Superbowl Weekend, Winter's Half Over

 Mark's feisty northern

With my neighbor Tim's annual Superbowl Party on Sunday along with snow predicted, I decided to head out on Saturday to retry Pelican Lake near my home.  My last trip was somewhat uneventful although I did catch a meal of sunfish that my buddy Kevin calls Hatta's...........Hatta keep'em, Hatta throw them back.  This time I decided to fish the east basin which has the largest expanse of 12 foot water and is seldom fished.   While plowing snow Saturday morning with my tractor, my friend Mark Applen drove up to check out what was going on and 5 minutes later he agreed to tag along to see if we could get some crappies.  Hoping the afternoon would warm up somewhat, we took our shelters while thinking maybe could get by without them.  A quick stop at the hardware store in St. Michael and we were off to the east side of the lake driving on where the lake meets the road.  With the ice over 22 inches thick we could drive wherever we wanted.  A tip from the guy who gave us the minnows gave us our starting point along the south shoreline in 12 feet of water.  I drilled about 10 holes, 30 feet apart, in a straight line towards shore with the last hole in 8 feet.  This is a great strategy to try different depths to determine where the fish might be.  Mark caught this 2 foot northern and other than a 4 inch sunfish I caught, that was about it for our first spot.  I did mark a few on my Vexilar but nothing that would cooperate.  Suggesting a move, we headed west towards a group of houses before veering towards a spot that looked promising.  Fishing till dark we only caught 3 crappies that would have been better served as bait for a tipup.  I suspect that with the water as cloudy as it is this year, the weedline might be less than 10 feet causing the fish to be shallower than in the past years.  Because it's so close and there have been a few good reports, it might just be a matter of time.

Hunting for mice

While heading to my pole shed to get the tractor ready for plowing there was a beautiful red fox hunting mice in the field behind the house.  He must have been hungry as I was simply a minor distraction for him.  It was fun to watch as the fox would listen, watch, then finally take a leap with all fours off the ground coming down on dinner.  He did get a mouse before deciding that having someone watch him hunt was a violation of his privacy.  Heading towards the neighbors, I snapped this picture as he started his trot east.  His coat was thick and full and looked good.   It's pretty neat to have them around although they do have a fairly strong odor that I could sense from my car.   The other advantage is they tend to keep the population of rabbits in check as they were getting way out of hand.   Checking my previous posts on my fox sightings they seem to start around the first week in February as I have made mention a couple of my sighting in both 2010 and 2011.  I wonder if this is the same guy?  Along with coyotes, deer, raccoons, and muskrats, the back yard is pretty tame as I don't have to deal with 1000 pound brown bears as my friends in Alaska do!

With a Saturday temperature predicted to be 35 and my neighbor Pete hinting he'd like to get out, I think we're going to try a couple of lakes I haven't fished in a while, maybe Lake John, west of Annandale, MN.  In the late 1980's my friends Mark and Jack Taylor had a crude ice house on Lake John.  We did pretty well however late in the year the heavy snows had caused water to flood the floor with a depth of 4 inches.  Having to remove off the ice by February 28th we filled the inside with rock salt.  The following week the water had disappear yet it was still frozen into the lake.  A guy came by offering the solution to our problems and after following his instructions to go into town and buy a box of 30-06 shells, he proceeded to shoot the whole box of bullets through the floor and into the ice.  The theory was that the slugs would hit the ice and fracture it enough to loosen the lake's grip on the bottom of our ice shack.  I thought the guy was crazy but what the heck.  It didn't work and we were left with simply tearing it apart for firewood, never to see the ice again.  Although a pain, it was fun fishing in our own special castle.

A Wild Weekend

With the weatherman predicting another record snowfall for Sunday while Saturday's weather would be the last of the February thaw, I decided it would be a great time to head up to our deer hunting grounds on Rich's place and retrieve my ladder stand.  The trek back to my stand consists of a quarter mile adventure through an alder swamp.  At the end of deer season last fall it was decided that rather than go through all the work of removing it piece by piece, it would be much simpler to leave it in the woods and wait till the swamp freezes.  Of course that's what I said year and the heavy part of the stand keep it's host tree company all year.  Determined to get it out before the thaw, and looking at my schedule, it was as good a time as any.  The fact that I needed to pick up my ice fishing gear from Bill Lundeen and my friend and hunting partner Jack claimed the crappies were really biting on his lake, I picked up my frequent weekend companion Lory, and once again headed north.  Our route takes us up the Great River Road which parallels the Mississippi River, crosses the confluence of the Crow River before meeting the highway north.  Crossing the Crow River, we ran into an interesting scene, 10 - 12 wild tom turkeys robbing a ground feeder in front of a house.  It's been a tough year for turkeys with the deep snow. 

