Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

Great picture of Toolman!!

It's been almost too hot to write!!  Great excuse but our weather has been hot and muggy for the last week, admittedly the garden likes it but then again, that's more work.....uffda! So we finally got to say goodbye to our good friend and neighbor "Toolman" Tim Kuntz.  Back on April 6th I mentioned Tim in that week's post.  He was diagnosed with cancer on February 2nd and passed away just 8 short weeks later.  On Monday June 29th, Tim's official funeral was at his home church, Sacred Heart in East Grand Forks, MN.  With all this Covid restrictions, this was the first opportunity to have a meaningful service.  While Pete, Bots and their wives went up the night before and stayed in town, my wife Lyn and I decided to drive to Alexandria and stay with Lory and Lynn Brasel at their cabin on Lake Ida.  We spent a quiet evening making steaks and enjoying the view of the lake before getting up early and driving the 2 1/2 hours to East Grand Forks.  The funeral really helped give some closure to the unfortunate passing of our good friend Tim.  Pete, Tim's niece and myself got up and said a few words about Tim, it was the first time for Pete but that was good for him and he did a great job.  It's never fun to attend these things however it gives one some perspective on how important your friends are in your life as well, things change and not always for the better. We all benefit from these friends whether they be one's that you have known all your life, like my buddy Kevin, or you have only know them later in life, like Tim.  Good friends are hard to come by so make sure you treat them well and with respect because after they have left, the only thing you have is whether or not you are a better person for knowing them.  In Tim's case it is a resounding yes, I still drive by his place looking to see if he's in the garage.  Old habits are hard to break for sure but I suspect somewhere he is watching me probably giving me hell for thinking he's home.

Ben's new 620FS

So after the last outing on Mille Lacs with my friends Jack and Pete, there were some boat issues that needed to be cleaned up.  In the meantime Ben Aiona was on the hunt for a boat like mine.  Ben fishes big water a lot and wanted a larger boat.  His current boat was a Ranger 618T with a 90 hp tiller, nice boat but a little small for Erie, Lake Michigan, and Devil's Lake.  Talking to the dealer in Chippewa Falls at a new Ranger 620FS like mine, he asked me what I thought he could get for his boat, a 2016 model.  Oh, I don't know, maybe $36,000.  Well Ben doesn't screw around and put it on Walleye Central for a lot more than that and in 24 hours it was sold!  Well he was boat less, and waiting for the one he was negotiating on to come in.  While making an appointment with Frankie's I spoke to Todd, the sales guy about a 620FS, he said at 9:00 he just unloaded one from the truck.  Getting a price then calling Ben, he was on his way up to see the boat in Chippewa as he would prefer dealing with a local dealer.  Never the less he was intrigued by the price as Frankie is one of the largest volume Ranger dealers in the country.  Ben went to look at the boat and after talking to him he said that the boat he looked at was butt ugly, no sparkles, just plain gelcoat, and he was heading up to Frankie's to look at what he had.  Deciding to meet him there and arriving earlier, they moved the boat into the show room, it was gorgeous.  Knowing Ben and this boat, I predicted that this boat will be gone in an hour.  Well sure enough Ben left with a new Ranger purchase agreement and here is a picture, it is a beautiful boat as well it has a lot of nice options as it is their Ranger Cup package.  He picked it up on Friday June 26th and drove to Chetek to do an initial run, ran down to the Mississippi river where this picture was taken, them last week was on Lake Michigan catching lake trout and salmon.  Ben has the energy to really make this boat work for him.  His dad, Kevin and I used to fish Lake Michigan with Gary Barneson, I had some down riggers from 30 years ago that were better than what Ben had so Kevin and Gary were on their way back from Devil's Lake, we met at Cabela's and I gave him the down riggers we used and some other stuff that has just been laying around. Heck if I want to go to Lake Michigan, I'll just go with Ben!

Always a nice sunset on the river.

With the hot weather and Mille Lacs being completely closed to walleye fishing for the month of July, the best alternative has been the Mississippi River behind the house.  Having been in my river boat, last night neighbor Tom joined me as we launched at Blair's and headed up stream to cast the shorelines.  The water temperature was 88 degrees, pretty hot for this time of year.  Tom is a good fisherman and between the two of use we didn't get one smallmouth bass, and after anchoring for an hour didn't even get one fish on our bottom rigs loaded with nightcrawlers.  Usually that's a deadly method of getting at least a carp, redhorse, or catfish.  Admittedly it was the first time getting skunked on the river.  After "catching" this nice sunset picture we headed back to the pole shed.  A couple of notes, earlier stopping at Vado's Live Bait in Spring Lake Park, MN (10 miles from home) I picked up 6 dozen of the fattest nightcrawlers I had ever seen.  It mystifies me as to why we didn't catch any fish on these as it was like presenting a Fillet Mignon to them, although we did get some small hits, it was nothing substantial.  I am not sure what the problem has been however this is the earliest that I have fished the river so maybe it's just me!  Anyway it was a nice relaxing time to spend on the water.  My friend Bill Lundeen is threatening me that he will be down the middle of this week, maybe I can get him to show me what I am doing wrong!

