Slow Week

Heddon River Runt, Bass Oreno, Whizzling Sparrow, Pfueger Chum Spoon

Now that fishing season has closed for game fish in Minnesota in conjunction with once again, below zero temperatures, there was no fishing done last weekend.  The best I could do was to do some snow blowing with my newly fixed snow blower, which by the way worked pretty good.  The guy at the John Deere dealership warned me that some people don't like a chain that needs to have a link connector added verses a complete chain as they make more noise but to be honest, I don't hear the difference at all.  Actually a length of chain with a connector turns out to be a lot easier and if it breaks again, I'll just use bulk roller chain.  I nice surprise last week was a letter from my Uncle Jerry in Boise, Idaho.  Getting a letter is still pretty exciting as Jerry is pretty old fashioned and I really appreciate the time he takes for me.  The letter include another letter that was in my Grandma's photo album he ended up with, one from the Colonel at Howard Air Force Base in Panama, congratulating my dad's parents on his promotion to Sargent in the US Air Force.  It's interesting as the letter spelled out a personal recommendation of my father, at that time it was hand typed on a typewriter, I'm sure my grandparents were pretty proud.  I am also sure at the time, my dad couldn't wait to get out! Either way I have talked about Uncle Jerry in previous posts, he's one of my lifetime hero's and probably solely responsible for my love of fishing.  One of the things I have never mentioned was the time I visited him at my Grandmother Myrtle's house one summer when he returned from Boise to Eleva.  As bad as my memory is I was probably around 12 years old and every kid needs someone to look up to as my grandma always said I reminded her of Jerry, her youngest son.  Before Jerry left that summer he presented me with his Wisconsin tackle box, a brown metal box with a single tray and loaded full of baits.  I suspect that living out west had changed his fishing strategies more towards fly fishing for trout and with zero bass or northern pike in Idaho, there was little need for a box full of "Mississippi River " baits.   Of course I felt I had just hit the jackpot!  Now back then baits were meant to be used and although that tackle box would probably worth thousands of dollars today, it was simply an opportunity to catch fish 47 years ago.  The tackle box was full of classics including a number of Heddon baits like the River Runt, Jointed River Runt, and Pumpkinseed as well as original Daredevils, Pfueger Chum Spoon, Bass Oreno, Whizzling Sparrow, Johnson Silver Minnow, Creek Chub, Mepps Original, Jitterbug, and many others I never even heard of. Most of those baits are either hung up on a stump near Wilbur's (up river from Alma) or hanging in some fishes mouth, as quality line wasn't the priority back then.  Amazingly I still have some of the original baits from that tackle box given to my by Jerry, as you can see in the picture.  These baits were the rage of the day, long before companies like Rapala hit the scene. You can still buy new Bass Oreno's as some of the old classic's never fall out of favor.   I know he does read my blog and I hope the picture brings back those same great memories as it does for me.  Love ya Uncle Jerry!

Excellent!

With the cold temperatures for the weekend, my wife Lyn and I went to the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Saturday.  It's been a while since we have been there and I sort of enjoy the stuff they have for sale that you can only find at these shows.  You always seem to find a deal and we certainly took advantage.  One of the first booths was Deli Direct Wisconsin Aged Cheddar Cheese Spread in their Horseradish flavor.  I have always loved horseradish and remember eating roast beef at grandma's house where my grandpa Roy and I would always have a good dose of horseradish on our meat.  Now I can't be sure if I really liked it or I simply wanted to be as tough as grandpa was.  Either way I'm a horseradish lover and this cheese spread will be a nice treat for my next fishing trip.  Another thing we bought as an innovative invention called the Gripstic.  A simple device, it's a plastic device for sealing potato chip bags, salad bags, anything that you want to seal tight for assuring freshness later.  The third thing we ended up with were some very well done Mexican painted pottery.  My wife must have impressed them as we got a buy 2, get 2 free.
Personally I don't think it was that good a deal but the people were very nice and I have to admit the pots looks pretty good.  It also gave me a chance to talk with some insulation guys, garage door companies, and windows.  After 22 years of being in the same house, some upgrades are coming due.

