Fishing with Marcus

The Ice Cabin with Russ's shack in the back.

Last weekend was the third of four trips planned to go to Red Lake this year and it was the ideal opportunity to spend it with my 2 good friends from the Eau Claire area, Greg and his 18 year old son Marcus Kimblom.  Greg is one of those guys that you meet once years ago and have stayed friend ever since.  Looking back on the archives you will see that we fished Mille Lacs last July and did OK, this was their first adventure ice fishing where one stays on the ice in a heated shack, my Salem Ice Cabin.  Arriving at 8:00 AM on Friday, we headed north via our usual route, Hwy's 169 to 18 to 6 to Hwy 2 then up through Deer River where we secured bait, then onto Hwy 46 then finally the home stretch on Hwy 1 to 72 then to JR's.  My age is really starting to show as half way up I remembered that I forgot our fillet knives.  a quick stop at Kelliher and they had some cheap but adequate knives for $4.99 so we got one of those, at the worst case I can leave it in the house.  Better yet it is a lesson in not forgetting! Arriving at JR's Corner Access around 1:30 we hooked up the house to the truck and had one of the 30 pound propane tanks refilled.  I am always amazed at how little propane we go through yet maybe it's just that I don't fully understand how much is really needed, nevertheless we were ready for the weekend.  Russ Praught had been out in his house on Red since Thursday night and the plan was to hook up with him and fish in the same area.  We called Russ and got the lowdown, drive 6.5 miles west on JR's road where it comes to an end then turn right and go north about 2 miles, I'm on the right at the end of the road.  Because we drive slow on the ice, it takes about 30 minutes to get there, looking for Russ, I see his house off the road a bit, but his truck wasn't there.  Finally we see a truck, his white half ton Ford stuck in a drift.  Apparently he saw us and decided to help establish a track in the snow to make it easier to pull the shack closer to his.  Also, Russ had been tip up fishing to see if he could find us a good place to park, which he did.  It takes about an hour to get everything set up and by 3:00 we had the DirecTV hooked up, stuff put away, the house heated up nicely, and we were fishing.  Russ had his limit of walleyes and between the nice perch and the 3 of us, we managed to get enough fish to go back to JR's for a fish fry, which we did.  JR's does and excellent job as his cooks will use the special Zatarain's Gluten Free Fish Coating for my portion and of course fresh walleye, it doesn't get any better!!

Marcus With a Nice 21 Inch Walleye on a Rattle Reel

Getting back around 8:30, we still had time to get set up for the night and by 9:30 we were quite exhausted and decided to call it a night.  The fishing wasn't fast and furious but it was somewhat steady and between the four of us we had enough to go back in to JR's for a fish fry on Saturday night.  The satellite TV is nice as we got to watch the football games that were on, and as a bonus, the fishing shows in the morning.  Marcus was pretty happy, sitting in a nice comfortable RV with holes in the floor, fishing and catching a few walleyes, 7 hours from home with his dad, myself, and all the comforts one could want.   Greg and I put him on the knife sofa for sleeping arrangements figuring he is the youngest guy, he can chase those rattle reels at midnight when they go off.  Friday night was pretty quite but Saturday night presented a few opportunities.  In the end Marcus pulled in a couple of nice 20+ inch walleyes on the rattle reels, his first ever.  Apparently one of the lines broke just as he lifted it to the surface but was able to rescue both the fish and the hook.  I heard all of the commotion however decided that these guys could handle the job, which they did perfectly.  Missing another rattle reel things calmed down for the remainder of the night, however we did end up with 6 walleyes and a nice perch to clean in the morning.  We were surprised to see Russ took off quite early as he was gone when we finally got up.  As it is when we set up the house, it takes about an hour to get it back on the truck and ready to go.  It goes pretty good when you have a couple of guys you can boss around!  We finally got back to JR's around 10:30, parked the house on his lot, filleted the fish, and headed south.  My intent was to take them home via a different route, through Walker and Brainerd, stopping at Reeds so Marcus could take a look.  Getting home about 5:30 we loaded up his car and said good bye.  It was a great weekend and the highlight was having Marcus with.  This is a good experience, being with the boys, driving 9 miles out on the lake, having fresh walleye dinner every night while staying in a comfortable house right on the ice.  It's also good to meet other people like Russ and JR, two characters for sure.  It's great to give something back to the new generation, I can just hear it now, I'll be dead and gone and Marcus will be talking to his 80 year old dad saying, "Dad, do you remember the time we ice fished on Red Lake with your crazy friend Dave?"  I guess memories are a great thing to leave your friends!

