Smallmouth Paradise

19.5Inch Smallie

Last Monday I had the opportunity to fish the Mississippi River near Monticello, MN for the first time in a number of years with my friend Pete Mlinar.  Pete is an expert river rat who owns the perfect river boat, a RiverPro with a 200 hp Optimax jet drive, one can drive 5 feet from the shore at 36 mph without a worry.  He's an expert at fishing Redtail chubs for smallmouth bass and is not as naïve as I am when it comes to fishing smallies on the river.  While my trips consist of casting crankbaits into shore, Pete works an area very meticulously exploring every place a smallie could hide.  Interesting as I was determined to get a smallie on a crankbait but only a little one, then was focused on a Katlin Tickle Tail, which I ended up with a nice one, but they were the only two on artificial's. We fished 4 different areas, a couple that if it were me, I'd a threw in a few casts and moved on.  Not Pete.  Our main technique was to use a single hook with a bullet sinker about 12 -16 inches above the hook, drop it in the current and bounce it down stream then go back.  It was amazing as we would often catch fish just under the boat.   The second rig was a  large torpedo shaped bobber 16 - 18 inches above the bait and simply cast out to drift past the current breaks or whatever held fish.  In the end we caught 40 fish which included 1 walleye, 4 northern pike ( which by the way were the nicest pike I had seen caught on the river), and 35 small mouth bass that averaged about 18 inches each, nothing under 15 and quite a few over 19.  And fat, these fish were footballs!  It is pretty amazing fishery but I am pledged to not publish our stretch of the river on the blog.  We even positioned ourselves not to give away our locations.  It was also a learning experience as when I fish smallies behind the house we are moving pretty good and quickly pass by spots that look similar to where we fished.  Before September ends I am committed to trying some medium sucker minnows and the technique as I have to imagine it would work.  Thanks Pete for a great day on the water as well as a few fishing lessons.

Joanne, Vic and their family at Vic's 80th

Friday we were invited to Eleva to be part of a private ceremony to intern my old boss, Vic Wenaas at his final spot in the Cemetery back home in Eleva.  I always held Vic in high regard as I credit a lot of my success in my life to him and his family.  Vic passed away on April 3rd of this spring, the same day we lost our neighbor Tim Kuntz, a double whammy.  With all the stuff going on the family decided to forgo a funeral but at some point everyone has to move on.  It was a very nice service and included the Eleva American Legion to give Vic the proper honors.  I was able to find this picture from Vic's 80th Birthday, Vic and Joanne are sitting in front and in the back are their children, from left to right it's Mike, Annette, Gail, Susan(Suzy), and Paul.  Vic now joins his wife Joanne who passed away a few years ago.  Paul is still one of my best fishing buddies and Suzy daughter Presley is good friend with our niece's daughter Kaylee.  I always like to tell some Vic Wenaas stories because things were a lot different growing up in a small town, guys like Vic were an important part of your life.  We would work together on Saturday's and he always had WAXX 104.5 FM, a country station out of Eau Claire.  I started working there 50 years ago this fall.  Even as a teenager his music influence turned permanent.  Often a song would come on that you could sing to and I was belting out the words to a favorite.  Vic came up to me while I was trying to carry a tune, put his hand on my shoulder and said "Davey, you know I can't sing either!"  He'd laugh!!!  On another occasion a beloved song by Eddy Arnold called the Cattle Call started playing.  As I was working under the hoist, he started whistling along with the music.  All of a sudden he stopped, looked me straight in the eye and said...."Davey, don't you wish you could whistle like me!" then started laughing.  Today Willy's Roadhouse is my favorite station on XM as it reminds me of Vic and the traditions we enjoyed then.  The greatest compliment I have ever received was told to me by my Uncle Jerry.  My grandparents, Roy and Myrtle, live just below the gas station and I would visit Grandpa Roy before starting work at 5:00 PM.  Uncle Jerry lives in Idaho and when visiting his them he would often walk up to the gas station to see Vic.  Jerry told me that Vic once told him that...Davey, quite the guy, you know the customers always left with more than they came in for.  I only heard this a few years ago from my Uncle Jerry.  It really explains Vic's influence in my life as I carried that philosophy throughout life.  I could go on and on but I don't want to bore you too much!  Anyway it was a good week, 18 days till Leech Lake.  Uffda! 

Back Fishing!

Jake's nice 20 inch channel Catfish, no turtle pictures!

