When it Rains it Pours

First fish of the day.

Let's start off with the good stuff from last week!  While scrambling to get things done for our trip to Lac Seul this week, Pete and I found time to get out on the river for a few hours on Saturday night.  The last trip saw a couple of walleyes caught on nighcrawlers fished on the bottom, a surprise as normally carp, catfish, and suckers are the results of this setup.  It got me thinking about trolling the holes with Shad Raps, Flicker Shads, or any other bait that would tap the bottom while trolling up river.  Once on the river it was obvious the recent rains had risen the water levels over a foot from last week.  The current was faster and maybe the higher water had pushed the smallies back shallow.  We decided to head upstream and cast for some smallies before starting to troll for those walleyes.  Rigging up Pete with a spinning rod, I attached my yellow crankbait and within 2 minutes he had a beautiful 18 inch smallie on the line.  Pretty impressive however there became an immediate discussion of was it the fishing skill or the guide's attention to setting up his guest for the evening?  Of course it was my opinion that the guide had 80% of the reasoning for this nice fish being on board.   Think about it as he picked the location, the choice of rods, the ever important "lucky" bait which he could have easily saved for himself.  That debate will continue this week as we both head to Lac Seul for 4 days of nonstop walleye fishing.  As for the rest of the evenings fishing, we did get about 8 fish, a couple in the 17 inch range and a number of small ones before we started trolling for walleyes.  I put on a brown perch colored Little Ripper on my rig and a fire tiger Flicker Shad on Pete's.  Trolling to the top of the hole, our intent was if we caught anything substantial, we would continue the pattern.  About the time we decided there was nothing going, we dropped the anchor and reeled in the baits.  To my surprise was a small 8 inch walleye, the same size as I got last week hooked to the Little Ripper.  Well, at least the method has promise.  Not all that excited about small walleyes and with the high water comes more current, we decided to fish some nightcrawlers.  The sun sets too fast these days and after 20 minutes of no action we called it a night.

A nicer time, sunset on the river

Sunday was originally planned to go motorcycling with my brother Steve.  We have done this for the last 3 years as I trailer my bike down to Fountain City while my wife attends Farm Fest with her cousins.  This year I had been a little indecisive as plans were changing by the minute.  Of course at the last minute it was decided that we would go, I loaded the Victory Kingpin and met my brother at our destination.  Our plan was to head to Minnesota, go through Iowa along the river before crossing at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin before returning home.  Things were going really good, we weren't traveling too fast when we hit a left turning curve.  We were riding together as I was traveling on the outside of the lane when I got too high on the curve.  Instead of looking where I needed to go I looked straight, a big mistake.  We covered this in my motorcycle training but it was too late.  The bike went upright and straight for the guardrail.  Although my speed was more than reasonable, I should have never looked forward as now I was on a collision course.  Hitting the brakes the bike scrubbed a lot of speed before it went down.  Hitting the cable guard rail, it stopped everything like it should but threw me onto the edge of the road.  I suspect I was down to 10 - 15 mph when this happened and I sustained only a few areas of road rash and a jammed toe.  I always ride with protective clothing and I'm sure things could have been worse without a helmet, riding jacket, heavy pants and boots.  Getting up I staggered some before coming to my senses, was thankful no one hit me while I was thrown onto the road.  Walking back to the bike, it was impaled between the cables, still running and on it's side.  Unfortunately those cable guard rails do a great job of stopping you but also inflict a lot of damage as my bike was really wedged in.  I am confident that had there not been the rail there the bike would have stopped within a few feet of it, a little scraped up but rideable.   A few guys stopped by to help including a lecture on going too fast, but we finally got it out and upright.  Now the fender was pushed into the front wheel, the back tire was flat, not much I could do but hop on my brother Steve's bike and head back.  He really helped by getting my trailer and with his son in law Brandon, picked up the bike and brought it back to LaCrosse.  I guess pictures were the last thing on my mind.  Deciding to go to the Urgent Care on Sunday morning the doctor asked what's wrong.  I showed her the scraps, they took an xray of my toe which turned out OK but it was pointed to my that I have arthritis in the toes, and they showed me how to brace it using the toe next to the big toe.  She asked if there was anything else she could fix, I told her my pride.  No such luck.  I would not be surprised if the bike is totaled, but I'm hoping they can fix it.  Hitting a boat on opener, now this.....here's hoping my luck changes soon!  I guess one should be fortunate that all that happened was a few scrapes and soreness.   Therefore I decided to post a picture from the night before looking up river.

Tomorrow at 5:00 AM we head to Lac Seul and this time I'm bringing the Ranger.  I did have the sense to put on an aluminum prop, just in case, but it will be fun to fish out of my own boat.  Not one to go off exploring where I'm not comfortable with, cross my fingers, it will be just fine.  The only thing I worry about is that the water has been high and there has been a lot of deadheads in the water.  Apparently the water is down, which should help.  I guess we'll have a report next week and I'm looking for it to be as good as last year was.