Still waiting for word as to if and when Canada will open.  Bruce is determined to go somewhere, maybe we'll fly to Lake of the Woods or Devil's Lake and hire a guide for the day.  Time will tell as summer is moving fast!

About Time!!!

Our ice Freezer

So, my good friend Kevin sent me an e-mail asking me about my blog and what the heck I was up to.  Admittedly it seems as though the events of the last 3 weeks have taken a lot of wind out of my sails.  With the boat still in the shop getting the bottom repaired, at least it won't be like last year yet it will still be 3 weeks (by next Friday) that I will get it back.  It is sort of unnerving having to deal with this again, both from the damage, loss of the use of the boat, and what consequences will happen with my insurance.  Luckily the insurance premium was set for 2020/2021 so I will be good for a year as I have already paid it!!!  This is always a busy time of the year and it has not been without it's issues.  Honestly I should be writing about my last trip for the Canadian Opener on Lac Seul but both that and our June trip were cancelled because it was deemed a non-essential trip......For Who???  I understand their concern as they do have limited health care in Sioux Lookout and of course there is little one can do about the situation.  Last week was my dear friend's Tim Kuntz's auction that his wife had to help get sell  quite a bit of inventory after his unfortunate death.  Volunteering to help during the inspection and the pickup's as it was an online auction and it went pretty well, except for Tim's new Ram 3/4 ton pickup.  The reserve had been met however it appeared as though the bidders forgot to mention it to their wive's and both backed out at the last minute with a few lame excuses.  The auction house, Auction Master's were great and they helped Connie with dealing with helping to make it right, which they did.  While helping out it gave me an opportunity to get our ice machine running.  Years ago I was fishing with a friend and neighbor Roger Weber with his friends in Akaska, South Dakota.  It was very nice as one of his friends had a commercial Ice Machine in his pole shed, all the ice one ever wanted.  It was nice and when Tim Kuntz moved into the neighborhood, I casually mentioned having experienced the convenience of having your own ice machine that

8 pound bag of fantastic ice

would be nice to have our own ice machine.  A couple of years later he came up and asked if I was serious.  Of course I was, and apparently after starting his landscape curbing business he was buying 4 - 5 bags of ice a day, spending between $40 and $50 a week, he asked if I was interested in going half with him.  We ended up getting a a commercial machine and he had a small chest freezer to store it in.  Eventually the freezer stopped working , probably wasn't made to be put outside, so we ended up buying a commercial Ice Freezer from a friend, with the compressor on the top for outside usage.  Remembering when we first plugged it in it only got to 20 degrees F, and we assumed a freezer should be around 0 degrees F.  As it would have it, I went fishing with my brother to Canada with the guy that had a company that these ice freezers were part of his business.  When asked about the temperature only going down to 20 degrees F he said, yes they are designed that way.  Any colder then the ice starts to evaporate and a 5 pound bag of ice becomes 4.5 pounds and the cubes are smaller.  20 degrees F assures that one gets what one pays for!   A great example of....you learn something new every day! Tim provided the space, we owned the equipment together, I bought a bunch of ice bags, and we were in business.  Eventually our old ice maker stopped working so we got a newer Manitowoc 140, it makes great ice.  Every year the machine needs to be cleaned chemically with a natural Citric Acid cleaner to remove any scale from the main ice grid, so I did this on Thursday while helping with the auction.  Bagging in the morning and in the evening, I can bag between 8 and 10 8 pound bags of ice per day and have the freezer half full.  It will hold about 100 bags of ice, when it get's full we'll turn off he machine and use the ice through the summer. It's a pretty good system and unfortunately with Tim gone, the freezer won't empty so fast yet it is good to run and turn over so the neighbors have been told that if they need any ice!!!

Northern Catalpa tree starting to leaf out

The garden is fully planted with sweet corn, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, dill, cucumbers, squash and  variety of flowers to add some color.  These days my main goal is to make pickles, salsa, frozen corn, as well the asparagus is late but doing very well.  The first of May started a little dry but it quickly greening up.  One of the last trees to leaf out is the Northern Catalpa tree.  These are pretty cool trees as my friend Kevin had one in his yard when we were kids in Eleva.  They have very large leaves and pods that hang through spring.  I have 2 and in a few weeks they will sport the big beautiful flowers adding a little sense of a southern location here in Minnesota.  We are going to try and freeze some rhubarb this week as it seems pretty easy.  Basically you wash the stems, cut off the leaf, cut them in cubes and freeze them on a tray.  Using my commercial type vacuum packer, will vacuum seal them for the freezer.  It works excellent for sweetcorn, hopefully I can find some gluten free recipes for anything rhubarb as it is very good.  Not so good of news is our wonderful friend Craig Beigert passed away the other night.  Craig has lived with Multiple Myeloma for years but did pretty well.  He had the opportunity to fish with his friend Pete Sipe and myself at Lac Seul one year, it was alot of fun.  We ended up fishing on the corner north of camp, we had caught over 100 walleyes that day, mostly off the point on that corner.  We have since named that excellent spot to fish, Craig's Corner, let him know that his hotspot was named and we were looking forward to his return.  He was a great guy, is

Jared with a very nice sauger!

