Wingdam Walleyes

Carter's on the board!

Looking for a bite that's been better than Mille Lacs these days, I received a call from my friend Eric Hayes inviting me to fish the wing dams below the dam in Alma, Wisconsin with his 9 year old son Carter.  About the same time I got a call from Mark at Blueberry Ridge, the berries were perfect, come on down.  That's all I needed as the plan was to meet Eric at the boat landing around 9:00 on Sunday, fish till 3:30, pick berries till 6:00, and spend some time with my mother before driving home.  With perfect timing I arrived at the landing about a minute behind Eric and Carter.  Now  I had meet Carter a few years back and was excited to see him again.  Kids need adults that can engage them and I was looking forward to teaching him a few fishing skills.  Well, no teaching needed!  Our strategy was to begin trolling the front of the wing dams with crank baits such as Bombers, Shad Raps, or Smash Shads.  Wing dams are rock structures put in the Mississippi River to direct water flow to the channel, assuring enough depth for the barge traffic.  Some wing dams are better than others depending on the water flow, depth, location, how steep the front side is. Because they are made of rock, it's easy to get hung up and with the zebra mussels, lines such as Power Pro or Spiderwire are needed to avoid cutting your line and losing your bait.  Snags are fairly easy to get out but sometimes a lure retriever was necessary.  Eric hadn't fished this area much so we would have to troll the face to get an idea of it's lay under the water.  A big advantage was his Lowrance Side Scan, we could see exactly where the rocks started, ended, and the position of the wing dam to the boat.  The first fish was a dandy, about a 10 pound northern that hit Carter's lure.  For a nine year old Carter handled that fish like a seasoned veteran.  Dad lets him use a pretty sweet St. Croix rod with a Shimano Stradic reel, I have friends I would not trust with that rig.  I snapped a few pictures before I realizing the camera could take a video (I keep forgetting). With that we got Carter bringing in the northern and dad putting doing an excellent job of netting.  I just love how those big northerns look coming to the boat.  Check this link Carter's Northern. We continued fishing a few more wing dams when finally Eric caught a walleye over 15 inches, the minimum size limit for the river.  A few minutes later we had a second one.  From then on it was smaller fish, close, but it's pretty hard to stretch them as long as we needed.  Oh well, I did finally get one, a 14 inch walleye on my Smash Shad and this was the last walleye we got for the day, a total of 6 fish, 2 keepers and 4 released.


Carter's walleye

Carter was getting bored of the uneventful  pace of trolling, especially given the last 2 hours were pretty unproductive.  He had his eyes set on the rock rip rap along the shore, a perfect place to cast for bass, especially smallmouth.  His favorite lure was a plain plastic fluke rigged on a worm hook, unweighted and danced just below the surface, I was told the fish go wild for these.  Watching Carter cast into the rocks he would often end up on the shore while I was struggling to get close enough. He got hung up a few times but I admired his aggressive attitude toward those fish that were up tight against the shore. While we moved along the rocks and worked the edge, the bass didn't disappoint.  I think I ended up with 5 bass, including this nice smallie that Carter netted for me.  3:00 came fast as we loaded the boat up and I headed north to Eleva.  It was a real pleasure to fish with Eric and Carter, Eric has fished walleyes with me at Leech and Mille Lacs and Carter is a chip off the old block.  I brought him a Cabela's Fisherman's Folding Tool and he loved it.  Admittedly worried he might be too young but dad gave me the go ahead and he never put it down.  Hopefully in 30 years he'll remember how he received the tool in the bottom of his new tackle box.  I got something out of the deal as well, a new way to fish bass on the river behind my house, and a new friend, pretty good trade if you ask me!

My guide for the day!

Stopping in Eleva I headed to Blueberry Ridge to get my quota of blueberries.  They were more ripe than a couple of weeks ago, with Mark's help I picked 6 large pails.  We'll probably make wine out of a couple of the pails, 1 goes to Bill Lundeen, and the rest will get frozen.  Blueberries freeze very well and in the middle of winter they certainly are a treat.  I am writing this at the Cleveland Airport, having been here since Tuesday, it's time to go home.  My great friends Mark, Jack, Matt, and Jared Taylor are in Alaska fishing and they have sent me some great pictures of their adventure which I hope to write about next week.   They are coming home on Saturday so I'm looking forward to a full report.  My plans for the weekend are still not settled as we are definitely in the dog days of summer.  Maybe catfishing on the river, a motorcycle ride, working on the garden, there's never a dull minute this time of year.

Those Crazy, Hazy, Lazy Days of Summer

First smallie of the year

Just like the old Nate King Cole song, we are in the middle of the summer and to be honest, the fish aren't biting too well these days.  As well it hasn't been too hazy either!  June was warm however July has not seen the air conditioner run very much as the weather has been just about perfect.  Of course Alaska weather is perfect for me so I love those lows in the 50's each night.  Reports on Mille Lacs have been spotty, my friend Pete, who fishes the Mississippi River is even complaining about the slow bite and for him, that's unusual for the river.  Last week's post with Charlie wasn't my worst days of catching on the pond but it ranked right down there.  I guess the good thing about that is it appears that Mille Lacs could be filling the voids as Mark reported catching a couple of foul hooked perch in 34 feet of water last weekend.  Time will tell.  With our ENA Golf tournament party slated for Sunday and the simple fact that I felt lazy, it was decided that Lory and I would head back to the Mississippi River on Saturday and try our luck again as we had more time.  While contemplating our trip the neighbor Todd came by to see what was up.  Telling him that we were going on the river in a half hour, maybe he should join us. Todd is not much of a fisherman but we asked anyway and expected the same answer......I have to work on work.  Sure enough, that was his answer.  Hey, it's Saturday afternoon, you can work tomorrow as he headed home.  3 minutes later Todd was back, deciding that maybe a few hours on the river wouldn't be that bad.  Loading the boat and hooking it up to my Polaris UTV we headed through the pasture and to the landing next door.  Things worked quite a bit faster with an extra guy as we had the gates opened and closed in record time.  That's where the "faster" ended.  With three 220# guys in my 14 foot jon boat being pushed by a 1976 Evinrude 15 horse outboard we hit a blinding speed of 6.5 mph up river.  With 3 mile ahead of us, it took about 2 beers to get there.  Earlier I had picked up a dozen nice river shiners at Vadoo's bait and was determined to catch something on them.

Todd's first Mississippi catfish

Our first spot was a deeper stretch of river, running about 9 feet for about 100 yards or so.  A guy was fishing there last week with crankbaits and it looked pretty good.  Noticed I said looked as we tried shiners, crawlers, and preserved minnows yet the only thing we managed to catch were a few snags on the bottom.  Next stop was in front of the Stephens Farm, once owned by Win Stephens, the prominent Buick dealer in St. Louis Park.  You can tell it was a nice place a one time but after Win died, his wife Elsie pretty much went in seclusion with a house full of cats.  We saw her in Cub Foods one time with about 40 pounds of frozen beef liver that reportedly she cooked and ground up each day to feed her cats.  Never the less, the river that borders her property on the north side can be pretty good.  Not today.  Moving over to the Anoka County side of the river, we headed around the north side of the island on a channel that can be pretty good.  As we headed down the outside bend I nailed a smallie on a fire tiger Bomber.  At the same time both Todd and Lory hooked up as well, a triple on crank baits.  Netting my fish first, the lure was stuck in the net as Todd's fish was small enough to bring in by itself.  Lory had the nicest smallie yet had to wait for the net, too late as he tried to lift it in the boat the line broke and off swam the smallie with a lip ring in him.  We motored back up and tried the run again but we must have caught them all on the first run.  Oh well, it was still nice to at least catch some fish.  The current is swift as the water runs around the island, maybe that's a clue where the fish were hanging out.  Unfortunately with 3 in the boat it's a little tough to maneuver.  

