Fishin' For Dollars

Last week my good friend Bill Lundeen had a rather large corporate ice fishing event he was guiding for and needed some extra equipment.  Dropping it off on Tuesday I needed an excuse to get back to Mille Lacs and pick it up.   Since fishing has not been stellar on the big lake these days, Plan B was to simply head up, grab it and go back to the big sunnie lake.  On Thursday Mark Applen called inviting me to fish in the big Ducks Unlimited Ice Derby in Garrison at Saturday noon.  Now I had a real excuse and it sounded like fun. 

These ice fishing Derby's have been around for a while with the 2 most notable ones in Forest Lake and on Gull Lake in Brainerd MN.  Entry fees average around $35 for each contestant, meaning one hole, and this DU event gave out $75,000 in prizes including items like a new Ford pickup truck, ATV's, a brand new Wheel house, ice augers, shelters, an amazing collection of what every sportsman would want.  The truck is the Grand Prize which goes to the largest fish caught however the other large prizes are scattered within the line up such that last place may actually be worth considerably more than 5th place.  This keeps it interesting and gives a guy a good chance to win with a relatively small fish.  The derby itself is held about a half mile offshore just south of Garrison, MN.  The event itself is held in a contained area, probably 80 to 100 acres in size.  A large tent is set up on the ice and becomes Derby Headquarters.  Because of the prizes and past issues with people bringing previously caught fish in, everything was subjected to a search before entering the contest area.  All cars were parked on the ice and arriving at 11:00 for a noon start time, I was relegated to a pretty long walk to the tent to register before attempting to find Mark and his friends, who had promised me a hole reservation.  Although I knew about were he was, we had a different interpretation of what the back of the tent really meant!  Finally hooking up, I was introduced to his deer hunting buddies, then set up.  One of Mark's friends was involved with helping to pre drill the holes for the contest.  It was interesting as I suspect they had to have drilled 3500 - 4000 8 inch holes through about 25 - 30 inches of ice, no small task. 

The contest ran from Noon to 3:00.  We had a nice strategic area toward the edge of the deeper water however the area was pretty much the same depth everywhere.  My plan was simple, forgo the walleyes and concentrate on getting a perch.  In these contests it doesn't take a large fish to win so I used my ultra sensitive Shooley's spring bobber rod equipped with a pretty small teardrop lure and a waxie.  In addition, Bill set me up with some fresh water shrimp, a sure bet for the smallest of fish.  Did I say fishing on Mille Lacs had not been stellar?  Although I marked what were certainly small fish, not a one fell for my presentation.  Any other day, any other time, I should have been in the money!  Although I left totally skunked, paying $10 an hour to fish with Mark and his friends made up for the disappointment.  The announced crowd was over 3000 people and I suspect they netted over $30,000 for DU.  I have become less of a DU fan these days but that's a story for another day.  A quick check of the winners prove that my strategy was correct.  The winning walleye was 1.32 pounds with the bottom 60 places won with fish less than 3.2 ounces!  Heck, 50% of the winners had perch under 2 ounces.  These are some pretty small fish, I suspect guys had shiner minnows for bait bigger than that.  This goes to show you what it didn't take to win.  It was interesting to see the ice surface change during the 3 hours of fishing.  With so many holes and people, the weight eventually pushed about 2 inches of water on the ice.  First arriving the snow on the ice was pretty solid.  By the end of the contest it was a slushy mess.  I am writing this in beautiful Palm Springs, California attending a major electronics conference.  It is a great change from the snow in Minnesota but I am anxious to get back out and hit the ice one last time before my surgery. 

Like Father Like Son

After five days surrounded by palm trees and 70 degrees in Anaheim, I returned to Minnesota's snowdrifts and 10 degree temperatures.  Exhibiting at a Medical Design and Manufacturing show takes a lot of work and effort.  I was looking forward to getting back home to help celebrate my dad's 80 surprise birthday party on Saturday.  It meant skipping fishing for the weekend however some things just take precedence.   My Dad, Donald (Dinnie) Anderson is an interesting guy.  Born in 1930, he was a Depression child spending his younger years during some of the most difficult times for young families.  His Dad, my grandfather, was quite industrious and he succeeded in raising my father and his brothers and sisters quite successfully.  This special upbringing has left him quite frugal, almost to perfection.  Having retired at the young age of 55, he has spent almost half his adult life enjoying the freedom from work.  Living on Social Security and a pension, he is far from poverty however he is not one to hold back on the comparison of his financial situation to others.  This has developed into a finely tuned crescendo to the point where Dad's nickname around Eleva is POD, Poor Ol' Dinnie!   It fun to talk to his friends as they put it on pretty thick however I suspect most of it is deserved.