sad but as one get's older you experience more of this unfortunate stuff.  The other thing that has me miffed is I was kicked off Walleye Central, a fishing forum that I've been a part of for 21 years.  No specific reason and the notice says reinstatement: never.  Looking back at my last post it had a picture of the bottom damage to my boat and the post didn't appear to be offensive.  the moderator remove the picture and kicked me off,  oh well, I have asked for an explanation but nothing yet.  So I will end with my new found fishing buddy, Jared!  Although I have known him since he was born as his Grandpa Kevin is my best friend from home, it's been interesting to keep track of him, something his dad, Ben does a lot by sending me his pictures.  I have been invited to join them but it seems there is always something that gets in the way!  Anyway last weekend Ben was trolling Lake Pepin near Pepin Wisconsin.  His side scan wasn't working at Leech so we stopped at Bill Lundeen's who had a transducer for Ben to try.  After mounting it, they went down and launched at the Pepin Harbor, he called saying....I can see the rocks!  Obviously it was working.  We are working out a few other issues but he sent this picture of Jared holding a very nice sauger.  You can see they are trolling the rock shoreline next to the railroad tracks that run on either side of the lake.   I have always wanted to do this as the end of May and first of June is an excellent time to try this technique.  Well, I am not sure if I am totally caught up but if not there is always next week.  Thanks for the patience!

Crazy Weekend

One of Vic's Favorite fish, Channel Catfish

The events of this weekend have delayed (as good excuse as I could come up with!) my posts but things are settling down enough to put some thoughts online.  The weekend started Friday morning when I missed a call from Paul Wenaas, my friend from Chippewa Falls.  Having to drive to Eau Claire that morning, I promised him a call on the way as it was more convenient but really contemplated the conversation.  Unfortunately I was right, although not unexpected, my first real boss, Vic Wenaas, Paul's father died Friday morning.  He was 92 so it was no surprise.  When asked to give a presentation while I was working often the introduction involved where I attended school when having needed a background of my "stature" as President of Precision.  My go to answer would say that I have an Associate's  Degree in Electronic Technology and my MBA from the Victor Wenaas School of Business Management.  That went well with those guys who had degrees from MIT and MBA's from Harvard! Vic owned the gas station that was once owned by my grandfather.   I started working at 15 and at that time I had 2 jobs, half the nights was loading chickens in a truck for the local chicken processing factory and half being a gas station attendant, the kind that would pump your gas and wash the windshield.  In the fall Vic said I had to make a decision as he needed a full time guy, work for me or the chicken truck.  It was no use running to my dad for advice because he really didn't care but rather he gave me a lesson,  make up your own mind .  So at 15.5 I decided to be a grease monkey and work for Vic for 75 cents an hour.  This was in July of 1970 and I worked there until January 25th, 1976.  My favorite story is while working on car repairs on Saturday my job was to do the oil changes while he might be changing a water pump in the other bay.  He would always have WAXX, 104.5 FM Country on the radio.  This was the early 70's so I cut me teeth on Johnny Cash, Eddie Arnold, Porter Wagner, Hank Snow, Dolly Pardon and all the Older country stars.  I still can name damn near every song from 50 years ago.  Anyway Eddie Arnold's song, Cattle Call started playing and while changing oil which prompted me to start singing the part where he does the cattle call, I liked that part!.  Vic came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me and said........"You know something Davy, I can't sing either!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JX50rZae2M  Vic loved to catfish in the summer and often we'd go down by the buffalo bridge or for a real adventure, up to Eau Claire and fish NSP point where the Eau Claire River met the Chippewa River.  There were always a few guys along like my dad, Art Kelly, and Daniel Van Pelt.  Our favorite bait was chicken livers that we harvested out of the back of Doughboy Foods chicken processing plant in Eleva.  It is with regret that in my archives there are no pictures of Vic but I know where catfish stood!  

Tim Pulling Pork for his Annual Pig Roast

The second event was the passing of my good friend and neighbor Tim Kuntz.  Saturday night at around 7:00 pm my good neighbor Tim died at home from stage 4 urinary tract cancer.  He found out on Feb 2, and 8 weeks later we hauled him out of the den where his hospice bed was.  He was 63.  Tim was always the center of the neighborhood, had a separate garage always had a cold beer, simply drive by and if the light shined through the window, it was your indication that you were welcome.  A couple years ago he moved an enclosed trailer in front of the window enough so you could not see the light so a few of use complained that we no longer knew he was in the garage.  Enough so that he went out and bought a neon store sign saying OPEN, with it wired to his light switch, if he was in the garage, the sign was definitely lit with the connotation, come on in.  Anyway for the last 2 months I saw him as much as permitted and every time I left I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him.  Tim's nickname was Tool man Tim,  proper name as he seemed to either have every to tool known to man or he could make something do.  Tim was the center of the neighborhood as he hosted the annual Superbowl Party to watch the Super bowl in his heated garage/man cave.  In the early fall Tim would get a 230 pound whole hog and have a pig roast, he was quite a BBQ chef as well he really enjoyed being the host.  The stories could go on but the reality is that it is over and after visiting Tim last Friday night, he was ready to say goodbye.  My grandmother Myrtle had a picture in her kitchen of a man praying and the prayer was...God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Rest in peace my friend.

