February 28th, it's here already!

Sunset on Lake of the Woods

 February 28th marks one of the more interesting days of my fishing past.  In  the state of Minnesota all permanent ice houses located south of Highway 2 (which runs from Duluth to East Grand Forks) must be off the lake, period.  My CRS does not allow me the exact year however it was probably in the late 1970's or early 1980's.  My good friend Mark Taylor introduced me to his brother-in-law Tim Guzek.  He had introduced us to fishing Lake John, just west of Annandale.  I would say that it was my go to lake for many years.  Well one year Mark, Tim, Mark's brother Jack, and I decided that we would build a relatively inexpensive "permanent" ice fishing house out of simple chip board, it was pretty simple.  We all pooled our money and bought 12 pcs of 4' x 8' x 1/2 inch panels plus a few 2 x 4's and 2 x 2's for strength and build a crude but effective fish house. I don't remember who got the small barrel stove for heating it with wood but either way we were in ice fish heaven at the time, as there were no portables at the time.  We had somehow befriended a home owner on the lake who let us access the lake through his land which was very nice as our fish house was straight off his shore.  That year we had a ton of snow.  Not being smart enough to lift the house up out of the slush, it was around February 14, just 2 weeks before we needed to remove the house from the lake, when we decided to start getting ready for this event.  The rumors of what would happen if you didn't get the house off the ice ranged from revoking your fishing license to huge fines that young guys like us couldn't pay, even prison sentencing!  Upon arriving at the fish house to our horror, the entire floor had about 4 inches of ice on top of it and was frozen solid.  Now what.  Well it didn't take too long before 4 of us had the perfect solution,  went into town and bought 2 bags of water softener salt pellets.   We dumped both bags on the floor and spread them evenly thinking that the salt would eventually melt the ice and free the ice house from the lake's grip.  Of course it needed time to work so we left, coming back on the 28th to see where we were.  Opening the door we were pleasantly surprised that the ice was completely gone from the top of the floor.  this was going to be a piece of cake!  Well after chipping ice for an hour it was apparent that the ice had gripped the bottom of the floor and wasn't going to yield to our wishes.  There were a few guys in our situation, trying to get their houses off, when one walked up to us, took a look and said that he could set our house free.....just go into town and buy a box of 30-06 shells.  While we continued to chip away one of us went into town and bought the shells.  Upon returning the guy had his hunting rifle in hand as we gave him the shells.  I don't even remember if he had hearing protection, never the less went inside and proceeded to shoot the bullets through the floor, all 20 of them.  Came out and said "There you go, good luck".  The purpose made sense, the bullets would hit the ice and shatter it causing it to release it's grip on our house.  Unfortunately it didn't work as planned and with only a few hours of light left we decided to simply take apart the house piece by piece.  Having an old snowmobile trailer we piled the pieces on the trailer as we disassembled it.  At last all we had was the stuck floor.  Using ice chisels and pry bars we finally got the floor off the ice however it was not recognizable after our efforts.  Ready to go we secured our now defunct ice house, stopping in Monticello where a friend had a house an 5 acres of field, he let us drop it off as none of use really had a place to put the pile of wood.  That was our last effort in having a permanent ice house as flip over portables became readily available.  It still was pretty funny as this date brings back those struggles as young and inexperienced guys often have.  Thanks Mark, Jack, and Tim for the memories! My first picture is sunset on Lake of the Woods from 2 weeks ago.  It had to be -25F however the moon and the colors were simply stunning!

