Easter with Mom

Myself, brother Jon, Mom, Sister Beth and brothers Steve and Blake

My mother has been going through a lot of issues lately as about 2 weeks ago she was hospitalized with pneumonia then let out to recover in a Rehab center only to see her heart rate skyrocket, a definite sign of Atrial Fibrillation, which is a dangerous stroke risk.  She went back into the hospital then was sent back to the rehab center on Easter Morning. Our plans were to have Easter dinner there with her and it worked out perfectly.  For $5.00 each we could enjoy a nice dinner, nothing to cook, no dishes to clean up, easy.  My wife Lyn and I drove down on Sunday morning and arrived around noon, just in time to fill out the menu.  Mom will be 82 this April 18th and despite having smoked all her life, deals with type 1 diabetes, and has had heart surgery, she has outlived all of her siblings.  We sat with her till around 7:00 that evening when the nurse came in to take some vitals.  Her blood sugar was really high and her heart rate was over 125, both triggered a call to the doctor.  They gave her some more insulin however the heart rate issue was serious enough to have her transferred back to the hospital.  So away we went, I could have drove her but concerned about the stroke risk she went via a non emergency ambulance which could cope with any issue that might arise.  I sort of think they probably let her out too fast without getting her heart rate under control but who knows.  Sometimes I think insurance and Medicare determines this stuff and it ends up costing more unless of course you die in between things.  She is feeling much better and because fishing is essential non existent for now, we will probably go this weekend and spend some quality time with her again.  I know she appreciates it and it probably isn't going to get any easier for her.

Northwest Sportsman Show

It's Sportshow time and the Annual Northwest Sportsman Show is this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I really like attending this show as I get to see all the major fishing guys, boats, and "what's new" out there.  My dealer, Frankie's Marine will be there and I know that those guys catch all the fish that's in the big fish tank where they hold seminars.  A couple of weeks ago Joe, Fankie son, showed me a huge northern that they caught for the tank and I am looking forward to seeing it.  The DNR will be there and it will give me a good chance to bitch about their current Mille Lacs decision, which is crazy.  One booth I am looking forward to is the Lowrance one as I just got done upgrading my own electronics and have some serious questions for them on configuring my units.  As well, I upgraded to a new sonic hub and that thing is not as good as my previous one for sure.   I am slowly but surely working on getting the boat ready and even though I could get out on the water in the next few weeks, I still have lot's of stuff to do around the house.  My friend Jim Cox did send me my fish from the week before and I am anxious to have a meal of California Rockfish.

Fishing in Long Beach

California Whitefish

My long awaited fishing trip out of Long Beach, California happened last Sunday.  Our original plans included up to 6 guys, Jim Cox, Joe Stanfield, the Professor, Matt Davis, Mike Schubert and Myself, enough to consider hiring a private charter we often call a 6 pack.  In the end there were only 3 of us as the Professor was busy at our APEC conference, Mike's wife schedule him to be on a cruise boat, and Matt stayed home in Texas.  This left only Jim, Joe, and myself so we decided to go out of PierPoint Landing and take a 1/2 day charter on one of their party fishing boats.  Although crowded it was reasonable and it fit our schedule very well.  Basically it was $60/guy, I needed to have a fishing rod that Jim was able to furnish (otherwise you can rent one), a Non resident California fishing license, and some 8 - 12 oz sinkers that we got in the bait shop.  The charters load at 5:30 in the morning so we had to be there by around 4:30, they run about an hour out of the harbor towards the oil derricks, where we would fish the bottom for resident rock fish. Interesting as there must be at least 30 species of rockfish available in the waters off the California coast and I am sure there were at least 20 different ones caught on the boat.  We even caught something called a whitefish, nothing like I figured but it was fun for sure.  Before leaving the harbor I suspect at least 35 guys got on board so fishing was going to be tight.  There were assigned spots along the rail with a number each 2 feet of so.  You got a Tag with that number and a gunny sack to put your fish in, the tag had a wire attached so you could attach it to the gunny sack. Everyone had a chance for $5.00 to get in the big fish pool, what the heck.  I was in California for our annual APEC conference and every year we have tried to go fishing (look back in the archives, it was Charleston last year, Louisiana in 2011).  The fishing was very interesting

as the rods were very stiff and had open spool reels with about 150 feet of Mono tied to a base of braided line, maybe more than we needed however we did have 10 oz weights on to get it down fast