What a pig!

Heading down river the rest of our strategy was to fish the deeper hole below Cloquet Island, maybe some nice catfish were biting, anything that might be interested in a crawler of minnow.  Changing rigs to a slip sinker and circle hook, we loaded them with night crawlers and let them sit on the bottom.  The first to hook up was Todd with a small catfish.  Not the largest catfish but his first on the river.  Next line to give a tug was mine, and tug it did.  With circle hooks you don't set the hook rather a simple easy pull and the circle hook with work its way to the corner of the fishes mouth and turn causing the hook point to dig in.  When fishing halibut in Alaska circle hooks are the preferred hardware.  Halibut tend to swallow the bait and with the circle hooks you can literally pull them out of their stomachs and because the fish are straight down the hook does it's job allowing a safe release if the fish is too small.  Whatever the fish was it was big.  My guess was a nice 12 pound catfish however as it broke the surface a tank of a carp made itself known.  Now this was by far the largest carp I had ever hooked as it bulled it's way around the boat.  After a 10 minute battle we finally had it in the net.  My guess was 20 - 25 pounds but of course one always likes to exaggerate.  Never the less it was huge as I snapped a few pictures and let it go.  Years ago I would have probably brought it home for dad to smoke, cut it up for the garden, or simply throw it on the bank as carp were not very desirable.  Ed Enos, my friend Kevin's grandpa was an expert at smoking carp, a delicacy back home.  I suppose I could have considered this but it seemed like too much work at the time, away it swam.  Still it made for a fabulous picture. 

I have an open invitation to join my friend Eric to fish the wingdams south of Alma, my old fishing haunts.  It's tempting and I hope to report next week.  My garden continues to be taken over by weeds, the cucumbers have failed miserably, and the tomatoes seem like they are 3 weeks behind.  I guess the cooler whether has put the hold on everything.  My new raspberries are doing well and I picked blueberries last weekend.  I guess the good thing is that by time the peppers and tomatoes are ready I'll be more in the mood to make something of them.  It's suppose to warm up later this week and with the State Fair starting next Thursday, summer is going fast. 



A Day With Charlie

Chuck's 26 incher

The first week of August usually means a visit from an old friend Chuck Teasley.  I have been writing this blog since 2008 and the only 2 times we have missed was in 2008, when I was in China and 2011 when my father died.  Other than that, we make a real effort to get together once a year to fish Mille Lacs.  Charlie is an interesting guy, has the biggest chip on his shoulder yet would give it to you in a heartbeat if you needed it.  More time than not we include our friend Dan Hoene, but this year Dan couldn't make it.  Our adventure started Wednesday evening as Chuck met me at the pole shed.  After hooking the boat up we headed north stopping at Bill's to get the latest news on the bite, then heeding his advice and stopped at the Spirit Lake Steakhouse in Wahkon for supper.  All I can say is wow!  The food was absolutely fabulous and my favorite was the walleye strips, totally unbelievable.  Finishing dinner we headed to Fisherman's Wharf to stay at my friend, Mark Applen's estate!  It's pretty nice as Mark has turned an ordinary ice house into a comfortable castle.  The night was clear and the stars were incredible.  After an hour of watching Gator Boys we finally hit the sack for a great nights sleep.    Thursday brought a northwest wind with whitecaps coming into the east side shorelines.  Our strategy was to head to the west side and fish the flat areas including Sherman's, 7-mile, 8-mile, and wherever we could find fish.  In the end it would prove more difficult than we expected. 

Chuck's 23 incher

Our first stop was The Cut on Sherman's Flat.  This is usually my go to area as I start at the inside end of the drop off and work my way up to the tip.  I was marking a ton of fish but nothing was biting.  On my way back down the edge there was a boat working the same break but headed directly for me.  Deciding someone had to give, I moved out of the way and let him pass.  I minute later I got a call from my friend Jon Bathke asking way I almost ran them over.  As a passenger in a Lund, Jon drives a Warrior Boat so I didn't recognize him.  We agreed to keep each other abreast of the current bite and went our own ways.  Next stop was the 7-mile as the west end was perfect for the wind drift.  After 3 hours we still had nothing to show for our efforts.  Time to start lead lining.  After an hour of unproductive trolling Jon called and said they were having some luck at the 8-Mile flat.  We were already heading that way so we decided to simply stay our route.  In the meantime I decided to switch to a #11 Tail Dancer on a planer board.  Still marking fish, they simply weren't biting.  An hour later I decided it was time to move and while reeling in my Tail Dancer a nice 24 inch walleye hit the lure.  Landing it we took a picture however the SD card was locked so no picture.  This was our inspiration to keep trolling and Chuck landed 2 more nice fish, a 26 inch walleye shown above and a 23 incher.  Both were caught on a lead line with a small orange crank bait.  Besides a fish that hit the Tail Dancer again, that was about it.  We hit Indian Point and trolled the length of the reef but no dice, not even a 12 inch smallie.  Heading back to the landing we loaded up and ran into Jon, who had just loaded up themselves.  He did somewhat better with 6 fish landed, still a fairly poor day considering the week before was on fire.  That's fishing.

Saturday I loaded my motorcycle on the trailer, dropped off my wife in Eau Claire and headed south.  After 2 hours of picking blueberries at Blueberry Ridge in Eleva, I unloaded my bike and put on 150 miles riding the beautiful roads of Trempealeau County.  Sunday saw the 2013 inaugural launch of my 14 foot Jon Boat as it made it's maiden voyage on the Mississippi River behind my house with Lory Brasel.  Thinking the fish were shallow, our first mistake, a gentlemen fishing the river gave some advice, fish the deep edges.  Somewhat difficult at first, we decided it was best to come back with a better strategy, maybe jigging the 10 foot holes with a 3/8 oz jig tipped with a crawler might be the ticket.  In other words, we didn't catch a thing!  Never the less it was nice to get out and we do have a plan for the next adventure on the River.  The summer has actually been pretty nice if you like the weather a little cooler.  The water temp on Mille Lacs was 70 degrees F, pretty cool for the first of August.  My tomatoes are begging for warmer, more humid temperatures but it doesn't look promising.  At least it great sleeping weather!

Lake Oahe, Days 3 and 4

 

Mark with a nice northern pike

The tropical heat of Thursday gave way to a complete switch in the wind, now coming out of the north at a pretty good clip.  Our strategy had completely switched from sorting through the walleyes to accepting the fact that 90% of our fish were going to be under 15 inches.  Liberal limits were set to help reduce this specific population as the floods of 2012 washed a significant amount of bait fish out of the lake, leaving the predator to prey ratio way out of proportion.  It would be nice if the Minnesota DNR was so diligent!   With 2 days behind us we had some catching up to do and decided to again head down river to fish our new spot, Nodding Horse Bay and continue into the main portion of the river.  Although we didn't get much action in the bay, the mouth and areas to the south came alive.  One of the nicer catches was Mark's northern which went about 36 inches.  It's interesting fishing the river as you never know what's at the end of your line and this fish surprised us.  Maintaining a controlled drift with the wind the action was steady.  Slowly the live well began to fill up with fish, enough that I started the front live well to keep the fish as fresh as possible.  Our drift consisted of moving up and down a deeper edge, staying in the 22 - 28 feet range and moving around a point, maybe about a quarter mile of water to fish.  Mark noticed a fish had followed his bait up then decided to stay under the boat.  It was a nice smallmouth bass, one that was smart enough not to fall prey to our jigs.  Mark threw a leech within a few feet and it just inhaled it.  Smallies are excellent table fare and it joined the already growing cache of fish destined for the cleaning table.

