Back From Boston

View from our table in Portsmouth, NH

Last week’s plan to get out on the lake didn't work out very well.  My pending trip to Boston on Monday morning left a lot of holes to be filled I n a very short time.  Mark Applen was up at Mille Lacs on Saturday and I knew I should have taken the afternoon off but with a ton of things to do, it didn't work out.  Just my luck he texted me with his mid-afternoon report, 5 walleyes with 1 keeper, fat and sassy on night crawlers out on the flats.  Well, what can you do?  With important meetings coming up I needed some new clothes, something I do about once every 2 years.   Shopping is easy for me as long as I am doing it, tan or brown colored Dockers, a blue or white shirt and I’m done.  My 4 year old belt looked pretty rugged so I bought one as well forgetting you need to buy one 2 inches longer than your waist size.  That’s what I did on Sunday, return it for a 40".  I was thinking about heading out for a little fishing on Sunday but with no one around to go, I decided to just keep moving down my things to do list.  I do have to tell you the garden is coming along well and the raspberries are in full season.  I've got a pretty good handle on the weeds this year however I'm afraid the 12 inches of rain we got in June has taken out my 2 mature Fireside Apple trees.  One is completely gone and the other isn't looking so good.  At first I thought that my initial orchard spray burned the trees but I had a hard time believing it.   Saturday morning's garden show on WCCO confirmed the worst, the wet spring was really hard on the trees.

Oysters ready to be shucked

At 7:00 on Monday morning the plane left for Boston with me on it, a 3 hour flight to meet my Eastern Sales Manager, Scott and call on customers.  Our first appointment on Monday at 2:00 so we stopped at Portsmouth (pronounced Port Smith) to have lunch.  With seafood abound we headed to find a place on the harbor to eat and their fresh broiled haddock was to die for.  Once done with our meetings we headed to Burlington, Vermont,  a place I’ve never been.  It was a fabulous drive as we finished that meeting then went back to Boston.  After arriving back our destination was downtown Boston to the Union Oyster House for some raw oysters and clams as an appetizer.  The Union Oyster House is the oldest continuous operating restaurant in the United States as it started serving in 1826.  The original soapstone bar where they crack open the oysters is still there, no worse for the wear.  After sucking down a couple dozen delicious and fresh oysters along with a couple dozen raw clams we moved on to the Chart House, a great on the wharf eating establishment.  Wednesday evening was already planned, my good friend Pablo Nayardy would pick me up and head over to his favorite place, the  Blue Ginger, started by an award winning chef, Ming Tsai.  Along with a great meal I got to ride in Pablo’s new 2005 Bentley GT as well, learn about his new acquisition, a vineyard in Hungary. For dessert we had a glass of the wine he is planning on making there, Tokaji Aszu or as he calls it, nectar if the kings.  It was a pretty incredible evening.  Returning to the hotel about 8:00 I had asked Scott if he had found his way up to Gloucester to see the Crow’s Nest where they filmed some of the Perfect Storm.  Only 20 minutes away we decided to take

Long Liner out of Gloucester

that off his bucket list as I've been there before.  It’s much like a tavern back home in Eleva, full of interesting characters with a few tourist (like us) that straggle in every once in a while.  After helping a Viet Nam veteran up to his room above we returned to find a guy sitting there with rubber fishing boots on.  Striking up a conversation it turned out to be a fascinating rest of the evening.  Leaving their port in St. Augustine, Florida, they work their way up following the fish be it tuna, swordfish, dolphin (Mai Mai) or sharks.  As the Gulf Stream moves the warmer waters north the fish follow and they are right behind.   Their boat is known as a long liners as they set out as much as 40 miles of line containing as many as 1500 hooks baited with squid.   The stories of his working on the boat, a 65 footer, and the excitement could have kept me there all night.  Unfortunately we did have to work the next day so we headed out but not before he invited us to see the boat and grab some swordfish bills he had sawed off for souvenirs.  Stating he preserves them by letting the red ants clean up the skin then soaking in a bath of bleach and Dawn soap.  Unfortunately they stunk pretty bad so we stopped at a Seven Eleven and bought some salt before putting them in my bathtub and salting them down.  It did help a little and not one to give up I repackaged them and checked them in.  Note, I am writing this on the plane ride back so well see if the TSA let them through.  If nothing else they’ll make a great conversation piece if I can get the smell out of them. Note: They did not show up with my baggage however as I questioned the person at the help desk at baggage claim, out came the box!

Unfortunately this is the week that I was supposed to go out to Lake Oahe with my friend Russ and Mark.  I was impossible to reschedule my Boston trip so I am curious how they did.  On the other hand my friend Bruce officially extended my invitation to fish Lac Seul again with him and Pete during the week after Labor Day so I’m pretty excited.  I might even bring my boat this time.  The plan is to finally get to Mille Lacs on Saturday to try my luck, it will be nice to get out.

Bruce Wiley's Theory and Leech Lake

Beautiful Leech Lake Sunset

As I write this post it will more than likely trigger a call from my friend Bruce Wiley, not to congratulate me rather to restate his theory about Minnesota fishing.  More on that later.  With July 4th landing on a Friday and my wife having an all day event on Saturday, my brother Steve and I decided to try our luck on Leech Lake.  The weather was suppose to be nice, the walleye population on Leech is at an all time high, and vowing to try Leech sometime after our traditional opener there, it came together.  Steve lives in La Crosse, Wisconsin and is about 3 hours from the house, we decided to meet at 10:30 on Friday.  The plan would be to  fish the late afternoon bite and again in the morning before leaving around 2:00 on Saturday.  He's very punctual, and arrived right on time.  I had looked for hotel rooms in the Walker area for Friday night with little luck finding anything.  Getting on Brindley's site they had a 1 bedroom cabin duplex open for Friday and although they normally don't do single nights they would make an exception for us as we were good customers.  Couple the room with a harbor slip for the night and it would be perfect as we could simply get up and leave, no driving back and forth, relaunching the boat, and the extra expense and time of it all.  We arrived to a pretty strong south wind and the remnants of a huge mayfly hatch, the kind that can put fishing on hold for a while.  And on hold it was. Fishing Leech in the summer isn't too much different than on opener.  The same areas hold fish yet they tend to be on the deeper flats, along the transition areas, or located on offshore structures.  With a 20+ mph wind, it limited where I wanted

Mayfly hatch

to fish.  Mike from the resort had some idea's and using our knowledge formulated a strategy.  Unfortunately it wasn't a very good one.  Staying to the north behind the larger points, we mitigated the effects of the 4 foot rollers building on the main lake and fished Grand View Flats, The Snake Pit, Goose Island Flat's, the transition areas around Ottertail point.  Leeches, crawlers, minnows, we did get a few small perch and the most exciting thing was Steve's crawler had a pretty good hit and as he reeled it up it seemed to get off the line.  A moment later it was back on, maybe it simply ran towards the boat as it seemed like a nice fish.  With net in hand  the fish was in sight.....damn, a northern.  It wasn't too bad sized and as I readied the net to land the fish it simply disappeared leaving a 5 inch perch attached to the hook.  Apparently the perch was on the line before the northern hit it and while reeling the fish in, it had let go but quickly attacked the perch again, holding on to it good.  I suppose when it finally saw the boat and net it decided that he's had enough.  The northern was large enough to cause some serious damage to the perch so we let it go, maybe the northern would finish the job.   Beside that brief moment of excitement, we did not catch one walleye.  With the hope of bringing home some fish, the only thing we caught worth looking at was the beautiful sunset.