Our boat

and to help keep the lines from tangling into the next guys.  I watched how the helpers on the boat rigged everyone.  The sinker would go at the end of the line then they would tie a couple of loops were about a foot long and 18 inches apart.  they would then sort of loop the hooks on by passing the looped end through the eye and simply looping that so the line would secure the hook through the loop and not a knot.  Therefore you would add either a piece of sinky cut bait, usually sardines, or a piece of squid to the 2 hooks and drop it down.  Fishing in 160 feet of water it still took about 20 seconds to get to the bottom and you'd better have the ability to keep in in "your" zone or you will end up getting tangled.  I now know why they looped the hooks on, it was easier to take them off when getting untangled from the next guy as it happened to me about 4 times.  The boat hands are really good at helping because when you get a fish, they often twist around the next guy's line.  Once they got to the tangle off came the sinker and hooks and it was pretty easy. These guys definitey had patience as someone was always untangling someone.  We mostly drift fished, maybe drifting a half mile or so before turning back upwind.

Joe's Monster Fish!

I thought the fish were surprisingly small with the majority in the 12 - 15 inch range.   In addition, they have swim bladders so once you caught them and brought them to the surface they were all but dead.  Hanging around the boat were always a couple of pelicans to take advantage of the easy meals. As well we saw a number of sea lions and they didn't bother to grab anyone's fish, I am sure they are well fed however.  Also when you brought  up some of the fish their eyes would almost pop out of their heads!  We all did OK but Jim did the best of us 3. It really takes a lot to get used to fishing that deep and dealing with the line stretch.  The picture on the left is Joe with a Vermillion Rockfish about 8 or 9 inches long.  They are going to die anyway to we kept him, sort of like what we do ice fishing.........we call them Hate to's.  Hate to keep'em, hate to throw'em back!  That one went into the gunny sack.  Although it didn't matter Joe kept throwing his fish in my sack so in the end I had a pretty good haul.  We fished till about 11:00 making 4 drifts before heading back to the dock.  A couple of the deckhands started cleaning fish, $1.00 each, which wasn't to bad.  They sure had a process, slab each side as they cut through the rib bones, flip it and do the same.  Once slabbed they literally cut off the rib bones, flesh, everything leaving a slab of boneless meat.  Me, I would have taken the time to cut around the rib bones however their way was very fast and with a few hundred fish to clean they needed to get done in a hurry.  The sea gulls that followed up sure like the methodology and were quite content following the boat.  I had them clean all of our fish and they had a lot of extra fish that people didn't want so I had them throw about 5 more in our pile.  I suppose I ended up with about 8 pounds of fillets and Jim was going to vacuum pack in dinner sized portions, freeze them,  and overnight them to me next week.  I am really anxious to try them out as they will be great deep fried.  The deckhands leave the skin on so if a game warden stops them, they can prove what kind of fish it was, just like here.  On of the more interesting things about the trip was a Japanese man we met, Mr. Suzuki.  He was here from Japan to attend the same conference so we looked him up on Monday.  It is always nice to meet different people and I have to give him credit for going out on the boat on his own.

This week is Easter Sunday and my wife and I are going to have Easter Dinner with my almost 82 year old mother who is at a rehab center after being in the hospital for about a week.  She had Pneumonia and her heart was screwed up somewhat.  It's time to seriously get the boat ready and this weekend is suppose to warm up so that's good.  Most of the lakes are ice free around home so it might be a great excuse to get out.

That Time of Year

New steps

Living up north we have to deal with 2 times of the year that keep us grounded!  The time from about October 15th to December 1st and from the middle of March to May 1st.   Well unfortunately we got hit on both end this year with ice fishing.  We didn't have solid ice until after Christmas (usually after Thanksgiving) and at this time the ice is coming off the lakes pretty fast.  This is because of the relatively warm winter, there wasn't much ice thickness and the weather has really warmed up early this year.  With what I see, it looks like most of the big lakes will be ice free by April 10th and looking at the latest date opener can be, it should make for a fabulous fishing opener.  That's ok because it should give me time to get everything ready as I am a pretty fussy when it comes to my boat.  I just picked it up from Frankie's on Wednesday as it had a couple of recalls related to the motor. My previous post of January 27th showed a new set of trailer steps that I got to make it easier to get in and out of the boat. Well, Mark from Ezee Steps looked at the pictures I sent of the original installation and decided that he should redesign the middle step which originally was a step that the Rangertrail already had come with.  He had been thinking about this for a while and after some discussion he made it and sent it to me.  What an improvement, it looks great and it definitely helps in the getting in and out of the boat.  I did run into a problem a week ago Saturday when I dropped my boat off at Frankie's, on my way to Birchwood, WI.  If you see to the left off the top step there is a rather tall grab pole attached, which really makes it easy to get in and out.  However before one pulls the boat out of the garage, one has to make sure that the garage door is high enough, unfortunately I did not do this when I left for Frankie's and the top of the grab pole hit the door.  Of course I didn't even notice ti until I heard the pole hit the floor when the force broke off the u bolts holding it to the trailer.........Uffda!!  Anyway I did order new stainless U bolts and got it fixed, had to bend the garage door back so it would shut, no worse for wear but still reminds me of all the stupid stuff I do!  I do love the steps however and it should make life easier, now I just have to find someone who can tighten my door lift assist springs so the door goes all the way up when I open it.  I am lucky I didn't cause anymore damage than I did.

