When it Rains It Pours

This year's Extravaganza Logo

OK, maybe when it snows it really snows!!!  Events of the last few days have severely impacted the next few weeks plans and there is little I can do.  February has proven to be quite wintery this year, so much that as of today it has become the snowiest February on record.  Admittedly in the grand scheme of things, it's only since records have been kept, maybe the mid 1800's so maybe 150 years, however I guess what really counts is today, and we will surpass the old record of 26.5 inches of snow set in 1962.  Before this morning we were at 22.6 and I know we have had at least 9 inches at the National Weather Service so we are over 31 inches and this weekend could be another 10.  Admittedly this is one of the things that has put a damper on the planned activities for Saturday, Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza, held the last saturday in February at Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Mille Lacs.  Usually there is Mark, Randy, Russ, Mike, and myself with our wheel houses grouped together were we enjoy some time together, we cook lunch before heading into Hunter's Point  to attend the door prize drawing, on where they give away about $100,000 worth of great stuff.  Well, beings somewhat disorganized and with probably 17 inches of snow on the ice, our routine of staying together is just not going to happen.  The last time we had this much snow on the ice, there was so much weight on the ice, large tracts of water came up onto the ice making it almost impossible to pack up.  Add that to a couple of different factors, Mark had carpal tunnel surgery a few weeks ago, as we have gotten older, fighting the snow isn't so much fun anymore, it just may be that instead of dragging our wheel houses up we might just attend the drawing.  Adding insult to injury and as mentioned earlier, Saturday could have big snows associated with it, maybe it would be a good year to skip, we will see on Saturday morning.  I can tell you that they are warning of the snow depth and the ban on Wheel Houses in the front area of the drawing area.  It's too bad as I suspect there could be a lot of money being spent on Custom plowing but that's not my call. 

Great Advice!

It's probably good as I need to take care of some stuff around home anyway.  The other issue that has been changed is my trip to see my friends Matt Davis and Joe Stanfield, my plan to meet my other friend Bruce near Dallas and fly back to Minneapolis with him.  Bruce was planning on a week's getaway from this God Awful snow in South Texas, I'd meet him in Dallas spending a few days bass fishing before heading back through Springfield, Missouri then back to Crystal Airport.  Well last night Bruce's traveling partner and wife slipped on the ice shattering her wrist.  A couple hour surgery and the followup appointment has put that trip on hold, which is fine, I have my own issues as well.  It's too bad as I get really into the planning aspect of this, even bought Joe an new fishing rod, some plastic worms, and terminal tackle, I told Bruce that we will just have to fly down on our own sometime and test that southern Texas hospitality!  I did drive up to see my friend Bill Lundeen last Saturday and picked up my ice fishing equipment that I loaned him of a guide trip he had.  Bill is still going to guide on Lake Mille Lacs this summer so I threatened him I would buy this shirt for him!  I guess if you have ever guided people fishing you would understand what this means!  So Bill calls me, as a couple of weeks ago he asked me to pick up a Live Trap special at Fleet Farm, I did.  Where did you set the traps?......Sorry they are still in my pole shed, CRS dang it!!  He laughed and maybe if I go to the drawing on Saturday I could drop them off, we'll see.   With the current issues at home I don't know when I will get out next, all that can be said for certain is the John Deere with the snowblower attachment will get plenty of use these next few days!

Lake Fork Here we Come!

Lake Fork Largemouth Bass

Time sure seems to fly these days!  This Friday is when I head to Dallas to be picked up by my friends Matt Davis and Joe Stanfield.  We are headed for the Mustang Resort (no, not the Mustang Ranch!) for a day of hopefully trophy largemouth bass fishing.  Here is an excerpt from their website: Lake Fork is the number one trophy bass lake in the United States. The spectacular fishery has produced bass up to and including the Texas State Record of 18lbs., 3oz.  I checked what Minnesota's State record largemouth bass weighed in at.....8 lbs 6 oz, wow that's almost a 10# difference.  My goal would be beating the Minnesota State Record, we'll see!  Lake Fork is a reservoir just northeast of Dallas.  It is stocked with the Florida Strain of Largemouth Bass which are famous for growing to large proportions, especially in Texas and California.  We are in the prespawn period, just before the fish spawn and the big females are especially heavy from the eggs developing inside them.  The research says that the water is still too cool for spawn but the fish are feeding nonetheless.  We have a guide for Saturday and I am looking forward to learning a few things about fishing down south.  Our original plans were to go further south and fish the Gulf area for saltwater fish but the hurricanes of this past summer has put a damper on fishing, fishing areas, and places to stay.  I suspect in a few years things will get back to normal in those areas however I am really looking to experience fishing Lake Fork Reservoir, it will be a new experience for sure, something that I love to do!

