet now in the last month Matt was the second, with my past production Manager Rich Rebella being the first.  Of course it is devastating as Matt was only 54 years old, Rick was 57, both 10 years younger than I.  Matt and I shared a love for fishing that was deep. We fished together in Charleston South Carolina, Naples Florida, Cameron Louisiana, and at Joe's place east of Dallas.  Not only did we fish but Matt introduced me to TX Whiskey and never let me run out! Actually I think he was disappointed when I told him they finally had it here in Minnesota, as it was only available in Texas.  If you are interested, go down to the bottom left side and there is a section called Labels, there you will find any article that Matt was referenced in, and he was one of my favorite subjects.   One of the things this blog does it records memories, which was why I started it.  Matt's passing away reminded me that it is still important to document things as I have some great memories of him through this.  Matt and I had a lot in common as he was the president of NovaMagnetics, a transformer firm in Garland Texas.  I barely remember his father, Glen Davis who passed away a number of years ago and Matt stepped into his shoes.  Our good friend Joe Stanfield introduced us and it could not have been a better match as we had so much in common.  The only thing I didn't do that Matt loved was to chew Copenhagen!  Last March I took my good friend Bill Dull ice fishing on Lake of the Woods, we had a blast.  Well Matt made me promise I would take him ice fishing as driving out 15 miles onto a lake and staying in a specially made RV for a few days was something he wanted to experience.  I was really looking forward to giving my Texas friend a taste of the north this March.  Should have, would have, could have.  Unfortunately it's too late but you can be assured that the Northland Buckshot spoon I bought him will be hanging in the house....that and a bottle of TX.

Ricky Shermer's nice walleye

So what else is new since August?   Well in September we got back to Lac Seul with Bruce.  Having only 10 guys and 3 boats, a number of our past members did not come as either they had other plans or had problems with the Covid requirements.  I decided that I wasn't going to let that decide my fate in Canada so I got my vaccine in March.  Even though we had all of our requirements and testing in order, 6 of use were randomly selected to do a test.  Personally it was ridiculous.  One had to have a nurse view you doing the test online via your phone, assuming you still had signal from International Falls, then follow a number of confusing instructions then drop it off somewhere in Ft. Francis.  The whole process took almost 3 hours and was stupid because we were scheduled to return to Minnesota at least 2 days before the tests were done anyway.  I could go on but at this point there is no point.  We barely made it to camp with about 30 minutes of daylight left.  Fishing was somewhat slow the first 2 days.  I had 4 in the boat, Ricky Shermer, Barry Blasovic, Jerry Kiffemeyer, and their guide Me!  The first day we totalled 45 walleyes in the boat, pretty low.  The second day was better with 55 in the boat, still pretty slow.  The last day Jerry decided to go with Jack, so with 3 of use we ended up at Pecker Point and just hammered them with 85 in the boat including a number in the 26 inch range like the one Ricky is holding.  The walleyes must have turned on because everyone did pretty good that day.  We finally got across the border with little problems, usually we eat breakfast in Canada but decided to get back to the US first.  One of the things I purchased before we went was a Lowrance Active Target, a 3D type scanning device.  With a special transducer and a mount, i was able to quite accurately see how the fish were reacting to our baits and often could see all 3 of our presentations.  It really didn't do much to help catch fish but it made it more interesting to watch the fishes reactions to our lures.  

Ben's beautiful 8 pointer

In November Jack, his son Ben and I hunted Brett's land, once Rich Allen's place.  Brett has erected a number of fully enclosed stands, complete with heaters, and it makes for a comfortable hunt.  the visibility isn't the greatest but you certainly don't get cold!  Ben on the other hand is young and sat in a traditional ladder stand, which paid off as he shot a beautiful 8 pointer.  I have deer hunted for 50 years now and have never shot a nice buck like this. I am very proud of him and he is having it mounted, which he should!  We hunted a few omore times but I never saw a deer...was warm though!  Last year my Salem Ice Cabin had significant rusting through the frame, such that it needed repairs.  In September it was dropped off at Crystal Welding, known for their trailer repair.  It took a couple of months but right after deer hunting it was done, $9200 worth of iron, welding and repairs.  Although it seems like alot, new houses are ridiculously priced, if you can even get one.  It was worth repairing as it is a nice house and set up the perfectly.  Last Tuesday Jack and Ben were heading to Red with me, but on Monday the furnace stopped working.  With below zero temperatures, we decided to delay as the last thing we wanted was 3 guys found dead in their wheelhouse headlines.  Luckily the guys at Minneapolis Trailer in Rogers, MN got me in on Tuesday morning and by 1:00 it was running perfectly.  Meeting Andy Achman and his crew at JR's we got settled in for the night.  Fishing was slow as predicted a front came through and Red Lake is more affected by weather changes.  We left the house up there and headed back on Thursday with just enough fish to have a fish fry at JR's before we left.  My friend Ben Aiona and his family were on Lake of the Woods and on Wednesday did really well with 56 walleyes caught, with 3 limits between 16 and 18 inches.  the plan is to go up to Red in a week or two them haul it to Springsteel Island Resort till March before ending the season.  Unfortunately 2 of Andy's guest tested positive for Covid so I am trying to get into the doctor to get tested.  With 2 friends down, it's nothing to screw with.