With the weather warming, it still might be time for some ice fishing.  On a sad note the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had declared one of my favorite lake for the past 6 years Pelican Lake, open fishing as you can take all the fish you want.  The early freeze, heavy snows, cold temperatures, and overall shallowness of the lake has dropped the dissolved oxygen levels below what can sustain fish.  Reports show guys sawing large holes through the ice then scooping up fish that come to the surface gasping for oxygen.  The lake is essentially dead and will be declared officially froze out.  This is unfortunate yet the DNR had planned on lowering the water lever anyway to restore the lake to a duck pond.  Although I don't agree, it pretty much a mute point now.  With a little luck I may get out this weekend and if nothing else start preparing for our trip to Louisiana.  I can't wait!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

4 foot snow banks

Well, if it isn't below zero here in Minnesota, it's snowing.  It's sort of like.........do you want beets for dinner or for supper..........pretty much a no win situation.  On Monday a storm came through the area and dumped about 5 inches total which put our total for the season to over 50 inches.  It finally warmed up to 45 yesterday however what that really means is another storm is about to come through again and sure enough, the National Weather Service is predicting 6 - 9 inches of snow tomorrow.  If this happens, we will go over the normal amount of snowfall we have for an entire year, which is about 55 inches total.  What's even more frustrating is we never had our January thaw, which is normal, and March is usually our snowiest month.   This has left the ground covered with at least 15 - 18 inches of real snow cover which is the most I can remember in over 20 years.  Yes, I know, when I was a kid we had twice as much and I would probably believe that except I was half as tall back then.  Well, the good news is the lakes should be full and the ground moisture will help the farmers get a good start on things.  One other thing that it helps is the snow does insulate the ice on the lakes and both Leech and Mille Lacs have ice thickness's less than it would normally be for this time of year, even considering the amount of below zero temperatures we have had.  With a little luck we will not have a repeat of the last years fishing opener where the ice was still on the lakes.   Back in 2012 I decided to retire my stand alone 8 hp dual stage snow blower for a 47 inch model that fits on the front of my John Deere X724 garden tractor.  It's actually a very nice unit, shaft driven and modular, it takes about 10 minutes to mount it to the tractor and with 28 hp behind it, the JD will throw the snow anywhere from 30 - 40 feet away.   In 2012 I used it twice for a couple of 2 inch snowfalls yet this year we are making up for lost time.  It's kind of fun blowing the snow and maybe next year I'll look at getting a cab for it. 

Thanks Sis!

On Saturday night I met my neighbor Pete at Tim's heated garage where solving the worlds problems start (unfortunately we never get that part finished!).  Pete suggested we head to Pelican Lake on Sunday afternoon, an invitation hard to resist.  Because it was somewhat nice out we decided to load up our portables into my trailer and fish outside first, having shelter if we needed.  I had been out there a number of weeks ago and did pretty well, but got stuck in the deep snow by myself.  Deciding that the snow should be settled by now we headed back to the same place and my assumptions were completely wrong.  Someone had plowed a narrow road out about 1/2 mile and at the end we decided to cross country it to my previously marked spot.  We went about 100 feet before the wheels started spinning, we were again stuck on the ice.  Luckily I had Pete with yet it wasn't quite enough as we needed the help of 2 cross country skiers passing by.  Unhooking the trailer and pushing it back to the hard pack, the truck proved a little more difficult.  After shoveling and pushing we were able to clear ourselves, relief!  Ahead of us was another individual that had the same idea as we did, stuck on the ice.  4 of us managed to push him out as well, we thanked everyone and decided to simply fish where we were.  Pelican lake is a shallow lake and we were in 10 feet, about the average deepest part.  It would prove to be a tough bite and although we marked a lot of fish, they pretty much had lockjaw.  I managed a few crappies but nothing to take home, we fished till 7:00 then left.  Much to my sadness the DNR is about to drain the lake and manage it for waterfowl.   If you click this link Pelican Lake Draining, this is today's article in the paper which outlines the plan.  I have complained about this in previous posts but it seems like it's kind of like pushing a rope.