Jared's Trophy Hogfish

So the plan was to go to Lake of the Woods this weekend but a few calls about the current bite status and I decided to wait till March 12th.  Mistakenly assumed that Ben Aiona would be back from Florida by now but I was off a week and he is still there absorbing the last of the beautiful sunshine.  Ben will be back in time for our mid March trip, assuming he needs to pull his shack home, as well my wheel house.  In our talks about Florida, the idea of going out on a charter was discussed.  Ben, his wife Heather, and son Jared were scheduled for earlier this week however the weather proved to force them to move it on Friday.  I was really excited to see how Jared did as he is one dedicated fisherman!  Well to my surprise I received a number of pictures of the trip including this one of the nice Hogfish he caught.  I can just imagine the craziness on the boat when he pull this fish in sight.  Pictures say a thousand words but in this case and knowing Jared, it doesn't even come close, and the picture says a lot!!!  Apparently the captain claims this is a pretty nice sized trophy hogfish, telling Ben he should get a graphite reproduction!  In another picture Jared pulled up an octopus that he hooked.  I just can't imagine!  It looks like they got a few nice grouper, some small snappers and a number of rockfish type fish that sometimes you just never know what you'll catch.  Like a lot of gulf charters I have been on they were out 30 miles and it's still relatively shallow.  It appears to be a nice day and the waves look tame enough, it makes me want to fly down.  Anyway I am looking forward to our next trip and discussing this adventure.  Ben is planning on going to Lake Erie at the end of April and has invited us with.  It's a dream trip for me and at this time am planning to go.  We are now about 10 1/2 weeks from Fishing Opener, I am already starting to get ready.   More on that next week!

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.

Still In The Shop

First mole of the year!

I am beginning to believe that my boat loves my dealer Frankie more than it loves me.  Of course there is a probable good reason for this, in my possession it takes it's own fate in my hands yet at Frankie's, it gets the tender loving care it really needs!  If I look at the total time it has been in the shop between May 20, 2019 to May 20, 2020, it was over 6 months!  Of course there is no one to blame except me so that leaves me tip toeing around my fishing adventures.  Of course add the current Covid situation in there and I should be on Lac Seul right now on my second trip of the year.  In the meantime I simply sit around and try to get things done.  So rather than sitting around and feeling bad about the boat not being in my possession therefore not being able to fish Devils Lake this weekend with Kevin and Ben, there were a couple of interesting moments to share.  The first is last Thursday Bruce Wiley called me to ask if I wanted to have lunch.  About 50% of the time lunch means more than just meeting him at a restaurant rather meeting him at his hanger and we fly somewhere for lunch.  The first option was Hanger 54 in the Eau Claire Airport, a quick call stated they were still closed.  Plan B was fly to Voyager Village, southwest of Danbury, Wisconsin, a large development with a golf course, clubhouse, runway, that is secluded in the middle of the woods/lake area.  A quick 35 minute flight in Bruce's Cessna 182 RG (Retractable Gear), as we approached Siren Wisconsin I saw a runway and asked about it, "nope, you need to be right on top of this one to see it" and of course he was right.  We landed basically on the golf course, hoping the guys teeing off to our right wouldn't slice one as we touched down.  Luckily we were good as we taxied our way to the plane parking area, threw $20 in the runway donation box and walked to the clubhouse and had a magnificent lunch, quite an operation.  Sat next to some retired business guys from the St. Paul area and had a good discussion of the current situations.  As we took off I was looking for my phone to take some pictures, no phone!!!  Damn, did it fall out of my pocket, did I leave it on the table....I seem to be getting worse at just set it it down and forgetting.  Well, not remembering that it was used, the last time was at the hanger, it must be there.  We landed back at Crystal Airport and made our way back to the hanger, Bruce exclaimed, "Is that your phone on the Taxi way?  Uffda it was, apparently falling out of my pocket when I entered the plane 3 hours earlier.......it was still there!  Undamaged somehow there has to be a better way of my hanging onto my phone!  So no pictures of the trip but I have been working hard on trapping a mole that is making tunnels in the yard.  These creatures are difficult to trap and finally getting one, I figured I solved that problem yet the tunnel was remade the following day.  Hopefully success will find me again, but it is a challenge for sure!