Winning perch, 2.05 pounds 

Last weekend was the Annual Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza held at Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Mille Lacs.  This is one of the biggest events on the lake in the winter, it is not a fundraiser but rather a for profit event by one of the owners of Johnson's Portside in Isle, MN, Steve Johnson.  The event consists of  3 parts, the perch fishing contest, the hat competition, and the general drawing.  I suspect that over 8,000 tickets are sold each year and the prizes for the drawing are pretty substantial like 2 Ice Castle wheel houses and 2-4 wheel drive UTV's, powered ice augers, and many nice prize packages.  The drawing is of course the main event with the Biggest perch being next with the hat contest being 3rd.  Every year for the last few years one has to wonder about the perch contest.  This year's winner weighed 2.05 pounds, an awfully big perch for Mille Lacs.  Not being smart enough to say anything other than in the 35 years I have been ice fishing Mille Lacs, I have never caught a perch over 1.50 pounds, ever.  An observation, we used to head out to the Sliver Flat, drill a couple of holes just off the 25 foot edge and catch 15 nice 12" - 14" perch all the time. Today it's a lot different and you'd be lucky to find a couple.  We know the adult population of perch is down but just maybe the ones that are left are huge, like this one!  Oh well, one can make their own conclusions, and maybe I am missing it but what the heck, not much of the prizes are for the biggest fish anyway so in the grand scheme of things, it may not make anything difference either way.  Because of the pending storm that predicted for Saturday night, I chose to simply drive up, see my friend Bill, buy a couple of tickets and meet my friends out on the ice for the traditional BBQ Ribs.  It wasn't hard to find them and ribs we had.  Mark, Russ, and Randy had their houses together so I decided to fish Mark's house until we headed to the drawing at 2:00.  After all of this, there were no numbers called that had any meaning to me so I headed back to Bills around 5:00, and of course, just when the heavy snow started to fall.  After making it to Bills, dropping off some equipment, and picking up some Maple Syrup for this weekend, I was on the road at 8:30, what a mess.  It had snowed at least 6 inches in a broad band stretching my entire journey, got home in time to shovel and get the truck put away, the rest could wait until the morning

So the rest of the week is for packing and getting ready to go.  We have caught up with the snow totals for the year and by the end of the week much of it will be gone with temperatures climbing to the 50's next Sunday.  That's fine with me as I have much to do in the pole shed to get it cleaned up.  The electronics need to be reinstalled back in the boat as the boat is at Bruce's enjoying the warm winter storage.  He is heading south on his self piloted airplane vacation so it will be sometime in the next 3 weeks and she'll be ready to go!  Getting back from Texas late next Wednesday here's hoping to have a good report.  It's looking like my next trip will be an ice fishing one with my wife's uncle Andrew and his crew somewhere near Rice Lake, Wisconsin.  

Finally, Back Out!!

Quite a Catch on 2# Test

My neighbor and friend Lory has a cabin on Lake Ida, just northwest of Alexandria, MN, about 2 hours from the house.  He was going up last weekend to check to see how it's doing and invited me with.  Agreeing only if we get out and try for some of those big bluegill that are reportedly in the lake, he acknowledged and by 7:00 Friday we were on the freeway heading northwest.  The traffic wasn't too bad and we were able to make it by 9:00, enough time to stop and turn the heat up in the cabin before we headed to Leaf Valley Tavern for some supper.  5 miles up the road, we settled on pork ribs, they were the typical ribs that many restaurants, fall off the bone with a mild covering of sauce.  They ain't no Famous Dave's but did the job of filling us up as they do a good job completing the courses!  I had bought 2 bottles of wine so we turned the TV on and watched Perry Mason before hitting the sack.  I slept pretty well so after getting up we went to town and got some breakfast before going out fishing.  Our destination was a place called the Coffee Pot.  Absolutely excellent, I had the corned beef hash with a couple of fried eggs on top.   I love these places, they just cater to the breakfast and lunch crowd then shut down for the rest of the day.  Highly recommend if you are ever in Alexandria!  Upon returning we pulled out Lory''s wheel house and set it up in 28 feet of water just at the mouth of the bay his cabin is on.  Using maps, it seemed like a good spot, time will tell.  After about an hour of nothing but 4 inch perch I decided to head into the bay where all the "other" people were.  It only made sense they were catching something.  We were in a 20 foot hole in the bay and I set up on the edge where it went from 20 to 15 feet.  Almost immediately the sunfish started hitting.  Unfortunately they were small as well.  It was quite windy out and difficult to fish the 2# test that is on the rod, all of a sudden something a lot bigger than what was biting hit the lure.  Although the bass looks bigger in the picture..........Sure, it was 5 pounds!.........about 16 inches and maybe 1.5 pounds, it was a nice change from the peck, peck of those smaller sunfish.  I ended up catching 4 bass that day, all in the 12-16 inch range, not large by any means, however it was action!  After about my 50th 5 inch sunfish and getting quite chilled from the wind, the next destination was back in Lory's wheel house.  He had not caught anything worth bragging about however he had the camera down and saw a bigger school of larger fish but was never able to connect.  As the sun set we packed up everything and headed back to shore, no fish to clean but a good time never the less.  My goal is to get back up this spring in some of those maller lakes and try for some crappies, like we did a few years ago on Bass Lake, those were some dandies!  On the way back we stopped for supper at Doolittles Woodfired Grill.  I still had a nice bottle of wine so we asked if they had a corkage fee (you bring the wine, they charge you a fee for opening and serving).  The receptionist didn't know however our waitress did, $15.  That was reasonable seeings how my wine had a value of about $150, I went in the truck and brought it in.  Again, we were pretty impressed with the quality of the food, I had the leftover Valentines special, braised lamb shank, and Lory had a steak, both went perfect with the wine!.

This weekend is the Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza which occurs on the last weekend in

February on Mille Lacs, out of Hunter's Point Resort up about 30 minutes north of Isle, Minnesota.  Normally I have taken my wheel house up there and stay Friday night through Sunday morning.  This year it's a little different because I have just not been that organized to get myself in line with our normal program.  Besides next weekend I am heading to Texas to fish with my friends for some big bass and this has sort of gotten in the way.  This tournament is really the last full week of ice fishing walleyes in the winter as the season will close on February 25 unless it is border waters such as Lake of the Woods.  I was also invited to go to JR's at Upper Red Lake this week for his Fly In but needed Bruce's airplane and him to fly us.  Unfortunately Bruce just got his plane fixed and the Perch Extravaganza is the same weekend, choices, choices!  It would be fun as JR and I have a good time together when I'm there and he has Denny Showalter, of Showalter Fly-in Service in Ontario.  He is a great guy to sit down with and talk.  Maybe one year.  Next week is my trp to Texas and it's been raining quite a bit down there, enough so my friend Matt e-mailed me and said this is going to affect the fishing.  My response was, not the fishing, maybe the catching!  He'd be surprised what a guy that hasn't seen soft water for 3 months can do!  We'll have a great time regardless.