A Success Day's Catch

 By 4:00 we were counting and double counting our fish, making sure we did not go over our boat limit of 24 walleyes plus our bonus fish.  An impressive catch for the day, we did have some nice walleyes but the majority were under 13 inches, they would still make a great meal.  As you see in the picture, the South Dakota Parks Department provide a very nice cleaning station at the boat landing area.  Complete with water, Teflon cleaning surfaces, and a huge fish grinder, its a perfect place to clean and dispose of what's left of your fish.  Heading back to the house we were staying in, it was time to vacuum pack the fish and get them in the freezer.  South Dakota does not require one to leave any skin on the fish for transport.  Their only stipulation is that a piece of filet counts as 1/2 a fish.  Cut a large filet in half and it counts as 1 fish.  Because the average fillet was small we put 4 in a bag and sealed it flat so they could be counted.  In the end this pretty good as the fish froze perfectly and would not require any further processing when we got home. Now that we had everything figured out, the last day should be a breeze.

25 inch walleye, best of the trip

On Saturday we woke up to a cool 55 degrees and an east wind blowing into a distant thunderstorm. Because our spot had been successful we decided to return to the area we learned was called Slide Hill.  Almost immediately we began to catch fish.  On Friday we depended entirely on the live wells to keep our fish fresh, this time we bought a bunch of ice to ice them down if the fish turned belly up.  It was a great idea.  Up to this point the largest walleye we caught was 23 inches, a few in the 18 inch range and the rest under 15.  I was jigging my 3/8 ounce VMC Neon Moon Eye (NME) with a Powerbait paddletail tipped with a half a crawler when something smashed my lure.  The fish hung to the bottom, shaking it's head just like a large catfish, it didn't want to come up.  Convinced it was Mr. Whiskers, there was no need to hurry with the net as catfish usually hook themselves pretty good in their fleshy mouth and require surgical techniques to remove.  A few minutes later I could pick out a light colored shape, yep, must be a catfish.   Just as it surfaced the white tip of the tail became evident and we landed the largest walleye of the trip, a fat 25 incher.  These fish remind me of lake trout as when you clean them the cavity has literally rolls of fat inside them.  It was a great addition to a pretty good week and a nice reward for the last day of some serious and hard fishing.  Again we ended the day with our limit of walleyes as we headed back to the landing to clean our catch.  Sunday we packed up and by 7:00 we were on our way.  Some final thoughts: Night crawlers worked as good as anything and offered the greatest variety of fish caught; The water is very hard as it has taken 3 days to get the white film off my boat; My jigging skills have improved significantly with back to back Canada and Lake Oahe trips; It's great to be with the people you care about.   I have a feeling this won't be my last trip to this fabulous fishery.


A sign from Eric

In the meantime I did get my tractor put back together, began to weed my infested garden, picked the last of my raspberries, and headed to Eleva for our annual Fagerland Family Reunion at Jim and Kristy's on Saturday.  An extra special surprise was seeing my great Aunt Florence Olson, sitting in a chair looking as good as ever.  She is 101 1/2 years old and I must have talked to her for over an hour.  My Dad's favorite aunt, he made her adopt him after his mother (Florence's sister) died back in 2002.  Amazing articulate, we talked about everything including her hearing, loss of sight, and memory things that I have started to experience!  I guess I have a long way to go to catch her.  We did stop at Blueberry Ridge and picked 4 ice cream buckets of blueberries which I am enjoying every night.  Feeling somewhat lazy I decided to give my friend Bill Lundeen some berries and drove my motorcycle to Mille Lacs on Sunday.  Returning home my neighbor Lory was picking choke cherries for wine so I grabbed my ladder and helped.  We picked about 17 pounds.  Wednesday evening I head up to Mille Lacs with my good friend Chuck Teasley, he joins me every year about this time.  Although the fish bite has slowed down, it will be a great day as always.  I will leave you with a pretty cool experience.  While trying to catch a fish on the third day at Lake Oahe, we had not even come close to filing our limits.  As we arrived at our fishing spot on Friday a dragonfly landed on Mark's sleeve.  His son Eric, who past away 12 years ago as a teenager often shows his presence in the form of a dragonfly.  I tried to get a picture on his sleeve but apparently it wasn't talking to me!  Giving Mark the camera, the dragonfly flew down and landed on the boat, just next to him, allowing it's picture to be taken.  Our success immediately changed as we took full advantage of the sign given to us.  All I can say is it worked.

Lake Oahe, Days 1 and 2



Steve with a nice Striped (white) Bass

Not unlike my trip last month to Canada, last weeks adventure to Lake Oahe was a return to a 22 year old memory of the last time I fished with my friend Roger Weber, of Aberdeen, South Dakota fame.  Besides re-living memories, our host Russ Praught let us on to the increased daily limit of 8/day and possession limits of 24 fish for walleyes caught on Lake Oahe.  Because the severe lack of baitfish has threatened the populations of walleyes, a special regulation was put in place to help reduce the numbers of predators in the system.  Of the 8 per day, only 4 could be longer than 15 inches, with only 1 over 20 inches.  The ideal catch of the day would be 1 over 20", 3 at 19" and 4 at 14.5" per guy.  The actual catch would prove to be productive however not as optimistic.  Russ and his group left at 4:00 however we weren't as anxious as my brother Steve, Mark Applen, and I headed out at 6:00AM.  Arriving 7 1/2 hours later, we were on the water by 2:30 and immediately found Russ, Nate, and Gary fishing in the bay.   Oahe is a large reservoir on the Missouri River that extends over 230 miles above the dam in Pierre, SD.  The fishing locations consist of finding flooded points and flat areas that offer structure to hold fish.  For the most part it is flooded canyons and sharp drop-offs that mark the old river channel, and often dropping to 90 feet deep in less than 50 yards.  My Lowrance has an Insight function that is helpful in determining structures as well one can sometimes figure out what's below by looking at the shoreline to see, is it steep or sloping?  Reservoir levels can

Mark in Striper Heaven!

fluctuate considerably so the reference depth contours of my map chip are based on the full pool.  With the water level down about 20 feet and assuming some inaccuracies,  the contour lines were off by up to 30 feet yet were good enough to provide an great reference for what was under the boat.  Russ was fishing in 25 - 40 feet of water in the bay and catching a few.  We decided to move to the Moreau River area around an island to try our luck.  We did catch a number of 12 -13 inch walleyes but through them back, looking for larger fish.  The plan for a fish fry that night didn't look so good as we only had 5 in the live well.  It would soon become obvious that if you wanted fish, those 12 inch walleyes would start looking better.  As the boat worked our way back up the shore line we entered a mud line (caused by the interaction between the waves and the current) and immediately I got hit. This was no walleye and soon I hoisted a 18 inch striped bass.  Looking at Mark who was in the front of the boat I yelled....ANCHOR LOCK as the Terrova can hold the boat in one position, I knew these fish school up and it could be a frenzy.  I was right!  Steve and I traded our jigs for crank baits and we were catching a 17 - 19' striper on at least 9 out of 10 casts.  Mark was going crazy as he had never experienced a hot striper bite and couldn't get over the amount of triples we experienced.  I took a video and uploaded it on YouTube, you can check it out on this link: Striper Fishing.  The action lasted for over an hour before we were forced to leave, my guess was we caught close to 200 fish.  We used to catch these fish on Lake Pepin but never this big and for this long.  It was a great day to end day 1. 