Jared's 28 inch Walleye in the Trees

At this time I am expecting a call to pick up the boat either today or tomorrow.  The river is down so I have been trying to get the jon boat ready for the river.  The contingency plan is to fish off the dock of my friend John Meyer, down the street.  He has been great to allow some of us to simply drive down and fish off his dock for catfish, carp, suckers, walleye, and whatever feels like biting.  In the meantime Ben Aiona has been texting me pictures of their success on Devils Lake, North Dakota.  His son Jared is quite a fisherman and does not hesitate to get right in the action.  Apparently they arrived last Tuesday afternoon, went out and caught over 116 stripped bass in a few hours.  That is a lot of fun.  Here is a picture of Jared's 28 inch walleye caught on a leech and bobber in the trees, you can see them sticking out of the water. Ben was having some difficulties with his HDS 12 Gen 3 however it was resolved and he didn't need mine.  With 2 trips to Lac Seul cancelled, Bruce was talking about going somewhere, Ben suggested Devil's Lake as he would be happy to guide us!  that might be a great idea and we are kicking it around.  In the meantime my garden is coming along well.  Today it will be in the 90's and everything will be growing like crazy, including the weeds!  The asparagus is doing well, and we decided to try and freeze some rhubarb this year and it went pretty well.  After picking and washing, it was cut up into cubes and put in a shallow aluminum pan, then put in the freezer for 30 minutes or so.  Frozen solid, then we vacuum packed it, 4 cups to the pouch and voila, we'll have to see how it turns out in a few months.  It looks pretty good though. 

My goal for this week is pretty simple, get my Ranger back, clean out the jon boat, the annual fishing garage sale that is held in Champlin every year has been moved to Buffalo, MN this year so on Thursday morning I hope to be there as they have some pretty sweet deals.  Hopefully it all ends with a trip to Mille Lacs to fish the flats for walleye before it closes on July 1st, which is a whole new story in itself. 

About Time!!!

Our ice Freezer

So, my good friend Kevin sent me an e-mail asking me about my blog and what the heck I was up to.  Admittedly it seems as though the events of the last 3 weeks have taken a lot of wind out of my sails.  With the boat still in the shop getting the bottom repaired, at least it won't be like last year yet it will still be 3 weeks (by next Friday) that I will get it back.  It is sort of unnerving having to deal with this again, both from the damage, loss of the use of the boat, and what consequences will happen with my insurance.  Luckily the insurance premium was set for 2020/2021 so I will be good for a year as I have already paid it!!!  This is always a busy time of the year and it has not been without it's issues.  Honestly I should be writing about my last trip for the Canadian Opener on Lac Seul but both that and our June trip were cancelled because it was deemed a non-essential trip......For Who???  I understand their concern as they do have limited health care in Sioux Lookout and of course there is little one can do about the situation.  Last week was my dear friend's Tim Kuntz's auction that his wife had to help get sell  quite a bit of inventory after his unfortunate death.  Volunteering to help during the inspection and the pickup's as it was an online auction and it went pretty well, except for Tim's new Ram 3/4 ton pickup.  The reserve had been met however it appeared as though the bidders forgot to mention it to their wive's and both backed out at the last minute with a few lame excuses.  The auction house, Auction Master's were great and they helped Connie with dealing with helping to make it right, which they did.  While helping out it gave me an opportunity to get our ice machine running.  Years ago I was fishing with a friend and neighbor Roger Weber with his friends in Akaska, South Dakota.  It was very nice as one of his friends had a commercial Ice Machine in his pole shed, all the ice one ever wanted.  It was nice and when Tim Kuntz moved into the neighborhood, I casually mentioned having experienced the convenience of having your own ice machine that

