Back From Fisherman's Cove, Lac Seul

26.5 inch walleye, good for 2nd largest!

Last week was our week long trip to Lac Seul with my brother, cousin Paul, friends Mike Werms, Mike and Kevin Joyce, and a couple of new guys, Randy and Dave.  Our trip started out Friday afternoon, August 3rd at noon, whereas my brother picked up Paul in Hudson, we made it to the pole shed where we hooked the boat up and headed north to spent the night in International Falls before crossing the border the next day and getting to camp in the afternoon.  After a good nights rest and breakfast at Sandy's place, a local cafe, it was off to the border.  Paul Steve, and I had a little over our limit of alcoholic beverages however I have learned if you are open, honest, and spell out everything in it's package, maybe they can't add as fast as I can talk,  maybe we have that trusting look, either way we tend to get through the Canadian's without much of an issue!  Our next stop was Dryden to shop for Groceries, then headed west to the town of Vermilion River before turning north.  This trip was on the northwest side of Lac Seul whereas most of the time on Lac Seul is on the northeast side of the lake, about 120 miles from the Fisherman's Cove.  Never the less the fishing was good and the accommodations were 2nd to none.  We were able to get out fishing on Sunday as the weather was perfect all week. Unfortunately Kevin Joyce's outboard motor decided to call a time out about 6 miles into our initial run.  We decided to take the boat back to camp so Mike started his kicker and we followed him back, fishing along the way.  Of course nothing caught was "official" however it did serve to get us warmed up!  After getting it back to camp and deciding that having an oil light that won't go off as potentially harmful, we put an extra guy in my Ranger (Ranger 1) as well Mike took Kevin and his brother Mike in his Ranger (Ranger 2).  It was fine as these boats have plenty of room and it worked out really well.  Once settled we headed out to the Double D's, two deeper underwater humps (one can only guess how the name was figured out!) This is a mid-lake area about 20 miles from camp.  The group has a friendly little contest each year which recognizes certain individual accomplishments withing the group.  First fish caught, Largest walleye, Second largest Walleye, and most fish per boat.  Within 30 seconds Mike Joyce had the first fish, something that he is pretty good at!  Of course the most total fish would have to wait until Thursday evening however on Sunday I nailed a 26.5 inch walleye that held for 2nd place.  Admittedly this wasn't what I thought to be a large fish yet it held throughout the week, which guaranteed my initial investment back!

Location of an Island fire on the NW side of Lac Seul

One thing about Ontario this year, it was pretty dry in the area.  We've had smoke warnings on the way up as the forest fires in Canada have been pretty  widespread this year.  Doing some research one learns that most of not all the current fires have been started by lightening strikes.  If you look at this map, our camp is located on the western edge of Scout Bay (upper Left) and each day we would start  on a route to this fishing spot,  one could see a smoke bellowing from an island south of our route.  It was interesting because in the late afternoon, on our way back to camp, one could see the distinct yellow glow from the fires on the island which is marked on the map on the right by a red icon.  This fire was burning through the entire week we were there.  I am sure because it was on an island, it is not worth the time or effort to put it out so they just let it burn.  By Wednesday not only this fire but a number of them in Northwestern Ontario put a well defined haze into the air and there were respiratory warnings out.  Not enough to stop us from fishing however the effect of all the fires in Ontario were quite interesting when one realizes how large of an area the smoke can cover.  It even affected areas 500 miles south of us back home.   It makes for pretty nice sunsets however!

The Sconnie Fishing Opener

Loon on a Nest

I decided to use the Wisconsin Fishing Opener as a great excuse to get together with my cousin's Paul Anderson and Greg Nelson.  Paul lives just east of Hudson Wisconsin and Greg has a lake home on Clear Lake which is part of a connected group of lakes just north of Bloomer, Wisconsin.  I haven't seen Greg in a while and I was looking forward to getting together again with both of them.  Truth be told it was also a good excuse to get my boat out and run it prior to this weeks Minnesota Fishing Opener.  I packed up everything the night before and picked Paul up around 8:30 and we were at Greg's by 10:00.  Greg's place is beautiful and we had some chocolate chip cookies he had made that had the baking soda missing.  Apparently the baking soda helps cause the cookie dough tho flatten out when heated and his cookies were more like scones than cookies but that's ok.  We loaded up my boat and we headed for Chain Lake, the southern most lake in the group.  It was fairly windy and admittedly I still have a difficult time with boat control with the wheel boat but luckily the company of my cousins was more important than catching fish, which proved to be a good thing.  We tried a number of spots without much luck, I guess it probably would have helped if I tried harder, maybe tying on a bobber/minnow rig for crappies but it just never happened.  When we launched the boat, right next to it was a weed bed and a loon nest with a loon sitting on her eggs.  It seemed an odd place for a loon considering all of the boat traffic from the landing however she never even paid any attention.  That was pretty cool as we were pretty close to her.  Sometime on Mille Lacs the loons come very close to the boat often times swimming right under it.  They are a beautiful bird and this weekend we will blessed with a constant chorus of their haunting call.  Although this has music, the first part is pretty good Loon voices.  One of the things Greg asked me is if we were going to stay for supper and have hamburgers?  Well of course, anything to watch Greg work.  About 5:00 he asked to drive the boat down to the end of the lake to Hawk's Resort and bar.  There he ordered a beer for us and said this is who is going to cook your hamburgers!  Admittedly they were pretty good and even better as Greg bought.  I love these old Wisconsin resort/bars on the lake.  I con't care which one you go into, they make you feel as though you've lived there all you life.  By 7:00 we had the boat loaded and headed back to Hudson then home.  We left promising this would not be the last as we didn't get any fish yet Greg insists it's a good lake.  I was very happy at the outcome and as stated before, I am still having an interesting time learning to fish out of my boat.