Busy Week

Sandhill Cranes Near the House

Mark Applen and I had been discussing his current wheel house situation for this years up and coming ice fishing season and apparently he decided to do something about it.  There were some deals floating around the area for a few 2014 Salem Ice Cabin wheel houses and some of those were actually pretty good.  Mark ended up purchasing one at a dealership in Mankato and in the process, arranged to get his floor spray foam insulated.  He generously offered to haul mine down and drop it off at the insulating company, Reichel Insulation, the same day he would pick his up new house and it really worked out slick for me.  As stated last week they called and said that it was done and to come and pick it up on Friday afternoon.  It's a nice drive to Mankato and after meeting the owner's son and looking at the nice job they did, I'm pretty impressed.  The house should be a lot easier to heat using less propane as well as be more comfortable to spend your time in.  With Mark having the identical house its been fun to help him not make the same mistakes that I have!  With summer winding down it's time to start getting it ready for the winter as the inside floor/wall joints need silicon caulk, hopefully I can get the new door under the couch installed for extra storage, and Mrs. Sipe can finish the last curtain.  On Tuesday morning I headed to California for work.  Driving by the field just across from the old PDQ station there were 2 large sandhill cranes eating the grain stubble left from the combining that was done earlier.  They are magnificent birds standing close to 4 feet tall, they are certainly becoming more numerous around the area.  Stopping along the road I snapped this picture of them pecking in what was left oats that were planted to keep down the erosion.  Like the resident bald eagles that next down where the neighbor Blair has the boat launch on the Mississippi River, it's nice to see these exotic looking birds.  As long as they stay out of the garden, there fun to have around.

Pacific Ocean Sunset

Tuesday morning caught me getting on a flight to Los Angeles (LAX) for a number of business meetings. California is a great place to visit, especially if its February but to be honest, just too many people!  Like the old Mama and Papa's song, It Never Rains in Southern California, they are in the midst of a severe drought.  I don't know, it seems brown there when ever I go but it is pretty dry.  We have a couple of employees in the Los Angeles/San Diego area so it's nice not to have to rent a car and fight the craziness of their what seems to be a constant rush hour.  Tuesday night we connected with one of our suppliers and had dinner at the Chart House Restaurant in Cardiff, California. Sitting practically on the beach, we had a stunning view of the sunset looking out over the Pacific Ocean, it was quite amazing.   It didn't make up for the sorry state of the oysters on the half shell, they were pretty bad for an upscale seafood place.  On Wednesday I was relayed to Mike Schubert where we headed to Dana Point to check out the incoming fishing boats.  With a hurricane developing off the coast of Baja Mexico, the waters were pretty churned up, great for surfing but not so good for fishing.  Never the less we did see some yellowfin tuna carted off the boats heading for a weighin and cleaning.  Mike had an hour meeting at the American Legion, a great place to hang out before we went to his favorite place in Huntington Beach, Longboards (what they call surfboards).  There the oysters were in perfect form and about a third the price from the night before, as well as their entire menu was extremely reasonable.  They had an interesting side drink, a shot of vodka with cocktail sauce added then topped with a raw oyster.  Not afraid to try anything, it was pretty good.  Being from Minnesota it was quite unusual to sit outside on the sidewalk patio, it's 76 degrees out and they have the propane patio heaters going full bore.  I suppose with a strong wind coming in from the ocean, it's something people expect there.

The countdown to Lac Seul for next week is still being decided.   All that is known is I'm driving so the boat needs to get ready.  It's going to be pretty exciting to have my boat there, it will give me a great opportunity to explore the areas we fish with the electronics, not that it's needed.  I am worried about the sand and have assurances from Pete that he'll keep his shoes off the gunnels, I think we'll be ok.  With some family things going on this weekend, fishing next, a wedding on the 13th, as always, I'm running out of time.

Dog Days of Summer

10 inch Walleye on the Mississippi River

There is a lot going on these days, enough to limit the fishing to a few hours a night on the river.  The current situation on Mille Lacs has turned off a number of my usual fishing partners but there's always someone to hit the river with.   Now that the jon boat has a 25 hp motor, it's a bit more enjoyable fishing the river as it pushes the boat about 20 mph upstream, about 67% faster than the old 15 hp.  Joining me on Saturday night was my good friend Mark Applen who had never been on the river with me before.  Loading up the crawlers, his poles, some sucker minnows, and a few adult beverages, we launched at Blair's and headed up the river about 4 miles.  In Old Town Dayton, where the Crow River meets the Mississippi, the two waters take almost the entire length from our launching point to finally mix.  The Crow flows through mostly farmland and tends to be quite "muddy" while the Mississippi has more of a flow through forest regions and has a number of dams upstream to help settle the water.  It's quite noticeable where on the north side of the river, it's pretty clear while the south side, where the Crow empties, stays fairly muddy.  I tend to like fishing on the north side, although I cannot be certain it's better, it is more fun to fish water that looks cleaner.  Mark and I had a number of nice smallmouth on the lines but never landed anything larger than 14 inches.  Lot's of little ones, which is good and maybe with the water level dropping, one might have to change our fishing strategy.  As we approached closer to home the plan was to anchor and fish for whatever shows up on the end of the line.  Mark rigged up a sucker minnow while my pole was the old standby, a gloob of night crawlers fished on the bottom.  Night Crawlers are the super bait of the river, anything and everything likes them and besides, one never knows what's at the end of your line.  It wasn't long before that familiar tap-tap was felt, nothing big as it sort of bit like a small catfish, which the river is full of.  A minute later the hook comes up bare, threaded another 2 crawlers on the hook and the same thing, tap-tap-tap and nothing.  Now catfish are greedy fish and even if they bite light eventually they swallow the entire bait and end up hooked.  Well whatever was stripping my bait, it couldn't have been too big and I soon found out.  Finally hooking one, the fish appeared on the surface, a 10 inch walleye, interesting.  I caught another one soon after, there must have been a school of them hanging in the 10 foot current break, just below the island.  I suspect that as the water continues to drop it will concentrate the fish into the deeper holes and it will be time to try and see if we can locate some larger walleyes, I know they are there.  We really didn't get too many more fish and suspect that they are up in the shallower waters at dusk.  Loading the boat we headed back to the pole barn where a number of the neighbors stopped over and helped finish the remaining refreshments.