First Trip to Red

First Walleye, 20 inches

 Enough of the questionable ice reports, traffic jams, little fish, and cancelled trips.  My friend Andy Achman was heading back to Red Lake last weekend after a report that his friend got 45 walleyes the previous week.  My regular crew had moved to Lake Winnebigoshish and Ben Aiona, who did well on Lake of the Woods 2 weeks ago was staying home.  The traffic on Red had subsided quite a bit and I prefer to go with at least one other house for safety reasons, I called my brother Steve and friend Kevin to see if they wanted to go.  With the rain and very wet snow predicted for last Thursday and Friday we decided to leave on Saturday and come back on Tuesday.  Because Andy had Monday off he was going to leave Monday morning.  Steve and Kevin met me at the house as I was hooking up the Salem, once on the road we headed north for our 4 1/2 hour drive to JR's.  A quick call to Andy and he was about 90 minutes ahead of us.  A quick stop at Deer River for gas and bait and an hour later we were on Artesyn Spring road heading for JR's.  Andy called and said he had some troubles and just got on the ice, I said we will be there in 5 minutes.  He has the coordinates to the area where his friends did well so he waited.  Our destination was to the north of Center Bar, out 2 miles from JR's, take a left and go 6 miles then a right along the Reservation line, maybe 3 miles then to the right.  There was a fair amount of snow on the ice but it wasn't too bad as I got turned around making sure my truck was facing the plowed road for an easier exit.  With 3 seasoned guys it doesn't take long to get set up.  This was to be my first experience using my new Strikemaster 40V 10 inch auger.  It was pretty impressive as it cut about 4 times as fast as my old chisel bit 10 inch Big Volt auger.  It also has a reverse feature so once the hole is done, put it in reverse and push most of the slush back down the hole.  As I got done Steve and Kevin were letting the house down.  The next priority was to get the DirecTV set up to watch the Packer/Rams game.  I always have a little trouble the first time but by 3:40 we had the game on.  We started fishing and almost immediately Kevin's rod was bent down pretty good, he had a nice one on.  About 1/2 way up it came off.  Within a minute a big mark appeared on my screen and it hit like a runaway truck.  Telling Kevin this was a good fish he took out my transducer.  Got it's head to the top of the hole and the bait came flying out.  A quick reach into the hole and Kevin had the fish, a beautiful 20 inch walleye.  We thought....Here we go!!!  Well that ended up being the highlight of the trip as far as fish goes.  The master plan was to watch the games on Saturday, have chili in the house.  Sunday and Monday was hopefully having fish at JR's.  Kevin caught a 14 incher later Saturday evening and then we were skunked till Monday night when Steve got a 14 incher.  Therefore we never got the chance to have a fish dinner at JR's

Sundogs at it's finest

Time seems to go a lot faster when one is fishing.  Tuesday morning came fast as it was time to pack up.  It is always nice to have Steve and Kevin with as they are trained very well to do the things that need to be done to leave.  With the 3 of us we were cleaned and hooked up within a half an hour.  The biggest challenge was to make sure we could get back on the road, however the cold temperatures hardened the snow up somewhat and we pulled right out of our spot and back on the road.  With about 18 inches of ice the speed limit is about 15 mph.  Our route took us south to the curve then southeast to the main road from JR's.  The sun comes up in the southeast and the light cloud cover produced a beautiful picture of the sundogs on either side of the rising sun, I had to stop and take this picture.  Once at JR's I decided to leave my wheel house there and pick it up in a few weeks to go to the Lake of the Woods out of Springsteel Island Resort.  Ben just came back from the there and I am excited to get a report.  Although it was disappointing to get so few fish,  one can never replace the time spent with friends.  I have finished this sort of late and my friends Mark Mayerich, Adam Mayerich, and Gary Ullom are fishing on Red and I just called them.  They are not doing any better.  I'll have a better report for yesterday's trip but that will have to wait a few days, not this many however!

Getting Lazy!!

 Strikemaster 40V 10" electric auger 

 This covid has really affected things, especially my ambition.  There are a ton of things that need to be done before next weekend, especially making sure that the wheel house stuck axle gets done before ice fishing.   Thank the Lord I have friends like Bruce Wiley that has offered to help me in his heated workshop.  I did the worst one back before we got the 8 inches of snow in October only to discover that the worst side actually better than the "better" side so the help is greatly appreciated.  This pandemic has created a lot of disruption in what normally are events that I look forward to.  The Blaine Ice Show at the Sports center was cancelled, it's a great little show that has a lot to offer being the first show of the season.  The big Ice Fishing show at the St. Paul Civic Center which usually takes place the first weekend in December has been cancelled.  The Governor has shut down everything until December 21st but I have no hope that this will be it.  It is funny, when I was young it was interesting to see how cynical the older men like my grandpa was, now I understand!!  The big show is the Northwest Sportshow held at the Minneapolis Convention Center and is scheduled for March 25 thru the 28th.  At the present time it's not cancelled yet  don't hold your breath.  As well the "Black Friday" deals are around but most are online or run for a week, which results in simply regularly sale priced items disguised as "great" deals. Traditional Black Friday deals required a guy to get to the store before noon to take advantage of 50 - 60% off a few but nice items.  2 years ago I purchased 2 very nice Pflueger spinning reels for 50% off, which was $15 less than the standard sale price.  Last year there were some excellent deals on fishing accessories, this year....not much.  This years situation lead me to hit Cabela's last Wednesday and walked out of there with a new 10 inch Strikemaster 40V Electric Auger.  I do have a 10 inch Strikemaster Big Volt auger that is basically a 12 Volt starter motor attached to a transmission.  Rigging up a trolling motor plug inside my wheel house it works pretty good but it is slow and in the cold the chipper blade has a tendency to freeze up the cutting edge.  Although not on sale it was the last one left and with my $300 in Cabela's Points it prompted me to pick it up.  One issue these days is that many manufacturers now limit inventory.  A concern was that the existing auger bit and extension would not fit however Strikemaster did a great job and everything is interchangeable making my 9 inch bit on my gas auger useable, my extension, and the old 8 inch bit that sits in the pole shed. A quick check on Strikemaster's web site showed this item was sold out.  It was probably a good idea to get this over with.  Beyond that, this was the extent of my Black Friday week sales this year.  Now it's time to get ready to to go to Red soon!!

