Hanging in Nashville

The last 3 days have been spent in the Music Capital of the US, Nashville, Tennessee.  As President of our trade association for transformer manufacturers (TTA), it was time for our Spring Meeting and along with the usually strategic sessions.  I did get to visit the Opry Mills area before arriving at the airport, where I am writing this post while waiting for our ride back to Minneapolis.  Opry Mills is a Mall/Entertainment area which is home to Opryland USA, The Grand Ole Opry, and the main attraction in Opry Mills is the Bass Pro Shop.  Although Cabela's is only 5 miles from my home I think Bass Pro Shop's have a much larger selection of fishing tackle and equipment.  Maybe it's because those bass fisherman need more stuff than us walleye guys but again they seldom fish with live bait.  I have been interested in a technique called Drop Shot rigging, very popular for bass fishing.  As you see in the picture a hook is tied anywhere from 6 inches to 24 inches above the end of your line, with the hook attached directly to the line.  At the end of the tag is a sinker that is heavy enough keep you in touch with the bottom.  The theory is that the lure or bait is kept off the bottom and more in the strike zone of the fish's vision.  Like you and I, it is easier to see something at eye level than having to always be looking down for something.  My thought is that this would be a great technique for walleyes on Leech Lake where we normally fish with a simple short shanked 1/8 oz live bait jig and drag it across the bottom.  With the lake ice outs so early this year, I suspect the big females will be in the hunt after having spawned a few weeks earlier and may be hanging in the deeper rock ledges off the reefs.  The plan is to use a live shiner minnow as bait and along with a special drop shot sinker, fish these rocky areas more effectively than with a jig.  One secret is to tie the sinker with a lighter pound test than your main line and if the sinker gets snagged you can simple break the drop line, preserving you minnow and hook.  It seems like it should work and I will give a full report on my rresults in a few weeks.   Bass Pro Shops have a great selection of tackle made for this technique and I loaded up with some special hooks and drop shot sinkers which should make rigging much easier.  I also bought a fish counter for keeping track of the number of fish in the livewell, 2 half ounce bass jigs that were on sale, and a new LED Livewell light.As for the store itself, the Nashville Store is not the largest one I have been in however their aquarium was pretty nice.  Loaded with huge fish I was particularly amazed at the size of a couple of Largemouth Bass swimming around. They were easily in the 12 - 15 pound class,  dwarfing anything I could catch in Minnesota.  Along with a couple of nice paddlefish and wipers (cross between a white bass and a sea run striped bass), like airplanes I could sit and watch them swim around for hours.

Nashville is the home of the Grand Ole Opry, originally started as a radio program in 1925 it survives today with much of the same character as it did 88 years ago.  I had a chance to attend the Opry a number of years back and it was like going back in time.  After a few sets the show would stop for a commercial that was read in front of the audience.  While this was going on the stage was being prepared for the next act.  If you like country western music and want to an institution, I highly recommend a visit to Nashville.  This area suffered under a severe flood 2 years ago and it has recovered remarkably.  The Gaylord Opryland Resort is also something you need to see with it's beautiful indoor atrium's, complete with it's own river flowing through the Delta Conservatory.  Big enough to float a boat, you can go for a nice ride as you pass, catfish, carp, and colorful koi fish.  I will have to get back someday. 

On Monday I dropped off the boat at the dealer to get the cover re-fitted for the new trolling motor and am hoping that it will be done when I get back later tonight.  Once I have the boat back it will be full speed to the opener.  I still have much to do before I go but admittedly it's a labor of love.  The forecast is talking about snow again on Saturday.  Oh well!

Shad Rappin'

Undeniably my favorite place to shop these days is Fleet Farm.  Everything from grass seed, ATV batteries, to sporting goods my motto is "if Fleet Farm doesn't have it, you don't need it!".  On Sunday I was helping out my brother-in-law, Walter and we needed some parts to fix a water line to the garden.  He lives in Hudson Wisconsin and the local Fleet Farm is only 10 minutes away.  After a few minutes trying to figure out all the parts needed to repair the water line, we headed for a tour of their sporting goods area.  They have a real good selection of fishing tackle and often put their obsolete lures and overstock on sale.   No real review of the current lure's available would not be complete without a pass down the Rapala Shad Rap aisle.  Of course something caught my eye, an exclusive  Fleet Farm color, Hot Pink Clown.  Man, I just had to have that color as it should be as good as Hot Steel for deep trolling this summer.  The come in various sizes, #5, #7, and #9 are the most popular. #5 is my favorite size as I do a lot of shallow water trolling as well, it is beginning to be my go to bait for deep water lead lining in the summer.  They run about 5 feet deep and offer a good consistent feel when  trolling the reefs and shorelines, especially in the spring.  This size definitely is deadly on all sizes of walleyes as it's not too big to scare away a 15 incher yet a 28 inch fish will slam it just the same.  If I am fishing 7 feet of water the #7 works well and of course 9 feet of water, the #9 is my choice.  So I get my newly found prize home, unboxed it, and as it was being placed in the appropriate tackle box I couldn't help but smile at my colorful collection of these deadly crankbaits.  Managing to lay them out on the floor of my boat, here are 21 different color patterns that were in my Shad Rap box.   This doesn't count the few that are stuffed somewhere in my collection which were simply camera shy.  The colors are as follows starting from the top left and going down then back up: Pink Pearl*, Pearl, Blue/Silver, Sunset Tiger*, Blue/White, Perch, Yellow Perch, Crawdad, Helsinki Shad, Dark Brown Crawdad, Silver, Clown, Hot Pink Clown#, Hot Steel, Red Tiger, Fire Tiger, Chartreuse, Shad, Lambeau Field#, Fire Tiger Bleed, Purple Pearl*.  The colors with the * are exclusive to Gander Mountain and the # are Fleet Farm's colors.  Truth be told there are 28 official Rapala colors and I estimate at least another 10 that are private labeled for stores however I not a big fan of those you don't see.  So why have so many..............well why not, after all they are awfully pretty!  Actually each has a purpose and I have fished with everyone except the Lambeau Field pattern (I'd hate to simply fish out a lake).  The brighter patterns like the Clown and Hot Steel work very well for lead lining.  The lighter colored ones are great for Leech Lake or fishing right at dusk.  The darker patterns can work very well at night, especially if there is a full moon.  Crawdad colors are deadly for smallmouth bass and walleyes, and if I were limited to just 1 color it would be this one.  The Dark Brown Crawdad is new color pattern for this year so my experience is yet to be discovered.  The other aspect of the Shad Rap is that it was one of the first "shad" type crankbaits that worked extremely well for walleyes.  With their balsa wood body and plastic bill, for the most part they simply slide off rocks and snags, although I have left quite a few on the bottom of Mille Lacs.  I would guess they were introduced in the early 1980's and remain my #1 confidence bait for trolling and casting for walleyes.  In fishing it is the confidence that can really make the difference.  Heck, I even landed a 12 pound Silver Salmon at the Homer Fishing Hole in 2000 with a #5 Fire Tiger pattern.