Mayfly Hatch on Radar Near La Crosse, WI

Mayfly hatches occur in many areas of the country and here in the Midwest they can really have an effect on fishing.  Literally billions of mayflies and fishflies can hatch at once causing havoc on both the fishing and man made things like bridges and roads.  Mayflies can be a good thing as they often are a sign that the lake or river is in great shape.  In La Crosse, where Steve lives, sometimes the hatch is so huge that it shows up on weather radar as a storm would!  Notice the red, purple, and white colors over the river indicating a huge amount of insects hatching from the Mississippi.  So much that the city has to deploy their snow plows to clear the roads and bridge decks of all the dead carcasses. Mayflies spend most of their lives underwater as nymphs and as they mature make their way to the surface where they molt then take off to breed, lay their eggs then die withing 24 to 48 hours.  These hatching occur on Mille Lacs as well and have the same effect on the walleye bite.  Of course the larval stage makes for an easy meal as the fish gorge themselves on mayflies.   I tend to fish with nightcrawlers when the hatch is on as it seems like it would most duplicate what the fish are feeding on.  The hatch at Leech last week was pretty big, enough to have the guys at Brindley's get out the bobcat to clear some of the areas around their lights they forgot to turn off.  Usually there is evidence of a strong hatch through the amount of mayfly carcasses on the water yet we saw little on Friday night.  The last place we fished, north of Ottertail Point told a different story.  I don't think I ever saw so many carcasses in the water as we did there.  I swear we could have stepped out of the boat on a huge raft of them floating, it was obvious why the bite was tough.  Oh well, it should be over with by the time I get to Mille Lacs this weekend.

So, back to Bruce's theory.  As  you know, I've had the pleasure to fish with his group at Lac Seul a couple of times.  As a favor, and because he has a place close to Mille Lacs, I have offered to take him fishing on Mille Lacs any time he would like.  His answer is simple, there is no fish in Minnesota, I don't buy a license.  OK........I guess when you have access to fishing Lac Seul once a month, it's pretty hard to argue.  The problem is both Pete and Bruce read this and the last report of no fish prompted a call to reinforce his theory and I am just another avenue of proof to that thought.  My last 3 trips within the state have not been very productive yet time is on my side.  Therefore I figured if I addressed his theory up front, I might avoid another "I told you so" phone call, but I doubt it.  The fish will be biting somewhere, sometime, I'll find them.  In the meantime he can either continue to harass my feeble attempts to catch a fish in Minnesota, or maybe he'll just feel sorry for me.  We'll see!

Close to Home

Not the largest bass I have caught!

With the rain finally starting to get back to normal levels, it was a good chance to get caught up around the house.   The garden has started to somewhat dry out and my corn is looking more like corn than cattails, there's a lot of work to be done.  Many of my plants are yellowing from the constant saturation of  water just below the surface.  My dahlia's have simply rotted away, the beets refuse to come up, and the deer are having their way with the potatoes.  Oh well I did get the entire thing weeded and rototilled, cucumber fence is up, and the onions continue to amaze me as they have started to break the soil around them as they add layers to themselves.  Last weekend was predicted to be a wash out with almost 2 inches of rain forecasted, it didn't even come close.  It was quite windy and with the pending weather it seemed useless to head up to Mille Lacs Lake.  Sunday turned out to be just the opposite of what Friday's forecast had for the weekend and although it was windy, I had just enough time to sneak to a lake I had been meaning to try for a few years, Indian Lake in northwest Wright County.  It's actually quite small which would help protect from the wind.  The DNR reports have the lake with a nice abundance of 10" plus crappies with a few nice bluegills, it was certainly worth the try.  With only a few hours to fish I arrived to see the boat ramp was almost completely under water.  It wasn't too bad as it took wading in foot deep water to get to the trailer winch to disconnect the front bow eye, lucky the landing turned fairly deep at the end and was easy to tie to the dock.  After parking the car and believing that all the lakes in Wright County were under no-wake restrictions, I idled to the other side where it was calm and dropped the trolling motor.  The lake has a nice drop from the shore, the water was nice and clear with the weeds appearing in about 15 feet of water.  I stayed on the weed edge casting into shore with my ultralights as crappie were the main target. Using small rubber jigs that usually do well, all I could get were largemouth bass in the 8 - 14 inch range, and a lot of them.  On ultralight tackle and 4 pound test line, they can really put up a fight.  I suppose if I had brought out some larger bait like worms rigged Texas Style the size would have been larger yet my target were crappies.  To my surprise I only managed one 9" black crappie.  Switching colors, styles, sizes, shapes did little.  Years ago I would often go to Lake John, just a few miles from Indian Lake and do really well on crappies.  Maybe the high water has something to do with it, I don't know but it was still nice to get out.

Too much for the sandbags

So the same theme regarding water levels has been discussed many times.  Indian Lake tends to have some fairly high banks so most of the cabins around have no issues, except this one.  I am sure the owner purposely built this cabin close to the water (back then you could) assuring a great view of the lake,  A convenient walkout allowed instant access to his boat with the deck seemingly extended above the water.  Well I'm sure they only intended to appear that way, yet you can see that it is now definitely extended over the water.  Hopefully the water will recede before the winter freezes it as it's a mess now, I couldn't imagine dealing with the freezing effects on the saturated concrete.  Another interesting thing was the presence of 2 aerators operating around the lake.  In effect from April to November, most Lake Associations run them in the winter to avoid low oxygen levels which kill the fish.  Called the Indian Lake Restoration Project, I suspect the aerators help keep the water clear and moving.  I did catch a few bass around them but can't say for sure what that means.  Anyway it was good to get out, even for a few hours, and discover a different lake.  With such of positive lake report I know I'll be back there again sometime for those crappies.

I finally found time to switch my DSL Internet speed from 1.5 MB to 12 MB.  Calling CenturyLink they assured me ti was nothing more than switching a filter and I shouldn't notice any disruption in service......famous last words.  After spending and hour with their tech support, they concluded that my modem wasn't up to the standards it needs to be.  Because it was late, the only place open was Walmart and luckily they had one.  Between Centurylink's India Tech Support and NetGear's India Tech Support, I was finally connected and downloading by 2:00 AM this morning.  Although I do think computers are nothing but a passing fad anyway, I'm not a total idiot but geez!  Looking back, a good simple set of instructions and an expectation of time needed to allow the components to make the right decisions would have saved me about 3 hours.  Oh well.  My brother Steve and I are heading for Leech Lake on Friday to spend the night at Brindley's and fish both the evening bite and most of Saturday.  Word is the walleye bite has slowed because of the mayfly hatch and Mille Lacs is finally turning on.  Just my luck however it will be nice to see the guys at the resort again.  Hopefully we can change that slow bit into a fish fry.