Test run after a rebuild

The other highlight of the weekend was attending the Lucas Oil Nationals at the Brainerd International Raceway (BIR), site of one of the fastest drag racing tracks in the United States.  Another good friend and business associate Kevin Sonsalla met myself and my neighbor Todd at Cabela's and headed north.  It been a number of years since I've been to BIR and it was alot of fun to get back up and watch the race.  Last week's post mentioned that the teams would tear the engines down and rebuild them with new heads, pistons, rods, and bearings after each run.  With only about 2 hours between runs, these guys did it in about an hour and it was pretty amazing to watch.  Because of Kevin's VIP passes, we got to eat supper in the hospitality area and I even had the chance to get Tony's autograph for Lyn's cousin Micky, an avid race fan.  We watched Tony test start the engine after the last rebuild of the night before we headed back to the bleachers at 5:00 to watch the finish.  The fastest we saw were times in the 3.83 seconds for 100 feet with speeds up to 313 mph.  Overall the race saw 2 track records set, the first was a Funny Car time breaking the 4 second mark at 3.998 and the second record was set by Doug Kalitta with a Top Fuel Dragster passing the line at 3.72 seconds.  Man, that's fast!  It's really hard to describe the feeling when these cars head down the track, your whole body shakes.  I definitely appreciate Kevin thinking of me as we got to see some really fast cars, have a nice dinner with refreshments on the house, and did get to meet a few people including Tony Schumacher as well as my other neighbor Tim and his crew.

The Taylor's Door County fishing adventure

Last but not least is news from the Taylor Family vacationing in Door County, Wisconsin.  Apparently they chartered a salmon fishing adventure and did pretty well.  Jack sent me 2 pictures, one of Ben holding the biggest fish of the trip, one he caught, a 20+ pound King Salmon.  They did not send me the final results but as you can see, the family is holding up 7 beautiful fish.  My personal opinion about this picture however is different, yes they were very successful yet check out Ben's head as apparently he's hung around Uncle David enough to finally wear something that differentiates him from the rest.  The biggest salmon and that Green Bay Packer hat, a sure sign of a true winner for sure!  Jack and his family are family to me and I appreciate them sharing their lives with me, we'll see if they will share the fish as well.  Check out their video report from Sturgeon Bay Outdoors HERE. We are approaching Labor Day and some of the busiest times of the year.  With family birthdays this weekend, out of town next weekend, my annual motorcycle trip with brother Steve the following week, back to Lac Seul starting September 5th, it's truly crazy.  The garden is ripening right on time and canning needs to be done, I make pretty good salsa, ya know!  I brought my ice house to Mankato, MN to get the bottom of the floor spray insulated before it got too cold out, which will really help keep it warm on the ice.  As my grandma Myrtle would say......Uffda!

Catfishing for Harold

Otto's first Mississippi fish

I am fortunate to have a lot of great friends in the neighborhood and one of those is Ricky Shermer.  Ricky is younger than me and 10 times crazier.  We both garden and have apple trees, enjoy working outdoors, and possess the same cynical attitudes about many things including politics.  Generally what's mine is Ricky's and what Ricky's is mine if we every need something.  He has a real nice Kabota zero turn monstrosity of a lawn mower and coupled with a dethatching unit and a vacuum system works wonders for getting the yard in shape in the spring.  Rick likes to get up early each day and you can always tell if he's been around checking out the place as there's a motorcycle track in the yard where he drove his scooter, verifying that your onions aren't as big as his!  I have been telling him about my latest adventures on the river when he asked me to do him a favor, "My dad, Harold Shermer loves catfish and next time when you go out and catch a few, save some for him".  Well, that's about as good excuse as any to get back out on the River and try our luck.  After getting a few chores done around the house I called my other neighbor Otto to see if he'd like to go with me for a couple of hours.  Now Otto is not much of a fisherman but when I added that there would be Jameson served in the boat and he would really have to do very little but sit there and enjoy the tranquility, he couldn't refuse.  After asking him to humor me for 5 minutes while I casted a crankbait into the shallows for that huge smallie I missed last week, we headed below Cloquet Island, scene of last's weeks success.  Dropping the anchor in the current break it would be a simple strategy, night crawlers on the bottom and a Jameson in the cupholder.  It wasn't long before we got a few small taps, the kind catfish are notorious for which stripped our hooks.  Otto finally hooked a nice golden redhorse before we finally got a keeper sized channel cat, maybe 16 inches.  Putting that on the stringer we continued to get bites and ended up with 3 catfish before it got too dark.  After getting the boat put away the fish were cleaned, vacuum packed, and frozen for Ricky.  Here's hoping his dad Harold is going to like them because there's a lot more where they came from!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the catfish, oh well.