Jared's nice 8 point buck

Well deer hunting is over and it was pretty uneventful.  That's probably good as there is little room in the freezer.  Besides I have enough venison from last year to make another batch of summer sausage with Lory Brasel, we are getting pretty good at this.  Last spring we made 2 batches with adding Fermento, a powdered buttermilk product to add some tang to it.  Here in Minnesota there are few places that know how to make good summer sausage.   People argue with me but if your used to the bland sausage they make here, I guess ones prospective isn't developed as well.  This year we are going to add encapsulated citric acid, as the Fermento was OK, it still wasn't very tangy.  Last year my good friend Kevin Aiona and his son Ben provided me with all the venison I needed.  Ben leases some land near Eleva and do really well deer hunting.  Here is a picture of Ben's son Jared with a beautiful 8 pointer he took on the Wisconsin deer hunting opener weekend.  After hunting for 50 years, this is considerably nicer than anything I have ever shot.  To be honest it really doesn't matter anymore as getting out with my friends is more important than horns on the wall.  My friend Russ Praught and his nephew went up to Red on Thanksgiving day and was able to walk out on 6 inches of ice. He sent me a picture of some nice walleyes they got then the next day fished the morning getting a few more before parking his house at JR's, ready for the next trip.  The 10 day outlook has temperatures in the mid teens and maybe a week after my wheel house get's fixed we should be ready.  This covid has messed up the experience as one can clean your walleyes in the bar area, they will do their famous fish fry as take out so there is hope!  Either way I am excited as all of this comes together.  Our experience at Springsteel Island Resort on Lake of the Woods in Warroad was nice last winter so the plan is to fish Red a couple of times before moving it north.  Ben will bring his house there as well and in February and March we will fish there. It is a long ways but it will be a long winter.  As well my friend Dave Johnson has a cabin at the resort so we have a nice place to headquarter out of.  Hopefully my next update will include success with getting my axle loosened up.

Stuck on Red

My largest walleye, about 22 inches

As stated before, with Christmas being in the middle of the week, it was difficult to coordinate family schedules.  We had one on the weekend before and there was another scheduled the 28th or the 29th which ruled out the weekend after Christmas but then a reprieve!  The last celebration was now scheduled for New Years Day, leaving the weekend to pull the wheel house to Red and fish Thursday through Sunday, plenty of time to get some ice fishing in!  Although a lot of people want to go, coordinating their schedules can be frustrating as often it's simply I am leaving, do you want to go?  My friend Jack and his son Ben we off till January 6th, brother Steve had some work priorities in January, my friend Greg wanted to go real bad but he was going to Pasadena to watch the Rose Bowl so when the opening came up I took the first people available.....Jack, Ben, and my brother Steve decided to drive up from LaCrosse.  It would be a little crowded but what the heck, we were all friends and more importantly Ben had some good deodorant with!  Meeting at the pole shed we were off by 9 AM as we had to drop some stuff off at Bill Lundeen's, that took about 30 minutes then we headed up through Garrison, took 6 to Deer River then 46 to Northome and on to Red.  It is always a pretty drive and there was snow on the ground the whole 4 1/2 hour drive.  Arriving at JR's at about 2:30 we said our greetings then Adam warned up about the ocming storm...........What Storm, we hadn't heard anything about a storm.  He put us out about 3 miles, just west of the 2 1/2 mile turn to the left.  We looked for a larger unoccupied area as we we expecting Russ Praught, his brother Randy and a couple of friends to join us.  There wasn't that much snow on the ice so we headed off the road then found an area where we got turned around so we would face the road, just in case.  It takes about an hour to set up as one forgets about rusty pins, the nuances of setting up but we finally got settled in, which included setting up our satellite TV antenna and getting the DirecTV working.  Russ showed up and his brother probably wouldn't be here till Saturday.  The fishing wasn't very good the first few hours leaving us to have Tator Tot hot dish for Thursday night's meal.  We started picking up a few fish with Russ, just a hundred feet away, doing quite well, enough to go into JR's and have fish for Friday night.  Although not jumping through the holes, we did get enough to go back in on Saturday for fish.  In the meantime we were able to get some weather reports on the television as well coordinate any of these reports with Adam at the resort.  The word was, it's a bad one coming, make sure you have plenty of food, water, and propane because when it does happen, we cannot guarantee when you will be able to get out.  The Salem has two 30# propane tanks with an automatic valve that switches tanks for you when one goes empty.  Knowing we were using the last of on tank, it switched over on Friday so we had JR fill it. We were ready for the storm as the snow started falling on Saturday night.

Sunday Morning on Red

Waking up on Sunday brought reality to the situation.  Although it didn't snow that much, probably less than 8 inches, the winds were howling at 30 mph with gusts over 40.  The snow had drifted everything shut, one could not see more than 100 yards and there was no way we were getting out of our situation.  Russ was trying to move his truck so we went over, here his house was starting to flood.  Although there was plenty of ice, it isn't like you have 3 feet below you.  The weight of his truck and house puts pressure on the area he parked and the ice tends to bow causing water to come up through the holes and spread out on the ice.  The drifting snow piles up around the house and truck adding additional weight to the situation.  Russ was flooding, the water almost over his floors, he had to move.  We suspect he might have been on a low spot to begin with. We finally got his house lifted off the ice and he moved about 70 feet, enough to stay out of trouble then parked his truck away from the house to minimize the weight.  In the meantime our house had started to slush up around it meaning we were also flooding.  Luckily my house is about 6 inches above the ice and we were fine, but it was a situation worth monitoring.  Snug in our house we sat back with the realization that we'd be stuck till at least Monday morning.  The picture above was taken Sunday showing the drifts around the house as well as the tracks in the snow which at this time was slush from all the water coming up through the holes.   A quick call into JR's confirmed that no plowing was going to happen until Monday morning when the wind stops.  It is sort if nice having the satellite TV in the house as we watched all the games on Sunday and Sunday night, stayed up on the latest forecasts and it certainly helps when the fish aren't cooperating very well.  There were some nice fish caught on Sunday, the first picture was the second I caught on my jigging pole, a nice 22 incher.  Meanwhile in Randy's shack one of the boys caught a 28 inch walleye.  We went to bed with 4 walleyes in the pail with another one coming on the rattle reel just before we left.

Just enough width for the wheel house!