Back on Mille Lacs

Austin's 21 incher

Saturday was finally the first day I was able to fish Mille Lacs Lake since fishing opener on May 11th.  It's the latest the boat has been absent from the lake since I can remember.  Usually Memorial Day is the first run to the big lake but because the boat was in the shop and last week was too windy, I'm about 4 weeks later than normal.  My good friend Hondro Zeller and his family were planning on camping at Father Hennepin State Park last weekend.  Hondro called me to get some advise on making spinner rigs and what beads to use.  After a few tips I suggested we meet on Saturday at Lundeens, we could split up his family in our boats then he could follow me to the summer haunts of the Mille Lacs walleye's.  Arriving about 1:00 we headed for the landing by the Casino, I was surprised that it was almost full.  Fishing reports haven't been very good as the rain may have put a damper on things.  Usually this time of year would find a person parking in the ditch along the road, maybe blocks away as the mud bite tends to be pretty good until the middle of July. With all the negative publicity about Mille Lacs, fisherman have been scarce as the area businesses are feeling the pinch of reduced limits, bad press, and a general feeling of despair about the fishery.  Note, my friends Jeff King and Keith Holtan, Kenai Alaska guides understand.  Never the less the best time to go fishing is anytime so we launched our boats, split up the crew where Hondro's wife Faith and daughter-in-law Brittney went with him while both Hondro's son's Austin and Anders went with me.  Like most guys I have a milk run for this time of year.  Hit the Humps first, head to Sherman's Flat, then to 7 Mile, try 9 Mile, maybe pull some lead core before doing one last trolling rig up and down Indian Point.  Seldom do I ever get past Sherman's however this time it was tough.  Marking quite a few fish on the graph, we also marked huge schools of bait fish as the fish have plenty to eat.  As Hondro followed us to Sherman's his wife Faith nailed a 24.5 inch walleye, her biggest ever.  It was pretty funny as Hondro was trying to get the net in place when she yelled "Get out of my way!" as she didn't want to lose it.  It's fun to see someone get excited about fishing as she later thanked me for helping her catch

Hondro Zeller at his finest!

it by bringing them to the right spot.  The fish got me excited as I had seen them on the graph, maybe the fish are turning on.  We continued to troll up the Cut and finally caught the one and only walleye in my boat for the day, this nice 21" fish that Austin nailed.  I had fished before with Hondro and Anders but this was my first time with Austin.  He was pretty excited and even though that was the only one we caught, he would have stayed out all day.   We continued the routine heading for 7 Mile with nothing to show, went to 9 Mile and experienced the same, did some deep trolling before heading back to Sherman's where Hondro went back to.  Just as we were pulling up Hondro landed another nice walleye.  As he held it up, I snapped this picture.  I'm not exactly sure what he is showing off but I know his wife sure thinks he's a stud!  We ended the day with a trolling run up Indian Point hoping to get some small mouth bass but no luck.  Back at the landing we loaded the boats and headed back to town.  It was great to get back on the lake and with some stable weather in the forecast it simply has to get better.  Some observations, the water is a high as I can remember as we had to jump onto the docks to get in the boat.  The reports of super clear water caused by a number of things like the zebra mussels had certainly changed from my point of view.  Seeing only about 6 feet down, the water was in fact pretty churned up, which is good for fishing.  Some reports even have a huge zebra mussel die off as the winds had pushed a lot of dead shells onto the shorelines during the last storm.  The slow bite could be contributed to the large amount of small perch, again a nice sign.  I still have little confidence that our Minnesota DNR have a clue on how to fix the lake as they just spent 15 years screwing it up.  There is a ton of theories but I find it interesting that Lac Seul had the same problem so they bought out the netters and implemented an 18 - 21 inch protected slot for walleyes and it's an amazing fishery.  These are the exact same fish size that we target on Mille Lacs.  Some one has to wonder the logic but I guess the rest of use are just too stupid!

Fish at 30 feet

So, I said we were marking a lot of fish on Saturday so here's a picture of what that means. While deep water trolling in "No Man's Land" we kept driving over pods of fish that were suspended at 30 - 32 feet in 36 feet of water.  The left side is the GPS display and you can see we are just about straight north of 9 Mile Flat by about a half mile.  The right side is my sonar display and you can see a pod of 3 fish on the left side with another tight to the bottom as the next fish is starting to appear.  We use search type baits like Reef Runners for the planar boards and #5 Shad Raps for the lead lines.  These are great  reaction baits and suspended fish often mean active fish, they should have had a hit them just because!  Well there are no pictures for a reason, none of the fish were hungry or mad enough to hit the lures.  The rain last week has caused the Mississippi River near the house to be at it's highest level all year and it's really flowing through the park just down the road.  I'm anxious to get on the river but the way it's going it will be a while.  In the meantime my plans to fish Lake Oahe has been disrupted by a business trip that can only be scheduled at the same time.  I did enjoy the fishing last year so I'll have to make other plans.  My good friend Joe has thrown out the possibility of going on a 2 day tuna fishing trip out of San Diego later this summer.  With the latest El Nino occurring this could be a lot of fun if you don't get sea sick.  I've caught 10 - 15 pound Yellow Fin and Black Fin tuna and they are by far the fastest and hardest pulling fish pound for pound.  Another friend, Jim Cox has been on these trips and 40 pounders are not uncommon.  I couldn't even imagine.   Hopefully I can get to Mille Lacs again this week, with the stable weather we may finally hit some active fish.

The Boat is Back

Example of a Bow Fishing Boat

After 4 weeks of being in the shop I finally picked up my boat from Frankie's on Friday night.  It was pretty hectic at the dealership as they were sponsoring a Bow Fishing Tournament for carp, dogfish (bowfin), and gar.  The tournament started at 10:00 that evening and ended at 10:00 the next morning.  It looked pretty interesting as they had 37 team entries which drew which lake they were allowed to fish on, which keep the amount of traffic on any one lake to a minimum.  Bow fishing carp consists of going on the lake at night with a special boat rigged for this type of sport.  Generally there is a platform for the shooters, lights to shine into the water, and a generator to power those lights for an extended period of time.   Once the sun goes down the carp cruise the shallows in search for food.  Using the lights, it's pretty easy to see the fish but it takes a knack to actually hit them with an arrow.  The water causes the light to refract and if you are looking at a fish under water its actually closer than they look.  Therefore you must shoot below where the fish appears or the arrow will go right over the fish.  It takes a few shots to get a feel for how much refraction verses the depth verses the distance and most people tend to miss a lot of fish at first.  When I was about 15 we all had re-curve bows and in the spring the carp would come into the back sloughs carved out from the meandering Buffalo River which ran through Eleva.  Carp Slough (later we named it Northern Slough) was a favorite spot as it had a wide opening into the river and the carp would be in there thick.  Today carp shooting is much more advanced and it looks like fun as you can hire a guide to take you out for a few hours.   Well, when I got my boat home and started putting it back together I discovered they had given me the wrong stern light.  Back up to Frankie's in the morning, I arrived just in time for the weigh in.  Set up like a bass tournament, all the guys lined up as they drove their boats into the shop area where the guys would unload their fish, count and then weigh the largest.  To win the tournament, you had to bring in the largest fish.  In case of a tie, the number of fish brought in was next.  All together it was a slow night as a cold front came through and the wind made the conditions tough.  326 fish were shot and the winning carp weighed 34.18 pounds, a monster.  I was thinking about grabbing a couple of the smaller ones to take home and smoke but with having to get the boat ready and dealing with the rain,  I decided it would be too much work.