Now, I'm not much of a Facebook fan yet it's hard not to exist these days without having some link to people you know.  So I get this e-mail, a notification that my sister Beth had posted something and I should check it out.  Pulling it up was this picture and a comment "Is this why U fish so much, LOL".
I guess she knows me pretty well and it was great to know she's thinking about me.  As I finish this post we are under a severe winter storm warning with the season's worst storm slated to start Thursday morning.  Some areas east of Minneapolis are predicted to receive up to 18" of snow, different than stated in my first paragraph.  Depending on the final storm track this could shift more to the west and we could be right in the middle of it.  Either way, I started the post complaining about the snow and I see it did a lot of good.  Friday looks like a clean out day then expect to meet my brother Steve at the house, pick up Pete and head to Hunter's Point on Mille Lacs.  Hopefully Steve can make it from Lacrosse safely and the resort will have enough spaces plowed out for our group of 5 wheel houses.  Either way we are simply not getting a break on the snow this year, uffda.

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.

December's Cold Moon

Full Moon Over the Pole Shed

The Native Americans had a tradition of naming each of the full moons such as March's Worm Moon or October's Harvest Moon.  December's Full Moon bears the name of Cold Moon and occurred on December 16th of this week.  Interestingly enough the shortest day of the year is the is December 21st and the full moon on the 19th will represent the longest moon lit night of the year.  This week is as crazy as they all seem as Sunday was filled with picking up Lory at the airport port as he returned from his trip to China.  This was at 2:30 in the afternoon, brought him home then turned right around and drove back to pick up 2 business associates from Taiwan at 6:30.  The Taiwanese are not used to the cold and it was quite entertaining to see their reactions.  Two days of meetings with them, dinner each night, Wednesday would see me boarding a flight to Denver (where I am writing this from).  When I travel to China visiting them at their factory we have a tradition of going to the 101, a Taiwanese based  restaurant near the hotel.  The food is excellent and if you look back at some of my previous posts their is a picture of me with the owner.  While here I wanted to take them to a genuine Minnesota place to eat and decided on the  Tavern on Grand in St. Paul.  I believe they serve the best walleye around town and offer it in various forms such as walleye cakes, walleye spring rolls, pan fried, blackened, broiled, and served with deep fried dill pickles or their lefse dish, you can't beat it.  Scrambling to get things done on Tuesday night, I rounded the corner by my garage and was taken back by the beautiful scene created by the full Cold Moon's effect on the new fallen snow.  Grabbing the camera I snapped this picture, a winter wonderland right in my back yard.  If you see notice the bright object just down and left of the moon, this is the Planet Jupiter as they travel together through the night.  Wow.

Nice Sunfish

With the cold weather and snow it's was questionable whether I's get out ice fishing or not.  With a ton of snowplowing to do before Sunday. Luckily my neighbor Tom stopped over about 1:00 to see what was going on, that's all it took as we planned to go to Pelican for the evening.  Not sure of the ice or snow conditions we loaded up the Razor and headed out.  Approaching the lake there were trucks on the ice!  I have been keeping track of ice conditions up north at Mille Lacs and Red Lake, with the snow it hasn't froze much at all.  Well, I'm not driving on the ice so we pulled off the Razor and headed to an area we have done pretty good in the past, about 3/4 mile from the landing.  Drilling our holes I was pleasantly surprised at the 16 or more inches of ice.  Even more interesting was the ice was virtually devoid of any deep snows.  I have at least 6 inches in the yard but there was about an inch on the ice.  It was actually evenly distributed so it wasn't the wind that blew it off.   I suspect the early snow caused water to cover the lake and it refroze allowing it to create the fairly thick ice so early.  Honestly, I would not have been afraid to drive out but with another week of cold weather, it's should be perfect by now.  We did get a lot of little ones however both Tom and I each nailed a nice sunfish.  OK, only about 8 inches but heck, better than 99% of what we've been getting the last couple of years. 