Waking up Monday morning meant it was time to get our outside clothes on and start getting ready to leave.  Deciding at about 8:00 to start shutting it down, we packed up everything and lifted the house off the ice.  Getting the truck in position was going to be the challenge.  Even with crappy tire chains, it wasn't easy.  By 10:00 the plow truck had gone on the main road and began reaching out to everyone on the side an escape route.  More digging and we finally got the wheel house on a path to the main road.  Once on a stable path we went to help Russ and his group which finally were free. What plowed roads they did have were only meant for one way traffic but at least we were on a road.  About a half mile down from our starting location was a plow truck facing us and blocking the way.  To our left was a plowed road that came into the one we were on at a 45 degree angle.  The guy in the truck stated, turn left and "Follow the Yellow Brick Road".  I told him he was crazy which he replied, 'Don't you have 4 wheel drive".  Okay but your going to have to push to get me out and then I buried it.  Okay Mr. Intelligent, let's get to work.  Here he wasn't even a plow truck from JR's but the neighboring resort and had made a path connecting his people to JR's road.  Apparently he sheared a pin in his plow and was fixing it.  As we pushed my truck back onto the road, there were 4 trucks coming down where he wanted me to turn.  The guy was an idiot and as well, blocking the road.  Pretty soon there were about 20 vehicles waiting for him to clear so we could get by.  I think he got the hint..either move your truck or the forty guys standing around will do it for you.  We even offered to help fix the plow but he was stubborn.   Quickly he pulled off the road clearing our path as we made it around a number of big slush areas that were plowed before finally arriving at JR's by 11:30.  The original plan was to leave my house up there but was told there were no parking spots plowed, we quickly cleaned our fish and headed south.  Because there was more snow predicted for Monday, we headed more west going through Bemidji, Walker, Brainerd, and St. Cloud as these are connected by main highways that would definitely be cleared.

Not eating anything we finally stopped in Hackensack at the Birchwood Char House, a really nice place to eat.  As I was going back out to the truck some lady stopped by and started giving me crap that me and my friends were parked on a road leading to where she lives.  I explained that the road wasn't marked, the other trucks there were not my friends, then showed her on my phone that there were other roads she could take........and we will be out of here in 30 minutes.  Although she wasn't very happy, I had enough crap for the day! Finally arriving home at 5:30 we parked the wheel house and everyone left with a package of walleye and memories of a great adventure!

Frosty on Red, a Synopsis of the Season

Sunday Morning Outside Temperature!

This weekend marked the last trip to Red Lake and JR's for the year.  Mr. Applen decided to join myself as the end strategy was to pull my Salem home for the year.  Typically there is a group of us who pull up our wheel houses to Red Lake the minute one is allowed to travel on the ice with single axle wheel houses and half ton pickup trucks.  That has been as early as the Friday after Thanksgiving however generally occurs around the middle of December as was the case this year when we arrived on December 14th.  Both Mark and myself had issues that first weekend which forced us to pull our house back home and get repaired as normally we leave them right at JR's till the end.  Last weekend was JR's annual Redfest, an unusual fishing contest done inside his bar and it is quite slick.  $5.00 a ticket, it is put in a bucket then drawn later.  If your name is drawn that gives you the opportunity to draw out of another bucket which has all sorts o
f fishing scenario's and instant prizes.  Say you draw a ticket and it says 8#9 ounce walleye, you can decide to keep it and enter it into the contest or throw it back which allows your name to go back into the main bucket to possibly be drawn again.  Usually buying 4 tickets my name was drawn and it was for $20, essentially I got my money back.  It's always a good chance to meet people you haven't seen since the last Redfest and this year was no exception, especially seeing Brice and his dad John.  This year is was exceptionally cold as we arrived on Friday afternoon, it was -10F.  We asked JR to plow us a spot, he accommodated us and a few of his friends near the southern rock pile in 10 feet of water.  It is really nice to have a plowed spot and not have to cross country it through uncharted snowdrifts and ice chunks.  It is really easy to simply back in and set it up, as well tearing down is a lot easier as well.  No worries about getting stuck.  Although this might sound crazy both Mark and I determined ot have a JR's walleye lunch and brought some frozen walleye from home to assure a meal as the bite has been tough on Red this year.  By Saturday morning we had 3 nicer walleyes Mark decided to keep for a relative of his.  Saturday evening I got a nice one on a rattle reel but other than that it was a pretty slow bite.  Did I mention it was cold?  Sunday morning about 4:20 one of the rattle reels went off.  Mark was sound asleep so I got up to attend to that line.  I knew it was going to

Jack Nicholson at His Finest!

get cold however looking at the clock, it was -28.5F outside.  Uffda.  I did set the hook on a nice fish but just like that the hook broke off the line.  One of my goals was to change up the line on each of my Rattle Reels, hoping to go to a heavier line and of course newer as the old stuff was getting brittle.  I didn't make it that far on that specific rattle reel.  I did go outside to finish some business and dang, it was cold! It reminded me of the picture of Jack Nicholson in the movie, The Shining, where he ends up in the end.  Luckily the house is pretty warm and we had plenty of propane to sustain us through the weekend. It wouldn't take very long to look like the picture in this weather!  Because Mark and I have the exact same wheel house, a Salem 8X20RD Ice Cabin, we make a good team as each knows exactly what needs to be done to get it ready for the road.  2 hours later we were back at JR's where Mark cleaned our last fish and we filled up on Coffee and said good bye to JR and Adam.

Sunday Morning Sunrise at -26F

As stated Red Lake wasn't necessarily a bust this year however the fishing was difficult.  As stated in a previous post, the test nets set out to evaluate the walleye population was a twice as high as Lake of the Woods, an incredible amount of walleyes.  It is my opinion that these fish were very well fed and we are seeing the top of the cycle where there is abundant bait fish therefore the fish have plenty to eat.  This was obvious by the marks we saw on our flashers, through the last 4 trips we saw plenty of evidence on our depth finders that the fish were there, just not hungary,  Maybe next year this will change and so will the bite.  I still enjoy going up to JR's and truthfully we caught fish every time and had at least 1 meal each trip, as well brought fish home.  Never getting  up with the sun much, this weekend was an exception  as I did get an opportunity to get a nice sunrise picture looking to the Southeast from our camp on the ice.  The day progressed as we stopped at one of our favorite places to eat breakfast, The Woodsman Cafe in Remer, Minnesota.  They even have Gluten Free Bread for me!  They make an honest homemade corned beef hash that is to die for!

