Charleston Fishing At It's Finest. Part 1.

Isle of Palms Marina

The long awaited reunion with my friends Matt Davis and Joe Stanfield finally happened as planned last weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. For a number of reasons my brother Steve failed to make this trip but luckily Matt's brother Chris filled in perfectly.  Matt informally introduced us to Chris as his Baptist Preacher brother from Kansas, sure now Joe and I were expecting to be on our best behavior! We'll it turns out Chris is really works in the 911 system and I suppose it probably entails the same issues, dealing with people in trouble for one reason or another, but it had me fooled.  Either way it turned out to be a great substitute as we all met around noon on Saturday in the Charlotte, North Carolina airport.  With Matt being the last to show up we got our bags and headed to the car rental area, picked up a van and headed towards Charleston, South Carolina which was about 3.5 hours away.  With plenty of things to catch up on and a few stops along the way we finally pulled into the Charleston area with our first destination, Isle of Palms where our booked charter fishing trip was booked.  Locating the exact boat and instructions for the morning we headed back towards the city to check into the Holiday Inn then go find something to eat.  Deciding to stay fairly close to the hotel we got a cab and headed to an entertainment area called Shems Creek, along a waterway near the coast.  Being somewhat of a yuppie place it was crowded and I wasn't too impressed with the food although we did have some great raw oysters in one spot.  We ended up at a seafood place and again, I wasn't too impressed there either yet it was getting late and we needed to have an early start in the morning.

Getting up early we had breakfast in the hotel before heading back to the marina before 7:30.   Our first mistake was to take a right turn that meant we had to drive almost 5 miles across a huge bridge into Charleston before heading back the other way.  Luckily traffic on Sunday morning isn't too bad and we lost little time getting to the boat.  After getting our parking pass and loading up with a few refreshments we headed out with Captain Chuck Griffin of Aqua Adventures Sport Charters in his 28 foot center console boat with a 250 hp Yamaha.  Our morning route took us through the inside channels that lead to a cut to the ocean about 10 miles from the harbor.  We were just at low tide and as the waves were breaking off the sand bar, it was obvious that we would have to work our way through the area as the water was only 3 feet deep verses probably around 8 feet at high tide.  Inching our way through we finally hit deeper water and headed for a small reef area which in itself was interesting.  Apparently when they were building the harbor in Charleston with granite from up north which was hauled in by barge.  One of the barges sunk with all the granite and created a small "barge" shaped reef in about 15 feet of water.  This was our first place to fish and although we did catch a number of different small fish, our main target was salt water sheepshead and black sea bass yet they were no where to be found.  It was interesting to fish this small area as one had to deal with both the wind and the tide currents making it very challenging to stay on top of the small reef using an anchor.  After about 30 minutes the Captain decided that we needed to move to the next reef, another 10 miles away up the coast. This reef was in deeper water and was again man made but was done on purpose rather that being because of an unfortunate accident.  Apparently when they made the new bridge connecting Mount Pleasant to Charleston they shipped all of the concrete rubble from the old bridge and dumped in the ocean making a very nice fishing reef that topped out at around 40 feet.   Our bait of choice was fiddler crabs, the kind that are found on beaches.  Although only a few had claws as big as this one you had to be careful as those things can

Fiddler Crab on a hook

really pinch as Matt and I found out!  Getting these on the hook took some challenges and if you weren't careful that claw would clamp down on your finger and even when it came off the crab, it's muscles continued to dig it into your skin.  It's a lot funnier after the fact but in Matt's case the crab claw actually broke his skin.  Either way they were pretty effective as we started catching both Sheepshead and Black Sea Bass almost immediately.  I guess the interesting thing is these are land crabs and not found in the water yet it's no different that catching walleyes with nightcrawlers, they aren't found in Lake Mille Lacs either.  A picture of a sheepshead was featured in a December 4, 2008 post when we fished in Jacksonville Florida that year but these were much larger and I the video I inserted makes for a pretty impressive set of teeth on this fish.  These things are made for eating crab, clams, anything with a hard shell as they have all the equipment needed.   No wonder we had a hard time hooking these fish as it would take almost 6 crabs to catch one fish.  The black bass were easier to catch and had to be over 13 inches to keep them and we caught plenty.

I am still waiting for pictures from the guys and hopefully will get them for next weeks post as I am going to take it easy for the weekend.  There still might be some fishable ice around, quite the opposite of the 80 degree weather we experienced in Charleston.  Stay tuned!

Trimming the Orchard

Pruned to Perfection!

With the rapid warmup of the weather all of our snow has done a  nice disappearing act which forces a person to just do more work!  Spring is the time to trim my apple trees and usually the earlier the better so it became my project for the weekend.  Apples love to be trimmed as it helps in preventing diseases by opening up the inside of the tree for better air circulation, helps in turning the apples read as they receive more sunlight, and it makes spraying and harvesting the apples much easier.  If you look at the orchards, they really trim the trees down for exactly the same reasons. Last year's late snow cover and very wet spring was hard on the trees as the are in low spot by the pole shed.  I had 2 full grown Fireside trees that I left planted close to each other to the point where it was getting difficult to deal with them.  Never wanting to cut anything living down, one of them slowly wilted until all the leaves were gone, I guess Mother Nature did what I couldn't do until the tree was dead!  I do think the other tree is happier now, we will see.  The other thing that pruning the tree accomplishes is it helps to even out the every other year cycle of lot's of apples, not so many apples.  2013 was a banner year for my trees with more apples than I knew what to do with.  Combined with the wet spring and a cold start to May, 2014 was a total bust for apples, enough to stop spraying them, it just wasn't worth the time.  This year should be a great one as we are back on the good side of the cycle.  One other thing that I did was finally cut off any branches that interfered with my head while mowing.  Sometimes I'd go along on my mower, not thinking then WHACK, sometimes almost getting thrown from the lawn mower, and I can guarantee that it doesn't feel very good at all.  Those bottom branches never produce much anyway!  I have 12 full grown apple and pear trees and it takes about 45 minutes to complete one tree.   Our friend, Bruce Amundson's daughters have been putting honey bees in the back of our property for years and I was glad to hear they called and asked if we were interested again.  Not only are we interested but for years I have been offering to pay for the bees as I know they are not cheap and I really get the benefit.  This year they agreed to allow me to help which I think is perfect.  With all of the trees pruned and the bees verified, all we need now is the weather to keep moving in the right direction.  As for Dewey Ness, my friend in NW Wisconsin, I will make sure there are enough apples for you!

