Red Lake, Chapter 2

My Friend Kevin

After Christmas and before New Years Day we decided to head up to JR's to fish the weekend.  It wasn't ideal conditions as a band of 12 inch snow lay between Minneapolis and Red Lake.  Raining the day after Christmas, we received almost and inch of rain while further north it fell in it's frozen state.  What a mess!  Even the new snowblower had a heck of a time clearing out all the heavy slush that was everywhere.  .Of course the temperature was dropping as it was in the mid 20's when my brother Steve and good friend Kevin left for JR's, by the time we got there it was almost 0 out.  The roads were not too bad but caution was the word of the day and our drive time was about an hour longer than normal.  We still managed to arrive before dark and after paying Adam we headed out about 6 miles were we found Mark on the southside of the road, just before Center Bar.  This is in the same area we fished 2 weeks ago and did well and by dark we were all settled in.  The new electric jacks worked well as they never even hesitated in doing a great job.  Admittedly they are somewhat slow yet you could sure tell they were rated at 5000 pounds instead of the factory 3500 pounds as there was no sign of stress when lifting the house up.  After getting settled in it was obvious that no one had enough fish to go back in for walleye dinner so we made pizza's and bacon wrapped scallops for supper.  The bite was slow, as had been reported by a few people.  We did get a few but going from a snow storm to clear skies and -10 below, the weather change definitely had an effect.  Oh well, we got the DirecTV going and enjoyed a relaxing night of fishing in our own little environment, a few nice glasses of whiskey, and good company was all we needed.  Finally getting to bed we did set up the rattle wheels and managed to get a few more nice walleyes, enough to have a mid afternoon dinner at JR's.  By Saturday night the snow had started again and to be honest the bite wasn't that good.  We marked a lot of fish on our Vexilar's but they were not to eager to hit the lures.  Every once in a while one would come and slam it but there were definitely more lookers than hitters!

Last walleye of the trip.

Saturday night was pretty slow as we did get a couple but blaming the weather change sounded like a
great idea.  Sunday basically continued the change in weather and the slow bite, yet we managed to get 7 in the pail between the time we got back to the shacks on Saturday to Sunday night.  Although not very well, it was comforting to know that by most standards we did pretty well.  Mark had been there since Thursday so his plan was to pack up and leave Sunday morning, which he did.  On the other had we were not much in a hurry and stayed till Monday morning before we left.  On thing that was nice is we were able to watch all of the final week's football games with the Packers and Vikings losing.  No more BS at work I guess!  Fishing was slow as we didn't get anything through the night.  Getting up pretty early we decided to just pack up and get going.  Kevin is 7 hours from home and Steve is 8 hours so by 8:30 we had the house packed up and parked at JR's as the plan was to leave it there for the month of January.  We got our fish cleaned, said good bye to JR and headed south.  The plan is to go up on the 11th with my friend Greg Kimblom and his son Marcus, let's hope that the catching will be better!  Never the less it's fun and relaxing to be up there fishing.  I thought it was interesting, for the generator we use to power the house, there is a 6 gallon auxiliary gas tank that hooks to the Honda for extended running service.  On Sunday I added an additional 2 gallons to the tank and still by Monday morning, there was only about 1/2 a gallon of fuel left.  That seemed like a lot of gas to burn but it is what it is!  In addition the power cord for my Winegard Satellite DirecTV antenna was shorted.  I was able to get it to work by inserting a cocktail pick between the wires, which held for the weekend but Just in case, I ordered a new one.  The things I go through to ice fish!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving seems to have crept up on me in record fashion this year.  With dad gone my mother hasn't the energy or desire to have a house load of people, even her favorite sons, so Thanksgiving will be at my sisters.   I do understand my mothers thoughts on this as living in Minneapolis, it's a full 2 - 3 hours away for any of our family to share the feast in Dayton, so we get out of having to do much of anything other than drive to Wisconsin and bring a dish.  If you have been a fan of "Fishin' With Dave" for a while you know that I am an avid Green Bay Packer Fan.  You would have to be living in a cave not to know they have not missed a beat since entering the playoffs and winning the Superbowl last year.  Knock on wood the Packers are 10-0, the only undefeated team left in the NFL.  It is really interesting how complete the transformation from Brett (who?) Favre to Aaron Rodgers has been.  Of course as the 2008 NFL season began almost everyone in Sconnie was upset with Ted Thompson, the Green Bay general manager who let Favre go in favor of Rodgers.  By the same token most were sick of his retirement antics however one could argue that he still was one of the best despite his game ending interception against the Giants in the NFC Championship game.  You know the old saying, a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush!  Well, when Favre retired again from the Jets then unretired to play for the Vikings all bet's were off.  In 2009 the Vikes went 13-3 for the season, including 2 wins against the Pack and Aaron Rodgers.  Well, the Vikings went down in typical Favre style as he threw an interception in overtime to allow the New Orleans Saints to go to the Superbowl.  Deja Vu!  In the meantime the Packers continued their development and have won the last 4 games against the Vikings who continue to struggle finding an identity.  As beloved as Brett Favre was to the Packer fans, his attempt to stick it to us by signing with the Vikings and the success of Aaron, most of us have really discounted his decisions.  After his first retirement, the Packers were going to retire his number at the first game in 2008.  I suspect that they will eventually put his number up in Lambeau but I think it's going to be a while! The Packers play the Detroit Lions on their historic Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit.  It's a little too early to get cocky about it and certainly the Lions are capable of beating the Pack.  Never the less the Packers make the down time between soft and hard water a lot more interesting and fun.  GO PACK!!!