Rockin' and a rollin'

The boat looks great and pictures would not do it justice.  My earlier post showing the damage included a number of deep gouges in the gel coat, which is poly-flake to make it nice and glittery.  The finished product looks just like new and you cannot even tell there was any damage.  It's impressive what they can do as I feel like I got a brand new boat back.  Of course, for $6400 I suppose it better look good!  The nice thing is it forced me to reorganize the boat, vacuum out everything, rearrange my rod storage, clean up the anchor storage area, and throw away all the stuff that seems to accumulate over time.  With everything back in order the plan was to head to Mille Lacs on Sunday and see if she still recognizes me.  Sunday morning was greeted with rain, something we have been inundated with lately, and by the time it lifted north a 30 mph wind took it's place.  Too rough to fish I decided to simply drive my motorcycle up to Lundeen's and finish some electrical repair work that I had started the week before.  Going up Hwy 47 I arrived at the lake stopping at the Scenic Overlook just north of Isle, MN.  I'm glad the boat stayed home as there were 4 - 5 foot rollers coming into shore, it would have been extremely uncomfortable fishing in this wind for sure.  It turned out for the better as it gave me enough time to fix both Bill's commercial coffee maker and cappuccino machine the right way and not just kludge it together. With my mission accomplished it looks like next week will be the first time since opener that the boat will be out.  I have made arrangements with my friend Hondro to meet him at Mille Lacs on Saturday, providing the rain stops.

This Friday is our annual ENA golf tournament where we raise money to help families of children who are suffering from cancer or other devastating conditions.  We raise close to $25,000 each year and this is our 12th annual.  Our projections should put us at over $300,000 raised for a great cause.  The nice thing is we give 100% of our proceeds as everyone works hard as a volunteer for the simple satisfaction that the work is gratifying.  The garden is a mess as we have had at least 10 - 12 inches of rain during the last 2 weeks and every time I try weed or plant the mud swallows my shoes.  It looks like my second crop of sweet corn is going to be pretty late.  On the other hand, as I said last week, those onions are blue ribbon bound!

No Boat Yet

AIM's Walleye Length to Weight Conversion

It's been a month now since my bonehead move on Leech Lake, hitting another boat.  As stated the damages definitely required a major repair as I brought it into Frankie's the day I returned from opener. After getting all the estimates and settling with my insurance company, it's simply a matter of getting in line with the body shop and everything points to it being ready for this weekend.  Of course getting the boat back doesn't necessarily mean that it's ready to go.  Knowing that it would probably be at the repair shop for 3 - 4 weeks I removed pretty much everything that wasn't bolted down, you never know.  It only took about an hour to empty all of the compartments out however putting all of the stuff back in will be another story.  This will be a great time to clean up everything, sort through the good and the bad, kind of like getting a new boat!  Having expected it a week earlier, I have resigned myself to the fact that it's probably a fair punishment if you may, for damaging it in the first place.  Never the less I am getting restless as the water temps on Mille Lacs are now in the low 60's and the mudflat bite should be starting to turn on.  There was a catch and release tournament on Mille Lacs last Sunday at the Red Door put on by the AIM Pro Walleye Series (read the story here).  This is a great venue for the lake as the teams would turn in their top 5 fish caught.  I understand that the fish were assigned a weight based on a method given to all boats.  Each fish was required to have it's picture taken with a specially formatted SD Card, in a provided measuring trough, and any discrepancy from the strict rules resulted in disqualification of that fish, and I understood there were a few.  Here are the AIM Rules if you are interested.  Although the total results of the tournament have not been officially released the winner, Bob Nitti's (Hunter's Point Resort) team submitted 5 fish that weighed 38.13 pounds, over a 7 1/2 pound average.  In the press release referenced earlier, the winning strategy was using slip bobbers with leeches on the top of the flats.  Pretty impressive, which brings me back to my boat.  I'll have to scratch that itch pretty soon as i get really excited about 26 - 28 inch walleyes that roam Sherman's Flat this time of year.

Onions!

So, while the boats away it's given me a great opportunity to get caught up on a few things around the house.  It's not that I haven't had a fair number of times fishing as 3 days at Lac Seul feels like a month of fishing around here.  I would never say that that's satisfactory yet it's nice to have the pole shed half cleaned out, the garden planted, and the lawn is starting to look pretty good.  It's been a very wet and late spring which has delayed a my gardening as the soil continues to be saturated causing it to lump then dry hard after tilling.  It's really almost too hard to till but it's got to be done.  Because of this my potatoes are just poking through, the first rows of corn is about 2 inches high, but wow, my onions are looking pretty dang good.  Last year I'm sure that they were planted too deep and never really developed any bulbs of a decent size.  This year we ordered onions from Texas, Long Day varieties for our long summer days, as well special onion fertilizer with trace nutrients.  The instructions state to also us a 23-0-0 fertilizer 2 weeks after planting to boost the tops of the onions.  Having 46-0-0, I simply used half the recommended application rate and did it ever help as my onions have never looked so good.  I guess we'll see in another month or two how they turn out.  Another thing I did was spray my apple trees for the first time.  Getting a $50 coupon from my neighbor Pete, I bought a 26 gallon tree sprayer, big enough to spray all of my apple trees in one mixing.  This thing will spray 30 feet vertically and does a great job, as long as I mix the orchard spray correctly.  My first batch didn't turn out too well as I doubled the dose and instead of mixing 2 TBS per gallon I mixed 2 ounce per gallon.  Well, the trees did not like that one bit as it burned the leaf tips.  Worried I might have killed the trees, they are finally coming back and looking pretty good......another lesson learned, haste makes waste.

Besides getting the Ranger back and ready, I have been working on my Jon Boat for the Mississippi River.  Our steady rain has keep the river close to flood stage for the last 6 weeks but it's starting to recede.  I need to look for a 25 hp short shaft motor as the 15 hp Evinrude that's on it is not quite enough power for 2 guys. I do like fishing the river and is always my short term escape when I have a few hours to kill.  

Lac Seul, Part 2.

Pete with a nice walleye

So how good is fishing at Lac Seul?  Well, from a consistent standpoint, it's probably the best place I have fished yet.  Starting at around 2:00 on Tuesday afternoon till my final cast on Thursday night, I estimate that both Pete and I landed over 300 walleyes, maybe 400 as you just start losing count after a while.  The bait of choice is a simple 1/4 ounce gold colored jig with a rainbow minnow yet I was determined to buck the trend.  Armed with a good selection of Berkeley Gulp and the appropriate 1/4 ounce jig heads I am pretty satisfied with the results.   My technique was a method perfected by The Griz, a famous walleye guide from Minnesota.  I have met Dick Grizinski many times at both the local sports shows and at Frankies, my boat dealer. The Griz is a pretty well known guide, has a website www.fishwiththegriz.com, and has made Snap Jigging a signature presentation.  An interesting side note, my 2008 Ranger 620T was ordered for The Griz but certain circumstances prevented him from taking delivery and in 2009 I picked up his boat.  So, what is snap jigging?  It's a simple technique of letting a jig settle to the bottom the quickly snapping your rod a foot or so causing the jig to jump off the bottom before settling back down.  I decided to try it on Leech this year as the bite was difficult and had some success.  The problem with snap jigging is the walleyes usually hit it on the way down just when you have the most slack in your line.  Often you can see the fish hit your jig via movement in the line or simply the next time you snap there's a solid hook set and the fight is on.  You do tend to miss some fish as they often hit the jig before you have time to react yet I think the excitement of the strike outweighs the negative aspects of snap jigging.  Using Gulp and snap jigging results in some amazing strikes and I think its much more exciting than simply dragging a jig and minnow.  Looking at our catch rates, I would have to say that my strategy caught as many walleyes as the traditional methods but I didn't have to deal with constantly rebaiting with minnows.  Sharp hooks and special jig heads that have a straight hook shaft with a wire bait holder worked great, my preference is VMC Neon Moon Eye Jig which worked great in combination with Gulp Alive Minnow Grub.