The last thing is a project involving my friend Greg Kinblom's idea to make a bracket for my John Deere Lawn tractor to change the way the dethatcher attachment connects to the front end of it.  Basically has made a bracket, adapting it to the hydraulic quick hitch which controls the lift from the drivers seat.  The quick hitch came with the snowblower attachment and works quite well.  It is very nice however not without some issues.  Although not related to his work, I did have to accommodate some of his holes by enlarging them somewhat.  The bigger issues dealt with once I attached the mower deck the front bracket of the deck hit the hitch.   Also when reattached the hitch would not lift, 15 minutes later it was discovered that the black hose was attached to the grey connector, after switching it worked great again.  Focusing on getting the lawn thatched and ready for fertilizing, things should go better this week.  Maybe there will be some pictures next post.  The original plan was to head to Lake Erie today however their is a 14 day quarantine for new arrivals so the Mississippi River is plan B.  The problem is the river is at flood stage and the peak will happen early this week.  I'm am sure we'll think of something!

Getting Things Buttoned Up

4 Series 32 AGM's and the charger

After all the electrical work on the boat prior to going to Canada, in the end it didn't make a hill of beans difference in the performance of my electronics.  Almost everytime we were done fishing an area I had to turn the master switch to the jump position to get the outboard motor started.  Of course hindsight is 20/20 and admittedl I was probably too smart for my own good!  Thinking I could solve all of my problems with some rewiring and a boost circuit, along with the assumption that the AC voltage at the docks could be bad, like they were at Fisherman's Cove, I was loaded for bear!  As you might have read, I rewired the power to the console area, added a new power distribution methodology, cleaned up my boost converter, yet still it was like I did nothing.  In the boat I added a USB charging port for charging things such as cell phones, my Ipod, and other things.  It has a  built in volt meter so I can easily monitor the battery voltage at the power distribution center, and there is where my first clue appeared.  Normally battery voltage should stay above 12 volts however the voltmeter showed 11.6 and it was falling.  In about an hour it was down to 10.5, low enough to cause major problems.  I even brought a special AC voltage booster for the power at the docks but the plug in voltage at the docks was adequate to assure a good charge.  Even so after about 4 hours, I was in trouble.  Add that to the fact that power went out the night before our last day and therefore it was really a problem as the low battery from the day before didn't even have a chance to charge fully.  On top of this, I had to keep the power on to run the baitwell pumps to keep our minnows alive.  Well I made it through the trip, inconvenienced but still got back to the landing.  The discussions started centering around whether or not my main "house" battery was starting to get a weak cell as it sure acted like it.  Once home I charged everything up then removed the house battery and took it to Pete's and had him load test it.  Yep, it is weak for sure.  Well this would explain everything that was going on for the last 2 months.  So I run series 31 AGM's as they are truly maintenance free and because they are in the floor do not require any maintenance on the electrolyte. In addition, I always keep my onboard charger plugged in as it has a maintenance mode to keep the batteries healthy.  I called my dealer as these batteries are about 39 months old, they have a 36 month free replacement and I assumed a pro-rated formula after that.  NOPE, 36 months, that's it.  I explained this issue has been going on a while, I guess if I would have checked in May it would have not cost me anything.  Frankie's stated they would talk to the Interstate Battery rep and we will see what they can do.  In the mean time I needed a good battery so I bought a replacement ...... $360 ... ouch!! I trust Frankie's will do everything they can for me as they always do, but a warranty date is a warranty date.  Interesting as I put in the new battery and connected it the positive cable sparked when it touched the terminal, that's not necessarily good.  I found the source of the current draw and put a switch in to shut off certain parts of my electronics without affecting my pumps and other safety features.  All the stuff I did a month ago is still a great idea, but honestly, may have not been necessary.

Getting the pig going!

We go home on Friday night, September 21st and on the next day, our neighbor Tim had his annual pig roast.  He gets about a 230 pound whole hog and has a specially made pig roasted where he first brines the whole carcass before putting it in the smoker and pouring the smoke to it.  It takes a good 12 to 18 hours to completely cook it however it is quite delicious, especially with his own homemade barbeque sauce.  This year along with the food, he had entertainment, our old neighbor Bots and his band called Blues Driver.  They are pretty good but admittedly I really didn't know many of the songs as I am not much of a blues fan!  I still appreciate good music and they did an outstanding job for sure.  This weekend will be getting caught up around the house as we had our first freeze a week ago so everything is changing quick.  I need to replace the vacuum system on my new lawn tractor as I am not raking nothing!  The boat still needs to be put together and the lawn needs fertilizing, sprinkler system blown out, trees trimmed and the average high is only in the low 50's.  I have talked to Bill and it looks like we have a trout fishing date set for the 12th.  I am hoping to get back on the river this weekend but we'll have to see.  Last weekend was my good friend Big Dave's son's wedding in Alma.  We drove home that night and I got my first speeding ticket ever.....damn.  Oh well not much one can do about it.  I am also trying to get my new mud flaps to fit my truck, getting ready to pull the ice shack.  My 45th class reunion is on the 13, no rest for the wicked, as they say!!