Amongst other things like putting the boats away and settled for their long sleep and breaking out the ice fishing gear is the development of the fruits of our labor, slowly fermenting in Lory Brasel's basement.  Lory decided to get into making wine this year and together we bought some equipment to perfect this age old craft.  With an abundance of fruit this season, there was no shortage of varieties to make.    Here is a nice and colorful picture of our wines sitting in carboys, finishing off their fermentation.  From left to right they include raspberry, pear, wild grape, plum, and chokecherry.  The raspberries, pear, and wild grapes come from my property and the plum and chokecherry is from Lory's.  Not shown is 5 gallons of apple wine that we pressed a few months ago.  This picture was taken about 6 weeks ago, you can see the foam on the top of the wild grape wine as it continues to ferment.  Lory has since re-racked the wine into smaller carboys and will be ready to bottle next week.  These wines tend to be very dry and will require us to sample each one to determine just the right amount of sweetener if needed, a tough job but someone has to do it.  The picture does little justice as the wine is very colorful ranging from a deep Cabernet color to a rose to a pleasant chardonnay hue.  Obvious these wines are not as sophisticated as one would buy in a store but it's like anything you do yourself, it always has that special aura about it and I can't wait to open our first bottle.

The weather doesn't look like it will start to make ice until next week where the highs will be in the low 30's with the lows in the teens.  With the Ice Fishing Show starting on December 2  I would bet there will be walkable ice somewhere by next weekend, a great start to the season.  I still have a lot of work getting my gear ready and luckily it's fairly organized.  New line, re organizing the tackle box, charging the camera and Vexilar, it's a whole new season!  Have a Great Thanksgiving and do give thanks for all that we are fortunate for.  I have added 2 Thanksgiving songs for the holiday, enjoy.

Ice Fishing Equipment Today

Now that we are in the heart of ice fishing season I thought it would be nice to share my equipment and get a better understanding of how we ice fish today. When I grew up, ice fishing was a simple cup type auger that drilled a 6 inch hole. By the time I turned 20 the Mora Swedish Auger came on the market and really changed the game of drilling holes in the ice, if you keep the blades sharp. Poles consisted of a simple stick with a nail in the end to secure in the ice. There were no reels and the line was simply wrapped between 2 posts on the handle. There were no portable shelters or electronics and most serious fisherman had a simple hard sided permanent shelter with a wood stove. Today's ice fisherman have a wide variety of equipment that rivals their soft water counterparts.

Without a doubt the most valuable piece of equipment today for ice fishing is the portable depth finder. My first depth finder was a Heath Kit model. Heath Kit was a company that basically sold unassembled electronic equipment at a substantial discount over comparable finished brand named product. This included a variety of unassembled products including televisions, radios, and a host of electronic test equipment. The difference is that you had to solder together the circuit boards, assemble the product into the chassis and do all the electrical calibration. The finished depth finder was almost identical to the Classic Lorwance Green Box. Although it worked good, the 0 - 60 foot range was too deep for the waters we normally fish. Reading an early InFisherman magazine, they talked about using these summer depth finders for winter fishing. Quickly converting it for winter use, I was in business. My next depth finder was another flasher, the Hummingbird Super 30. Again a box type it worked great as a winter fish finder and worked excellent until I saw the Micronar FL-8, 3 colored LED flasher (now Vexilar). This was the ticket and could be used on my boat in the summer. Building a special mounting box with a motorcycle battery and my own transducer mount, it still is being used by my friend Jack Taylor. Upgrading I got the new FL-8, then a FL-18 and now a FL-20 pictured. It has all the bells and whistles and are truly my eyes on what is going on beneath my hole. I am spoiled for sure.