I spent a few days in Chicago and Detroit this week.  Having never been through Michigan, I found it quite interesting as there were a number of wineries and fruit orchards along the way.  On of my stops was at our manufacturers representatives office which was located on the southwest corner of Midway Airport.  Midway was the major airport serving Chicago until 1955 when O'hare opened.  With it's short runways and being surrounded by residential as well as commercial buildings, the airplanes come pretty low as they approach the runways.  Midway's runways are pretty short for today's standards and if you have ever landed there, you'll see what I mean.  The pilots really pour the coals to the braking systems on the planes.  It has become a major hub for Southwest Airlines and it was fun sitting in the upstairs offices watching the planes come in about every 5 minutes.  Besides fishing, I could watch aircraft, trains, an large ships all day long.  Something about them fascinates me and I just had to take a picture.

I am getting the urge to try the boat out and may just do that for a few hours this weekend.  Monday she goes into the dealer while I make my way to Nashville for a conference.  Opener is 3 weeks away and by the looks of the trees, it should be very good.  Onions got planted last weekend and I am going to put my potatoes in on Saturday.  They always say that Good Friday is the best day to plant potatoes but that just seems too early to me.  Radishes and lettuce also got planted and I wouldn't be surprised if they will be up by the weekend.

Back to Reality

Well, what goes up must come down.  After 6 weeks of significant above normal temperatures, we experienced a very hard frost this week.  Normally this would not be a problem however the warm weather has cause most of the trees to bud out significantly and more importantly has advanced my apple and pear trees to start blooming way too early.  2 years ago a mid May hard frost eliminated my entire apple crop as it froze all of the fully opened blossoms and killing them.  As of today most of the blossoms are still fairly tight and have not opened up, this may be a good sign.  The new reports of the hard frost extending south to Missouri have the commercial orchard's concerned.  I guess we will just have to wait.  If left alone apple trees tend to be cyclic, producing heavy one year and light the next.  Orchard chemically thin the apples once the blossoms have been set and have started to develop small fruit.  When the apples are about the diameter of a dime the trees are sprayed with Sevin (carbaryl), an insecticide that will cause about half of the fruit to drop off the trees.  Once thinned, the apples will grow larger and the stress on the tree is less causing them to fruit more consistently from year to year, assuring a viable crop each season.  I wanted to try this last year as the trees were filled with apples, just ran out of time.  My Haralson tree always produces a good crop yet my Honeycrisp, Honeygolds, and Wolf River apples are very cyclic and will not have a large crop regardless.  Lord knows how my pears will survive.  In the end the cold weather might simply be a minor issue or I might just be able to take the summer off!  Last Sunday I was determined to fertilize my orchard, something I did for the first time last year and it really paid off.  Having bought a heavy duty 1.75 inch earth auger for my drill, I drill 4 holes around each tree at the drip line then fill each with a 10-10-10 fertilizer.  It is recommended that you do this before the tree fully leaf's out.   As I was preparing to start drilling Rick Shermer, a guy with the same interests shows up to say hi.  Noting that I was ready to fertilize my trees and showed him how it was done he just had to try this.  Being the nice guy that I am, reached for the auger and told him to go ahead and use it today.  Promising to bring it back later that day, not a problem....right?  3 days later and no Rick we stopped by to check it his chickens, garden, trees and maybe hint about the auger.  Well, he had no intention on giving it back!  This was fine with me as Rick would give you the shirt off his back as noted by his past actions when he rototilled my garden as I laid up from surgery a few years ago, mowed my back acreage when it was too tall for my mower.  He actually came by on Saturday morning and with his Kubota made short work out of tilling my garden again.  What a guy.  I did receive my new auger this week and the trees are all ready for their summer meal.

Our Alaska trip planning is really starting to take shape.  We finally have all of our lodging booked as well as 2 days of ocean fishing out of Seward.  We have come to enjoy the combo trips out of Seward which feature both Halibut and ocean run Silver Salmon with the chance of getting a few rockfish and Ling Cod as a bonus.  Our planning works well with the tides for the days we are going and look like the morning high tide to afternoon low tide differential is only 2.5 feet.  That sure beats Homer where you can see a 20 feet change in 6 hours.  August quarter moon tides tend to be quite tame and our trip is planned to take full advantage of them.  Halibut fishing is always the best at the lowest differentials in high to low tides and for sure it's a lot easier to fish.  We have had to use 6 pound weights on time to hold our baits on the bottom of a rushing tide in 300 feet of water.  This is truly work!  My cousin Mark will be hosting our Kenai salmon fishing adventure with a rented 18 foot/35hp jet that will handle all of us.  We are trying to do something exciting and another fly out trip across the Cook Inlet for Silvers might be interesting.  The last time we flew over to Polly Creek it wasn't what we expected but still caught fish and had our first encounter with some Brown Bears.  My uncle Jerry is not coming this year however in the spirit of our adventure he did make me a few items for the trip.  Being a master wood worker, he hand made these fish dispatchers, a must for any Alaskan fishing trip.  Hooking a big Silver is one thing, landing it is another, but once you get the fish in the boat watch out!  These things flop around with the tenacity of a tornado.   About the only way they can be safely subdued before completely trashing your boat is a good konk on the head.  This can only be accomplished with the right tool and Jerry is the master of what he calls the Konkinator.  They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, wood types, each with their own special label.  Starting from the top you see the plain Konkinator, design by Cordless Conker Co., Inc., LTD.  This is made from a heavy wood and can be very effective.  The next one down is made from the famous Lodgepole Pine of central Idaho.  Called the Oinker Silver Doinker, it is courtesy of Rip'N'Jerry Mfg. LTD, Kenai Branch.  The middle grey colored a uniquely stained device directed right at my political preferences.  Labeled the Lite Wt. Smolt Smasher it further described as Republicanator for Killing Small Fish, Boehner & Co, Brains LTD.  I told Jerry that the gray color reminds me of elephants.........what can I say!  The next light colored pine device is none other than Dave's Sockeye Slayer and was specially built by Andersonock-A-Head Mfg, Chimney Rock, Wis. The bottom is the one he made for our trip in 2008 and I can assure you it works pretty well.  I am anxious to try all of these out in a few months and hopefully can reward Jerry with the assurance that we had a great time.  Now I know where I got my sense of humor!  Thanks Jerry, I will cherish these gifts forever.

With snow in forecast and a heavy travel schedule, time continues to fly.  I finally got an appointment with Frankie's to get my boat cover redone because of the trolling motor difference.  She is nice and clean as I had more time on Saturday to keep going once Rick took care of a few hours of planned work.  As predicted I started the Suzuki and honestly it could not have turned over for more than 2 seconds.  I love the way that motor sounds, it's a 4 stroke and purrs like a kitten.  With opener 4 weeks away, this cold weather should prove interesting.  Slowly but surely things are coming together.

