A Fantastic Weekend

Saturday turned out to be one of those days where the stars must have been aligned just perfectly.  After shoveling snow again (the last 30 out of 40 days) I stopped by my neighbor Tom Olson to see if he was interested in heading out to fish Pelican Lake in the afternoon.  After finishing up the endless snow removal and filling all the bird feeders, I hooked up the trailer, loaded everything up and stopped by Tom's to pick him up.  Next stop was Cabela's to pick up some bait and check to see if they received in any more of there special 6 inch fillet knives, a heck of a bargain at $9.99.  Well, they did have the knives but no waxies.  A quick stop at the hardware store in St. Michael and we were ready.  I have described Pelican Lake as a prolific shallow lake about 15 miles west of my house.  The last few years have been fantastic, even as the fishing pressure seems excessive.  After the water had risen more than 6 feet, it has transformed from a rather worthless duck swamp to a popular fishing lake.  The DNR is still planning on draining it, Lord knows why.  I guess creating duck habitat for the few if any ducks that fly this far east anymore is more important than the thousands of people that enjoy this unique fishing destination.  With the lake in sight, it was the typical scenario, there must have been over 500 shacks on the lake.  These shacks seem to form little communities on the lake and I am not sure if they are really catching fish or just having fun.  I guess it probably doesn't really make that much difference.

My strategy is always the same.  Because the lake is no deeper than 12 feet, I find an area in the middle of nowhere and drill my holes.  Today would be no different, yep 10 foot of water and a hundred yards from anyone.   Although I have fished with crappie minnows, like back home, I prefer waxies.  Crappies, especially larger ones can be extremely lite biters.  The key is to keep your bait moving slowly down from about 3 feet from the bottom.  The fish will simply inhale the bait and the only indication will be the line going limp as tension is taken off.  Time is of the essence as they will spit it out just as fast.  I think too many people in Minnesota ice fish crappies with a minnow and bobber combination.  Although I am sure they catch their share of fish, I cannot believe it's as effective as waxies and line watching.   Proof is the nice 12 incher Tom is holding in the first picture.  Using 3 pound fluorescent orange line, he can easily work his bait and detect the slightest change in the feel.   On the lake by 2:30 and off by 5:30 we ended up with a couple more added to this nice pile of sunfish and crappies, all larger than hate 2 status (hate 2 keep em, hate 2 throw them back).   By 7:00 all the fish were cleaned and I was ready for the next event of the day.

The other reason to fish a local lake was to make sure I didn't miss the much anticipated Green Bay Packer vs the Atlanta Falcon game.  Being a bonafide Cheesehead, I proudly fly the Green and Gold on my flag pole, just under the Stars and Stripes.  Although my neighbor Tim and his family hates the Pack, he has a huge projected screen television, perfect for watching football.  With my neighbor Otto (another closet Cheesehead) we convinced him that Otto and I could turn his boring night into something a little more exciting.  Bringing over the Walter's Beer from last week, we settled into what would be a totally unexpected outcome, a blow out by the Pack.  Of course we knew the Packers could win however it was pleasantly shocking to see the final score go from being 3 point underdogs to a 27 point differential.  My friend Phil was at the game and the tee shirt I sent was a big hit.  It was amazing to see how empty the stadium was during the last half of the game.  By the 2 minute warning it was evident the only people left were the Packer fans.  You'd never see that at Lambeau, I don't care how bad the Pack were losing or who the opposing team was.  Everyone is talking Super Bowl and it's easy to jump on that band wagon as Aaron Rodgers is proving to be everything Brett Favre isn't, yet we still need to get by Da Bears.  Here's hoping you have sound as you will find a special song in celebration.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed as Sunday's schedule will certainly effect my fishing plans for this weekend!

Oh The Weather Outside's Delightful.......................