This is the time of year that we need to get organized for our annual Leech Lake Fishing Opener.  It will be the groups 45th Annual and every 5 years we like to order something special, usually a coat that has our name and the Team Walleye logo in it.  This year we are going to do the ever so popular Hockey Hooded Sweatshirt.  It will be nice and everyone is getting one, so Mark and I have been working on that as it is only 11 weeks away.  I have already received the invite for Ontario Fishing Opener, on the following week, May 19th.  This is always a great time and for sure keeps me busy from about the 11th of May till about the 22nd.  Oh well, more fishing...........dang!

Johnson's Perch Extravaganza

Button Drawing

Well, this year has certainly been a challenge when it comes to ice fishing.  Even northern Minnesota experienced a relatively late freeze as you can go back to my earlier Red Lake Posts, not much going on.  Usually the last "wheel house" event occurs during the last weekend in February, just before the Walleye season closes on Mille Lacs Lake, Johnson's Perch Extravaganza held at Nitti's Hunters Point Resort about halfway up the East side of Mille Lacs Lake.  A group of us including Mark, Russ, Randy, and Mike find an area out on the lake where we can park our houses on Friday night, we set up our Perch Camp. We have a lot of fun cooking, playing the the official game of us "Wheel Houser's"....Farkle, having a few cocktails and trying to catch a perch large enough to enter the contest.  This year the weather has been quite mild and although the ice on the lake is solid enough, the warm weather has caused a substantial heave near the shore as well, the shoreline ice has deteriorated significantly.  The week before saw rain fall on Mille Lacs and any hole through the ice acts as a drain with the water that's on top of the ice makes an effort to get below the ice.  These older holes from ice houses and or fisherman allows this to happen and there were reports of holes that had grown to 3 feet in diameter.  To further complicate things it got cold on Thursday night and it actually refroze the surface including lightly freezing over any of these drain holes creating a dangerous situation if a person happen to go over one.  Therefore for the most part all of the accesses on the East side were closed and not letting anyone on the ice.  Of course that didn't stop some people from showing off their stupid quotient as we stood there for the button drawing a guy in a Ford Pickup and pulling an ATV on a trailer tried to cross the crack and ended up dropping the front end down into the ice.  Luckily he only dropped to the frame and the ice held him up otherwise it would have been a lot more entertainment.  I have no idea what this guy was thinking but what ever it was he got a big surprise. The west side was letting people on but who the heck wanted to travel 12 miles over the ice with zero guarantee's one would get off in a couple of days.  Therefore we all decided to skip putting our whell houses on the ice and just attend the Button Drawing.  They sell buttons with numbers on them for $20 each,  then starting at 3:00PM the drawing begins, and of course if your number is drawn you win something.  They always have great prizes such as a couple of wheel houses, a 4 X 4 UTV side by side, as well as a bunch of new augers, tackle packages and quite a bit of pretty good stuff. Unfortunately even though I bought 2 buttons, those numbers failed to be announced.  Originally because of the ice conditions it was planned to have the drawing in the parking lot of Hunter's but boy, would that have been a mess.  Thursday and Friday saw temperatures drop into the mid teens and solidifying the shore ice so they moved the drawing onto the ice where it normally is held.   Mark found a spot up on the shore that was elevated above most people making it easy to hear the numbers called.  As well the shore tended to be warmer than standing on the ice which was a lot nicer.  After having a couple for the road I met Russ and Randy at Bayside for a burger then headed back to Dayton.  The forecast for this weekend is in the upper 50's so we are getting really close to the end of ice fishing.  Maybe 1 more time next week when I promised a friend I'd take him and his son out for crappies,  Hopefully the ice will be good!

Hand tied jigs

One of the employees at my work stopped by the office a few days ago to show me his latest hobby, tying jigs for walleye fishing.  I was impressed by his craftsmanship, attention to detail, and of course his interest in fishing.  It reminded me of 40 years ago I used to tie my own jigs using dyed fake fur as the main body.  Kevin Aiona and I used to really catch the walleyes down in Catfish Slough on the Mississippi River north of Alma (Pool 4) Wisconsin.  We would simply drift with the slow current in the channel of the slough and catch all the walleyes we wanted in a few hours.  Since then it's been told to me that the slough has filled in and is quite shallow as the walleyes are no longer in that area. It still brings back good memories as Catfish was one of our favorite places to fish.  One of these days  I will get Kevin to bring me back down on the river for a nice day of fishing, maybe we can catch some old memories!  With the early ice out maybe the river will be good this year.  At this time there isn't much of a snow pack here or  around the upper Mississippi to melt and the river level should stay reasonable for the next month or so.  I do remember taking my good friend Leon Lambert fishing below the Alma dam on April 5th of that year, it was warm and we did catch some fish.  He offered me my choice of jigs and I decided to take the middle one with the promise of a picture of me with the walleye I will catch on it in May when I head to Lac Seul.

