Our 3rd Annual MTT for Eric Applen



Catching in the rain

Last Saturday my friend Mark Applen and I competed in our third annual MTT walleye circuit tournament on Mille Lacs Lake.   The people who run the Minnesota Tournament Trail happen to be Mark's neighbors at Fisherman's Wharf on the east side of Mille Lacs and graciously donate a tournament position each year.  Mark and I assure that their donation is fully utilized to it full extent by purchasing at the stated value, a great excuse to spend a day together on the lake.  It has not been without it's rewards as the first year we entered landed us in 3rd place, good enough to raise $1046 for Mark's passion, the Eric Nicole Applen fund.  The story has been told many times yet the work is as important as ever, supporting those families affected by cancer.  Last month my cousin Mark Anderson from Anchorage sent me an e-mail asking for help.  A co-worker and obviously someone special to him had a 7 year old daughter that learned she had a rare form of leukemia.  A quick diagnosis in Anchorage determined that her best hope was in Portland Oregon, a decision that needed no discussion.  She was transported by air ambulance immediately to Portland and the family could only sit back and watch.  Understanding that families are thrust into these situations without fully understanding the impact on their day to day lives, the ENA fund sent a significant grant to help them deal with their situation.  No, we cannot fix the problem but we can try to take a little stress away.  I'm never sure but really it's only important that we try.  If you are interested in helping make a difference please go to www.enafund.com  and donate whatever you feel is appropriate.  Our big fund raiser, the ENA golf tournament is on June 14th and to date we have raised over $250,000 for helping families simply cope.  As far as this year, well we finished 40th out of 73 teams.  It's easy to look back at our strategy and for me 

Dinged prop

we left a hot bit to look for that elusive 18 - 20 inch slot.  After catching a 19.875" keeper on our first spot, another 23 incher and it went dead.  With the late ice out we decided to fish shallow yet the weeds hadn't even emerged with put a wrench in our strategy.  The next stop was a 20 foot offshore hump about 3 miles out.  I started to mark fish immediately however they tended to be tight to the bottom.  As the wind picked up we decided to drift and within 5 minutes something slammed my nightcrawler.  3 minutes later we netted a 20.5 inch walleye, a tad too big.  As the wind continued to build, we drifted a pattern ending up with 4 fish up to 26 inches in less than an hour.  It was raining like crazy and as you see the pictures we got included raindrops on the lens.  Getting beat up we decided to move back to the shallower area where we missed a nice walleye and landed an 18 inch smallmouth bass.  Our weigh in was at 3:30 so we headed north to get closer to Hunter's Point Resort, the host of the MTT, and did a drift across Lakeside Reef.  There was a lot of fish yet we only ended up with a keeper smallie.  Heading in to make sure we qualified, I dropped off Mark at the dock with our fish then moved out.  Because the wind was blowing into the resort and the troughs of the waves were substantial, as I backed up at idle speed my prop hit something and it wasn't good.  Immediately the motor started to vibrate as I knew this wasn't going to be cheap!  After getting back to the dock and loading the boat, the skag was bent to the left and one blade had been altered a bit.  I'm pretty sure the shaft is good but we'll see as I bring it in on Monday to get fixed.  This whole thing got me thinking about my planned trip to Lake Oahe in July and what would I do if I hit something.  A quick check of Craigslist found a 14 x 20P Suzuki propeller for about 1/2 price of a new one..............I'll take it!  A good deal, it's probably a good idea to have a spare, especially for my trip out to Lake Oahe in July.



World Class Apple Wine

 This week has been anything but normal.  Saturday was our MTT, Sunday was an effort of get a few things done around the house then head to Hillsdale, Wisconsin for a graduation of an old friend's grand daughter.  On Tuesday my wife and I spent the afternoon/evening taking wedding pictures for our dear friends Bill and Kathy Lundeen's daughter Amanda and her new husband Tom.  With Bill's bait shop facing the peak time for his business, any distraction would have an impact on his success for the year so a mid week wedding was perfect.  Luckily Bill's friend Mike Meleen (who I worked with a couple weeks ago) decided to help by manning the shop.  On Wednesday night Lory Brasel and I spent time bottling our homemade apple wine.  It actually turned out fabulous as we bottled 25 750ml bottles of the wine.  The apple wine was made from cider that Lory and I pressed in 2011 from my orchard and included 5 different varieties; Haralson, Honeygold, Honeycrisp, Fireside, and Wolf River.  Apple wine starts out very dry so it needs to be sweetened to make it drinkable.  After doing a little taste testing I believe we got a winner and proceeded to bottle.  Lory commented that he would like to enter the wine at the Minnesota State Fair and I agreed.  We have rhubarb wine in the  fermenter and may actually get another batch of apple going.  It's pretty good stuff!