Northwest Sportshow Time

This last week was the annual Northwest Sportshow at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  I really look forward each year to the show and usually make 2 trips down as I always miss something the first go around.  As well, and those who have accompanied me know that I really like to talk which makes it hard to get everything accomplish in one night.  There are a ton of new products being introduced as well as number of new companies selling their ideas.  There were a number of new things that caught my eye and I just had to have.  The first was some new software called Lakemaster Contour Elite.  Developed by a couple of guys from Wisconsin, it takes the Lakemaster data and creates a useable program to manipulate that data, write it to a SD card, and then allow you to put it into your on board electronics to utilize the mapping much better.  I am anxious to see how this works and will report on it later.  The next thing I thought was interesting was a tool made by Trusty Cable Tool, a company in Ohio.  They were selling a cable tool which was invented to help remove cables from Lowrance
Locators/Chartplotters.  More often than not the cables, which twist lock onto the unit connectors, are difficult to get at and twist on and off.  This design allows one to slip it over the cable and using the hex end like a socket wrench, simply twist off the connector.  It looks pretty slick as one of my issues with my HDS10 and HDS5 is the difficulty in removing the transducer, power, and ethernet cables.  It was kind of funny as the guy didn't have any in stock as the plastic tooling was not complete.  He looked pretty trustworthy so I gave him the $10 and he promised to ship it to me.  We'll see.   The next interesting booth was hosted by Jolly Roger Tackle .  A young man from Albertville, MN, he has started a business of custom tackle specializing in spinner blades, tied rigs, and a line of crankbaits.   I have a lot of respect for guys willing to go off on their own and do something with their lives besides wishing they would have done something years earlier.  I did buy a couple packages of custom painted spinner rigs and they are pretty impressive.  Truth be told a spinner blade turns pretty fast in the water and although they are painted with perch like detail and eyes I can assure you that it's all a blur once the blade starts spinning.  These great paint jobs do more to catch the fisherman than anything.  They still look great and I can't wait to tie up a few nightcrawler rigs and try them as I know general color variations can make a big difference sometimes.  Another interesting thing is how large the spinners are getting.  I usually run #2's and am seeing blades as big as #5's, stuff we use for bass baits.  It was evident by the number of boat displays that the marine industry is on it's way back.  It has also gotten very expensive!  A new Ranger 621, fully decked out was $72,000.  Man, that was more than I paid for my first house.  2008 - 2010 was very hard on this business as a number of manufacturers either went out of business, merged, or filed bankruptcy.  Everyone said they were busy and at least for this year things look great.

My friend Keith Holtan did make it up to the Rainy River over the weekend.  Wanting to rub it in a little, Keith sent me a picture of this nice walleye he caught.  Planning to head back to Alaska after Easter, it time to begin getting his business, Beaver Creek Cabins and Guide Service up and going for the upcoming salmon season on the Kenai.  We will be looking forward to seeing him next August and I wish him a safe trip up the Alaskan Highway.  Actually I wish I had time to ride with him and fly back, it's one road I would really love to travel.   Maybe in retirement.  In the meantime my brother and I continue to solidify our plans for our sixth trip to Alaska with my cousins Greg and Tom Nelson, and Mark Anderson, who lives in Anchorage.  As soon as we get this set I will post our plans. 

I have finally gotten my boat ready to go and need to take it in and get the cover readjusted for the new trolling motor.  My tackle boxes have been redone, are cleaned and ready to go.  I will probably get the motor started this weekend, something that I am always amazed at.  Usually I put on the water muffs, pump the fuel bulb a few times and I'll bet the motor doesn't turn more than 2 seconds before it starts.  I love my Suzuki!  I still need to put new line on the reels that need it.  In addition my 35 year old Troybilt tiller received new rear tine shaft seals compliments of around 3 hours of wrenching.  As stated, it is pretty early spring and have already tilled the garden 3 weeks earlier than normal.  I even planted some spinach and radishes.  There still is more work like fertilizing the lawn, fertilizing the apple trees, spraying the trees, and general cleanup.  This weekend is Easter and Sunday will be spent with the family, enjoying ourselves as we get older.  Have a blessed Easter.

Not Much Happening

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock.............so much to do, so little time!  The sad part is that with my work schedule and this great weather, I still haven't had time to get the boat out.  Fishing reports on the Rainy River has been nothing more than fabulous and somehow fitting it in seems impossible.  So I'm relegated to yard work, cleaning the garage, putting the ice fishing stuff away, and getting the boat ready.  One thing that I have completely ignored is my asparagus plants in the garden.  Usually I am cleaning up the beds around the middle of April, hoping for the soil to warm up and encourage those tender green sprouts to show themselves.  I have about 100 or so plants in my garden and on a good May/June day can pick 2 to 3 pounds of succulent spears.  My usual routine is to leave the tops on the plants through the winter giving it some protection from the elements.  In the spring I prepare the beds by raking the dead stuff and burning what's left to create nice clean rows.  If lucky I can usually accumulate about 10 pounds to bring up to fishing opener on Leech, with some years not having anything.  Well with everything greening up like it's May I looked out the window and thought to myself, man I had better get out there before those shoots start popping up as it's a lot easier when I am not digging up good ones.  With Saturday slated to be in the 70's, it'll be a great day for it.  On the other hand, if the asparagus is up, I might just have to cook up some.  Either way this early spring has got me in a rush.  Just an FYI, one of my favorite ways to cook asparagus had been to either microwave it or cook it in a special steamer made for the job.  Today I simply brush some olive oil on the spears and throw them on the grill, need I say more.

So, what about fishing, it is Fishin With Dave ya know!  Well things are moving along in that department.  I am pleased to report that Mille Lacs Lake official ice out was Monday, March 26th.  This smokes the previous old record for the earliest ice out of April 3.  As a reference, last years official date was May 1 and the average is around April 26th.  Leech Lake has reportedly lost it's ice cover yesterday, March 28th.  With nice weather scheduled we can look forward to an early walleye spawn with the fish being on the bite by time Minnesota fishing opener begins.  Man, it's awfully early.  I am even hearing reports that there are boats out on the main lake at Lake of the Woods.  We should still be ice fishing!  With opener 6 weeks away, the big females will be deeper than normal but should be more aggressive.  I did buy a new fishing reel a few weeks ago.  During the 2010 golf tourney I bid and got an Ardent C400 casting reel and at $115 it was a steal.  Looking to replace a worn out reel I checked them out on the website and they had a closeout on the reel in a Fishouflage Walleye color, $75.00.  I ended up getting 3 of them, one each for Adam and Mark Mayerich as well one for myself.  These are first class reels, made in the USA, and work exceptionally well.  I have my Ranger almost ready to go and just have a few more tweaks before she takes her maiden run for 2012.

Finally on Sunday we went to celebrate my great aunt Florence's 100th birthday at the Strum Lutheran Church.  Just like Garrison Keillor would describe, it was held in the church basement like all good Lutheran events.  Florence is quite amazing and at 100 still retains that Fagerland edge to her.  I asked her if she was coming to my 100th birthday and she gave me a resounding YES.  Quite articulate, we had a great discussion and I can only hope that I age as well as she has.  At 100 a person has lived an interesting life.  She witnessed WW1 as a child and lived through the depression, and WW2.  She saw technology change right in front of her as there were no phones, no radio, no TV, cars were a luxury to today when we take all of this for granted.  She's certainly seen more than most, Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