Getting the house parked at home, there is a lot to do to make the necessary repairs, to restock the cupboards, and give it a general cleaning.  As I write this, the cold weather has followed us down as it was -29 this morning in the truck as I drove to work.  The warmth is predicted to return on Saturday with a forecasted high of around 40, that will be nice to thaw everything out before it starts to cool off again.  There are lots of things going on in the next month, I'd like to make it up to Mille Lacs once before the Perch Extravaganza, Bruce asked me to fly back with him in his airplane from South Padre Island in Texas, so I might just meet him in Dallas, visit Joe and Matt before flying back.  I'd like to go find some nice crappies soon.  This winter is certainly moving fast!

Fishing with Marcus

The Ice Cabin with Russ's shack in the back.

Last weekend was the third of four trips planned to go to Red Lake this year and it was the ideal opportunity to spend it with my 2 good friends from the Eau Claire area, Greg and his 18 year old son Marcus Kimblom.  Greg is one of those guys that you meet once years ago and have stayed friend ever since.  Looking back on the archives you will see that we fished Mille Lacs last July and did OK, this was their first adventure ice fishing where one stays on the ice in a heated shack, my Salem Ice Cabin.  Arriving at 8:00 AM on Friday, we headed north via our usual route, Hwy's 169 to 18 to 6 to Hwy 2 then up through Deer River where we secured bait, then onto Hwy 46 then finally the home stretch on Hwy 1 to 72 then to JR's.  My age is really starting to show as half way up I remembered that I forgot our fillet knives.  a quick stop at Kelliher and they had some cheap but adequate knives for $4.99 so we got one of those, at the worst case I can leave it in the house.  Better yet it is a lesson in not forgetting! Arriving at JR's Corner Access around 1:30 we hooked up the house to the truck and had one of the 30 pound propane tanks refilled.  I am always amazed at how little propane we go through yet maybe it's just that I don't fully understand how much is really needed, nevertheless we were ready for the weekend.  Russ Praught had been out in his house on Red since Thursday night and the plan was to hook up with him and fish in the same area.  We called Russ and got the lowdown, drive 6.5 miles west on JR's road where it comes to an end then turn right and go north about 2 miles, I'm on the right at the end of the road.  Because we drive slow on the ice, it takes about 30 minutes to get there, looking for Russ, I see his house off the road a bit, but his truck wasn't there.  Finally we see a truck, his white half ton Ford stuck in a drift.  Apparently he saw us and decided to help establish a track in the snow to make it easier to pull the shack closer to his.  Also, Russ had been tip up fishing to see if he could find us a good place to park, which he did.  It takes about an hour to get everything set up and by 3:00 we had the DirecTV hooked up, stuff put away, the house heated up nicely, and we were fishing.  Russ had his limit of walleyes and between the nice perch and the 3 of us, we managed to get enough fish to go back to JR's for a fish fry, which we did.  JR's does and excellent job as his cooks will use the special Zatarain's Gluten Free Fish Coating for my portion and of course fresh walleye, it doesn't get any better!!

Marcus With a Nice 21 Inch Walleye on a Rattle Reel

Getting back around 8:30, we still had time to get set up for the night and by 9:30 we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a night.  The fishing wasn't fast and furious but it was somewhat steady and between the four of us we had enough to go back in to JR's for a fish fry on Saturday night.  The satellite TV is nice as we got to watch the football games that were on, and as a bonus, the fishing shows in the morning.  Marcus was pretty happy, sitting in a nice comfortable RV with holes in the floor, fishing and catching a few walleyes, 7 hours from home with his dad, myself, and all the comforts one could want.   Greg and I put him on the knife sofa for sleeping arrangements figuring he is the youngest guy, he can chase those rattle reels at midnight when they go off.  Friday night was pretty quite but Saturday night presented a few opportunities.  In the end Marcus pulled in a couple of nice 20+ inch walleyes on the rattle reels, his first ever.  Apparently one of the lines broke just as he lifted it to the surface but was able to rescue both the fish and the hook.  I heard all of the commotion however decided that these guys could handle the job, which they did perfectly.  Missing another rattle reel things calmed down for the remainder of the night, however we did end up with 6 walleyes and a nice perch to clean in the morning.  We were surprised to see Russ took off quite early as he was gone when we finally got up.  As it is when we set up the house, it takes about an hour to get it back on the truck and ready to go.  It goes pretty good when you have a couple of guys you can boss around!  We finally got back to JR's around 10:30, parked the house on his lot, filleted the fish, and headed south.  My intent was to take them home via a different route, through Walker and Brainerd, stopping at Reeds so Marcus could take a look.  Getting home about 5:30 we loaded up his car and said good bye.  It was a great weekend and the highlight was having Marcus with.  This is a good experience, being with the boys, driving 9 miles out on the lake, having fresh walleye dinner every night while staying in a comfortable house right on the ice.  It's also good to meet other people like Russ and JR, two characters for sure.  It's great to give something back to the new generation, I can just hear it now, I'll be dead and gone and Marcus will be talking to his 80 year old dad saying, "Dad, do you remember the time we ice fished on Red Lake with your crazy friend Dave?"  I guess memories are a great thing to leave your friends!