Fort Sumter Cannon

My friend Pete wanted me to take him on the Mississippi River on Sunday but even with the 55 degree weather the ice was still pretty thick and besides, it would take me a day to get the boat ready anyway.  I was thinking about going ice fishing but instead spent most of the day doing a few minor repairs to my Salem like fixing the electrical access cable hatch then insulating it from the inside, replacing the removable shackle pins with stainless steel ones, and thinking about putting mud flaps on the fenders to prevent so much salt from hitting the lifting jacks.  As well, there is a lot of things to get packed before this weekend's trip to Charleston, especially finding everything.  Cleaning the coolers to bring my Walter's beer and cheese with to digging up my summer fishing clothes as the forecast for Sunday is 75 and sunny.   Charleston is a very historic city and is where the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter which started the Civil War.  We arrive about 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday and leave on Monday morning with an 8:00AM - 4:00PM charter on Sunday.  This should leave some time to visit some of the historical sites around town and enjoy a little southern hospitality.  I am planning on taking my GoPro camera and hopefully get some good action shots of our fishing trip on the inshore reefs.  It is interesting that our fishing license is covered by the captains charter license so it's great that we don't have to spend any more money on that.  We all have to be back in Charlotte, North Carolina for our annual APEC conference which is the premier event for our company.  It's a good opportunity to see all of my friends in the business, both competitors and our raw material suppliers.  I have only been to Charlotte once in my life, it was in the 90's and I spent a July weekend with my good friend Rick Semingson at his place in Blue Ridge, Georgia.  Flying into Atlanta, he picked me up and toured the countryside as we made our way north.  The next day we headed across the Blue Ridge Mountains through Highlands before heading to Charlotte.   Having never been to this area of the country it was beautiful to say the least.  Although very hot in Atlanta, Rick's place was 2000 feet higher and cooled down at night very well.  I was really taken back by the Cicada's at night as the noise was deafening yet charming.  Rick's retired now and maybe with a little luck we can get together again sometime.
Hopefully next weeks adventure lives up to my expectation, which is nothing more than to have a little fun.

In Between Time

Cady Cheese Factory

With walleye season done on February 22nd and as stated last week unless one heads 6 hours away, the ice fishing is relegated to panfish, which is just fine with me.  I did forget about fishing the Mississippi River in St. Paul but it's pretty locked up until we get warmer weather, which BTW is on it's way.  This week should see that last of the below zero weather for the year as next week is projected to be in the 50's, perfect for clearing out the river and it will sure make the maple sap run like crazy.  Saturday was my day to kill 2 birds with one stone, take the wife to Menominee, WI to spend time with her cousins while I headed to Eau Claire to the Sheel's Store to buy some new pants, stop at the Northwoods Brewpub to get some Walter's Beer then on to a couple of Cheese Factories to get some hard to find 10 and 15 year old cheddar cheese for my trip on March 14th.  Arriving at Sheel's they had exactly what I was looking for, a couple pairs of Kuhl brand men's pant.  They are super comfortable and can be worn for either causal or be a little more dressy.  Next was a stop at the Northwoods where they make Walter's beer.  Walter's was my beer of choice 42 years ago when I could go in the bars legally at 18 years old and order a tap for $0.15 each.  Like a lot of local beers, they succumb to the move towards beers like Miller Lite and faded a slow and sad demise. Northwoods started brewing it again for the locals in small batches and I heard it's not the original recipe but close.  I guess it's been too long to remember anyway but the packaging sure looks good! The Norske Nook from Osseo has taken over the kitchen as I noticed they had Lefse Wraps.  That's a tough combination, a glass of Walter's and a Lefse Wrap so I ordered both, the later being salmon.  It was excellent as I paid the bill and headed back west to my next stop, Cady Cheese Factory in Wilson, WI.  I took the back roads off from the I94 through downtown Menominee and up the valley to the intersection of Wisconsin Highway 29 and 128, about 3.5 miles south of the interstate.  This is a great place to buy cheese as it's reasonably priced and they have yellow cheese curds as opposed to the white ones we get at Ellsworth Creamery.  I love the way the white curds squeak as you eat them but honestly the yellow ones from Cady have more flavor.  In addition to a couple of pounds of curds I bought 2 pounds of 10 year old cheddar, 1 pound of 15 year old cheddar, and some horseradish jack which I am bringing with me to Charleston, SC on our fishing trip.  The southern boys enjoy the boutique cheeses as they are significantly better than what they get in Dallas and besides, a little once in a lifetime taste for our guide, he won't be able to help but get us all the fish we need!  I did manage to spend some time with my brother-in-law, Walter (no relation to Walter's Beer, BTW) and we did go to the Bass Lake Cheese Factory but I think they are pretty expensive, maybe at least $5 - 6/pound more.  I suspect because they are close to Stillwater, MN they can simply get more while places like Cady and Ellsworth are were the common folk shop.

Sunset at the White Cap Inn

I did get out on Sunday with my neighbor Tom Olson to do a little ice fishing while the weather was still somewhat nice out.  Because it was March 1st, our fishing licenses were expired so a quick stop at Cabela's took care of that problem.  Reading the fishing report board, I noticed that Indian Lake was mentioned so I asked Tom if he'd like to change strategies and skip Lake John to go back to Indian.  After agreeing we headed to the lake arriving about 3:00 or so.  It's nice when there is little snow on the lake as it's pretty easy to drive anywhere, so we headed to the area where we did catch a number of crappies this fall.  There were a few in the area however most were parked off the point in the middle of the lake.  Actually there were a number of holes drilled so we simply settled down, cleaned off the ice that had skimmed over and started fishing.  Although the temperature was reasonable the wind was pretty strong yet we managed without putting up the house.  By 5:30 we had only caught a few fish so we packed it up.  You could see where someone had fished walleyes earlier in the week as the top of the ice had a nice layer of large fathead minnows littering the surface, they must be in there.  Putting everything back in the truck we headed back home to the pole shed.  Upon arriving home and getting out of the truck, I walked back and the dang tailgate was down.  My 1995 Chevrolet has a hard plastic box liner and things slid around pretty darn easy.  Not knowing how long it had been down, maybe the whole way, who knows so we started to take inventory.  I had a pail with my Vexilar FLX 28 inside and that was still there.....unbelievable.  The only thing missing was my Clam Minnow Bucket with a brand new minnow scoop, and quite honestly I hated the thing anyway.  I guess we were awfully luck that's all we lost as if the Vexilar would have disappeared, that would have been a disaster for sure.  I guess I need to check things better.  My second picture is always my go to scene when I forgot to take something from the existing week, it's from last week's Perch Extravaganza as the sun went down over Mille Lacs Lac from the White Cap Inn.  Cold and crisp, it only lasts a few minutes but as you know I love these shots!

