April Snow and Other Issues

Our Mid April Snow Storm

It would be nice to say that everything is back to normal but trying to figure out what is normal these days is a mystery in itself!  Because of the current Corona Virus situation, our illustrious Governor has extended the Stay in Place order until May 4th and there is talk that he might extend it till June. Our 47th annual Minnesota Fishing Opener is looking more like a delayed event than something that even a later than usual Ice Out in 2013 could not diminish.  Even if all the restrictions are lifted by the May 9th fishing opener there are quite a few that may opt to stay home or in my nephews case, simply cannot fly from Portland, Oregon to MSP.  We do have Plan B, which is to move our annual event to the first of October.  Given the situation it seems like it would be a good time to reschedule, especially as one of my favorite ways to fish walleyes is trolling shad raps, it would be a great time of the year for doing that!  We should know shortly but I am not putting any money that it will happen in May.  This issue drags into our trips planned for Lac Seul this spring which was scheduled for May 16th, Ontario's walleye opener, as well as the usual trip in June.  It may be too soon to predict the outcome but it may not be until July before this thing settles down.  To top it off Mille Lacs Lake is only catch and release this year with the entire lake closing down for the month of July.  There are tons of walleyes to catch in Mille Lacs so this will probably be the Goto destination for May and June, we'll have to see.  The great weather the last couple of weeks inspired me to get the dethatcher/bagger system on my lawn tractor (more on that below) which required the snowblower and cab to be removed and put away.  Well you know what that means, if you do this before April 15, it's going to snow!  After getting the blower cleaned off and with the help of the neighbors, the cab properly stored, we got 3 - 4 inches of snow on Saturday night/Easter Sunday.  Luckily we were on the northwest corner of the storm and to our southeast got the brunt of it yet it goes without saying that the curse is still in existence!  The good thing is the concrete surfaces were warm enough so nothing stuck and the snowblower wasn't needed yet it seems as though someone was saying....don't
try that again!

Dethatcher hitch

So after getting the hitch attachment for the dethatcher on the lawn tractor, it finally got mounted and admittedly it works pretty slick.  There were a couple of snafu's to deal with including the frame was a little warped so the click in pins didn't click in, the mounting holes through the main mounting were hand drilled and not exactly perpendicular to the mounting holes, plus the green paint was not John Deere green so it's close but not the same!  After mounting the attachment to the quick hitch, with a hammer attempted to make a mark by the hole to see where it needed adjustment but instead it clicked in, good enough!  Next the holes that mounted the dethatcher to the hitch were off so using an 11/64th drill and a mild reaming, the bolts now went through the tube so they could be tightened up.  As far as the green paint, Fleet Farm had John Deere Green spray paint and after the season it will be repainted in the right color.  After a few issues of my own like hooking the hydraulic lines to the wrong place it finally is working and it is certainly a lot better than trying to lift it via the pull bar that came with the unit originally.  Unfortunately the snow has put a damper on any year activities for a few days however the forecast is for the 60's to return next weekend.  There are a number of neighbors that I let use this system as it really works great yet maybe there could be an opportunity to make some cash as it makes the lawn look great and along with an application of Scott's Truf Builder, one is set through the summer.  Then again, that would be work!

Pink Clown Rippin' Rap

So this isn't Yard Maintenance with Dave so I did get some things done on the fishing front.  Deciding that the tackle boxes need better organization as there were 3 separate boxes that stored Rapala Shad Raps, they got organized into a single box.  Another box was assorted Rapala lures with another box of Flick'r Shads, Smash Shads, and other shad style walleye crankbaits and it's starting to look good.  Last fall we did really well with jigging raps on Long Lake in Wisconsin, as well Ben Aiona caught his share of nice walleyes using Slab Raps and Rippin' Raps through the ice yet a search of YouTube videos shows some interesting open water catches on these types of jerk baits.  I separated a box of these types of jigging lures and was excited to experiment with them on both the Minnesota and especially the Ontario fishing opener.   Lac Seul's water is a dark tea color and the rattle aspect of this lure might hold some real promise as we mostly vertical jig fish walleyes.  We'll see what becomes of our season but there will be a time to experiment!  There is a lot to do before any official Fishing Opener so stay tuned!