April Showers Bring May.....Oops, Make That March

So, the nice weather continues.  For the last 10 days we have had daily temperatures above 60 as the ice has all but disappeared on most of the lakes south of Brainerd, MN.   Amazingly everything is about 4 weeks early as the week of rain has transformed my brown yard into a carpet of green. I was able to prune up all but 3 of my apple and 1 pear tree, which I will have done this weekend.  This is usually a transition period where it often takes 4 to 5 weeks for the ice to clear.  My friend Mark Mayerich had his annual Lake of the Woods ice fishing trip cancel, which is extremely unusual for this time of year.  Apparently the ice has deteriorated much quicker than normal with decisions to shut down made within a few days after the onset of this weather.  I have been on this trip many times with Mark as it is usually around St. Patrick's Day.  Having stayed at both Arnesen's Rocky Reef Resort and Morris Point Resort, I can tell you that this time of the year can be very cold as well.  In 1997 we stayed at Morris Point on the southeast side of the lake.  We woke up to -10F a couple of mornings but the fishing was great.  More often than not you need an extension on your ice auger as the ice thickness is greater than you auger length, which is usually 42 inches.  I have a 12 inch extension and have needed it for most of my trips to Lake of the Woods.  The trip in 1997 was memorable in 2 ways, first the Hale-Bopp comet was clearly visible in the night sky.  I had brought my good 35mm camera and a tripod, set it up and using a 30 second exposure, the resulting picture was incredible (for an amateur).  One day I will have to see if I can find them.  The second experience was meeting a FBI agent in the lodge after a hard day's fishing.  He was from Washington DC, had never been to LOTW, and was very interesting to talk with.  Much so that after a while he offered to buy us a drink...........EJ (brandy) and Charge was our request.  He took one look at us and with a big smile said "Ah, you boys drink Easy Jesus huh!"  It was pretty funny as we had a great time.  Anyway, with the ice fishing done my friend Ryan Sterle decided to keep the cabin reservations and fish the Rainy River.  Wednesday night he sent me this picture of a 60 inch sturgeon he had caught later in the day.  Ryan is a Team Walleye member and is an avid fisherman as well as a good friend.

Everything looks like it's about 4 weeks ahead of schedule.  This could bode well for opener as the fish might be well into their post spawn period and the big females may be on the bite.  To give you an idea of how early things are here is a picture of the lilacs in my yard.  Normally they do not even start to bloom until the third week in April.  Unfortunately these early springs can mean a late season killing frosts as everything tends to even itself out.  2 y

ears ago a hard mid May frost essentially wiped out my entire apple crop as it froze all of the blossoms before they had a chance to develop.  It did result in less work for the summer, however!   Driving by Mille Lacs yesterday it was interesting the temperature change by the lake.  When I left Brainerd the outside temperature was 63 and overcast.  As I approached the lake the temperature dropped to 43 degrees as a mild east wind blew over the ice creating a layer of fog and the need for a jacket.  Reports that the ice was out almost a mile was not evident as I suspect the wind had shifted it to the west shore.  Not enough to pile the ice on the shore, I am sure it's only a matter of time before the wind will create some late ice havoc.  Either way I predict ice out on Mille Lacs will occur within the next 2 weeks as this picture shows it's breaking up fast.   Mille Lacs average ice out date is April 24, the earliest was April 2nd in 2000, and the latest was May 7th, 1965 (modern records).  I think it has a chance to beat the old record by a day or 2 as it is still forecasted to be in the upper 60's this weekend with the mild weather continuing in the foreseeable future. 

This weekend is my great aunt Florence's(Grandma Myrt's Sister) 100th birthday celebration.  She's still quite the gal at 100 and I just hope those good Fagerland genes were passed down to me!  I got my jon boat all fixed up moving the battery to the front, I have re-situated my pole shed and have put the Ranger in it's rightful place, ready to hook up.  It seems as though I should find sometime to get out and take advantage of this nice weather.

What Happened to Spring?

March 6th, 2012 was the first day of the entire winter season in which I was able to actually use my new snow blower.  Waking up to 8 inches of heavy wet snow, the John Deere got a long overdue workout.  Seven  days later, March 13 it was 66 degrees and the forecast predicts temperatures in the 70's out till next Tuesday, March 20th.  Plans to fish Lake of the Woods have been all but dashed as reports have all lake access closed.  Reports from Wheeler's Resort at the mouth of the Rainy River claim they have never seen the ice deteriorate a quickly as it has.  Well, it's Minnesota and as we say.....If you don't like the weather, just wait a week!  Just as fast as the warm has arrive, it can be pushed back south just a quick.  This year's lackluster winter has resulted in lake ice thickness considerably less than normal.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming week.  Besides putting a damper on our late season ice fishing this weather is really affecting the another little know rite of spring, the maple syrup harvest.  After being dormant for about 5 months maple trees start waking up when the daytime temperatures start getting over 40 degrees.  With temperatures below freezing at night and warm temps in the day, the sap flows from the roots making it's way to the very top of the tree.  The ideal conditions of cold night/warm day temperatures really get things going as it is not unusual to get up to 5 gallons of sap from a medium sized tree.  The current weather is proving less than ideal for the sap flow.  With nighttime temperatures in the 50's and day time in the 70's, this has all but shut down the sap.  The above picture is one of my trees that the neighbor has tapped.  Last year I noticed that the neighbor a few blocks down from the house had every available tree fitted with a tap and bucket.  Inviting him to have access to my trees for this year he stopped by on Monday night asking permission.  I checked out the buckets this morning and there probably wasn't a gallon between them.   It takes roughly 30 - 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of pure maple syrup.  Sap is boiled, driving the water out as it becomes sweeter and thick.   As the sap is reduced the sugar content increases which in turn raises the boiling temperature of the liquid.  When the boiled sap reaches a temperature of 219.1 degrees it is finished and ready for a big stack of pancakes.   A grove of maple trees is called a Sugar Bush and my friend Bill Lundeen harvest's over 1000 gallons of sap each year making 25 - 30 gallons to sell at the shop.  He's not very optimistic this year.

The weather put a stop to getting out this past weekend.  Most of the small ponds in the Minneapolis area are ice free and the lake ice is already starting to turn black.  I have been working on both boats, putting on a new MinnKota Terrova on the Ranger while replacing a storage compartment and moving the battery on my jon boat.  The Terrova is the I-pilot version and has a accurate electronic compass and GPS built into the motor head.  It has a number of cool features like Spot lock which when engage will keep your boat in a stationary location as an anchor.   I hate throwing out an anchor.  It will also memorize up to 6 different tracks, each could be 2 miles long, and accurately follow what it has memorize.  I am pretty excited to try it.  Having learned the ways of the river last year, I am fine tuning my jon boat to make my fishing experience more enjoyable as I am moving the battery more to the front of the boat.  This will give me a lot more room in the back to fish from.  If the weather continues a trip to the Mississippi River or even the Rainy River might be in the cards sometime in the next 4 weeks.  It could be a record early ice out for many of the lakes I fish and could really change our Minnesota Fishing Opener on Leech Lake.   Looking in the sky tonight, I can't help but notice my winter friend, the constellation Orion.  He is soon to disappear from the night sky as we continue to to longer days.   If you have a chance look in the western sky just after sunset and you will see 2 very bright stars very close together.  The one on the right is the planet Venus and the one on the left is the Planet Jupiter.  They will be the closest together tonight before starting to move apart.  If you turn around and look above the eastern horizon you can see the Planet Mars, the one with the reddish tint.  The stars are really putting on a show this month.

With fishing winding down till opener my weekend will be tasked with starting to trim my apple trees.  March is an excellent time to do this and is necessary to assure a good crop later in the year.  Pruning the trees opens up the inside allowing air and sunlight to penetrate the fruit, which is good.  It makes spraying and picking much easier.  The frost is expected to go out by Friday, it looks like I am going to be fairly busy. 