The party was set at his morning hangout, the Full House Tavern, in downtown Eleva.  Owned by his neighbor Kim, who is the daughter of his good friend Dunk Semingson, the village elders gather each morning to drink coffee, have a few cookies, and proceed to needle each other for the next 2 - 3 hours until they disperse.  Our role was to get there an hour before to help set up.  My brothers and sister had done a nice job prior to my arrival as I help unload critical items.  The first thing I noticed on the bar was a large jar with a label stating "Dinnie's Engine Fund".  Dad's 1996 Lincoln engine blew up a few weeks ago leaving him car less for a week or so.  Fix it or buy a newer car.......a tough decision.  I can imagine those conversations during morning coffee, they must have been interesting.  Dad ended up getting a 2003 Buick and my brother Jon had agreed to help fix the Lincoln as not to be forced to sell it as junk.  For a 1996 it was almost spotless.  Apparently the boys downtown decided to "help" Dad with is dilemma.  Looking in the jar were a number of coins, mostly dimes and pennies as well as some substantial IOU's from a number of anonymous donors.  All in good fun, it goes with living in a small town where everyone is a star!  When Dad turned 70 my brother Steve and I took him to Alaska for the trip of a lifetime.  We had a great time, it was the first and last time we shared a big adventure together.  Here he is on the left after the first halibut trip which was pretty stressful on him. Although he toughed it out, the rest of the trip for him was spent relaxing while Steve, his son Kevin, and I took in the excitement of fishing.  I am glad we took him as it was good for all of us.

As I said earlier, my Dad is an interesting guy.  I would have to say that I respected my father as he provided leadership in a way that I did not recognize till later in life.  I don't think this is an isolated situation, as I reflect on our relationship growing up.  He was not my friend rather my Dad, friendship would come later.  His job was not to make me happy rather to provide me with the basics such as food, clothing, shelter, and guidance.  More often that guidance was implied rather than clearly defined.  Success for my father can be measured in my case based on the fact that when I turned 18, I wasn't in jail and of course my long term success as an adult.  I think Dad would agree that he did a pretty good job.  As I grow older, I am reminded of a song by Paul Overstreet that hits home called I'm Seein' My Father In Me.  The chorus goes like this:

I'm seein' my father in me
I guess that's how it's meant to be
And I find I'm more and more like him each day
I notice I walk the way he walks
I notice I talk the way he talks
I'm startin' to see my father in me

You see I have turned into a younger him.  I walk like him, I talk like him, my sense of humor is like his, I think like him.  As I have stated before, imitation is often the greatest compliment.

 

At the party I noticed a sign, Happy Birthday: Dinnie 80, Dave 55.  I thought that was nice, Dad and I celebrate our birthday 2 days apart, someone added me to the sign, nice!  As I unloaded the car my good friend Paul Wenaas came walking by wishing me a Happy Birthday.  He had a bag with a card, some Cheese Curd Batter Mix, and a special Leinenkugel's hat autographed by none other than Jake Leinenkugel himself.  That was awful nice of Weiner, come down to the bar for Dad and bring me something.  Settling in at the bar I noticed that my wife's aunt and uncle were in the back........that was strange, what were they doing there?  Not until a few more special friend showed up that I figured it out, it was really a party for both of us.  The friends are too numerous to mention however they included the whole family of my late Uncle Keith, Paul, Julie, Cindy, Linda, and Dorothy.   Cousin Greg and his folks Loren and Lavonne, and a special greeting from my uncle Jerry and aunt Marilyn in Boise.  Mark and Cindy Taylor, Lory and Lyn Brasel who both had driven down from the cities, no small feat to see a guy less than 10 minutes away when at home.  My great aunt Florence  (shes 97) with her family Jean, Kristy, and Jim.  Cousin Doug Hillestad and his wife along with a greeting from his mom, my great aunt Sylvia.  A special treat was seeing Terry and Diane Baier, a great friend from La Crosse, is an excellent brewmeister as he gave me a nice variety of his latest concoctions.   John Felix from Ashland; Roger Olson made a detour on his trip from Iowa to Ohio (some detour!) and my aunt Pat from Antigo with my cousin Donny Schmidt and his wife Connie.  The entire Rombalski clan showed up, Andrew, Jane, Bernie, Nellie, Sister Rosemary, Anna, Art and Florence, and Jake.  They grew up over the hill from my Dad's Grandmother, south of town.  Kevin, Janet; a host of Eleva people and I am sure I forgot many others however both Dad and I are blessed with so many good friends.  Dad got mostly cash and lottery tickets, keeping with his POD designation while I was overwhelmed with substantial Gander Mountain and Cabela's gift certificates, keeping with mine.   I just want to thank everyone.  Plans for this weekend, hopefully there will be one of my last fishing trips for the year before I take off for Palm Springs on Monday. 

