The 29th Annual Kramer Open

Wild Marsh Sporting Clays Course.

Saturday was the 29th Annual Kramer Open hosted by a good friend, Dave Kramer.  Dave originally started the Kramer Open as a means to raise money for the family of a good friend who passed away, Doug Leu.  Dave has done this now for 29 years and over that time Doug's wife had passed away leaving their children.  My involvement began a number of years ago when my great and late friend, Tom Emmons invited me to shoot the Kramer.  Although a lot of the players have changed over the years, it is still fun to get out on the first Saturday after Labor Day and shoot 100 birds at Wild Marsh Sporting Clays, I used to shoot a league there a number of years ago and it was a lot of fun.  It was a 500 bird league with the requirement to shoot 100 birds a month for April, May, June, July, and August.  You could basically shoot it anytime within the designated time for the month so there was zero pressure to show up every week and shoot, which was nice.  Of course time always flies by quickly and it would seem as though we would barely get in our 100 birds before the next month started.  The Kramer is alot of fun as I do not shoot a sporting clays league there anymore however I really enjoy the shooting and the challenges of hitting the clay targets in the configurations that they set up.  Usually the courses are set up like a golf course.  At the Wild Marsh they have the Green Course, Blue Course and Red Course.  In previous shoots there would be 9 stations per course, 50 targets sort of like a golf course.  This year's setup was 16 stations on the Green Course, 14 with 6 targets and 2 with 8 to make a total of 100.  It certainly made for a fast course completion as the stations were fairly close together, I think it only took about 3.5 hours, about an hour faster than usual.  So out of 41 guys I finished in 7th place with 82 out of 100 targets hit, right behind my friend and co-worker, Mike Scheunke, who was on my team along with Lory Brasel and 2 new guys, Tim and Dan.  Mike shoots quite often in a league and hit 3 more than myself with a score of 85.  These are not bad scores at all considering how rusty one gets after a year of not shooting.  Anyway it was fun and afterwards we all gathered at Dave's house for some refreshments, a Taco dinner, and the infamous Junk auction where Dave raises money for the Leu family.  All in good fun, I bought some obscure garden tools for $1.00 and did donate some extra funds to get a set of seven In-Fisherman how to DVD's a pretty nice set and will come in handy for ice fishing entertainment.  Dave had a nice new in the box Browning A-Bolt .308 rifle on the auction but they did not call my number on that one, which was OK.  All in All it was a fun time, something that I look forward to every year as it is always on the weekend after Labor Day.  Not that I need any excuse but it also serves as a great memory of my times with my late friend Tom Emmons.

New Power Center Distribution Terminals

Last week I had updated my progress on rewiring the boat to fix a number of electrical issues I have been seeing when I fish Canada.  One of the things that is probably causing my issues could be low voltage at the docks where I plug in at night, preventing the batteries from fully charging overnight.  This has an accumulative effect as the batteries are not at their peak of charge and performance.  There are 2 things that I have done.  First is to significantly beef up the electrical circuits that feed the console power.  Although I am not sure what the original configurations were, I bypassed it and as stated last week, ran #6 ga from the batteries in the floor to the console.  This is more than enough to assure good power to my electronics.  I finally received the terminal blocks and mounted them where my electronics hookup area is and started from there.  In the past I had discussed using a boost circuit to help however when I reconfigured it, the circuit kept blowing the automatic circuit breakers that are standard with my Ranger.  For sure I could run the converter straight off the battery via the distribution terminal without issues so I put a 20 Amp fuse in line for protection and reconfigured all of my power connections so all of my add on electronics such as the Lowrance HDS Carbons, SonicHub 2, Structure Scan 3D and other electronics would now have a boost voltage of 14.6VDC assuring trouble free operation.  In addition I replaced my USB power socket with a new one that has a red LED voltage readout on it (much easier to see in the sunlight than my previous blue LED) then tied it directly to the distribution terminals.  Now I can monitor the battery voltage from the console, it is pretty slick.  One of the other things is building a boost transformer for the low dock voltage in Canada.  At the Fisherman's Cove where I was last month the voltage at the end of my extension cord was 92VAC.  I suspect that it may be similar at the Lac Seul Outposts, where I am going on Monday.  If so maybe I can fix the problem from both ends, increase the dock voltage that powers my on board battery chargers to assure a full charge over night, and fix the internal power inside the boat so if there is an issue, it is minor.  Time will tell!  Either way I am fishing next Monday through Friday so my next post could be a week late. Hopefully it will be worth it. 