Red Lake, Chapter 2

My Friend Kevin

After Christmas and before New Years Day we decided to head up to JR's to fish the weekend.  It wasn't ideal conditions as a band of 12 inch snow lay between Minneapolis and Red Lake.  Raining the day after Christmas, we received almost and inch of rain while further north it fell in it's frozen state.  What a mess!  Even the new snowblower had a heck of a time clearing out all the heavy slush that was everywhere.  .Of course the temperature was dropping as it was in the mid 20's when my brother Steve and good friend Kevin left for JR's, by the time we got there it was almost 0 out.  The roads were not too bad but caution was the word of the day and our drive time was about an hour longer than normal.  We still managed to arrive before dark and after paying Adam we headed out about 6 miles were we found Mark on the southside of the road, just before Center Bar.  This is in the same area we fished 2 weeks ago and did well and by dark we were all settled in.  The new electric jacks worked well as they never even hesitated in doing a great job.  Admittedly they are somewhat slow yet you could sure tell they were rated at 5000 pounds instead of the factory 3500 pounds as there was no sign of stress when lifting the house up.  After getting settled in it was obvious that no one had enough fish to go back in for walleye dinner so we made pizza's and bacon wrapped scallops for supper.  The bite was slow, as had been reported by a few people.  We did get a few but going from a snow storm to clear skies and -10 below, the weather change definitely had an effect.  Oh well, we got the DirecTV going and enjoyed a relaxing night of fishing in our own little environment, a few nice glasses of whiskey, and good company was all we needed.  Finally getting to bed we did set up the rattle wheels and managed to get a few more nice walleyes, enough to have a mid afternoon dinner at JR's.  By Saturday night the snow had started again and to be honest the bite wasn't that good.  We marked a lot of fish on our Vexilar's but they were not to eager to hit the lures.  Every once in a while one would come and slam it but there were definitely more lookers than hitters!

Last walleye of the trip.

Saturday night was pretty slow as we did get a couple but blaming the weather change sounded like a
great idea.  Sunday basically continued the change in weather and the slow bite, yet we managed to get 7 in the pail between the time we got back to the shacks on Saturday to Sunday night.  Although not very well, it was comforting to know that by most standards we did pretty well.  Mark had been there since Thursday so his plan was to pack up and leave Sunday morning, which he did.  On the other had we were not much in a hurry and stayed till Monday morning before we left.  On thing that was nice is we were able to watch all of the final week's football games with the Packers and Vikings losing.  No more BS at work I guess!  Fishing was slow as we didn't get anything through the night.  Getting up pretty early we decided to just pack up and get going.  Kevin is 7 hours from home and Steve is 8 hours so by 8:30 we had the house packed up and parked at JR's as the plan was to leave it there for the month of January.  We got our fish cleaned, said good bye to JR and headed south.  The plan is to go up on the 11th with my friend Greg Kimblom and his son Marcus, let's hope that the catching will be better!  Never the less it's fun and relaxing to be up there fishing.  I thought it was interesting, for the generator we use to power the house, there is a 6 gallon auxiliary gas tank that hooks to the Honda for extended running service.  On Sunday I added an additional 2 gallons to the tank and still by Monday morning, there was only about 1/2 a gallon of fuel left.  That seemed like a lot of gas to burn but it is what it is!  In addition the power cord for my Winegard Satellite DirecTV antenna was shorted.  I was able to get it to work by inserting a cocktail pick between the wires, which held for the weekend but Just in case, I ordered a new one.  The things I go through to ice fish!!!

Red Lake at Last!

JR and I posing for a picture!!  My Hero

With reports from JR's Corner Access allowing 1/2 ton trucks with single axle wheel housed out on the ice last weekend, it was time to get the proverbial show on the road!  Successfully recruiting my brother Steve to drive my rig, pulling the Salem, we picked up my good friend Keith Holtan north of Brainerd and headed north to Red Lake.  Our good friend Mark Applen was already on his way up and our other crew members, Randy and Russ Praught we somewhere in the mix.    A quick stop at Teal's in Cass Lake to fill up the truck and get some groceries (You never know if you are going to catch fish!) our next stop was in Blackduck for bait.  Timberline sports had a great selection of minnows so we got 6 dozen fatheads, a dozen rainbows and a dozen shiners, maybe too optimistic but in the grand scheme of things the price of minnows is not the biggest problem we have.  Arriving at JR's it was great to see him as we exchanged our annual welcome back messages!  I really like JR, he's quite a guy and claims he would do anything for me, which I was soon to find out.  After paying for the access, we headed out to the bridge that crosses the heave about 1.5 miles out form shore and after crossing the bridge we headed northwest to what is know as the Center Bar area.  Mark was already on the ice heading in the same direction however with hundreds of vehicles and wheel houses on the ice, it is difficult to see exactly where he was.  Unfortunately cell phone service can be sporadic as well.  After going west about 3 miles we ran into a road heading north and took a right which was in the direction of Center Bar.  We were looking for Mark's white GMC pickup and saw a few but the wheel house didn't look right.  About a mile up the road I noticed a wheel house with 3 vent covers that stick up out of the roof, a telltale sign of Mr. Applen's wheel house.  Here he drove his gray Chevrolet Avalanche, No wonder!!!  Nevertheless we caught up with him and after a quick discussion headed to the south end of the Center Bar.  Picking a spot I started drilling holes while Steve and Keith worked on disconnecting the wheel house and letting it down on the ice.  One big problem, the left electric axle jack wasn't working.  Apparently it had bound up during the summer and only turned a few revolution before binding up.  This wasn't good.  Having put a 3/4 inch socket and 1/2 inch ratchet

JR Flying off in the sunset!

just for these types of  situations, it was soon discovered that the deep well socket would be fine for the front jack however there was no room to get it in place for the axle jacks. Now what???  Locating some penetrating spray we removed any cover and dowsed the insides with the spray.  It seemed to have a little effect but no very much.  Just then a plane buzzed our location, it was JR in his Piper Cub outfitted with big tundra tires to land in these conditions.  Getting out of his plane he asked what the problem was.  Explaining the jack situation I mentioned that it might work if I can get a 3/4 inch short socket and ratchet to turn the shaft.  After looking in his plane he stated that he didn't have one but knew where there was one and he'd be right back.  Before I could argue he was in the air and 10 minutes later landed with the right socket.  A few turns in the right direction and the jack worked as it should, we were back in business.  JR said no problem as he flew off into the sunset.  Wow, that's what you call a real friend.  I am lucky to have a few like him, and they both own airplanes! Finally with everything set we got settled down for some serious fishing.  It was about 4:00 in the afternoon and the bite wasn't the greatest we decided to have dinner on the ice.  By 10:00 we had 3 fish and maybe let 4 more back, or walleye dinner at JR's would have to wait till tomorrow afternoon.