Returning on Friday, Mark and I are planning on going to Red Lake Friday afternoon to pull the wheel house up to JR's.  A text from him yesterday didn't sound very good as the resort was pulling all wheel houses off the lake and restricting travel via snowmobile or chained ATV's at this time.  Apparently the slush is real bad and has created an undesirable situation.  Now if they didn't have any snow and accounting for the low temperatures, the lake should have 20+ inches of ice by now.  The snow unfortunately insulates the ice from freezing very fast so Pelican lake here next to home has much more ice than Red Lake which is 4.5 hours straight north of here.  Even with the many sub -20 degree nights, it's still not making ice like we need.  We are keeping daily updates and if we get the all clear, Mark and I plan on leaving Friday afternoon.  If not, well hopefully after Christmas will find better conditions.  All I know is the fishing reports from Red are excellent and we are missing out!Merry Christmas to everyone and we'll see what the weekend brings.

One More Time



A nice mess of fish



Although we have lost most of our snow during the last week, it still been pretty cold at night, enough to keep the lakes safe.  Saturday was exceptional, actually our first official 50 degree day of 2013.  With the snow melting like crazy I decided to get my tractor out and open up a channel through the snow drift at my neighbors rear drainage area.  This allowed the water to drain off faster as I remember when he first moved in, the builder had not done his homework and in the spring he had a waterfall coming through his basement window.  With the weather nice, I decided to take a drive around the block where I ran into Petey.  A quick hello turned into...........well, ya wanna go out fishing this afternoon?  We agreed on a time, 2:00 which gave me about an hour to get things ready.  After deciding not to drive on the ice for fear the landing would not be in good shape, I loaded the Razor on the trailer, picked him up, stopped for bait and were soon at Pelican Lake.  It was pretty slushy yet the ice remained solid.  The fact that there were a few trucks driving on the ice did not

12 inch crappie

deter us from staying with our plan of using the ATV, I'm glad we did.  It was awfully wet as the ice was covered in large pools of water and slush.  Having marked our previous successful outing of last week on the GPS there was no need to reinvent a new hot spot.  Unfortunately as we approached the waypoint there were 2 guys sitting on the exact same spot.  They had drilled around 30 holes around the area and invited us to enjoy the holes however soon it became obvious why they had abandoned them.  Deciding to work to the south of their spot we drilled a number of holes until we started hitting fish.  I'm not sure they were too happy with us however we were pretty determined to get back into last weeks action, and that's just what we did.  Both Petey and I ended up with 45 sunfish and crappies including this nice 12 incher, my personal best from Pelican.  The sunfish were somewhat iffy and we tried to keep the largest ones ranging from 7.5 to 8 inches, not huge but cleanable.  Our plan was to be off the ice by 7:00 however that got extended to 7:30 because the bite was so good.  I suspect we caught at least 120 fish between the 2 of us.  It was pretty interesting being out on the ice as the water was draining through the various holes in the ice.  Like small whirlpools, it reminded me of a big bathtub with the drain plug pulled.  I even drilled a couple of holes where the water was deeper to see if I could get some of it off the ice.  As the water drains through the holes it helps improve the oxygen content of the area, something after a long winter of snow covered ice is probably appreciated by the fish.



Holy smokes Dave, Nice Crappie!