A nice 22 inch Walleye

Fishing was focused in shallow areas on or near points and in 4 - 12 feet of water.  Personally I felt the fish were in very shallow and I did really well casting into the shorelines.  Chamberlain Narrows is a necked down area where the walleyes pass through on their annual spawning migrations and they certainly were in the area last week.  Quite honestly we seldom ventured more than a mile from camp as the walleyes seemed to be everywhere.  One of the best spots was about 300 yards across the channel, anchored in 10 feet of water.  I took a video that shows Pete and I hooking 17 walleyes in 17 minutes.  This wasn't untypical as it seemed everywhere we went we caught fish.  Lac Seul has a slot limit where all walleyes between 18 - 21 inches have to be released, a total of 4 fish per person which only 1 can be over 21 inches. One of the other interesting regulations is that if you keep a fish, you have to kill it.  We accomplished this by simply folding back their heads and breaking the neck.  It's a big fine to have a live fish on board so it's important to make sure the fish are dead.   You can bring back 4 walleyes and luckily you can eat what you want and eat we did.  Bruce has a nice propane cooker on the deck of the cabin and using a deep cast iron frying pan (I call it a chicken cooker) we had fish each night to compliment or main meals. On Wednesday night Garith made his "infamous" fish boil.  Using Zatarain's Crawfish-Shrimp-and-Crab-Boil-In-a-Bag, I was skeptical but after looking at the ingredients ( I am severely allergic to crustaceans) and seeing it was just spices, I couldn't wait.  Apparently Garith is the master at this and after boiling rutabagas, carrots, potatoes, in the pot with the spice bag he added walleye when the water became minimal.  After using a ladle to transfer to your plate, he had melted butter to pour over the mixture and using a little salt and pepper I got to admit it was seriously fabulous.   On Thursday night we had Surf and Turf when Garith made a prime rib and we cooked up the remaining walleyes needed to keep us legal.  I have decided that Garith and I make a great pair!  Along with being his co-pilot, we have the same philosophies, same tastes, same attitudes, and we like the same stuff.  It's never too late to meet new friends!

Cessna at Sunset

I did take some videos of the plane then uploaded them on YouTube with the help of my smarter engineer, Welly Chou.  They are pretty interesting and if you have a fast internet connection, change the resolution to 720P or 1080P, it's pretty incredible.  Here are the links for your convenience.  The first is when we land at Lac Seul called Arriving at Chamberlain Narrows.  Turn the volume up to hear the distinctive sound of a 9 cylinder Pratt and Whitney Rotary Engine  It's really cool.  Next is Parking the Beaver, again a short clip of Garith driving the plane to it's parking spot.  Finally a parting shot of our departure from fishing heaven on Lac Seul called Leaving Chamberlain Narrows. Outpost.  Our flight back took a little longer as we bucked a 20 knot headwind most of the way.  Taking off at 7:30 we stopped at Scotty's Seaplane Base on Crane lake to go through US Customs and refill the gas tanks.  Dropping Tom off at Round Lake, we took off just as Bruce landed his Cessna.  A quick flyover to say goodbye to Bruce and Wayne, we head back to Surfside arriving by 2:20. With plenty to do it was back to the same old grind, planting the garden and getting caught up because the late spring.  Here is one of my more interesting pictures as I walked down to the beach at sunset to capture Bruce's plane, a Cessna with amphibious floats. Certainly after a day of fishing the show Mother Nature put on each night was incredible.

With a sad heart I also learned this week that a fellow fisherman and friend had died over the weekend, Bernie Konter.  Bernie was from my wife's home town of Independence, Wisconsin and was a friend of her brother, John. Back when I first started blogging in 2008, Bernie was one of my first subject, even before I started adding tags to the posts.  Bernie Konter's Fall Fest Pickles apparently caught the attention of his daughter Tonya of Wilmar, MN and on Monday night while I was helping Adam with his boat I received a phone call from a 320 area code.  Answering it, I learned that Bernie's family had searched his name and discovered my post of almost 6 years ago. I was also told that he passed away on Saturday at the young age of 70 years old.  Bernie was a good man as he moved to Buffalo City, Wisconsin after he retired to be closer to his love of the Mississippi River and fishing.  For some reason he was always very nice to me as our relationship was based on the occasional running into each other and talking about fishing.  In 2008 he called to see if I'd meet him and his family at Mille Lacs and I couldn't refuse.  Bernie was famous for his Fall Fest Pickles, a recipe that I make every year without fail.  He loved the outdoors and I guess my only regrets will be not spending more time with him.  Maybe in another life, God bless you Bernie and I hope there's a fishing pole waiting for you somewhere.

Back From Lac Seul, Part 1

Our Ride Awaits!

Staying on plan and picking up Pete at 5:45 on Tuesday morning we headed over to meet our pilot Garith before driving to Surfside Sea Plane Base, our starting point.  Loading the plane took a few minutes and by 6:30 we were in the air.  I have to confess it was pretty exciting as they put me in the copilots seat where I could monitor everything that was going on.  Before leaving Bruce Fishbeck, one of our electrical engineers at work helped me with downloading an app for my phone used by private pilots for navigation.  With a flight plan set we started the plane and idled out into the lake for takeoff.  First thing I was told by Garith was never leave my seat until the engine is stopped.  Not that I didn't need to be told but it was still good advice as I have a fondness for my head staying attached to the rest of my body.  After warming the engine to the required 60 degrees C we pointed the plane into the wind and hit the throttle.  The de Havilland Beaver is a workhorse of a plane.  With the capability of carrying 2000 pounds of cargo it's a big plane yet didn't take long to get the floats on plane before lifting off the water. Actually I used one of my apps to monitor our speed at takeoff and was impressed at lifting off the water at about 50 knots.  The weather was light rain and a pretty low cloud ceiling so we flew about 1000 feet above the ground, watching

Our host, Garith!

for towers and other obstacles.  Admittedly I was somewhat surprised how low we flew yet after a few minutes it felt comfortable as the view was outstanding, even in the rain.  Our destination was Round Lake, on the northeast corner of Mille Lacs Lake, it was very cool to see the terrain that I drive by frequently.  As we arrived over Mille Lacs, one could see the skies were clear to the north giving us clear sailing to Lac Seul. Landing on Round we picked up Tom then headed for Sand Point Lake Canadian Customs just north of Crane Lake before departing for the Chamberlain Narrows.  Leaving Surfside at 6:30, we touched down at our destination at 11:15 4 hours, 45 minutes later.  It sure beats driving, which would have taken almost 11 hours to get to the outpost camp by road and boat. Our pilot Garith was fabulous!  As stated, Pete let me sit up in the copilots seat because he knew I would be interested in what was going on.  There is a lot going on to fly the plane from retracting the steering rudders, pumping the flaps to lower them for takeoff and landing, keeping the gas tanks balanced (there were 5 on this plane holding about 140 gallons), adjusting throttle, propeller pitch, fuel mixture, elevator position, altimeter, radio frequencies, GPS destination points, and other critical aspects of flying.  The engine is a 9 cylinder Pratt and Whitney rotary engine and has a distinct rumble as it powers up as smoke clears from the cylinders.  I'm not sure how many hours Garith had behind the stick but I can attest to the smoothness of our takeoffs and landings as well his willingness to share some of that knowledge with a curious passenger.  Spending 10 hours next to the guy was a pure pleasure and hopefully I will get another chance to fly with him.