Our Magnetic Signs for our Trucks

Friday is the day we take off for our 43rd Annual Leech Lake Opener.  It's pretty exciting as both Mark Mayerich and I have got everything pretty well set.  We have the hats, shirts, food, assignments, we'll pick up the bait on the way up.  Pretty much everything is done.  This year we have a full cabin again, 22 guys and it looks like it should be a great opener. As stated in the past we were selected as the winner of the  2011 Minnesota Bound fishing traditions contest. It is a lasting memory to our friend Ron Edberg who was tragically killed in September of 2012 at a workplace shooting.  This year we had to find a new company to embroider our hats as Ink Monsters went out of business. Accent Sign, Ron's company that he worked at, continues to do our signage like Ron used to do for us, which is really nice.  We met the manager on Tuesday night and it was obvious that he enjoyed doing our stuff and it's fun to have all of the things Ron would do, which was alot! We still have the travelling trophy and Accent does the engraving for the winner as well.  This year was early ice out however April was cooler than normal so it has pretty much evened this out making it look like a fairly normal walleye opener.  This is the first time at Leech with my boat as I did spend some time last week practicing trolling with my kicker motor.  I like to troll the shorelines at night with shad raps, it's been a pretty successful strategy for sure.  The weather is looking to be somewhat cooler than normal as the opener is as Late in May as it can be.  Oh well, better than working!  I come back on Tuesday the 17th then on the following Monday I head to Lac Seul for a 5 days of nonstop fishing walleyes.  That's always a great trip and this year should be no exception.  Good Luck everyone!

That Time of Year

Water covering the ice.

It's that time of year where one day it can be 10 degrees out and the next it can be 50.  Because of the late ice cover and the relatively mild temperatures, the ice thickness on Mille Lacs is about 24 inches.  This is pretty light as normally we would have around 30 - 36 inches.  Last Saturday was very nice out and we had .5 inches of rain around home which along with the warm weather basically melted all of what little snow we had on the ice and polled about 2 - 5 inches of water on top of the ice.  I met Mark Applen who had his house out a couple of miles out of Hunter's Point then because the road was open to the flats I decided to drive the extra 10 miles or so out to Sliver again.  This time I had my Lowrance HDS 9 with me which has the accurate map and it was pretty easy.  Mark's son-in-law, Brandon was interested in coming with so we headed off.  Hunter's stated that the road to the flats was ok however they were going to remove the bridges Sunday Morning so if I had a wheel house I needed to get off before 9 or I'd be stuck.  We were just going out for the day so that wasn't an issue however it was pretty sloppy all the way to the flats however the bridges were in pretty good shape. With all the water on the ice it was interesting to drill a few holes as the water could drain through those holes.  The action wasn't as hot as last week but we did get some fish, a lot of those 13-15 inch walleyes again, it was fun.  I am sure that this was my last trip out to the flats but at least I got to fish them a couple of times.

Hand Carved Birthday Present from my Cousin Paul

Tuesday saw me head back to Mille Lacs to help Bill prefish an area with his friend Don,  as he had a number of clients he was taking out on Wednesday and wanted to see if we could identify a bite.  We drove out of Mac's Twin Bay and fished around Hennepin Island in the 30 - 33 feet of water.  Bill must have drilled about 100 holes and all three of us basically skipped from hole to hole looking for active fish.  Unfortunately we didn't find many.  No small walleyes and I did hook a nice tullibee but it came off.  I did get a nice perch and Bill nailed a couple of tullibee's and a smaller perch but fishing was spotty for sure.  A cold front had come through and the ice had solidified pretty well.   Getting back to work, on Wednesday my cousin Paul Anderson stopped by to give me a birthday present that he made for me.  I was absolutely shocked at how nice of a job he had done on this, hand carving it from a pine board, adding a fly to the second hand, and the nice touch a Cabela's Mean Eye crankbait on the pendulum!   Wow, Paul and I were best friend growing up and his dad (my uncle) was really special.  I am really speechless and excited about my special gift that Paul has given me!!