Quick trip to Red

Sunset on Red Lake

At the last minute on Friday I decided to head back to JR's on Red to spend the weekend.  It was a hectic week for sure and I needed some time to clear my head.  Trust me, there is no better place to clear one's head than a weekend in the Salem!  Of course I did get some good inspiration from my friend Russ who was heading up in the morning and picking up our friend Mike at Mille Lacs.  Also our good friend Scott Anderson and a few others were joining us, my addition to the trip would assure Mike would have a comfortable place to sleep rather than in Russ's house which would have been pretty crowded.  Russ had gotten there about 1:00 and was set up southwest of Center Bar, which is about 6 miles across the ice towards the reservation line that divides Upper Red Lake.  I got out of the cities at about 1:00 so my ETA was going to be around 6:00.  This meant stopping to get minnows, bacon at Osseo Meats, eggs, and water for coffee. I arrived right on time.  I got my house hooked up and the furnace going and waited for Scott to arrive.  He was running late and I was very uncomfortable trying to find Russ out in the middle of nowhere.  Deciding to wait for Scott, he finally arrived at 7:30 which gave me time to fill up one of my empty propane tanks and unwind. Scott was in contact with Russ and knew where he was going which made it better for me, I just followed him out.  At some point we had to turn off the main path and cut through the snow, making our own path.  About 100 yards into it my truck got stuck.  Luckily Scott had a strap and he was able to pull me to my final destination about 50 yards from Russ.  Russ had already taken Scott's house out and had it set up.  It takes about an hour to get set up and the reports were that the night bite was hot.  Finally getting the house set on the ice, the snow banked up to seal the bottom, my DirecTV working, I was set for the night.  Mike came over and we settled for the evening.  I was so tired I never heard any of the rattle reels go off however Mike was good about it and had 2 walleyes and a perch in the bucket when we got up.

Texas Goodies

Saturday turned out to be a nice day as the wind had died and the sun was shining.  Through the night we had accumulated about 13 walleyes and decided to go into JR's to have fish for lunch.  They are really good at the resort in accommodating my growing sensitivity to flour and the hives I get from it. Last time I had given the cook some corn based fish coating and this time I brought a new fish coating device and some Louisiana Style Zatarain's corn based coating mix again. They did our fish in that and it was excellent, I think a lot better than what they use but again, I have little choice!  I bought a bunch of this coating for Canada as well as Leech Lake opener as we definitely have fish while on those trips.  I did go to the allergist last week and confirmed my status, you would think not eating wheat would help me loose some weight but that doesn't seem to help!  We left the bar pretty full and headed back out to fish the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Russ's brother Randy drove down from Lake of the Woods to join us, he has a new Ice Castle that is pretty nice even though he has had some issues with it.  Randy is a pretty good guy and very innovative.  He has a small snow blower he brings with to help bank his house with snow and then he clears a path between our houses so it's easier to walk.  After a game of Farkle (the official game that these guys play) I retired back to the Salem to watch the football game.  Fishing was still slow for me however the other guys seemed to do pretty good.  Apparently the trick was using a plain hook rather than an ice jig, I am not sure I get it however the results spoke for themselves.  A couple of things happened this trip.  First I broke cupboard door and forgot to bring any glue to fix it so I brought it back with me and my neighbor Tim Kuntz glued it back like new. Secondly my Strikemaster Big Volt, 12 Volt ice auger  had an issue with the main cable connector. I installed a standard Ranger type trolling motor plug into compartment where my battery is as it is hidden under the couch, and also put a trolling motor plug on the main cable so it's pretty clean.  Well the connector from the main cable to the power head had broken, I knew enough to get it working but needed a better fix so I got that done this week as well.  I got back on Sunday to go over to Tim's and watch my Green Bay Packers beat Dallas in a nail biter! Early last week I sent my two friends in Dallas some fresh cheese curds, some colby and aged cheddar from Cady Cheese near Spring Valley, WI.  Along with the cheese was a note telling them that this was something they could enjoy while watching the game on Sunday.  I receive this nice box of Texas Goodies the other day, their answer to my badgering!  My friends Joe Stanfield and Matt Davis are really great guys and any excuse to give them some crap is definitely done!

Finally when up at Red during the end of our December trip  the top cover for my stove fell down and pushed my stainless steel stove top coffee percolator off the stove and into one of our holes.  My brother Steve caught it but not before the lid on the brew basket fell off and sank.  I have been trying to get another lid but it is almost impossible.  The coffee pot is made by Tops Manufacturing and there is no website for them.  I know that this percolator is private labeled by a number of companies including GSI outdoors.  Well I e-mailed them and believe it or not they called me back and stated, yes we have them!!  I ordered a couple incase it happens again, I am impressed!  So my door is fixed, my auger connection is fixed, my coffee pot should be back in service next week, just in time for RedFest.  I am hoping to get on Mille Lacs this weekend, we'll see.

Lot's Going On!