As stated earlier, this weekend should see temperatures pushing the 40's.  With my schedule for the following weekend full, I am going to try and get my apple trees trimmed for the growing season as this is very important to get good apples.  Daylight Savings Time starts on Saturday night, that will help for sure.  I am definitely anxious to get out and do some saltwater fishing soon as this below zero weather has taken it's toll!

2015 Perch Extravaganza

Perch Extravaganza

This weekend saw my fishing buddies Mark, Mike and Judy, Russ, Scott and Ann, my brother Steve and nephew Kevin attend the 32nd Annual Johnson's Perch Extravaganza held at Nitti's Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Lake Mille Lacs.  It's probably the largest perch fishing contest with nice prizes for the largest 10 perch plus a ton of great attendance prizes including a couple of Ice Castle wheel house and a side by side UTV. The plan was simple as Steve and Kevin would meet at the pole shed around 5:00 Friday afternoon, we'd drive up to get my equipment from Bill at Lundeen's Tackle Castle before meeting the rest of the crew at Hunter's Point.  Arriving around 7:30 on Friday night I had assumed that everyone had their houses set up but when I pull on the ice to park everyone's wheel houses were still parked near shore.  Well, this could be interesting as the crew was there quite a bit earlier than we were. Luckily they saved us a spot at the bar as we unwound from the week's past events.  Hunter's makes probably one of the best pizza I've had so we ordered a large one for supper, they aren't cheap but it's pretty darn good.  After a few more toasts with Mark we decided it was time to get set up as we all headed to our trucks and followed Russ to the magic spot for perch fishing.  It takes about an hour to set up the house, including getting my flag up and flying, by 10:30 we were fishing.  Now perch tend to be a fish of the daylight hours and though I have caught them in the night, it was more likely if we got anything it would be a walleye. We did mark a bunch of fish on the flashers, they acted like tullibees yet nothing took our lures. Setting up our bunks and the rattle reels we hit the sack with only one going off within an hour, a 10 inch walleye.  Saturday started with a clear blue sky and a rising barometer, perfect perch fishing conditions.  Steve finally caught a 9 inch perch but that was not going to be enough to even consider bringing it in as there were probably 5,000 participants.  We did get a couple of really nice tullibees and actually they were probably the largest I've seen come out of Mille Lacs.  Admittedly where we were fishing, just in front of the White Cap Inn, wouldn't be what I would call a tullibee hot spot but they were there.  I did have my camera down but forgot to hit the record button when they were around.

Nice Tullibee Ready for Pickling

The contest started at 8:00 Saturday and ended at 2:00pm.  With nothing to show for our efforts it was time to head in for the prize drawings.  To be eligible for the contest and the drawing you must purchase a $20 button with a number on it.  All the numbers are loaded into a big barrel and they are drawn one by one.  As stated they give away everything from tackle packs, flat screen TV's, depth finders, and fish houses, probably at least 100 different prizes.  Well, like years past I walked away with only my button but it's fun.  The drawing last for about 1 1/2 hours then the party begins as they have a big tent set on the ice with a DJ and a bar set up.  For us it's a little to crazy and after standing on the ice for over 2 hours it's was time to find something a lot warmer so we got it the trucks and drove down the lake to the White Cap Inn.  There we found a table to relax, had a couple of beers while spending some money on the Meat Raffle, a popular event in these places up north.  Russ ended up with a couple of flank steaks and the rest of us struck out so we headed back to our ice houses just a half mile out on the lake.  The weather forecast was saying that Saturday night could be the coldest night of the winter as the temperature had been dropping all day with a very brisk Northwest wind.  It was very nice in the Salem as the temperature eventually hit -20F by the time we got up in the morning.  At 7:30 I walked outside and to my surprise everyone was ready to leave, and they all did by 8:00.  With the cold predicted to last all day and the fact that Steve and Kevin had a 4 hour trip back to LaCrosse, WI we decided to pack it up and go have breakfast somewhere.  I was surprised that a number of places were not open yet but we finally ended up at Bay View on the east end of Cove Bay and had a great walleye breakfast.  With the boys on their way home I cleaned the tullibees and started preparing them to pickle.

Hopefully this was the last cold stretch of the year and we can start warming up a little.  Inland walleye season closed on February 21st so the only options are heading to Devils Lake, North Dakota or Lake of the Woods, 6 hours north.  There is still plenty of time and ice to fish crappies and I am looking forward to maybe heading back up into the Detroit Lakes, MN area is see if I can repeat my catch of a few weeks ago.  I might even decide to take out the wheel house one last time and do an overnight on Mille Lacs to get some more tullibees as they are very good smoked and fun to catch.
I just put the finishing touches on a trip to Charleston, SC in March.  For the last few years a couple of my friends from Texas, Joe Stanfield and Matt Davis have been fishing the weekend before our annual APEC conference.  This year its in Charlotte, NC so we decided to spend the weekend in Charleston and  charter a boat out to the inshore reefs as it's prime time for sheepshead.  They are an interesting fish as they have teeth like a human.  The last time I fished these was in 2008 out of Jacksonville, FL as my previous post reported.  Our captain states they are bigger than this and I am looking forward to getting away and fishing somewhere warm.  In the meantime.........

Not Much to Report

Shimano Butteryfly Jigs

As stated last week, I spent most of my time in California.  One of the cool things I came back with was some fishing gear given to me by my good friend Joseph who works for a supplier of mine, Micrometals. A fishing hat, Tee Shirt from the shop, and a really cool Shimano Butterfly Jig (pictured) jigging spoon from Longfin's Sports Shop in Anaheim, California.  I love saltwater fishing and I have always wanted to fish tuna off the coast of California with Joseph and Jim Cox however it tends to be a spur of the moment situation.  The tuna can come in anytime so they watch the reports and when they are on fish, you go.  These trips are usually 1 1/2 day trips where you leave in the evening and steam towards the fishing grounds arriving in the morning.  One fishes all day before heading back that night arriving the next morning at port.  They really get a lot of fish sometimes up to a few hundred pounds per guy, that's a lot of yellow fin tuna steaks for sure. The best time is usually in August and one of these days I'll definitely be on that boat with them. The Butterfly jigs work really well as they have 2 ultra sharp hooks that are attached to the bottom of the main lure body and are deadly on fish.  I don't think it will work very good on Mille Lacs but who knows, may it would be a great norther pike bait.