Hoping to repeat my success of last Sunday night, I could not wait for this weekend to show itself. Unfortunately it showed itself as the first and earliest significant snow in many years. With lows predicted in the mid 20's I had no choice but to shift gears and take care of a few things at home. Little issues like blowing out the sprinkler system before it freezes or picking my apples before the cold renders them useless. Picking my apples was the first priority. With 7 loaded trees, it would be quite an endeavor. Finally finishing up on Sunday afternoon the day ended with 22 bushels more than I started with. My hopes are to make both soft and hard cider with most of them. A few weeks ago I ordered a cider press and apple grinder, which hasn't arrived yet. My friend Kevin has a friend near Ashland Wi that makes a wicked hard cider. I asked him if he could give me John's number and instead he had John call me. We had a fascinating discussion on pressing cider and gave me some fabulous tips like using peptic enzyme for better yields. Hopefully my press arrives by the weekend so I can start the process. One thing John says is that cider is better if blended with a number of different varieties. Sunday I bought a 1/2 gallon of Honeycrisp only cider and it was rather bland, proving his theory. Another fate for my apples have been drying large batches in the dehydrator. Using one of those fancy apple peeler/slicers I simply run them threw leaving the skins on, spread them on the drying racks adding a sprinkling of sugar/cinnamon before putting them in the dehydrator. They turn out simply delicious. I will probably try to make a few quarts of apple pie filling as long as I'm at it.

My friends Eric Hayes and John Delestry were more active in the outdoors this weekend. Eric and John have joined me on Mille Lacs on a number of occasions including the night we had a wild ride from 3 mile to Cedar Creek Landing. Determined to fish the evening bite we launched at the landing around 4:00 one afternoon. The wind was out of the southeast, perfect for drifting the reef. We had caught a few really nice fish going into dusk when all of the sudden the wind switched to the northwest and grew to over 30 mph. The landing is was exactly down wind from our location and we decided we had better head in as the waves had built up to an honest 4 feet. Eric's boat is a 17.5 foot Lund Angler with a 70 hp Johnson(Suzuki) tiller. Definitely a marginal boat in these waves, the adventure began. This was about as crazy a ride as I have been on. Eric was at the helm, John in the middle and I had the front manning the spotlight. Eric was doing a great job even though he was not aware of the raging seas around him. I kept encouraging him to stay on the throttle as we pushed through the waves. Going with the waves can be a dangerous proposition. The motor wants to push the back end of the boat down when heading up the next swell and you literally have to beat the one behind you from catching up and filling your boat. I seen a particularly large wave we just crested and I yelled to Eric to check it out, shining the light on the water next to him. The crest of that wave was about 3 feet behind and 3 feet above him! I probably shouldn't have done that. Arriving at the landing it was obvious this was not going to work. As we approached there was a Pro V on a trailer and the waves were crashing over the stern, filling the entire back end of the boat. John had agreed to jump out into the water close to shore as we headed to Mac's protected harbor. He would get the trailer and meet us there. John is a brave man. Before leaving there was a 16 foot lund hanging around the landing waiting their turn. We approached them screaming to follow us to Mac's, we'll go get your car later. They wisely obeyed our request and were glad they did. It was a very difficult to get to Macs but we made it. Those guys were immensely grateful for our insight, we were just glad they were ok. In the meantime John had made it to shore to find the guys loading the Pro V only had a S10 Blazer and could not budge the boat from the water. John ended up towing their entire rig out enough to drain the water completely. Arriving at the landing we first went back for our new found friends car. Loading them both we called it a night!

The first picture is of Eric's dog Lambeau (you got it Packers fans) with their opening day bag of ducks including green wing teal, gadwalls, and 3 mallards, a hen and 2 drakes. This is a pretty impressive bag if I must say. Lambeau is getting up in the years but he still has it in him. Eric hunts around the La Crosse area and his luck was much better than around Minnesota. The second picture is of John's son bagging his first deer during Wisconsin's Youth Deer Hunt last weekend, an nice tender nubbin buck fawn. Limited to does, he did a fine job of showing dad who's going to be the future deer hunter in his family. That deer will sure taste good this fall. Thanks guys for sending in your pictures as my weekend was pretty uneventful. It looks like the weather will be more favorable for getting up this weekend.