Boris With a Beautiful Walleye

With the warmer than usual weather and the desire to try and catch some respectable crappies, I decided to head up north on Saturday and fish with my friend Jack and Ben.  Although they haven't had much luck finding the crappies on their lake, he stated that the plan was to move his ice shack closer to the island to see if we could locate a few there as all he has been getting are northern pike.  I had a few chores to do before I could meet those guys, first was to stop at Bill's to get bait and the second was to deliver a bottle of TX Whiskey to my friend Dewey.  Last week I spent some time on Mille Lacs with Dewey and the conversation of whiskey came up.  I challenged his normal perception of what quality whiskey really is and after a few one upmanship I committed to sharing one of my previous weeks winnings with him.   He was working on his bridge a couple miles out on the lake when I stopped by and handed him the bottle.  Totally surprised he offered to pay but as I promised, I would give him it with the statement, I don't just talk the talk but walk the walk!  Dewey was pretty impressed as he once drove to Tennessee to pick up a special bottle of Jack Daniels at the distillery.  I hope he enjoys it as I told him, if he mixes it with anything other than ice, I'm going to be pissed!  Leaving the lake for Jack's place, it would take 20 minutes to meet him out in front of his cabin on Platte Lake.  The first thing I noticed was Jack's brother-in-law, Boris Swanson's tracked ATV and what a machine.  Each wheel is replaced with a track that had studs embedded and that thing would go anywhere.  Apparently Boris was parked on the lake across the road, Long Lake, and had his wheel house set up for the evening. Thinking I might have a better chance at crappies there, Jack agreed and decided to meet us over there.  He was set up in 23 feet of water on an inside turn.  After checking out his house (I call it the walkin cooler on wheels!) I started the auger and drilled a number of holes from 21 - 25 feet, cleaned them out and started fishing. Nothing was showing up at the 21 foot depth, nothing at 22 feet, however the next hole had some significant marks at the 18 foot level in 23 feet of water.  Sometime there is algae suspended, sometimes it's minnows, sometimes it's fish so I lowered my tungsten jig with a waxie and although convinced they were fish, they weren't very aggressive at all.  Hole hopping a few more I decided to

5 Nice Crappies

come back to where I marked the fish, set  up my one man house with a heater as it was getting colder out and I wanted to be more comfortable.  After setting up and the marks still there, the next tool to come out was my AquaView hand held underwater video camera/recorder to see exactly what kind of fish were suspended.  Often times on these lakes it's nothing but a school of 3 - 4 inch perch however the minute the camera obtained the same depth as the marks it was confirmed, they were crappies, and a lot of them.  They were very finicky and would just come up and simply inhale the bait, often exhaling it in a split second.  With the camera you could see the action and pretty soon I was hauling fish up.  As stated the camera has a record button and while the bite was getting better I started recording the action.  Here is the link to about 14 minutes of ice fishing action on Youtube: Long Lake Crappies  During this video I did catch 6 fish which occur at 2:59, 3:26, 4:50, 5:45, 10:33, and 13:37 as you can see some of them quickly disappear from the camera.  Some of the fish look to be of decent size yet I only kept 5 of them ranging from 9 to 10.5 inches long out of about 16 or so that I caught.  There were a few nicer ones that came off at the top of the hole but with steady action it was better than sitting there wondering why I was sitting on the ice.  It's nothing like the action I used to have a Pelican Lake yet the winter is only half over and plenty of time to try a few other lakes in the area.  Just before Jack, Ben, and I left, one of Boris's rattle reels went off, he set the hook on this beautiful 25 inch walleye.  He was pretty excited however I did have to coach him somewhat on the finer points of taking fish pictures like cleaning off the snow, getting your hand in the right position yet I could not get him to take off that goofy Kosack hat, oh well!

Birthday Gifts Galore!