After my last weeks post, Petey decided to call me on my assessment of his fishing skills.  Reminding him that he did start out with a sinker on his line, this trip may have been more about of proving himself than anything else.  Well I have to say that if it was, he passed the test.  We basically tied for the total number of sunfish kept, Dave 17, Petey 16 and although he was 6 short on the crappie side, 3 to 9, overall he ended up with a respectable 42% of the catch, enough for me to leave him alone for a while!  I did catch this expression on his face and because I have control of the blog, he doesn't have much to say regarding why the surprised expression.  Therefore it was the reaction to the above crappie I caught.  Maybe that will get him to comment!!  Either way it's been a real pleasure going with Pete this year as we made it out 5 times together, more than with anyone else.  It's amazing since he lives down the street and we have been neighbors for over 18 years yet never fished together.  Maybe he finally figured out I was serious about this fishing thing.  I am looking forward to showing him the Mississippi River smallies and hopefully make it up to Mille Lacs a few times.  He's actually a pretty good fisherman so I suppose I should stop while I'm ahead. 

It's 5 weeks to opener, things are moving along with Team Walleye.  I am starting to get the boat ready by installing a new Titan tiller system which locks my engine in one place when I take pressure off the handle.  This should really help reduce fatigue on those long runs or when it is advantageous to trim the motor in to keep the bow down.  I'll report on that as soon as I can.  The firmware on both of my depth finders have been upgraded, the waypoints loaded in from my previous units are done.  There is still a lot of things to do in the next few weeks and hopefully the weather will warm up enough to make working in the shed bearable.

Winding Down



A nice mess of crappies

Last year at this time we were basking in 80 degree weather, the ice was already off Lake Mille Lacs, and ice fishing was the furthest thing from my mind.  This year we have yet to break 50 degrees in the month of March, something that hasn't happened in 30 years.  I guess it just proves that Mother Nature tends to even things out.  So with the continued cold weather comes the chance for late season ice fishing and my neighbor Petey was ready to go.  With significant snow remaining on the ice our strategy was to pick a local lake that should have significant traffic to have packed the snow enough to get around.  Having fished Pelican Lake near Albertville a couple of times, unsuccessfully of course, it seemed a good choice for one last outing.  Minimizing the amount of equipment, we brought Petey's ice house, my auger, our electronics and after stopping at the hardware store in St. Michael for bait, headed out to the lake.  Even with the colder temperatures the sun is getting higher in the sky which is melting the snow.  Expecting the landing to be in some state of slush, mud, and water, I was pleasantly surprised how good it was.  With few on the lake we drove to an area where I have done well in the past, 9 - 10 feet with weeds scattered.  With the wind howling out of the north, we drilled 4 holes using the truck as our wind break.  With about 6 inches of snow on the ice, another 4 inches of frozen slush, there was still at least 26 inches of ice as the auger drilled right

A bonus bullhead!

up to the handles.  After cleaning the holes, the fish started biting right away.  Nothing big but the action was good.  Within a couple of hours we had the bottom of our pails covered with sunnies and crappies, the largest being about 10 inches.  As the sun moved closer to the west it was time to put up the shelter and get warmed up.  The fish kept biting as we sorted through 14 crappies and 11 sunnies, nothing extraordinary but based on my year, I'll take it.  Pelican Lake does have bullheads in it and although I have seen them on the camera, had never caught one through the ice.  Well, there's always the first time as I coaxed a fish to come up and hit my ice jig, a sure sign of a crappie chasing the bait and pulled out this ugly bullhead.  Now, suppose I was from Iowa, this would have been a trophy but it wasn't what I was looking for.  Oh well, it did hit pretty hard.  I forgot my camera so I did this self portrait with my new "smart" phone.  It has 2 camera's, one on the screen side and one on the back.  Although the quality is not as good, the image on the screen allows you to at least attempt to get a good shot!  The other thing that I have enjoyed while fishing with Petey this year is to see him advance in his ice fishing skills.  Now I am not about to say that I am a better ice fisherman than him however I have been able to pass some of the things I do to be more successful.  For instance, I was looking at his depth finder and noticed that it seemed to have the sensitivity turned up quite a bit for 9 feet of water.  Disputing my thoughts, he showed me what we were looking at, the sinker above his ice jig.  Sinker........what the!  Complaining that the ice jig didn't sink very fast, he needed the sinker to get it down, all I could say was Uffda!!  The object of shallow water pan fishing is to slow the lure down, keep it light so when the crappies come up and inhale the bait, they don't get knocked in the head as a result.  Anyway he later admitted that the sink rate wasn't that bad as he started to catch more fish.  On our last trip I showed him how using a Frostie jig with a larger hook would increase his hooking percentage, which it did.  Petey's a good student, at South Stanchfield his catch rate of what we cleaned was 11%.  Sunday's trip yielded 25 keeper's with Petey's share at 8, a whopping 32% of the catch, a 3X increase in adding to the next fish fry.  At this rate I might have to start fishing alone again!