Back on Lake Pepin

With walleye season closed on Mille Lacs I decided to call my friend Kevin and my brother Steve to see if they wanted to meet me back down on Lake Pepin on Saturday to try our luck again for panfish.  I was really looking for an opportunity to fish against Kevin now that I had his secret rig, a Jason Mitchell Meat Stick.  It also gave my brother a chance to get away from work for a while.  Dropping my wife off at her sisters in Hudson I headed cross-country to Hwy 35 while Steve picked up Kevin in Eleva.  Arriving a few hours earlier I met them on the ice to find out the bite was tough.  Steve had seen a number of nice fish on his underwater camera but they didn't seem very interested in getting caught.  Dragging my Eskimo portable, a hand auger,  and a few of the basics, I decided that based on the temperature projections, would leave my heater in the truck.  Well, that was a mistake.  With my Ice Armor bibs and coat I can usually stand to be outside most of the time, however Saturday proved to be quite windy which sucked the heat right out of your body.   Relenting I set up my portable hoping to at least get out of the wind.  The Eskimo Kwik Fish shelter can be a challenge to set up in the wind as it is basically a sail, catching as much wind as it can as you desperately try to get it secured to the ice.   I did manage to catch a few fish, 6 to be exact with 4 sunfish around 8 inches, an almost respectable crappie, and a perch.   The good news is that although he had a few hours head start on me, Kevin ended up with the same fish count as I, 6.  I can only conclude that given the same set of circumstances, Kevin and I are pretty much alike.  My brother Steve did get a couple fish and because we have had some good successes this year we donated our catch to him so he could at least have a decent fish fry.  The side benefit is both Kevin and I did not have to clean fish. 

Tuesday was my day for tests at the medical clinic.  At 9:30 was a date with the Dermatologist, 10:30 was with the Heart Echo Lab, and 12:30 was with a NeuroOptomologist.  Uffda!  The first appointment with the Dermatologist was to discuss a mark I have on my temple.  With all the time I spend on the water, admittedly my application of sun screen is often secondary to getting out fishing.  In addition I really believe the higher the SPF rating, the more it scares the fish.  Truth be told that SPF really means Surely Poor Fishing!  I do carry that spray type that allows you to apply without touching your hands but often by the time I remember applying it my skin is half cooked.  Well, the doc determined that the mark was precancerous and needed to be removed.  After asking me if I was going to be in a wedding, giving a presentation, or on television within the next 2 weeks, using a small aerosol can of liquid nitrogen he quickly froze the affected area.  He was right, it burned a bit! As he set down the can I was expecting a good lecture on the use of sunscreen, my time in the sun, and other doctorly things you hear once faced with a diagnosis.  Actually he was pretty good about it.  Although my excuse of SPF being a fish repellent must of hit home as he mentioned a couple of others such as gasoline and bug spray, he suggested that I put SFP 30 UVA and UVB or better on my exposed skin before I leave in the morning, allowing time to wash my hands and free my hands from the scent.  I'd be lying if I told you it was probably not expected but you can be assured that I will start taking better care of my face (it's the only one I have!).   To prove that it has crossed my mind, about a month ago while checking out the Maple Grove Gander Mountain store closing, I picked up this nice TilleyLTM6IS Airflo hat complete with a hidden, pull out neck protector and InsectShield.  I am not sure about the insect protection but at least the wider rim and neck protector will help with those raccoon eyes I sport after a good day of fishing on the lake.  Hopefully I can get used to the hat as my good friends always claim that I look good in a hat..........it covers up more of my face!  My echo went well as my heart shows no changes from my surgery exactly 2 years ago last Thursday.  The NeuroOptomologist was pretty amazing, heck I never even knew they existed.  Searching my records he found a test for Acetylcholine Binding Antibody needing to be run again.  That's a pretty big word and looking it up on the Internet, I am still confused.  Oh well.

This weekend is suppose to hit 60 degrees.  The snow will be melted, Lake Pepin will probably have an ice breaker open a path for the waiting fleet of north bound barges, and the tullibees have not yet shown their intent on Mille Lacs.  I have started putting my Ranger back together and my river boat is in need of a new interior make over.  Maybe some open water fishing is in the cards.  Alas there is much to do to get caught up before Opener just 65 days away.

The Last Day of the 2011 Walleye Season

Sunday was the official end of the inland waters walleye season here in Minnesota.  Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to fish my favorite lake for walleyes, it was either this weekend or wait till May 19th.  Luckily my good friend and fellow Team Walleye member, Mark Mayerich was planning on going back out on Saturday and he graciously allowed me to join him.  Mark and his son Adam fished out of the Red Door Resort on the north side of the lake the week before and did really well. The bite on the southern part of the lake had slowed considerably however the north end was still going strong.  Accessing the lake out of the Red Door was about as far north on the lake as you can get, but the advantage is there are a large number of offshore flats that are relatively close to shore.  My last 2 trips were out of Dewey's, just south of Indian Point and it's a good 8 miles to the nearest flat.   After loading up with a scoop of minnows at Bill's, I proceeded to head north to Garrison then up around the top of the lake.  As I drove through Garrison there was a huge event happening on the ice, Stud Races.  I just had to call Mark and tell him that I was going to be delayed as I just had to enter, it was a sure bet to win.......he didn't think that was too funny!  Arriving at the Red Door Resort the first order of business was to get our road pass for the day.  $10 is not a bad price when you consider they put a nice bridge over the big heave in the ice allowing one to basically drive anywhere on the lake.  Loaded up we crossed the bridge and headed south towards Resort Flat, a structure about 2 miles offshore.  To be honest, I have never fished this flat before but with my GPS and Lakemaster chip, it was an easy find.  Arriving at the northeast tip I asked Mark if he had a favorite spot from last week.  While his GPS was acquiring the satellites he thought we should be on the other end.  When it locked on his way point showed we were within 200 yards of where they were before.  Mark swore they were more south but upon further investigation his GPS was set on Track Up instead of North Up.  This would give the opposite view of what my GPS was showing, we reset it and agreed, we were close.  Unfortunately someone was set up at the point so I decided to move down the break by 300 yards, looking for an inside turn along the way.  Finally settling in on a promising spot I drilled a number of holes from 30 feet to the top of the flat at 24 feet.  While Mark set up on the deep side I continued drilling a number of holes along the top and bottom edge, probably at least 20 or so.  Time to fish! 

The temperature was almost warm enough to fish outside but cold enough to freeze the holes pretty fast.  I elected to try my hand at searching for fish while Mark fished inside his portable house.  Mark's favorite bait has got to be the Chubby Darter by Salmo.  Although I have fished them many times, I have never had the success that he has.  As I stuck my head through the door of the portable, he showed me a signal on his Vexilar FL22 that indicated a fish starting to come off the bottom.  Just then a big red mark appeared 5 feet about the bottom and as he pulled the bait up the fish came down to slam it.  We landed a nice 23 inch walleye, a great start.  Mark had been seeing fish all along yet I was drawing a blank.  Within 30 minutes he nailed another smaller fish, big enough to keep, a good start to our trip.  It went pretty dead after that.  As I moved around from hole to hole, Mark stayed in his warm abode, still marking fish but no biters.  I finally caught a 16 incher on the deep side.  Eventually I got cold enough to set up my house at the same depth level as he was.  Drilling 3 holes, one for jigging, one for a dead stick, and one for my camera, I was nice and warm.  Unfortunately nothing seemed to come through so I put the camera pointed towards my suspending minnow and resumed hole jumping.  15 minutes of that brought me right back into my shack and as I glanced at the display on the camera, there was walleye smack dab in the middle of the screen.  Glancing at my bobber it was 18 inches down the hole.  I set the hook, the walleye shot off the screen as I started reeling it up.  6 cranks of the handle and the weight disappeared.  Quickly rebaiting I dropped it back down the hole and just as the minnow appeared on the screen another walleye showed up.  Staring at the minnow for about 3 seconds it sucked it in as the bobber sank.  I could see the minnow was completely in its mouth, set the hook and landed a nice 16 inch fish, we had 3 in the pail.  Another 30 minutes and nothing so I moved back outside.  Moving back to the 24 foot hole and dropping a Rattlin' Flyer a large mark met it at 22 feet and slammed it.  As it came through the hole the knot failed.  This was rare occurrence with braided line as the estimated 24 inch swam back down the hole.   Rather than retie I grabbed another rod, put a new Flyer on the snap and within 5 minutes had my third walleye.  As the old saying goes......all hell broke loose as I was landing a keeper walleye every 5 minutes.  On one occasion I dropped the lure, a fish came up but would not hit.  If you stare at your flasher long enough you can tell if the minnow head on your lure was still there.  It looked wrong, felt wrong so I reeled back up and found the lure was bare.  Hooking another minnow to the treble hook my hands were so cold I could not snap the minnow in half and with a fish hovering above the bottom there was no choice but to bite it in half, which I did!  Dropping it down the fish about grabbed the rod out of my hands and it was a dandy.  Measuring 27 inches, it was the nicest walleye I have caught in over 2 years.  I had Mark snap a picture as I told him his 23 incher just moved to second billing for this weeks post.  Within another 30 minutes we both had our limits of nice fish, packed up and headed out.

