Pickin' With Dave

 My weekends are consumed with spending as much time with my dad as possible.  Time is against us so I am making the best of it.  This weekend also marked the opening of Blueberry Ridge Orchard, where you can pick your own blueberry's by the truckload if you so desire.  My brother Steve and mom have been picking here last year and claimed it was pretty easy to fill up a 5 quart ice cream bucket full of beautiful blueberries.  Sunday morning I headed north towards Eau Claire on Hwy 93 to the old Darrell Hageness farm.  When I lived in Eleva and worked for Vic, Darrell was a good friend and a very nice man.  He had suffered quite extensive burns while working at the Paper Mill in Eau Claire and he was going back to school for accounting at the same time I was going there for electronics.  The farm is visible from Hwy 93 and he often had a word cut into the hay field for everyone to read.  Darrell has since passed away however I was delighted to find out that his daughter and family were still on the farm and had started the orchard featuring U-pick blueberries.  And pick there is!  My brother and mom had been there on Saturday morning picking 8 ice cream buckets.  Parking in the field, I was pointed in the right direction and picked 6 ice cream buckets in about an hour.  The berries were huge, some as big around as a quarter.  I have a number of blueberry plants, the same variety but nothing like these.  Sweet and bursting with flavor, I ended up going back in the afternoon to get another 2 buckets worth.  I thought the prices were very reasonable as well.  At $1.85/pound, an ice cream full of berries weighs about 6.5 pounds and cost about $12.00.  Comparing to the bland berries you buy at the store for $3.00 a pint, the equivalent amount would have cost you $30.00.   The picture on the right gives a great example of how loaded the bushes are with berries.  If you are in the area check out Mark and Andrea Nyseth's Orchard and pick a few pails (they freeze really well!).  They are the nicest people and you will leave very satisfied.   You can visit their website at http://www.blueberryridge-orchard.com/

So, weekends back home has left little time for fishing.  With the Mississippi River finally settling down to a manageable level (it is still pretty high and fast), my neighbor Lory and I decided to try out the Jon boat for the first time this year.  Loading up the boat and using my ATV, we simply drove to the neighbors house, through the horse pasture, and used his landing.  This take all but 5 minutes before you're in the water.  With the current still fast and 2 guys in the boat, we hit a whooping 10 mph running upstream.  Zig Zagging the river, looking for holes, our strategy was to run upriver as far as practical, drift back down fishing the rivers edge before anchoring close to the landing and trying for catfish, carp, or whatever enjoys a nice nightcrawler.  About 3 miles up we stopped, put on a couple of artificial lures and started casting.  My first choice was a shallow running Bomber A crankbait in fire tiger.  On the very first cast a small smallmouth bass inhaled it.  A nice start.  3 minutes later and 200 yards downstream I casted in front of a downed tree and this nice 17 incher grabbed the lure and put on an aerial display.  Lory finally got it in the net after about a minute and was taking my picture.  Releasing the fish we proceeded to follow the shore, casting tight and bringing it back.  With the water high and fast current, the fish were hanging tight.  By the time we arrived at our designated catfish hole the total was 6 smallies caught and released.  Not bad!  Our catfish hole was located where a side channel met up with the main river and formed a large current slack.  The edges of these slacks can be super productive.  The hole itself was about 14 feet deep so once anchored I rigged my casting reel with a 3/4 ounce bell sinker, snap, and a 2 foot leader with a circle hook at the end.  A fat and sassy crawler threaded on the hook I casted into the current edge.  It wasn't 5 minutes later when my pole almost went over the side.  Grabbing the rod I could tell it was a nice fish and within a few minutes the catfish showed itself.  After netting, unhooking, and snapping a picture, I released it back to fight again.  Because the line broke at the hook I retied, rebaited, and back out to the current break.  This time I wasn't going to chance losing my prized rod so I hung onto the pole waiting for that tell tale tug.  It wasn't long before something was yanking pretty hard.  The reel was in freespool so I let the fish run about 6 feet before reeling straight in, the proper method for circle hooks.  Well this fish was significantly larger than the first catfish however after about 10 seconds the line broke.  Although I did retie again it was getting late so we left.  The river is an exciting place to be.  We saw 2 immature eagles perch right above our heads while an osprey screeched it displeasure with our presence another half mile down stream.  It a great resource, one that is close to home and provides excellent fishing.