Tony Schumacher

Sunday my wife Lyn and I went down to Independence Wisconsin to the annual Fall Fest.  It was fun to see all of our friends that we have known for over 40 years now.  It's interesting how much old fashioned bread, coffee cakes, and baked goods are sold there.  I can guarantee you that you'll never find this kind of home cooking in the city.  After stopping to see Lyn's uncle and aunt, Bernie and Nellie, the next stop was at Kevin's to retrieve my motorcycle GPS that I let him use of their trip to Glacier National Park.  It's actually a pretty nice GPS and is completely waterproof and shockproof.  With lifetime updates, the maps are always the most recent, sometimes I'm surprised how quickly they are updated.  Friday will be spent at BIR (Brainerd International Raceway) to attend the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals featuring all of the top drag racing stars in the world.  Another good friend, Kevin Sonsalla has pit passes to Tony Schumacher, the #1 guy in Top Fuel Dragster racing today.  It's a lot of fun to stand next to the guys working on the engine, it's amazing that they make one run then completely tear down the engine and rebuild it, all in about 90 minutes.   BIR is the fastest track in the country, so fast that the quarter mile has been reduced to 1000 feet to add additional stopping distances needed.  Interesting that the cars have reached the same speeds as they once did in the quarter mile, amazing.  I should have pictures for next week.

I'm hoping to get out again this weekend, the river continues to drop which really concentrates the fish.  I am bound an determined to find out where the walleyes are!  Maybe even try to get Harold some more catfish fillets.

Million Dollar Smile

Ben's First 17" River Smallmouth

With a number of things to catch up with around the house it was an easy decision to stay close to home and fish the river.  With the different motor on the jon boat, it's much more enjoyable to get around at a reasonable pace.  Actually I had fished both Saturday and Sunday afternoon however we start with the Sunday trip as the Saturday adventure was just a couple of old guys going out.  The Taylor's are my closest and longest friends since moving to Minnesota in 1976.  The patriarch of the family, Earl Taylor was one of my best fishing buddies.  Although no one can replace your own father, Earl came very close.  His two son's Mark and Jack represent my generation as we think alike, enjoy the same activities (including Easy Jesus), and have been friends for over 36 years.  Mark's son Matt and Jack's son Ben represent the 3rd generation of Taylor's that I call family.  Ben Taylor is 9 years old and turning into quite a fisherman.  Enough so that I never hesitate to use him as my repository for all those baits and fishing equipment that sit around simply collecting dust.  A couple years back I fished with my friend Eric and his 9 year old son Carter and was very impressed by his rod handling abilities, good enough for dad to let him use his G. Loomis rod.  Ben has those same qualities so a few weeks ago I ran across an excellent deal on a high quality Quantum rod/reel combination.  Picking it up for Ben, I gave it to him around his birthday, complete with line and a rod sock.  Ben had been asking about fishing on the River so on Sunday him and Jack met me at the pole barn as we headed to the neighbors landing.  The river can be somewhat difficult to fish.  The current is swift, boat control is limited as our strategy is to drive up as far as practical for the time we want to fish, then float back down casting lures into the shorelines, looking for active smallies, northern, or whatever may be hitting at the time.  A favorite lure is a squatty type crankbait that dives around 4 feet, in either a crayfish color or the ever successful Fire Tiger pattern.  Earlier in the week a trip to Fleet Farm found a bin of clearanced crankbaits and there were a few Matzuo Asai Shads, shallow water cranks in fire tiger for under $4.00.  Picking up a couple I knew these would be great for Ben, if he lost them, no big deal and yet they would be very effective.  Arriving about 3 miles up river and after getting everything ready, it was time to give Ben a lesson on casting...Stay out of the trees, hold your rod tip high, don't over cast and hit the rocks, keep a steady retrieve, often times the fish hit right at the boat.  It only took about 10 casts before I felt comfortable that he "gets it" and started fishing on my own.  Well it wasn't 10 minutes and a bass exploded out of the water with his bait firmly hooked in it's mouth.  Before we could even get the net out he lifted the fish over the boat gunnel and onto the floor.  I sort of winced but when your excited, getting the fish