This year was the best I have ever had for walleye fishing through the ice on Lake Mille Lacs.  It started slow but really picked up in the month of February.  With all the bad ice, reports of record low fish populations, its been a lot of fun.   I did get a tullibee on Saturday as this and perch will be the main targets for the month of March.  Walleye fishing is still legal at Lake of the Woods till April 15th and is always open on the Mississippi River.  My friend Kevin bought a Jason Mitchell Meat Stick for pan fishing and my hope is to meet him on Saturday to see if I can match his performance of a few weeks ago.  We finally got some precipitation today, about an inch, the most since August of last year.  Driving to La Crosse earlier this week the river (other than Lake Pepin) was completely open.  Maybe an early trip in the boat for walleyes is in the cards. 

Frankies Live Bait and Marine

While watching the fishing shows on television this weekend I saw a commercial that really made me smile.  The star of the minute was Frankie Dusenka Jr from his business bearing the same name, Frankie's Live Bait and Marine of Chisago City, MN.  It gave me pause to think about one of the truly great boat dealers I have ever met, one I have been doing business with since 1989.   Thinking back Frankie has been an important part of my fishing experience for 24 out of the 30 years I have owned a boat.   About the only thing that has changed is we both have a lot less hair and it's gotten more gray!  The way I am treated as a customer has never changed.  My first experience with Frankie was in the summer of 1989, I had a 1986 Lund Nisswa Guide with the "new" Mercury Classic 50 outboard motor.  The Nisswa Guide was Lund's fiberglass boat, at 16.5 feet it was super wide and heavy.  To heavy for that motor as one afternoon on Mille Lacs the waves were 3 feet and I could not get the boat on plane.  Mark Taylor was with me and after turning down wind we finally got her going before swinging around back to the landing.  That Monday I checked out the Sunday paper and there was an ad "Non Current 1988 Suzuki 55 hp Outboard Sale, 651-257-6334".  1988 and 1989 were tough years for the marine industry and many dealers had either gone out of business or had a ton of inventory.  Frankie's had a number of these and although I wasn't excited about owning a Suzuki (Heck, I didn't even know they made outboards), the price was very attractive and they would take my outboard on trade.  It was a done deal.  Frankie assured me that I would not be disappointed and he was right, that 55 woke up the Nisswa, it was a new boat.  In January of 1990 I had the opportunity to buy a Ranger 680T without a motor.  I put that Suzy on the Ranger, sold the Nisswa and wow, did that boat move.  The 680T was a nice boat but in the big waves of Mille Lacs it was somewhat inadequate.  In the spring of 1993 I drove back to Frankie's to talk about something different.  I left ordering a new Skeeter 135T with a 75 Mariner, trading in the Ranger.  Now Frankie is an optimistic guy and I was assured that it would be delivered by Minnesota Fishing Opener.  I soon learned that it was more related to whether the factory had a full load coming north from Texas than one guys expectations.  After calling Frankie to discuss he said that if I wanted to get the boat, he could refund the transportation charges.  My brother Jon was unemployed at the time, gas was still about $1.25/gallon, I offered him the full $300 and he went and picked it up in Kilgore Texas.  With just a few days to spare, Frankie's got her rigged up in time for my annual Leech Lake Opener.  The next year I ran over a plastic bag which sealed my water intakes and my new outboard froze up while traveling full throttle 7 miles from shore.  I got her started and got back to the landing and dropped it off with him, yep the pistons were scored.  After contacting the insurance, we worked a deal where he put on a new 1994 75 hp, it had 6 cubic inches more than the 1993.  We re-propped it and I ran it till 2001, when at a walleye show Frankie grabbed me and showed me the new Ranger 620T he just got.  He was right, I needed that boat and he was willing to sell.  He quoted me a price, $26,500 with a 115 Suzuki, dual axle trailer, and could order whatever color I wanted.  Giving me almost what I paid for the Skeeter I still decided to check around.  Crystal Marine was the big Ranger dealer in town so I checked, $29,000 with a Yamaha and a single axle trailer.  After telling him he was really high priced the next comment was he wanted to beat Frankie, I'll match his price.  To late, I don't play that game. 

The Dusenka's have always treated me as their #1 customer.  I can assure you that they have customers of a much higher profile than me, as being the 1st or 2nd largest Ranger Dealer in the World doesn't come from me!  Frankie's wife Deb, runs the service department and many times I have called to inquire on parts and she will always order them for me without regard.  Frankie's brother Brad runs the bait shop and in both 2002 and 2004 he advised me on our fishing trips to Alaska offering to use his boat on the Kenai.  It was the difference between a nice trip and a great trip.  They do all of my repair work and in 2009 my '01 Ranger tilt switch stuck causing my outboard to tilt up to the point where it broke off the tiller handle.  Back to Frankie's, they fixed everything and when I picked it up we began to talk about a possible trade.  I left buying a 2008 Ranger 620T with a 115 Suzuki, exactly like my 2001 only updated with a longer shaft motor and a better trailer and one heck of a price.  In this age of come and go marine dealers it's really nice to have someone you can go to who you trust, that treats you like their best customer, sells top quality products, and is always looking out for your best interests based on a number of things....usually the way you fish.  

So I did get out this weekend, on Sunday afternoon my neighbor Tom and I drove to Pelican Lake to see what was biting.  The ice is pretty thin for this time of year guessing not more than 12 inches.  Because of this we decided to go on the north end and walk out to our spot.  There were plenty of guys including Chad Bentley, a friend I snowmobile with out west who I haven't seen in a few years.  This end of the lake is about 8 - 9 feet deep and arriving at around 3:00 we figured the crappies might be hungry.  My friend Kevin felt sorry for me from last weeks trip so he sent me a Jason Mitchell Meat Stick, an excellent panfish rod.  I mounted a smaller fly reel loaded with 2# test orange colored Suffix line and was eager to try it out.  We caught about 40 sunfish, some were almost big enough to keep but honestly, I have enough fish in the freezer for a while.  Tom did get this 2 pound largemouth that put up a nice fight but that was about it.  This weekend is the end of walleye season so I might head to Mille Lacs for one last try.  Lake of the Woods is still open until April 15th and a trip north might be in the future.  The weatherman says that Sunday could see our first significant snow of the year but I have heard that before.