I will be heading back to Eleva this weekend to see dad, pick some more blueberries, and my good friend Rick Semingson from Blue Ridge, Georgia is coming home for a wedding.  Rick was a class mate of mine and I am always excited to see him.  He's lived in the south for over 30 years now and has developed quite a Southern Drawl.  My friend Charlie is suppose to be here for my annual trip with him and as well I am scheduled to go to San Francisco.  It's looking to be a busy next 10 days.

Catching Up!

I often recall something my grandfather once told me when I was a young man.  Enjoy your time now, as you get older you will find the time goes fast and the days grow short.  This last week and a half has been nothing short of that example.  We are definitely in the "Dog Days of Summer" with high temperatures, high humidity's resulting in thunderstorms every other day.  The bite on Mille Lacs has been less than stellar and even with the hectic schedule, I have managed to get out a few times.  As stated my neighbor Tom and I did fish the Mississippi River south of Clearwater Mn a couple of Sundays ago.  I broke my #1 rule when going fishing.............make sure your camera is with and ready.  Having caught a number of nice smallies we were relegated to Tom's film camera, which I am waiting for him to develop.  Normally at this time of the year the river is quite low and caution is the word.  Tom has a 16 foot Lund which is more capable in these conditions however the river was running very high giving us a lot of freedom to fish where we wanted to.   Wanting to fish minnows, we picked up a dozen and a half red tailed chubs at Actions Bait in Anoka.  They were on the small side but adequate.  The fishing turned out to be great with around 20 smallmouth caught, the largest around 18 inches.  One of my goals was to continue the experiments with the circle hooks and they were 100% effective for corner of the mouth hook sets.   Last Sunday Tom, his daughter Brenna, and I spent a quite evening catfishing on the neighbors dock again.  Upon arrival at the dock I discovered that every nightcrawler in my crawler box had evaporated!  Luckily I had some new Berkley Power Catfish Bait.  I never believe this stuff is as good as crawlers but it's all we had.  The river levels were still high and the bite was off but I did manage to get this very nice channel cat.  We tempered the slow bite with a few of Tom's favorite beverages, Moosehead. 

One of the things this hot an humid weather does is make the garden grow like crazy.  From sweet corn, to potatoes, to cucumbers, everything is ready to go.   The last couple of weeks has been the attack of the pickle!  I tried something different in my garden this year.  Having visited my wife's uncle Bernie's garden, he had his cucumbers growing on a fence.  Thinking that was a great idea I headed to Fleet Farm (the store where if they don't have it you don't need it) and bought enough 4 foot fence and poles to create my own vertical pickle producer.   As plants go cucumber plants are pretty stupid.  I had to train most of them how to utilize the nice structure which was erected for them.  It took about 2 weeks but they finally figured it out and have been reacting like crazy ever sense.  One of the nice things I have discovered about growing cukes on the fence is that pickles themselves are off the ground and require very little scrubbing before use.  This picture shows the fence post at 5 feet and gives you an idea of how prolific the plants have been.

This hot weather generates enough to do about 12 jars every 3 days.  Needless to say I am busy.  One of the best things I have discovered is Mrs. Wages Pickle Brine Mix.  Once again Fleet Farm saves the day and carries a number of these convenient brine mixes in Polish Dill, Kosher Dill, and Bread and Butter flavors.  Besides tasting excellent, the pickles are ready in little as 24 hours after processing.  Although I have dill, the classic flavor is in the mix.  Adding some chopped garlic, mustard seeds, and peppercorns to each jar, it gives it my distinct signature.  Using the Refrigerator Bread and Butter mix, the batch made last week is excellent.  The unfortunate part of all this is in a normal year with the heat, moisture, and deer, the cucumber plants would be done by now.  Up on the fence the plants get plenty of air and look to yield for at least another 2 - 3 weeks.  I hope some of you like dill pickles! Having to replant my sweet corn this spring and it is also finally ready to process.  Using my chamber vacuum packer to seal them in bag for freezing, this works very well for preserving.  If the deer continue to leave my peppers and tomatoes alone, salsa is next on the project list.

Hopefully I will have and August full moon report next week.