Sunset on Chamberlain Narrows

Arriving at Lac Seul Outpost our arrival committee, Bruce Wiley and Wayne had flown up a few days earlier and as requested, had the frying pan ready for our first lunch, fresh walleye!  It just doesn't get any better than that, get off the plane, unload, and fill up on the best meal there is.  After getting settled in and cleaning up,  Pete and I loaded the boat and by 1:30 we were fishing.  The Chamberlain Narrows area is a necked down area in the northeast section of Lac Seul, a huge reservoir about 200 miles north of the US/Canadian border.  There is always a little current going through the narrows and is a major migration route for walleyes moving to and from the spawing areas.  Because the spawn was just completed the fish were shallow, often less than 5 feet.  Our first stop was across the channel from the outpost, about 300 yards.  Unfortunately the boats did not have depth finders so it was figuring out via the old fashioned way, drop your jig until it stops then pull it up and go from there.  Pete is very familiar with the area and is knowledgeable where the shallower underwater points and sand bars are located so it wasn't that difficult.  The current allowed us to drift the areas looking for active fish before anchoring to pitch jigs.  Starting at 10 - 12 feet we started catching fish almost immediately.  It seems like the fish would move through in waves as we could catch 5 - 10 walleyes before it would be quiet for a 10 minutes or so before starting again.  Fishing till around 7:00, I guess we caught and released over 60 walleyes as we kept 4 of them for supper.  Lac Seul has a nice slot limit where all fish between 18" and 21" must be released and you can keep one over 21".  We basically let everything over 18 inches go back in the water.  A short ride back to camp, I cleaned everyone's fish before firing up the cast iron frying pan to make supper.  One of the things I showed the guys was how to "zipper" a walleye.  It's always fun to teach old guys new tricks and this was a good one.  A simple way to remove the pin bones in a walleye fillet, it makes cooking and eating them a lot more pleasurable.  After a great meal and cleaning up we we settled down for a nice cocktail of TX Whiskey, brought to me by my good friend Matt Davis from Texas, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset on Chamberlain Narrows.

There is too much to write in a short time as there is a lot going on.  Trying to get the garden in before the rains came this weekend, it's always something.  I have some video's to download and as Paul Harvey would say, "The rest of the story" will have to wait till next week.  Hopefully I can get back on schedule with some interesting accounts, pictures, and fishing tales of my trip.

Finally Settling Down

de Havilland Beaver Float Plane

Well, they say time heals everything as it's been over a week since my star performance on Leech Lake last Monday.  I've settled down a bit, maybe being without my boat serves a good purpose.  The Ranger is at Frankies, my dealer waiting in line to get repaired.  The final damages amounted to over $6000 and I've been assured it will be as good as new.  Although my boat is 6 years old, I'm glad they didn't total it as I really like my layout.  The 2009 and newer Ranger 620T has some nuances that I don't care for and as well,  this 2008 boat is tricked out just the way I like it and it would be tough to start all over.   The boat should go into the shop for repair next week and should be ready to go by June 1st (hopefully!).  Normally the Memorial Day weekend means the first trip to Mille Lacs to pre-fish for the MTT (Minnesota Tournament Trail) that Mark Applen and I usually fish.  This year everything is tight including the slot limit at Mille Lacs and we may not even make it.  It's a far cry from our first time we fished the MTT on Mille Lacs as we took 3rd place, good for $1060 towards the Mark's charity however it's kind of been downhill from there.  Fortunately the end of May should turn out to be successful as I will be accompanying my neighbor Pete Sipe, his friend Bruce, and 3 other guys to Lac Seul Lake  in Ontario, Canada.  The plan is to meet at Surfside Seaplane Base in Lino Lakes and jump on board a de Havilland Beaver float plane. After stopping at a lake north of Mille Lacs to pick up a fourth passenger, it's back up in the air heading for the Seaplane base at Fort Francis, Ontario.  Once we have cleared Canadian Customs its off to Lac Seul Outpost located on the northeast portion of the lake on Chamberlain Narrows and about 2 air hours from Fort Francis.  The Chamberlain Narrows area is known for the early season walleye fishing as the fish travel through the channel during the spawning season.  I'm cautious in predicting anything other than a great time, Pete claims that every year someone usually get a 30+ inch walleye, that would be sweet. Although I have flown in float planes before, it's usually for only 40 minutes or so as we did this in Alaska a few years ago.  This trip is scheduled to take about 5 hours total with over 4 hours in the air.  I'm pretty excited as the guys want me to sit in the co-pilots seat in front, I'll never relax!   The plan is to fish next Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday before heading back south on Friday morning.  With limited time to write and the need to take advantage of my fishing location, I suspect next weeks blog will be late. Oh well, here's hoping the pictures will be worth it.

Team Walleye

Last weekend was spent working on the garden and attending my nieces annual dance recital in Osseo, Wisconsin.  It's quite interesting as in includes young girls dancing with their fathers to high school seniors doing complex routines.  My niece Kaylee does an excellent job as I think she's bound for stardom some day.  After having treats at the local Dairy Queen, it was off to see my mom and brother in Eleva.  We always bring mom a load of groceries as she doesn't get out as much as she would like.  Heading back home also allowed me to return my Scheels One Titanium Spinning rod that had the tip break off last week. Scheels has a no nonsense guarantee on this rod, break it for any reason and return it for a new one.  Because it broke right at the base of the tip, I suppose one could have just glued a new tip one it and it would be as good as new.  On the other hand, a deal is a deal and they replaced it, no questions asked.  This rod is a one piece 7 footer and has become one of my favorites in the boat.  Paired with a Shimano CI4 2500 reel, it's incredibly light.  I love the way it loads up when a walleye barely grabs the bait, something that happens quite a bit on Leech.  With an extra fast tip you can feel the slightest pressure without ripping the bait out of it's mouth.  Of course being 7 feet long, one has to be careful when putting it back in the rod lockers.  This Memorial Day weekend is our family reunion side on Saturday, Sunday and Monday is garden planting time as well, get everything packed for Tuesday.  The other thing to do this weekend, replace the Stars and Stripes that I fly at the house.  Buying the good embroidered flags,  they still only seem to last about 6 months so Memorial Day and Veterans Day has become my reminders to get this done.  Monday is packing day, it's going to be a busy weekend.

Two things to leave you with........one, a picture of Team Walleye.  We almost forgot to take it as 3 of our guys had already left.  Shows you what happens without our fearless leader Ron Edberg.  The other thing is this is the last post of my 6th year of writing the blog, next week will start my 7th.  I appreciate the support as Fishin' With Dave approaches 60,000 hits.  Time sure does fly.