The unfortunate guy who went off to the right when they said not too!

Things got very interesting as time went on.  After settling in for the night we had at least 4 more walleyes on our rattle reels, it was sort of amazing that the outside temperature stayed above freezing. By noon on Saturday the outside temperature was 45 and the word on the ice was traveling fast, they were not letting any more vehicle cross the bridge as the warm weather was causing the ice to shift to quickly.  Some of our guys decided to get across the break and set up on the other side yet both Mark and I felt we should stick tight, after all the bite wasn't too bad and we figured they'd have to get us off sometime!  It was quite warm for sure as a steady stream of wheel houses were heading to shore. Between Mark and my house there were 4 guys and by 4:00 we had our 16 walleyes plus a number of real nice perch, it was time to head into JR's for our walleye dinner.  Rumor had it that a truck went through the ice and it was right, although they had the truck pulled out by the time we passed the area, the wheel house was still there sunk into the ice.  Luckily the truck didn't go totally through the ice, it simply dropped down onto the ice and a wrecker was able to pull it out.  I'm not sure what they are going to do with the wheel house but I am sure they have dealt with this before.  Of course this heightened the anxiety of the fisherman north of the break as word spread pretty quickly.  We went in anyway, cleaned the fish, and gave them to the bartender with my gluten free Zatarains Southern corn based fish coating.  It's actually very good, I think better than the shore lunch coating that they normally use when frying

Yes, we did get some walleyes!

and the cooks at JR's very nicely accommodates my wishes.  Usually the place is packed but the warm weather and the ice moving scared a lot of people.  After finishing our fish we headed back to the wheel house.  I have direcTV in the house but it can be a pain to set up as the cable connections are many.  just before we left I was successful in getting it to work so we were able to watch the Saturday night NFL game.  Not that exciting however we had been watching movies and you can only watch them so many times.  All day Saturday we watched Second Lions, The Big White, Planes Trains and Automobiles, all great movies.  It stayed what we would call quite warm through the night, got down enough to freeze any water on the ice, but we knew that we had better head out as early as possible because there were going to be a lot of guys crossing that bridge, and each time a vehicle crosses it degrades the situation a little bit at a time.  Finally getting packed up we headed for JR's.  After about 4 miles of cross country travel on the lake we arrived at the bridge that the resort guys were just finishing up moving it to a new spot along the break.  There must have been 50 truck/wheel houses lined up to get across the new bridge location.  There was a crack just before getting on the bridge, maybe 30 feet from the crack.  The gus had 2 large steel plates over it to provide a safe passage to drive over.  Once in place we started directing the guys to come through.  The first guy crossed the steel plates and on the ice, the ice sunk about an inch before rebounding.  I didn't like that at all but it held pretty well.  A 3/4 ton pickup with a tandem axle wheel house was next and that definitely put a strain on things, but he made it.  Actually he shouldn't of been out there and when he crossed the bridge his house got on the edge of the bridge and something punctured his tire, you could here it.  Luckily we told him to keep moving and after watching a number of truck cross I gave the keys to my brother and told him to quickly get in line as this wasn't going to last.  He and Mark crossed about the same time, maybe 15 and 16th, I figured another 25 trucks or so and that ice sheet that was moving would be done.  This was about 8:30 in the morning, my friend Andy came off about 9:30 and he had to wait 30 minutes while they repositioned the bridge again.  We just got across in time!

 Mark has the same wheel house that I have, a Salem Ice Cabin and on Saturday his furnace went out.  He had an electric heater with and with the outside temperatures being fairly warm, he was pretty comfortable, otherwise it would not have been so nice.  With my electric jacks not working and his furnace out we both decided to bring our house  back to the Cities to get them repaired.  He found someone in Ramsey, across the river that knew exactly what was wrong with his furnace and they are fixing it this week.  As for my jacks, I called the dealer where the house was originally purchased from and  not only did they not have a common sense solution for my fix, they informed me that I could not get in until after the first of January.  Thinking I might have to fix it myself and because the jacks are standard hitch jacks used on RV's Amazon had them but delivery was out past Christmas.  Doing more research and after calling the company to locate the nearest retail center, I ended up calling Minneapolis Trailer Sales in Rogers, MN, 10 minutes from the house.  This guy knew exactly what my problem was and had a viable solution to fix it, the ice house is at the shop with the plan to get it back before the weekend. All Should be good for the next planned trip to JR's on the 28th.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Getting Old

Dad loved Wildroot Hair Creme

As you can probably tell, no fishing last weekend.  However, I have a friend that is related to a good friend, Mark Mayerich.  Franklin lives on the Iron Range in northern Minnesota and admittedly we share a lot of the same values in life. To be honest,, I've only met Franklin a few times but he is one of those guys that because one shares similar values, we tend to stay email buddies. He sent this early this morning and it really hit home:

Yes, I am older than dirt!

Remember Slow Food? 

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'  'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up, I informed him.

 'All the food was slow.' 'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at Home,'' I explained.  'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table,

and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage,so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it.

 Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at  Sears Roebuck or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.  Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow) We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people. 

I was 19 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had. 

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line. 

Pizzas were not delivered to our home.  But milk was. 
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --Idelivered a newspaper, seven days a week. It cost 10 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 3 cents.  He had to get up at 6 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 60 cents from his customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave 

me 3 quarters and said to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day. 

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. 

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it? 
MEMORIES from a friend : 
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old. 

How many do you remember? 
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.  (Like my Mustang)
Ignition switches on the dashboard. 
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall. 
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards. 
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals. 
Older Than Dirt Quiz : 
Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom. 
1. Blackjack chewing gum 
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water  
3. Candy cigarettes 
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles 
5. Coffee shops or diners with table side jukeboxes  
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 
7. Party lines on the telephone 
8 Newsreels before the movie 
9. P.F. Flyers 
10. Butch wax  (that was our hair product) 
11.. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 2 channels... 