A beautiful Golden Redhorse

in the boat is the most important aspect of fishing!  "So, I'm fishing for the first time in Uncle David's boat and the first time on the river. I'm fishing with the pole Uncle David gave me along with the lure he bought for me. Uncle David shows me how to fish this brand new experience and right away I catch my first small mouth and it's a beauty, 17 inches long!"  I'm not sure who was more excited me or Ben but I can definitely guarantee there isn't a smile that could compete with his.  After settling down we continued our float where we caught a few smaller fish before finishing the casting part of the trip in the Big Fish Eddy.  OK, I just made the name up but last week I pulled a 20 inch smallie out of that hole and Sunday saw me connect with a fish that appeared even larger.  Unfortunately she threw the hook before we could net it so it was time to put the casting gear away and head across the river to anchor and fish the bottom with night crawlers.   After re-rigging our poles and getting situated, I felt the first bite.  For river fishing like this it's almost mandatory to use circle hooks.  In Alaska all halibut fishing is done with circle hooks.  Basically the fish can swallow the bait but the hook does not catch until it's pulled back out to the corner of the mouth where it rotates and digs in. With the bottom feeders on the river, they work great, you let the fish take the bait then simply reel in and the fight is one.  Grabbing my reel and simply turning the crank, the fish was on.  Handing the pole off to Ben, he fought the fish while we got the net.  Being too big to hoist over the side of the boat, we landed this beautiful 5 pound golden redhorse.  Of course neither Ben nor Jack had ever seen one before so we took a few pictures and let it go.  They are really unique as we did get another one, 2 nice carp, and a 3 pound channel catfish.  5 fish in about an hour and all species Ben had never caught before.   About 7:30 we headed back to the shed with another great day on the river.  I do like the night crawler fishing, it's very relaxing and you never know what will show up at the end of the line.

19 inch Smallie

Going backwards for Saturday, my neighbor Tom and I spent a few hours on the river to check out to see if the fishing was as good as it was the week before.  The first thing we noticed was the river level had already dropped another foot or so, enough for us to pay more attention to where we were going.  With a couple extra hours to play with we headed upstream about 6 miles and started beyond where the Crow River meets the Mississippi.  Almost immediately Tom nails a nice 19 inch smallie, a great start to the trip.  We really like fishing those outside bends where the bank is quite steep and the river depth provides a nice continuing drop.  With new line on his reel, I think Tom had a lot more confidence and it shows with this fish.  As we drifted down the sky was getting darker and darker.  Looking at the weather map on the phone it was obvious we were going to get wet unless we thought of something fast. A glance at the County Hwy 12 bridge going across the Crow River, we arrived just in time to park underneath as the sky opened up.  I was a nice break, time for a beer and discuss the next strategy.  With the water down, what was looking good last week had changed significantly yet there were new area's becoming apparent.  Drifting down the north side of the River, we decided to try the south side but soon discovered a dramatic change in the water quality.  The Crow River enters the Mississippi River form the south and it is very dirty, chocolate colored from the farm areas it flows through.  With visibilities of less than 6 inches vs the north side at around 18 inches, it was apparent that the outflow of the Crow stayed on the south side for a number of miles before completely mixing with the Mississippi.  After 200 yards of drifting we headed back across the river for cleaner water.  We encountered many smaller bass this trip and Tom

Nice northern pike

did manage to get another fish over 16 inches but that's about it for size.  A number in the 12 inch range and even a few under 6 inches, regardless of size, those bass are pretty aggressive.  I did get a couple of northern again, including a nice 28 incher.  I'm surprised at how many of those snakes have graced my line these days.  We ended up at the Big Fish Eddy (see previous reference) where the previous week saw us hook up 4 smallies before leaving.  We did get some smaller fish again and I decided to try for walleyes while Tom casted for bass.  I tried a smaller sucker minnow on a 3 way rig and bottom bounced it for 50 yards down the current break in 10 - 12 feet of water.  No such luck.  After a few last casts we headed the boat down river to check out the Anoka Bridge as I had never been that far down river before.  It was interesting and it looked like there were a few potential fishing holes to try before the summer is done.  As we loaded the boat back up my tow vehicle, a 2008 Polaris Razor side by side had completely lost power in one cylinder.  Assuming it was a fuel issue, it was time to bring it in the shop for a tune up.  As we locked the last gate behind us, Tom, who is a superb mechanic, suggested that it sounded like an ignition problem to him.  After cleaning the boat and putting it away Tom left yet I couldn't help think about his diagnosis.  Pulling a spark plug wire on one side, the motor simply turned over.  Repeating on the other side and it started but only ran on that cylinder so I swapped the spark plugs and the problem followed.  Next I pull a plug from my Sportsman 800 ATV then replaced to assumed bad plug and voila, purred like a kitten.  New plugs were only $6.00 but it saved me from hauling it in and paying the minimum charges, I guess a nice trade.....fishing trips for engine advice.