8 pound bag of fantastic ice

would be nice to have our own ice machine.  A couple of years later he came up and asked if I was serious.  Of course I was, and apparently after starting his landscape curbing business he was buying 4 - 5 bags of ice a day, spending between $40 and $50 a week, he asked if I was interested in going half with him.  We ended up getting a a commercial machine and he had a small chest freezer to store it in.  Eventually the freezer stopped working , probably wasn't made to be put outside, so we ended up buying a commercial Ice Freezer from a friend, with the compressor on the top for outside usage.  Remembering when we first plugged it in it only got to 20 degrees F, and we assumed a freezer should be around 0 degrees F.  As it would have it, I went fishing with my brother to Canada with the guy that had a company that these ice freezers were part of his business.  When asked about the temperature only going down to 20 degrees F he said, yes they are designed that way.  Any colder then the ice starts to evaporate and a 5 pound bag of ice becomes 4.5 pounds and the cubes are smaller.  20 degrees F assures that one gets what one pays for!   A great example of....you learn something new every day! Tim provided the space, we owned the equipment together, I bought a bunch of ice bags, and we were in business.  Eventually our old ice maker stopped working so we got a newer Manitowoc 140, it makes great ice.  Every year the machine needs to be cleaned chemically with a natural Citric Acid cleaner to remove any scale from the main ice grid, so I did this on Thursday while helping with the auction.  Bagging in the morning and in the evening, I can bag between 8 and 10 8 pound bags of ice per day and have the freezer half full.  It will hold about 100 bags of ice, when it get's full we'll turn off he machine and use the ice through the summer. It's a pretty good system and unfortunately with Tim gone, the freezer won't empty so fast yet it is good to run and turn over so the neighbors have been told that if they need any ice!!!

Northern Catalpa tree starting to leaf out

The garden is fully planted with sweet corn, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, dill, cucumbers, squash and  variety of flowers to add some color.  These days my main goal is to make pickles, salsa, frozen corn, as well the asparagus is late but doing very well.  The first of May started a little dry but it quickly greening up.  One of the last trees to leaf out is the Northern Catalpa tree.  These are pretty cool trees as my friend Kevin had one in his yard when we were kids in Eleva.  They have very large leaves and pods that hang through spring.  I have 2 and in a few weeks they will sport the big beautiful flowers adding a little sense of a southern location here in Minnesota.  We are going to try and freeze some rhubarb this week as it seems pretty easy.  Basically you wash the stems, cut off the leaf, cut them in cubes and freeze them on a tray.  Using my commercial type vacuum packer, will vacuum seal them for the freezer.  It works excellent for sweetcorn, hopefully I can find some gluten free recipes for anything rhubarb as it is very good.  Not so good of news is our wonderful friend Craig Beigert passed away the other night.  Craig has lived with Multiple Myeloma for years but did pretty well.  He had the opportunity to fish with his friend Pete Sipe and myself at Lac Seul one year, it was alot of fun.  We ended up fishing on the corner north of camp, we had caught over 100 walleyes that day, mostly off the point on that corner.  We have since named that excellent spot to fish, Craig's Corner, let him know that his hotspot was named and we were looking forward to his return.  He was a great guy, is

Jared with a very nice sauger!

sad but as one get's older you experience more of this unfortunate stuff.  The other thing that has me miffed is I was kicked off Walleye Central, a fishing forum that I've been a part of for 21 years.  No specific reason and the notice says reinstatement: never.  Looking back at my last post it had a picture of the bottom damage to my boat and the post didn't appear to be offensive.  the moderator remove the picture and kicked me off,  oh well, I have asked for an explanation but nothing yet.  So I will end with my new found fishing buddy, Jared!  Although I have known him since he was born as his Grandpa Kevin is my best friend from home, it's been interesting to keep track of him, something his dad, Ben does a lot by sending me his pictures.  I have been invited to join them but it seems there is always something that gets in the way!  Anyway last weekend Ben was trolling Lake Pepin near Pepin Wisconsin.  His side scan wasn't working at Leech so we stopped at Bill Lundeen's who had a transducer for Ben to try.  After mounting it, they went down and launched at the Pepin Harbor, he called saying....I can see the rocks!  Obviously it was working.  We are working out a few other issues but he sent this picture of Jared holding a very nice sauger.  You can see they are trolling the rock shoreline next to the railroad tracks that run on either side of the lake.   I have always wanted to do this as the end of May and first of June is an excellent time to try this technique.  Well, I am not sure if I am totally caught up but if not there is always next week.  Thanks for the patience!