The snow is still here.

As I indicated, winter still has a pretty good grip at the house.  I snapped this picture on March 26th, the snowdrifts are at least 3 feet high along the road and the blanket is a good 8 - 10 inches.  With the temps heading in the 40's this weekend things will start to loosen up.  The weather is absolutely perfect for sap flow from the maple trees as my neighbor boiled up 65 gallons on Sunday and has promised me a pint.  Another advantage of a cold March is the apple trees will have plenty of rest and their bloom should happen as normal.  Last year's unusually warm spring and a colder than normal May raise havoc with all of my fruit trees as the crop was no existant.  I predict a bumper crop of apples, pears, and raspberries for 2013.  The snow will really help the moisture and with the amount up north, the river should get back to normal.  Time to organize the tackle boxes, clean up the reels, replace the line, and get ready for opener which is only 6 weeks away.  We ordered all of the Team Walleye hats and shirts this week as Mark Mayerich and I continue the countdown to the successful organization of our trip.  All I can say is we sure miss Ron Edberg.

Winter's Back

Today I woke up to the grim reminder that even though we have officially passed the Spring Equinox, winter still rears it's ugly head and has it's option of returning for another 30 days.  With 7 inches on the ground and a low temperature of 0 predicted for the morning, the wonderful weather I experienced in Texas is simply a fond memory!  We are entering the time of year I call no man's land.  The ice will be on the lakes till at least the 3rd week in April, yet too unstable to ice fish unless you go 300 miles north.  It usually takes a few weeks for the water to warm up but I am guessing it will be May before the boat will come out.  Along with the snow we got a pretty good rain, totally around 2.5 inches of total precipitation.  Of course this has raised the latest media hype regarding the flood warnings around Minnesota.  I don't recall it being at this level however based on the snow and rain, it doesn't look good.  Roads are closing and unfortunately a state road worker was killed when his excavator was trying to clear an ice dam when the water's current sweep his machine into the raging flood.  My good friend Kevin sent me an e-mail today with the current Mississippi River conditions at Alma, Wisconsin.  Fishing below the dam, he caught a real nice 28 inch walleye (Kevin, you need to take pictures!).  Kevin reports that the river flow is over 3 times the normal rate for this time of year and the fishing below the dam is pretty well over until the levels crest then settle down.  It's seems pretty early for these levels as I recall the middle of April was usually the peak of the high water.  As I have comment in a past post when I was young and living back home in Eleva, this would be about the time Kevin and I would start sucker fishing the Buffalo River.  It was an annual event that seems as though it was only yesterday we were fishing places like Bud's, the Culvert, Trix's, and Carp Sough.  A gob of worms and we were in sucker heaven!

Last week we did get a hint of things to come with a few days hitting the mid 50's, it temporarily melted a lot of our snow.  One of the things I have been working on has been my winter motorcycle project.  Last spring I bought a Honda 600 Shadow and after 3 months sold it for a Victory Kingpin.  A larger bike, I have been spending some time upgrading the looks and comfort by changing out the rear license plate holder, changing out the seat, adding a luggage rack and switching a few items with chrome versions.  Having put the bike back together it was nice enough Saturday to go for the first ride of the year.  I decided to check out the "flood stage" of the Crow River and put 45 miles on before discovering there was little evidence of what was to come but never the less it was a great excuse to get out.  My ride occurred between spending most of the day trimming my fruit trees.  March is the perfect time for this activity and I will elaborate on this later.  All I know is I must have cut at least a million branches!  The highlight of the day was seeing a flock of 35 Sandhill Cranes flying overhead.  Normally we see them in small groups seldom over 6 birds so this was a quite the sight.