The pending storm must have had the all the wildlife on high alert.  Hooking the trailer to the truck, I noticed something ran over the edge of my holding pond.  Sure enough  it was my red fox whom lives inside the drain culvert.  This holding pond is basically a depression that drains a good portion of my neighborhood runoff rain and melt water and allows it to be reabsorbed into the water table.  If the water gets too high, there is an outlet culvert which runs underground a few hundred feet, emptying onto the flood plan of the Mississippi River.  It only to the outlet in the spring while the ground is still froze and the melt is fast.  I suspect that the depth of the culvert keeps it fairly warm deep inside, making a cozy home for the fox.  One of the benefits of having the fox around is the noticeable absence of rabbits on the property.  Last year the rabbits were at epidemic levels, eating everything in site.  I hope it decides to stay around for a while as it pretty cool to see it around quite a bit these days.  One thing is for sure, if you walk down to the culvert the fox has made his presence well known as they make sure their skunk like scent is everywhere!

Our first stop was at Bill's to pick up my portable ice house, Vexilar FL20, and my underwater camera.  For my efforts I was rewarded with a smoked Tullibee that he had caught last week.  The fish was a work of art and would go great with the Miller High Life that Jack always has.  Next stop was Jack's cabin on Platte Lake, 12 miles west of Mille Lacs.  There we unloaded the trailer, replacing the contents with his 2 up snowmobile, the perfect means for hauling out tree stand and headed for Rich's place.  Coming around the corner, something caught my eye, a huge immature bald eagle high in a tree.  Stopping to take a look, it soon became apparent, it was guarding a road kill deer, exposed by the weeks snow melt.  Getting out to take a picture, it decided to take flight.  Had this been a more mature eagle, I doubt it would have given up it's readily available food source.  Never the less it was pretty cool to see a young eagle this close.  After accomplishing my goal, we headed out on Platte Lake for the evening bite, which never developed.  A few sunnies was about all I could muster up, but all in all it was a good day.

Admittedly I am getting sick of winter.  After spending a few days in 76 degree Anaheim, CA two weeks ago, then a couple of 60 degree days in Denver last week and reading Jeff's adventures in Mexico, the latest 12 inches of snow has taken the wind out of my sails!  A week from Friday I travel to Rockport Texas to fish Redfish in the barrier marshes of the Gulf of Mexico with my Texas friend Joe Stanfield and Jim Cox, one of my suppliers.  The website looks interesting and will provide a good break for this long winter.  In the meantime the weekend plan is to try again for a limit of tullibees, maybe smoking them this time.  We did open a jar of the pickled ones Lory did last week and they are coming along real well.

All's Well in Cheeseland

Well, I suspect you probably know what this post will be, my  beloved Green Bay Packers won their 4th Super Bowl on Sunday with Aaron Rodgers erasing any doubt that Ted Thompson did the right thing in getting rid of Brett Favre after the 2007 season.  Being the only true Packer fan in my neighborhood, it was sweet justice!  Even on Sunday afternoon my Viking fan neighbors chose the Steelers over me.  In the end the inability of the Steelers to complete their 4th down play in the last minute killed their chances.  The Packers were a sleeper this year.   Their record of 10-6 didn't tell the whole story as the Packers never trailed by more than 7 points both during the regular season all the way through the playoffs being the first team in NFL history to have such a tight scoring differential.  Of the Pack's 6 loses, 5 were by 3 points and the 6th was by 4.  Pretty unbelievable if you think about it.   Either way its a great time to be a Cheesehead for sure!

Last week I reported the plan was to take put the Brazilians for a Minnesota ice fishing experience.  Well Friday I received the call, it was too cold and they cancelled.   What!!! Too cold, holy moly, it was only 28 degrees out!   Never the less I was still interested in going out to I decided to call the Braselians, Lory and his wife Lynn to see if they were willing to step up to the challenge.  Agreeing, we headed back to Pelican Lake for the evening crappie bite.  Getting there around 1:00 we moved 2 times before hitting the honey hole.  Drilling 2 holes and setting up the house, i was lowering my dead stick bait with a minnow however it wouldn't go down.  Little did I know that the a crappie had sucked it in, waiting for someone to set the hook.  I had a rather small #10 hook which is not the best for minnows and subsequently lost the next 6 minnows to the initial drop.  Finally getting a nice fish, we stayed till dark catching a nice number of fish while bringing home enough for a meal.  Not the most prolific day on the lake, it was fun never the less.

Writing this from Anaheim California, the weather is nothing short of fabulous.  With temperatures back home below zero, we are enjoying 70 degree days.  Attending the Medical Device and Manufacturing Show, the largest in the nation, we get a chance to talk to future customers that may need our services.  Working trade shows is a lot more difficult than it seems but all in all it is a necessary to attend and be a player in the industry.  I will leave you with a picture from my back lot, a beautiful red fox living in the culvert that drains my water catch basin for the storm sewer system.  The culvert is 4 feet or so under the surface and provides a warm environment for the fox.  He often is found sleeping on the south facing bank of the catch basin, catching a few rays of the warm sunshine.  I hope he sticks around for a while as it's kind of cool to have him around.  Hopefully  I can get to Mille Lacs this weekend.  You will have to put up with one more week of my beloved song, sorry, I cannot help it!