This weekend's as busy as most have been.  Sunday is the annual St. Peter and Paul's Fall Fest in Independence, Wisconsin, my wife's home town.  With friends we haven't seen in a while it will be fun to get back and meet old friends.  As well we'll probably go and see my niece to celebrate her birthday as she's growing up too damn fast as well.  The colder summer has put the damper on my sweet corn however the pickles seem to be holding their own as I've made about 8 buckets so far.  It's almost time to start working on my wheel house and get it ready for the winter.  It needs to get the underside spray foamed for insulation, and I have a cupboard door to install taking advantage of a space that isn't being used.  Lac Seul is in 4 weeks, that will come up fast.  Oh well.

Double Header

20 inch smallie on the Mississippi River

With things finally settling down it was the perfect week to take advantage of the alignment of the stars and the moon to get some serious fishing in.  It's been about 2 months since I've had a decent fishing outing and it was time to break the long dry spell.  This week it was fortunate to be able to fish both the Mississippi River and Mille Lacs within 2 days of each other and both proved successful.  Sunday afternoon was the maiden voyage on the Mississippi River with my 14 foot jon boat equipped with a "new" 1999 Mercury 25 hp motor.  The boat was originally my brother-in-law's who passed away a few years ago.  Equipped with a 1976 15 hp Evinrude, before putting it on the river, I installed a Rock Hopper to protect the propeller from the shallow waters that occur once the river falls to it's normal summer flow.  Quite an ingenious device, it bolts onto the lower unit and although not too intrusive, it does create enough drag to slow the speed by a couple miles per hour.  With a current of around 3 mph and with another guy in the boat we could hit a whooping 12 mph going upriver.  Being a 1976, the 15 hp was the last year they used points for ignition and it was a hard starting at best.   Looking to add some power I ran across the 25 hp on Craigslist and picked it up last Monday. Accompanying me on the river was my neighbor Tom Olson, a bonafide river rat himself.  Launching at the neighbor's once in the water a couple of pulls and the motor started right up.  Knowing we might have to make adjustments, the first thing we noticed was the power.  The boat is rated for a 25 hp max and it sure liked it.  A mile into our trip up river we hit 18 mph and the front end was plowing which meant we needed to move the pin up which increased the trim providing more lift.  Moving it one hole up made a world of difference as we gained 2 mph and the boat handled fantastic.  With the logistics out of the way we continued our trek upriver, about 6 miles before we decided to start fishing.  This time of the year the water is perfect, high enough to go anywhere but not enough to flood into the trees.  Our plan was simple, drift down one side of the river, casting crank baits or a sucker minnows under a bobber until we reached our starting point, Blair's Landing, it would take about 3 hours.  With a favorite bait the Bomber Model A fire tiger crankbait, the 3 cast produced a 28 inch northern pike, a great start.  We generally practice catch and

My "new" 1999 25 hp Merc

release on the river unless of course we get a walleye so it went back in the water.  15 minutes later another northern pike hit the lure. Fishing the eddies formed by the current, rip rap along the river, under trees next to shore, and retaining walls at the river's edge,  the fishing was pretty good.  The first nice smallmouth bass came as my crankbait sat on the surface of the water while I needed a quick second to engage the reel.  A subtle slurp and the bait disappeared. Slow to react the fish really set the hook itself and the battle was on. 2 minutes later a 17 inch smallie was in the net, a nice first fish.  My friend Pete uses large live minnows under bobbers to fish trophy smallies so I had rigged a rod to try it.  Coming upon a retaining wall, I pitched a hooked sucker minnow under a bobber right next to the wall and as soon as it hit a huge swirl engulfed it.  One quick tug and she was gone as the line broke right at the slip knot bobber stop. Whatever it was, it was nice but that's about all I can say.  As we floated down a couple more strikes and near misses by large fish swirling at the boat we finally arrived across the river from the house. Having lost my prized fire tiger Bomber it was replaced with a crayfish colored duplicate.  A nice eddy sets up there as we started at the top of the hole.  Immediately I had a dandy fish on as Tom was starting to set his pole down when a nice fish hit his line.  His fish was gone as fast as it came yet I continued to fight what ended up in the net, a gorgeous 20 inch smallie.  Going back we nailed 2 more smallies out of that spot before moving on.  A couple more small fish hit before we packed it in.  One last piece of business, I headed the boat downstream for a top speed, 26 mph.  Although we were only out for about 4 hours it was very successful as I caught 2 nice northerns, had 3 nice fish swirl at the bait near the boat, a 17 and 20 inch smallie, as well Tom and I landed another 4 bass and had lost as many.  I did flood the motor trying to start it so it may take a few times to understand it's temperament.   Not bad for a Sunday afternoon and I'm looking forward to getting out within the next week.