Labor Day Ride

 

View of the Mississippi River from Apple Blossum Drive

For the last 2 years I have taken advantage of meeting my brother Steve in Alma, Wisconsin what has turned out to be an annual motorcycle ride through the bluff country.  Just south of Eleva, my home town is the area called the Driftless Area, where the glaciers stopped their advances.  Full of hills and valleys called coulees, the area boast some beautiful curved roads as they move up and down the valleys, connecting farms to the main roads leading to town.  Starting in Alma we headed back up river to Nelson then headed east taking the back roads to Gilmanton Wisconsin.  I had never been on County Road KK and it did not disappoint.  It's amazing what we have right in our back yard.  My sister Beth and her husband Jerry asked if they could join us so meeting in Eleva we headed south to Independence, Whitehall, Blair, Melrose, Mindoro, stopping for a break in La Crosse.  Brother Steve really knows the back roads from Blair down as we cranked about 132 miles on our first leg.  Filling up with gas our next stop was La Crescent, Minnesota as we went up Apple Blossom Drive.  A ridge nestled between the Root River Valley and the Mississippi River Valley the scenery was spectacular.  Over to Rushford then back to Winona, we ended our trip together at Fountain City where we parted company.  A total of 226 miles I could never get tired of this area.  Hopefully we can do this again before the snow flies.

 

Trolling up river, a beautiful day

Sunday proved to be a day to get caught up around the house.  The lawn needed mowing and instead of weeding the garden, it's just easier to take my gas weed trimmer as I have never seen so many weeds.  I guess the wet June is playing itself out.  We haven't had rain in over a month now so the moles have decided my yard is the perfect hunting grounds....and they are not that easy to catch!  Sunday's plan was to get a few things done then head to Mille Lacs for an afternoon of deep water trolling then hit the reefs for some sundown shallow water scouting.  Unfortunately the plans fell through and not wanting to drive up myself decided to hit the river behind the house.  I knew the river was low but was surprise by how low, probably another 2 feet less than the last time I was on the river.  Launching the boat was interesting and once in the water my 15 hp outboard can be alittle stubborn.  Getting it started I headed up river and successfully avoided hitting the bottom with the motor as one gets good at reading the river this time of year.  My friend Pete fishes smallies with live bait, something I didn't have but probably should've picked up.  There are some classic areas that are just perfect for fishing his methods.  I tried trolling but really didn't produce anything.  Fishing along the shorelines was interesting as the low water revels everything.  There are rapids were there were none before, drop offs, eddy's, and boulders galore.  I really need to get to know the river better as the fishing is probably pretty good but I need some better success.  When it's high water, the fish are tight to the shorelines and it's fairly easy to find both numbers and larger fish.  The low water has them scattered an I think requires a little more experimentation and thinking outside the box.  For sure there are not many people fishing the river and unlocking it's secrets is now a goal of mine.  I did get 3 smallies but honestly, they were nothing to write home about yet is at least something to write in my blog!

Small but better than nothing!