12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody 
14. 45 RPM records 
15.S&H green stamps 
16. Hi-fi's 
17. Metal ice trays with lever 
18. Mimeograph paper 
19. Blue flashbulb 
20. Packards 
21. Roller skate keys 
22. Cork popguns  
23. Drive-ins 
24. Studebakers 
25. Wash tub wringers 
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt! 
I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. 

Jared and a nice mess of panfish

This brought back a lot of memories of long ago.  The list includes Butch Wax, well my dad loved Wildroot as I put the picture up of their ad.  He would always slick my brothers and my hair with this before going to Sunday School. I remember when McDonald's in Eau Claire had 15 cent hamburgers and 20 cent cheeseburgers.  Michael's Dairy used to deliver milk in returnable glass bottles to our house.  Every December, maybe a week before Christmas, they would haul a team of horses, our delivery guy would dress up as Santa, and they would pull a sled around town and give each customer a half gallon of ice cream as a present for being a loyal customer. I still remember you could hear the jingle of bells on the harness's as they traveled down the streets of Eleva.  We all can look back at what was as things change very quickly.  I wanted to share this as it was important to me.   So this is Fishin' with Dave, not Remembering Old Times with Dave however not getting out last week was killing me!  Ben Aiona sent me a picture of this nice batch of sunfish and perch, he still hasn't told me where he got them but never the less it's a nice bunch of fish, I am sure his son Jared had a good hand in all of this!  JR's is letting wheel houses out this week at Red, so the weekend is planned.  My brother Steve is driving up Thursday night to stay with a friend on the south side of Minneapolis and will meet me at the pole shed on Friday morning.  We pick up my friend Keith in Brainerd on the way to Red and hopefully will be set up and fishing by 4:00 in the afternoon.  With a little luck we can catch supper and head into JR's.  Our plan is to spend 2 nights leaving Sunday morning while leaving the wheel house at JR's till the end of January.  It will be great to both get out fishing and to see everyone again!  I hope you enjoyed the post.

It's Cold!!!

Roger's on Red has almost 4 inches of ice already

November is really coming in like a lion (I know that's a reference to March!) however things are really starting to tighten up and making ice.  My good friend and neighbor, Lory Brasel came back from deer hunting in his home town of New York Mills, MN and claims he had -2 degrees on Sunday morning, music to my ears!!  The friends I hang around with for ice fishing, Mark, Russ, Randy, are all getting ready to head up to Red Lake next week to at least try and walk out to fish.  We all stay at JR's Corner Access and I suspect they will pull up their wheel houses on or right after Thanksgiving, they can stay on shore for the nights and pull out portables with their ATV's in the day.  JR's Facebook page shows pictures of the lake via his airplane and claims it's froze up tight.  Roger's on Red, a resort down the road is reporting more specific conditions like the picture from last Monday the 12th of November showing around 4 inches near shore with around 2 - 3 inches about a half mile out.  This was totally disrupted on Wednesday when they experienced a fairly strong south wind which broke up the ice pretty good.  Those who were thinking of getting up to Red this weekend, it probably won't happen untill we get back to single digit temperatures at night, something that will happen this weekend but it's probably going to warm up over Thanksgiving.  Still it might be a great excuse to get up to JR's and get the house ready to go as I am now predicting that we may not be able to get out on the ice with our wheel houses until the weekend of December 8th.  Not that I am looking for an excuse to stay home however I do have a fishing trip scheduled for December 1st in Savannah, Georgia.  That will provide a nice way to bridge the "Wait for the ice to thicken" verses "not doing anything for the last 2 months."  In the meantime the Salem is pretty much ready to go, I did get the chance to do some re-wiring and added two 120 VAC outlets, one next to my power control center, which will be nice for the aerator for the minnow cooler, as well one in the front closet, now I can keep my  battery operated power tools charged up without having to have them laying around the house.  It turned out very nice!

Nature's stump Grinder!

While waiting for everything to freeze I have been dealing with my seizure issue, which my
neurologist thinks was just a freak deal.  What is interesting is that I have to volunteer this information to the State of Minnesota and not drive for 90 days after the incident.  Like anything the government does, their forms are simply confusing and make no sense.  Of course calling them does little good as one is usually put on hold for 30 minutes then one has to hope you get to talk to a person who actually knows whats the correct process is.  Uffda.  I have already talked to my brother Steve and he is more than willing to drive up to Red this season.   I do have an interesting thing happening in my yard this fall.  Last year one of my prized maple trees died so I basically cut it down leaving about a 2 foot stump standing, with the intent of getting my neighbors stump grinder to finish the job.  Well that hasn't worked as planned as the stump is still there yet it is going through quite a transition.  The stump is getting really punky and a few weeks ago something has been working away at it because the base is simply full of wood chips.  One afternoon I was cleaning up in the garden, near the stump when a very loud squawking noise came from that area.  All of a sudden a very large Pileated Woodpecker landed on the stump and began tearing it up......now it makes sense.  Apparently the stump wood is soft and I assume full of delicious grubs that the woodpeckers find a delicacy.  If you have never seen a pileated woodpecker, they are amazing birds.  Almost the size of a crow, they are quite large with beautiful red feathers on their heads and a loud call to match.  I am sure that the punky condition of the stump makes it an easy job, in fact I have seen 2 on the stump at the same time.  We have had these appear at our suet feeders from time to time however they have seemed to take up a permanent resident, probably until the stump is gone!  Either way they are amazing birds to watch and admittedly if they want to grind up my stump, go for it!!  As well the apple crop wasn't very good this year and a couple of my trees still have lot's of worm infested apples hanging.  Of course this is a smorgasbord for the local deer herd, I counted 9 one night.  Once again, there is no problem if the deer want to clean up those apples that fall on the ground. 

The first Hard Water Sportshow is this weekend at the Blaine Sports Center.  Lory and I will try and attend on Saturday.  The big ice show at the St. Paul Civic Center is the same weekend that I'll be in Savannah offshore fishing.   Maybe there will be time to stop there on the December 2, the day I arrive back in Minneapolis.