Friday my brother Steve and I head to meet Mark Applen, Russ Praught, and his brothers to fish the Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  It's a perch contest but rally it turns into a button drawing and they have some really nice prizes.  This is usually the last time I get out my wheel house as it's suppose to be 50 on Saturday.  I really love staying on the ice and my brother Steve enjoys going with me.  Too bad his son Kevin isn't around as I know he'd be with us.  Either way with the relatively warm winter and the unusually thin ice, ice out should be quite early this year and provide a fantastic opener.

Last Trip to Red for this Winter

Paul outside the Salem

Last weekend was my 4th trip to Red this year and the latest I have ever fished Red.  Last year we got out just after Thanksgiving and fished till the middle of January however this year the ice was late and we brought our houses up after Christmas and still had to stay on shore the first trip.  Fishing slows down in January and although we did catch enough fish to have a dinner at JR's, the action was spooty at best.  Although I did catch a few fish myself I would have to say that the total for the house was less than 15 for the weekend.  This week my guest were my brother Steve and our cousin Paul Anderson, from Hudson, Wisconsin.  Paul saw my last Red Lake post and e-mailed me to let him know when we were going again so I asked him if he wanted to go and of course he did.  Paul has been to Alaska with me and we did some snowmobiling in the Snowy Range of Wyoming a few times together but never ice fishing.  Steve usually stays at mom's in Eleva the night before and heads up in the morning.  Because he goes right by Paul's place Paul had to do little but to pack and jump in the truck as I had everything else that he needed to stay out on the ice.  It was significantly warmer this weekend than 2 weeks ago when we woke up to -25 below, so it was a lot nicer.  JR had open a new road northeast of the Center Bar and both Mark and Russ were already set up, it took a long time to get out there as it had to be at least 10 miles, 6 miles to Center Bar then north almost 2 miles then off to the east another 2 miles and at 10 - 15 mph, it was almost an hour drive.   It was nice as we were pretty much off to ourselves but a I said earlier, the fishing usually slows down after New Years Day.

Biggest  this weekend

We had enough fish to enjoy a fish fry on Friday night but thing definitely slowed after Friday.  We decided to keep our fish we caught so Paul and Steve would have some to bring home and by Sunday morning we only had 6 walleyes and a few perch.  Mark Applen had a couple so he gave them to us gving us 8 fish for the trip home.  Deciding that filleting them at JR's would be easier than at home we quickly cleaned them up including this nice 19 inch walleye that I had caught the evening before.   JR really improved the cleaning area of his place, with easy to clean stainless steel counters, fillet boards and a sink, it makes it much better.  Because I have enough fish in the freezer I let Paul and steve load up on the walleye this trip as I still have plenty of fishing to do. It was interesting as we came off the ice about 10:00 AM and was greeting at the access by JR.  With the amount of vehicles coming off the ice and the heave and cracks near the access, we just got accross the last bridge when someone summoned JR, there's a problem with the first bridge as you have to go over 2 bridges to get in.  I am glad we made it over because what happens is the the weight of the moving vehicles causes a wave of water to develope in front of the vehicle, under the ice.  That wave if it hits a weak spot of crack can blow a hole in the ice and form a very dangerous situation on the ice.  this is why there is a 10 - 15 mPH speed limit on the ice, it's not thick enough to sustain a lot of traffic, especially us guys pulling houses and maintaining the integrity of the ice.  Lord knows how long it may have taken to get off the lake after the bridge blew out.  So we got our fish cleaned and headed south with my wheel house in tow.  It was nice to get it home as I needed to get a lot of things done to it, rugs washed, get it heated up in the inside and dried out, cooking pans washed, and stuff put back away where it belongs.

Fishing is reported to be good on Mille Lacs so I will probably head up this weekend.  As well my friend Bill Lundeen could use some help on Saturday because all of the fishing contests start this weekend so I am getting up early.  It should be done by 10:00 so maybe I can sneak out on the lake and fish the afternoon.  Although I don't believe people are catching anything in the tight 19 - 21 inch slot, I do know they are getting them bigger than that as well, tons of those 13 - 15 inch fish from the great year class of a couple years ago.  It should be interesting for sure.  If nothing else I am looking forward to trying some crappie fishing soon.  I am going to be in California next week till Thursday, hopefully it don't get too used to the warm weather!!!