Riding the Trails

Departing from my usual weekend ice fishing event I had the opportunity to put a few miles on my sled, a 2006 Polaris 900 Switchback.   Together with my local sales rep, Dwight Bialowas and his friend Mike, we headed to a small town in north central Minnesota called Emily.  Emily is in the heart of cabin county, 40 minutes north of Mille Lacs lake, has an excellent system of well groomed trails.  Picking up the guys at 7:30, by 10:00 we were at Mike's cabin and ready to hit the trails.  We decided to head northeast to Hill City, MN, about 40 miles as the crow flies.   The trails were fabulous.   A recent snowstorm left most of it's snow to the northeast and although some of the corners were icy, with the exception of needing a tad more snow, they were very smooth.  Our first stop was Swatara, an old railroad town that is a mire shadow of it's previous existence.  Like many small towns in the Midwest (not unlike Eleva), it thrived by being on a major railroad line that was eventually abandoned.   Now just a stop on the main snowmobile trail that replaced the railroad, it was a welcome rest.   Our next stop was Hill City for a visit to the Polaris dealer, Hilltop Sports.  Dwight's sled was leaking gas and running rough so for $20, the dealership pulled his carburetors, cleaned them and reinstalled.  This was just what the sled needed and it ran perfect for the rest of the day.  Our next stop was at Palisade, MN,  another old railroad town that has survived better than Swatara.   A quick picture of me standing next to my sled, we headed back to the cabin for grilled swordfish and New York Strips made with my famous steak marinade. Sleeping well we woke up, started the sleds and did a 25 mile ride to Cross Lake for a corned beef hash breakfast.  Well fed and 170 miles behind us, we headed home to get ready for Super Bowl Sunday.  It turned out to be a wonderful game as my predicted winner, the Saints came through with a convincing win!  

 In the past 10 years I had the pleasure to snowmobile in the mountains of Wyoming and Idaho.  I thought I would share a couple of my favorite pictures from these past trips.  2008 was the last year I went however I am really looking forward to getting back out next winter.  Our favorite place to go was the Snowy Range, 30 miles west of Laramie Wyoming.  Staying at the Vee Bar Ranch, we enjoyed first class accommodations as well as some of the best snowmobiling in the world.  The Snowies as we call them gets over 250 inches of snow every year.  Although the conditions varied from year to year, we always managed to find fresh powder to play in.  The area is marked with large open meadows on high plateaus to steep mountain peaks with areas like the "Widow Maker".   Averaging over 10,000 feet above sea level,  The Snowies have a great trail system with excellent grooming.  The real fun however is the off trail riding.  Whether boon-docking through the trees or finding your own special hill to play on, there are tons of play areas to explore.  My first picture on the right is one of Ronnie Clarkson, a good friend of mine from Zimmerman, MN.  Ronnie has a Polaris RMK with a 159 inch track extension.  This machine really makes use of that track with extraordinary climbing ability.  Here Ronnie had decided to head up a little area formed by a drift that made the climb somewhat steeper than he anticipated.  At the top of the corness, his skis left the ground as the sled continued in a forward direction over 60 feet.  At that the point he felt his sled was it was coming over backwards.  Ronnie simply let go as he pushed off the sled.  The sled stopped and stuck at about this 80 degree angle and stayed there.  It was pretty amazing as we worked carefully to make sure the sled landed right side up as we pulled it down. I think Ronnie needed to go clean out his bibs before getting back on that sled!

The next picture is of another friend, Gary Larsen who is a friend of my cousin Donny Schmidt, from Pickerel Wisconsin.   Photography is one of my hobbies and this is one I took as Gary was getting some air off a drift in a meadow.  Snapping the picture just at the moment he left the snow, it froze this incredible image of how much fun we have.  Although it looks like he is flying and trust me, it's an exhilarating feeling to get airborne, our skill levels are tempered by the deep powder snow we have to land on.  It is easier to try stunts when you have a soft landing to look forward to!  Gary drives a modified Ski Doo Summit with a 2" paddle track and an unmistakeable custom paint job.  He is a great rider which is why we have him lead most of the time.  He has gotten us into trouble a few times but we still like him!  Double click on any of the pictures to get a better look at these interesting 2 images.   I have lots of stories and pictures over the years.  Count on more as I will need some fill as I take the first 3 weeks in March off from fishing. 

A Pile of Panfish

Omens of positive change can appear out of nowhere.  Last Wednesday night I flew to Denver on the 7:15PM flight out of Minneapolis.  Averaging over 30,000 miles per year, one hits the paltry Silver Elite Status at 25,000 miles per year which for the most part gives you a few extra benefits over least traveled passengers such as preferred seat selection, free baggage check in, bonus miles for each flown, and the occasional upgrade to first class.  The upgrades to first class are the grand prize however with so many people having Gold or Platinum status giving them priority,  us Silver guys generally do not stand a chance.  Well taking my seat in coach, I had an acceptable location, aisle-exit row when an announcement for David Anderson to please push the attendant button.  Quickly locating me, I was told to get my stuff, you are going to the east side!  First Class flying is a pure joy.  Free drinks, tons of room, unlimited snacks, first off, the only way to fly.   Generally speaking, online check in 24 hours before your flight increases your odds of getting that magical upgrade.  This has been an issue for me for the last 13 months as I was put on a Terrorist Watch List by the TSA and had to check in at the airport.  After about 6 months of dealing with the TSA and the airlines, I think that I have been vindicated!   The merger of Northwest and Delta had not helped the matter either.  Off the watch list, I am able to check in on line again, hopefully increasing the odds of being reassigned to the front.  Well, coming home late Friday, I checked in online earlier in the day and was lucky enough to get upgraded to First Class again for the return flight.  I knew fishing just had to be good this weekend!