First Panfish Trip of the Season

Ice from the auger was chunky, not shaven

Temperatures have been crazy warm the last week or so which has really changed the landscape of ice fishing from essentially Leech Lake and south.  With various reports of trucks going through the ice and open water, I decided to head to a little lake west of town and try my luck for the afternoon crappie bite.  I have not been out at all this year for panfish and with the ice conditions I needed to go somewhere that it was easy to park and walk out, Little Pulaski Lake by Buffalo is a good spot for sure.  There is a nice parking area at the lakes edge and it's about a 100 yard walk to the "crappie" spot, at least that is where I have done ok in the past.  The problem is that it might be a little late for this specific spot as it's generally better around first ice.  With not too many options, and close enough to home, it was worth a try.  The Ace Hardware in St. Michael is a convenient place to stop for bait and get the low down on the local lakes.  Admittedly they confirmed that there was not much going on but considering the perceived and real ice conditions, it wasn't surprising.  Arriving at the parking area I was surprised by the few amount of people there were, I suppose at this time of year, if you can't drive out people get lazy.  The ice was darker than normal and the shoreline was somewhat deteriorated however it wasn't too hard to get onto the main ice.  A short walk and I was at where it was about 12 feet deep so I punched about 7 holes perpendicular to the shoreline as I like to hole hop. As I drilled the holes it became obvious that the ice was starting to "Candle" meaning that water had penetrated the ice and started to form small columns within it, definitely an advanced sign of deterioration.   See how the ice was chunked and not shaven, like an auger blade normally does. Although it was definitely strong enough to support myself and if you had an ATV, that would be OK however I another surprise was it's thickness.  Less than 14 inches, this ice was pretty thin and even

First Sunnie of the season!

with the warm weather was an indication that it never really got that thick this year as in a normal year it should be about 24 inches or so.  The temperature was 58 so fishing outside was very comfortable however not typical of the third week in February, that's for sure!  Although I was looking for crappies, my suspicions were that they probably would not show up until around sunset, which was at 5:47 PM.  I did catch my first sunfish of the season, nothing big but the way my fishing has been going this winter, a welcome change.  I unhooked the fish and let it back down the hole, then proceeded to catch about 10 more around the same size.  the fish quit biting for a while then a small northern pike slammed my waxie an sort of made a mess out of everything!  No wonder the fish disappeared.  Unhooking it and letting it back down the hole I continued to move to the consecutive holes that were drilled.  A few more fish hit the waxie before the sun finally went down without much fanfare.  No crappies showed up and to be honest, I wasn't too surprised.  I think I need to head further west and north to find any decent crappies this time of the year.

This weekend is normally the weekend for Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza out of Hunter's

Point on the east side of Mille Lacs.  This is a very large perch fishing contest where they also give away a ton of good door prizes including a couple of Ice Castle wheel houses.  In the past I usually go up with my friends that have wheel houses, we park in a general good spot to fish, forming our own little group of houses.  It's a good time, we set up a bar, an off the ice fire pit and cook up a meal for Saturday then hopefully catch something to enter yet we are not very good at that part.  At 3:00 they hold the main event and drawing which in order to be eligible you need to purchase a button with a number.  If they draw your number, voila, but you must be present to win.  3 hours later it's done, we may have a few beers in the resort but usually head back to the wheel houses for a couple games of Farkle, the official game of my group of guys before heading to bed.  3 years ago when I first bought my wheel house, there was so much snow that we could not get out on the ice on Friday and Saturday was not much better.  We simply backed into the snow off a main road and stayed there.  There was so much snow and with us parked in one area, the ice started to sag. Although we were in no danger of breaking through, the water came through our holes and started flooding our houses.  It provided for a nice fire drill at 6:00 in the morning on Sunday.  We did get off safely but certainly provided for some entertainment for a while.  This year because of the recent warm weather, we will not be able to get our houses out on the lake.  I may actually drive up Saturday afternoon for the drawing but it's really put a damper on our groups activities for this week.  Also, Sunday is the official day that walleye fishing season ends in Minnesota inland lakes so except for crappies or fishing walleyes in the Mississippi River south of Redwing, fishing season is done.

Mark's book.

Lowrance came out with an update to their HDS Gen 3 units last week which will allow a program called SonarCharts Live to operate on these units.   Essentially it creates a map of an area of the lake that you are slowly driving over.  This is pretty exciting as I am anxious to try this on Lac Seul, the ability to make my own maps of the bottom structure of the areas we fish.  As always there are some issues that go along with this such as having an updated Navionics chip in your unit.  I have loaded the upgrade, updated my current Navionics Chip, and am ready to learn about using this new technology.  To be honest, it seems like I can barely keep up with my cellphone but this seems like a great feature to learn to use.  Secondly I am a frequent visitor to Walleye Central and on their Canada Forum there was a gentlemen selling a book he wrote, Secrets of the Canadian Shield.  I e-mailed him as I am always interested in guys that do this, write about their experiences and ordered a book from him.  Received it last weekend and am pretty impressed as it is totally applicable for Lac Seul and the fishing we do.  If for nothing else it validates my own observations of fishing in these waters and found it quite useful.  I am definitely planning on bringing it up with me to Bruce's cabin this year, it will be a great addition to our knowledge base.  If anyone is interested in ordering a book he has a few left and they are $20, not bad for a nicely written book, drop me a line and I will send you the contact information.  Admittedly it also serves to get those juices flowing as open water is only about 6 weeks away!

33rd Annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza

2016 Official Logo

My brother Steve decided to join me along with Mark and Jan Applen, Brian and Lee Bak, Russ and his brother Randy Praught, and their friend Scott Anderson from Onamia for the 33rd Annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  We all pulled our wheel houses to Hunter's Point resort on Friday and set up in a good looking spot not too far offshore.  The contest is more like a huge button drawing whereas you buy a button with numbers on it, they write that number on a tag then it goes into a huge hopper and at 3:00 Saturday afternoon they start drawing numbers and if it matches yours, you win! They really give out a lot of prizes and some real nice ones such as 2 Ice Castle wheel houses, a 4 wheeler (UTV), a bunch of ice augers both gas and electric, TV's, tackle packages and this year they had some drones in the drawing.  The buttons are $20 each and I suspect there were around 3000 people there to claim at least 100 different prizes. There were some nice perch entered however most everyone thinks that they could have come from anytime, any place so nobody seems to get too excited about the perch part of this.  Either way the third place winner was by us at the drawing with his 1.57# fish and Wow, it was a beautiful perch, about 15 inches in length and personally I have never seen one this big in all the years I have been fishing Mille Lacs and that one was only third place with 2 bigger than this.  Uffda.  Only one person in our group, Lee Bak, won something at the drawing, a cooler stuffed full of ice fishing lures, gadgets, and summer baits as well as a ice fishing rod case with 5 nice rods, some reels and a bunch of baits.  I'd say it was worth at least $300, not a bad haul.  Everyone is hoping to get in on the big drawing but I would be happy to simply get my money back.