The next most important piece of equipment is the power auger. Today I run a Strikemaster Lazer 9 inch. As mentioned before I started with the Mora Swedish 7 inch hand auger and still use it for early ice. Once the ice gets past 6 inches it's time to produce some CO2! My first auger was a used Jiffy I found in the newspaper. At $100, it served me very well for many years but was starting to get weak. Bill Lundeen carried the new 3 bladed Laser 9 inch and I just had to have one. It was nothing but trouble. The red handle broke twice and the 3 bladed auger was worthless as Strikemaster had replaced it once already. Taking it back to Strikemaster once they seen me standing with it the first thing the guy said was "having trouble cutting?" They knew and put a new 2 bladed 9" auger and it's been perfect ever since. The auger is 42 inches long and at our Lake of the Woods trip in April we need another 12 inch extension to get through the ice. It certainly makes hole drilling easy, especially if your drilling many holes. I find that the 9 inch hole is a perfect size, especially with a transducer floating in it.

High up on the list is the ice shelter. My first portable was a small one man dome tent you set up on the ice. It was quite small and could be heated with a small single burner Coleman portable camp stove. I often would feel sorry for the guys fishing with me as i was always snug and warm while the others were forced to stay outside. My best day ever ice fishing on Mille Lacs was in that dome as we were right by Doe Island and the fish went bonkers. I must have caught 18 walleyes in 45 minutes. That's a challenge with an open flame stove inside the tent with you. My others included a Frabil, 2 Insta-tents, 4 Otters, and finally this Clam Thermal X fully insulated portable. Abet heavy, it is roomy and extremely warm inside. This will be my third year and it is the best shelter I have yet to own. Once you get a good seal around the outside flaps, you can comfortably fish in short sleeves even if it is -10 below outside. The inside was designed with the fisherman in mind with heavy duty poles, sown in pockets for storage, and I found some real neat Frabil velcro hooks that make organizing a breeze.

Too keep the house warm I use a Mr. Heater Big Buddy propane heater. This baby puts out a whooping 18,000 BTU's. A lot of my friends have the standard size Mr. Heater 9000 BTU however I'd rather have the big output and be able to turn it down as opposed to just being able to stay warm. Prior to this I was a big fan of what we call a Sunflower Heater. Screwed directly to the propane cylinder, they do a great job of heating but are a definite burn hazard. Having burned a number of good bibs and shirts as well as my friend Jason's Otter Ice house I sold it to him a few weeks earlier, the Big Buddy is expotentially safer. It has a number of safety shutoff features including a tip sensor as well as a low oxygen sensor, which in the confined space is a real plus. The other advantage is being able to leave my propane tank outside, using a hose to connect the two. I love the extra room. The only issue has been the water puddle from the heat melting the ice in front of the heater. This was solved using a custom made piece of treated plywood cut to fit the corner and keep the ice in it's frozen state.

Next are the lures. Here is 2 of my very favorites. The Jigging Rapala and Lindy's Rattlin Flyer. The Jigging Rapala has a clear plastic tail piece that is glued to the lead body. This causes the lure to move forward as the lure is jigged. It can move horizontally up to 18 inches when you quickly pull the line up. This action mimics a minnow darting around, giving that injured look. On the bottom center treble hook I always put a minnow head for an attractant. Many times the fish will just hit the minnow head however if in an aggressive mode will literally inhale the entire bait. As you see with hooks on either end it does an excellent job of hooking those fish that attack it. The other go to bait is the relatively new Rattlin' Flyer by Lindy. The center is actually a hollow chamber with a couple of hard BB's inside that rattle when jigging. The wings on either side help to give it a random action, moving to the side. It has a red treble hook on the end, a color that has become extremely popular, and one that I personally think is worthless as red is the first color to disappear 5 feet under water! Again my favorite presentation is with a minnow head firmly attached to the hook. That rattle can really call them in.