Saturday is the Annual Kramer Open, a sporting clays tournament held by a friend of mine, Dave Kramer.  Each year he hosts this event to raise money for his charity.  My dear departed friend Tom Emmons was a regular and I have been a member of his team for many years.  It is difficult to think that Tom isn't with us but I still go as my memory of our good times together.  We shoot 100 clay pigeons in 2 50 bird courses and Tom was really good.  One year I was 1 bird ahead of him, all the way through the last station, we had 6 shots to go.  I went first and shot missed 2 of the 6 putting me 1 behind, the first time I had been back all day.   Tom nailed all 6 to win by 1 shot.  He accused me of purposely losing and I guess if he went to his grave thinking that, it makes me smile!  My September is filling up fast as the next weekend is my 40th Class Reunion.  Uffda.  It will be good to see those who dare to show up and those who don't.  I am in charge of the entertainment and have a few ideas for my classmates.  We were a rebel class and although the school proclaimed they'd never forget us, eventually we all go away.  I have confirmed my trip to Lac Seul with my neighbor Pete and admittedly it's pretty exciting.  My friend Paul Wenaas fishes that area and has promised some "secret locations" to nail the walleyes.  With my schedule this will be the highlight of the next 4 weeks.  I'd say that I can't wait but time flies too fast the way it is, I can wait.

Transistion Time



Fresh Lime with Cilantro Salsa from the garden



September is one of those transition months here in Minnesota as the weather can be 92 degrees one day and 52 the next.  It's been extremely dry around home after what proved to be a very wet start of the summer.  The warmer than normal spring forced nature to show herself about 3 weeks early before a normal frost killed most of my apples.  The ongoing dry weather has now put stress on our trees, which are simply turning brown and falling off.  What apples that did develop are to my surprise 3 weeks early and most of the meager crop of McIntosh, Honeycrisp, and Haralson's has simply rotted away.  I think all that's left is a few Honeygolds, an apple that is normally harvested in the middle of October.  September is also the month when the Kramer Open is held.  Normally I would participate with my good friend Tom Emmons in a race to see who's the best sporting clays shot.  One year I had him beat by 1 bird going into the last 6 targets of a 100 round event.  Nailing the first 4 the pressure got to me and I missed the last 2.  Tom hit the first 4, then #5 to tie and #6 to beat me by one bird.  He accused me of letting him win, I never let on if I did or did not.  It kept his perfect record of shooting better than me in this event, something that I look back on as I something I really miss, that rivalry with Tom.  Of course I really miss him as well.  Sunday was a day for catching up in the garden.  This year has given me a bumper crop of Amish Paste Tomatoes, a variety I decided to try instead of Roma's.  With the tomatoes ripening like crazy I decided to can some salsa using the bounty of the garden.   So far I have put up 24 pints of some pretty good stuff.  One never knows when the first frost will happen so its a scramble to get everything done.  My brother Steve was telling me about the virtues of Brandywine Tomatoes.  Being not much of a raw tomato eater I have to admit that these are pretty good.  They are an heirloom type, have a pinkish hue to them and are very meaty.  They will definitely be in the garden next year. 



Granite Street Curbs



This week found me in Cleveland Ohio for an exciting meeting with my fellow associates from The Transformer Association.  It is a very interesting city with a redeveloped downtown area and a number of great restaurants and bars to relax after a hard day of meetings.  Cities like Cleveland really have an a unique story behind them.  Located on the south shores of Lake Erie, it became a major location for the steel industry which feed our Nation's industrial grow, especially through World War 2.  At the time our iron ore came from Upper Michigan and Minnesota and with rich coal deposits in the Appalachians, it was a perfect place to make steel.  Along with Gary Indiana, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem Pennsylvania, the evidence of the old steel industry is everywhere from the rusted out stacks of the old factories to the soot blackened  blocks of which the old buildings still bear.  It is situated on the Cuyahoga River, once famous for starting on fire in the 1960's.  In many of the downtown areas one will find that the street curbs are actually made of granite, pieced together in slabs up to 10 feet long.  They are everywhere and lord knows how old they are.  I suppose the granite lasts a lot longer than concrete and the availability is much greater than the rest of the country.  One interesting conversation was about the fishing in Lake Erie.  The zebra mussels have really cleared up the water which has obsoleted the famous Erie Dearie, a weighted spinner lure made for fishing with nightcrawlers directly under the boat.  The water is so clear that even in 30 foot depths, the walleyes simply scatter.  Perch fishing remains popular as they are always present under the boat.

With colder weather on the way I will probably keep putting up my tomatoes.  With a little luck I will get to Mille Lacs for one last pre-fishing trip before my brother, his son, and their work associates come up next Friday for a weekend of lead lining.