I decided to meet my good friend Russ Clos on Saturday, who was fishing in a wheel house with his friend on a nearby local lake.  Russ and I experienced great fishing last year and had remembered where the "hot spot" was located.  Russ had sent a text message..........Bring beer and bait!  Obliging, I stopped to fulfill both requests before hitting the ice.  Arriving about 3:00, I found the boys exactly where I suspected and delivered the goods.  After about 5 hours they had around 7 fish with a couple dandy sunnies.  I like to spread out and proceeded to set up my portable about 60 feet away as we were on a pretty expansive flat.  My secret weapon for panfish is a simple pole with a spring bobber set up made by Schooley's.  Once one understands what the spring bobber is telling you, your success increases by a huge factor.  In addition I have made a custom rod with a Schooley's spring bobber attached to the end of the pole and a spinning reel for faster cycling of the bite.  Starting with a Purist lure, it fooled a few fish however they were pretty finicky.  Switching to a waxie proved more productive, enough to use up one container causing me to retrieve the frozen ones still in the truck from last week.  Didn't seem to make a difference, they loved them.   The first hour produced only a couple of fish with the largest being about an 8 inch sunfish.   With about 6 fish on the ice and another 20 released, they finally put the feedbag on around 4:30.  The day with a limit of sunnies (20) averaging close to 8 inches and the largest a tad over 8 1/2 inches, as well 5 nice crappies with the largest at 11 inches.  I would have to admit this was the best ice fishing for sunfish I have experienced in the 34 years I have lived in Minnesota.  I have caught as many but the average size has been less than desirable.  The crappies did not show up until after the sun went down and a total of 5 were all that expressed an interest.  As with the sunnies,  I was impressed with the size considering local lakes can be challenging.   The other interesting observation was the number of large sunfish that bit after dusk.  Generally speaking this is the realm of the crappie yet my last 4 sunnies were caught in the dark.  Go figure.  

This weekend is a make up snowmobile day with a few business friends, we will ride on Friday, returning on Saturday.  I am really looking forward to this as I do not get a chance to ride much these days.  Past years would see us going to The Snowy Range in Wyoming romping around the mountains at 10,000 feet.   My travel schedule has prevented a return for the last 2 years.  I have some great stories and pictures of those trips which would make a few great posts in the future.  Sunday is my neighbor Tim's annual Super Bowl get together, one of the larger neighborhood events of the year.  With a little luck maybe I can sneak out in the afternoon to see if the bite is still going before heading over to the game.  Speaking of luck, I also picked the Saints to be victorious for Sunday's big game.  Liking the underdog, I believe they will carry through the tough defense of their last playoff game with the Vikings.  First Class both ways, a great day of fishing on Saturday.............yeah California and Colorado, I might be unstoppable!

Rain, Rain, Go Away.........

Original plans to get out Friday and put a few miles on my snowmobile were squelched by 2 weeks of a prolonged January thaw making the trails less than desireable.  In fact it began raining on Friday night and didn't stop until Sunday afternoon.  Our snowcover took a hit however the good news is that the lakes shed most if not all their snow.  As much as I wanted to make it out fishing on Saturday, the rain was too much to deal with.  As intense as a June soaker, I did not want to deal with the mess.  Sunday  held a better promise of fishing without getting soaked.  My neighbor Tom is always ready to go so we hooked up and headed west to try the crappie lake one more time.  Heading out after lunch we stopped at the hardware store in St. Micheal and loaded up on a scoop of minnows and a couple boxes of waxies.  Tom was cautious as he was unsure of the ice conditions after 2 weeks of 30 degree temperatures.  Assuring it would be fine, I offered to drive.  Figuring about 20 inches of ice, it would be certainly be sloppy and needing a new truck, if I did go through it would be the perfect excuse. 

I started with a picture of my Suburban parked on the ice.  I have many good friends in California, Texas, Florida who think I am crazy for driving on the ice.  Sunday morning found me setting up a new Direct TV receiver, talking to a service center in Oklahoma.   While waiting for the system to run through it's paces I struck up a conversation with the technician regarding his location and what does he do.  He asked how cold it gets, responding that we can drive on the lakes.  The guy thought I was pulling his leg!  On Lake Mille Lacs along with other large bodies of water in Minnesota the resorts rely heavily on the winter ice fishing business by creating a sophisticated road systems often totally over 30 miles.  These roads provide access for ice houses pulled out onto the lake as well as revenue from guys like me who buy day passes for around $10 per car to use their systems to drive to our favorite locations.  Mille Lacs has no less than 20 resorts and business's creating roads and maintaining them.  I bet if you totalled them all there would literally be hundreds of miles of ice roads ranging from the main corridors over 100 feet wide to smaller side roads running to the various structures and favorite fishing spots.  GPS's have been a game changer as now everyone  has their favorite spot and can dictate the resort provide access to them.  Years ago when Liberty Beach would plow a road to the flats, it would be close and you took what was available.  Today they can strategically plow roads on the perimeter of the flats, offering a better idea of the layout and where to fish.  Back then we would simply looked for the dropoff where it would go from 25 feet to 35 feet in a very steep drop.  It could be anywhere on the flat, we just drilled on the top and bottom regardless.  I am not sure fishing is any better knowing exactly where we are at these days.