Windy in Wisconsin

Minnesota Fishing opener is always 2 weeks before Memorial Day weekend and Wisconsin Fishing opener is always on the first weekend in May. Because Memorial Day is on May 31st this year Wisconsin's is May 1st, as early as it can be and Minnesota is May 15th, as late as it can be.  This happens about once every 7 years on average and when it does I like to cruise over to my cousin Greg's cabin (actually a house) on Clear Lake and try my luck.  This year was no exception so picking up my cousin Paul in Hudson we headed over to show Greg how to fish.  Paul suggested I be there at 6:00 but after telling him he's crazy as I am an hour away we compromised at 6:30.  A fresh hit of coffee and we took off.  Paul is my first cousin, as Greg is, and we spent a lot of time together when we were kids.  He had 3 sisters so my brother Steve and I sort of adopted him as our honorary brother.  Paul has come with me to Wyoming snowmobiling and in 2008 joined us for our Alaskan fishing trip, which helped make it one of the best yet.   Arriving at the landing, we decided to launch the boat first and look for Greg later.  The lake is really a small chain of lakes consisting of Island, McCann, Clear, and Chain Lake.  Clear Lake is the smallest of the 4 and as we came out of the channel onto Chain Lake ran into a man wearing a blinding chartreuse sweatshirt driving a Tracker boat with 125 Merc........both sure signs that we had found him.  In the boat were his dad (my uncle and Godparent, which BTW is so anointed because every time he saw me he said "Oh My God"!) Loren Nelson of Eau Claire, Greg's father in law, Norm Hanson and his neighbor Mike Brott, both from Cleghorn Wisconsin ( a suburb of Eleva!).  These guys have been going to Greg's cabin for at least 16 years now and it was fun to see them all again.  Loren is 82 now and still gets around pretty well.  It was fun to be with these guys as they had all sorts of goodies brought from their food plots.  Canned potatoes, fresh laid eggs with those deep orange yokes, home made cookies, I could not wait to eat.  The top picture from left to right is Cousin Greg, Uncle Loren, and Cousin Paul

Windy in Wisconsin was putting it lightly.  This small chain of lakes stretches north to south, perfect for riling up the whitecaps from the 30 mph south wind.  We were able to find some shallow bays and shorelines to try our luck with crappies but despite water temperatures in the 60's they were not around.  We tried the range of 1 foot water to 5 feet with little to show for it.  By the afternoon I had 2 - 4" perch, a 4" bass, and had exhausted any fishable water that has some protection from the gale force winds, which by the way were getting stronger as the afternoon went on.  Deciding we needed a break I headed to the very south end of the lake and told Paul we were going to troll shad raps on the weed edges, traveling with the wind.  It was our only hope to salvage a tough day of fishing.  Going with a crawfish colored glass shad, within 3 minutes I had a fish on.  Certainly not the largest northern I have ever caught yet today it would prove to be the big fish of the opener.  He was a tough guy breaking off the rear hook as he stayed secured to the front one.  Throwing it into the livewell I thought to myself, wow that was fast and we have about another 1/2 mile to go.  Thinking too quickly can be a big problem and this day was no exception.  Neither Paul or I had any other hits.  Being blown around for about 5 hours we decided it would be best to load the boat up, head to the cabin and have a cocktail before the fish fry started.  Lucky Greg had some walleyes and perch from Lake Erie or we would have starved!  Still it was a successful day for sure.

Finally I have some surprising news to report.  My brother found that first nickel he made and bought a brand new Lund 1725 Explorer SS, loaded with a 115 Merc Optimax, HDS7 sonar/chartplotter, Terrova 24Volt front trolling motor, and a custom cover to boot!   This is a pretty interesting development if you know my brother.  I figured something was going on when I got a call from him this weekend from the Stark's showroom in Prairie du Chien, WI.  His first attempt was a 1675 with a 90 Opti, however I am not a fan of 16 foot boats and big water.  I know, I am the one who used my 16 foot Lund Pro Angler on Lake Michigan for downrigging salmon, yet I just think and extra 8 - 12 inches really makes a difference.  Telling him he could do what he wants, my advice.........look at the 17 footers before you do anything.  Sure enough my next call was that he had taken my advice, checked out the 1725 and for $1000 more he got a longer, wider boat with 25 more horsepower, not a bad upgrade.  For listening to his older brother I have a very good Garmin 240 depth finder for that trolling motor ( has the built in transducer) complete with a Johnny Ray mount and the correct adaptor cable.  Truth be told that in 1982 he let me use a new trailer he had and I never paid him for it.  Although it was a smaller trailer for a 14 foot boat, I suspect that if you added the interest for 28 years, I would owe him about $50,000 today.  Unfortunately the depth finder is all he's getting!