View from the fire pit to my house on the ice

As stated we set up camp about a mile northwest of the resort and about a quarter mile off the road. Ice conditions were pretty bad last week and the cool weather during last week refroze the ice back up good and solid but it was awfully rough driving.  We set up our 5 houses in an area about half the size of a football field and in the middle we set up our patio.  Russ has a cast iron fire "pit" where we started nice camp fire.  We then have a nice tripod grill that we can suspend over the fire and cook on it.  Brats, marinaded steaks, beans, burgers, along with some chile and a large bean casserole, with enough beer to wash it down, we were set.    It a very nice and relaxing setup as we enjoyed a camp style dinner and watched the sun go down.  Fishing wasn't very good and most of us were in bed by 9:00.  Steve and I were set up in the deepest end of our camp, about 20 feet of water with a real sandy bottom.  Steve put the camera down and stated that it did look like a desert down there, little structure and sand in every direction.  We did see a small walleye swim by but that was about it.  Our plan was to stay until early Sunday morning when I had to be in Eau Claire by 11:00.  The ice stayed pretty solid considering it was almost 52 degrees on Saturday.  I had trouble with my Directv hookup and ended going to the hardware store in Isle to get a new antenna cable.  I got the cable connection working however my receiver needed to be reactivated so I called work to get the 1-800 number.  I did get a hold of the right person and they sent down a satellite signal to reactivate it, it started working.  As well, both Steve and I met our friend Bruce Wiley in Lundeen's and went to the Walkon Inn for lunch.  Unfortunately I had left my good coat in there, forcing me to drive back after sunset to get my coat on Friday night as I knew we would be going by there before they opened on Sunday morning.  Because the ice conditions were unpredictable, Hunter's decided to only allow ATV's to park close to the drawing area and everyone else was scattered out 400 feet from shore.  Things held up fine but it obvious that with the warm weather predicted for this weekend and all of next week that the ice isn't going to last that long.  Already all the snow is gone except in the woods and my neighbor Brandon has started tapping the maple trees in the neighborhood.  So the Extravaganza represents the last trip on the ice for my wheel house until next winter.  Sort of sad to see it end but it can only mean open water soon!  I have lots of things to do to get the boat ready for opener which is on May 14th this year.

That Time of Year

Water covering the ice.

It's that time of year where one day it can be 10 degrees out and the next it can be 50.  Because of the late ice cover and the relatively mild temperatures, the ice thickness on Mille Lacs is about 24 inches.  This is pretty light as normally we would have around 30 - 36 inches.  Last Saturday was very nice out and we had .5 inches of rain around home which along with the warm weather basically melted all of what little snow we had on the ice and polled about 2 - 5 inches of water on top of the ice.  I met Mark Applen who had his house out a couple of miles out of Hunter's Point then because the road was open to the flats I decided to drive the extra 10 miles or so out to Sliver again.  This time I had my Lowrance HDS 9 with me which has the accurate map and it was pretty easy.  Mark's son-in-law, Brandon was interested in coming with so we headed off.  Hunter's stated that the road to the flats was ok however they were going to remove the bridges Sunday Morning so if I had a wheel house I needed to get off before 9 or I'd be stuck.  We were just going out for the day so that wasn't an issue however it was pretty sloppy all the way to the flats however the bridges were in pretty good shape. With all the water on the ice it was interesting to drill a few holes as the water could drain through those holes.  The action wasn't as hot as last week but we did get some fish, a lot of those 13-15 inch walleyes again, it was fun.  I am sure that this was my last trip out to the flats but at least I got to fish them a couple of times.

Hand Carved Birthday Present from my Cousin Paul

Tuesday saw me head back to Mille Lacs to help Bill prefish an area with his friend Don,  as he had a number of clients he was taking out on Wednesday and wanted to see if we could identify a bite.  We drove out of Mac's Twin Bay and fished around Hennepin Island in the 30 - 33 feet of water.  Bill must have drilled about 100 holes and all three of us basically skipped from hole to hole looking for active fish.  Unfortunately we didn't find many.  No small walleyes and I did hook a nice tullibee but it came off.  I did get a nice perch and Bill nailed a couple of tullibee's and a smaller perch but fishing was spotty for sure.  A cold front had come through and the ice had solidified pretty well.   Getting back to work, on Wednesday my cousin Paul Anderson stopped by to give me a birthday present that he made for me.  I was absolutely shocked at how nice of a job he had done on this, hand carving it from a pine board, adding a fly to the second hand, and the nice touch a Cabela's Mean Eye crankbait on the pendulum!   Wow, Paul and I were best friend growing up and his dad (my uncle) was really special.  I am really speechless and excited about my special gift that Paul has given me!!

Friday my brother Steve and I head to meet Mark Applen, Russ Praught, and his brothers to fish the Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  It's a perch contest but rally it turns into a button drawing and they have some really nice prizes.  This is usually the last time I get out my wheel house as it's suppose to be 50 on Saturday.  I really love staying on the ice and my brother Steve enjoys going with me.  Too bad his son Kevin isn't around as I know he'd be with us.  Either way with the relatively warm winter and the unusually thin ice, ice out should be quite early this year and provide a fantastic opener.

