Moving Right Along

Wrigley Field

As stated last week, this was the weekend to plant my onions and potatoes yet nothing is ever that easy.  Deciding that the garden was still not as level as it could be I pulled out my tractor with the blade to pull a little more dirt back towards the middle and back of the garden.  Well, good intentions created a worse mess than I started with so I went over to Ricky's to see if he'd let me use his Harley Rake again.  He had the rotor tiller on his tractor and would have easily let me use it yet this would be a good time to see how it world work on my tractor. Driving home then back with my Ferguson TO35, I hooked it up, drove back to the garden and in no time had it back to being flat and ready to plant.  As stated earlier, it really works great and by Sunday night had accomplished my goal. Tuesday morning I left for Chicago for our annual Spring Meeting of the TTA with the highlight coming later that evening when we attended a Wrigley Field Rooftop baseball game between the Chicago Cubs vs the Pittsburgh Pirates.  We were not in the stadium itself rather on top of the apartment building overlooking left field.  Complete with dinner and beer we watched the Cubs win 6 - 2, it was a lot of fun.  Because of the meetings and not getting home till Thursday evening, it's my excuse for a Friday post!

Cool Cash!

Saturday I drove up to Frankie's to discuss my lack of a boat for opener situation and I wasn't very encouraged.  If push comes to shove, yeah he has a smaller rental boat I could take but in the end I wasn't to excited.  We both felt comfortable that my Ranger would have been in the end of this week but that's not going to happen. Well Mark Applen decided that I should use his boat, a 19 foot Monarch with a 135 Merc Optimax, so he brought it down to my pole shed Sunday night.  I have been in that boat before however I didn't realize how big it really is and it will be perfect for Leech Lake.  I will probably change out his depth finder with my color HDS7 Touch which has my map chips loaded into it.  It should work perfect for trolling shad raps as well and I am lucky to have such great friends.  At the Northwest Sportsman Show in March I bought a new Stowmaster Folding landing net with the promise of a $10 rebate from the factory.  A few days ago I got a letter from Norsemen Outdoors hand addressed to me and inside was a letter of congratulations along with a $10 bill.  It definitely got my attention as the usual way these rebates work is they are administered by a third party fulfillment company.  It was nice not to have to go to the bank and get my money, sort of the old fashioned way to do business.  It's been pretty dry around here lately and the word is that Leech Lake is down about a foot from last year.  Some guys are worried yet last year was about a 8 inches higher than normal so we should be OK.  With 70's scheduled for the rest of the week I might even get the rest of the garden planted before fishing.

This is my last post for the year.  I started posting in May of 2008 and decided that a year of Fishin' with Dave was basically from May 1st to April 31st.  Next week's post starts my 8th year of writing and I hope everyone has enjoyed.  Trust me, it's gets better once the season starts, other wise it's Fishin' for Topics!

Northwest Sportshow

Sports Show Prize!

So everyone knows I'm a Sport show  junkie and the granddaddy of them all is the Minneapolis Northwest Sportshow which was held at the Convention Center last week.  Unlike some of the smaller shows like the St. Paul Ice Fishing Show, St. Paul Sports Show, St. Cloud Sports Show, the Minneapolis show pretty much has everything you need to see under 1 huge roof.  From boats and motors to vacation destinations, equipment manufacturers, lure manufactures, and the latest and greatest of inventions, I could spend days there.  This year I made it down last Wednesday evening then again on Sunday afternoon.  Wednesday was the first day of the show and a great time to visit as everyone is fresh and it's not so crowded.  My main goal was to visit 3 specific vendors and attend a seminar.  The vendors included Frankie's Live Bait and Marine (my boat dealer), the Lowrance Electronics booth and the Motorguide booth.  The new Motorguide will talk to my Lowrance Electronics with the right adaptor and significantly increase the options for using the trolling motor. The other purpose for Wednesday night was to attend Lowrance University, a 2 hour seminar on using the advanced HDS Gen 3 products.  I should have known better.  Having used the Lowrance HDS platforms for over 5 years my knowledge is probably more than the average user so I was looking for the next level of understanding.  Although the instructor was very good, most of the participants were at a basic level of understanding or for that matter, didn't even own any Lowrance HDS products.  Getting a few of my questions answered, I left 30 minutes early and met up with my 2 friends Mark and Lory, who rode down with me.  Although they were "showed out", I had barely scratched the surface but it was time to head over to Britt's Pub for a Guinness and some Fish and Chips.  On Sunday afternoon I went back down with my neighbor Tom Olson as he was interested in looking at what's new from the boat manufacturers.  This is a great time to go as there are deals to be had for sure.  I did find a nice landing net called a Stowmaster KVD (Kevin Van Dam) edition at a real good price.  It folds up nice and will fit in my storage space in the boat.  Besides buying a ticket to support one of my political organizations, PERM, I did manage to buy a metal laser cutout of a 30 inch walleye that now adorns my Salem Ice Castle.  It's pretty cool and I got it half price after the guy asked me what I'd give him for it.  There was a guys selling a special jig with at small spinner blade claiming they were hot on Lac Seul Lake in Canada..........Ok I bought 10.   Finally I was able to return the favor to my friends Ken and Judy Marlow from Soldotna, Alaska.  We have stayed with them in the past and each year I get to see them at the show. They always have a jar of canned smoked Red Salmon for me so this year I returned with a pound of Lundeen's Wild Rice and a 12 oz bottle of fresh maple syrup made from the sap of the neighborhood maple trees during the last few weeks.  We all walked away happy!

View from Twin Pines Resort, Mille Lacs

Although I haven't had a chance to get out fishing around home lately, it looks like ice out is going to happen early this year.  The winter wasn't that cold and we certainly didn't have the snow cover we have had in the last 2 years. Looking back to 2013, we still had substantial ice on the lakes on May 1st and last year wasn't any better. This year we have already hit the earliest 80 degree day ever and with the mild end to the winter and no snow, it's not going to be long. Looking at the ice pulling away from Twin Pines Resort Web Cam on the northwest side of Mille Lacs, I predict that it will all be gone in about 2 weeks.  This should bode well for Minnesota's fishing opener scheduled to open on May 9th.  In addition to the Minnesota opener I have also been invited back to Lac Seul Lake for the Canadian Fishing Opener. Last year was my first spring trip to Lac Seul and it was delayed by the late ice out conditions however this year it's looking like that won't be an issue.  There is still a lot of things to be done as April is a big transition month for me.  With the snow gone I will be able to get into the garden faster, the lawn needs a lot of work which means I need to figure out how to take off my lawn tractor cab and store it, take off the snowblower and chains, attach the mower and get it ready for warmer weather.  I hate to do all of this before April 15th but the long term forecast says I'll be safe.  With the warmer weather upon us I can turn on the water to the pole shed as my Salem needs a good cleaning along with the wheel bearings greased and the roof scrubbed clean.  Easter is this weekend, next weekend we have been invited to an appreciation dinner, the following weekend is Mom's 81st birthday, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get ready for opener.  Oh well!