A Night to be Thankful

When the Ranger meets a Yamaha

Last week was our 41st Annual Team Walleye fishing opener at Leech Lake.  There is a lot to tell however I am compelled to write about my experience on Monday night as we were leaving to fish the evening session. After enjoying a wonderful steak dinner for the last meal of our stay at Leech Lake Jeremy, Jared, and myself were determined to make the night a successful outing and as always, was anxious to get going.  I'm not as nervous as I used to be and was one of the last to leave the dock which was OK as the bite hadn't been very good anyway.  Leaving the harbor at around 6:10, I headed out about 200 to 300 yards off shore as Monday night finds very few boats on the lake.  Although the rain made driving difficult, never the less it was OK as we headed out to Pine Point.  As we left I scanned the path ahead and as expected it was clear. With my passengers on the left side of the boat, I usually ask them to keep an eye out as they form my blind spot but with nobody on the lake, I felt we were safe.  We hadn't gone a mile when out of nowhere the boat hit something hard..............another boat.   Everything turned to slow motion as I caught the boat in the corner of my eye as we passed by.  Immediately I turned around to find we had clipped the back end of a Lund, hit the motor as we glanced off.  What went through my mind is every boat owners nightmare yet my first impression was to check my passengers then return to the other boat to make sure they were OK. Fortunately they were understandably shaken but fine, we spent the next few minutes calming down.  Mike, the owner of the boat was surprisingly gracious as his concerns were the same as mine, everyone was still in one piece, shaken but unscathed.  With the rain coming down I managed to give him my information while he already had his friend coming to pull him in.  Finding out he was staying in our old cabin at Brindley's I would meet him later that evening.  After insisting that he needed no further help we decided to stay our course and fish the rest of the evening.  Returning at 10:15, I had already called my insurance and secured a claim number and contact information to give to Mike.  After a brief talk he went out of his way to assure me that everything was fine, boats can be fixed.

My Ranger damage

 Being the guy that ruined his night and could have made his life much more difficult, Mike is an amazing person.  Back at the cabin the Cass County Sheriff's deputy showed up to take a statement. He was a very nice guy as I cooperated fully with his requests.  Stopping at the resort office in the morning, I talked to Tim and Greg about the previous evening while another man was sitting at the counter having coffee.  Being right there he looked at me and explained that Mike and him broadsided a boat 5 years ago, something that I remembered.  I guess you never know how it feels until it's happened to you.  Bottom line for me is the fact that I always have high expectations and this shattered it.  My friends have told me that it should be a humbling experience as I am always on the Guy's case to be better, I guess it's my nature. Thinking about it I'm not sure humbling is the way I feel.  Embarrassed, angry at myself as I look back at everything that lead up to the event, looking at what I did wrong, I take full responsibility.  I am in charge of the boat and assuming that I can count on anyone to assure a safe trip is simply wrong.  The safety of my passengers and those who share the waters is on me, something that I do understand, one can never let his guard down.  As far as being humbled, I don't need to run over a boat to be humbled. On the other hand, dealing with Mike and asking for his forgiveness, which he accepted, that's humbling.

My first Walleye of the Season

So, I did catch some fish! Honestly the fishing was quite a bit slower than we expected as 2008 had ice on the lake as we fished and the fishing was fabulous.  Usually we fish with large shiners however the late spring assured that the selection would be limited as we settled for what we could get, about the size of a standard fathead minnow.  Along with small shiners we did take about 2 dozen small pike sucker minnows, a decision that would prove to be successful.  Thinking the walleyes were shallow it was difficult to establish a pattern. Some caught them in 12 feet while others did well in 8 feet.  We divide our fishing into 6 sessions, one in the morning and one after dinner for 3 days.  With 21 guys and 7 boats, 3 guys to a boat, success varied from 5 walleyes over 12 inches per boat to no walleyes caught.  It wasn't till Monday night before the fish really started turning on.  There was a lot of 20 to 26 inch walleyes caught with few under 20 inches, the top of the slot.  The population of large walleyes prompted the DNR to move the protected slot from 18" - 26" protected to 20" - 26" protected.  Apparently the smaller males had not come into the shallows yet to spawn and the whole lake was in flux.  For the first 2 days most of the walleyes were caught in 10 - 12 feet of water and we sure worked for them.  Monday afternoon I drove to Reed's Sports in Walker and after picking up a few stinger hooks, some 12# monofilament line, and some shiner minnows, my nephew Kevin Anderson and I contemplated the advice.....go deep, the fish haven't hit the shallows yet.  Something told me that there still has to be something somewhere as we headed back to the cabin.  After having a nice steak then dealing with my issue, Jared, Jeremy and I headed to Duck Point, an area that had produced a number of fish over the last 2 days to try to nail some walleyes.  We did manage to get 2 keeper walleyes in about 90 minutes however my plan was to troll shad raps on the east side of Ottertail Point.  At 8:25 we headed over and started trolling Shad Raps in 5 - 7 feet of water, about 40 feet from the rocky shoreline.  I did this on Sunday night and only caught 3 yet I just had the feeling.  The feeling is something difficult to explain as it's almost an

My Nephew Kevin

instinct emotion.  Following my instinct has proved successful as a number of times my boat and the guys in it have taken advantage to win the biggest fish, most pints, and best team.  Well, trolling 1 1/2 hours we managed to catch 11 walleyes in the boat, good for the best single session points total and allowed me to wind the best points total for the tournament.  What was more important, Jeremy caught 4 walleyes using a method that only I tend to use...he was pretty happy.  Of the 11 walleyes caught 9 of them were under 20 inches that we could keep.  With keeper walleyes at a premium, it was a welcome addition to our total catch.  We do keep track of our catch rates with a scoring system on Sunday we hold a draft, the lowest point total can chose who he fishes with.  Because there is 2 guys per boat we have 2 rounds.   I was lucky to have my nephew Kevin Anderson as well as my great friend, Mark Taylor.  While fishing was challenging, Kevin caught a nice walleye, about 23 inches.  He is a great guy and I love hanging around with him as he's not afraid to work and loves to fish.  Unfortunately Kevin's score for 6 sessions of fishing was dismal at best and he ended up receiving the DCS (Didn't Catch S**t) Award for the least amount of points.  Mostly fishing with his dad who is my brother, they didn't do very well.  Someday he'll learn who he needs to align himself with, Uncle Dave or Dad!  In the end we had a great time.  Adam got a full workout with his new boat, we still had enough fish for our Sunday Night Fish Fry, and were still able to bring a couple of fish home.  It's been 2 years since we last fished Leech and quite honestly, it seemed like yesterday.  It's always fun to see Tim, Greg, and Paris at Brindley's and we are already planning for next year, something that will come too soon.  Thanks Mark Mayerich for arranging a great trip, we could not do it without you.

All I can say is be safe, pay attention, and have fun.  Stuff happens and when it happens to you, learn from your mistakes.

Ice Out and St. Louis

Gateway Arch in St. Louis

Last week brought me to St. Louis for the TTA's (The Transformer Association) Spring Meeting.  Having served as it's President for 2 years, I now simply sit on the board as an adviser as the new guys coming up the ranks can handle all of the difficult work.  I have never been to St. Louis before so it was exciting to travel to a new destination.  Traveling with my production manager, Rich Rebella, he picked me up at 4:45 AM as we had a 6:55 flight to make.  Forgetting to make a car reservation, I quickly booked something on Expedia before we left, not the cheapest route to go but at least Rich would have some transportation as I attended the board meeting.  Well while on the plane we decided that the car was stupid and as the plane landed it was clear that St. Louis had a light rail line.  After getting our bags and calling the hotel it was $4.00 a person to ride the train from the airport, a far cry from the $300 car rental.  As we rode downtown I started thinking about my friend Chuck Teasley, I seemed to remember he lived close to St.Louis. A quick text and it was confirmed, he would gladly pick us up Thursday afternoon , take us to Bass Pro Shop then drop us off at the airport, a pretty good deal.  With two days of meetings behind us Rich and I headed across the street to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which has the Gateway Arch as it's main symbol.  At  630 feet above the foundation, the Gateway arch is the largest free standing arch in the world and the tallest man made monument in the United States.  The method was pretty interesting it get to the observation area located at the top, one entered a small pod where up to 5 people fit into some tight quarters as the cable driven "train" pulled you up to the top.  The ride was about 4 minutes up to the top as the pods would constantly ratchet to stay vertical as it traveled the arch shape.  This is not a ride if you are claustrophobic as you are pretty cramped for the ride up and down however I think it was definitely worth it.  One of the things I was amazed at was the width of the Mississippi River.  Even with the Missouri River joining it above St. Louis, it was still a lot narrower than I assumed and it was flowing pretty fast.  We were done by 2, just in time for Chuck to pick us up and head to lunch then the Bass Pro Shop in St. Charles, near the airport.  When traveling I love to go into the sporting goods stores to see the different inventories they carry to support the type of fishing they do.  Although Missouri has walleyes, muskies, and northern's, most of the emphasis is on crappies and bass as they had a huge selection of lures and equipment focused on these two species.  In the end I just bought 4 pairs of my favorite socks that they sell, enough to last me the summer.