Time For Mille Lacs

Marcus with a 26.5 inch walleye

With the success of my friend Ben Aiona on Mille Lacs last week, it was time to head on up and try our luck.  My friend Greg "Bone collector" Kimblom and his 17 year old son Marcus were guests on the boat last Sunday.  Meeting at Cabela's was easy, it's on the way for me and very convenient for them as they drove up from Elk Mound, Wisconsin.  Marcus fishes in his high school fishing club and had never been to Mille Lacs, so the pressure was on!  The largest walleye he had ever caught was 17 inches, a number that I assured him we could beat.  A quick drive through for coffee at McDonalds before we headed north.  On the way we stopped for gas then onto Lundeen's for bait, licenses, and time for me to fix Bill's line counter, which took alot more thinking than one should have to do on a Sunday morning.........oh well, it's fixed.  Also I picked up my 4 bladed stainless steel prop that Ben dropped off last week.  Bill has a guy that makes the rounds picking up props, repairing them, and dropping them back off at his shop.  He does an excellent job and it looks like new again.  Even though it wasn't that bad, I am not interested in saving $200 and later watching my lower unit go bad.  Picking up crawlers and leeches, we headed to the landing, loaded up everything and motored to a spot on Sherman's Flat called the cut.  We had about a 15 MPH wind right out of the southwest and to be honest, I am not a big fan of my new wheel boat on Mille Lacs as having tiller boats for the last 35 years, admittedly I had a process.  That process has really changed and part of the problem is that I haven't fish Mille Lacs very much since being spoiled by Lac Seul, which the fishing suits my boat better.  I am getting better and  I suppose it wouldn't hurt to practice more often!  Oh well.  With the southwest wind it set up the perfect drift up the edge of the flat.  Using the trolling motor, we would edge the boat just off the flat then the wind would blow us back on the top of the flat at a gradual angle.  It wasn't back trolling but close!  We managed to get 2 walleyes off the cut before heading out to 7 Mile Flat which was suppose to be the hot spot.  We did manage another fish their however it wasn't on fire like all the reports.  Next stop was 9 mile flat where the same strategy as on the cut was implemented,  let the wind push you up the east edge as one used the trolling motor to adjust the depth and drift.  Interesting, we approached the south end of  9 mile, there was a larger Skeeter boat putting up his Bimini Top, I suppose we got within 25 feet of him.  His first words were..he didn't know this was the hot spot!  I simply asked him what direction was he heading, up the east side or West side.  With a confirmation that it was the west side, I assured him our paths will never cross!  Never the less that was slow as well.

Hey Greg, Some say I look goofy!

Next stop was 5 mile gravel, maybe they are on the gravel........ ended up at 3 Mile Reef first so we casted for smallies with zero luck before we headed more south.   5 mile gravel had fish on it but nothing was very cooperative.  With 2 more places in mind so we headed directly to the Southwest corner of the lake where the water was significantly calmer then gave the boat controls to Marcus.  Without hesitation he took the wheel and we headed up the shoreline to what I call Eddy's Reef. Admittedly it was fun to let a 17 year old drive the Ranger with a 250 hp motor, something he has never experienced.  He did a fabulous job of handling the boat and getting us to our next destination both in a timely fashion as well, we survived the trip!  Setting the Motorguide I5 as an anchor, we rigged up 3 slip bobber rigs and before long Marcus was holding his largest walleye ever, a 26.5 incher as shown in the first picture.  the fish bite soon after we got settled in yet this was our only fish, uffda.  Next taking a clue from Ben Aiona's report of last week, we finished the day bobber fishing off Indian Point.  I know we were a little early so I went a little deeper yet by 6:30 we were done as these boys had to go back to Elk Mound later in the evening.  It wasn't the best trip for catching however we did have a good time and Marcus got to see how we did it on the big lake.  The fish we got were pretty nice and after stopping to see Bill, we had dinner at Chico's just south of Onamia, a nice place to unwind after a day for hard fishing.  It was hot and windy, how is that for an excuse???  It was still nice on the lake but amazingly hot on shore.  We did run across 2 large dead floating walleyes, and a real nice tullibee, the water temperature was pretty warm. 

I use only Turn Turn baitholder hooks on my crawler rigs as the walleyes tend to hook themselves rather than having to let them take the bait and often swallow it.  Greg (pictured above in the goofy hat) is an interesting guy.  He works for a company that harvests bone, veins, and various other tissues from those who have Donor designations.  Often time people don't realize how important his work is and how one in death can make a huge difference to someone who needs these "parts".  I am always amazed at his courage and dedication to his job and what he does for all of us.  I am working on getting the Jon boat out to start fishing the river soon.  My future events include a day at the EAA in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, my good friend Bruce and another pilot friend have invited me to ride along for a day as we fly there in the morning and back in the evening.  I've already got my ticket and am looking forward to it as they have a squadron of C47 aircraft there, the same airplaine my dad flew in 1948 while he was stationed in Panama as he joined the newly formed United States Air Force.  August 3rd I head back up to the Northwest side of Lac Seul and fish with my cousin Paul, Brother Steve, Mike Worms, and the Joyce clan.  This is my longest trip of the year and I am looking forward to it again!