Getting Ready for Fishing Opener

My New Weld Job on my Trailer Step

With the late spring and my previous trips to Texas, fishing opener is rushing upon us at lightening speed.  Add on top of this that the ice has not officially off of Leech Lake, things are moving fast and thankfully the weather is cooperating very well, I think things although will not be normal, will be just fine.  In fact looking back some of our best fishing it occurred when the ice went out later, in fact on of the best years in the history of Team Walleye was when there was ice on the lake until the Monday after the Saturday opener.  Never the less there is a lot of things to do before next Friday.  The boat needs to be cleaned up, all my electronics needs to be reinstalled, rods, tackle and needed equipment needs to be put away, and as you see to the picture on the left, my trailer step on the winch tower on my boat trailer actually broke the weld off after installing my Eazy Steps.  These steps are the real deal as getting older they become a real advantage and anything that makes it easier to function, I am all for it.  Unfortunately the setup was less than ideal so I asked my friend Bruce Wiley to help me fix the problem.  The other day we took my baby out of his storage and over to his shop where he fixed the broken weld on the step, and in addition welded in a triangular bracket to really shore up the mechanical strength of that step.  After mounting the step to the  post and in order to secure it, the plate needed a hole drilled through to accommodate the bolt which secures the step.  Thinking it would be easy,  the hole had to be drilled right through the weld material.........uffda! Confirming to Bruce my success in the challenge of drilling through his weld and his comment, well it was 7018 Rod, 70,000# tensile strength, You're not playing with kids here!!!  One thing about Bruce, you will never be given a half quality job, it's the best or nothing!  The drill did get through the weld but may need re-sharping, and I could gain another 70 pounds and still be good, at least for that step.   One is very lucky to have friends like Bruce to count on but as usual, there is a lot more work to now be done, the bare metal needs to be coated and cleaned up for sure.  At least that should never be a problem again!

Sky on Fire Last Night

The other disadvantage of the late spring is all the yard and garden work needs to get done.  The apple trees are trimmed but the raspberries still needs work.  Stopping at another friends house, Ricky,  we hooked up his tiller onto his Kubota tractor and is ready to till the garden this week. It really takes the grunt work out of getting the garden ready as my onions and seed potatoes are in and ready for planting.  A normal year would have seen this stuff already done yet it was only last week that the water got turned on down to the pole shed.  Even that was an issue as the water lines were still froze deep down, surprisingly how deep the frost really was.  Hopefully this weekend will get a serious hurt on all the things that need to be done.  On top of this we got a new "used" John Deere Lawn Tractor, Model 734, 27 hp All Wheel Steer last weekend and has added additional issues needing to get done before the serious fishing starts.  I guess the list goes on and on and on!  Still it's important to stop and appreciate the beauty of Mother Nature as seen here, the sky is on fire. 

May is turning to a busy month and hopefully everything will get done as needed.  As you may have read in previous posts, the bass fishing trips taken in the last few months have really set the stage for fishing bass in Minnesota this year.  Admittedly I am anxious to try wacky worming smallmouth bass on the Mississippi Rive behind the house with my new fishing buddy, David Grant or Jack's son Ben,  we'll see if he can keep up!  The last few weeks were dedicated to restocking my plastic worm selections as the Bass Pro Stik-O Worms have worked very well and the crayfish/orange colors should work well on those smallies. 

Everyone's Fishing but Me!

Nice mess of perch

One nice thing about friends is you can always count on them sending me the latest and greatest pictures of their fishing adventures.  In the meantime I am stuck without a boat and scrambling to get my spring yard work done by fishing opener, which leaves little leisure time.  Because I worked all weekend I thought this would be a great time to share some of those pictures.  The first picture is a dandy mess of jumbo perch that my friend Kevin and his son caught a few days ago, somewhere on the Mississippi River.  I don't ever remember getting perch this big, or for that matter any perch at all.  Maybe it was the fact that all we fished for were the walleyes and these perch have been there all along. I don't really know but there are ones here that exceed 1.5 #'s which is pretty good.  I often associate good perch fishing with Devil's Lake, North Dakota, Mille Lac's Lake, Winnibigoshish, Late of the Woods here in Minnesota but never in the ol' Muddy Mississip.  I have promised my confidence as always as revealing a secret spot it's a good way to end a friendship!  Last year Ben did really well on Devil's Lake however with the early spring, there wasn't really a chance to get out there and take advantage of the early spring ice fishing so maybe next year.  The second picture is of my nephew John Larsen and his buddies in Ft. Myers, Florida.  Apparently away for the weekend 5 of them went out last weekend for a day of fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.  After spending a bunch of time catching their bait they headed out about 35 miles to some offshore ledges in 100 feet of water they started catching Red Grouper.  The limit is 2 each and apparently they caught their 10 fish plus a couple of sharks before heading to a wreck to dive.  Their Captain donned his diving gear and with a spear had brought up 5 more snapper and claims to have seen a several hundred pound jewfish, that