Sunday proved to be somewhat cooler, a perfect excuse to ice fish for what might be the last time of the year.  Although the ice is still plenty thick the warm weather had deteriorated the access points enough to prevent one from driving onto the lake.  Loading up my auger, tackle, Vexilar, and bait into a pull sled, I headed for the north end of Pelican Lake where a short 1/4 mile walk put you on fishable waters.  The first thing I noticed were most of the holes were wide open.  Water form the snow melt tends to drain into these holes and keeps them open.  Walking from hole to hole I spent the first hour trying to figure out where the fish were.  After about an hour and 30 holes fished, I finally hit upon a couple of fish and parked myself in 10 feet of water.  Catching a fair amount of fish I only ended up with 1 nice crappie and 1 nice sunny as the rest were pretty small.  The weather made the area around the lake extremely foggy yet the geese and swans were making their presence well known.  With no wind, it was a very peaceful afternoon.  With temperatures falling for the next couple of days, I might be able to sneak out on more time, maybe looking for those Jumbo Perch on Mille Lacs that have eluded me the last few years.

All's Well in Cheeseland

Well, I suspect you probably know what this post will be, my  beloved Green Bay Packers won their 4th Super Bowl on Sunday with Aaron Rodgers erasing any doubt that Ted Thompson did the right thing in getting rid of Brett Favre after the 2007 season.  Being the only true Packer fan in my neighborhood, it was sweet justice!  Even on Sunday afternoon my Viking fan neighbors chose the Steelers over me.  In the end the inability of the Steelers to complete their 4th down play in the last minute killed their chances.  The Packers were a sleeper this year.   Their record of 10-6 didn't tell the whole story as the Packers never trailed by more than 7 points both during the regular season all the way through the playoffs being the first team in NFL history to have such a tight scoring differential.  Of the Pack's 6 loses, 5 were by 3 points and the 6th was by 4.  Pretty unbelievable if you think about it.   Either way its a great time to be a Cheesehead for sure!

Last week I reported the plan was to take put the Brazilians for a Minnesota ice fishing experience.  Well Friday I received the call, it was too cold and they cancelled.   What!!! Too cold, holy moly, it was only 28 degrees out!   Never the less I was still interested in going out to I decided to call the Braselians, Lory and his wife Lynn to see if they were willing to step up to the challenge.  Agreeing, we headed back to Pelican Lake for the evening crappie bite.  Getting there around 1:00 we moved 2 times before hitting the honey hole.  Drilling 2 holes and setting up the house, i was lowering my dead stick bait with a minnow however it wouldn't go down.  Little did I know that the a crappie had sucked it in, waiting for someone to set the hook.  I had a rather small #10 hook which is not the best for minnows and subsequently lost the next 6 minnows to the initial drop.  Finally getting a nice fish, we stayed till dark catching a nice number of fish while bringing home enough for a meal.  Not the most prolific day on the lake, it was fun never the less.

Writing this from Anaheim California, the weather is nothing short of fabulous.  With temperatures back home below zero, we are enjoying 70 degree days.  Attending the Medical Device and Manufacturing Show, the largest in the nation, we get a chance to talk to future customers that may need our services.  Working trade shows is a lot more difficult than it seems but all in all it is a necessary to attend and be a player in the industry.  I will leave you with a picture from my back lot, a beautiful red fox living in the culvert that drains my water catch basin for the storm sewer system.  The culvert is 4 feet or so under the surface and provides a warm environment for the fox.  He often is found sleeping on the south facing bank of the catch basin, catching a few rays of the warm sunshine.  I hope he sticks around for a while as it's kind of cool to have him around.  Hopefully  I can get to Mille Lacs this weekend.  You will have to put up with one more week of my beloved song, sorry, I cannot help it!