Like Old Times

Sunday I had the opportunity to do something I probably haven't done for the last 30 years, ice fish with my friend Kevin Aiona,  back at our old fishing haunts around Wabasha, MN.  Home of the movie Grumpy Old Men, we lived that lifestyle of fishing the back waters and sloughs of the Mississippi River.  Places like Cattle Pass, The Oil Tanks, Railroad Slough, The Boat Harbor, and Nelson Road, these areas provided all the entertainment we needed to make the winters more enjoyable.  Back 30 years ago our fishing poles were simple sticks with 2 posts to wrap the line around,  a nail to stick it in the ice and our quarry was mostly sunfish, crappies, northerns, and bass.  The depth finder definition was a piece of lead snapped to our line and dropped down the hole to check how deep the water was.  Holes in the ice were accomplished by using an ice chisel and chopping our way through and the Mora Swedish Ice Auger had just made it's debut.   After dropping my wife off in Osseo, Wisconsin I made my way to Eleva, arriving around 8:00 Sunday morning.  Kevin poured me a quick cup of coffee as we loaded our gear and headed west towards the  river.  Our first stop was the bait shop in Durand.  I love these small bait shops in the small towns.  They have plenty of minnows, waxies, maggots, a few lures, and the latest fishing reports.  Today's strategy was to use maggots or Euro Larva, a bit smaller than a waxie grub but I think a lot more hardy.  Minnows can be a great crappie bait but I think that grubs tend to be more versatile and will consistently catch more fish.  Crossing the railroad tracks assured us we were in Wisconsin/Minnesota Boundary waters and my fishing license was now valid.  Although we did pull out our portable ice shacks, the plan was to drill a few holes and look for active fish before setting up the shelters.   With the ice being relatively thin for this time of year (12 inches) we decided to simply use my new Eskimo 8" hand auger.  At the end of last season I bought an really nice ice fishing combo from Cabela's at over 50% off.  It included a Quikfish 3 pop-up shelter, the hand auger, a portable stool, and a small sled with a cover to put everything in.  My "big" Clam ice shelter is heavy, bulky, but works get for the colder situations or when I am using the ATV for transportation.  This new setup is a breeze for early and late season ice where the temperatures are warmer, the ice isn't so thick, and I am walking out.  The sharp auger really works slick for punching a few holes where you need them.

It was still pretty cold out as we started fishing, enough to skim our holes fairly quickly.  Immediately we began to mark fish on our screens, a great sign.  The fish seemed somewhat aggressive as they would follow our lures but were very reluctant to bite, or so we assumed.  While I used my trusty old spring bobber setup loaded with 3 pound test line, Kevin had a high end pole with a sensitive tip and 2 pound test line.  Spring bobbers are great for detecting the faintest of bites and work very well.  Unfortunately we were in 15 feet of water and the line stretch of 3 pound test line negates most of that advantage.  Almost immediately Kevin connects with a nice 3 pound bass.  Back when we used to fish the Oil Tanks with tip-ups and shiner minnows, bass were a common target.  One trip Kevin and I nailed 6 largemouths with the largest pushing over 5 pounds.  The top picture is that first fish.  Within minutes I caught my first fish, a nice 10 inch perch.  It is interesting that the perch in the Mississippi are much larger now than what I remembered.  I suspect the cleaner water, a result of Zebra Mussels invading the river has played a role in this phenomenon.  With a few more fish in the bucket we set up our shelters that would provide a place to sit down and warm up.  For me the bite was tough.  You could see the fish approach your bait, hang there for a few seconds, then slowly slip away.  A few jigs of the lure would call them in and repeat the cycle.  Occasionally you would see a fish rush to met your bait and slam it but this was few and far between.  In the meantime Kevin was holding a seminar on light bite pan-fishing and was catching 3 to my one including this nice 13 inch crappie he is holding.  Admittedly his reactions are faster than mine which in these conditions make all the difference in the world.  The fish were there and simply coming up to the bait, inhaling it then spitting it out as fast.  Both of us spend a lot of time switching baits and he ended up catching most of his fish on a small teardrop lure with almost a micro piece of black plastic attached to the hook.  I simply had to laugh.  Watching his line, he would slowly drop his lure through the fish zone and look for any slight change in the line.  You really had to set the hook before the fish realized what it just did and Kevin is a master at this.  For me, I am become familiar with the slam of a walleye, even the finesse bite seldom passes me by but this was totally different.  Not unlike tullibee fishing on Mille Lacs, they too will inhale but are not a particular about line size so it's easier to feel them.  That combination of the right gear and paying close attention to your line really paid off.  I am sure that of the 10 people or so that were fishing around us, we were the only guys consistently catching fish.

We ended the day with a bucket full of very nice panfish, 38 total.  Our take included 12 crappies ranging from 11 to 13 inches, 6 perch in the 10 - 12 inch range, and 20 nice bluegills all over 8.5 inches.  It was a lot fun returning to our old fishing spots and experiencing those things that seem like they happened yesterday.  The trains still cause the ice to tremble as they rumble along the shoreline heading to Minneapolis or Chicago.  It sure seems like there are more of them now then ever before.  The blue skies accenting the majestic bluffs along the river makes a perfect backdrop for a day on the river.  The river has changed quite a bit in the last 40 years as sediment has filled in and cut off many of our old favorite fishing holes.  Driving by some of our old duck hunting haunts, they are now leased out and impossible to access.  The old bait shops come and go, replaced by larger convenience stores and gourmet cheese shops.  Heck, even as a fellow fisherman was leaving the ice he stopped to examine our impressive catch, commenting how tough the bite was.  He whipped out his small portable Aqua View camera exclaiming that "There down there, just don't want to bite!".  Oh well, for all that has changed some things will always be the same..........like fishing with my friend Kevin on a relaxing Sunday afternoon.   We have better equipment, better clothes, better transportation, yet we still look at life no different that when we were growing up together.  Thanks Buddy!

The Word is Out

Saturday was my birthday and at the last minute decided what better way to spend it than on Lake Mille Lacs fishing the hot walleye bite.  Because my friend Mark had already spent the night in his fish house the night before, he thought it would be a good idea to tag along and try the flats for a change of pace and agreed to meet me at Lundeen's at noon.  My plan was the same game as last week, drive on the ice at Dewey's till the bridge across the heave, unload the ATV, pack everything in the sled and head out.  I could not go by the first set of deep gravel humps without trying them.  It was as dead as the week before so off to 7 mile flat.  Word was that a couple of the east side resorts had roads open to the flats and Holy Moses, half the world must have gotten the word.  As we approached the center of the lake every flat in front of us had cars and trucks lining the entire edge circumference of the flat.  I'll bet from the air it looked like a high level Lakemaster Bottom Contour Map!  Arriving on 7 mile there must have been 75 guys set up including 1 guy in our exact spot of last weeks massacre.  Stopping to see how his luck had been he confirmed it was slow and if fact about 25% of the people had left already.   Amazing as I cannot believe that many people would be driving out as the ice conditions were not that great just a week ago and it hasn't been that cold.  If fact the word was 2 trucks went in on the south side earlier that morning.  As Ron White would say......You can't fix stupid.  Mark and I fished a few open holes left by the previous guys with nothing showing up on our screens.  Deciding to move we loaded up and headed west to a near shore flat called Sherman's that had few anglers and is quite large assuring we could find our own quiet area.    Using our maps we found that "special" looking area and drilled our holes along the top and bottom of the edge.

