Great Bite on Mille Lacs Lake

Jack with a beautiful Walleye

Well, after over a month in the shop, the Ranger was finally ready for it's maiden voyage, the first of the year, to Mille Lacs Lake.  Because of the current political situation, the ability to keep any walleyes ended on June 1, therefore it is strictly catch and release on the lake.  These last few years of let's just call them, restrictions, have resulted in a huge population of large fish over 22 inches in the lake and they are hungry!   Monday I was joined by 2 retired electrician friends, Jack Taylor and Pete Mlinar with the goal of confirming if the great bite was still on. After meeting near Elk River we headed north.  In the past it would be pretty easy, we would stop at my friend Bill Lundeen's Tackle Castle and load up on all that was needed, however since he retired from the business and the shop remains closed, we had to do something I haven't done in over 30 years, buy bait somewhere's else, this time it was Prince's Bait just north of Milaca,  getting only 2 dozen Jumbo Leeches and 3 dozen crawlers, we felt that we were stocked up pretty good....little did we know!  Arriving at the old Cash's Landing things continued to plague each outing with the boat as when it came off the trailer something happened and it ripped the side cover from the front trolling motor.  Only cosmetic yet another thing to fix.   With a howling south wind, previous suggestions stated to simply head out to 7 Mile Flat right away.  Anyone knowing me is aware that I really like Sherman's flat and one has to drive over it to get to 7 mile.  OK boy's, let just check this out!  We were marking fish like crazy so naturally we had to stop!  With 3 in the boat and the fact is that I still haven't gotten that proficient in the proper boat control for following a break in 2 foot waves, I decided to simply input a route on my chart screen then tell the

It was bigger than it looks!

trolling motor to follow it.  It works pretty slick as we followed the break to the end of the route then reversed it.  It was easy to do because there wasn't anyone in our way.  Pulling crawler harnesses we were able to land 6 walleyes, all over 22 inches.  With the wind ever so growing stronger it was time to head to 7 mile where we could directly drift and edge by simply letting the wind power us and then use the trolling motor for the finer points of steering.  As we came by this fully wrapped Ranger with a single guy, we watched him land 2 fish as we slowly passed.  To us it looked like a tournament guy pre-fishing for an upcoming event and was just trying to establish a pattern as he didn't stay long.  Well, it didn't take us long to see what the deal was about that spot.  Immediately we were marking fish and a lot of them.  Enough to drop the trolling motor, engage the anchor mode and get out our slip bobber rods.  Sitting in the same spot for 3 hours, we went through the 2 dozen leeches, catching at least one walleye a leech and sometimes 2.  Exhausting all of our leeches, we decided to go exploring a little and headed for a similar spot on 9 Mile Flat.  With no leeches we simply hung a full crawler on our hook and caught another 4 walleyes.  By 4:00 the wind had begun to take it's toll so suggesting we long line troll the top of the flat with deep diving baits and lead core line.  The experience of using the kicker motor as the main source of power while using the main motor as a steering keel worked pretty well as I used my iTroll system to dial in the speed (2 mph) and my big motor to keep us straight.  The problem is that doing this in 2 foot waves takes a lot of effort and after 2 passes and nothing to show for it it was time to head back.  if the water would have been calmer it would be easier to assess where your baits were running.  This is something that we'll have to try later this month as it can be a lot of fun for sure.

Walleyes on the bottom

One forgets how much of a beating one takes when it's windy like that.  Getting older doesn't help it either!  The one thing that this trip showed is the importance of understanding your electronics as we had fish on the screen constantly.  I would shout to the guys, the walleyes are right under us and like clockwork, they would drop their bobbers next to the boat and withing seconds it would be down and a quick set of the hook and we were reeling up walleyes, for a total of 30. The picture on the left says it all as you can clearly see the fish hanging just off the bottom in 25 feet of water. The system in the boat allows me to scroll back in time to a group of marks like this, put the cursor on those fish then tell the trolling motor to go to that spot, it starts the autopilot and takes you right back to there and goes into anchor mode the minute it arrives.  In some of those spots one can see 5 or 6 fish stacked up.  As stated, while on Sherman's it was decided to try and pull spinner rigs up the "Cut".  Rather than struggle with boat control I simply engaged the route function then plotted a route on the screen before saving it and engaging.  Pretty slick as the trolling motor followed the route marked on the screen and once finished you could reverse it.  What was interesting is like on fishing opener, the Lowrance kept warning that it was running out of memory and I needed to delete something.  Not unlike at Leech I spent a lot of time searching duplicate way points, non critical routes and deleting them then purging the memory. Everything I did seemed to only free up small amounts of memory as way points take little space, there was still only about 2 mb of memory left.  This trip I had noticed on the warning to try and delete any alarms.  Searching for the alarm log, it was there, full of stuff like "Not in Neutral".  Nothing too important so figuring it out the Alarm log and deleting it, all of a sudden there was 128 mb of memory, more than enough!  With that said, it is still a struggle to figure everything out on these electronics as I have only scratched the surface.  That and the fact is any update can force one to relearn everything, most of it is intuitive once you start thinking about it, but admittedly it can be hard to keep up.

So it was a very successful day, we ended up with 30 walleyes, I would say that 24 of them were over 22 inches with the largest being 26, 27 and a 28 incher.  Leeches were the ticket and with the wind, slip bobber fishing turned out to be the most successful as well as tolerable!  I still have to get the jon boat out on the river although the river is up again.  My friend Bill's mom Phyllis is not doing so well so say a prayer for her, she is such a sweetheart! I could go on and on but there is work to be done.  next week I need to talk about my Fell MOB system, a very nice addition to the boat.

Back To Mille Lacs

Well it was back up to Mille lacs Lake again last weekend, however the purpose was not to fish but to help my friend Bill move some stuff out of his basement and into his offsite garage.  Not that fishing wasn't thought of however the time seems to get to compressed these days and besides, the Mille Lacs area had around 7 inches of rain in the last week so the water levels really jumped as you can see by the graph.  Big changes like that seem to change the bite somewhat and besides, the wind was blowing out of the northwest pretty hard and I really didn't feel like getting tossed around all day anyway, so I chose lifting heavy objects!  Actually the deep water basin bite has started, one of the fishing methods that better suits my boat setup (Wheel Boat with a kicker motor) straight line trolling with either planar boards or lead core.  During the 2018 fishing opener, we utilized my kicker, the I Troll set up and the remote control steering on the kicker motor and got pretty proficient at controlling the boat.  As they say, practice makes perfect, and I am looking forward to using this setup maybe later next week.  One of the more effective ways of trolling is to use a line counter reel on a fairly long trolling rod setup, attach either a deep running Reef Runner or a Deep Diving Rapala Tail Dancer, both will dive to 30 feet on standard monofilament with 150 feet of line let out.  Connect an inline planar board and it will take that line out 50 feet to the side of the boat.  Because there is a flag hooked to the line, if a walleye hits the lure the flag will be down and there is nothing left to do but reel in the fish.  With lead core line, I use Suffix 832 which sinks at about 8 feet per color (30 feet per color) at 2 mph.  Usually a standard shallow water crankbait like a #5 Shad Rap, a Smithwick Rattlin' Rouge, or other baits that their dive curve is in the 3 - 7 feet range.  Simple let out 3.5 colors, which will take the end of the lead-core to about 28 feet.  I like a 20 - 30 foot leader on the lead-core so the baits run 2 - 4 feet down from there, perfect in that 32 - 35 feet of water depth, as walleyes will always come up to hit something that looks good to eat.  My friend Chuck Teasley is supposed to be up next week and maybe we'll have to try a day of trolling.  Here is a great YouTube episode of James Holst trolling walleyes on Mille Lacs Lake in the summer.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsPrOErFbRA  I've never fished the area they were at so it will be worth a try.