2015 Perch Extravaganza 

This weekend was spent at the neighbors and to be honest with you it didn't go very well.  I am not sure if was the fact that I was exhausted from only 3 hours of sleep the night before or what but put it this way, I wasn't very proud of myself and I'll leave it at that.  This week is the annual Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza, one of the largest fishing tournaments at Hunter's Point Resort on Mille Lacs Lake. Joining me will be my brother Steve and his son Kevin.  Last year my brother Steve, neighbor Pete, and I took my new Salem Ice Cabin arrived at Hunter' Point however they had virtually no spots plowed for the contest members.  Promising that trucks would be working all night, it was snowing and by morning nothing happened.  Along with my friend Russ and Mark, we were stuck a few miles out just off the road with some very heavy snow cover.  The fishing was terrible and with the snow it eventually flooded our spots bad enough that by 6:00 in the morning we were packed up and gone.  This year there is little snow on the ice and with my chains, we should be able to get out to the flats for some serious perch fishing and a chance to turn in a winner! Besides some nice prizes for the largest perch caught they have a ton of door prizes that they give away which is always a lot of fun.  I am looking forward to finally fishing with my nephew as he was supposed to go with us to Red Lake a couple of times but at the last minute had issues that kept him home.  He's a great fisherman and often reminds me of myself when I was his age.  Unfortunately he's a big northern pike guy while I like to chase walleyes so we are bound to have a few discussions.  Our plan is to get set up by 9:00 Friday night as the Tournament starts at 8:00 Saturday morning.  The weather is looking okay until Saturday night when the bottom drops out and the forecast is for -16F over night.  Hopefully that will be the last really cold spell of the year but we'll see.

Inland walleye fishing season ends on Sunday, February 22nd so after that either one needs to go down to the Mississippi River or Lake of the Woods.  I am not ruling out either however it hasn't been to bad of a season with my 4 trips to Red Lake, one can't complain.  Wish us luck and I'll report in next week.

Last Minute Invite

Nice Collection of Fish

After picking up my friend Lory Brasel at the airport on Friday night as he was returning from China, we decided to stop at our neighbor Tim's to have a cocktail before dropping him off at his house.  My other neighbor Pete showed up and after a couple of hours we decided to go ice fishing on Saturday, sometime after noon.  Finally getting to bed and waking up around 9:00, it was time to get a few things done before we took off.  At 11:00 I got a call from my other Pete friend and the message was clear, I got a hot tip on a spot they are getting 12 inch crappies and 9 1/2 inch sunnies, be at my house a noon.  Now what??? My neighbor Pete and I had plans but my friend Pete was a very good friend of Dave Genz, legendary ice fisherman had a pretty good offer, one I may never get again.  In the meantime neighbor Pete just sent me a text, are you ready to go?  Damned if you do and damned if you don't.  Neighbor Pete would probably understand my dilemma so I confessed that I had a better offer and then followed up with a call declaring I am going to stand him up, this was once in a winter opportunity.  The other problem was that I was sworn to secrecy as these spots are held very sacred.  As I expected neighbor Pete said, take advantage and by noon I was in Monticello.  It was a 2 hour drive at 75 miles per hour we were drilling holes by 2:30 and fishing 5 minutes later.  Within 5 minutes I pulled up a 12 inch crappie, the biggest crappie I had caught in years.  A minute later another come came up through my hole.....holy moly!!!  The fish were biting very light and after a couple of easy fish it became more challenging.  Sometimes that's half the fun, figuring out what one needs to do to make the adjustment.  We were fishing from 11 to 14 feet and most of what we caught were coming from the deeper water.  A couple of guys were fishing close to us and they fished in that 11 foot area and started to pile the fish on the ice.  My Clam was set up in 11 feet and I decided to see if I could convince a few to hit my lure, nothing.  Time for Plan B as I got out the Aqua Vu and dropped the camera down.  There they were, 11 - 12 inch crappies, 9 - 9 1/2 inch sunnies swimming by, inhaling my bite yet you could not ever feel or sense them.  Like the previous week the camera gave me the feedback I needed as I stopped working my line but rather simply checked the screen and when a fish inhaled the bait, I set the hook.  This was a huge advantage as I put another 5 nice crappies on the ice and 5 beautiful sunfish.  One problem was that my lure's hook size was too small. Normally I like a #6 hook for crappies but my lure had a #10, a little small which resulted in every other fish I hooked came off at the top of the hole.  The action was so good that I simply didn't have time to change, a big mistake as I lost over 7 nice crappies that came unhooked.  It was pretty obvious who had the advantage, my camera made the difference as Pete only has 3 nice crappies to my 7.  Combined we had 10 crappies, 8 sunnies, and as many that got off, a pretty good afternoon.  As darkness approached the bite slowed and at 6:00 we headed out.   It was interesting, drive 5 hours to fish for 4 hours, it was the best crappie fishing I have had in years.  On the way home I stopped by neighbor Pete's and he seemed to be both impressed and not upset with me....that was a relief.  I am not sure I will get back there soon but it certainly was fun.

Santa Barbara Harbor Sunset.

This weeks post is late because I was in California till Friday morning and forget my adapter to transfer last weeks fish pictures to finish this post.  It was a whirlwind trip as I left on Monday morning landing at LAX around 11:30 AM before getting picked up by our West Coast Salesman, Shahab as we headed north to both Agoura Hills then on to Santa Barbara.  Both are beautiful areas as we decided that when once our business for the day was done, we'd have dinner on the Santa Barbara Pier for a little seafood.  With allergies to shellfish, I had the snapper on a bead of rice, unfortunately I wasn't impressed.  Maybe it was the way it was cooked but it just didn't have much flavor.  On Tuesday night we at with the boys from Triad and the menu items were much better with the exception of the raw oysters.  At $3.00 each they were pretty small and tasted old, yuck.   I had the grilled tuna and it was fabulous but as what seems to be in style, was served on a bead of rice. Not bad and the company was pretty good so no complaints.  Wednesday night saw me being accompanied by my good friends at Micrometals and Rubadue as we ate at the Orange County Mining Company.  A spectacular view of Orange County, it was time for a steak, pretty good! Thursday was pack up night as my good friend Mike Schubert and I, along with Shahab packed up our booth as we were done with the show.  Shahab headed south while we stopped by Mike's house to change, had a beer at one of the local watering holes, visited the American Legion where Mike is the Adjutant and downed another refreshment before heading over to our traditional hang out, Longboards.  My flight was the Red eye leaving at 1:00 in the morning and arriving at 6:30 in Minneapolis. I never sleep very well on airplanes but after being up for 20 hours the next thing I knew we were landing!  It was at least 85 degrees each day, a far cry from the -10F temperatures we have had in Minnesota, so it was pretty nice.  It was nice to see everyone but all good things had to end.