Cold and Costly Opener

Heavy Wet Snow on Star Point, Leech Lake, MN

First the cold part.  As the week progressed the weather forecast became less than desirable each day for the Minnesota Fishing opener with the final insult, snow was predicted for Saturday afternoon and snow it did!  although we did not get out too early on Saturday morning, it was awfully chilly!  Although seemingly dressed for the weather, I was sadly mistaken as by 1 in the afternoon the cold, wet, and heavy snow started to take a toll on the 5 of us.  It didn't seem too bad on the drive up Friday morning as we stopped in Malmo to get our weekends worth of shiner minnows, the drive up to Brindley's Harbor wasn't too bad.  The weather reports on the radio were not so optimistic however with heavy snow predicted from the Mille Lacs area all the way up to Red Lake.  Getting up on Saturday it didn't look too bad however the wind was definitely coming out of the east, not a good sign.  My dad used to say, Wind from the west, fish bite the best, wind from the east, fish bite the least!  Well it was less than 35 degrees when we hit the water on Saturday morning, Luckily we decided to start on Pine Point, not too far from the resort.  My brother Steve fished with me and Kevin, Ben, and Jared fished in Ben's boat.  The water temperature was still below 50 degrees, we were in the heart of the post spawn period, the fish were not going to be too cooperative and not unlike last year we had to find some warmer water.  In an almost identical scenario from last year we followed the wind to the windward side of the bay, onto Star Point and yes the water was warmer there, maybe a degree, not enough to make much difference.  However the wind was more manageable so we started fishing the point, away from all of the boats.  A special note, we were surprised at the number of boats on the lake considering how "concerned" people have become.  By noon you could see the snow heading towards us as that far shore disappeared pretty fast.  In a short

Jared's Nice Walleye

time the heavy, wet snow was upon us, enough to decide after a while to put the top up.  Unfortunately that just only helped us from getting wetter than we already were. It snowed pretty heavy for a couple of hours and I was starting to get cold, feet, hands, and torso.  deciding to go in about 2:00, none too soon, we got the boats tied up and decided to take a trip to Reeds in Walker, a 15 minute run.  Being surprised it was open, they had the usual precautions but for the most part it wasn't too bad.  Warmer clothes were on the list as I returned with a light winter boot that was on sale at a great price, a pair of warmer socks, and some neoprene gloves. Sunday was just as cold but we did find some fish in the 10 foot depths including this nice spawned out female that Jared, my friend's son , managed to catch.  It was real windy on Sunday and with temperatures in the 30's it stayed pretty cold and we managed to catch enough to have fish dinner Sunday night.  The wind had died down a little bit but there was still ice covering everything the next morning,  I wouldn't say brutally cold but definitely uncomfortable for May 11th.  Deciding that Steamboat Bay might have warmer water, we headed to the area only to find the water temperature to be 43, not exactly post spawn walleye temperatures.  We manged a few more walleyes on the traditional jig and minnow but decided to go in and get ready for the last session of our trip, the Monday evening bite.  the weather as bad as it was had stabilized and there wasn't the boats around like the weekend.  by 10:00 Monday we had 14 walleyes, enough for each of us to take a limit home.....mission accomplished! It was fun fishing with my "hometown" crew again in fact I commented to Kevin that this was the third time we had been fishing this year together, something we hadn't done in maybe 40 years.  It was also fun to see Jared, 13 years old, hang with the men.  This is a good way to build his skills for the future, and of course we cut him absolutely no slack!