Making up for lost time the last week saw 3 fishing adventures, 2 on the Mississippi River and yesterday was a day on Mille Lacs before it closes to walleye fishing on July 1st for a month. Starting with last Wednesday night, originally I had a trip planned to Mille Lacs but with the 96 degree temperatures and 35 MPH winds, it was better to stay on shore.  Here is my Facebook post regarding the night's adventure: "So last night I spent a couple of hours drowning some nightcrawlers off of John Meyer's dock. Accompanying me was my little fishing friend, Jake Hanson, Limo's boy, and is always the gracious and enthusiastic guest. While I got set up with our circle hooks and sinkers I tied onto Jake's line a new prop frog bait, a great selection for smallies and virtually snagless. After casting out the crawler rigs, John has nothing to hold the rods, I weaved them into our lawn chairs and waited. Before long Jake's pole was heading towards the river taking the lawn chair with it. A desperate grab saved both the rod, the chair, and the fish was on. Yelling for Jake to get up here he grabbed the pole and soon about a 15# carp emerged. Forgetting to bring a net the fish eventually tangled around the dock and snapped the line. Within 5 minutes the other rod was headed towards the river, again Jake ran up to grab the pole and it was another huge carp. Plan B didn't work so good either as the hook came out. Deciding there was more action on the dock, Jake decided to stay and within 5 minutes again another ferocious hit. After setting the hook Jake stated this fish feels different, it was....we had hooked a huge soft shelled turtle and it wasn't very happy! Hoping to get a picture with Jake, using a pliers I unhooked it, it wasn't having any thoughts of cooperating and lunged at us. I didn't think a 65 year old guy could move as fast as a young teenager as I provided the evenings entertainment. As the sun set I assured Jake this was prime catfish time and before long we had a double, a nice 20 incher and a 16 incher. Teaching Jake how to hold a catfish without getting stung, he did pretty well, so we finally got our evenings picture. Jake's a pretty good fisherman and a lot of fun to be with. It reminds me when I was his age fishing catfish on the Buffalo river with my dad's friends. I told Jake, in 50 years you'll be telling the story of fishing with your dad's old friend when we caught this turtle! Thanks John for the use of the dock and helping to create some great memories for a young man that truly appreciates the experience regardless of the generation gap." Fishing with Jake is a lot of fun as it reminds me when I was young and fishing with Kevin, and that's a long time ago!  He is eager to learn and pays close attention to my advice, which is hard to find these days and is great for my ego....we both get a lot of enjoyment hanging with each other!!!

Dave's Personal best Smallmouth bass.

The second trip of the week was on Saturday with another young man, David Grant, the son of agood friend of mine, he just graduated from High school..  He loves fishing and has been with me a number of times.  Last week we went to the fishing garage sale together and bought some stuff that one always needs!  Determined to get the jon boat out of the shed and running, this became the excuse to get it done.  Dave showed up at about 5:00 in the afternoon, having a few things left we hooked the boat up to the Polaris Razor and headed for the neighbors boat landing.  knowing my luck we decided to start the motor while at the shed, just in case!  It started as though it was yesterday it last ran, rather than last September.  EFI and electric start, what a great combination!  After repairing my neighbors gate we got the boat in the river and headed upstream for about 4 miles.  It is surprising how low the water is for this time of year.  Hitting the bottom a couple of times it is nice that the motor has a rock guard on it, although it slows the speed by a mph or so, it absorbs all the damage.  Both Dave and I are partial to square bill crankbaits as they seem to not get as hung up on the bottom as other types, we both started casting our favorite colors as the long drift began.  Of course it is important to show the kid some leadership I caught the first smallie, a 15 inch fish.  Admittedly this was the earliest I have ever fished the river but with the water level down, maybe it would be great.  Soon we entered a stretch where there is a lot of rip rap along the shore line, meant to keep the erosion down but also it is prime habitat for smallmouth.  Giving Dave some tips on where to cast, a very nice fish hit his lure and we scrambled to get the boat away from the shore.  Finally netting it, a nice 19 inch bass, Dave's personal best smallie, we snapped a couple of pictures before releasing it.  We caught a few more fish including another smallmouth caught on a bottom rig using nightcrawlers, a total surprise.  It certainly wasn't our best trip fish wise however as with Jake, most of the fun is being with these bright young men and trying to teach them something.  Telling Dave he needs to try this again, this time maybe spend some more time trying to find some walleyes as they are in the river.  Notice Dave's hat, an American flag however the red strips are actually fish silhouettes, it's really interesting.  Well on Sunday a package arrived with that hat inside, thank's Dave, now we both can look swanky!

27" walleye, largest of the day!