Back to Sunday our strategy was to fish until around 6:00.  We figured the Viking game would be close contest so getting home before half time would give us a chance to see Brett Favre hose it up for the Purple and Gold (BTW, this was my prediction before the game).  It was still fairly warm so we decided to drill a few holes and see if there were any active fish before setting up the house.  About 5 minutes into fishing I caught a nice crappie.  My next hole about 10 feet away yielded a nice sunfish.  2 nice fish in the span of 15 minutes, it was time to set up.  The ice was covered with a watery slush and the wind had switch to one of those damp, cold bone chilling winds from the west, it felt good to get inside.   Mentioning the wind switch allows me to have an excuse for the next couple hours of fishing.  We did catch a ton of 3 to 6 inch sunnies, another good sunny and closing in on dark, Tom caught a twin to my first crappie.  Thinking that would be a start to the crappie bite, nothing could have been further from the truth.  The picture is my attempt to imitate the great fish pictures that are featured on  MT Bucket's blog.  Stating he uses a standard point and shot camera, I tried his technique and it turned out almost as good as his.  You know what they say, imitation is the best compliment!  My apologies to MT.

Packing up and home by 6:30, I headed for my neighbors to finish watching the Viking game.  Dressed in my usual game attire of Green Bay gear, the insults started immediately upon walking through the door.  Although my neighbors like me, on game day all bets are off, especially when you are the only Cheesehead in sight.  After I reminded them how their success seems dependent on ex-Packer players, we settled down to watch Brent do what he does best, throw the game losing interception as his last play of the season.  Mourning their loss, I reminded my friends that we went through the same thing in 2007, 13-3 and the last play of the game, an interception to the Giants to end the run.  I truly understood their pain.  Frankly nobody sympathized with me as I grinned through the whole discussion.   Luckily the fact the Vikes beat the Packers twice this year was not even mentioned.......thank God! Check out Neenahpete for an interesting clip on our current hero. Hopefully next week I can get up to Mille Lacs and look for some big perch as the bite should be starting to pick up somewhat.

Lack Luster Weekend

This weekend was pretty calm despite being about as perfect a weekend to be ice fishing as I have seen. Unfortunately I was relegated to taking it easy recovering from an angiogram on Friday. This is an interesting procedure where they insert a catheter into your femoral artery and go take a look at your arteries from the inside. Usually this is done if you might have coronary blockages however in my case it was to look at my aortic aneurysm. The males in my family have been known to suffer from this genetic anomaly and when told that we all should have this checked out, like most of us, I ignored the advice. A few years ago while fighting pneumonia, a sharp doctor noticed the problem on a CT scan. Although no laughing matter, it's a heck of a lot better discovering it now rather than on the autopsy table! The results were as expected with my coronary arteries being as clean a whistle, it's probably time to fix the aneurysm. A normal aorta is about 1 inch in diameter and mine is almost 2 inches. Doctors orders were to lay still till Saturday evening as well limit lifting to a max of 10 pounds for a few days. Well that means my ice auger, loading my house, and with a little luck holding a fish fitting that description. There are still a lot more opportunities to get out and hopefully the weather holds off this weekend. The above picture is one I took Tuesday morning behind the house. A heavy fog overnight and temperatures below freezing created this stunning hoar frost on the trees. One of the delights of winter, it was a great reminder how beautiful life is. 

The St. Paul Sportsman Show was last week. It is the first major show of the year and although not as large as the Northwest Sportshow at the Minneapolis Convention Center, it's a good chance to get in the mood. Frankies, my dealer, is the largest Ranger dealer in the world and he had 18 boats on display. It was good to see Frankie and his wonderful wife Deb as they always treat me as their number 1 customer. I spent some time with Keith Holtan of Beaver Creek Cabins and Guide Service, Kenai, AK. Keith was our fishing guide out of Jeff King's in August of 2002 that I wrote about last August 18, 2009. It was great to share war stories as well reconnect with him and hopefully we can get together again before he heads north. One of the things I love to do at these shows is check out all the new products and did I find a gem. Pictured is one of those "Why didn't I think of that" gadgets called the EZ lube. Based on a garden sprayer, it has a bottom hose attached to heavy duty valve with a rubber cone end. It's purpose is to make refilling your outboards lower unit a snap. Simply drain the gear lube out, fill the EZ Lube with good quality gear lube, screw in the pump assemble and pump it up. Hold the rubber end into the bottom fill plug and squeeze the valve. No messy pumps, no squeezing tubes like toothpaste, no almost having all the gear out of the tube yet it's still not full......I just had to have one. As a bonus, Steve Carney, one of my favorite Outdoor News writers and local guide was working the booth. It was great talking with him and hopefully I will win the free trip with him they were giving away. Anxious to test, I will definitely post it's usefulness some time in the future.