Looking forward to maybe getting out on Sunday to catch some fish.  We have a big deal going on for Valentines day at the neighbor's as Tim is cooking a big prime rib and the gals are bringing the rest of the courses.  Off to get a little sleep and figure out the rest of the weekend.

Lot's Going On!

Boris With a Beautiful Walleye

With the warmer than usual weather and the desire to try and catch some respectable crappies, I decided to head up north on Saturday and fish with my friend Jack and Ben.  Although they haven't had much luck finding the crappies on their lake, he stated that the plan was to move his ice shack closer to the island to see if we could locate a few there as all he has been getting are northern pike.  I had a few chores to do before I could meet those guys, first was to stop at Bill's to get bait and the second was to deliver a bottle of TX Whiskey to my friend Dewey.  Last week I spent some time on Mille Lacs with Dewey and the conversation of whiskey came up.  I challenged his normal perception of what quality whiskey really is and after a few one upmanship I committed to sharing one of my previous weeks winnings with him.   He was working on his bridge a couple miles out on the lake when I stopped by and handed him the bottle.  Totally surprised he offered to pay but as I promised, I would give him it with the statement, I don't just talk the talk but walk the walk!  Dewey was pretty impressed as he once drove to Tennessee to pick up a special bottle of Jack Daniels at the distillery.  I hope he enjoys it as I told him, if he mixes it with anything other than ice, I'm going to be pissed!  Leaving the lake for Jack's place, it would take 20 minutes to meet him out in front of his cabin on Platte Lake.  The first thing I noticed was Jack's brother-in-law, Boris Swanson's tracked ATV and what a machine.  Each wheel is replaced with a track that had studs embedded and that thing would go anywhere.  Apparently Boris was parked on the lake across the road, Long Lake, and had his wheel house set up for the evening. Thinking I might have a better chance at crappies there, Jack agreed and decided to meet us over there.  He was set up in 23 feet of water on an inside turn.  After checking out his house (I call it the walkin cooler on wheels!) I started the auger and drilled a number of holes from 21 - 25 feet, cleaned them out and started fishing. Nothing was showing up at the 21 foot depth, nothing at 22 feet, however the next hole had some significant marks at the 18 foot level in 23 feet of water.  Sometime there is algae suspended, sometimes it's minnows, sometimes it's fish so I lowered my tungsten jig with a waxie and although convinced they were fish, they weren't very aggressive at all.  Hole hopping a few more I decided to

5 Nice Crappies

come back to where I marked the fish, set  up my one man house with a heater as it was getting colder out and I wanted to be more comfortable.  After setting up and the marks still there, the next tool to come out was my AquaView hand held underwater video camera/recorder to see exactly what kind of fish were suspended.  Often times on these lakes it's nothing but a school of 3 - 4 inch perch however the minute the camera obtained the same depth as the marks it was confirmed, they were crappies, and a lot of them.  They were very finicky and would just come up and simply inhale the bait, often exhaling it in a split second.  With the camera you could see the action and pretty soon I was hauling fish up.  As stated the camera has a record button and while the bite was getting better I started recording the action.  Here is the link to about 14 minutes of ice fishing action on Youtube: Long Lake Crappies  During this video I did catch 6 fish which occur at 2:59, 3:26, 4:50, 5:45, 10:33, and 13:37 as you can see some of them quickly disappear from the camera.  Some of the fish look to be of decent size yet I only kept 5 of them ranging from 9 to 10.5 inches long out of about 16 or so that I caught.  There were a few nicer ones that came off at the top of the hole but with steady action it was better than sitting there wondering why I was sitting on the ice.  It's nothing like the action I used to have a Pelican Lake yet the winter is only half over and plenty of time to try a few other lakes in the area.  Just before Jack, Ben, and I left, one of Boris's rattle reels went off, he set the hook on this beautiful 25 inch walleye.  He was pretty excited however I did have to coach him somewhat on the finer points of taking fish pictures like cleaning off the snow, getting your hand in the right position yet I could not get him to take off that goofy Kosack hat, oh well!

Birthday Gifts Galore!

So today is my birthday, the big 6 - 0, sixty.  I'm never one to get too spaced out about birthdays and growing older however this one has got me thinking a lot more than the previous milestone celebrations at 30, 40, and 50.  I know, they say that 60 is the new 50.....well I understand but the truth is that I'm still 60!  It's not a negative but considering that the males on my dad's side lasted till about 82, it means 75% of my life is over.  If one discounts the first 10 years of your life as pretty much under the care of someone, you could discount the last 10 years of having the potential of being the same.  The way I look at it there's about 10 - 15 good years left, assuming my health holds out, the time is ticking away.  Now it's always ticked away but you know, it's never seemed so fast.  Oh well, all that means is it's extremely important to take care of those things that you want to do, the people you want to do them with, and make sure you have fun doing it.  I guess this year Red Lake was a good example as we went there 4 times since Thanksgiving and had a blast doing it.  There is still Lake of the Woods to visit, maybe Leech Lake and Mille Lacs before the ice goes out.  Maybe a trip in March to Charleston, SC to fish.  Minnesota Fishing Opener in May, maybe Lac Seul in June, Lake Oahe in July, back to Lac Seul in September...uffda, the year is filling up fast. I guess you are the only one that can keep yourself young and it's becoming an everyday job!  So Sunday night was the Annual Superbowl party at our neighbor Tim Kuntz's place, it's tradition.  Most of the neighbors stop by and watch it in the heated garage and with a keg of beer and food to pass, everyone has a great time. Well this year one of the guys I work with, Welly, his wife and daughter stopped in.  That was great to see him, I do remember telling him to come up if he wanted, but that's a long way from Bloomington.  Next to show up was Jason and his boy.  Interesting as I figured he was in the neighborhood coming home from Isanti and decided to stop by, that was nice.  A few minutes later my good friend Mark Taylor and his family stopped by.........still didn't get it until my wife had Tim's wife Connie bring out the special birthday cake............DUH, a surprise birthday party at halftime.  It was pretty cool as I got a number of nice gifts with a few gag gifts thrown in.  Some of the more interesting items was a Granicrete Cocktail table that Tim made that has the Green Bay Packer logo on it, absolutely fabulous!  Next was a a laser cut G with my neighborhood nickname, Super Dave cut into it.  I definitely will need to paint that with the appropriate colors.  Next my wife gave me a mug with bunch of stuff in it to round out the display and a beautiful cake with a picture of me in my original birthday suit along with one of my heros, Aaron Rodgers.  Of course everyone in the neighborhood knows I am a diehard Packer fan so it certainly became the theme of the night, especially since the Packer's should have been in the SuperBowl.  As a side note I was glad to see Seattle lose because of stupid coaching, there is justice in the world!  Among other things I got a nice Cabela's gift certificate, some more Packer stuff, a few bottles of nice wine, and the most important, a lot of love from my neighbors, friends, and everyone attending, what more does a guy need?  Everything was done before Katy Perry started the show, it was a great night for sure.  Among the guests were Welly Chou, an engineer from my work.  Welly is quite savoy with the electronics and took this video of the whole deal so I put it on Youtube as well.  If your interested here is the link:My 60th Birthday Party at Tim's.