Saturday I have agreed to take my wife's Uncle Andy and cousin Jason fishing. I was really thinking

Air Force C47

hard about heading to Mille Lacs however they only wanted to go out for a few hours so I decided to go to Lake Minnetonka and try some panfish and bass fishing.  I haven't bee on that lake in years so it will be interesting for sure.  If nothing else and we don't catch any fish at least Andy will enjoy looking at all the mansions on the lake, it's pretty impressive.  My strategy will be to try the wacky worm rigs that we used in Texas earlier this year.  It is definitely one of the more popular methods of fishing bass and it would be nice if we were successful.  If nothing else I am sure we can find some panfish somewhere.  Monday I fly to Oshkosh for the EAA airshow, one of the largest in the world.  Bruce Wiley asked me if I'd be interested in flying out in the morning and coming back the same day in his Cessna 182RG.  He claims it's only and hour and 15 minute flight and is quite an experience.  One of the things I am looking forward to is this years display of C47, the Military version of the old DC3 used as a passenger plane in the 50's and 60's.  Dad was stationed at Howard Airforce Base in Panama and flew C47's all around South America in the late 40's.  He told me a few stories as he was a navigator.  One thing he did teach me when I was young was the Morse Code.  Sort of geeky these days but I still remember most of it.  Now that he is passed away I wish I could have had more conversations with him about his time in the Air Force, so I am looking forward to actually seeing the plane he flew in. 

Other interesting things, our last trip to Lac Seul found myself somehow flipping the built in fish measuring ruler that stores neatly in my boat into the Wapesi River.  Although only in 4 feet of water and we could see it sitting on the bottom, there was too much current to deal with it, even my friend Pete went overboard in an attempt to retrieve it, it was pretty much impossible to get.   It was tough leaving it on the bottom as one could see it very plainly but left it we did.  I ordered a new one for my boat as it was pretty handy, $53.  I guess I need to be more careful where I put it the next time I take it out.  We are still set to head up to the Fisherman's Cove on the Northwest side of Lac Seul.  We have basically figured out our September trip leaving the 17th.  Admittedly this summer is flying by, I guess the older one get's the faster they go!

Wiring the Lund

Blue Sea Power Center

Instead of fishing this weekend I spent a day helping my friend Bill Lundeen in hooking up his Lowrance HDS units and rewiring his older Lund boat to clean up the mess left by the last guy that owned it.  We did some preliminary work a few weeks ago however I felt that we needed something more substantial to distribute our power to the new installs which included a couple of Lowrance HDS units, Structure Scan 3D, a NMEA 2000 network, and a lot of odds and ends that needed to be addressed.  We ended up putting in a Blue Sea power distribution center, complete with the appropriate fuse holders for easy identification and servicing.  Admittedly it was tough working under the dash as my head sometimes feels like it's going to explode when it is lower than the rest of my body however I got through it pretty well and got it all installed.  Compared to what was there, it turned out really nice yet later in the week Bill tried his structure scan and eventually discovered that I had forgot to add that power cord to the fuse box.  Oh well, at least it was in and of course ready to easily be added to the panel for power. Admittedly (and you could not tell from my pole shed!) that I like things neat and right.  I was so impressed with this that I ended up buying another one of these for my boat as I have an add on panel for all my accessories and this is pretty slick.  The other thing that is going to get added is something called a Boost Converter.  Years ago i used to run Genetron's in the boat as my main depthfinder/sonar unit.  It was amazing as the unit could mark fish better than anything on the market at the time.  Unfortunately the display was an old CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) similar to the way televisions were 20 years ago!  These display's drew a lot of electrical current and were susceptible to shutting down if the voltage on the battery got to low, which would happen when I started my motor, causing the unit to shut off.   My old and late friend Tom Emmons was a super design engineer and he designed a boost converter that would take any battery voltage from 8 - 14 volts and convert it to 14.4 volts.  The Genetron loved to operate at the slightly higher voltage so Tom and I made one, stuck it in the boat and never had an issue again with low voltage causing problems. Well fast forward to today and with the new bigger outboard, I still have issues with low voltage so at the same time I will install a newer Boost Converter, hopefully I can get it done before next Friday when we head back to Canada.

Nice Green Bay walleye

So there are some people that have been fishing and one of those guys is my godchild, Ben Aiona. Ben has been fishing Lake Michigan quite a bit these last few months and in fact I gave him some of my equipment that I have from when his dad, Kevin and I used to fish with Gary Barneson, in my 1985 16 foot Lund boat.  He had een getting some nice salmon and this last trip he was up near Green Bay fishing for a combination of salmon and walleyes.  He claims all of the locals are complaining that the fish are not biting very well however from the pictures he has sent, you could have fooled me!  Ben is a very good fisherman and is quick to adapt to whatever the conditions are and is usually successful.  I am glad that he got some use out of my equipment and was successful.  This walleye looks fantastic, has great color and is nice and plump.  As for Ben, well you can see for yourself!!

Well, the Mille Lacs situation, or drama, continues to dominate the walleye fishing here in Minnesota.  Despite near record catches, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continues to tow the line about the messed up walleye population on Mille Lacs.  After years of culling out the normal 16 - 20 inch walleyes, what we have left is a lake full of 20 plus inch fish and a ton of 14 - 16 inch fish from the 2013 year class.  This has resulted in a catch and release only season for walleyes on Mille Lacs with the original intention of closing the fishing for walleye between July 7 - 27, an it was supposed to open back up to catch and release walleye fishing last Thursday. Well, Mr. Lundeen and I speculated that it would not open back up at all, seeings how fishing was soo good in June. This week they delayed the reopening of walleye fishing till August 11th where it will again be legal to fish for walleyes, but not harvest any.  It will stay open until September 4th, or labor day then close again until December 1st, the start of the new harvest season.  I don't see an end in sight as it is sad, I have fished in Canada this year more than I have fished on Mille Lacs.  Although there are other reasons for this, I used to fish Mille Lacs almost every weekend in June and July.  Oh well, nothing ever stays the same.  I am not sure I will be getting out this weekend as I have a lot to do before heading back up to Lac Seul for a week of fishing.