23" Walleye

Day 2 brought the hottest day of our trip, over 100 degrees by early afternoon.  Determined to stay cool and protected a long sleeve Simms fishing shirt and long Cabela's fishing pants were my choice of clothing.  The new modern fishing clothing are amazing even on a miserable day like Thursday turned out to be.  After deciding that yes, the Moreau River was nice, the walleyes were small and challenging to locate.  One of the features on my Lowrance Map software was fishing tips for areas and after reviewing a few notes about a bay south of Swan Creek, we decided to try a few areas before settling in on Fielder Bay.  As we entered the bay Steve noticed something moving on shore.  Needing a little break we motored over to the far shoreline only to find 3 horses standing at the edge of the water and shaking their heads up and down.  The oddest thing we had ever seen I took a video and again uploaded on YouTube, check it out on this link: The Nodding Horses .  It was as though they were saying......Yes, Fish Here!!!  Well, within a few minutes I landed what would be the largest walleye for the first 2 days, a 23 inch fat pig.  The horses were right, Fish Here!  We did get a few more walleyes however as it got warmer during the afternoon we needed to find something a little more productive.  Moving out of the bay and into the main river we noticed a boat fishing just south of an area called Slide Hill.  With my contour map I could see that it was working an underwater point in the 22 - 26 foot range.  The wind created a perfect drift as we started fishing somewhat shallower that our previous target depth of around 30 feet.  Immediately we started catching fish.  Walleyes, northern, sheepshead, catfish, smallmouth bass, perch, crappies, stripers, one never knew what you would pull up once the hook was set.   Still being somewhat particular with the size of our walleyes, it just didn't seem right to keep those 12 inchers but man, this was the majority of what we were putting in the boat.  It was a lot of fun catching a variety of fish and admittedly those larger catfish put on quite a fight, we still fell short of
our limit of walleyes despite the liberal limits.  Something was not right and we finally figured it out, it was us!  As we met Russ and his 2 partners Gary and Nate Fischbach back at the landing meeting at the very nice cleaning station it was obvious, if we were going to catch our limit it had to include a significant number of small walleyes.  As we talked to the locals who fished the area often, they acknowledged that the population of walleyes were skewed to the under 

Second day limit from Russ, Gary, and Nate

15 inch fish and the regulations encouraged the harvest of the smaller walleyes.  If you have ever fished Lake of the Woods in the winter, you will soon figure out that a 13 inch sauger is an average fish and fair game.  Setting our standards at about 14 inches cost us a day and a half of our possession limit and going forward we relaxed our expectations.  Besides, a 13 inch perch was always acceptable, tomorrow would be different.

Our first 2 days proved to be our exploratory phase of the trip.  Getting our bearings and fishing memories from 20 years ago, we needed to step it up if we were going to bring home any fish.  I always like to leverage myself with the locals as they can shortcut your strategy considerably.  Akaska, SD is a friendly town of fisherman with a great sense of community that is tied to fishing.  Cleaning my boat a couple drove by with their golf cart, the preferred mode of travel, asking how we did.  Explaining the small fish I was assured that the under 15 inch fish made up the majority of the population and we should really start keeping these. As well I related my story of fishing 20 years ago with my friend Roger and his home town friends the Kessler's, when George Kessler hosted Governor Mickelson of South Dakota.  The guy remembered the day the Governor came to Akaska, an effort from the local supporters to get the 9 mile stretch of gravel road from town to the boat landing paved with asphalt.  The shore lunch we had off a bay south of the landing was the inspiration for what now is known as Governor's Bay, named after that event.  It's interesting to realize that I was there for a small piece of history that was significant to the local area. Governor Mickelson tragically died in a plane crash on April 19, 1993 as it was a sad day for my South Dakota friends.  My experience was special as our shore lunch was spectacular, eating fresh fried walleyes and all the fixin's while the Governor told stories of the wild west, South Dakota style.  Later he offered to buy everyone a drink at the local saloon as we walked down the boardwalk to enjoy a beer with him.  Today that saloon is gone, the road is still maintained, and the memories are as they happened yesterday.  This week is family reunion time and I have much more to share for day 3 and 4, it will have to wait.

A Quick Note Before I Head Out



Front end work



Tomorrow morning at 6:00 I head out to Lake Oahe.  The weather is hot and here's hoping the bite will be as well.  It's been a scramble the last 2 days with the 3 inches of rain we had on Friday night to celebrating my niece's birthday on Sunday in Wisconsin, there's a lot to get done.  I did decide to take the front end of the Ferguson apart to replace the pivot pin and bushings that had worn out.  It came apart pretty well but soon discovered that the bushings I had ordered 6 months ago were the wrong ones.  The right one should be in by the time I get back and pending any further problems should be back together by next Monday.  It will be just perfect as the back of the field is getting pretty long and needs mowing.  The other issue is that its parked in front of my jon boat and the river is slowly making its way to a more normal flow after our very wet and late spring.  Hopefully I can get out on the river next week and catch a few smallies or catfish, if I am not fished out from 4 days on the Missouri River..........not!

Ben's 23 inch Walleye


With little time to write anything of substance this week, I will end with a picture of my good friend Ben Taylor and his 23 inch walleye he caught out of Platte Lake this weekend.    I'm sure that it provided a great start to a fish fry later that evening.  Ben's chomping at the bit to get up to Leech Lake with us for opener and become an official Team Walleye member.  With catches like this, I'm not sure we want him!  I think he'll fit right in.  Here's hoping we'll have plenty of pictures and memories for my next post.

Fishin' With Hondro



Hondro with a 27" walleye looking pretty dapper!

It's been over 15 years since Hondro Zeller has graced the front of my boat but after a few false starts we finally were able to connect last Friday, July 5th.  Originally he was going to try and find a camping spot on or near Lake Mille Lacs for the long 4th of July weekend, a seemingly impossible task only a few weeks before.   Settling on the 5th, it would give me some time to get things done over the weekend and enjoy the lake on a less crowded day.  Along with Hondro was his son Anders.  Both met me at my pole barn at 8:00 AM, maybe too early considering the evening before yet I managed to be ready on time.
Upon arrival we loaded everything up as he introduced me to his son Anders.  I thought I heard right, like the first part of my last name but quite honestly I wasn't too sure what I really heard!  A strapping young man, had just graduated from college and it would be exciting to hopefully show both of them a great day on the water.  By the looks of things there was going to be some wind on the lake as it was blowing directly out of the south pretty good for 8 in the morning.  The last time I fished with Hondro was in my Skeeter 135T.  Back when 3 Mile Reef was a great walleye spot, we had spent the day fishing the area and it was pretty rough.  Remembering our ride back to the landing, we hit a wave and my rear trolling motor bracket broke.  The only thing that alerted me to the situation was a slight hesitation in my boat as the motor hit the water.  Held on only by the power cord, I looked back to see it bouncing on the water at 25 mph.  Slowing to an idle the motor sunk sunk to the depth of the remaining cord as I pulled it up, set it in the boat and continued on.  Luckily Minnkota did a great job fixing it back up.  Making the usual stops we had the boat in the water by 10:00.  The south wind didn't seem so intimidating at the landing yet I knew it was only going to get worse.