Opening day accommodations

So the ice is off at Leech Lake!!!  It's been 2 years since Team Walleye has fished on Minnesota's Fishing Opener and we are as ready as ever. An update on my Suzuki Engine Interface cable, it finally arrived on Tuesday after I was able to talk to Browns Point on Monday.  I got it connected, routed, and the motor put back together just in the nick of time. It works perfectly but like anything electronic, there's a lot of learning to set it up properly.  One thing it shows is the motor hours and I was surprised by the number, 245.  The boat was new in June of 2009 so in 4 years I put a total of about 70 hours a year,  that doesn't seem like much considering how much I troll but numbers don't lie.  Once the motor was put back together it allowed me to completely clean out the boat, wax it up, and get everything stowed away.  As most of my friends know, I like fishing out of a clean and uncluttered boat.  Team Walleye has 21 guys going up this year and we are back in the Taj Mahal of cabins at Brindley's Harbor Resort.  A log cabin duplex which sleeps 11 guys each side, we have a beautiful view of the lake and it's closer to the harbor.  Looking back 2014 looks like it will be the 3rd time in the last 6 years where either the ice has just gone out on Leech or like last year we were completely iced over.  So much for global warming as I have stated before.  The good news is that the fish should be shallow and hungry as the last time we had these conditions on opener, we had caught more larger walleyes than ever including shattering the big fish record by 2 1/2 pounds.  It looks like the daytime temperatures will be in the 50's and with water temps in the mid 40's, it's probably a good idea to bring the Ice Armor suit to stay warm.  Mark Mayerich has done a great job again, replacing our good friend Ron as the coordinator of our trip.  The minnow reports last weekend were not very encouraging as we prefer fishing with shiner minnows on Leech.  The quick ice out has changed things somewhat and we now have at least some shiners for the trip.  Maybe it's just a mental thing as we always used fatheads when I started in 1990 yet you can't argue with the success we have had with the shiners.  This year we have a few new things, Adam has a new boat, we have 3 new members of Team Walleye, and as always, I have some new and interesting things planned for the weekend, you'll have to come back next week for my report.  By the way if anyone is interested in seeing our Minnesota Bound episode again click HERE

Good luck to everyone, stay warm, dry, and safe and for crying out loud, wear your life vests as the water is still pretty cold this time of year.

April Showers Bring May Ice Out!

Tom's Tom

With rain predicted for Saturday through the following Thursday and I was scheduled for flying to St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday, Saturday was my day to finally get some things done around the yard.  First order of business was to unload all of my apple tree branches from my pruning job a couple weeks ago.  Living in Dayton allows me to dump them free of charge at the Maple Grove Yard Waste facility.  Simply show them  your drivers license and unload all you want.  I used to just stack the tree branches behind the house but the pile started getting unmanageable.  Last fall our neighbor Gary rented the biggest wood chipper I'd ever seen and made a deal, I'd help him if he's let me use it.  Well it took almost 6 hours of work to chip up the pile, it was a lot of work and thank God Lory and Lyn came by or I'd have never finished it.  Deciding the 10 minute drive to the yard waste site prevents a lot of headaches in the future, it's worth the time.  On my way I stopped at Ricky Shermer's to check out his 3 point rototiller for the tractor.  He was in the back working in his garden as I met him at his garage.  Commenting how well his yard looked he insisted I take his Kubota ZD21 Zero Turn Diesel lawn mower with a dethatching attachment and large capacity leaf vacuum attached.   Having to get a different trailer, we loaded it up and I brought it home.  Now running a zero turn mower takes some practice an it took a while to get the hang of it but wow, what a great job.  I have over an acre of yard to dethatch and clean up but this was one serious machine.  As I was finishing up the south side of the lawn my neighbor and fishing buddy Tom showed up with a nice wild turkey he had bagged a couple of hours before.  Returning from his mom's in Illinois, he stopped in Southeastern Minnesota camping Friday night and going out on Saturday morning.  He weighed it at over 23 pounds, a nice bird for sure.  This is something I'd really like to do some day but with fishing season, conferences, it gets tough to find the time.  Tom left and got back on the zero turn to finish cleaning up the yard.  Next was to lay down some fertilizer then plant my onions that were special ordered from Texas.  With the rain coming there was a short window to till the soil and get them planted.  Luckily my tasks for the day were completed just in time as it started to rain about 8:00.  Just returning from St. Louis last night it was evident that we got some serious rain as I have buckets with over 5 inches of water standing in them.  Even though the temperatures have been on the chilly side, the rain does wonders for helping melt the ice on both Mille Lacs and Leech Lake.   Reports from Brindley's Resort, our destination next weekend states the harbor is ice free and Traders Bay is pretty much clear.  Team Walleye was greeted last year with a completely frozen harbor so this is great news as the walleye's have to be hungry!



$80 for 80

Last week it was Mom's 80th birthday and although I did mention it there was little time to post a picture.  She looks pretty young for her age and although my brother and I are always on her case to take better care of herself I suppose we can't complain.  One of her favorite things to do is catching the free bus that makes the rounds to all the small towns in the area and eventually ending up at a casino somewhere.  Mom really never drove a car and I don't even think she has a drivers license....maybe that was good! Her claim to fame is that she seldom loses and always has a nice jar of gambling reserves to fund her fun.  So far we are having a hard time disputing that as she's pretty tight with her money.  So what do you give your mom for her 80th birthday?  Steve and I decided to each give her $80 and we are pretty sure where that's going to get spent.  I'm just glad she still doing ok as she's a pretty tough gal.  She still lives at home which is probably getting too much to take care of however my brother has moved in to help her with things.  Before my dad died he had turned the house into an quite an energy efficient home and it's surprising how little it takes to heat and cool the place each month.  Besided being tough she can be stubborn which is probably good as we are already planning her 90th! 

As I earlier, having just got back from St. Louis and having brought the wrong computer with, I'm running late.  Last week saw my motor tore apart and unfortunately it still is.  Sending back the cable to get reprogrammed hasn't turned out very well as I still haven't heard from Browns Point Suzuki after a full week of left voice messages and e-mails.  They were excellent at helping me solve my problem yet when they stated I needed to reprogram, it went into a black hole.  Friday is pressure time as it seems patience isn't working too well for me.  Either way the rain has stopped and it's time to put the boat back together and get it started for the season.  The tackle needs reoganization, new line put on the reels, rod's need to be stowed.  With 7 days left, there's a lot to do.