Bottom Damage from Banging into the rocks

Costly, what can I say?  Sunday afternoon we decided to head to Little Stony Point, a rock reef that sticks out from a point and holds fish in the deeper sand just off the rocks.  Because the wind was blowing into the rocks, we set the trolling motor to pull towards the waves in a controlled drift and was able to hold in 8 feet of water quite easily.  After trying to fix Ben's depthfinder by connecting it to my network, it really messed up my settings.  Having drifted this pattern a couple of times, it seemed like a good time to reset the electronics.  In the meantime there were 3 foot rollers hitting the front side of the boat.  Apparently the wind gust got stronger than the trolling motor could overcome so the first indication was a big thump as m lower unit hit a big rock as the boat went in the trough of the wave.  We floated up on the next wave then Thump, another hit.  trying to frantically get out of there I contemplated jumping out of the boat but that would have been dumb.  Another big thump, maybe every 3 - 5 seconds.  Telling steve to lift the trolling motor and hold it, that wasn't working so we switched and I took over while he got the net to push off.  Finally getting the trolling motor locked in and shallow running we were able to motor out of danger but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  Finally getting the boat on the trailer, it looked like someone took a hammer and chisel to the bottom.  Dropping it off at Frankie's, the estimate came back at about $8000 in damage.  My thought was that it might be able to run this summer and fix it in the fall but they said nope, water could easily seep in and completely damage the hull.  After talking to my insurance guy who was great, we decided that because my policy has already been approved for 2020 we should turn it in and deal with the nuances of the insurance later, as my fear is the $22,000 claim from last May isn't going to help me at all.  Anyway Safeco, who really was helpful is cutting me a check as I have authorized the work to begin.  Some people say my boat is bad luck but maybe I just need to up the attention span somewhat, that or buy an armored boat.  Well there appears to be some truth to what they say BOAT means........Bust Our Another Thousand!  Hopefully it will be done by Memorial Day.

Big Walleyes But Not Mine!

Jared's 28 inch LOTW Walleye!

Last week we celebrated the fact that time does not stop, the problem is trying to make sure one is not left behind.  This year seems that there has been a little bit of this, especially for ice fishing.  Maybe it's just getting too difficult to trudge through the snow and slush, I don't know, it seems like I have a ton of excuses!  One problem is trying to figure out who to go with as I get older, it's always nice to have another person with to help in case one has any issues.  In the meantime it is fortunate that my friends share their fishing experiences and this week was no exception. The first picture is of my best friend, Kevin Aiona's grandson Jared.  His dad, Ben left his ice house at Springsteel Island Resort from our January 9th trip.  He has been back there 2 times since, once on Superbowl and last weekend.  Admittedly fishing has been slow on Lake of the Woods. They have been fortunate not to have the deep snow as well the ice thickness is approaching 30 inches.  Arriving last weekend, Friday was slow however on Saturday a big mark appeared above Jared's jig on his Vexilar.  Ben told him to lift it up and the fish, almost on script the walleye followed it up and smacked his lure.  Getting it up the fish was about 28 inches, a very nice walleye.  Of course Jarred struck a nice pose, I am glad he will be around when I get really old!  They really didn't get many fish this trip however Ben did head out to 16 Mile Reef, an area we fished years ago with Toby out of Arneson's resort.  Ben was able to get out there via his Polaris Ranger that has tracks instead of wheels.  I suppose he could have dragged his house out there, a good 10 miles, yet Kevin was with and they decided to stay closer to the known roads.  the story is that in another month the fish will move closer to the reefs and fishing will improve.  With Red Lake being a slush fest, Lake of the Woods has taken a lot of the pressure this year and maybe that pressure has had an effect on the slow fishing but it's hard to say.  There is talk about planning a trip after the first of March.  My friend Adam Mayerich is up with a bunch of guys fishing the Southwest side and am looking forward to talking to him when he gets back.

Kevin's nice Winnipeg Green Back Walleye

Another very interesting walleye picture is on from a fellow Team Walleyer, Kevin Jayson.  Kevin has fished a bucket list destination of mine, Lake Winnipeg, home of the giant "Green Back" walleyes.  Here is a giant that Kevin caught so I poached it from his Facebook post as this fish is quite amazing for sure.  Hopefully I will get to discuss with him the technique, location and details of heading to Canada to catch one of these beautiful fish as it certainly is impressive.  It would really be nice if one could haul a wheel house out and stay for a few days on the ice. Hopefully we'll have some interesting information by next week.  In the meantime one can only wish!  The bulk of my time is getting things cleaned up in the pole shed as getting the fishing equipment organized and waiting for my boat to finally get finished.  Also the weather continues on a roller coaster script.  In the 40's a couple of days, 4 inches of snow the next couple of days, -15 the next couple of days.  Thank the Lord we are not like Alaska where my friends report record cold (after a record hot summer) with temperatures dropping to -59... Uffda!!