Anders with a nice fish.

One can probably gather that I usually have a strategy as I work my way further from the shore.  Sherman's first, 7 Mile second, 9 Mile third, Plan B fourth.  Sherman's proved difficult as the wind blew perpendicular to the edge.  It can be rather easy to quarter along the edge but with a number of guys hovering an area on the edge, it made positioning rather difficult.  An hour later and we didn't have a single bite.  Next stop was 7  Mile, again a number of guys hovering but at least the north/south drift lines were better.  Still nothing.  Next stop was 9 Mile and to my surprise there was no one there.  Maybe we just hit the flat when the fish turned on but whatever, we proceeded to start catching walleyes.  The first one was a 19.5 inch fish, perfect for the live well.  Unfortunately it would prove to be our last keeper fish.  As we drifted a better north/south line, we continued to catch fish, often 3 per drift.  Motoring back to the south end we could easily keep on a line that stayed at the edge of the flat.  Eventually another boat showed up an promptly worked the area right in the center of our drift line.  9 Mile Flat is big enough to get away from the interference and still be on fish.  After 4 hours of working the flat we had over 16 walleyes, 1 in the box, a surprising 2 under 17 inches, and a 27 inch walleye, Hondro's personal best.  The wind had started calming down somewhat but that was temporary as it began to pick up speed again late in the afternoon.  With a desire to head back closer to shore I decided to show them how to deep water troll using both lead line and planer boards.  Trolling from 9 Mile to 7 Mile would not take that long as I had heard the basin bite had started.  We rigged the planer with a #11 Tail Dancer in a purple color, 150 feet of line out, attached the in-line planer and started trolling.  The next 2 rods were lead line with my new Suffix 832 lead core which was suppose to sink and extra 2 feet per color.  3.5 colors out and it became a waiting game, but not too long.  The first rod to double over was Hondro's lead core with the #5 Shad Rap.  We reeled that one in and reset just in time to see Anders planer board flag to drop.  Another  nice walleye at the end it was my turn.  I didn't have to wait too long as my lead core folded over.  3 nice walleyes in less than an hour trolling, seemed pretty good to me!  At 5:30 we decided the wind had taken most of our energy and we headed in.  Loading the boat we stopped at Bill's to give him a report, bought a coke and headed back to Dayton.  It was a great day to get out, the wind proved to be not much of a determent to our success, and after quickly cleaning the 19 1/2 inch walleye we did keep, Hondro and Anders had supper in the bag.  Admittedly I did ask for clarification on the origin of Anders name, a name I had never heard of.  They laughed and explained it was really Alexander and it was simply a derivative.  As I get older my hearing isn't so good so it was a relief to know that I was hearing it correctly!

Caught on Lead line

So next Wednesday Mark Applen, my brother Steve, and a few other friends are heading to Lake Oahe for 4 days of fishing.  It should be pretty exciting as the Fish and Game Department in South Dakota has raised the possession limit of fish caught in Oahe to 24 walleyes.  Our fearless leader on this trip is Russ, and he has found a place to rent for $30/night/guy....not bad.  It's a 7 hour drive from home with only about 4 miles being freeway.  Like getting ready for Canada, I have been busy stocking up on the right presentation as I am sure the walleyes will be found in much deeper water.  Bottom Bouncers were made for this type of fishing as we will probably pull a lot of night crawler rigs.  I head out to Cincinnati on Thursday for a business trip and the weekend weather looks like thunder storms, it might be a good time to finally fix the pivot pin in the front end of my tractor.  The "back 40" is getting awfully long and needs to be cut with the brush hog.  I would like to get the front end fixed before doing any extensive work with the tractor.  Although the fishing season started slow and late, I've made most of my time on the water up and then some!

Back on the Pond



Kevin and a nice walleye



After 4 days of fishing in Canada the next date was with my neighbor Blair Wolfram and his friend Kevin from Chicago.  Last year Blair had asked me if I could take his friend fishing, we were able to get out in the middle of June, and did very well.  This trip was a couple of weeks later however with the late spring, timing was perfect.  My friend Mark Applen was staying at his place on Mille Lacs and had started giving me early morning reports as he was out on a mid-lake flat.  Words like "Committing Suicide, On Fire, Jumping in the Boat" made us wish we would have left 2 hours earlier.  The last draw was a picture that came on the phone of a 44 inch northern he just released.....uffda!  Stopping at Lundeen's to pick up some supplies and the secret bait (shhhh...small pike sucker minnows) we headed to the landing.  Based on the past spotty reports of little pressure on the lake I expected the landing to have plenty of parking yet as we turned the corner you could see rigs parked in the ditch, a sure sign the bit was good.  All the rain has certainly filled up the lake, evident by the dock at the landing requiring a good jump or wet feet to get in the boat.  I generally have a strategy of stops, starting inshore first then working our way to the middle of the lake.  With Mark's reports still coming in we decided to just meet him at 7 mile.  As we approached the flat he was easily identified by the guy standing in his boat waving us over!  There was a nice chop on the lake and as we got closer he was reeling up another fish.  There were quite a few boats on the flat and with 3 guys I decided to circle the outside edge.  An hour later we had 5 walleyes on the board.  Finishing our first trip around the flat back to Mark, he was ready to leave.  With both his keepers in the boat, the wind was dying and bite slowed, he left for his place at Fisherman's Wharf. 



 Caught on a crawler



Another hour at that flat and a few more fish we decided to look for a less crowded flat.  With so many guys on a structure, they can push the active fish off the flats.  The calming winds causes the water to flatten out, add the high sun and you can be assured the light penetration is at it's maximum.  Once this happened the walleye's became more scarce although they didn't stop biting, it was just longer between fish.  Deciding to go back to my original strategy we headed back closer to shore and fished Sherman's Flat.  We had little competition as there were only 3 boats left verses the 12 that were working it as we passed it earlier.  No jumping in the boat we managed another 6 walleyes for a total of 13 caught.  Moving north to Seguchi Flat's long western edge, another 5 walleyes were netted.  A final stop back at Sherman's saw an additional 2 fish for a days total of 20.  Not saying it was a bad day but once the wind stopped blowing it became more difficult to locate active fish.   Had we been there 2 hours earlier, it could have been double that.  Oh well the price for a decent nights sleep.  We did not end up with any keeper fish, those in the tight 18 - 20 inch slot range yet we did get a surprising 17 incher.  I suppose you could look at the good side, at least we didn't have to clean fish when we got home!  With the bite as good as it is my next trip planned is Friday the 5th with a good friend Hondro Zeller.  The last time he fished with me was when I had my Skeeter 135T, probably in the mid 1990's.  I don't remember if we caught any fish but I do recall how windy and rough it was.  We hit a wave and my rear trolling motor bracket broke sending the entire unit into the water as I only became aware of it as the motor, held on by the cord, was bouncing off the back!  Going too fast and acting too smart, thank God I am older now.  This trip will be a little more civilized as the Ranger handles the water much better and the weather is supposed to be beautiful.  Hopefully next weeks post will be a good one.