I might find a chance to see if I can nail a few more crappies this weekend before flying to California on Monday morning for 4 days of non-stop work.  I usually stay over on Thursday night but this time I decided to take the redeye back rather than spend $140 for a hotel room only to get up at 4:00AM to catch the first flight.  Heck, I can sleep at work on Friday.

Taking the Weekend Off....Sort of

Lundeen's Tackle Castle

Pulling the Salem home from Red Lake is sort of anticlimactic as it means an end to those fishing adventures that proved to be so enjoyable.  Looking to do something more constructive I called my friend Bill Lundeen to see if he needed any help at the bait shop on Saturday morning. The Brainerd Ice Fishing Contest was Saturday and with only a few bait shops open anymore, he claimed it was going to be busy and could always use a warm body.  Having helped Bill in the past I know how crazy it can get so I got up at 5:00AM on Saturday and headed north.  Arriving by 7:00 they were already busy, I waited for the cue.  It's easy to bag minnows and rig fishing poles, it's a little more difficult to run the cash register and issue fishing licenses, but in due time I was getting pretty good at it.  One of Bill's customers came in with an auger he ended up hitting a bolt with somehow and needed blades replaced.  This is an easy job and working off the top of the freezer I managed to replace both blades with only one minor cut to my hand, not bad.  The guy was so grateful he paid for the blades and gave me a 4 dollar tip for helping him, that would come in handy later!  It took about an hour and soon I was back in the swing of things and ringing up sales like a pro.  One of the things I do like is talking to the clientele as most people that stop in are looking for 2 things, bait and where are they biting.  The bait is easy and the "where are they biting" is often relative to where they want to go and what skill level they have.  With Mille Lacs it's pretty easy, just say the flats and you'll never be wrong as there is plenty of them around the lake and with the lack of snow one can drive almost anywhere.  It's interesting as I see myself as a pretty honest guy and I hosed up with a customer.  He got a minnow bucket, a dozen fatheads and a dozen rainbows, some waxies and a bait. When I came to ring him up I always call out what I am charging for as I enter it into the till.  Starting out at a dozen rainbows, enter..a dozen fatheads, enter...2 boxes of waxies, enter...a rattle spoon, enter... comes to $14.59, out of $20, here's your change.  The minute he walked out the door I realized I didn't charge him for the $3.79 minnow bucket and I'm pretty sure he knew that.  Well, there went my $4.00 tip.  I would never do that as my values are worth more than that.  Bill immediately sensed my mistake and called me on it but by then I had already acknowledged the problem.  Beyond that I missed a $0.50 oxygen bag so it wasn't too bad.  It was still fun to help and I know Bill appreciated the assistance.

Wild Rice and Home Made Maple Syrup

Things slowed down around 1:00 so I figured it was a good time to head to Dewey's Mille Lacs Access and try a spot we call the Christmas Tree.  Dewey runs a road in Vineland Bay and it extends out past Indian Point and areas east of there.  The lake has quite a few heaves caused by the shifting ice as it warms an cools and this year it's pretty bad.  The best thing is to pay for a road access and usually they have a bridge across the bad spots that allow you to get out on the ice further.  Well I put my $10 in Dewey's pay box and headed east about 1 1/2 miles where there he was with another guy, in front of his bridge.  The warm weather had really pushed the ice up and he pulled his bridge until it was a bit safer to put it back in place.  It was about 2:30 when I stopped and he offered to refund my money but I simply decided to stay on the shore side of the crack and try my luck.  After BS'ing with those guys for a while I punched about 10 holes in 22 feet of water and started fishing but by then the wind was picking up and the bite was nonexistent.  Deciding to pack up I headed back to Bill's just in time for pizza and his homemade tortilla soup, a nice way to end the day.  It's fun to help out someone and I did get out on the lake for a couple hours anyway.  Bill and a friend of his harvests their own wild rice on the lakes around Onamia in the fall and as well in the spring he makes quite a bit of maple syrup so I picked up a couple of containers for my friends in Texas.  Feeling guilty for all the TX they sent, I'm sure they will enjoy the goodies from there up north friend.

Superbowl Sunday is at my neighbor Tim's again as it is every year and I'm looking forward to watching the game, even if the Packer's, who should be playing, are not.  The plan is to sneak out and maybe go look for some crappies on Saturday before the cold weather returns that evening, we'll see.

An Up and Down Weekend.

Biggest Walleye So Far on Red Lake, 25 Inches

A lot went on this weekend, some things that were extremely enjoyable and some that were not so enjoyable.  I always like to try and start on a positive note so Friday morning my brother Steve, friend Kevin Aiona, and myself headed back up to Red Lake for one last adventure for the year. Reading the latest reports, the fishing has certainly slowed down as it always does this time of year. Red Lake has really gotten hammered as there is virtually no snow and the ice has been driveable since the Friday after Thanksgiving so the lake is pretty much accessible to wherever you want to legally go.  The area's on the lake get burnt out pretty fast and this year was no exception. By December 1st the limit was reduced from 4 walleyes under 20 inches to 3 walleyes under 17 inches.  Well, the harvest has been crazy as you see from my past posts so this Friday, January 23, the limit drops to 2 walleyes under 17 inches.  It's reasonable and understandable so to beat the limit change and because of my work schedules coming up it was time to head up and pull my wheel house home.  Arriving around 12:30 we slipped back into the VIP lot of JR's to hook up the house.  JR has been super nice to us as we have shared our love for high class bourbon with him and have been rewarded with a special location to park our houses.  After paying the access fees and storage we decided to try near the rock pile, about 3 miles from the resort.  It had snowed earlier in the month and the lake wasn't totally impassable as there was bare ice between areas of mixed drifts up to a foot deep.  Turning off the main road to snake our way back to the spot we wanted to be at, pulling the Salem is pretty heavy and even in 4 wheel drive we barely made it out of some of those drifts.  The kicker came when we drove over a 5 inch crack in the ice, simply the ice had parted and by the time I felt the front wheels travel over it I knew we were committed. The rig crossed without incident but I got somewhat spooked and decided that this was as far as we were going.  There was no one to the west of us and we had the area pretty much to ourselves so we set up and were fishing by 2:00.  Unfortunately we only caught walleyes either too small or over 17 inches so it was hamburgers at JR's for supper.  By morning we had a few keepers and by 6:00 Saturday we actually had our limit of 9 fish.  Enough for a fish fry we took 6 of the walleyes and headed back to JR's to have him fry them up for us.  Earlier that afternoon I decided to put on my tire chains and wow, did they ever make a difference in being able to get around the lake without the fear of getting suck in some snowdrift in the middle of nowhere.