GroundHog Day?!?!?

In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murry was destined to live the same day over and over and over.  Last week seemed like my own Groundhog Day week, living the week as I did the week before, fishing Pelican then watching the Packers.  Stopping at my neighbor Lory's, I asked him if he was interested in hitting Pelican Lake for a few hours on Saturday.  Never one to miss an opportunity to wet a line, I picked him up and we headed to Pelican.  Now last weeks spot was fabulous and I had turned the GPS on to get a fix on our position yet I made one mistake, I never marked the spot.  Taking an educated guess, away from the crowds, we drilled a hole and verified we were in the zone, 11 feet.   Drilling 2 more holes for the house and 3 outside we cleaned them out, set up the shack, and lowered my camera.  Well at about 6 feet the camera hit the bottom..............impossible!  A sanity check with the Vexilar confirmed  that whatever I read 10 minutes ago wasn't what I was seeing now.  Looking at Lory, I informed him that we would have to move.  I think he assumed I was crazy yet somehow knew that if he didn't agree, he was going to have to fish them holes by himself.  Driving around, trying to get my bearings, we stopped, drilled and CAREFULLY measured 11 feet.  I suspect that I had ice on the bottom of the transducer, skewing my first assumptions.  Resetting everything, the crappies started immediately.  Starting at 3:00 and finishing around 6:30, we logged about 30 total sorting out 9 for a meal later.  It was fun, lot's of little ones with not a single sunfish caught.  I felt we had a good spot but maybe too close to the crowds. 

One of the things worth mentioning was the temperature Friday morning, January 21st.  My thermometer had 25 below zero when I woke up and had climbed to about -22 by the time I took a picture of the bearer of bad news.  Later conversations confirmed that the neighbors had a minimum temperature of -28 earlier that morning.  Although these temperatures are great for making ice, as I get older it is easier to understand why people head south for a few months.  I sent this picture to my friends in China as they seldom see temperatures lower than 40 degrees.  When asked how cold it really is I tell them that if you went outside and yelled your name, it wouldn't be till March until you heard it!  This is traditionally the coldest week of the winter and temperatures in Northern Minnesota lived up to it's reputation, -46 in International Falls.  It certainly builds character!

If you have sound on your computer, you can't help but love the selection for my opening song, I love The Green Bay Packers.  In a repeat of last week, the Packers defeated the Chicago Bears to win the National Football Conference Championship and are headed for the Super Bowl on February 6th.  Trust me, being a Cheesehead in Minnesota, especially in my neighborhood can be rough.   Viewing the game at my neighbor Tim's place is a pure pleasure despite being outnumbered by Viking fans 10:1.  No matter, I am basking in the glory as everyone knows where my allegiance is, win or lose.  The entire state of Wisconsin is giddy for the next 2 weeks and we are excited about Aaron Rodgers having the opportunity to finally put the last nail in the Brett Favre era.   Tim has an annual Super Bowl Party and I am sure all of the neighbors are just waiting for me to show up as I always make a big deal about my Packers every year.  Hopefully it will end exactly how every Cheesehead dreams of.  Next week I am traveling with my sales representative Bernard Guzzi from the Chicago area.  Our plan is for me to fly to Milwaukee, drive to LaCrosse, drive to Appleton, then back to Milwaukee.  When he originally asked me to make the rounds I responded, under one condition...........we stop at the Packer Pro Shop in Green Bay.  He agreed however I found out today Bernard was at the game on Sunday.  It should make for an interesting 9 hours in the car together!  So until the Super Bowl is history, you will have to endure a couple more weeks of Eddy J. LEmberger.  GO PACK!!!

A Fantastic Weekend

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

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

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