This weekend is again crazy.  We are driving to Madison to attend a funeral, my nephew Alex graduates, and my gut feel is that the walleye bite on Mille Lacs is hot.  I cannot get my motor in to get the skag and propeller fixed until Monday so I might have to use my new "used" prop.  My plan is to switch the prop, maybe head to Mille Lacs on Sunday, and let the chips fall where they may.  With the constant rain the garden is starting to weed up, the grass is growing like mad, and work is absolutely nuts!





The Feed Bag is On!!!

Despite last weeks sad turn of events, getting out on the boat can help wash all ones sorrow away.  Having a few sorrows to wash, the hot Mille Lacs bite has been nothing more than phenomenal and I have been taking advantage of everything she offers.   My first real trip was actually on Sunday, May 27th.  Although my friend Tom Emmons would more than likely disagree, he did take priority over what turned out to be a pretty good fishing trip.  This trip included Lory Brasel bringing his 18 foot Lund to fish with Tom McAtee, and I showing the newbie to walleye fishing, Welly Chou, the finer points of the Mille Lacs post spawn bite.  After stopping for bait at Lundeen's, Lory got the jump on heading to the landing on the west side by 10 minutes.  The wind was brisk from the east and my concerns about the rough water were confirmed as the lake came into view, 3 foot rollers hitting the shore.  As we passed the Conoco/Subway we spied Lory's truck parked, probably loading up for lunch.  A quick call confirmed my suspicions, it would be a lot easier and comfortable if we turned around and launched on the east side.  Although about 20 more miles, it was a smart move for sure.  Launching at the new Liberty Beach Landing, the ramp was full as we had to park the truck on the main highway.  There were 3 tournaments being held in the coming week (more on that) and with the bite strong, every landing was overflowing.  Finally getting on the water we headed to the first structure 2 miles out.  The east side of Mille Lacs has a ton of unnamed humps that come up from 35 feet to 20 - 24 feet, some are rather large and some are very small.  After drifting over a few times we fired up the Suzuki and headed a mile south to a small unoccupied structure topping at 22 feet.  We drifted across and the Lowrance lit up with fish hanging a foot or two off the bottom.  Usually this means the fish are active and it prompted me to try out the anchor function on my Minn Kota Terrova I-pilot.  Wow, what a fantastic feature for bobber fishing walleyes!  The anchor in the boat just became 99% obsolete.  With the bow into the wind the trolling motor kept us exactly in position above the fish with little sway.   Rigging up Welly line and casting it out he watched as this was a new experience for him.  As the bobber hit the stop on the line, set at 20 feet, it just kept on going.  I was wondering where his bobber went when we realized it was down.  Now bobber fishing has a technique all it's own as you really need to tighten the line before you set the hook.  With the fish moving and you stationary, this can be difficult to teach the right touch.  With that, Welly missed the first bite, the second bite, and the third bite before asking me to set the hook on the fourth hit.  Refusing, he finally got a nice 16 inch keeper.  While the Terrova held us in place a large thick mark appeared on the screen of my HDS 10.  Quickly reeling in my rig and letting it back down right next to the boat, the leech and sinker came into view as the fish swam up to meet it at 18 feet.  Back down it went and as the bobber hit the water it just kept on going.  A quick flick of the wrist and the above picture is what ended up in the net, a really nice 27.25 inch walleye.  Not bad.  The 4 of us ended up with 8 keeper walleyes, enough for each to enjoy a nice fish fry.

Last weekend was tournament time as Mark Applen and I fished the Minnesota Tournament Trail event on Mille Lacs, Sunday June 2nd.  We have fished this tournament for the last 2 years with the highlight being our rookie year where we took 3rd place, winning $1046 for the ENA Charity Fund.   Last year we gambled and may have placed 6th, in the money but our strategy pushed us to 16th place.  This year we ended up a respectable 69th out of 83 teams.....not very good!  Although the fish were biting like crazy we decided to stay close to our east side hot spots and caught a bunch of 21 - 25 inch fish yet no slot fish under 17 inches and no lunkers over 28 inches.  The primary issue was the early spring have moved the fish into deeper water, into their summer peak locations.  Our traditional hot spot of 2 years running was basically void of fish.  I was pretty confident that one needed at least a 28 inch fish to play the game and the winning team brought in 2 plus 4 slot fish (you can weigh 6 fish per team) for a total of over 18 pounds.  This along with a number of teams who did bring in a 28 incher made placing in the money very difficult.  Never the less after working our spots we headed out to the flats to try and salvage the day.  We were in the first flight of 50 boats to start at 7:00AM and as you can see the majority of the boats headed north to the mud flat areas.  We headed to the gravel bars and humps off the east side and really never got a slot fish or a 28+ until we moved to the Midget Flat.  Immediately we started marking fish and soon employed our trusty I-Pilot to hold us in place while we through out the bobbers.  Almost immediately they went down and within a 20 minutes we had 2 slot fish under 17 in the live well.  We continued to work the flat and caught about 19 fish total with the majority being again in the 21 - 25  inch range.  With a few hours left we decided to go back where we received a good tip that there were some slots being caught, as well be closer to the weigh in.  We managed to catch our third slot fish then had to head in to be counted as arriving before 3:00 to avoid disqualification.  Hindsight is 20/20 and the chances of getting a 28+ are as good where we fished as anywhere yet thinking about it, the area's were hit hard by the launches and they probably took most of those fish under 17 leaving little for us.  Oh well, it was still a blast to fish with my friend Mark, a great prelude to our big event on June 15 to raise money for the ENA fund to help the families of children with cancer.  This year is our Tenth Annual and we should surpass the $250,000 raise for a great cause.  If you feel like helping click on this link ENA Fund and hit the donate button on the bottom of the page to give through your Pay Pal account.  It's really a worthwhile cause and I will report on our success after the Golf Tournament we hold as our major fund raiser.  The last picture is a 25 inch fish that we got early Sunday morning of the tournament.  As I said, we really caught a lot of nice walleyes however Mark refused to take any more pictures unless it was of a 28 inch fish.  As a result this is the only picture I have for a reather successful day of catching the wrong sized walleyes!