The third trip of this week was with a couple of friends, Jack Taylor and Pete.  Pete had gotten some red-tail minnows as the reports were the walleyes were hungry on Mille Lacs.  We had cancelled 2 earlier trips because of the weather and Tuesday looked good so we decided to take the Ranger out.  Stopping at Prince's bait we picked up leeches and crawlers, along with the red-tails we were set.  Launching on the west side of the lake, it was a bit rougher than we expected.  The temperature was very nice and our first stop was the mid lake gravel bars, about 5 miles or so out.  We hit the first bar which had another boat on it so we decided to stop at the next one a half mile north.  Jack put a leech on, Pete did a red-tail and I rigged a crawler harness.  Not more than 5 minutes of dragging and a nice walleye hit my crawler.  We continued to have a steady bite alternating between my crawler, Jack's leech's and Pete's minnow.  After about 10 walleyes we decided to hit the first gravel bar that we stopped at as the boat that was originally there had left.  With a fairly string north wind we drifted at the perfect speed of about 1 mph.  It was perfect drifting weather and we caught another 16 for a total of 26 walleyes for the day.  Having never used a red-tail for walleyes I changed my rig and hooked on a big one.   Letting the line down to the bottom, after about 3 minutes the rod told me there was something going on below.  Lifting to see if I could feel the bite there was nothing.  Again there was a tap tap then nothing.  After a few minutes of this I began to reel in the line, it was obvious that the line was not behind where it should have been and ahead of it's normal position.  As the reel cranked the line in all of a sudden there was a very heavy fish on the line.  Apparently the fish had grabbed the minnow and swam towards the boat which negated any traditional feel of a bite.  Netting the walleye it was the largest of the day, 27 inches.  Many of our fish were long but skinny, this fish was fat and healthy.  Back in the water it went as we saw a storm approaching from the north.  Deciding we had enough we barely made it to the landing when the sky unloaded on us.  Luckily we had time to get the boat on the trailer and the cover on before the bulk of the rain came.  It was another successful trip, plenty of walleyes were caught however one cannot keep any walleyes from Mille Lacs this year and to add insult to injury, the month of July walleye fishing is not allowed.....period!  Based on the great fishing in June it would not surprise anyone that it will shut down for the year.  As always I'll keep my political comments to myself!

Next trip will be on the river or maybe sneak back up to Mille Lacs before July 1st.  Monday is the funeral of our good friend Tim who passed away from cancer on April 3rd.  Even though there should have been 2 trips to Lac Seul this year, the current situation has us thinking about flying somewhere with Bruce to try a new fishing experience.  More on that later!

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.

Fast Week

Sitting on the Stand

My computer went goofy on me this week and I finally got it fixed.  It is simply amazing how much it has become an integral part of our lives, unfortunately.  So last weekend was the end of our deer hunting in the zone which we hunt, Zone 2, so I decided to head back up with Jack and Ben to try and bag some venison.  The good new was that the cold weather during the previous week had been cold enough to freeze the swamp and one could easily walk out to the areas that we hunted when Rich was still alive.  It was pretty good as on opener one would have needed hip boots and a lot of ambition to trudge through the swamp, which was as full of water as I've ever seen in the 10 or so years I have hunted this property.  There are a lot of deer around as Brett had planted a wildlife plot and 8 or so deer, mostly does and fawns, would come in every afternoon/evening to partake in the feast, even though there was a lot of standing corn in the area, apparently deer love the sugar beets he planted!  Deciding to show up for the Saturday afternoon hunt I walked out to the island where I used to put my stand and sat on the one facing the Northeast, we call Bobby's stand (Rich's brother from Seattle who hunted with us those last years Rich was alive).  It was very nice, the temperature was in the low 30's and we had a dusting of snow which made it easy to see anything coming.  Unfortunately nothing came other than a few small flocks of Tundra Swans flying by.  Sitting there till dark, 12 foot up in the tree, is quite a bit better than sitting in a ground blind as I did the previous week.  Admittedly it was warmer but at least I could see quite a ways.  The fresh snow also gave us some indication of any deer movement however there were few if any tracks around my stand.  Often times the second weekend of hunting is not as good because there are less people pushing the deer around.  At sunset I met Jack and Ben, who were sitting just south of me and we walked out of the swamp.  Brett had shot a nice doe Friday evening and we told him that we would tag one if he had the opportunity however there were no shots that day.  We got up about 5:30 on Sunday and headed back to the stands.  Sunday morning was quite quiet yet I did se fresh deer tracks in my footprints in the snow as I walked out.  It appeared to be exactly what Brett was seeing, a doe and 2 fawns.  Leaving at noon, we went back to Jack's cabin as he was heading back in the afternoon, I decided to stay and hunt the evening.  Jack has a nice stand in a good location so I decided to use his for the duration of the hunting time.  I arrived at the stand around 2:30 and hunted till 5:15 before walking out.  I knew Brett was still out there so I waited for him, he returned to say he had shot a nice doe around 2:00 but nothing else came through.  He tagged it, I loaded up and headed south.  As stated, it was nice to get back in the swamp but I guess this year I was one of the 70% of hunters that don't bag a deer each year.  No big deal, the important thing is to get out with Jack's son Ben and get the next generation interested in hunting.