Mille Lacs On the 4th of July

Kam first Walleye, a 26 inch beauty

With everything seemingly taken care of with the boat, the 4th of July has been a traditional day for spending on Mille Lacs Lake.  Actually it was the day I always had a standing reservation to fish with my good friend Tom Emmons, we would fish Mille Lacs for the day then stay long enough to watch some of the fireworks that are held in Garrison, MN.  Admittedly I sure do miss my friend.  Well life goes on and with July 4th being on a Tuesday, the passenger in the boat this day was an engineer from work, Kam Chen.  Kam's brother is traveling so it was a good opportunity to get him out fishing on such a beautiful day.  And fish we did!   Kam is from Hong Kong, is a brilliant engineer and is getting into fishing.  The other goal was to try and learn all of the new additions to the boat including I troll, the remote Panther Steering system on the kicker motor, as well to check out the newly repaired main motor steering and does the kicker motor even run!  Leaving at 9:00, a quick stop at McDonalds for breakfast before stopping in to see Bill at Lundeens Tackle Castle.  There I went over my strategy with Bill before stocking up on some leeches and crawlers.  Having let him know I was planning on some lead line trolling to test some of the additions, he gave me a suggestion on where to fish as he had been doing well out there and he believes that the gravel held some big fish!  A few weeks ago Bill gave me some Jointed Salmo's and asked if I would try them.  Unfortunately I left them on my bench back in the pole shed....pretty stupid!  Once we launched the boat and idled into the bay I opened the throttle and voila, the steering worked perfect!  We headed to the humps just at the edge of the bay but did not do very well.  Next stop was the rocks on Sherman's Point but there again nothing.  I headed to Sherman's Flat and began trolling up and down the edge, something that was a lot easier with my old tiller controlled boat however I wasn't getting too bad at following the contour with my front trolling motor.  This was really a trip to test out my accessories and to help Kam catch some fish.

Kam's 28 inch Walleye

Trolling crawlers on spinner rigs Kam looked at me and exclaimed he had a snag.  Of course I knew that was almost impossible as we were on a mud flat.  Anyway I took the rod, felt a big head shake then handed it back and told him, no this is a fish!  Kam reeled in a very nice 26 inch walleye, nice and fat, probably over 6 pounds.  A few pictures and back in the water she went.  We continued up the cut and back  finally catching 4 walleyes, not exactly on fire but the mayfly carcasses tell the story as walleyes will gorge themselves during a mayfly hatch.   The next strategy was to head to a gravel area and lead line troll some #5 Shad Raps.  This also gave me the opportunity to get more familiar with my kicker motor trolling set up.  I worked pretty nice.  My lead core setup includes Suffix 832 line, it sinks 30% more than standard lead core, instead of 5 feet/color it sinks at 7 feet/color.  We put 3 colors out to take everything down to 21 feet and the #5 shad rap would do the rest and rest it did! It wasn't long before the rods which were sitting in the rod holders went off and we had our first walleye trolling.  Minutes later Kam's trolling rod bent over and he reeled in a nice 28 inch walleye. It was pretty big and he was a little scared of it so I posed for the picture!  We ended up catching 5 nice walleyes on the shad raps before moving to our next stop, a deep rock reef for bobber/leech fishing.  No one was there at the deep water reef so we set up using the i5 trolling motor as our anchor, I have to tell you this is one of the nicest things I have on the boat.  Holds great and it is simple to move around to help locate fish.  Well before you know it Kam's bobber went down.  Telling him to reel up till he feels pressure then set the hook, which he did!  His first walleye caught bobber fishing where he hooked it himself.  It's a  lot of fun to help someone catch there own fish and this time Kam had a triple going, pulling crawlers, Lead Lining Shad Raps, and now Bobber fishing leeches.

We ended up with 4 fish there before we decided to head back.  With 13 fish caught it wasn't the hottest day of catching however I was very happy with the results.  With the crawler rigs I use #6 Tru-Turn hooks and every walleye that grabs the crawler is immediately hooked in the mouth area. Trolling Raps produces minimally hooked fish, and a quick set on the bobber fish meant lip hooked fish.  I know hooking mortality numbers are going to play an important role as the walleye fishing shuts down on July 7th and supposedly scheduled to open back up by July 27th however I don't have much faith in our Department of Natural Resources to do this.  Every fish we brought into the boat was lipped hooked and successfully released with minimal stress.  The amazing bite on Mille Lacs this year will likely result in a total closure for the rest of the open water bite which ends December 1st, 2017.  As stated before, politics is no place in this blog yet affects so many things!  This may have been my only trip to Mille Lacs this year, time will tell.  In the meantime it's time to get the Jon Boat out and start hitting the Mississippi River behind the house.

Dog Days of Summer

Flames shoot out the exhaust on an amazing run.

Fishing has been somewhat frustrating considering all the rain we have had in the last 30 days.  I suspect it's been over 12 inches but who is counting!  Friday I was fortunate enough to be invited back to Brainerd International Raceway (BIR) by my good friend Kevin Sonsalla.  Kevin is a business colleague I met a long time ago and he happened to be from the area where I grew up.  There were plenty of Sonsalla's near Eleva so we have a lot in common.  Last week event was the NHRA's (National Hot Rod Association) scheduled event and all the big national teams were there.  Kevin has a relationship with Tony Schaumacher, the championship drag racer who is sponsored by the US Army.  Therefore he has race day passes, passses for the hospitality tent which get's us refreshments and a awfully good meal after the first race.   It is interesting as these top fuel cars run on Nitromethane which has the ability to provide most of the oxygen needed to make power.  These engines are 500 cubic inch and have no cooling other than air, so after each run they are torn apart and rebuilt for the next race.  In this case the top fuel guys raced at around 5:00 in the afternoon and have to have their cars ready for the next run, 2 hours later.  It is quite fun to watch a crew of 4 guys rebuild the engine, pretty amazing.  These cars start from a dead stop and race just 1000 feet to the finish.  It used to be a quarter mile length however the speeds were getting too high so they shortened it.  The teams now have caught back up to the speeds and times of the old distance and the fastest run was covering the distance in 3.77 seconds with a top speed of 322 mph.  That's moving!  Sitting in the stands you literally feel the force of these engines as they scream by.  It is pretty loud as well.  We stayed for the second run later in the evening and the flames shooting out of the exhaust is pretty cool.  The last race of the day was a couple of jet engine powered cars and that was interesting.  Not as fast or as quick never the less the afterburners on the engines put on a pretty good show.

Current water Levels behind the house.

I did make it on the river on Sunday night however because of the rain the water was up another 18 inches.  The high water makes for traveling anywhere you want to go pretty easy however it does scatter the fish.  My neighbor Tom Olson went with me but it was pretty slow.  He caught a medium sized smallmouth while I haven't been doing very well at all in that department.  At 7:00 we decided to anchor and again all we could catch were 6 inch catfish in the high water.   Oh well, hopefully the rain will settle down somewhat. Personally I like it when the gage height is between 4.0 and 5.0.  Unfortunately both seats in my Jon Boat broke so I ordered new ones to replace them. They were pretty bad.  I have one other project going on with my boat, on the Ranger I have an HDS 9 mounted on the dash above my panel mount HDS12.  My original idea was to use a Johnny Ray so I could move it between my Ranger and the Jon boat however it proved to be too heavy for the Johnny Ray that I bought.  After a few ideas am going to try to mount just an HDS9 gimble to my dash using a nice 1/2" thick plastic piece then fashion it into an adaptor plate so I use the existing holes that I have already made.  Luckily the Johnny Ray still works good in the jon boat so I should be ok, it just takes a little thought process to make sure it looks good.