Monday we met regarding our Lake Oahe trip and have that pretty well organized.  Russ wants to leave at 4:00 in the morning, go go go.  Draining my livewells on Sunday the valve control for one of them broke.  On top of that there must have been some water left in the system as one of the valves by the aerator pump was leaking pretty bad, typical of what happens when water freezes and cracks the case.  I did get to my dealer to secure parts and will put them in before Friday.   

Reunion With Canada

Hungry walleyes!

After a 40 year absence from fishing north of the 49th Parallel, Saturday was the date of my return.  I was pretty excited as we were following the same basic route that I took with the Tollefson's back in 1970, crossing the border at Pigeon River on the North Shore of Lake Superior, continuing through Thunder Bay to Nipigon, we drove by our old destination at Lake Nipigon for another 70 miles to Geraldton, Ontario.  My brother Steve conveniently picked up one of our hosts at the MSP Airport, Dane Kane who flew in from Atlanta to fish with his in-laws Victor Sr. and Victor Jr.   This gave them the chance to pick me up at home, saving me a 2 hour drive to meet them in Eleva.  We left the house at 9:00 with the intent to meet the rest of our group at the Culver's in Two Harbors, MN.  Enduring the Duluth Marathon and the 49 degrees with fog, we finally met up and headed northeast.  Before crossing the border we topped off the gas tanks.  At $3.55/gal, it would be better than the $5.40/gallon just a mile down the road.  Going through customs was better than I thought, just a few trick questions to see if you knew how to answer them the right way and we were off.  With 40 years between me and the last time I traveled in the area, admittedly it was a lot different than I thought I remembered.  With the time change we arrived by 8:30 that evening to the White Wolf Resort on Hutchinson Lake outside of Geraldton.  Sunday morning saw our caravan of boats heading to Burrows Lake, 15 miles from the cabin.  A crude landing, of rock and gravel there were 2 options, the shallow back your truck into the water or the steep side where one barely needs to get the trailer wet.  I chose the steep one.  With my brother Steve and his son Kevin in control, all I could do was sit back and enjoy the ride.  The first strategy was to cast the weed edges and shorelines for northern pike.  They were hitting as though they had never seen a bait before.  Ranging from 8 to 28 inches it was impossible not to have a fish on one of our 3 fishing rods at any given time. 60 northerns later we tried for some walleyes along the shorelines with little luck.  In the afternoon we moved to an area where a railroad bridge narrowed the outlet causing a nice current flow.  Sensing an opportunity I had 10 walleyes landed before Steve and Kevin knew what was going on.  With the walleyes hanging on the current break and the slower current areas we landed about 60 walleyes before the northerns decided to move in.  Although the walleyes were pretty small, most in the 12 inch range we did manage 4 nice keepers in the 16 - 18 inch range, enough to do our part for supper that night.  It did take a while to find the fish but we managed a good day.


River lined with pilings

Monday was suppose to be the start of having the lake to ourselves.  5 miles long, there are lots of places to fish northerns however we were focused on more walleyes.  The upper reaches of the lake have inlets that form slow moving rivers as the waters head either to Hudson bay or Lake Superior.  Burrows Lake is right on the continental divide and it's outlet can either go north or south depending on the water level and a few control dams in the system.  We decided to explore heading through the first inlet channel to a shallow lake to its inlet to another lake.  Both channels were surprisingly deep and held the promise of walleyes.  After 5 hours of exploring and fishing, we ended up with 3 more keeper fish.  Deciding to head back to the railroad bridge wouldn't you know it a boat was parked right in the middle of "our" spot.  With no desire to crowd the area we left going back to the northern spot fighting the waves that a 20 mph wind had whipped up.  An hour later it was time to head back to the cabin for more fried fish.  At the end of day 2 my honest opinion was less than favorable.  Plenty of 16 inch northerns and only locating one walleye hotspot full of 12 inch walleyes, the lake was beautiful but a pattern wasn't coming together.  Tuesday would prove to be more interesting as the discussion turned to hitting another lake, Longlac located 30 miles east of our cabin.

Supper caught!

Morning arrived as we headed east to the town of Longlac and had to make a choice.  Because of the high water it would be difficult to travel under the railroad bridge separating the incoming river from the main lake.  Longlac (Long Lake) is exactly what it infers, long.......over 60 miles long and a lot of water.  We decided to fish the river, there was good current, the water was deep and it seemed like great place to find walleyes.  The river showed remnants of the old lumber days when logs were floated down the river to the mills in Longlac as it was lined with large pilings driven into the edges of the river, some still having cables attached to them.  The strategy was simple, tie up to one of these individual pilings along the edge and cast your jig bringing it up the edge of the drop where the walleyes were stacked.  It took about an hour to figure the pattern and we began catching walleyes, much nicer than the first 2 days.  We moved up the river, jumping from piling to piling determining some were better than others.  In the meantime our other 2 boats had left the river and headed to the lake across the road.  Catching over 100 walleyes with 12 nice fish in the box, we headed back to the resort to clean our fish.  Victor Sr., Victor Jr., and Dan in one boat, Travis, Steve, and Ken in another pulled up with the mother lode, plenty of 17 inch fish with a 26 inch walleye caught by Victor Sr.  Apparently they let a number of nice fish over 19 inches as you can only keep 1 over 18.1 inch.  The discussion quickly went to Wednesday's plan, go back to Burrows Lake for the 18 inch northern massacre or back to Longlac for the 20 inch plus walleyes committing suicide..........back to Longlac.

Kevins 23 incher

Wednesday brought us back to the scene of yesterday's hot bite, along the main highway in 5 feet of water.  Being done with the spawn and with the water temperatures at 68 degrees, the walleyes had just started to go on their feeding binge.  Fishing for 2 hours and only 3 walleyes caught they either moved or we needed to wait for the bite to turn on.  Without a depth map we looked along the shoreline to determine a possible flat area in the 8 - 11 foot range that gradually sloped to 5.  A little exploring and we found our spot as the wind would drift us from 11 - 5 feet, next to a rock island, seemed like a great place.  As we move into that area Steve hooked his biggest fish of the weekend, a 33 inch northern which satisfied a promise to a friend to bring back a nice pike fillet.  Concentrating on walleyes, the bite began.  Travis's boat came over to see what we were doing as saw the obvious as 3 walleyes were released.  The moved over by 50 yards and immediately caught a 28 inch walleye, a beautiful fish anywhere.  They left early as we continued to catch walleyes up to 23 inches.  The day ended with over 130 fish landed and released, not bad.  The hot bait for us was a Gulp Minnow with 1/3 a nightcrawler for additional scent.  They just slammed it.

Steve caught the largest northern pike of the trip

I admitted to the guys that my first impressions were not what I had expected.  Looking forward to a more remote location, we simply went to their favorite lakes they had been going to for over 40 years.  I soon realized that my place was simply a moment in a long history of family, friends, camaraderie, and fishing experiences.  Of course the last 2 days of 250+ walleyes caught didn't hurt, it is really like my own experiences and adventures.  These guys joined me last fall for a day on Mille Lacs and it was a fishing disaster, one that I would not blame them if they never came back even though I knew better.  The guys that came up of our annual Leech Lake opener only to be greeted with ice, who knows what their expectations were.  My mistake was making comparisons to 40 years ago.  I had the opportunity to get more acquainted with 6 new friends, had a wonderful new experience, and really did catch a ton of fish, I am not sure what more a guy would ask for.......nothing. It was a fabulous time, one I will not forget. 