Kevin Enjoying the Fishing

The wind was blowing hard and drifting around the house, the chains gave us the confidence to stay there.  Returning from JR's we settled down for the evening when something barely sucked in my bait.  A quick hook set and it was obvious this was a nice fish. Actually the way it was fighting I simply assumed it was a northern pike as Kevin kneeled down by the hole to help.  Blocking my view of the fish coming up Kevin verified, "Yep Dave, this is a nice northern" as he turned around with a 25 inch walleye in his grip, laughing right at me!  It was the largest walleye I have caught on Red Lake in the 3 years I've been going so it was pretty special. We snapped a few pictures and put her back down the hole.  It was a beautiful fish and the picture doesn't do it justice (for that matter, my picture as well).  Nice and fat, she had a huge tail and fins and was absolutely gorgeous in her color.  Certainly it was a highlight of my year so far.  We finally hit the sack with one more walleye in the bucket and all the rattle reels set.  We only had 1 go off at night and it was a small one and by the time we decided to leave the next morning we had only caught about 6 keeper perch.  At 11:00 the packing up began and  by 12:30 we were at JR's saying goodbye.  While Kevin cleaned the fish I dropped off 5 pounds of Bill's hand harvested Wild Rice, something JR really appreciated.  He was determined to pay me but my response was that we felt it was super nice to help my friend Mark Applen and I when we needed a place to park our houses and he came through.  Feeling bad JR came up with a quart jar of his homemade tomato soup he canned and knowing JR, it's pretty good.  We left Red Lake till next year, it's been a blast and as we turned on Hwy 72 to head south it was bittersweet for sure.  Well, at least we would have the Green Bay Packer game to listen on the way home.

A Texas Care Package!

The previous week my brother Steve and I had the opportunity to drive to Green Bay and watch the Packers victorious win over the Dallas Cowboys.  As stated last week, this meant that I was due 2 bottles of TX Whiskey from my 2 great friends from the Dallas area, Matt Davis and Joe Stanfield.  I even went so much as to remind them that my bet was with each of them, not together and fully expected the 2 bottles.  Joe said, don't worry as I am heading to Matt's to send you a special package. Well, Wednesday arrived and expecting an Amazon shipment, there was also a Harry and David box with my address.   I had made the remark to my receiving clerk, Geez, I hate that.  People send me Harry and David gifts and heck, they cost $80 and why a good bottle of bourbon is only $40, send me 2 of those instead as I walked away with the Amazon package.  An hour later they delivered it to my office so I suppose I'd better see what it was before it spoiled.  Upon opening it I immediately saw that it wasn't a fruit basket so I looked at the label and sure enough, it came from Matt.  Well, this box was too big for 2 bottles of TX and I soon found out why!  They must have cleaned out their garages, closets, whatever and wrapped up everything individually for me to unpack.  So the list is pretty interesting.  I have 4 VHS tapes, 2 Rocky and Bullwinkle tapes, Grumpy Old Men (it's still in the wrapper), and a tape on Inflatable Lifeboat Survival.   There were 3 old rod holders that I think I can really use as well as a stainless steel anchor bracket and lock that will hold an 80# anchor.  The white straps are adjustable boat fender mounts, I got a balloon powered toy boat and a Duck Dynasty cooler cup.  They threw in a 1999 Playboy calendar, an old dirty pair of men's underwear, a necklace, an old emergency starter rope, a bottle of Johnson's Baby Powder, a silver commemorative spoon of Alberta, Canada, a stuffed toy rat, some pricing slide calculator, and an old non-working fake Rolex watch.  Oh yeah, there were 3 750ml bottles of TX and 1 1.75L bottle, actually more than they owed me.  I'm not complaining at all!  I guess you really can measure how much your friends love you by the extent of their actions and I can tell you unequivocally that I love those guys to death!!  Thanks.

So the bad news is, remember that Packer Game we listened too?  Well at the 5 minute mark we stopped to get gas and eat at the Burger King in Garrison, MN.  They had a big screen TV so we decided to eat there and watch the rest of the game.  It went downhill from there.  With the Pack leading to the 2 minute warning, there conservative play strategy finally caught up with them and...well, I don't even want to discuss it.  Next year.  I did get the Salem home and decided to take it to the car wash to spray it down, never again.  It barely fit and I almost didn't get it out, lucky I guess. I am ready to do some fishing on Mille Lacs and might just haul it up for a few weekends before the season ends on February 22nd.  The winter is half over already, where does the time go?

Lambeau Magic

Residential Entrepreneurial Opportunities at it's best

As stated in last weeks post I was graced with 2 tickets to the Green Bay Packer's against "America's Team (that's debateable)" the Dallas Cowboys.  With a controversial call in the game, Dallas won it's first playoff game against the Detroit Lions to move to the second round at Green Bay's hallowed Lambeau Field.  The game was set up to be a great one with Green Bay having a perfect record or 8-0 at home and Dallas having a perfect record away, 8-0.  It seems as though I have been doing a lot of things with my brother Steve these days and when I asked him if he wanted to go to the game, there was no hesitation.  The plan was simple, I'd drive to Chippewa Falls on Sunday morning and meet him at the Walmart around 8:00 and he would drive the rest of the way to Green Bay.  Since they've redone Highway 29, it's clear sailing to Lambeau as our planned arrival time was 10:30.  With the game at noon this would give us time to get our warm clothes on, walk the half mile or so to the stadium, and have some of Lambeau's famous Wisconsin bratwurst before the game.  I like parking right off the west end of Lombardi Avenue, just after you turn off the freeway.  It's easy in and easy out, plenty of room and you basically walk along a residential street where it's a quite the scene seeing all the activity happening before the game.  I have talked about the tailgating that goes on at Lambeau and because it's location, everyone gets in the act. All the houses along the street that we walked down were full of entrepreneurs ready to serve the game time attendees.  Some, like the picture above took parking to the next level, offering additional services for the same basic parking fee everyone was charging.  I think a lot of these people have the