Pete's Pail of Fish

The next thing on the agenda is ice fishing!  My friend Pete has been out with his friend Dave Genz fishing somewhere north of Highway 2 in Minnesota.  Apparently they nailed some nice 12 inch crappies and a few good sunnies on there trip.  Pete told me that Dave will be on this week's show, John Gillespies Waters and Woods fishing with Dave on the Mississippi not to far upstream from where I live.  I guess it might have been more productive fishing than hunting but you can't be in two places at once!  Oh well, I have a pretty full schedule the next 3 weeks, the snow blower needs to get mounted to the lawn tractor, the shed needs cleaning, Thanksgiving is next week, I need to bring my boat back to Frankie's on November 27th to get the scratch on the bottom fixed as well as the rod locker lid replaced.  On the 29th I head to Scottsdale Arizona for a 3 day convention for the TTA, the Ice Fishing show is on the weekend I get back, December 2nd and 3rd.  Reports have Red Lake ice at about 7 to 8 inches so by December 8th I'll be ready to haul up the house for a couple of months of great fishing!  They upped the limit of walleyes on Red to 4, of which only 1 can be over 17 inches, which is fabulous. I know Mark and I would like to fish on the Reservation for trout like we did last year, that was fun.  The wheel house is pretty well set to go, I need to check the air in the tires and straighten things out a bit but that won't take too long.  Winter is here and even though it is somewhat mild, at Red Lake they are averaging highs in the low 20's and low's in the single digits, just what the doctor ordered, making ice!!!  I might even get Pete to take me with for some early season crappie fishing.

Fall is Finally Here

Haralson Apples

Well, it's the week of October 9th and we finally received our first killing frost of the autumn season early this week.  It wasn't too long ago that we would have a frost in September and this time of year would be known as Indian Summer, the warming period after the first frost.  The first frost also is the signal that most of my apples are ready to harvest.  As some of you know I have a small orchard on my land that consist of about 7 mature apple trees and 3 mature pear trees.  The pears were done a month ago and our neighbor has taken some and canned them as well, has a batch of pear wine brewing in his basement. My main varieties of apples include McIntosh, Haralson, Fireside, Honeygold, Haralred, Zestar, and I have a rouge Wolf River apple that provides a great conversational piece as they often weigh up to a pound each.  The McIntosh apples are generally the earlier ripening apples and although good, they turn mushy pretty fast.  I actually have 2 of these trees, personally I would not have planted another one however like my wolf River apple, the trees were mismarked at the nursery and by the time they are producing apples it's too late to complain.  One other issue that I have is the trees were planted in the early 1990's and 27 years later they are starting to die off one by one.  I talked to a guy who seems to know what he's talking about and his claim is the trees only last about 25 to 30 years then fade away.  I am sure that a a disease known as fire blight doesn't help, some of my trees are more resistant to it however my Honeygold's and Fireside's seem to be more susceptible to this as I have lost a couple of my trees in the last few years and this summer I had 4 heavily laden branches simply break off, and these were substantial limbs.  Oh well, I am not a big fan of the Honeygold apples anyway as they seem to turn brown quite easily.  The gentleman at Anoka Feed Store sold me some fire blight spray which I will try next spring.  In the meantime this year is a bumper crop so the harvest goes on.  The frost is great for the Fireside apples, my favorite of them all and the plan is to get out the cider press and maybe make 10 - 20 gallons of fresh cider.  Both my neighbors have sight on getting some cider, on will make apple wine and the other wants to try and get good at making hard cider.  I am all for it as the truth of the matter is.......what the heck am I going to do with all of these apples!  They are very good to eat for sure!

Check Out the Size of that Minnow!

Being preoccupied with my fall routines gives little time to go fishing.  To be fair, my travels have put me behind in a number of things and as well, the older I get the lazier I get!!  Never the less my friends continue to report on their fishing successes and one such guy is Pete Mlinar of Monticello, MN. Pete is an amazing river rat and it's been a while since I have fished with him however he is the guy who got me going on fishing the Mississippi River.  His technique is quite simple, fish the largest Redtail or Creek Chubs you can and hang on. He has been teasing me with his pictures of  the walleye's they are getting on the river and I have to admit, it working.  Pete is retired so it's easier for him to just leave and fish whenever he wants.  He sent me this picture earlier this week of a nice walleye he had gotten however the first thing I noticed was the size of the minnow in the walleyes mouth.  I call him and asked if this was staged but he assured me that this came right out of the water, if you look closely you can see the line under his wrist.  That is pretty amazing.  Now he did sent some pictures of the 27 inch walleyes that they caught but to me this one was the most impressive.  I know that they simply bounce rigs off the bottom in 10 - 12 foot holes in the river, something I would like to try behind the house as I know where these holes are.  Just where to find the time is always the problem.  One of the things I have learned to do is shoot photography.  I have a nice camera and photoshop to process them.  Over the years I have done a lot of my friends and relatives, and their children's wedding photo's but admittedly that takes time.  This Saturday I am committed to help a friend out and do his wedding pictures. I hate to turn my friends down when they ask however for the most part I'm going to be there anyway I might as well be doing something.  These events always come with a caveat, I am not a professional and I will shoot it in a more casual theme.  Well, that along with picking apples will pretty much eat up all my time this weekend.