Nephew John (on the right) with a limit of Red Grouper

was probably exciting.  John is stationed in Colorado Springs with a special unit of the Army and is thinking he will be transferred to Savannah, Georgia at some point, an excellent excuse to go visit him. Lucky for me I have taken John on a number of fishing trips and it appears as though his interest has some staying power so hopefully he will take me sometime soon! To me there is nothing better than fresh cooked saltwater fish, something about the texture and flavor of the fish I have caught.  So far I've had fresh halibut, black sea bass, sheepshead, dorado (mahi mahi), sea trout, redfish, silver salmon, flounder, and yellowfin tuna that I have caught while on trips. I am not sure how the red grouper taste but I can only imagine that on the grill along with a few beers, they are equally as fantastic.

Yard work made easy

As I stated in the beginning, while others are out enjoying the fishing I am taking advantage of the early spring this year, something that hasn't happened since 2012.  At this time last year and the year before we still had snow on the ground and the everything was running way behind.  This year is completely different as the lilacs buds are really starting to swell and turn green as we've had an 80 degree day already.  Last year I used my friend Ricky Shermer's mower mounted dethatcher with his vacuum attachment and it worked so slick that it forced me to buy the same for my John Deere X724 lawn tractor.  Actually the vacuum bagger attachment was purchased last fall to expedite picking up my leaves and last week I put on the front dethatcher assembly.  It works pretty slick as the front tines loosen the dead grass and leaves and the vacuum pushes 14 bushels into the hopper, it's pretty efficient.  Sunday was my day to do the lawn as it had to dry somewhat from the rains of last Thursday as it can dig up the grass easier.  One of the problems to deal with is the dead grass is everywhere, on top of the mower deck, in the air intakes, your hair, you name it and it's there.  Well, I was almost finished with my 1 1/2 acres and moved to clean up on the other side of my pole shed driveway when I smelled something burning.  I looked down and the flames were coming out of both sides of the tractor above the deck.  Somehow the grass had caught fire and with the wind as strong as it was, it was like a blast furnace.  My first thought was to pull it down to the shed where I had water but panic soon ensued as the visual of the gas lines igniting put a more immediate urgency to putting it out.  Stopping the engine I jumped off and started an attempt to put the fire by pulling out the flaming grass (I had leather gloves on).  This just exposed more grass to the flames and the grass I did pull out now started a grass fire on the ground.  Back to the original plan, drive it to my water hose and put it out like a real fireman would do, I jumped on but the engine wouldn't start.  Actually it takes about 3 seconds for the controls to prepare the engine to start, 3 seconds I didn't have but it did manage to start.  About 100 feet to the garden hose the flames kept growing bigger as I sped down then for some reason stopped short.  Turning on the water the hose was caught in the reel and had to be untangled, with superhuman strength I managed to pull the hose to the tractor and dosed the fire......relief!  Checking everything out, it looked ok but then suddenly noticed there was still smoke coming from the end of the driveway where I had shut it down before, the grass fire was going strong.  I was able to drag the water and put it out as if it would have gotten in my field, all bets were off.  I am not sure what started the fire but it sure got me scrabbling.  After settling down my neighbor Todd came over to use the tractor for his lawn as it came with a stern warning, watch for smoke!  After he finished I drove over to my other neighbor Lory's and did his before the rain came. On the positive side the whole unit does do a nice job of cleaning up the yard.

We are 3 weeks from our Leech Lake opener and no word from Frankies yet.  As they say, patience is a virtue.  I did update all of my Lowrance electronics but not without problems there as well. Downloading the updates onto a 64 GB SD card the units did not recognize it as they have in the past. Come to find out that the max card size is 32 GB, go figure.  I also had problems after the updates with the units responding to my touch commands which was resolved by calibrating the screen. Things just don't seem to get easier!