After a season of strictly catch and release fishing on Mille Lacs this year, the calculations for hooking mortality have now exceeded the allowable totals on the State fisherman's side.  Our illustrious Governor announce that we would not stop fishing but the Indian tribes called foul so starting September 6th it will be illegal to fish for walleyes again until a new quota is announced for December 1st...........what an unbelievable mess for sure.  I promised myself I won't get political but this whole situation on Mille Lacs is ridiculous for sure.  Anyway I am hoping to get out this weekend for one last trip for what it's worth, maybe try some deep water trolling with lead line or deep diving reef runners.  It's always fun and the MTT event on Mille Lacs, that strategy proved to be very successful.

Fishing with Glen!

Glen's first fish, 26 inches

Thursday afternoon I invited my friend Glen Collins, a work associate from Chicago, to go fishing on Mille Lacs Lake for walleye.  Glen is a good long time friend as I have known him for more than 25 years.  He is a fixture in the transformer industry and I have fished with him during one of our meeting in Jacksonville, FL.  Glen had some appointments in the area and I figured it was a good idea to take him up to Mille Lacs as the big fish were biting.  He took care of his appointments in the morning and by 1:00 he showed up at work.  We drove to my pole shed, hooked the boat up and headed north with our first stop at Lundeen's to get bait and a license.  I had bait left over from Sunday's trip and the weather was looking beautiful so we got what we needed from Bill's and headed for the landing.  The water was dead calm with an occasional ripple area but for the most part no wind.  Wanting to try the flats again I headed right to Sherman's and my dilemma with my new boat becomes obvious.  With my previous tiller boats it was easy to follow the break line at the top of the flats, where the big walleyes hang out.  Now it's really hard to do that, I simply create a route on the map then have my front trolling motor follow it up and down the contours on the map portion of the chart on the depthfinder however it is difficult to make adjustments.  I am sure at some point I will figure it out but for now it is what it is! I rigged up a couple of poles with spinner/crawler rigs and set them in the rod holders, not a bad way to fish.  I tie my own spinner rigs and use TruTurn hooks.  If a walleye hits the rig the hooks simply turn and they hook themselves quite easily.  When the rods are in the holders, if a walleye hits the rod buckles over and is generally hooked quite well.  It wasn't about 15 minutes after we started that one of the rods was bent over, I grabbed it and gave it to Glen...after all he was my guest.  This fish was a real fighter and after a courageous battle, Glen finally got it to the boat where I netted this beautiful 26 inch walleye.  A few pictures and we let her back into the water as she bolted away.   What I like about the Tru Turns also is the fish are generally hooked in the front of the jaw making for a safe successful release possible.  As you can see in the picture, it was pretty calm, as compared to last weeks outing, a nice change of pace for sure!

Glen's 2nd fish, a 27 incher

Replacing the crawler and resetting it wasn't long before Glen's rod was bent over and he had a nice fish on.  It fun fishing the calm and deep water as you can generally see the fish as it is getting near the boat.  It was another really nice fish and actually looked bigger than the first one he caught.  After netting the walleye and measuring it, this one topped 27 inches, another dandy walleye.  I was trying to get him to hold the fish right however I don't like to keep them out of the water too long so this pose will have to do.  It still is an impressive fish for sure.  We spent another hour on Sherman's and got another nice walleye however I decided to try something else that we do on Mille Lacs, Bobber fish.  My rods were all set up for 23 feet of water to we went back to where we were last Sunday and tried some bobbering there. We did get a couple of smaller walleyes and it was good to show Glen this different type of fishing.  We did miss a number of fish as maybe we were using too big a leech for the size of fish that we were hitting.  After an hour it was time to go as Glen asked about the Rock Hump to the east.  With the calm water and warm temperatures it was nice to just cruise for a while so we headed to Spirit Island.  As we rounded the island Glen was taken back by the half dozen or so white pelicans hanging around the rocks.  Being used to Florida, it is uncommon to see pelicans this far north, or so he thought.  He took a few pictures to send and we turned south to Anderson Reef to cast for smallies.  That wasn't too productive for sure.  After about 30 minutes of that we headed back to Indian Point to troll the long reef that extends out into the lake.  It was getting late anyway and it would be smart to be back close to the landing so I rigged 2 rods with shad raps and we trolled.  It was a good chance to try and see how the kicker worked in conjunction with using the front trolling motor to steer the boat.  This seems to be the acceptable way to do this but for me everything's a learning experience with this boat.  Some of my friends say that I will figure it out but as stated in the past, going from a tiller to a wheel has it's challenges.  Anyway I was able to stay in the "magic" 6 foot depth and man did something slam my shad rap.  It hit hard and was obviously a nice fish so I handed the rod to Glen while I got organized.  A couple minutes later I netted a nice plump 22 inch walleye, which was really nice to see.  I had assumed that this fish was a big Smallmouth bass but it didn't jump at all.  We let it go and continued on where I nailed 2 smaller smallies, in the 14 inch range.  It was 8:30 so we decided to head out, another very successful day on Mille Lacs.  Glen was very satisfied and I was happy that he had a good time as it get's hard to schedule things that work out great.  We are talking about chartering a grouper fishing trip during our TTA meetings at the first of December in Florida.  Glen's cousin Tim has a nice place on Marco Island we can stay so I am definitely going to figure that one out!

Last Monday I met with my friend Bruce Wiley for a discussion about a few things as he was heading up to Lac Seul on Friday.  Because a few guys were leaving early and he was staying till Saturday, July 2nd, he invited me to come up and fish Wed thru Friday (June 28 - July 1) and leave with him on Saturday.  He said I could bring someone so I called my brother Steve knowing full well he would not let this opportunity go unfilled.  Our plans are to head up on Tuesday and stay overnight, meeting Bruce at the landing at 7:30 on Wednesday morning, We should be in camp by 10:00 and fishing by 10:30 so hopefully I will have some great pictures next week.  My friend Paul Wenaas just got back and sent me some areas he thought would be good for bigger fish.  I have been getting ready all weekend and am excited to take advantage of Bruce's hospitality for sure.  Steve is going to pull my boat up and I plan on taking the time to get reacquainted with my GoPro Camera system.  Funny but this will be the 3rd trip to Lac Seul with my boat and interesting enough, most of the hours on the boat will be from there, not that I am complaining!!!  I have a list of stuff to bring including Large Curd Cottage Cheese, which Ken and Brenda, the camp owners love.

Troubles with the Boat Electronics!

Lowrance HDS12

Man, one almost has to be a computer engineer to deal with the issues that I have been having with my depth finders and associated electronics on my boat, it's got me running in circles.  Let me explain my set up.  Back by my console is a flush mount Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 unit, a 12 inch color screen that is pretty sweet.  On the bow is a HDS 9 Gen 3 which is ethernet connected to the 12 so they will talk to each other, share maps, waypoints, and also if you are knowing what you're doing, will allow you to view the sonar screen from either unit.  Everything is also networked together with what is known as a NMEA 2000 network, a technology that allows communication between a number of separate modules and allows them to either be viewed on the HDS units, and or controlled by them.  These things include stuff like my Point 1 compass that came with the boat, it provides a GPS signal that my outboard motor uses for speed, fuel usage, distance traveled, which can be linked into my HDS or displayed on the display that came with the boat (RPM, Tilt, other stuff) which is communicated through the NMEA network.  Also my front trolling motor is linked to the main HDS unit and you can control it from the console as well, my sonic hub (audio server) is controlled via the network.  Here's is where I am having an issue.  Because my bow and console unit are networked, I should be able to control from both locations, but that doesn't work.  Also the ability to switch sonar views (Console transducer is in the back of the boat, bow unit is connected to the transducer in the trolling motor) has been an issue.  Well after watching a few YouTube videos I finally figured out the settings to allow me to switch it.  It now makes sense but it was painful getting to that point, I must have accessed every menu in the unit.  The next thing is to figure out how to get the SonicHub menu bar on the bow unit.  I have a suspicion that the network connections up front are not correct and I have picked up a few parts to hopefully make it right.  We'll see and if so the network may have been set up incorrectly from the start.  I would be glad if this was the problem.  I am a stickler on features that don't work as I like everything to work as it's supposed to.  I probably could get by without being able to control the sonichub from the back only but hey, that's just not right!  Also I expected the units to share trails but have learned that this is not the case so I have to download them from one to the other.  They do each have a wifi feature and maybe I can learn how to transfer via that.  I did figure out how to put a picture of me holding a walleye as background wallpaper which is pretty slick.