Wednesday is my annual Trout fishing date with Mr. Lundeen.  We go to his secret lake and fishing out of a canoe we generally do quite well, each coming back with our limit of 14 - 17 inch rainbow trout.  The lake is quite clear so this year I have a Water Wolf, in line underwater camera with hopes to capture some footage of the trout hitting the spinners we pull behind.  We will see and maybe next week I'll have some interesting results.   Like everything it will probably take me a few days to learn this.  Still need to get my step welded on the Ranger Trailer, The boat goes in next week to Frankies and have some of my lingering issues taken care of before the winter. I really need to grease the wheel bearings on my Ice Cabin before it get's too cold.  The list goes on and on and on and on!  Heck somewhere I have to fit sighting in my gun for deer hunting which is 3 weeks away.  Next Wednesday my good friend Mark Applen is heading to Colorado to hunt elk and I am pretty excited to see the results.

Spring has Sprung.......in December

On Lake Pulaski

After a hectic week in San Diego and spending some time with my Taiwanese friend Jeffery it was time to get back to work.  It looks like I had the flu for the last ten days as I really didn't feel very well until the weekend.  As stated last week the weather was predicted to be in the high 40's and low 50's and the weatherman was right this time!  It was sort of like a temperature inversion had settled over the area and by Monday all the snow was pretty much gone everywhere.  With a few hours available I called my friend Pete Mliner as we had talked earlier in the day about heading out to a local lake near Buffalo.  I used to do well at the lake but the last few years it's been a struggle and with Pelican Lake being my local go to lake, my other previous haunts were forgotten.  Now that Pelican has froze out last year and the DNR is lowering the levels (that's another topic!) it's time to re-explore these older lakes as well as new ones. After stopping by Cabela's in the morning my afternoon cleared and I picked up Pete around 2:00.  It was interesting because we were going to Lake Pulaski and he had a friend on the lake where we could park our truck and walk out.  Arriving at the house we were greeted by Mark Haskins, and old Team Walleye member.  I guess I was the only one surprised as everyone assumed I knew, funny.  So after catching up on things and unloading we headed out on the lake and drilled some holes with Pete's new drill adaptor/auger.  It actually worked pretty good as the ice was a solid 12 inches, it took a little to get used to but we drilled quite a few holes.  As you can see there was a lot of water on the ice and my first hole became a drain for the rest of the day.  Moving from hole to hole we managed to get 7 crappies, the biggest about 10 inches. Nothing to brag about it was still nice to get out and renew at least one of my old fishing holes. Once the sun went down the bite stopped so we headed back home.

Andy with a nice walleye

The balance of the week has been getting prepared for our next visit to Red Lake for the weekend. This trip is going to include my brother Steve, Nephew Kevin, and good friend Kevin Aiona as we plan on heading up on Thursday afternoon for 3 nights of what hoping to be a great weekend of ice fishing.  As stated a few weeks ago I have left my Salem Ice Cabin at JR's Resort on Red Lake so it's pretty easy to drive on up, hook onto the truck and take it out.  My friend Mark is heading up 6 hours earlier and with a little luck he'll have the spot ready for us, maybe even have some fish to eat for supper!  Last week my friend Andy Achman was at Red with his newly acquired Ice Castle and they did pretty well.  He sent me a report where him and his brother Pete, both Team Walleye veterans, had caught over 40 walleyes after a few nights out of JR's.  He stated they had to move once but caught all the fish they needed to eat and bring home.  Parking his rig next to mine, I tried to convince him to join us this week but he's too busy.  Here's hoping the walleye's are still hitting as the weather forecasts are quite stable for the next 5 days, which is perfect for the walleye bite.  With the near zero temperatures the last few days warming up to the high 20's for Thursday thru Sunday, it should be perfect.   There is absolutely no snow on the ice and it might be a good time to practice putting on my tire chains just in case we get stuck.

Christmas is just around the corner and as always, it's moving too fast.  Although all the snow is gone it looks like Sunday through Tuesday may just give us enough snow to have a White Christmas. With the 25th falling on a Thursday this year it really breaks up the week, and not necessarily in a good way.  With a little luck I'll do well this week and be back up the next.