So today is my birthday, the big 6 - 0, sixty.  I'm never one to get too spaced out about birthdays and growing older however this one has got me thinking a lot more than the previous milestone celebrations at 30, 40, and 50.  I know, they say that 60 is the new 50.....well I understand but the truth is that I'm still 60!  It's not a negative but considering that the males on my dad's side lasted till about 82, it means 75% of my life is over.  If one discounts the first 10 years of your life as pretty much under the care of someone, you could discount the last 10 years of having the potential of being the same.  The way I look at it there's about 10 - 15 good years left, assuming my health holds out, the time is ticking away.  Now it's always ticked away but you know, it's never seemed so fast.  Oh well, all that means is it's extremely important to take care of those things that you want to do, the people you want to do them with, and make sure you have fun doing it.  I guess this year Red Lake was a good example as we went there 4 times since Thanksgiving and had a blast doing it.  There is still Lake of the Woods to visit, maybe Leech Lake and Mille Lacs before the ice goes out.  Maybe a trip in March to Charleston, SC to fish.  Minnesota Fishing Opener in May, maybe Lac Seul in June, Lake Oahe in July, back to Lac Seul in September...uffda, the year is filling up fast. I guess you are the only one that can keep yourself young and it's becoming an everyday job!  So Sunday night was the Annual Superbowl party at our neighbor Tim Kuntz's place, it's tradition.  Most of the neighbors stop by and watch it in the heated garage and with a keg of beer and food to pass, everyone has a great time. Well this year one of the guys I work with, Welly, his wife and daughter stopped in.  That was great to see him, I do remember telling him to come up if he wanted, but that's a long way from Bloomington.  Next to show up was Jason and his boy.  Interesting as I figured he was in the neighborhood coming home from Isanti and decided to stop by, that was nice.  A few minutes later my good friend Mark Taylor and his family stopped by.........still didn't get it until my wife had Tim's wife Connie bring out the special birthday cake............DUH, a surprise birthday party at halftime.  It was pretty cool as I got a number of nice gifts with a few gag gifts thrown in.  Some of the more interesting items was a Granicrete Cocktail table that Tim made that has the Green Bay Packer logo on it, absolutely fabulous!  Next was a a laser cut G with my neighborhood nickname, Super Dave cut into it.  I definitely will need to paint that with the appropriate colors.  Next my wife gave me a mug with bunch of stuff in it to round out the display and a beautiful cake with a picture of me in my original birthday suit along with one of my heros, Aaron Rodgers.  Of course everyone in the neighborhood knows I am a diehard Packer fan so it certainly became the theme of the night, especially since the Packer's should have been in the SuperBowl.  As a side note I was glad to see Seattle lose because of stupid coaching, there is justice in the world!  Among other things I got a nice Cabela's gift certificate, some more Packer stuff, a few bottles of nice wine, and the most important, a lot of love from my neighbors, friends, and everyone attending, what more does a guy need?  Everything was done before Katy Perry started the show, it was a great night for sure.  Among the guests were Welly Chou, an engineer from my work.  Welly is quite savoy with the electronics and took this video of the whole deal so I put it on Youtube as well.  If your interested here is the link:My 60th Birthday Party at Tim's.

I might find a chance to see if I can nail a few more crappies this weekend before flying to California on Monday morning for 4 days of non-stop work.  I usually stay over on Thursday night but this time I decided to take the redeye back rather than spend $140 for a hotel room only to get up at 4:00AM to catch the first flight.  Heck, I can sleep at work on Friday.

Catching Up

Pig on the Pig Roaster

This weekend was a chance to get caught up on a few things before winter is upon us and that is now less than 90 days away.  Saturday was our neighbor, Tim Kuntz annual end of summer pig roast and I usually help out in some fashion even if it's only moral support.  Finding a reasonably priced pig can be a challenge these days as he ended up going to Starbuck, MN to get this beauty, a 265 pound porker. Injecting the meat with our favorite Maple Cure from PS Seasonings in Wisconsin, he let it sit overnight before putting on his pig roaster Saturday morning.  Adding a nice rub to the outside of the pig, it looks pretty good as we slow cook it to 200 degrees.  It can be amazing how long it can take to fully break down all of the fats and connecting tissues however by 6:00 it was ready to eat.  We had a good amount of the neighbors stop by but in the end there was a lot of pork left, enough for a few good meals.  While the pig was cooking in the morning I did take advantage of Tim's cleared driveway to pressure wash the inside of my boat, cleaning what remained of our Lac Seul trip a couple of weeks ago.  With just the right slope and having a concrete surface to work on, I used some commercial carpet cleaner and my pressure washer to make it look new again.  Sometimes I feel that the sand that gets down inside the carpeting can be almost impossible to remove and  that a pressure washer only drives it deeper.  Vacuuming it out a couple of times before putting the hose to it should help but I think next time, if I have the opportunity to return to Lac Seul, I will definitely put temporary carpeting over the entire floor.  I will take one less "anxiety" point away from the trip and it's probably a good idea anyway.  My current Ranger was suppose to be "The Griz's" boat and in talking with him over the years he always put down additional carpeting while using the boat for guiding in order to protect the original flooring.   I'll have to look him up at the Sportsman Show this year to see what he used.

Cookie, Carter, and Marcus

So while I was out mowing, cleaning boats, and helping with the Pig Roast my friends Eric and Greg were busy participating in the Wisconsin Youth Hunt this weekend.  Eric to ducks is like me to walleyes as he well set up with all the equipment and knowledge to hunt in the backwaters of the Mississippi River around La Crosse and beyond.  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources establishes a youth hunt ahead of the normal duck opener.  This really give the youngsters a chance at those first ducks before they get too wary caused by normal hunting pressure.  It's a chance to get the young interested in duck hunting, a sport that has seen a decline in participation for a while.  As you see in the picture, they were very successful bagging a number of nice wood ducks plus a nice hen mallard.  Cookie, the yellow lab belongs to Greg and his son Marcus is on the right.  Carter, in the middle is Eric's son as I've had the good fortune to fish with him last year.  As you see these kids are getting pretty good at handling a shotgun and certainly have been rewarded for hanging with their dad's Eric and Greg.  It great to see this and is definitely worth the time to recognize their efforts to keep their sons interesting in something besides video games.  