Almost immediately we began marking fish.  Within 10 minutes Mark had had a nice walleye through the hole, a good sign.  It was about 2:00 in the afternoon and the prime time was about 1 1/2 hour away.  Well, it took its merry old time and arrived about 30 minutes late.  The fact that we marked fish with regularity helped keep our interest knowing eventually they would turn on.  About 4:00 the action started as we put a couple of keepers on the ice.  At about 4:30 the fish really became aggressive.  Although hard to believe, they were almost too aggressive as they would hit so hard the the hook would almost be ripped out or hooked lightly.  I fish braided line and often the lack of stretch will make this problem even worse.  Between Mark and I we must have lost 9 fish after hooking them for less than 10 seconds, many of them coming off just before we got them into the hole.  By the time the bite stopped we had 3 nice keepers, a respectable perch, had let at least 3 more over 20 inches back into our holes, and lost another 9 fish we never saw.  Of course you should have seen the ones that got away!  Over all it was a great day on Mille Lacs as again we proved how important it is to get away from the crowds and noise, look for that "fishy" spot, and drill a lot of holes to move around looking for active fish.  On this trip both Mark and I caught all of our fish on the deep side of the drop and really never moved much as we settled into the couple of holes that stayed consistent.   Our hot baits were Mark's Swedish Pimple and my Rattlin' Flyer although I did catch one on a Jigging Rap.  With the fish as aggressive as they were, the Rap is a great bait however this time the fish were a little more fussy wanting something more subtle yet they still hit with vengeance.  With the season winding down I can't complain much about the last 2 weeks on the pond. 

It has been an interesting week as I spent Monday thru Wednesday in Orlando flying back Wednesday night.  Having been upgraded to first class I was looking forward to a nice relaxing ride home as I wrote this weeks post on the plane.  As luck would have it the on board WiFi was broken so I given a choice of playing solitaire for 3 hours or watch the Steve Martin movie, The Big Year.  It wasn't too bad.  This week might find me fishing some of my old stomping grounds on the back waters of the Mississippi River somewhere between LaCrosse and Alma.  My friend Kevin has been doing well as he nailed a 15 inch perch a few days ago.  That's a nice perch anywhere.  I continue to get the boat ready as everything indicates an early spring.  With the low water the walleye fishing this spring could be interesting.   We'll see!

The Bite is On

After last weeks attempt to get to the offshore areas I like to fish, Lory and I decided to try it again.  Another week of colder weather coupled with the additional time the resorters had to figure out their roads, we headed up much earlier in the day to take advantage of having more time to adjust our strategy if needed.  When arriving mid afternoon for the most part you are stuck staying in one place as it's important to be settled in during that peak time from 4:00 to dark.  I have a "secret" spot near Indian Point that is often very good when few have fished it.  With no roads beyond the heave and the threat of 8 inch ice you are restricted to ATV travel but once across those newly frozen areas there is substantial ice.  Driving up to Dewey's access we dropped $10 in the pay box and headed out to the known heave.  As always we stopped at Bill's and his thought was Dewey would have a bridge over the bad area to drive the ATV over and continue from there.  Parking the truck about 1/4 mile from our intended crossing point we unloaded the ATV to check everything out.  Well the bridge was laying on the ice and no practical way to cross the heave.  Looking across the barrier, contemplating plan B another truck came out with the intent on following our plan of getting to the other side.  As we talked Dewey shows up, gives a short assessment of the situation then offers to head back, get the plow, and push the bridge over the suspect area.  15 minutes later he was back and with some help from us spectators we had the bridge safely in place.  This was our cue to pack'em up and get going, destination 3 miles away.  The ice was very rough to the north of us so we followed the edge east till an opening presented itself then turned north towards the magic spot.  Lory was somewhat nervous as we maneuvered around large chunks of ice protruding from the surface, a result of the previous winds pushing the ice around and smashing it into itself.  Arriving at our spot it was great news, only one other set of holes were drilled and whoever was there had left.  On the other hand maybe that was an sign.  Setting up our house and drilling around 10 holes we fished for almost 2 hours and never marked a fish.  I had put the camera down and it sure looked like a great spot with gravel and small rocks scattered on the bottom.  Unfortunately we were not there to fish rocks.  After 2 hours I looked at Lory and stated we are leaving. get packed up as I had my eyes on 7 mile Flat, a good 6 miles north of our location.  I had rigged my HDS5 with a 12 volt plug and a RAM mount for inside the ATV cab,  it was just like being in the boat as we worked our way further north. 

Arriving at 7 Mile I had an idea of where I wanted to fish however the area had a number of portables parked in my spot.  Looking at the GPS and the Lakemaster bottom contour map I located a spot that indicated an inside turn with a gradual slope from 36 to 24 feet.  As stated before these structures often rise from the lake floor to the top of the flat within 20 - 30 feet.  I fish this area quite a bit in the summer and am pretty familar with where the fish tend to be and this was one of those spots. The changed strategy was to set up on the bottom side of the flat in 36 feet while drilling holes at the top edge then paralleling along both edges to provide a stretch of structure to work along.  The ice was a good 18 inches thick, in great shape, and once set up we started working the area.  It wasn't too bad out but the wind was cold, never the less we worked the outside hole structures with little protection from the cols.  By this time it was about 3:00 in the afternoon and almost immediately we started marking fish.  They were not very aggressive and would often just come up to the bait, check it out and quickly disappear off the Vexilar screen, at least there were fish in the area.  It took about another hour before the fish started hitting our lures and by 4:00 we had enough to know the best was yet to come.  With a few walleyes on the ice and a few bonus jumbo perch, at 5:00 the switch really turned on.  I had caught a nice fish earlier but didn't get a chance to snap a picture.  The first picture is a nice 23 inch fish that helped redeem myself of letting the first on go without getting an official picture of the blog.  Within minutes Lory nailed this nice 22 inch walleye.   We were still hole hopping when Lory landed a keeper out of a hole exclaiming there was another one down there.  Quickly baiting up he dropped the line and a second fish slammed the lure, another keeper.  He said there is a third one, again dropped the lure and wouldn't you know picked up a third fish in less than 3 minutes.  We ended the day with over 20 walleyes caught, 8 nice keepers 16 - 17.5 inches, and over 6 released that were 20+ inches.  My real prize was a 4 inch walleye that hit my minnow head, pretty comical.  The hot baits were the Rattlin' Flyer with a minnow head, a Hawger spoon with a whole minnow, a shiner on a dead stick, and my trusty old Jigging Rap.   With 3 nice perch we left the flats for the 10 mile trek back to the truck hoping the ice hadn't shifted while we were gone.  The bridge was still in place, we loaded the truck and left satisfied with one of the best ice fishing day's we've had on Mille Lacs in a while.  It is a testament to being able to adjust your strategy, understand your location, and work for your fish.  Sometimes it all comes together, just like on TV!

Today is my Dad's birthday, he would have been 82 years old.  His birthday is on Ground Hogs Day and I will always remember his comments regarding the predictions for winter as he always felt a connection to the folklore of the day.  Today he would have said we will have 6 more weeks of winter, something that we haven't had much of lately.  Happy Birthday Dad, love your son Dave.