Well, by the time you read this the ice should be off of Mille Lacs Lake, quite early in modern

Almost off!

historical terms.  Open ice is defined by the ability to drive from Isle, in the southeast corner to Garrison, in the northwest corner without encountering any ice. Unfortunately the latest developments with the walleye regulations leaves much to be desired.   The fishing season has been deemed catch and release only with no live bait to be used. You can imagine that this is a real blow to my baitshop friend, Bill Lundeen as he sells a lot of live bait, leeches, crawlers, and minnows.  The has been a lot of talk regarding this as being totally ridiculous and true to my vow not to make the blog political all I am going to say is that I agree with the ridiculousness of the whole thing.  Managing the lake as though it's a farm is impossible and I am afraid we will never see Mille Lacs back to it's previous glory of being the premier walleye lake in Minnesota.  Oh well, I am pretty good at trolling shad raps and lead lining so fishing should be good, maybe because there will be no one around!  That is really sad considering how many fish are in the lake now. I am anxious to get the boat out soon and see how she runs after it's first winter.  Mom is back at the rehab center and we went to see her on Sunday, she looks a lot better.  Hopefully by the weekend I will have everything figured out!

The Walleyes are biting on Mille Lacs!

15 inch Mille Lacs Walleye

Saturday morning I got a text from my friend Mark Applen asking if I was going to Mille Lacs.  I told him I was interested in fishing the flats so he said pick him up at 11:00AM.  It was a perfect excuse to leave.  It was about zero out and we knew it would be cold however I wanted to move around a little so we decided that we could both base ourselves out of my larger Clam insulated portable.  It's not that portable however I do have a trailer that makes it easy to load and unload so I hooked it up, loaded my auger, heater, propane tank, poles and Vexilar and picked up Mark.  Our first stop was Bill's to pick up minnows and get the latest information.  Our plan was to head over to Hunter's point Resort where they have a road plowed out to the flats, then find Sliver Flat, set up on the top (it's a very small flat) then fish the edges both the top edge and bottom edge.  Years ago I used to go out of Liberty Beach Resort, they would have a road out to 3 mile reef then extend it northwest right to Sliver Flat, you could turn south to 9 mile or turn north to Boot Flat.   I always like Sliver Flat however, there I go, fishing memories again!  Anyway, I forgot my trusted Lowrance HDS 9 Chart/sonar unit as it has the most accurate map and Sliver is funny, small and narrow.  I had the Navionics app on my phone and unfortunately it shows sliver as a round structure, not exactly correct.  Well, Mark had his handheld GPS but it had the Navionics map so we had a difficult time pinpointing the accurate depth.. As well there was a portable parked right on top of the flat and he had tip ups scattered up and down the top.  We ended up fishing the south edge and had to encroach on him only because he pretty much hogged the whole flat.  If I would have had my Lowrance Map with is based on the Lakemaster data, we probably could have successfully fished the north side but there was little I could do.  Either way we set up and Mark immediately caught a 15 inch walleye. Unfortunately Mille Lacs has a restricted harvest and one is only allowed a single fish that has to measure between 19 and 21 inches, not impossible but damn difficult at best.  To be frank, the tribal harvest and subsequent restrictions have really screwed up the lake. It is full of 13 to 15 inch walleyes and reports of 50 fish per day

Another small Walleye.

catches are not uncommon but you can't keep anything. People forget that mIlle Lacs was often called the "Dead Sea" or a current well deserved name "Home of the quarter pounder!" I had a blast as it's been a long time since I ice fished Mille Lacs, maybe a year ago.  I had fish constantly on my Vexilar and ended up with 7 walleyes in that 13 to 15 inch range.  In addition I lost a couple and had 2 really big ones on.  The story on Mille Lacs is the light bite so I switched to a Hawger Spoon with a single hook, my go to perch bait.  While sitting there talking to Mark all of a sudden a fish slammed my bait and the fight was on.  It had the classic walleye head shake and about halfway she came off.  Uffda!!! that was a nice fish and of course to speculate, maybe in that 24 - 28 inch range, I guess I'll never know.  The action was fast with some fish hitting the bait sand some just floating up to look at it and going back down. Either way it was enough to keep your interest as the ones that hit were aggressive and the one that just looked at it took some more finessing.  I sure would have liked to see those larger fish but maybe next week.  I definitely was cold out and for sure I will not forget my GPS mapping system next time. It's pretty accurate and is a big help to find that out of the way point of edge that can hold fish!

Uffda!

It's been pretty incredible what we have been paying for gas these days.  Never getting used to the $3.80/gallon price, on the other extreme I filled up on the way home (Saturday) in Princeton for $1.39/gallon.  25 gallons was $35.00.   Amazing. It's interesting that the pundits are saying that these low gas prices are not helping the economy, I guess everyone is used to paying high prices, go figure!  Anyway I am sure that places like Costco and Sam's club are 10 to 15 cents cheaper than this and I suspect it won't last long so stock up!  I have a 51 gallon tank in my boat so it would be nice if this stayed around the same price for at least 6 months.  I only would love to see the lower gas prices override the ethanol mandates but that's a whole nother discussion. My neighbor and friend, "Buck a Gallon Pete" says that we should see it go up and like clockwork it went up by $0.30 on Tuesday.  It would be nice to be able to stock up but that is somewhat impractical.  I am going to try to get back up to Mille Lacs this weekend and maybe even take a day off and help Bill do some pre-fishing next week for his clients.  The ice was not very thick for this time of year and with the forecast in the 50's for this Friday, it feels like ice out could be pretty early this year.  With MN fishing opener on the latest day possible, May 14th, it could be very good, especially if the water temperatures get into the high 50's, low 60's.  Time will tell, that's for sure.  With the mild weather I have been working on my boat and in addition to the new Ezee Steps on my trailer, Mark from Ezze Steps made me a special step to replace the one that was on my RangerTrail, ,mounted to the winch post.  It makes it much easier to climb in and out of the boat and when I get some more time I'll post a picture.