My Dad

Well, I dreaded this post for about a year now but now it's my time to write it.  After visiting him this weekend with a business trip scheduled for Wednesday thru Friday, my wife and I decided to spend Tuesday afternoon with him.  Arriving around 4:00, he was sleeping but it didn't take long for his eyes to open with a smile on his face.    He seemed to be alittle better than Sunday but was one never to let on his real situation.  We had a great 2 hours of conversation, intermixed with a few coughs and downing a glass of his new found beverage of choice, Sobe.  The conversations ranged from tomato's, apples, John Deere Lawn tractors vs Simplicity, Mobil 1 motor oil, his grandson Alex's Air Force Ambitions, and other important problems deemed to be solved.   Of course, solved we did!!  My pitiful tomato plants were probably mismarked from the nursery, Mobil 1 probably saved my lawn tractor engine when it over heated.  At my age he suggested I get that snow blower attachment, reminding me that I was on my second lawn tractor and he was still running his.   We agreed that Alex was doing the right thing, going into the same branch of the Armed Services he entered in 1947.  What we could not solve was the wasting away of his life.  It is difficult at best to know each new minute will never be as good as the last minute, something we talked about.  Leaving at 7:00 I had to pick my truck up at work, walked in to my office only to receive a call from Mom, Dad had collapsed and she feared he had passed.  She was correct and 2 hours after I said goodbye he died peacefully at home.  He had accepted his situation and I did get a chance to give him a big hug and told him I loved him, something I have been saying lately and something that I waited way to long.  Dad was probably somewhat uncomfortable with that, not that he didn't like it but it just wasn't something your 56 year old son told his dad.  He talked to me about this saying that when he grew up, his dad never hugged him or said he loved him because he just knew.  I think that there is a big difference in what was expected and the self confidence instilled in his generation.  Children were raised to be more self reliant as there was little money for the things we have today.  One relied more on your imagination and friends rather than the latest tennis shoes or cell phone.  I don't know if we will ever get back to his generation of individual responsibility, something my dad had a ton of.  Honesty, integrity, and accepting are all qualities that seem hard to come by today.

I am posting my favorite picture of us when we celebrated our 80th and 55th birthday together at the Full House in beautiful downtown Eleva.   Like father like son! Busy with arrangements this week I will definitely dig out a few more pictures and post them in the future.  In the meantime I have included his obituary.  He loved my blog and is one of the reasons I faithfully continue to write it.  I also want to thank everyone who has supported me through this chapter of my life, one that either has or will play out for everyone.  In the end, as my dad has proved time and time again, it's friends and family that really matter as when you are down to your last days, it is the only thing you have.

Donald G. "Dinnie" Anderson
(February 2, 1930 - August 2, 2011)
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Donald G. "Dinnie" Anderson, 81, of Eleva, passed away Tuesday, August 2, 2011 peacefully at his home.

He was born on February 2, 1930 in Eleva, WI to Roy and Myrtle (Fagerland) Anderson. After graduating from Eleva High School in 1947 he joined the Air Force and served from 1947 to 1950, mainly in Panama. On September 11, 1954 he married Betty Thielke in Eleva. Dinnie was a supervisor at Uniroyal Tire Co retiring in 1985.
Dinnie was a member of Eleva Lutheran Church and the Eleva American Legion Post #459 . He is survived by his wife, Betty of Eleva; five children, David (Lyn) Anderson of Dayton, MN, Steven (Jean) Anderson of Onalaska, WI, Beth (Jerry) Lee of Eau Claire, WI, Jon (April) Anderson of Mondovi, WI and Blake (Jo) Anderson of Eleva, WI; 12 grandchildren; 9 great grandchildren; two siblings, LaVonne (Loren) Nelson of Eau Claire,WI, and Gerald (Marilyn) Anderson of Meridian, ID; nieces, nephews and other relatives.
Dinnie was preceded in death by a grandson; his parents; and two brothers, Keith and Gordon Anderson.
Memorial services will be held Saturday, August 6, 2011 at 11:00 AM at Eleva Lutheran Church in Eleva, WI with Rev. Kermit Solem officiating. Burial will follow at the Eleva Cemetery with military rites conducted by Eleva American Legion Post #459.
Visitation will be held from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Saturday, August 6, 2011 at the Eleva Lutheran Church in Eleva.
Visit www.kjentvet-smithfuneralhome.com to offer on-line condolences.