Sunday will see me on Mille Lacs with my neighbor Blair and his high school friend Kevin, from Chicago.  We had a blast last year and hopefully Sunday will be a repeat.

The Bite is On!!!



A nice 26 inch walleye



After a month of excuses such as the lake is still iced over, too much rain, too windy, have to be somewhere other than the lake, my neighbor Lory Brasel and I finally made to to Mille Lacs for my first "No Pressure" fishing trip since opener.  With most of the garden in and although it was raining at the house, the radar showed the all clear at Mille Lacs, we headed out around 2:00 for the late afternoon/evening bite.  The wet weather has been perfect for my nightcrawler supply however we still stopped at Bill's to get the latest and greatest as well, I needed to stock up on a few essentials for next week (more on that later).  Deciding to go out of the landing north of the Casino, our strategy was to fish the close in humps first then move out to Sherman's flat after 6:00 with a possible finish shallow trolling Shad Raps on Indian Point.   By 4:00 we were on the humps and back-trolling spinner rigs with crawlers.  By 4:15 Lory's rod doubled over as he reeled in the first fish of the day, 19.5", in the livewell it was a great start.  At 4:30 a walleye dang near pulled my rod out of my grip, man were they hitting those crawlers hard.  I have stated this many times, nothing works better for crawler rigs than TruTurn brand bait holder hooks.  The long shaft with the cam action, the walleyes basically hooked themselves with every fish caught, hooked in the upper lip.  Honestly, one doesn't even have to let them take the crawler as they are right there!  With a 23 inch fish landed, we had 2 in 30 minutes.  Almost like clockwork Lory nailed another one, this time a 26 incher.  It was my turn again and at 5:00 I reeled in our 4th fish.  Fishing in the 16 to 20 foot level, it seemed that the fish would hit the best when the sun went behind the clouds then stop as it came back out again.  After a few more fish we decided to stick to our plan and head to Sherman's Flat. 



22 inch fish



 During the next 2 hours we managed to catch another 6 walleyes, all looking like they can out of the same 22 inch mold.  By now the wind had completely died and the bug hatch about drove us crazy.  I do like fishing crawlers during a bug hatch as the fish are really tuned in. As the sun's edge started to touch the tree tops our next stop was Indian Point.  I was surprised by the amount of boats in the shallow water (4 - 6 feet), anchored and bobber fishing.  Now I know this is a good strategy and there were 2 of Eddy's Launches parked on top of the reef.  It's common, the boats hang around the launches and are as bad as the bug hatch.   Thankfully all the boats were at the far east side of the long and narrow reef giving us some room to establish a trolling pattern.  I like staying in the 6 foot or less water as moved up and down the reef in an east to west direction.  There are a lot of smallies on the reef and they seemed to like my new Storm Smash Shad I had gotten from Bill for Christmas.  I did end up with 4 little bass while Lory, using a jointed diver managed to hook another nice 23 inch walleye.  Over all it was a great 5 hours on the lake, 13 walleyes and 4 bass with one in the slot for supper.  As you can see in the picture the evening was just perfect, a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  One other thing I finally figured out was the pointer on the GPS screen of my HDS10.  While fishing with Mark a few weeks ago I noticed that with the Lowrance Point 1 GPS receiver with built in compass, the pointer on the screen always indicated the position referencing where the front of the boat was pointing.  This drove me absolutely crazy, pointing opposite my heading, I just didn't like it.  Having e-mailed Lowrance, calling their 1-800 customer service number, even talking to Bill, nobody could answer my question of how to turn the compass function off, assuming this would now give me a true perspective of my actual heading via the pointer on the screen.  The last word was..........it was complicated!  Well, I did figure it out, I simply found the right menu item to turn the heading setting configuration for the Point 1 to OFF.  Voila, I am back to normal, which is a good thing.  Funny thing is that it really wasn't very complicated at all, oh well.

So Saturday I join my brother Steve and his son Kevin, and a few guys that fished Mille Lacs with me last September for a trip to Geraldton, Ontario Canada.  Other than a few business trips, I haven't fished Canada in almost 40 years.  After 12 hours of driving, we should be at our cabins by 9:00 and ready to go for fishing Sunday through Wednesday.  With northern pike and walleye on the menu, I have been assured that the action is fantastic.  I called my friend Paul Wenaas who fishing Canada quite a bit for some advice about minnows.  His secret is to freeze minnows that have been covered with 20 Mule Team Borax, they will be as good as you need.  I froze about 25 dozen last night, ordered 500 crawlers to pick up on the way, and have restocked my tackle box with Daredevils and smaller muskie baits, looking for that 40"+ northern.  I am pretty excited to spend some time with Steve and Kevin, hopefully I can teach them a thing or two again.   Returning late Thursday night, my report might be a few days late next week.  The following Sunday, June 30 is promised to my neighbor Blair and his friend Kevin, from Chicago.  They fished with me last year and really wanted to do it again......dang it, I suppose!  As well I am getting reports from Lake Oahe from my friend Roger Weber and they are hammering the walleyes.  Let's hope the bite stays hot for another 4 weeks. 

Broken Record



Our new Ice Freezer


My life in the last 4 months consists of either funerals, weddings, graduations, or simply waiting for the endless rain to stop.  This week was no exception as on Saturday we headed to Columbus, Wisconsin which is east of Madison, for a 1:00 funeral then turned right around back to Eleva for my nephew's high school graduation.  Having little time to spend with anyone, at least if I got the day accomplished successfully, it would leave the hope of heading to Mille Lacs on Sunday for a little walleye fishing.  Waking up to a pouring rain which was working it's way north, and with the wind howling out of the east, I just didn't have the desire to fight the elements, not good.  On the other hand my friend Bill had something we wanted so my neighbor Tim and I decided to take a road trip north to pick it up.......a genuine commercial ice storage freezer.  See Tim and I went together to buy a commercial ice making machine a few years ago assuring we both have all the fresh crystal clear ice we need for the long summer.  It's great for fishing, traveling, drinks, whatever you need ice for, it's there for the taking.  We had a small freezer that we would store extra ice in as it's good to have a stockpile on hand.  This spring our freezer quit working so we needed a replacement.  In the meantime I spotted this beauty in Bill's basement, something to do with storing bait but it never worked very well.  So on Sunday we gave her a new home.  I guess the whole point of it is more about having something cool verses something practical.  The cool factor always wins!  I have access to pre printed ice bags in 2 sizes, 8#'s and 20#'s so we have a few years worth of those in stock as we have started replenishing our stocks.  With the cool weather, the ice maker will produce about 50 - 70 pounds of clear ice per day.  Here Tim is filling bags as we get ready for warmer weather (if it ever gets here).  Once the outside temperature reaches 85 degrees the ice maker really slows down its production so our plan is to rely on our storage capability, which just increased significantly.  We figure it will hold about 1000 pounds of bagged ice, enough to take us through any warm spell this year. 