On the left side of my layout is a list of Blogs I follow as they are my favorites. I have mentioned Jeff King's Mile 14 in the past and his recent posts have been nothing short of fabulous. Jeff and his wife MP spend a number of weeks in Mexico each winter fishing, relaxing, and escaping from the cold and darkness of Alaska. Jeff fishes every morning and his fishing reports give the feeling of being right there next to him, casting for rooster fish, corvina, and toro. Jeff and his friends work the shorelines along the beach like I work the reefs on Mille Lacs. It's a welcome break from staring out the window looking at the snow! Check out mile14 and experience the thrill of surf fishing in Mexico. Here is a picture from one of Jeff's posts featuring the first rooster fish he caught this year. Although not the largest he has bagged, they certainly are an interesting looking fish. This picture also features the rare evidence of needing a jacket in Mexico.

This week is the Minneapolis Boat Show. My brother Steve has threatened to by a new boat for the last 10 years now and I have reminded him he'd better do it soon before he needs a lift to get in it. The boating industry has seen better times and I have been encouraging Steve to do his part to help the economy. I am sure he appreciates my advice! With my weight lifting restrictions off my goal is to get back out fishing soon.  I know the fish are missing me for sure.

Wheel House Get Away

Last Saturday my friend Mark Applen had called to see if I was heading up to Mille Lacs. Along with the call was an invitation (actually it's a standing one) to fish with him if I wanted to. He had been in his wheel house since Friday, parked near the Highway Bar, about 4 miles from shore. Not sure what I was going to do, it dawned on me that he had Direct TV and was watching the playoffs and fishing at the same time. A quick call back and it was confirmed, I'd be there by 9:00, too late for the dusk bite but maybe a few walleyes would stick around till I got there. Stopping at Lundeens to pick up some shiners, a bonus hunk of smoked ribs came as a nice surprise. Mark is based out of Fisherman's Wharf, located on the south shore of Big Point and has a nice set up for wheel houses. Paying my $10 road pass, I finally arrived ready to do some serious fishing. Wheel houses are hard sided fish houses that are built on a trailer frame. They have the feature of being able to disconnect the axle allowing the house to be lower to the ice. They have many of the same conveniences of a permanent house with the portability factor. You can spend anywhere from $6000 to over $30,000 on this type of shelter. Mark's is a 6 holer with 2 bunks, a table, chairs, satellite TV, furnace, and a extremely quiet 2000W Honda Generator for all the comforts of home. I think after a 24 hours of being there alone, he welcomed the company.

Within 10 minutes of getting myself set up a nice 15 inch walleye slammed my lure. Too excited to take a picture, I immediately dropped the lure back down the hole, 29 feet of water to see if it's twin was there. Within another 5 minutes Mark caught this nice eater walleye. We were in business. Well, business started strong but died faster than Tiger Woods career! That was it. We fished till 1:00 in the morning before setting the rattle reels for the night. We hit the sack with Mark graciously giving me the bottom bunk. There is something about sleeping in an ice house overnight that is magical. Mark claims we had a few rattles go off but you couldn't tell it by me, I was out like a light.

I woke up to this beautiful sunrise on Mille Lacs. If you look hard you can see the moon in the upper right hand corner, it was a nice addition to the scene. Notice the road that is plowed. The resorts plow a loop off a main road so one can pull their wheel house around and have a reasonable way to pull it out when you want to move it. Breakfast consisted of pancakes and eggs as we continued to jig for the now elusive walleye. Putting the camera down, we saw fish but they were extremely skittish, nosing the bait then darting away. This pattern continued until we left at around 5:00. Counting the 2 we caught and 1 Mark had nailed before, we were stopped by the DNR for a creel survey. The survey guy commented how well we did as it was not only the biggest catch of the day, it was the only one of all the cars coming in. Little solace, we accepted our success and headed home.

Mark Applen is an incredible man. Losing his 17 year old son to cancer 7 years ago, Mark and his wife Jan turned this tragedy into an unbelievable work of charity helping children and their families cope with this horrible disease. Through the Eric Nicolin Applen Fund, Mark and Jan raise money through an annual golf tournament held each June. Since it's inception, the ENA Fund has raised over $150,000 by ordinary people who believe that Eric lives through helping others. I invite you to check out their website and truly look at it to see all of the good that has been done. http://www.eric-nicolin-applen-fund.com/enafund.html I quote Eric's motto, "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying I will try again tomorrow.", MaryAnne Radmacher. Myself and a number of people volunteer our time and I would say that it is the most rewarding thing I have done in my life.

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.

Oh The Weather Outsides Delightful.......