Sunday I am taking my neighbor Blair and his friend from Chicago to Mille Lacs hoping to repeat the success of the last 2 weeks.  Blair asked if I would be interesting in hiring out but since he moved my shed (another story), it's the least I can do.  I hope the bite is still on, which it should be and I look forward to an exciting report next week.

The Final Tally

As always Team Walleye organizer, Ron Edberg sent me the finally tally on the number and length distribution of our walleye catch on Leech Lake last week.  The numbers pretty much tell the whole story of a tough bite for opener. For 2012 the total number of walleyes caught over 12 inches amounted to a paltry 97 fish.  With 21 guys fishing this year it only amounts 4.62 walleyes per guy for the 3 days and .77 fish per guy per session (6 sessions).  Comparing the 2011 catch of 251 fish with the same amount of guys and the 2009 catch of 389 walleyes, slow is probably an understatement.  One thing a tough bite does is bring out ones creativeness.  As I stated last week, one can never leave an unproductive spot too early.  For me this meant moving around quite frequently.  Whether it's Pine Point, Stoney Point, Ottertail Point, Goose Island, Big Hardwoods, Little Hardwoods, Star Point, or my secret location I spent enough time at each of these traditional fishing locations to determine the best strategy.  Trolling Raps at dusk and fishing the deeper structures were the key to bringing walleye in my boat with 22 caught.  Out of 7 boats, Team Anderson produced 23% of the fish caught, not to bad as I attribute it to hard work, a good strategy, and having great fishermen in my boat to help with the task.   One of the interesting facts revealed by the graph is the linear distribution of the fish size.  From 12 inches minimum to the 27.5 inch winning fish there is a straight line between them.  This indicates that the year classes caught are evenly distributed with the population being well balanced. 

Here is the official Team Walleye 2012 group picture in front of the new cabin.  All of the guys are great, some seasoned fisherman and some that may have never caught a walleye.  There are a few that will fish with me throughout the year and some I will not see again until next year.  If you click on the picture it will load up and you should be able to read the names.  Quite a crew if I say so myself.  Of particular note is my younger brother Jon, the last guy on the right.  Life hasn't been exactly fair to him as he a number of surgeries to take care of a genetic condition that has caused the loss of his right eye, had tissue transplants, and extensive reconstruction of the area beneath what once was his nose.  A trip like this would normally be out of his reach so my other brother Steve and I decided to invite him with a few years back as our guest.  This year Jon fished every session and is a full blown Team Walleyer.  If we can just get him from winning the DCS award next year, it would be a huge accomplishment.  Maybe the fact that he fishes with Steve may severely handicap him.  I think Steve and I will have to have a discussion about his guiding capabilities!

As I write this post the rain gauge outside says 5.25 inches.  This is basically what has fallen in the last 24 hours.  The Mississippi River behind the house is really coming up and I am sure Mille Lacs is also moving higher.  Traditional this is the week the garden gets planted however it looks more like a mud hole than a garden.  The Mille Lacs walleye bite is in full swing with reports of 40 - 50 fish per outing.  The plan is to get up there on Sunday and see if the reports are correct.  I have committed to fish the Minnesota Tournament Trail (MTT) again this year on behalf of the Eric Applen Fund to see if Mark and I can score in the money.  Last year we got a little greedy so we definitely have a better plan this year.  Happy Memorial Day and take the time to honor those who have served.  For me it includes my Dad (Air Force), Uncle Keith (Navy), Cousin Jerry Ystad (Vietnam), and Rich Allen (Army Airborne).  Thanks for your sacrifices, you will not be forgotten.  Here is a picture of my dad at the age of 17, just out of basic training....good looking guy.  I guess I was blessed more with his brains than his looks!  God bless all of our veterans and service members.