Ben's new fishing pole



Graphite fishing rods came on the scene about 35 years ago, first in expensive fly rods then expanded into both casting and spinning rods.  Although very light and sensitive, those first graphite rods were pretty brittle.  As technology advanced, companies began to improve on the materials used in high end rods and one of those advancements for the time was Bass Pro Shop's Boron Elite.  Boron was a stiff but durable material, not as light as graphite yet helped the issue of breakage.  Having to have one I ordered it from Bass Pro along with the latest Abu Garcia casting reel with magnetically controlled line braking.  A sweet rig for sure as at the time high end casting reels had pistol type grips providing a more ergonomically designed handle.  Today you don't even see these as this type of grip left little leverage behind the reel seat.  Either way it was at the time "state of the art" and was a great rod for fishing bass and northerns.  One year I lent it to a good friend Pat Holmes, who was going on a fly in trip to Canada.  Pat and his friends got trapped in a forest fire that was heading straight towards them.  A helicopter arrived just in time to pluck them from a point on the lake yet there was neither time nor room to take any equipment with them.  So much for my new rod and reel! Pat's insurance covered it so after receiving my check I simply ordered another one.  Today the reel sits on the shelf, I am going to use it to make a catfish rig for the river.  As for the rod, time has blown right by the pistol gripped Boron rod.  At the time Bass Pro was charging $79.95 for the rod, about what standard graphite's were.  After staring at it for about 20 years I finally decided it needed a better home and along with a nice Zebco 33 reel, I gave it to Ben, my friend Jack's son.  Ben never says much but Jack assured me he was in seventh heaven, one that specializes in fishing.  The pistol grip is perfect for him and the boron is almost impossible to break.  Ben will need to stop by the pole shed more often as I have a lot of things to get rid of!  Here is a picture of Ben holding his first northern caught on Platte Lake with his new pole.  I'm pretty sure there is a lot of luck left in that fishing pole.

I picked up the boat from Formula One, a propeller and skag repair shop in Rogers.  They did a great job as both the prop and skag look brand new.  I have had them do work before, like the time I hit Indian Point going half throttle, that wasn't as cheap as this repair as they had to replace a bent prop shaft.  Stainless steel props are nice but they have zero give when they hit something.  This time the prop hit a rock as I back up in idle speed, much easier on the motor.   Friday is our big golf tournament and I am looking forward to what Jay may have brought this year, in the past I have bought a few nice things at the silent auction as he always brings something nice.  Last year I bought a Marcum Showdown for ice fishing.  I haven't decided which day will find me on Mille Lacs however Sunday looks like the best day of the weekend.  All I know is the walleyes are starting to bite and here I am chomping at the bit. 

Our 3rd Annual MTT for Eric Applen



Catching in the rain

Last Saturday my friend Mark Applen and I competed in our third annual MTT walleye circuit tournament on Mille Lacs Lake.   The people who run the Minnesota Tournament Trail happen to be Mark's neighbors at Fisherman's Wharf on the east side of Mille Lacs and graciously donate a tournament position each year.  Mark and I assure that their donation is fully utilized to it full extent by purchasing at the stated value, a great excuse to spend a day together on the lake.  It has not been without it's rewards as the first year we entered landed us in 3rd place, good enough to raise $1046 for Mark's passion, the Eric Nicole Applen fund.  The story has been told many times yet the work is as important as ever, supporting those families affected by cancer.  Last month my cousin Mark Anderson from Anchorage sent me an e-mail asking for help.  A co-worker and obviously someone special to him had a 7 year old daughter that learned she had a rare form of leukemia.  A quick diagnosis in Anchorage determined that her best hope was in Portland Oregon, a decision that needed no discussion.  She was transported by air ambulance immediately to Portland and the family could only sit back and watch.  Understanding that families are thrust into these situations without fully understanding the impact on their day to day lives, the ENA fund sent a significant grant to help them deal with their situation.  No, we cannot fix the problem but we can try to take a little stress away.  I'm never sure but really it's only important that we try.  If you are interested in helping make a difference please go to www.enafund.com  and donate whatever you feel is appropriate.  Our big fund raiser, the ENA golf tournament is on June 14th and to date we have raised over $250,000 for helping families simply cope.  As far as this year, well we finished 40th out of 73 teams.  It's easy to look back at our strategy and for me 

Dinged prop

we left a hot bit to look for that elusive 18 - 20 inch slot.  After catching a 19.875" keeper on our first spot, another 23 incher and it went dead.  With the late ice out we decided to fish shallow yet the weeds hadn't even emerged with put a wrench in our strategy.  The next stop was a 20 foot offshore hump about 3 miles out.  I started to mark fish immediately however they tended to be tight to the bottom.  As the wind picked up we decided to drift and within 5 minutes something slammed my nightcrawler.  3 minutes later we netted a 20.5 inch walleye, a tad too big.  As the wind continued to build, we drifted a pattern ending up with 4 fish up to 26 inches in less than an hour.  It was raining like crazy and as you see the pictures we got included raindrops on the lens.  Getting beat up we decided to move back to the shallower area where we missed a nice walleye and landed an 18 inch smallmouth bass.  Our weigh in was at 3:30 so we headed north to get closer to Hunter's Point Resort, the host of the MTT, and did a drift across Lakeside Reef.  There was a lot of fish yet we only ended up with a keeper smallie.  Heading in to make sure we qualified, I dropped off Mark at the dock with our fish then moved out.  Because the wind was blowing into the resort and the troughs of the waves were substantial, as I backed up at idle speed my prop hit something and it wasn't good.  Immediately the motor started to vibrate as I knew this wasn't going to be cheap!  After getting back to the dock and loading the boat, the skag was bent to the left and one blade had been altered a bit.  I'm pretty sure the shaft is good but we'll see as I bring it in on Monday to get fixed.  This whole thing got me thinking about my planned trip to Lake Oahe in July and what would I do if I hit something.  A quick check of Craigslist found a 14 x 20P Suzuki propeller for about 1/2 price of a new one..............I'll take it!  A good deal, it's probably a good idea to have a spare, especially for my trip out to Lake Oahe in July.



World Class Apple Wine

 This week has been anything but normal.  Saturday was our MTT, Sunday was an effort of get a few things done around the house then head to Hillsdale, Wisconsin for a graduation of an old friend's grand daughter.  On Tuesday my wife and I spent the afternoon/evening taking wedding pictures for our dear friends Bill and Kathy Lundeen's daughter Amanda and her new husband Tom.  With Bill's bait shop facing the peak time for his business, any distraction would have an impact on his success for the year so a mid week wedding was perfect.  Luckily Bill's friend Mike Meleen (who I worked with a couple weeks ago) decided to help by manning the shop.  On Wednesday night Lory Brasel and I spent time bottling our homemade apple wine.  It actually turned out fabulous as we bottled 25 750ml bottles of the wine.  The apple wine was made from cider that Lory and I pressed in 2011 from my orchard and included 5 different varieties; Haralson, Honeygold, Honeycrisp, Fireside, and Wolf River.  Apple wine starts out very dry so it needs to be sweetened to make it drinkable.  After doing a little taste testing I believe we got a winner and proceeded to bottle.  Lory commented that he would like to enter the wine at the Minnesota State Fair and I agreed.  We have rhubarb wine in the  fermenter and may actually get another batch of apple going.  It's pretty good stuff!

This weekend is again crazy.  We are driving to Madison to attend a funeral, my nephew Alex graduates, and my gut feel is that the walleye bite on Mille Lacs is hot.  I cannot get my motor in to get the skag and propeller fixed until Monday so I might have to use my new "used" prop.  My plan is to switch the prop, maybe head to Mille Lacs on Sunday, and let the chips fall where they may.  With the constant rain the garden is starting to weed up, the grass is growing like mad, and work is absolutely nuts!