Chuck's 12 inch walleye on lead core

On Tuesday was the annual trip with a good friend Chuck Teasley who now lives in Illinois across from St. Louis, MO.  Originally the plan is always the last Thursday in July but scheduling conflicts forced us to go a couple of days early.  As usual, Charlie meets me at the pole barn then we head north picking up bait, checking into Hotel Applen, then head out for a nice dinner.  Deciding to eat at the Spirit Lake Steakhouse in Wahkon, the evening was one of the nicest we've had all summer as we invited Bill and Kathy Lundeen to join us.  With dinner out of the way we headed back to Mark's place to check out a few of my Lac Seul videos before hitting the sack.  Morning arrived and although the forecast called for minor winds from the northwest, at 7:00 it was already starting to show signs of stronger winds to come.  After stopping for bait we launched on the west side to take advantage of the calmer side of the lake as it would be a good place to start what hasn't been too successful of a strategy these days.  Albert Einstein said it best "The definition of an insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"!  Well, I know that we are a few weeks behind as the walleye bite goes and one should be able to get fish on the flats with night crawler rigs this time of year.  Like the prior two times I fished Mille Lacs, the fish have to start responding to the pattern at some time.  So here we go again, Sherman's Flat, 7-Mile Flat, 9-Mile Flat, Sliver Flat, and not even a nibble.  You would have thought after 3 outings that something would hit but alas, I guess I'm insane.  We did each get a 12 inch walleye on lead core line just off of Sliver and although it's nice to see some smaller fish, we didn't even feel them on our lines.  Honestly, the 12 incher was my first walleye I have caught on Mille Lacs this year and for all practical purposes, it really didn't count.  With nothing happening off the deep flat areas, our next move was to try 5 Mile Gravel with lead core.  It's usually a better late summer spot and anything had to be better than our current strategy.

First official Mille Lacs Walleye, 27 incher

On the way south to 5 Mile one comes fairly close to 3 Mile Reef.  A favorite spot for fall trolling, it has a lot of small mouth bass and on a whim decided to try casting the top as the wind was perfect for a nice drift.  Chuck desperately wanted some fish to take home and with the new regulations on smallies, it should be easy to at least get a few for a fish fry.  After casting the full length of the reef we switch tactics and started trolling #5 crawfish colored Shad Raps.  I have a particular honey run that few if any utilize the series of humps that sometime contain fish.  Pulling the raps across the top of one of the 6 foot hump produced a nice hookup and the way it was running, it had to be a northern pike.  As I got closer to the boat it became obvious that this was no northern pike rather a huge walleye.  A walleye?!?!?, 6 feet of water at 1:30 in the afternoon on July 29th........really?  It was then we discovered that the landing net had been left in the back of the truck forcing Chuck to grab the fish with his hand.  Too big to grab behind the gills, he finally got both hands on it and brought her in.  Measured at 27 inches, she was fat and sassy, not like years past.  Snapping a few pictures we let her go, my first official walleye caught on Mille Lacs this year.  It's almost embarrassing to even admit it but what the heck, you can't hide the truth. Admittedly it was nice to see that I'm not completely jinxed and in fact after resetting the lines we trolled another 50 yards when another fish almost ripped the rod from my grip.  Chuck even noticed that the rod almost flew from my hands.  2 minutes later we hand landed another nice walleye, not a large as the first one but at 23 inches, nothing like keeping the streak going.  We did catch a few keeper small mouth bass and after a number of trolling runs and noticing the waves were now pushing 3 - 4 feet, it was time to leave.  It did remind me of the time my friend Tom Emmons and I arrived at 3-Mile in the middle of July on a calm afternoon and there were literally thousands of 18 - 22 inch walleyes cruising the top of the reef in 3 - 4 feet of water.  It was spectacular.  Like the previous weeks 26 inch walleye caught in the weeds by my neighbor Pete, maybe it's time to think outside the box.  Old habits sure can take a long time to die however. Pounding our way back to the west side of the lake we hit Indian Point and put a couple more smallies in the live well.  The last half hour was spent fishing the weed tops in Vineland Boy where Chuck did get a smaller northern pike before we decided to head back.  A quick stop at the Long Siding Bar and Grill for a burger, by 10:00 the fish were cleaned and Chuck was headed back up to Alexandria to finish the week with his family.  Chuck and I see each other about once a year and each time is like it was yesterday.  I'm glad we had a chance to get together again as we look forward to next year.

It's pickle time in the garden as we have started making the famous Bernie Konter's Fall Fest Pickles.  I have adapted his recipe for a 5 quart ice cream pail by filling it with long quarter sliced cucumbers, onion slices, and dill (all fresh from the garden).  Next comes the brine, 8 quarts of water, 1 cup of white vinegar, 1/2 cup of canning salt, a generous tablespoon of minced garlic (not dried), and about the same amount of pickling spice.  Mix it up and pour over the cucumbers.  Seal with the cover and in a week or so they'll be ready to munch on.  The blueberry crop at Blueberry Ridge in Eleva experienced a rough winter so the picking has not been very good. My raspberries are great and now that I planted a few different varieties, we are having berries from July 1st thru the end of September.  The plan is to try and get back on the river again on Sunday to take advantage of the existing river height as it's easier to fish right now.