FG Knot

So one of the things I am guilty of is once I get an idea in my head about a new technique for fishing, the tendency is to jump in with both feet.  I have never been much of a braided line user for jig fishing other than for ice fishing.  One of the advantages of braid while jigging is it doesn't exhibit the line twist like monofilament lines do. The negatives are it takes more finesse when setting the hook as braid has virtually no stretch and one can pull the jig right out of the fishes mouth very fast.  Also the braid is very visible and it can be difficult to tie new jigs to braid.  The standard way to overcome this is to tie a fluorocarbon leader to the braid.  This can be done with a simple swivel to make the braid/fluorocarbon connection or a more acceptable way is to tie the braid and fluorocarbon together as there are a couple of knots like the Alberto knot, or double Uni Knot however it is well acknowledged that the FG knot is the strongest knot as well as the smallest diameter knot to tie however after looking at the YouTube video's, it also looks like it's also the most difficult.  I am very focused on learning this knot and maybe heading down this path will make jigging for walleyes on Lac Seul a lot easier with less line twist.

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.

4th of July Rememberance

My Good Friend, The Late Tom Emmons

My apologies however this 4th of July has got me missing my good friend Tom Emmons as this was our traditional fishing day, we usually went out every 4th of July to Mille Lacs for the day and sometimes we'd stay till dark to watch the Garrison Fireworks from the boat.  I know that this is a repeat post but sometime keeping memories alive is more important!  Tom was the perfect friend, a big mass of a person that would give you his shirt off his back if he could.  He loved going to Mille Lacs with our friend Tom McAtee and myself, the 4th of July was always good for fishing the flats with crawlers and spinner rigs.  We always good some nice fish and as stated, it became a tradition anyway so the date was automatically put in our calendars.  Tom was a Viet Nam era veteran and although did not serve in Viet  Nam, he was a dog handler/guard in the Army and was in charge of guarding the USA's nerve gas stores in Okinawa.  Military life was not too bad for Tom however it did change him for the rest of his life, unfortunately.  In the end Tom was dependent and despondent, and eventually ended his time on Earth way to early.  So I sat down on Tuesday wishing something that can never be again, Tom was going to show up tomorrow and we'd head out for our annual July 4th trip to Mille Lacs.  Instead the boat sat in the pole shed, waiting to hooked up and pulled somewhere.  I guess when you get something in your head what simply cannot be, it takes some of the wind out of your sails.  One can simply be lucky to have memories as none of us can change the past.  Anyway, to you Mr. Emmons, I miss you tremendously. 

So someone did some fishing this weekend as I still am getting caught up with my chores around the

Ben and His Son Jared.

house from being gone in Canada last month.  My good friend Kevin Aiona's son, Ben called me about Mille Lacs Lake.  The fish have really been biting and he wanted to go on up to try his luck.  Last year Ben bought a Ranger 618T with a 90 hp Merc tiller and after being in aluminum all his life, I know he's enjoying the advantages that fiberglass has on bigger water.  The fish Devils Lake alot however that is quite a ways for them, so Ben, his wife Heather, and their son Jared ended up at Eddy's resort.  They stopped by my work on the way up as I gave him my detailed map chip for his Lowrance, as well my prop was a little bit dinged up from the trip to Wapesi last month, so I had him drop it off at Lundeen's to get fixed, he has a guy that picks them up and does a nice job for quite a bit less than the prop shops in the cities charge.  I gave all of my hot spots to Ben however his complaint was they were only getting smaller fish, the 15 - 20 inch walleyes (The enormous 2013 year class).  Despite my advice, they were not getting any larger fish.  Finally on Monday and after it rained, Ben Figured it out.  He is a dang good fisherman and can generally figure out where the fish are.  Not being a regular, I applaud him for finally finding some better fish up to 28 inches. 

My plans are to head to the lake on Sunday and fish with Greg and his son Marcus.  It will be my first trip to Mille Lacs this year, hardly believable yet with 3 days of fishing on Leech then another 6 at Lac Seul this year, I have gotten my normal time of fishing in however they tend to be concentrated more.  Admittedly my boat control techniques with the wheel boat still need some refining but as they say, practice makes perfect!