Making Sense



2012 Mille Lacs fall census results

 Last weeks post lamented the fact that my recent outing on Mille Lacs produced not so much as a single fish, not even a rock bass.  While there has been spotty reports of guys doing fairly well on the north side of the lake, I haven't spent the time to figure out what the exact pattern the fish are responding to.  For the most part, it isn't that necessary.  Over the years I've figured out the fall trolling bite, where the fish have traditionally been, as well as adapting to some of the changes that Mille Lacs has thrown out there.  It also involves new techniques like lead core trolling, looking in areas that may have been hot 15 years ago but is no longer the go to spot, trying new baits including those that you might have forgotten.   I am not a guy that measures success by the number of fish caught rather whether or not I figured out where the fish were, what they were biting on, and did I have a good time.  It has not been that unusual for me to drive up for the evening bite, spend 5 hours on some key areas, catch a few fish, and head home.  Honestly, it's not that hard in October.  On Monday the Minnesota DNR released their report on the fall netting census they do every year to assess the health of the walleye population on Mille Lacs and the news certainly gave an excuse for my lack luster performance last week.  As you can see by the graph, test nets set out in September were the lowest catch rates in 40 years.  Generally the black line represents more inshore, shallower locations and the red line represents nets set out into the deeper waters.  Each year they use this survey information to determine the "safe harvest" levels for the following year.  This year it was 500,000 pounds of walleyes with the estimate of 400,000 pounds taken by the Native Americans (80,000), sportsman (160,000), and release mortality (160,000).  One of the problems identified is that the spring netting targets too many male fish disrupting the normal spawning success.  I am not that smart and I try to remain politically neutral with my blog but if you see me and offer to buy a beer, you will certainly get an ear full!  Either way we are certainly in for some changes at Mille Lacs for the 2013 fishing season.



Two beautiful river walleyes

 Luckily there are guys out hammering the walleyes.  One of them is my friend Pete Mlinar, master guide on the upper Mississippi River.  Guiding under River Run Guide Service, Pete is by trade an accomplished electrician.  After the 2008/2009 economic downturn Pete packed up his truck, hooked up the boat and drove to Alaska seeking  work on the North Slope.  After spending 18 months working the oil fields, he's finally back and I have to admit, in fine form.  Pete is a master at fishing the river with redtails and chubs, the bigger the better.  I have fished smallies with him many times and I have to admit, we've done well.  Fall is his favorite time as he's a true river rat, fishing the Mississippi River from Brainerd to the Coon Rapids Dam.  Pete runs a River Pro Jet boat and can hit 45 mph in 3 inches of water.  With the river really low, he's probably the only guy that can get to these walleyes.  I can't tell you where he got these but I can assure you that anywhere on the river is probably good right now.  Maybe there's still time to get my jon boat out and hit a few of the deeper holes behind the house.  These walleyes are schooling up for the long winter, and with the water level at near record lows, it wouldn't be too hard to find a few that are hungry.  Along with this picture, he also sent me one of a nice 19 inch smallie.  All these fish are really fat and sassy.

So last weekend was occupied with taking wedding pictures for my friend, Mark Applen's daughter Jackie.  It was a frantic weekend as we first drove to New York Mills for the funeral of my friend, Lory Brasel's mother.  Back home by 5:00, at 6:00 we were at the Daytona Golf Course to take pictures of the wedding rehearsal.  Saturday was the big day as my wife and I snapped over 1500 pictures of the big event.  Sunday morning we were invited to a brunch in Rogers, MN to unwind from the previous days events.  Later on Sunday, and with the weather being perfect I loaded up my motorcycle with a new alternator for my tractor and delivered it to River Falls then returning before dark.  It was a nice day to ride, probably the last one of the year.  This weekend is deer hunting prep time as my friend Jack Taylor and I will set up our stands for the Deer Opener on November 3rd.  The year is flying by for sure!!

Back To Reality

Last weekend was spent repainting my family room.  It was about time as it's been the same color for 19 years and provided the incentive to look at replacing the carpet as well.  This and the fact that my Green Bay Packers were playing on Sunday afternoon gave me cause to finish up a few things around the house and relax during the game.  I can report that the room turned out great and is ready for a new carpet.  I cannot say that the game on Sunday turned out as well.  Although my beloved Packers finished the season at 15-1, they looked like a team that hadn't played in a few weeks.  Between the miss tackles and passes it was almost embarrassing.  Oh well, the good news is that it will free up the next 2 Sunday's to hit the ice hard.  With the below zero temperatures of this week it will be makin' ice like crazy.  I am really looking forward to those open water areas on Mille Lacs to heal up so we can fish the deeper offshore areas.  The fishing reports have been spotty with some guys doing well while others struggling.  Of course a number of my friends have been getting out and the first picture is of my deer hunting partner, Jack Taylor.  Jack has a cabin on Platte Lake, just west of Mille Lacs, a shallow lake full of small northerns, and occasional walleye, and some really nice crappies.  Here Jack is posing with a couple of crappies over 11 inches that he caught a few weeks ago.    Platte Lake is shallow enough to be in danger of freezing out every few years so the lake association has put in a few aerators when the oxygen levels get low.  Nice crappies like this are the result of successfully preventing the lake from having depleted oxygen levels when the snow blocks the light to the natural weed growth.  With the total lack of snow this year, they might not even need to install the aerators this year.