Fishin' With Pete

Pete's 26 inch weed walleye

Ever grateful for being friends with my neighbor Pete Sipe, I am always looking for ways to repay him for his introduction to the current group of guys that fish Lac Seul.  Having lived down the street from me for over 22 years now I finally got him in my boat as we planned a Saturday afternoon Mille Lacs Lake  trip to see if the walleyes were cooperating.  Pete asked what to bring and after seeing his arsenal of fishing equipment I assured him that he just needs to bring himself, I'll supply everything else.   On the way up I suggested we stop for an ice cream cone at the Cenex station just south of Onamia, they're pretty good as well as reasonable.  Getting the cones while Pete put in about 12 gallons of gas in the boat on his credit card, that was awful nice of him, seeings who invited who.  After a quick stop at Bill's we finally launched to boat and headed for Roland's Flat.  20 minutes and we didn't mark a fish on the Lowrance, the next stop was a deeper underwater reef off of Sherman's point.  20 minutes and we didn't mark a fish on the Lowrance, the next stop was The Cut.  With the wind blowing pretty good from the south/southwest it was a perfect drift but after an hour we headed to 7-Mile.  It was pretty amazing that there wasn't a boat on the flat, a testament to the current attitude regarding the lake.  7-Mile is in my opinion the most popular structure in the summer to fish and for it to be 4:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday and not a boat in site, uffda is all I can say.  Moving to Sliver Flat to see if we could duplicate my friend Mark's previous weeks catch, nothing. Deciding to lead line the open basin area from Sliver Flat to the southeast tip of 8-Mile Flat, finally Pete saw his rod bend over.  We landed a nice fat 24 incher before resetting the lines and headed west.  Although the walleye hit soon after we started, another hour went by without another hit.  Packing up the rods we headed the boat to Vineland Bay with the plan to troll the weed tops for big northerns.  Setting up Pete with a 6 inch green tiger Rattlin Rouge, I put on a larger rattle bait and troll we did.  It wasn't long before rod bent over but as soon as it happened it was gone. Twenty minutes later Pete had a nice fish on and it was pretty exciting to see what it was knowing the size of bait he was pulling.   As the fish came to the boat it certainly didn't act like a northern and to our surprise it was a nice walleye.  Trolling 5 feet down, just touching the weed tops and we get a walleye, crazy.  Maybe I need to rethink my strategies!  With that fish being the last of the day it was Pete 2, Dave 0.  We ended the day driving up to Round Lake to see Bruce then over to the lake just east to meet up with our good friend Ricky Shermer and his crew.  It was a lot of fun despite the fact that once again I didn't catch a fish on Mille Lakes and having to drive 5 miles of dusty gravel roads to get to where Ricky was staying.  The good thing is the boat washes off but there is little I can do about the lack of fish on the end of my line, oh well it was fun.  Hating to admit I have yet to catch a fish on Mille Lacs this year, maybe the fall will bring a change.

Bruce's Monster 32" Walleye

Most of my good friends are very familiar with the blog as well as my love of fishing so they often send me pictures of the fish they catch. Sometimes to simply let me know they are having fun but often it's to show that they can catch the nice fish as well.  Last week a picture came over the phone from my good friend Bruce Thackray, a fellow transformer manufacturing colleague.  Bruce takes a trip to the Boundary Waters area every year with his family in July as we have discussed how much he enjoys Northern Minnesota.  Being from the Chicago area means he deserves some crap about fishing as we only see each other about  3 times a year at our Transformer Association meetings and trade association shows like the Coil Winding Show in Chicago.  Promising not to mention the lake he caught this pig at,  it was near the Gunflint Trail in about 12 - 17 feet of water when she hit.  Caught on a night crawler rig it was almost too big to fit in the net.  Bruce took the measurements and they were quite impressive....32 inch length and 18 inch girth with an estimate of around 13 pounds it's a once in a lifetime fish.  Bruce let the fish go and is already planning on getting a replica.  Suggesting Artistic Angler's out of Duluth Minnesota, they do an excellent job on walleyes and have a best collection of mount styles on the market today.  What's nice is that you tell them where you caught the fish and they understand the coloring and will match it perfectly.  It's definitely going to look good in his den and he can dream about that fish still swimming around, waiting for the next crawler rig to come by.

With the Mississippi River finally retreating from what has seemed to be a continual flood stage, I have been looking to replace the outboard motor on my john boat.  It currently has a 1976 15 hp Evinrude and although it runs OK, she's pretty slow.  Often my neighbor Lory goes with and traveling upstream yields about 12 mph.  As well, it can be cold blooded so it takes a while to get warmed up.  With the boat being rated for 25 hp, I've been looking on Craigslist for a reasonable replacement.  Not interested in anything older than a 1978 or something more than the whole boat is worth, it's pretty hard to find something in the middle.  I finally saw a 1999 25 hp short shaft Mercury in St. Cloud however by the time I called it was gone.  Oh well, I'd just keep looking.  Upon returning on Friday I got a message "if you are still interested in the motor the other guy fell through and I still have it".  A quick call verified a time to drive up to check it out and on Monday I had it in the back of my truck.  Double checking with my neighbor Blair to make sure his landing was still available the plan is to take it out on the river either Friday or Sunday.  It started on the first pull so it should work pretty good.  Saturday is filled with blueberry picking in Eleva, a farewell party of my wife's aunt, a birthday party for our niece, and the Fagerland reunion.   It's going to be impossible to hit everyone so we'll see who wins out.

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.