Last but not least is my latest investment. Although Ice Armor specialized Ice fishing suits have

been around for a few years now, I have resisted the "Geek" factor and ignored the benefits. My trusty old Carhartt's have served me well yet not being water proof I guess I just got sick of

getting wet knees from kneeling on the ice. My brother Steve gave me a generous gift of a Cabela's Certificate for a job I had done a while back. Although not expected, one never looks a gift horse in the mouth. Deciding to treat myself to a Christmas present, I drove over and picked up this suit. It is really very nice for the person that tends to fish outside a lot, which I like to do. In fact it even says on the label, "Like wearing your own portable shelter". Well I don't know about that but with a ton of pockets and water proof fabrics I should not have been so stubborn when they first came out. Ice Armor has an extreme model however I believe that it would probably be too hot sitting in my shelter.

Well there are other things like specialize ice rods with spring bobbers, reels filled with braided line for positive hooksets, clamp on rattle reels for positive alerts to a set line bite, underwater camera's, and a menagerie of tried and true baits for all occasions. Either way having the right equipment can make your time on the ice much more comfortable. If you have any questions please drop me a comment below and I will try to help. As far as fishing this week, I just got home from a night on Mille Lacs with my friend Mark Applen. Having Direct TV in his ice house was a great incentive to spend Saturday night and Sunday afternoon jigging and watching the playoffs. We caught a total of 3 walleyes, which by the comments of the DNR creel survey guy who interviewed us as we drove off the lake, was the best catch of the day! I will do a short update on our fishing trip later in the week.

Second Time Around

Sometimes tempting fate the second time guarantees little or nothing. On the other hand it is often said it's sweeter the second time around. New Years Eve Day was a decision point, work till 5:00 when 90% of your customers are off or return to see if the mad bite of 2 weeks earlier was still going on. My neighbor Tom mentioned earlier in the week that if I had an empty seat, he'd like to be in it. A simple phone call and we were set, Mille Lacs here we come! The Christmas snowstorm dumped 12 inches on the lake and getting to my spot was going to take more than my ATV. My friend Bill has a nice older two up sled with a hitch and in a pinch it makes great transportation to those far away spots. Arriving at Lundeens my first job was to get the sled started. Being idle for about 9 months only guaranteed it was there. These Polaris 3 cylinder engines can be interesting to get started and this one was no different. After draining the battery the next step was to pull the plugs and dump gas into the cylinders. After reinstalling the plugs, a quick pull of the recoil and she fired right up. Getting our bait, we hooked up my portable and began the 7 mile journey.

I was surprised how much the snow had settled and how hard it had become. Expecting a sea of deep powdered snow, I think if you could trust the ice thickness below, you could drive anywhere with a 4 x 4 truck. Of course this unknown keeps most anglers away form offshore structures. It was definitely cold and I was happy to arrive at our destination no worse for the wear. Having decided to both fish out of one house, we drilled 3 holes and set up. I drilled an additional 10 holes outside the house to provide an outlet when the fishing slowed. The fish started biting immediately. Although not fast and furious the bite was steady. What was different than 2 weeks ago was the absence of the hordes of 8 - 10 inch fish and replaced with ones 13 - 17 inches. We never caught a fish over 17 inches. Tom and I ended up with 7 walleyes however a couple where nice enough to keep yet we got greedy thinking we could get a larger one. Because I had the Vexilar and Tom didn't, the advantage went to me for fish caught. After catching my limit I gave Tom my depth finder and it made the difference. He ended up with the largest fish of the day, and it was the classic fish that you see on the Vexilar that shoots up from the bottom to slam the lure. It certainly confirms the need to have those eyes keeping track of your lure and the fish below.

Fishing walleyes under the ice requires figuring out where they are and then determining if they are aggressive, neutral, or negative mood. In Mille Lacs there are many different areas that walleyes hang out. As in the summer, during the winter walleyes can be found throughout the various structures whether it is deep gravel, the mud flats, or reef areas. It can be a guessing game as to where you think they will be. Personally I enjoy off shore areas that are 4 to 10 feet shallower than the surrounding deeper water. The edge of flats can be particularly interesting as you can fish 25 feet of water and 10 yards away it will be 35 feet. Once set up I like to determine the mood of the fish. My first go to bait is the jigging Rapala with a minnow head attached to the bottom hook. This bait along with others like it are a favorite for aggressive fish. I define aggressive fish as those that literally slam the bait as though it was their last meal. You can easily see this on your depth finder as the fish will come up 2 - 5 feet to hit the bait. A number of years back I was fishing a deep area on Lake of the Woods called 16 mile reef. At the edge in 30 feet of water the fish went crazy. On my line was a 1/4 oz flat jigging spoon with a minnow. It fell rather slowly to the bottom, such is the desire when the fish are in a neutral mode. At 20 feet you could see the fish come up from the bottom and met the lure at 23 feet, slamming it hard. One problem with the depth finder is as you see this happening it can become easy to pull the lure away from the fish. Hooking only 1 of 3 strikes, it was obvious the fish were extremely aggressive and for me, it took to long for my bait to sink so I put on a heavier jigging Rap. It fell twice a fast and with more hooks, I caught almost every fish for the next half hour. It was a good move. Other good aggressive baits are the new Chubby Darters, Puppet Minnows and any other swim type baits.