Mille Lacs 2014

Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota

It's time to comment on the current changes to the fishing regulations on my favorite fishing lake Mille Lacs.  Those who follow this blog know that I love fishing Mille Lacs for walleyes from May's opener to the end of February.  I would say that fishing has been pretty good the last few years with plenty of nice walleyes caught and like any lake it can have it's good days and bad days but on average I can't complain.  Unfortunately there are significant issues with the walleye population and it perplexes guys like myself that have fished the lake for over 30 years and have seen the changes.  Since the Supreme Court ruling in the late 1990's allowing the Ojibwe to harvest walleye for substance, the State of Minnesota has allowed them to gill net walleyes prior to the spawn.  Right or wrong this has set in motion a number of yearly adjustments in "safe allowable harvest" numbers, ever changing slot limits, and bag limit restrictions.  For me the last 3 - 4 years has been exceptional for consistent catches of nice walleyes in the 20" - 28" range yet these fish looked like the were starving.  While the perch fishing disappeared, days of 30 to 50 fish on a nice June day were not uncommon.  Once called "The home of the quarter pounder" few fish under 20" came in the boat for me during the last 2 years.  With the fisherman's slot at 16" - 20" and the nets targeting the same fish, it seemed inevitable.  Add to the fact that the explosion of both smallmouth bass and now northern pike just added to the predator base, the fish had ate itself out of house and home.  Now, personally I don't buy all of this yet I'm not in charge.  So we have a crisis, to many big walleyes, pike, and smallmouth....not enough forage and no survival of significance for young walleyes, perch, or tullibees for the future.  The DNR's strategy for 2014 is to significantly lower the allowable harvest, increase the limits of northern pike from 3 to 10, open up the slot limit for smallmouth, and institute a year long night fishing ban from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM.  In addition the bag limit stays the same as last year which is 2 walleyes in the 18" - 20" slot.  Top this off with what turned out to be a terrible ice fishing season (the DNR claims only 450# of walleyes harvested from Dec 1 - Feb 23) has created a tenuous situation for the business's that rely on fishing such as the bait shops and resorts.  Some are much more vocal while others are trying to figure out how to survive by creating opportunities.  It's definitely not easy.  For the DNR's take on the lake you can check out this link:
Mille Lacs Lake.  Also, the DNR in an attempt to soften the issue has started a newsletter called Hooked on Mille Lacs which can be accessed by clicking on the link.  Interesting.


Big Head, Little Body ( the fish, not me!)

So what do I really think?  First and foremost, no lake in Minnesota has been able to be managed while netting is present, not Red Lake, not Lake of the Woods, not Leech Lake.  Even if a certain allowable harvest is permitted, taking these fish prior to spawn only reduces the hatched biomass which is contrary to what the DNR claims as they say has more than enough spawning females.  It is well known that the lake is full of young fish, the perch hatch is the best in years.  This coincides with the complete shutdown of the fall bite as the fish had plenty to eat, were fat as pigs, and didn't need to chase down lures.  So what happened in 2013.......the ice was still covering the lake on opener, no significant netting was done on the lake.  Maybe it's too easy to assume yet something has changed.  Another interesting fact is that the Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources have looked at walleye populations and have determined that the 18" - 21" fish are the ideal spawning size with the highest success rate.  These are the exact fish that are targeted by the nets and is also represented on the current slot size fish we are allowed to keep.  The Minnesota DNR does not agree yet on the "Blue Ribbon Panel" to study the issue is a biologist from Ontario, go figure.  I am in agreement with the smallmouth regs going back to where they were.  Quite honestly a 16 inch smallmouth is delicious.  As far as the northern limits going to 10, I guess it opens up a lot of opportunities if you like them and know how to take out the Y bones.  The lake is getting clearer which definitely can affect fish populations as zebra mussels haven't help.  Whatever the changes, it certain that the good old days of fishing Mille Lacs, especially in the late 1980's thru 2006 may remain as such, good old days.  Lets hope not.

An interesting parallel to our issues at Mille Lacs is the early King Salmon run on the Kenai River.  Because of the low return population of these magnificent fish, the first run which occurs in June has been closed to any fishing.  Guiding on the Lower Kenai River consists of 3 major salmon runs, the early Kings in June, the 2nd run of Kings in July, and the first run of Silver Salmon in August. For my 2 friends on the Kenai who make their living as guides, both Jeff King and Keith Holtan understand the measures taken yet have a common concern for netting that has a huge effect on the returning population.  I guess we all have our agenda and thoughts.....ah to be King for a day!  Either way you will see the results of both fisheries as we document our experiences.  You can see Jeff's experiences to the left on Mile 14.  The weather is finally warming up as opener is just 4 weeks away, I think we'll be on the lake for sure!

Back in the Deep Freeze

Iowan Pro on Mille Lacs!

So I woke up on Tuesday morning to a now "this is getting old" temperature of -20F.  You would think that this weather should be making ice like crazy on Mille Lacs yet there is only a few resorts with roads yet and if one wants to fish the flats such as 7 Mile, 9 Mile, Sliver, you need a snowmobile to get around.  As cold as it has been there are still areas with only 10 inches of ice and 4 inches of slush.  For sure it's been tough on the business's around the lake as 2013-2014 ice fishing on Mille Lacs is heading for a bust.  On the other hand my new friend Terry, previous owner of my new Salem Ice Cabin has taken the time to send me some pictures of the walleyes he has been catching on Mille Lacs.  Using a snowmobile, he has been able to get out to the offshore areas and by his pictures, hasn't done too bad.   Terry is from Iowa and has a place near Garrison, MN.  He and his family fished both Saturday and Sunday and although wouldn't say that they killed them but considering the reports, it's nice to see someone is getting fish.  Although I never asked, I assume that this is his boy and you have to be impressed with the photo, the next Al Lindner for sure.  Just when I'm planning trips for the next 2 weekends, I have to admit that a few days on Mille Lacs would be nice by the looks of things.  On the other hand Lake of the Woods is going and Red Lake is still putting out fish.  Having committed to the next couple of weeks, I guess Mille Lacs will have to wait.  February is looking good and hopefully the weather will be better, at least Terry has inspired me to get my snowmobile running and ready to go if  needed.  It sure would be great to get into some of those big walleyes that are swimming around in the lake these days.  Rumor also has it there are a few jumbo perch being caught as well as some nice tullibees, which make great pickled fish.  It amazing, every year is different on Mille Lacs, 2 years ago we had large patches of open water into January, last year was great, this year is proving to be challenging. 