My plan for the weekend is to try and get to Mille Lacs for some night trolling.  Believe it or not, I've only been up there 3 times this year and am almost embarrassed to say so.  I guess it will depend on whether I can find someone to go with or not.  In the meantime the work continues on the Salem Ice Cabin, getting it ready for the ice fishing season.  Re caulking the floor, finally getting to cutting and installing a door to take advantage of the space under the couch, adding an external cable antenna connection and upgrading the inside one, replacing the curtain rods, finish spray insulating the hole covers, time is getting short.   Recently the City of Dayton overlaid our street in front of the house and totally screwed up my driveway.  Where it used to be 1.5 inches above the road was now almost 3 inches below it.  Although there was a solution, replace a third of my driveway to match up with the road, it was a stupid plan so I had the entire driveway redone.  It's looks great, not like somebody cobbled together a stupid plan to simply get by.  It's a 7 day wait to drive on it however the weather has been perfect for curing concrete.  My travel schedule is crazy for the next few weeks, more adventures I guess!

Broken Record



Our new Ice Freezer


My life in the last 4 months consists of either funerals, weddings, graduations, or simply waiting for the endless rain to stop.  This week was no exception as on Saturday we headed to Columbus, Wisconsin which is east of Madison, for a 1:00 funeral then turned right around back to Eleva for my nephew's high school graduation.  Having little time to spend with anyone, at least if I got the day accomplished successfully, it would leave the hope of heading to Mille Lacs on Sunday for a little walleye fishing.  Waking up to a pouring rain which was working it's way north, and with the wind howling out of the east, I just didn't have the desire to fight the elements, not good.  On the other hand my friend Bill had something we wanted so my neighbor Tim and I decided to take a road trip north to pick it up.......a genuine commercial ice storage freezer.  See Tim and I went together to buy a commercial ice making machine a few years ago assuring we both have all the fresh crystal clear ice we need for the long summer.  It's great for fishing, traveling, drinks, whatever you need ice for, it's there for the taking.  We had a small freezer that we would store extra ice in as it's good to have a stockpile on hand.  This spring our freezer quit working so we needed a replacement.  In the meantime I spotted this beauty in Bill's basement, something to do with storing bait but it never worked very well.  So on Sunday we gave her a new home.  I guess the whole point of it is more about having something cool verses something practical.  The cool factor always wins!  I have access to pre printed ice bags in 2 sizes, 8#'s and 20#'s so we have a few years worth of those in stock as we have started replenishing our stocks.  With the cool weather, the ice maker will produce about 50 - 70 pounds of clear ice per day.  Here Tim is filling bags as we get ready for warmer weather (if it ever gets here).  Once the outside temperature reaches 85 degrees the ice maker really slows down its production so our plan is to rely on our storage capability, which just increased significantly.  We figure it will hold about 1000 pounds of bagged ice, enough to take us through any warm spell this year. 



Ben's new fishing pole



Graphite fishing rods came on the scene about 35 years ago, first in expensive fly rods then expanded into both casting and spinning rods.  Although very light and sensitive, those first graphite rods were pretty brittle.  As technology advanced, companies began to improve on the materials used in high end rods and one of those advancements for the time was Bass Pro Shop's Boron Elite.  Boron was a stiff but durable material, not as light as graphite yet helped the issue of breakage.  Having to have one I ordered it from Bass Pro along with the latest Abu Garcia casting reel with magnetically controlled line braking.  A sweet rig for sure as at the time high end casting reels had pistol type grips providing a more ergonomically designed handle.  Today you don't even see these as this type of grip left little leverage behind the reel seat.  Either way it was at the time "state of the art" and was a great rod for fishing bass and northerns.  One year I lent it to a good friend Pat Holmes, who was going on a fly in trip to Canada.  Pat and his friends got trapped in a forest fire that was heading straight towards them.  A helicopter arrived just in time to pluck them from a point on the lake yet there was neither time nor room to take any equipment with them.  So much for my new rod and reel! Pat's insurance covered it so after receiving my check I simply ordered another one.  Today the reel sits on the shelf, I am going to use it to make a catfish rig for the river.  As for the rod, time has blown right by the pistol gripped Boron rod.  At the time Bass Pro was charging $79.95 for the rod, about what standard graphite's were.  After staring at it for about 20 years I finally decided it needed a better home and along with a nice Zebco 33 reel, I gave it to Ben, my friend Jack's son.  Ben never says much but Jack assured me he was in seventh heaven, one that specializes in fishing.  The pistol grip is perfect for him and the boron is almost impossible to break.  Ben will need to stop by the pole shed more often as I have a lot of things to get rid of!  Here is a picture of Ben holding his first northern caught on Platte Lake with his new pole.  I'm pretty sure there is a lot of luck left in that fishing pole.

I picked up the boat from Formula One, a propeller and skag repair shop in Rogers.  They did a great job as both the prop and skag look brand new.  I have had them do work before, like the time I hit Indian Point going half throttle, that wasn't as cheap as this repair as they had to replace a bent prop shaft.  Stainless steel props are nice but they have zero give when they hit something.  This time the prop hit a rock as I back up in idle speed, much easier on the motor.   Friday is our big golf tournament and I am looking forward to what Jay may have brought this year, in the past I have bought a few nice things at the silent auction as he always brings something nice.  Last year I bought a Marcum Showdown for ice fishing.  I haven't decided which day will find me on Mille Lacs however Sunday looks like the best day of the weekend.  All I know is the walleyes are starting to bite and here I am chomping at the bit.