This next picture is my friend Pete, back from Alaska for a month.  Pete is good friends with Dave Genz of ice fishing fame and they wasted no time getting in some great ice fishing before Pete heads back to Fairbanks to start work this week.  Having drove to Alaska last March, he got assigned to the oil fields in Prudhoe Bay where it is now dark 24 hours a day.   Working 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off, there is little time to spend money and his intent is to work another year then come back and retire.  He is the master of the Mississippi River and I look forward to fishing with him in the future.  Here Pete is holding 2 bull bluegills that measure right at 11 inches.  Those are huge bluegills for anywhere in the country.  Of course fishing with Dave doesn't hurt as he is one of the best pan-fisherman on ice around and has all those great secret spots to nail fish like this.  Dave also has the latest and greatest equipment as he is sponsored by Vexilar, Clam Corp, Strikemaster, and a number of other ice fishing specialty companies.   Pete is driving back via the Alaskan Highway and I wish him safe travels, he'll need it this time of year.

The warm weather has made this years ice fishing season some what odd as I am already seeing some stores start closing out their inventory in preparation for open water fishing.  This will take a month or so but the change is happening.  The warm weather has given me an opportunity to work on my boat, cleaning up a few of the wiring items, and rethink how my electronics are mounted.   Certainly it's better than staring at my snowmobiles that just sit there and complain of no snow.  We are truly in a drought as there has been no significant rain or snowfall since August, almost 6 months now.  I knew when I bought that new snow blower we'd skip a year of snow.  You are welcome!  As stated, the Pack is out, Mille Lacs is in and I will make sure I have a ready camera next time.

Last Minute Scramble

With the ice conditions on Mille Lacs continuing to deteriorate my friend Mark Applen and I have been contemplating a trip further north, say the Canadian Border.  After talking to my friend Pete, checking out the video fishing reports from the Wigwam Resort on Lake of the Woods, it seemed like the place to be.  Putting something together this quickly and between Christmas and New Years would be challenging.  Calling almost every place I knew it would be difficult to find last minute accommodations for this week and as predicted, not a room available anywhere.   The guy at Wigwam was very helpful however there were a lot of options available we never explored.  First of all the lodging.  Calling back and asking about driving on the ice with Mark's wheel house (we can stay in there), they cannot guarantee however the guy said the resort will let us stay in the house as long as it's parked in the camp area on the resort.  $10 a night, including electricity seems reasonable.  If they were going to let us drive out on the ice all of our problems would have been solved.  Unfortunately they are only allowing specially equip ice transport vehicles and or snowmobiles and ATV's at this time.  Because of our last minute hair it would be dumb for only 2 of us to drive 2 trucks, one for the house and the other for the ATV's.  Yes, we could have put it in the truck but where do we put our portables,  it just presented 1 too many issues.  I had just about given up on the notion of being able to put a trip together.   This morning a light bulb went off, maybe the resort has ice shacks for rent, we could pull the wheelhouse up then use the resort services for the fishing.  Being somewhat restrictive as to where we fish, never the less it could be a good option for just the 2 of us.  A quick call this morning and voila, I have a house rented for 2 days which includes transportation to and from the heated shack, bait, and free fish cleaning!  We are heading up Wednesday afternoon, a 6 hour drive, with the hopes that the bite is still going strong.  It sure beats hanging around the house.  In the meantime my friend Pete sent me this picture of his friends 11 pound walleye they caught and released on Lake of the Woods a few weeks ago.  Pete is a friend of ice fishing legend Dave Genz and they were up for a few days and figured the total number of walleyes and saugers caught was well over 350 fish for 3 days.  Here's hoping my report will be as good as theirs and the fish are as big.  I did stop at Fleet Farm tonight and found a few potentially deadly lures to try out (of course I do that every week!).  Stay tuned

A quick word on Christmas, it was great, no snow yet but Santa found his way.  It was nice to see all of brothers and sisters at Mom's; Steve, Beth, Jon, and Blake as well as a few of my nephews and nieces.   It feels that we are all at some crossroads in life, never thinking too hard on any one issue yet understand none of us are getting any younger.   Maybe a few days away will clear the old noggin and a better reflection will pop out of my fingers.  On the other hand sometimes there just isn't much to say.