Sunset on Pelican

I did get out this weekend deciding to fish Pelican Lake which is close to home.  Friday night saw 6 inches of snow so all day Saturday was spent cleaning up the mess.  Sunday's temperature was pretty nice for a January, in the 30's so I decided to fish outside.  Having waxies from my last trip I simply drove out to the east side of the lake and used the access right off the road.  The snow was a little deeper than I figured but staying on the trail, it wasn't a big issue.  I've installed a Navionics App on my cell phone, it cost about $14 but it's pretty cool. The amount of lakes and information is pretty incredible, especially having it right on your phone.  Running off the GPS, I have all of their lake maps at my disposal, including a huge number of ones that feature 1 foot contours, including Pelican Lake.  With my phone its easy to simply drive to the underwater structure you are looking for as I simply picked an area that looked productive.  And productive it was.  After drilling a hole to check the depth, put in the transducer and was marking fish right away.   The first one came withing 20 seconds of the lure getting down to 9 feet, a nice sunfish around 7 3/4".  Pelican has some big sunnies in it but if you want to take some home it pays to be less fussy.  Sorting through about 1 fish per minute I ended the day with 12 big enough to fillet.  Staying after dark to see if the crappies would bite wasn't as productive as expected although I did get a few little ones.  The plan was to pack up and head back in time to catch the last half of the San Francisco/Seattle game at my neighbor Tim's.  With everything loaded, put the truck in drive and didn't move an inch.  A half mile out, nobody around and the truck just spins.  Something seemed different but that wasn't my first concern, heck getting out there wasn't hard, I should have been able to walk right out of my spot.  Having a shovel with I cleaned about 2 feet behind each wheel, backed up and got back on top of the snow however success was short lived.  After jacking around for 15 minutes I finally broke free and was able to get off the ice.  What a pain.  Looking back it was as though my 4 wheel drive wasn't even working.  Well, it wasn't!  Apparently the new computer controlled trucks get confused easily and the remedy is to shut the truck off for about a minute, let everything reset itself, then restart and go.  My neighbor Pete has the same truck and he confirmed this happens to him when he plows snow.  I guess your never too old to learn something new, its just remembering it all that's a problem. Off to Lake of the Woods and hopefully the reports are true.

Big Changes at Mille Lacs



Mille Lacs



First off, I finally got back from California, a busy trip for sure.  I was there for our annual APEC (Applied Power Electronic Conference) show and certainly if it is any indication of the economy, things are booming for sure.  I know one thing, Los Angeles is a great place to visit but quite honestly, it would drive me nuts to live there.  Staying in Long Beach, no matter which direction you went, it was at least 2 hours before you seen anything that resembles a bit of sanity!  While I was there the new regulations and announcements for Mille Lacs Lake have been released.  This is a topic that I have avoided yet has been on the top of my list for discussions with my fellow Mille Lacs anglers.  Personally I am extremely frustrated and really try to keep my posts non adversary and politically neutral.  This one has got my goat however as I have never seen a lake so mismanaged, but of course that is my opinion. The DNR has stated that the population of walleyes on Mille Lacs is at an all time low, perch are almost no existent, the eelpout are gone, but by golly its sure turned into a good smallmouth lake, yet we will still allow netting of walleyes during the spawn even though we close fishing at spawn for everyone else.  Because my travels have limited my time to articulate my thoughts in a civil matter, this week I am simply going to post the results from this weeks news release by the Minnesota DNR regarding the upcoming fishing season on Mille Lacs. 



Does anyone know?



Mille Lacs walleye anglers will be limited to two fish beginning May 11, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday morning. The harvest slot will be 18 to 20 inches. One walleye in the two-fish limit can be larger than 28 inches. Last year the limit was four walleyes, with only walleyes under 17 inches allowed to be kept. Fish that size were difficult to find. Changes also are coming this summer to smallmouth bass and northern pike limits on the big lake. The lake’s 27- to 40-inch protected slot regulation for northern's will be narrowed to a 33- to 40-inch protected slot, with one longer than 40 inches. The possession limit is three. The smallmouth bass bag limit and slot limit will be broadened to allow for more harvest. The new regulation is a 17- to 20-inch protected slot. The possession limit is six, with only one longer than 20 inches in possession. Previously, all smallmouth bass less than 21 inches had to be immediately released and the possession limit was one. “We want Mille Lacs to continue to be a world-class walleye fishing destination,” said Dirk Peterson, DNR fisheries chief. “Currently, the size and structure of the walleye population isn’t where we want it. We are committed to remedying the situation as quickly as possible through regulations that are designed to increase survival of the lake’s younger and smaller walleye. The smallmouth bass and northern pike regulations are designed to protect smaller walleye until we have better information on what these predator species are eating,” said Peterson. “We’ll be starting a predator diet study this spring. Meanwhile, the regulations will allow anglers some additional non-walleye harvest opportunities while also retaining solid numbers of trophy-sized fish.”  The DNR said it wants to conserve the lake’s large 2008 year-class of walleye because no strong year-class is coming up behind these fish. Fish in this year-class are 15- to 17-inches in length.  The new rules, the DNR said, intend to keep the total walleye kill below the combined state-tribal 2013 safe harvest level of 250,000 pounds. Fishing regulations may be adjusted if angler kill is expected to be either too high or lower than the anticipated. This year’s safe harvest level is the lowest established since treaty management began in 1997.  Tom Jones, Mille Lacs Lake coordinator, said a 2-inch walleye harvest slot is not unprecedented on Mille Lacs, having been implemented in 2001, 2002 and 2007. He added the state’s walleye harvest has been below this year’s allocation level of 178,500 pounds four of the last 10 years and in 2005 the harvest was below 200,000 pounds.  The lake is also becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. This is due largely to changes in the aquatic community, including the presence of unwanted aquatic invasive species such as zebra mussel, spiny water flea and Eurasian watermilfoil.  These factors, plus a state and tribal harvest management strategy that focused largely on walleyes in the 14- to 18-inch range, all have contributed to a declining walleye population.  Jones said despite the declining walleye population, winter walleye fishing was good, which typically suggests good fishing in spring, too.

Went to the Sportshow last night, something I always enjoy.  One of the things I really look forward to is seeing Ken and Judy Marlow from Alaska.  We have stayed at their place many times and really enjoy their company.  We usually fish with their son Neal on his boat, The Shearwater however he had upgraded to a larger, overnight boat.  Although it would have been fun, with my cousin Mark's wife meeting us to fish the second day, it just didn't work out.  As I told Judy, we definitely missed fishing with him.  Maybe next year.   They were nice enough to give me a jar of their homemade canned smoked salmon, always a treat.  Judy also showed us a picture of a bald eagle that took residence on their deck this year, actually walking up to the patio door and peering in.  It is pretty amazing.   Whether it's Ken and Judy, Jeff and MP,  Keith and Jane, it's pretty neat to have friends in fishing paradise.  With the overnight temperatures in the single digits there is plenty of ice fishing left.

The Drought Continues



Greg's 30 inch Walleye from Mille Lacs

 Another week, another fish-less day on the water.  Looking back at the year, the last successful day ice fishing goes way back to the weekend of December 28 when I was on Red Lake with Mark.  Although I have caught fish during the last 2 months, I really haven't kept more than 5 "I almost should have thrown back" sunfish.  A couple of weeks ago we tried Green Lake by Princeton with limited success however Pete saw a bunch of crappies on the camera and Jason did manage to keep 6.  Attributing this to a tough bite I decided to head back there on Sunday, I mean really, what's the chances of striking out 2 times in a row?  Well, I can tell you that it was pretty good! Picking up my neighbor Tom, we headed north to Green.  This time I brought my HDS7 which has depth maps of the most popular lakes in Minnesota, maybe a better understanding of the lake would increase our luck.  Arriving at the lake, Green was not one of the lakes that had any information on structure............so much for that plan.  We ended up going back to our spot from last weekend knowing that at least there was some fish there.  Like the movie Groundhog Day, I felt like Bill Murray's character, living the same scene over again.  I guess there isn't much else to tell.  So this week's picture is of a friend, Greg Jones.  A follower of this blog, we met in Anaheim attending the same week long trade show.  The first thing to come out of his mouth was how well they did on Mille Lacs the weekend before, catching quite a few fish including this 30 inch walleye.  With my luck lately, that's the last thing I needed to hear! I am glad someone is catching fish and it's great to have him share the memories with me.  That's a beautiful fish and will look great mounted on the wall of his office.  I guess I should have drove further north. 