The fish we caught this trip were in a fairly neutral mood. This means that they are present, curious, but hesitant to hit the lure hard. Often on the depth finder you can get them to follow a bait slowly up and in a flash they are gone. When the fish are in this mood I like to use either the new Rattlin' Flyer, either a rattle or plain Hawger Spoon, or something flashy but less action. The rattles provide enough noise to bring them in, giving you time to work the fish. Tipped with just a minnow head these fish will decide to bite the hook after looking at it for some time. Often this bite is a simple inhale and if one sees a nice red mark overshadowing the lure a gentle 1/4 inch movement of the rod tip will let you know if there is any resistance.........set the hook! Negative fish are another story. Usually it means a live minnow on a plain hook or smaller bait. These fish may simply grab the minnow and pull down the bobber and hold it for minutes before deciding to finish it off. I always like to have a minnow down the hole in case something swims buy. The great news is that at some point if the fish are there, they will turn on and become aggressive. When this happens hang on as it really doesn't matter what you have on the end of your line, walleyes will hit about anything then.

With -25 below both Friday and Saturday nights and highs around zero, I decided that football was in the cards for the rest of the week. The cold weather takes a toll on the equipment as demonstrated by the propane hose which froze to the tank then kindly snapped off. The weather gave me the opportunity to get everything back to working condition for the coming weekend. Maybe a threepeat is in the works.

Smack Down Time!

Knowing I was going to fish on Saturday the real question was where? As the last 2 Decembers have proved, this time of year the big crappies can be caught west of town. Early ice on Mille Lacs is also tempting as the fish have not been pressure for a couple of months now. A few calls along with a couple of Internet searches and Mille Lacs it was. My neighbor Lory Brasel and a friend Russ Clos agreed that it would be fun to try so we loaded up our gear, ATV's and headed north. Reports of minimal snow and 12 inches of ice gave us the opportunity to hit an offshore mud area about 5 miles out. As always we stopped at Lundeens to get our bait and to get an initial read on the lake. The day looked promising with the sun peeking out , trying to keep temperature reasonable. The other thing the sun does is stimulate the perch bite and we were hoping for these bonus fish.

Arriving at the desired destination we quickly set up about 100 feet apart. The area we fished was fairly large and spreading out would give us a chance to locate active fish. In addition to setting up my house I drilled about 20 holes perpendicular to the line we set up with the houses. If it's nice out and slow in the house I like to hole hop from one to another looking for active fish. It's a great technique if you can put up with the cold. The first rig I set up is a simple bobber rig with a rainbow shiner decorating my jig at the end of my line. This is usually good for a fish or two, and is deadly on the eelpout! My main hole is where I jig various lures such as Hawger Spoons, Jigging Raps, Swedish Pimples, Chubby Darters, and Rattlin' Flyers. I also have a 4.5 inch hand auger used to drill a hole for my Vexilar transducer which keeps it away from fish tangling when bringing them up. Starting out with a Jigging Rap it gives an idea if the fish are aggressive or passive. They will slam the lure if in an aggressive mood or simply ignore it when they are more passive. Half an hour of the Rap showed fish however they were not interested in the quick swimming minnow imitation. My next go to lure lately is the Rattlin' Flyer, a winged lure with a rattle chamber. Lures with rattles can really draw the fish in as the are curious to see what all the commotion is about. For an attractant I snap off the head of a nice fathead minnow and hook it to the lure. Often this simple addition makes a huge difference. This proved to be the right move as fish immediately appeared on both my depth finder as well as the video camera which was positioned to watch the action around the lure. A number of walleyes swam by until one just smacked the lure with vengeance. Unfortunately it was only 10 inches but it was a start. The next 2 hours were filled with 8 - 12 inch fish attacking or simple sucking in the minnow head. In the meantime Lory and Russ had each nailed a nice keeper walleye. It was my turn as I had caught a number of smaller fish. About 4:00 somebody turned the switch on. It was like a WWF Smack Down! Fish were coming in and very aggressively hitting the lure. Within the next hour we had caught 9 walleyes, 14 - 15 inch keepers along with a nice 23 inch walleye I released. The top picture are the 6 fish I cleaned at the house and the bottom picture is the largest I released. Unfortunately I forgot the first rule of a good blogger, to always take your camera! I usually get so excited about going that I always forget something. Improvising Russ took this picture with my phone. Far from the best, it at least shows the nice fish I released (I am positive I will hear about this one). It was a great day of fishing for sure. I was surprised that not one perch was caught or seen by Lory, Russ, or I yet I did end up with over 20 walleyes caught for the afternoon.