2015 Perch Extravaganza

Perch Extravaganza

This weekend saw my fishing buddies Mark, Mike and Judy, Russ, Scott and Ann, my brother Steve and nephew Kevin attend the 32nd Annual Johnson's Perch Extravaganza held at Nitti's Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Lake Mille Lacs.  It's probably the largest perch fishing contest with nice prizes for the largest 10 perch plus a ton of great attendance prizes including a couple of Ice Castle wheel house and a side by side UTV. The plan was simple as Steve and Kevin would meet at the pole shed around 5:00 Friday afternoon, we'd drive up to get my equipment from Bill at Lundeen's Tackle Castle before meeting the rest of the crew at Hunter's Point.  Arriving around 7:30 on Friday night I had assumed that everyone had their houses set up but when I pull on the ice to park everyone's wheel houses were still parked near shore.  Well, this could be interesting as the crew was there quite a bit earlier than we were. Luckily they saved us a spot at the bar as we unwound from the week's past events.  Hunter's makes probably one of the best pizza I've had so we ordered a large one for supper, they aren't cheap but it's pretty darn good.  After a few more toasts with Mark we decided it was time to get set up as we all headed to our trucks and followed Russ to the magic spot for perch fishing.  It takes about an hour to set up the house, including getting my flag up and flying, by 10:30 we were fishing.  Now perch tend to be a fish of the daylight hours and though I have caught them in the night, it was more likely if we got anything it would be a walleye. We did mark a bunch of fish on the flashers, they acted like tullibees yet nothing took our lures. Setting up our bunks and the rattle reels we hit the sack with only one going off within an hour, a 10 inch walleye.  Saturday started with a clear blue sky and a rising barometer, perfect perch fishing conditions.  Steve finally caught a 9 inch perch but that was not going to be enough to even consider bringing it in as there were probably 5,000 participants.  We did get a couple of really nice tullibees and actually they were probably the largest I've seen come out of Mille Lacs.  Admittedly where we were fishing, just in front of the White Cap Inn, wouldn't be what I would call a tullibee hot spot but they were there.  I did have my camera down but forgot to hit the record button when they were around.

Nice Tullibee Ready for Pickling

The contest started at 8:00 Saturday and ended at 2:00pm.  With nothing to show for our efforts it was time to head in for the prize drawings.  To be eligible for the contest and the drawing you must purchase a $20 button with a number on it.  All the numbers are loaded into a big barrel and they are drawn one by one.  As stated they give away everything from tackle packs, flat screen TV's, depth finders, and fish houses, probably at least 100 different prizes.  Well, like years past I walked away with only my button but it's fun.  The drawing last for about 1 1/2 hours then the party begins as they have a big tent set on the ice with a DJ and a bar set up.  For us it's a little to crazy and after standing on the ice for over 2 hours it's was time to find something a lot warmer so we got it the trucks and drove down the lake to the White Cap Inn.  There we found a table to relax, had a couple of beers while spending some money on the Meat Raffle, a popular event in these places up north.  Russ ended up with a couple of flank steaks and the rest of us struck out so we headed back to our ice houses just a half mile out on the lake.  The weather forecast was saying that Saturday night could be the coldest night of the winter as the temperature had been dropping all day with a very brisk Northwest wind.  It was very nice in the Salem as the temperature eventually hit -20F by the time we got up in the morning.  At 7:30 I walked outside and to my surprise everyone was ready to leave, and they all did by 8:00.  With the cold predicted to last all day and the fact that Steve and Kevin had a 4 hour trip back to LaCrosse, WI we decided to pack it up and go have breakfast somewhere.  I was surprised that a number of places were not open yet but we finally ended up at Bay View on the east end of Cove Bay and had a great walleye breakfast.  With the boys on their way home I cleaned the tullibees and started preparing them to pickle.

Hopefully this was the last cold stretch of the year and we can start warming up a little.  Inland walleye season closed on February 21st so the only options are heading to Devils Lake, North Dakota or Lake of the Woods, 6 hours north.  There is still plenty of time and ice to fish crappies and I am looking forward to maybe heading back up into the Detroit Lakes, MN area is see if I can repeat my catch of a few weeks ago.  I might even decide to take out the wheel house one last time and do an overnight on Mille Lacs to get some more tullibees as they are very good smoked and fun to catch.
I just put the finishing touches on a trip to Charleston, SC in March.  For the last few years a couple of my friends from Texas, Joe Stanfield and Matt Davis have been fishing the weekend before our annual APEC conference.  This year its in Charlotte, NC so we decided to spend the weekend in Charleston and  charter a boat out to the inshore reefs as it's prime time for sheepshead.  They are an interesting fish as they have teeth like a human.  The last time I fished these was in 2008 out of Jacksonville, FL as my previous post reported.  Our captain states they are bigger than this and I am looking forward to getting away and fishing somewhere warm.  In the meantime.........

Not Much to Report

Shimano Butteryfly Jigs

As stated last week, I spent most of my time in California.  One of the cool things I came back with was some fishing gear given to me by my good friend Joseph who works for a supplier of mine, Micrometals. A fishing hat, Tee Shirt from the shop, and a really cool Shimano Butterfly Jig (pictured) jigging spoon from Longfin's Sports Shop in Anaheim, California.  I love saltwater fishing and I have always wanted to fish tuna off the coast of California with Joseph and Jim Cox however it tends to be a spur of the moment situation.  The tuna can come in anytime so they watch the reports and when they are on fish, you go.  These trips are usually 1 1/2 day trips where you leave in the evening and steam towards the fishing grounds arriving in the morning.  One fishes all day before heading back that night arriving the next morning at port.  They really get a lot of fish sometimes up to a few hundred pounds per guy, that's a lot of yellow fin tuna steaks for sure. The best time is usually in August and one of these days I'll definitely be on that boat with them. The Butterfly jigs work really well as they have 2 ultra sharp hooks that are attached to the bottom of the main lure body and are deadly on fish.  I don't think it will work very good on Mille Lacs but who knows, may it would be a great norther pike bait.