This Christmas was interesting for us in Minnesota. It started on December 20th with all the local weather broadcasters forecasting the next "Storm of the Century" starting on Wednesday night through Saturday. Two low pressure systems were set up to meet, dumping up to 24 inches of snow by the time it's done, or so they say. All this brew-ha-ha forced mom to cancel our traditional Christmas Eve in Eleva, moving it to Sunday. Well, the snow turned to rain and although the storm lasted almost 4 days, the totals were somewhat less than predicted. About12 inches here in Dayton, it only accumulated back home to the tune of around 4 inches. Either way my snow blower and ATV got a pretty good workout, as well the weather forecasters lived their fantasies. Traveling to Galesville on Saturday, it was Christmas Day with my sister-in-law. My present to Sue was to fix her gas fireplace that would not stay lit, then loading Microsoft Office 2007 on the computer. Christmas on Sunday turned out to be pretty good as everyone was not stressed to get everything accomplished in a short time. As a bonus I did get to visit my classmate and good friend Rick Semingson and his parents, Dunk and Mary. Rick is retiring this year, boy how time flies. We also visited my friend Kevin and Janet Aiona. Come to think of it Kevin is a year younger than I and is also retired! He had a nice bucket of sunfish caught in Alma a few hours earlier. The above picture is looking east from my driveway. We have a good 14 inches on the ground and it's time to get the snowmobile out and put a few miles on.

One of the things I like to bring my folks for Christmas is my now famous apple wood smoked turkey. Having a variety of smokers over the years I finally have a professional style smoke oven made by Cookshack. After trying a number of methods have settled into brining the turkey with Maple Cure from PS Seasoning, a Wisconsin meat supply company. Making a brine using 1 pound of cure to 2 gallons of water, I reserve about a pint of cure and inject it into the turkey before soaking for 24 hours. One of the best turkeys for smoking are Archer Farms Brand, butter injected frozen turkey's from Target. They produce the most moist finished product of any brand I've tried, butter just flows out as you make that first slice into the breast meat. Taking up to 1 hour a pound, apple wood smoke at 250 degrees, the picture is the finished product. I guarantee it tastes as good as it looks. The brine has cure in it and gives the turkey a ham like flavor that is second to none.

With the snow messing up my weekend schedule, my neighbor Lory and I got out on Saturday afternoon to see if those big crappies would show up west of town. Although we did not get the big snows as predicted, what did snow was heavy, wet, mixed with rain. These conditions make ice fishing interesting. The snow on the ice causes 2 major issues, first being that it insulates the ice slowing the freezing process. Without this latest storm, we would be driving on the lakes by now. The other issue is the weight of the snow will cause water to be forced up on the ice flooding the surface under the snow. Forming a layer of slush, it makes travel and setting up on the ice very sloppy. Any ice houses that were on the lakes prior to the storm need to be jacked up higher than this slush layer or they will freeze in solid. Driving to the lake we found the conditions as described. Pulling our gear, it seemed like we walked a mile up hill! 6 inches of snow, 2 of it was slush, 150 yards later we set up. Immediately the sunfish appeared and they were hungry. With about an 90 minutes before the sun went down the action was steady catching about 30 fish. Most were small but I managed to keep 4 nice ones while waiting for the crappies to show. As the sun set those 12 inch crappies where non-existent in my holes. Lory had slightly better luck catching one. Another mile back to the truck, we called it a day. Mille Lacs is in my sight this weekend and maybe another trip to to check out the crappies. This cold weather predicted for the rest of the week will certainly help the situation.

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!

Key West Fishing Paradise

I am finally getting time to report on last weeks adventure. After spending 5 days in warm Florida this post is being written from San Jose, California. It is not as warm as the Keys but certainly more comfortable than the -5 degree blizzard they are having in Minnesota right now! The conference went well and as the host I made my mark by arranging a presentation by my friend Fred Lehman. Fred is probably one of the most interesting persons you could ever meet and although his hour long presentation on the Structure of the Milky Way was somewhat unrelated to the transformer business, for most part our attendees were spellbound. You can see Fred's work at http://www.starfred.com/.

After being stuck for 3 days indoors hosting the conference in West Palm Beach, my business partner Lyle and I headed to Key West a couple days of leisure. The highlight of our time included a 6 hour fishing adventure with with Captain Steve Rodger of Spear One Charters. This would be my first time in the Keys and I was not disappointed. The trip began at a local marina convenient from our hotel, meeting Captain Steve at 7:20. The first thing I noticed were the twin 300hp Mercury Verado's hanging off the back of the boat. The boat was a 28 foot Conch, open bow with a center console, 2 very large livewells, insulated storage, it was set up beautifully. I could only imagine what this boat could do. After stowing our gear it was off to catch our bait. Our strategy was to catch at least 500 or so pilchards and fill the baitwell. We cruised the shallow areas along the shorelines looking for pelicans diving into the water, as this would indicate the presence of baitfish below. With my boating experience, I was directed to run the boat while Captain Steve threw the cast net into the school. The water was less than 2 feet deep and because it was rather windy, the water was less than ideal for locating these schools. My job entailed watching the Captain and as soon as he threw the net, stop the motors and trim them all the way down, driving the skags into the bottom, anchoring the boat. I was surprised how well the cast net worked with up to 100 fish with each throw. We did get the boat stuck a few times before we had our compliment of lively 4 - 6 inch pilchards, similar to the shiners we use in Minnesota. The water in shore was this beautiful turquoise color caused by the white coral sand on the bottom. My first picture was taken on our way back but it really shows this amazing effect.