A couple of side notes. About a mile the lake ice transformed into a maze of ice chunks scattered as though Ol' Paul Bunyan himself stirred the lake just before it froze. I can't remember a year it was so rough. This week the forecast for Mille Lacs and the surrounding area including the Twin Cities are looking at up to 19 inches of snow, maybe more. This will put a severe burden on the lake as the weight of the snow will make maintaining Ice Houses on the lake as well as travel very difficult. Although the resorts will plow roads, it would have been nice if the snow would have waited about another week. Oh well, I am pretty sure we will survive. The storm will make our already white Christmas even whiter. Have a great Christmas where ever you are. With a little luck we will get dug out and ready to take advantage of the holiday season drilling lots of holes. I know those crappies are still there!

Rude Awaking

After getting use to the weather in both Key West and San Jose, I woke up this morning with the realization it's not going to get any warmer in Minnesota for a while. With a crisp -10 degrees this morning it is a full 95 degree temperature swing from what I experienced 10 days ago. Oh well, life up north! With that in mind a last reminder and parting shot from Key West. Although it is hard to see, on the left side of the brown pelican is a ripple and another one just below, are the back fins of those large tarpon living in the harbor. As we were cleaning the fish both the tarpon and the pelicans would compete for the scraps. It was a pretty interesting sight as the fish were exceptionally quick to dispose of anything thrown over, including the carcasses we cut up and the skins. Tarpon have huge gaping mouths and made quick work in a single gulp. I asked if anyone tries to hook these monsters and was assured that the marina would not look kindly on the person who would attempt this. It was an interesting surprise to see these beautiful fish.

After being gone for 8 out of the last 10 days, I came home to the snow and cold. Although my neighbors help out in clearing the snow there is still much to do. I have a Polaris 800EFI with a plow which makes short work of my pole shed driveway and the back road to my trailer storage area. It took most of the day to clean up everything, just in time for another 3 inches Sunday night. Saturday night was the neighborhood Christmas party at the Botner's and it never disappoints. Unfortunately I tend to stay to the very end which was 3:00 Sunday morning. Of course this had a direct affect on my plans for ice fishing on Sunday. Like a good trooper I did make it out to Pelican Lake for the evening bite.

Assuming the ice would be about 4 - 6 inches thick and I would need to walk a bit, I decided to take my old Swedish Mora 7" hand auger. It's not been used in years and figured it was probably a little dull, the thin ice would make it tolerable. I have a Nils Master 4 1/2 inch auger that slices like butter however I wanted to use my Vexilar in the hole and 4 1/2 inches is pretty small. For these early excursions I have a small portable 1 man shelter that my friend Bill gave me. It fits perfectly in the back of my Suburban and is easy to pull around. Arriving at the lake and walking out about 1/4 mile, I picked a likely looking spot, quickly discovered that my auger was significantly duller than I had imagined and the ice was at least 10 inches thick. Rocking the auger back and forth, 15 minutes later I had a hole through the ice. Normally I drill 2 holes, one for my jigging rod and one as a set line however that wasn't going to happen this time. Luckily I brought a heater with and soon had a warm and cozy place to fish, and fish I did. Usually one can nail a few sunnies as well the crappie bite always gets going at dark. I guess someone forgot to tell the fish and I did not rule out the mental game as getting home at 3:00 takes it's toll! I did take a picture of the lake with a few guys scattered around me. A quick census showed I was not alone. Oh well, it was good to get out seeing the swans flying back to the river and listening to the owls hoot their chorus of sounds was worth it. Next week I will get more serious.

One thing nice about fishing on the northwest side of the Twin Cities is that Cabela's stands in the way of my journey home. They had a sale on an item my Cousin Greg introduced me to, Fleece Lined Jeans. At $24 a pair, they are one of the best investments for the winter. It sure beats having to wear long johns! So to Greg I say Thanks.....Thanks A lot. I'll be looking for the big crappies next week. Also, take the time to check out this weeks post by MT Bucket (see the link on my left sidebar). All I can say is I am jealous!