Happy New Year, stay safe and look for a a potentially amazing report in a few days!

Report From North Pole Alaska

This week I received a call from my friend Pete Mlinar, a fellow fisherman and electrician who is working in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.  Pete is a proficient fisherman and is solely responsible for my Mississippi River smallmouth knowledge.  Having been laid off in Minneapolis he decided to sign the book in Fairbanks Alaska with the hopes of landing a job at the top of the world.  This March he loaded his River-pro Jet Boat and drove to Fairbanks.   His quest was successful as he started a regiment of 6 weeks working, 2 weeks off.  The money is good and within a short time Pete hopes to make enough to retire.  Working through the summer, winter has began to set in at his camp with snow covering the ground.  Throughout the summer he has sent me pictures of caribou and musk ox seen around the camp.  On his 2 weeks off the company flies him back to Fairbanks where he has befriended a fellow sportsman which assures him a place to stay and store his boat.  Word was out that the silvers were in thick near Delta Junction, Alaska which was an hour from where he stays.  Pete's River-Pro boat is quite the rig sporting a 200 hp Merc Jet Drive.  Having been to Alaska many times I can assure you that this is the Cadillac of the boats running the rivers.  Pete reports that his tip stated the fish were 8 miles down from the landing but with the water gin clear, 60 seconds heading down river he found the mother load of silvers.  The first picture is an absolutely gorgeous silver salmon.  This fish has made it way up the Yukon River to the Tanana River, a trip that has to be over 1500 miles.  If you assume this fish entered the Yukon in late July it has taken it over 60 days to make the journey, almost 30 miles a day.  When we fish the Kenai River for Silvers the fish are fresh out of the ocean and are a bright silver color.  Although I have caught fish that are just starting to turn color, we have caught nothing as beautiful as this fish.  Pete is planning on getting a graphite reproduction of this fish as it will make a great addition to his trophy room.  His work will shut down for 3 weeks over Christmas and I hope we can touch base then.  Here is another picture of his ride home, following the now snow covered Alaska Range on his right.  Man does that give me the itch, thanks Pete!

Saturday we were fortunate to attend the wedding of my cousin Linda Barneson's youngest son, Brad.  It's been 2 months since my father passed away and it was great to get together with my friends and family from Eleva for a better occasion.  Linda's husband Dennis Barneson, along with his brother Gary were instrumental in getting me started fishing Mille Lacs.  Gary had been going there for a number of years for the Minnesota Fishing Opener with a some of guys from home and they finally invited me.  Over the years they had stopped going but it had a lasting impression, one that is still with me today.  Both have made the trip to my Uncle Jerry's in Idaho to hunt elk, something I should have really done but you can only do so much in life!  Jerry has a cabin in the mountains of Idaho, a perfect place to hunt these magnificent animals.  Hunting in the rut, the bulls are open to bugle calls and the hope is to call one close enough to decent shot.  Over the years they've accumulated a ton of stories and a few elk along the way.  This year was no exception.  Jerry sent me a picture of Brad's best man, Dave Frank with a huge bull taken with his bow.  It's a real team effort with guys scouting, bugling, and if they get one, skinning, quartering, and hauling the meat out.  Congrats guys on a successful hunt, one that will undoubtedly offer a lifetime of stories.  Someday.

I did make it to Mille Lacs on Sunday afternoon to see if the bite was still going.  The mild weather had warmed the water temp at least 3 degrees from last weekend.  Trying the same pattern as before my neighbor Tom Olson and I started at the 4 Mile Gravel with lead lines.  Earlier that day my friend Mark Applen had called with the hot tip......redtails in 30 feet, the walleyes couldn't leave them alone.  The wind had created a nice walleye chop in the morning but by the time we launched the lake had laid right down.   Although the fish appeared to be up off the bottom not a minnow, Shad Rap, Husky Jerk, Rouge could entice a walleye.  After 3 hours of trolling we headed back to the reef to cast for walleyes and muskies.  I got a couple of 10 inch walleyes before we started my new favorite trolling run.  On a #5 crawfish Shad Rap produced our first keeper, a 16 incher.  Within an hour I had 3 nice walleye slam my bait but they never made it to the boat.  I use Excalibur Rotating Hooks for an unbelievable hook up success but the fish must have been hitting light as I seldom lose fish like this.  Oh well, it was still fun.  This weekend I am taking my Mother to Antigo Wisconsin to see her sister while my brother Steve and I continue to Elvoy Township on the Wisconsin/Michigan border to hunt grouse with my cousin Don.  He has invited me every year and this year we figured it would be a good chance to get mom out of the house and verify if Cousin Don actually is telling the truth about his annual fall hunt.  Either way the leaves should be in their peak form and I should have a good report for next week.