2015 Perch Extravaganza 

This weekend was spent at the neighbors and to be honest with you it didn't go very well.  I am not sure if was the fact that I was exhausted from only 3 hours of sleep the night before or what but put it this way, I wasn't very proud of myself and I'll leave it at that.  This week is the annual Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza, one of the largest fishing tournaments at Hunter's Point Resort on Mille Lacs Lake. Joining me will be my brother Steve and his son Kevin.  Last year my brother Steve, neighbor Pete, and I took my new Salem Ice Cabin arrived at Hunter' Point however they had virtually no spots plowed for the contest members.  Promising that trucks would be working all night, it was snowing and by morning nothing happened.  Along with my friend Russ and Mark, we were stuck a few miles out just off the road with some very heavy snow cover.  The fishing was terrible and with the snow it eventually flooded our spots bad enough that by 6:00 in the morning we were packed up and gone.  This year there is little snow on the ice and with my chains, we should be able to get out to the flats for some serious perch fishing and a chance to turn in a winner! Besides some nice prizes for the largest perch caught they have a ton of door prizes that they give away which is always a lot of fun.  I am looking forward to finally fishing with my nephew as he was supposed to go with us to Red Lake a couple of times but at the last minute had issues that kept him home.  He's a great fisherman and often reminds me of myself when I was his age.  Unfortunately he's a big northern pike guy while I like to chase walleyes so we are bound to have a few discussions.  Our plan is to get set up by 9:00 Friday night as the Tournament starts at 8:00 Saturday morning.  The weather is looking okay until Saturday night when the bottom drops out and the forecast is for -16F over night.  Hopefully that will be the last really cold spell of the year but we'll see.

Inland walleye fishing season ends on Sunday, February 22nd so after that either one needs to go down to the Mississippi River or Lake of the Woods.  I am not ruling out either however it hasn't been to bad of a season with my 4 trips to Red Lake, one can't complain.  Wish us luck and I'll report in next week.

Perch Extravaganza

Saturday was the 31st Annual Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza held at Nitti's Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Mille Lacs.  It's an interesting event, a perch fishing contest with a ton of great attendance prizes like a couple of Ice Castle Wheel houses, 2 ATV's, I'd guess about 100 different prizes from ice augers to simple tackle bags.  Of course there are prizes for the biggest perch caught, $500 and they pay to 10th place, it seems like one could get lucky.  I have certainly had my luck in winning things lately with a very nice payout from what was assumed as my dismal 3-8 numbers on the Super Bowl.  Last year I met Mark and the gang, but arrived too late for the drawings, simply stayed over night in his wheel house as we fished for walleyes on the last weekend of the season.  This year it would be different, I'd meet Mark on the ice on Friday with my brother Steve and neighbor Pete, we'd get the house set up in the deeper water where we could fish all night and be ready for the start of the contest on Saturday morning.  Well, my last post predicted an interesting Friday as the storm dumped over 10 inches of snow from the Twin Cities north through Mille Lacs, and it was a mess.  What is normally a 90 minute drive took over 3 hours as Hwy 169 was pretty much glare ice all the way.  After getting bait at Lundeen's we met Mark and Russ on the ice, just off shore in a special area plowed for wheel houses.  As predicted, the plan was to get out to deeper water early in the morning so we waited.  The morning brought more confusion as the people in charge stated that anyone going out was at their own risk.  Around 9:00, and with no further updates we decided to head out on the ice, about 1.5 miles out.  Scott had left earlier and found a few lanes punched into the snow off the main road, long enough for your house and your truck, maybe not ideal but it was a place to fish.  A quick assessment with Mark and we decided to double stack our wheel houses in the plowed lane and park the trucks on the main road.  This would prove to be a smart idea on Sunday morning.  Mark drilled his holes and dropped the house, then I backed mine in, drilled and dropped.  The combined weight of the new fallen snow and our houses caused the water to immediately come through the holes, but we block our houses up with 4 x 4 timbers, it wasn't too bad.  Getting everything set we started fishing for that winning perch, and in 26 feet of water, it's possible as we had 4 hours to do it in.

Our own fishing show!

Almost immediately we started marking fish.  Steve decided to put his underwater camera down to see what was showing up on the Vexilar's.  First of all, it's amazing how clear the water is on Mille Lacs.  I have seen it this clear before however the camera really tells all.  With our holes being separated by around 10 feet, he could see the sucker minnow I put down for the possible big walleye or northern.  Behind that was my slender jig bouncing up and down, Pete's minnow hanging there to entice a fish, and perch, tons of them all 2 - 3 inches long!  The television in the house has a video input so we plugged the output of the camera into it and could watch on the big screen, There must be some interaction between the sensor in my camera and the frequency the television screen operates at which causes the squiggly lines, still you can make out whats going on.  The white lure the perch are looking at is a small jig with a waxie on it.  Underneath is a small flat rock covered with zebra mussels.  Just to the upper left of the white jig is my sucker minnow waiting to be inhaled and the black dot near the top is a sinker on Steve's line.  There are at least 9 perch scattered around as some tried to get the waxie in their mouths but were too small.  He did manage to catch one of these and based on the bite, the thought was that even something this small might win!  The problem is that the contest rules are quite loose with the official rules of catching it between 8:00AM to 2:00PM, it must be weighed alive.  It wouldn't be too hard to push those rules a little it but I think the weather conditions helped keep people honest.  I do know that 9th place was over a pound so we are glad that our 3 incher wasn't brought in.  Once the contest ended the drawing started at 3:00 and went on till about 5:30.  None of the guys we were fishing with won anything so we went into the bar and had a few conciliatory drinks, ordered some food for the evening, had a few conversations with the locals about the current situation on Lake Mille Lacs before heading back to the house.  By then the weight on the ice continued to flood the area and at 6:00 Sunday morning Mark was knocking at the door.....lets go, it almost up to my floor.  That's pretty amazing as both of us had our house blocked up on 4 x 4 and it was well over that at Mark's while mine had got to the top of the blocks.  As I said earlier, it was lucky we parked on the road as the flooding made it almost impossible to pull the house off it's resting point.  Mark had to get the jerk strap out and broke me free, then it was my turn.  I unhooked the house and returned the favor as his was even further into the water/ice mess.  It has reminded me that I need to get my strap and get it back in the truck as well, when these conditions exist it's nice to have a friend around.   Off the ice, we stopped and had breakfast before heading home.  Even though it was a lot of work we didn't get to fish where we wanted, didn't catch anything or win anything, but it's still always nice to get away and relax.