Party fishing boat.

On Saturday I head to Long Beach, California to attend the annual APEC conference which usually occurs in March.  For the last 4 years there is a group of us that usually gets together to fish on the saturday or Sunday before the conference starts on Monday.  It all started in 2011 when we had a APEC in Fort Worth, Texas, I met Joe Stanfield, Jim Cox in Corpus Christi, Texas to fish reds in the saltwater marshes.  That was a blast and in 2014 we followed that up with our trip to Louisiana then last year in Charleston, South Carolina.  Although the Gulf and Atlantic coast fishing is better this time of year than in Southern California, that isn't the point.  It's to get out with my friends and do something different!  Looking at the various websites what seems to be hitting is mostly bottom fish, Rockfish, Red Snapper, and I see a few lingcod mixed it.   Because of our late start and location, we are down a few guys so instead of doing a 6 pack charter it's easier and cheaper to just do a 3/4 day party fishing boat.  At $60/guy we'll see how it goes but it is something I have never done before so that in itself will be fun!  This year it will be Joe, Jim, and I again and hopefully I will have some pictures and big fish tales to report.

Lake Minnetonka's ice officially went out today, the second earliest in since they kept records.  This should bode well for the rest of the lakes in Minnesota, Mille Lacs is starting to pull away from the edges although the cooler weather predicted for this weekend should slow things down however the ice fishing is about finished.  I have already put my stuff away for the year and as you see am working on the boat as I have about 6 weeks to get everything ready.  That sounds like a long time but  I can assure you it dissappears fast!  The Northwest Sportsshow begins in 2 weeks and I am really like going to that show.

Fishing Cajun Style, Part 2

Camp Dilligas, Cameron Louisiana

It's hard to contain the excitement of a new fishing adventure and the friends you make on the way.  Last week was about the fish but it really was too much to say in one post so as Paul Harvey would say, "The rest of the story".  As you drive along the coast one can see the problem with hurricanes in this area, the land is a flat as a pancake and it really would not take much water to flood a large area.  The first picture is our headquarters for fishing Camp Dilligas, a house moved next to a point in the brackish waters on the south end of Calcasieu Lake, about 4.5 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.  Essentially the lake is at sea level as it is connected to the Gulf by a canal used by ocean going freighters.  These huge ships travel about 40 miles inland to Lake Charles, Louisiana to drop off and pick up a variety of things needing to be moved.  As you can see the house is set on concrete pilings at least 12 feet in the air.  Between the pilings are steel beams on which the house is secured to, I suspect the house sits about 6 feet above sea level so the water would have to come up 18 feet before any damage would occur.  Now if you look at the area and assume that it is pretty flat all the way to Lake Charles, that's a lot of water pushed up ahead of a hurricane. Driving through Cameron, Louisiana the High School is on pilings, the churches, the hospital, any building where it's critical to survive the storm surge, they are set at 18 feet above the level of the Gulf, which is higher than the previous ordinances for buildings in that area.  As stated before we left the area heading east on Hwy 82 and for miles there were simply concrete slabs with nothing attached, washed away as Hurricane Ike slammed the shore.  Just in case you were curious like I was when asking Robert what Dilligas means.....his response was Do I Look Like I Give a S_ _ _?     I guess that answered that.

Control Weir Separating the Lake from the Gulf.