Pickled Alaskan Silver Salmon

This week is the last weekend for inland walleye fishing.  It stays open into April on Lake of the Woods and is year around on the Mississippi River.  I usually have a chance to fish Mille Lacs more yet my travel schedule has been quite filled up lately as the year is flying by.  My quest for a crappie dinner has also influenced my Mille Lacs experience this year.  Last year I had 3 very successful outings on the big lake bringing home my limit of walleyes each time.  Maybe it's just hard to get excited about the current situation at Mille Lacs, something I will save for a future post or two, or three.  So in the absence of cooking fish I decided to make some pickled salmon from the fish I caught in Alaska.  Searching the Internet the perfect looking recipe appeared.   Using about 4 pounds of fillets the first thing was to skin and cut into chunks.  A 24 hour soak in 1 cup of salt to 4 cups of water then another 24 hour soak in white vinegar and it was ready for the brine.  A simple brine of 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, pickling spice, and the special ingredient, 1 cup of white port and just not any white port...Fairbanks White Port.  Uffda, was that hard to find.  I did find it in a 1.5 liter bottle, cheap and sweet, I told the clerk at the liquor store that there was enough for both the fish and I to get pickled.  Using red onions I figured that if nothing else the jar would look nice.  It'll be ready in a couple of weeks and I hope it's as good as it looks.  With halibut left in the freezer, that might be my next thing to try unless of course we can find some tullibees on Mille Lacs in a few weeks.

This weekend is busy and if I do get out it will only be for a few hours again.  Mark asked me if I wanted to fish the Perch Extravaganza on Mille Lacs but I have another engagement I need to attend.  Sunday may find me down on the river with my friend Kevin, we will have to see how that turns out.  Oh well, it snowed again and that will keep me busy for a while.  We have actually had some decent snow this year and maybe I'll get a chance to take out my snowmobile for a ride.  I know that we need the moisture as the Mississippi River behind the house was awfully low this fall.  Here's to changing luck!

Scouting For This Weekend



Tom's 27 3/4" Walleye on an X-Rap

 My brother Steve is one of my best friends.  About 45 years ago our Dad would have begged to differ as we had our share of scuffles growing up together.  I remember one incident in particular, as we were pushing each other around on the stairs he took a swing at me.  That day I was faster than him and when I ducked his fist continued all the way through the sheet rock.  I knew we were in trouble, however it was apparent that he would take the brunt of it, I mean really, it was his fist that put the hole in the wall.  The years have added civility to our relationship as we have been to Alaska together, ice fishing at Lake of the Woods, is a seasoned member of Team Walleye, and the occasional trip to Mille Lacs.  Steve has recently changed jobs and the company owners love to fish.  When the subject of Mille Lacs came up he said that his brother Dave fishes it all the time, which evolved into let's go and this weekend it's show time!  Steve, his son Kevin, and 6 others are meeting me on Friday as we try to put some fish in the boat. September can be an interesting time of year to fish Mille Lacs.  My strategies have changed through the years as long line and lead line trolling have become an important technique to catching walleyes.  The walleyes have been hit pretty hard this year as well, things have changed regarding fish location in September and October.  It was a given that starting about the first of August the big fish would move back on the reefs to take advantage of the forage found there.  My only mounted walleye came off 3 mile reef on August 12, 1988 in 5 feet of water, right at dusk.  There were years where I could show up on a reef, cast shallow running lures like Rouges or Husky Jerks and catch 10 - 15 walleyes in that half hour before sunset to dark time period with a few in that 28 inch class.  The last 4 - 5 years this pattern has definitely changed.  Myself and a few others who have taken advantage of this now


My First walleye of the night

 rare bite believe that the recent change in smallmouth regulations which only allow one fish over 21 inches have affected the shallow negatively (for walleyes).  We theorize that the smallmouth populations have exploded and have taken over the shallow rock reefs making it almost impossible for a walleye to find anything to eat there.  Certainly there has been a movement to deeper water and maybe it was already there, we just didn't know.  All I can say is things have changed.  So in light of my task, neighbor Tom Olson and I went up Saturday afternoon to do some pre fishing.  Launching out of Cove Bay, the plan was to fish the deep water for a few hours, hit the shallow rock points before settling into that "potential" shallow water crankbait bite at dusk.  Well the deep trolling simply burned gasoline and the shallow rock point proved little to build my confidence.  On to Anderson's Reef where I have had success before but it's been hit or miss.  Tom likes to cast for muskies so he casted a large #13 jointed X-Rap while I pitched for walleyes.  About the time I lamented the lack of fish on the reef a dandy 27  3/4 inch walleye grabbed his muskie lure.  Not that walleyes don't hit large baits but it is a good example of "big fish eat big baits". 



19 inch walleye on a #5 Hot Steel Shad Rap

 With the sun setting we changed to long line trolling shad raps and rouges at the edge of the reef.  I have a milk run that goes from the south tip of Anderson's, up along the west side and over to a little known hump and back.  Much of this water is 10 feet and word was that this depth was putting out fish.  My favorite color shad rap has been Hot Steel as it's been a great lure both for shallow water and deep lead lining.  15 minutes into the troll I hooked my first walleye, about 13 inches and came out of the 10 feet depth.  My next fish was a 12 inch smallmouth and was followed up with a 14 inch smallie.  As a side comment, I'd love to keep a few of them.  Smallmouth bass out of Mille Lacs are as good deep fried as any walleye can be.  Swinging around the hump something more substantial hit the lure and we landed this 19 inch walleye, interesting..............maybe the reef bite might materialize this year.   In the next 30 minutes I got another smallmouth and an 18 inch walleye before darkness settled in and the bite went dead.  After a half hour of trolling with nothing to show it was time to head in.  We ended the night with 4 walleyes including the nice 27 3/4 incher, 4 smallies, not bad for a short time fishing.  It goes back to what I had stated earlier, often the bite this time of year is in that last 2 hours of fishing and it was no different this time.  This is why I am never much in a hurry to leave for Mille Lacs in September.   A comment on the drive back to Cove Landing.  There is a very shallow rock reef that lies across the entrance to Cove Bay.  In recent years it has been marked with red and green navigational buoys however I have it marked in detail on my GPS as they will eventually remove the buoys for the winterbefore open water fishing ends.  At night I simply follow my route with out incident.  For some reason this year they decided to add additional buoys and extend them out further from the reef.  The route I have on the GPS now has a red buoy smack in the middle of my marked entrance.  It's a reminder that you can never trust the exact placement of the buoys on Mille Lacs and if I had remembered my spotlight, things would have been better.  I didn't hit it thank God!!

I look forward to fishing this weekend however the wind cast has both Friday and Saturday at 20 mph from the Northwest.  It will definitely change our strategy of where to fish and of course help cool the water down.  The surface temp was still 68 on Saturday but I expect it to have dropped under 60.  With air temps in the 50's predicted, its interesting when the water is warmer than the air.  We are due for our first frost soon and it should put an end to canning tomatoes, finally!  In Chicago next week for the exciting Coil Winding Show as I have a reservation with a good supplier at Gibson's Steak House on Wednesday.  It's quite an experience if you haven't been there.