With the snow depths on the lakes what it is, I doubt the wheel house will see any more action this year unless Lake of the Woods opens up.  It's been plain brutal this week with low temperatures below zero since last Friday's storm.  It's hard to believe that the daily high for this time of year is now up to 32 degrees and the 10 day forecast shows no real return to normal.  This should be an interesting spring for sure, heck in about 2 weeks we go back to daylight savings time, uffda.    My John Deere 47 inch Snowblower has seen it's use this year and on Sunday I broke the main drive chain while cleaning up last Thursday's mess.  Hats off the Pete who let me use his heated garage to repair it in 65 degree comfort.  Sometimes when you work in below zero conditions you take shortcuts so working in the warm I was able to reset the sprocket alignment, the main cause of my problems in the first place.  The John Deere is ready for the next snow event, I'm glad because I'm not!  Looks like it will occur on Friday.  All inland walleye and pike fishing has closed as of Sunday so it's either on the border waters or panfishing from now till May. Winter obviously isn't done.

Stuck in LA

Fishouflage European Carp Pattern

OK, another idiot move by yours truly!  The second week in February is always the MD & M Show in Anaheim, California and my company, Precision Inc., always has a booth there.  It's been awfully cold in Dayton this year with at least 50 days where the temperature has been below zero, the 80 degree weather in California would be a welcome change.  Catching the early flight to LAX, it was a typical -18F when I left the house.  Looking at my flight options for the return flight I decided to book the redeye back on Thursday night, board at around 1:00 in the morning, the 3 hour flight would get me in Minneapolis around 6:30AM on Friday.  Good plan, saves me a hotel room and I could sleep on the plane.  Well, reread my plan......leave Thursday night at 1:00, well that is actually Friday morning.  The Thursday night flight booked was leaving 24 hours earlier than what was in my head so I had to rebook.  the Friday morning Redeye was full so I am finishing this  post from 35,000 feet, a few days late but at least I am back on track.  From my view the weather is very nice in Los Angeles yet that's about all that's nice.   It seems like there is a gazillion people living in LA as you can drive for hours and never leave the city.   One interesting thing about shows are the people you meet.  The booth next door to me was a German company and the guy in charge had just arrived.  After talking to him for a while we soon discovered something in common, both of us love to fish.  In Germany he often fished for European Carp as well as zander, similar to our walleye.  He also talked  about pike, whitefish, eels, but I forgot to ask about German Brown Trout.  Of course I had to describe ice fishing to him, something he thought was pretty interesting. Yesterday I showed him a site where he could buy shirts with a European Carp imbedded in the pattern.  Fishouflage is one of my favorite sites and I own a number of their products, mostly in the walleye or crappie patterns.  He thought that the carp pattern was quite interesting and took down the website.  I was not sure they shipped to Germany but promised if he had any trouble I would take care of it for him.  He'll probably be the first in Germany to flaunt his passion on his shirt, it was a lot of fun talking to him and we left with.....if you're ever in Minneapolis I know someone who could entertain you for a day of fishing.


Marbled Godwit

One thing I like in LA is to walk along the beaches and jetties on the ocean.  This time of the year the water is around 55 degrees and the only thing around are the crazy surfers in wetsuits and shorebirds.  My friend and colleague Mike Schubert was my host and after setting up our booth on Monday we drove around the area of Huntington Beach where he lives.  Mike has a boat harbored at the American Legion where there is a big area of channels and harbors in Alamitos Bay, Newport Beach.  Showing me the entrance to the harbor it was pretty nice as I saw Californian Sea lions swimming  up the entrance as well a number of shorebirds feeding in the surf.  One in particular called a Marbled Godwit, had a very and pointed bill, it must have been 6 inches long.  These birds would walk along the sand, just as the water receded, looking for bubbles, a tell tail sign of sand crabs their favorite food.  They would shove the entire length of their beak into the sand in search of their next morsel.  No bigger than a dime, they would pull the crab out of the sand and immediately eat it, it was fascinating to watch them work.  As well there were small birds, usually in packs of 6 - 10 that would race in and out with the waves, just staying ahead of the water.  With the surf's mesmerizing rythme, it was very relaxing to just stand there and take it all in.  Sort of like another world, behind me was the big city and in front of me was the peacefulness of the ocean.

It's finally threatening to warm up next week.  After the last 2 months of below normal temperatures, it will be a welcome relief.  I am anxious to get out and do some crappie fishing, maybe Sunday.  The Mille Lacs Perch Extravaganza is next week and I probably need to practice up for that as well.  The winter is going fast as we only have another 9 days of Minnesota inland fishing season for walleyes and pike, not very long.  Lake of the Wood stays open till April 15th and I might just have to make one more trip up north, we'll see. Planning for my Louisiana trip has been fun and I am really looking forward to catching and eating some redfish.  Our host, Dick called me as one of his guides read this blog and was interested in walleye, offering a trade, walleye fillets for flounder.  Seems like a good trade to me and I'll be bringing some with!