At the fishing camp the best place to fish was off the docks that ran along the side of the channel where the weir, or what we would call a control dam was centered.  With the Gulf on one side and Calcasieu Lake on the other, the weir had 4 gates to help control the water flow between the two for either maintaining water level for navigation or flooding.  The picture shows the structure with a fence enclosing the gate controls as apparently there was a time when the Corps of Engineers decided to mess with the water levels just as the shrimp were coming into the areas.  Shrimping is very important to the local economy and preventing water from allowing the shrimpers to be successful wasn't very popular so they decided to take matters into their own hands, opening the gates and destroying the mechanisms for operating them.  Right or wrong, sometimes you do what you have to do.  The tides in this part of the country are quite tame and move about a foot every cycle.  As opposed to the Homer Alaska where they can mover 25 feet every cycle, it was hardly noticed.  The water would slowly run from right to left before turning around.  The best fishing was this side of the weir as our timing had the water flowing in our direction, perfect for the fish to congregate.   I suspect the water differential on either side was small yet there was a nice current.  Returning from our Saturday guided trip, we baited up and threw our lines into the sweet spot identified by Robert.  So I'm watching the water flow and soon it became still then started running the opposite way.  Well even in Alaska, slack tide lasts more than 2 minutes but wow, did that change fast.  Asking one of the locals about what just happened to the water level, he looked to our left and confirmed, "yep, a ship just passed, heading up the canal" as there was a huge ship moving north, about 2 miles away.  He went on to say the the displacement of these large ocean going freighters is enough to raise the water level such that the flow will reverse.  Sure enough as the ship headed further up the canal the water slacked then reversed itself.  Now my first reaction was those Cajun boys were messing with us snowbirds but I witnessed this at least 2 more times.  On the other side of the weir was a dock where in September and October the redfish push the shrimp up into the channel and it's a free for all.  One of things that make this place so special is the shrimp run where they took over 10,000 pounds of large shrimp right off the docks via cast nets.  On Sunday morning Robert's 14 year old grandson was throwing a 6 foot cast net off the dock, catching various small bait fish as he was practicing his throwing technique.  I've watched this before when we fished Key West and our guide stood on the bow of the boat and loaded up with bait using his cast net. There is certainly an art to throwing one of these as they tried to teach me.  Knowing how to use these nets is a right of passage and although I was pretty bad at it, i'm going to buy one and practice here on the Mississippi River for smallmouth bait.  Hopefully if I ever return, I'll be a better student of their ways.  Tied to the dock were a couple of crab traps and they pulled them up before we left on Sunday.  Both had around 15 pounds of blue crab in them as they emptied them into a basket and washed them off.  I am allergic to them as well as shrimp and crayfish so it sort of puts the limit on what I can eat however I am told they are fabulous.  You can see where they get their name, from the blue claws and feet with the female crabs having the orange tips on their claws.  You have to be impressed with all the color coming out of these waters, the crabs and redfish are simply beautiful.

The ability to change the water flow!

A basket of blue crabs.

My Buddy Joe

In the past I have talked about my friend Joe Stanfield and thought it would be good to say a few good things about him as he is truly one of those guys that fit something someone told me a long time ago. Friends are like stars, you don't always see them but you know they are always there.  We met in Cincinnati at least 20 years ago and for some reason he and I hit it off right from the start. Joe isn't necessarily the tallest person I know and we often talk about the weight both of us need to lose yet it's a lot tougher for him as his heart is so big, it has to fit somewhere!  He's definitely a southern gentlemen and I simply treasure the time I can spend with him, usually a couple of times a year at various conferences and trade events.  In 2011 Joe arranged to met our good friend Jim Cox and myself in Corpus Christi to fish reds with his old neighbor Butch.  Seems like anytime I'm with Joe it takes 2 weeks to wind down from the excitement and fun as my post Texas Reds from March of 2011 clearly shows.  He gives me crap all the time about my motorcycle then he goes ahead and buys himself an airplane!  Now if it had floats, maybe he'd be on to something, I could fly down then we could head down to the bayou as the plane would have plenty of room to land.  Maybe I'll have to start working on this with Joe.  Here in Minnesota it's still cold as Sunday night it was 0F again.  I did go ice fishing on Sunday to a lake I haven't been to in a while, Lake John by Annandale, MN.  Most of the snow is gone off the lakes but the ice is still over 36 inches thick as one could drive anywhere.  I drove out to a couple of the basin area without a single fish.  As I planned to move closer to shore there was the distant sound of an auger, someone else was on the lake.  Heading in that general direction, stopped about 100 yards from the guy and drilled 4 holes to vary the depth.  In the meantime he walks over, leaving his gear about 30 feet from where I was fishing and introduced himself.  It didn't take long to get comfortable with Chuck as he claimed his age at 73. I thought that was pretty impressive he walked all the way on the lake until he looked at me and said "It's nice to meet another old guy on the lake".  Well, I guess he said it all!  I loaded his stuff in the truck as we drove around looking for fish as 2 lines are always better than one but no such luck.  As the sun started to set I could sense he was getting cold so volunteered to go whenever he wanted.  We packed up and headed to shore, helped him unload and said thanks and goodbye.  I guess it was nice to see a couple of old guys spending the afternoon together.  It does make you think.