The Catfish are Biting

Finally arriving home on Thursday, my first encounter was with a snot nosed Custom’s agent standing in the exit area just outside the airplanes door. About 150 steps out of the jet way I suddenly remembered where my Japanese tea I had bought in Narita was, still in the overhead compartment. Passing a “too young to have a uniform on” Custom’s guy who was giving a family grief because he could, I approached from behind tapping him on his shoulder and asked if it was OK to re-enter the plane to retrieve my stuff. His first words were Okay, which was all I needed to hear as my next steps were against the flow of people. Just as fast came a “Hey get back here, where do you think I am going?” Looking him straight in the eye my response was, “Look, I asked you a question and YOU said OK, what do you think that meant?” He decided to lecture me on coming up from behind and tapping him on the shoulder then, which I replied, stay on topic, why did you say it was OK then? Obviously frustrated by his immature authority, he finally gave me the right procedure, which I kindly thanked him and as I walk away told him to take a deep breath! Immigration is always fun as they are pretty good at asking a few well placed questions. Traveling with my beloved Packer Hat, he asked if I was from Wisconsin which prompted a quick Yes Sir! Where was the next question; Eleva! And where was that? South of Eau Claire. I am sure he was a fellow Cheesehead as we are always curious.

The weekend was pretty much spent readjusting to the time. Jetlag is a real problem as one’s schedule has shifted 13 hours. Once in China it takes a few days to stop getting up at 3:00 in the morning as well the same issue when you get home. There are many theories as to how an minimize the effects, vitamin C, lots of water, stay up as long as you can, however I think the best way is to have a few stiff drinks before you go to bed. I slept well on Thursday night, Friday I was up from 2:00 – 4:00 AM, and Saturday night was a good 13 hours. Slept like a baby last night as I am heading for a customer supplier event in Ft. Collins Colorado on Wednesday. One nice thing about flying into Denver is both the mountains and they have a Bass Pro Shop near the airport. The store is much larger than the Cabela’s near me and is a must stop. The word is that Bass Pro was going to build a large store at the Mall of America, in Bloomington MN but I am sure the recession had put a damper on that plan. Word is with the improving economy, it finally might get built. Although there is plenty of competition in the Twin Cities area, a Bass Pro would be a welcome destination and would provide a better variety of brands to choose from. We’ll see.

Not having the energy or the will to load the boat up and drive an hour north, my plan was to get away for a couple of hours and fish the river. My neighbor Brian Holcomb has a nice dock with a bench seat in the shade, just perfect for a relaxing evening. One thing about fishing the river is one never knows what you will catch. Targeting catfish on my last trip, all we caught were carp and suckers. On Sunday night it was a catfish slaughter! Fishing with crawlers, I decided to try a small freshwater circle hook. Originally bought for bobbering walleyes, I had not had the chance to try them. Circle hooks are unique in the way their point is facing the hook shaft. They work as the hook is dragged out of the fish’s throat and rotates when it comes to the edge of the mouth, resulting in the classic “corner of the mouth” hook set. This is the preferred hook for fishing halibut as the fish will swallow the bait. As the line tightens up the hook is dragged out and I have yet to see one that is not hooked as stated. This results in a 100% safe hook out and release, assuring the survival of the fish. The key for success with circle hooks is to NOT set the hook rather simply tighten the line. Simply reeling in the line is adequate to get a great hook set. Catfish are notorious for swallowing the bait so I was anxious to try them. A glob of crawlers and 5 minutes saw my first tap. Instinct took over and I set the hook on a nice 15 inch channel cat. Unfortunately it was hooked deep……1 for the frying pan. Deciding that didn’t work and determined to prove the hook’s effectiveness, all future strikes would be met with a simple reeling in the line technique. Rebaiting and 5 minutes later another opportunity presented itself. This time a simple few turns on the reel handle and the fight was one. This time it worked, hooked in the side of the mouth guaranteed a successful release of another 15 inch channel. For the next hour and a half the method proved effective as at least 10 catfish, all hooked in the corner, were either released or became part of my dinner later that night. The top picture is my largest catfish, about a 20 inch channel. I have included a picture of circle hook as you can see its unusual shape, and of course leave you with the moon rising over the river, something I never get tired of. Next weekend I will be busy with helping my sister-in-law move however Charlie is coming for his annual visit. We will be at Mille Lacs doing a little lead lining. My report will be a few days late however hopefully it should be worth it.