Our first location was an underwater reef rising to 60 feet surrounded by 160 foot water. Did I mention it was windy? The waves were at least 8 feet from bottom to top (we in Minnesota would call them 8 footers but on the ocean they are officially 4 foot seas). The tide was running almost opposite the wind, which made conditions difficult. We would anchor on the edge of the reef and start chumming for fish. This meant putting a block of frozen ground up fish into our chum bag as well throwing live pilchards into the water to attract fish. It didn't take long for the fish to show up. You could see them gathering behind the chum line in flashes of brilliant blue, yellow and silver. The key was to fish those out of sight as they were pretty finicky. Our equipment included a heavy spinning rod and reel with mono or braided line and a fluorocarbon leader. We used a plain Mustad live bait hook with no weights, letting the bait drift with the current, creating it's own action. It took some getting use to as the wind worked against the current causing a substantial bow in the line. It didn't take long to get the first fish, a bar jack. These fish fight like crazy! Being a good fish to eat we had one in the box. The next fish to come on board was a yellow tail snapper, what we were really after. These are some of the best tasting fish caught and are plentiful. Unfortunately sharks love them as well. My first yellow tail was greeted by a 6 foot shark that decided it wanted the fish more than I did. Grabbing the fish

and diving, there was little to do but break the line. This played itself out many times and one soon learned that you cannot give the sharks the opportunity for an easy feast. According to our Captain, these sharks have learned where the easy meals are and show up frequently. The good news is we managed to get 7 nice yellow tails. The second picture is me holding the bar jack and a yellow tail.

Being a seasoned fisherman it did not take me long to figure out the system. These fish hit hard and once hooked they take off. On the other hand for Lyle this was his first trip fishing on the ocean and with a guide. It was important that to make sure he was having a great time. It took him some time to get comfortable with the waves, managing your presentation, and landing the fish. Although the fish practically hooked themselves, the real challenge was to get them to the

boat before the sharks. Lyle became the sharks best friend! It took a while but Lyle did pretty well. The first nice fish was this cobia he is holding with Captain Steve. These fish fight like crazy and the sharks would rather dine on yellow tail so he had a better chance of landing it. Although cobia are a great eating fish, there is a minimum length and this one was just a tad too short. Notice the spines just before the dorsal fin. These can inflict a very painful sting, which might explain the shark avoidance.

One of our issues was a pending storm approaching the Keys. A line of thunderstorms had stalled for a few days and on Saturday morning it had let loose. With only a few hours before it would be on us, we decided to try for larger fish like Mahi Mahi, tuna, wahoo, and sailfish. Because reefs tend to draw all species of fish this time of year we headed out about a mile and drifted back in. The strategy was the same, throw a ton of bait into the water to attract the fish and hope they would take the ones with hooks in them. It didn't take long for the tuna to arrive. The first on was a small skip jack tuna, not as good as yellow fin but acceptable. The next fish I caught was a bonita, a very dark fleshed member of the tuna family good for cat food or cut bait. The Captain saved it for future clients. Finally Lyle hooked into a nice fish. To Lyle's credit he works out at the gym frequently and this fish provided him with his daily routine! After a grueling 15 minute fight we gaffed this nice black fin tuna, the prize for the day. With the storm front clearly in view there was time for another short drift. Although we emptied our bait well in an attempt to entice our quarry, this drift produced nothing.

It was time to leave with 10 miles between us and the dock. I was amazed at how well the boat handled in the waves as we struck the storm head on. Just like on Mille Lacs, the wind shifted from the north at 40 mph as we hit the wall of rain. Once into the turquoise waters again, the shallows dissipated the waves and we were able to let those Verado's breath. Once at the dock the rain stopped and hints of blue sky had already shown itself. We gathered our fish and Captain Steve began to fillet. The table was mounted right at the end of the dock edge with a compliment of pelicans waiting for a free lunch. Wanting to learn how to clean these fish I assisted in skinning and removing rib cages and bones. Tossing the scraps out into the water produced a huge swirl before the pelicans could get to the morsel. I looked into the water and there were 6 huge tarpon cruising around too, looking for handouts. A couple of them were over 6 feet long. Apparently like the pelicans they have made this their permanent home living on the scraps of each days fishing adventures. It was pretty interesting to say the least.

Although we did not catch a lot of fish or any large ones, it truly was a fabulous experience. I would recommend Captain Steve to anyone as he was knowledgeable, patient, had first class equipment and provided what you should get from a guide, a great time. After learning my lesson when I brought fish back from Cabo, we cut them up into dinner sized portions, the hotel allowed us to use their freezer, and on the way back we purchased a cooler and some dry ice for the airplane ride home. The fish were good an froze and I look forward to having some yellow tail snapper next week. Although I have spent the last 8 out of 10 days in balmy weather, it is supposed to be below zero this week and I might just be able to get out on first ice this weekend. Lets hope!