Green Bay Cadillac

same guests throughout the season and they all have a reunion every game, sort of like old home week!  It's definitely a party atmosphere and the below freezing temperature made no difference.  As we walked toward the stadium the craziness continued.  More people, more grills, more bars set up along the way on tables, the back of pickup tailgates, music blaring through loudspeakers, these people were having a great time.  The closer we got to Lambeau the more interesting it became as it looks like people must lease, rent, secure their spot to tailgate as it appeared as though they had been set up for a few hours.   Just before crossing the street to enter the stadium we came by a party setup around a custom painted Cadillac Sedan de Ville, complete with a bar set up in the trunk, a sound system on poles, a huge grill full of brats, and a much needed portable toilet set up behind me in the above picture.  One of these day I need to simply get there the night before and partake in the festivities yet one would probably need to make that a 2 day event!

Jordy Nelson's entrance

As you see in the picture I was dressed for the cold.  Along with my Sorel Boots were lined jeans, my Gortex snowmobile bibs, 3 layers of shirts, my cold weather camo hunting coat, a Green Bay poncho Welly at work picked me up in Mexico, a hand warmer muffler around my waist, a boat cushion for the aluminum bleacher seat, and plenty of disposable hand warmers.  All week the predictions were for the game time temperature to be 15 degrees, not a bad as the last time Dallas played Green Bay at Lambeau where that game was coined The Ice Bowl, where it was -13F, but enough to make sure one dresses warm. Well at game time the temperature had climbed to a balmy 28 degrees.  Now over dressed we shed some of our clothes and left them on the bleachers as we headed back to get something to eat and a beer.  It's quite stunning to watch the National Anthem being played as they unveil a football field sized flag for everyone to see.  A final flyover by 2 F18 Navy fighter jets, wing on wing set the stage.  I'd rank the game as one of the best I have seen there.  The Packer's scored first with Dallas scoring the next 2, with the momentum definitely on Dallas's side.  It looked like the Cowboy's were getting the upper hand in the game as Aaron Rodgers' calf injury was definitely affecting his play.  About the middle of the 3rd quarter a key play by Julius Peppers stopped a clear shot to the end zone by Dallas and forced a fumble that Green Bay recovered.  We didn't look back until the controversial (an correct) call at the 4 minute mark gave Green Bay the ball and all they needed to do was get a first down and hang on to the ball.  It was all over and the Packer's won 26 - 21 over the Cowboy's, the stadium just rocked.  A great game in a great city in a great venue with a great outcome.  I'm not sure what next week will bring and the odds maker's have the Pack down by 7 1/2 points but you know the story.....any given day!  I do know that I'm definitely going to enjoy the ample TX Whiskey I have coming from my Texas friends.  GO PACK

Friday I am heading back to Red Lake to pick up my wheel house and start fishing closer to home. It's been a lot of fun and this will be my 4th trip this year as the fishing tends to get progressively worse as the winter goes on.   As my previous posts describe, we have always gotten enough fish to eat and bring home, which has been the case for a lot of fishermen this year.  The fishing has been so good that the Minnesota DNR just announced a further reduction of the possession limit starting January 23rd.  Prior to December 1st it was 4 fish under 20" then changed to 3 fish under 17".  On the 23rd it will change to 2 fish under 17".  The lake has definitely been hit hard this year and harvest agreements are forcing changes to be made.  I'm not complaining as the season is already half way over and there's a lot of water I'd like to fish before the season closes on February 22nd.  Going with are my brother Steve and a friend from our home town, Eleva.  The strategy is to pull out the house on Friday afternoon while staying in contact with our friend Russ, who's going to be on Lake Winnibigoshish.  The reports have been good from there and if fishing is slow we will pack up the house and head south an hour to join his group.  Plan B is always good!  Although I probably won't get to see the Packer Game, after last week if I have to listen to it on the radio, I'll be happy, especially if they win!

Respite From Red

Pete's Medium Size Northern

After a full Christmas vacation spent at Red I decided to stick around home this weekend and try to find some crappies on Saturday.  My friend Pete usually has a handle on the local scene and there were some good reports coming out of Lake Sarah, just east of Rockford, MN.  Having a waypoint of interest, we met at the landing and headed to a small hump on the other side of the lake.  Drilling a bunch of holes on the top and along the edges, Pete immediately started marking fish that were more than willing to come up off the bottom.  It looked promising yet soon we were getting some 4 inch perch, not too encouraging.  After an hour Pete did get a nice northern pike considering the size one normally gets and I decided to take it home.  Although not the best at removing the Y bones, practice makes perfect and to be honest, northern pike taste pretty darn good as the meat is white, flaky, and firm.  After sitting another hour we decided to sit over a deeper hole hoping that the crappies would come through sometime.   It wasn't going to be our day.  We were fairly close to the landing and because of this we had some interesting conversations with fishermen walking back to their cars from what did you catch to a gentleman asking if we could help him determine if his recently acquired Marcum LX-3 flasher worked the way it should.  Using a lead depth finder you attach to the line, we were successful in acknowledging that he made a good decision, even though Pete and I were using Vexilar's.  The weather was due to change as the wind was already making the move to the north, we suspect that the change pretty well shut the fish down, or at least that was our excuse.  Bringing the remnants of a once full bottle of 4 Roses Single Barrel Bourbon and some ice, we toasted the new year and the promise that Pete would spend some time on the river with me and try to figure out the walleyes.  Pete runs River Run Guide Service out of Monticello, MN and does pretty well from Clearwater to Monticello.  Hopefully I can hold him to it as the walleyes are there, I just need to figure out the best way to catch them.

WOW!

One of the things I have been delinquent on commenting about is the incredible fall in gas prices lately.  It wasn't too long ago we were paying $3.79/gallon but it's been on a free fall for the last 2 months.  This morning I drove by the local Mobil station on Hwy 169 in Champlin and took a picture in amazement of the $1.79/gallon price however coming home tonight it was $1.73/gallon.  It now costs less than $20 to drive back up to Red and even with pulling the house back it is relatively cheap at 10 miles per gallon.  The latest predictions say it will drop even further but we'll see as it's pretty cheap by current standards.   It sure would be nice to buy ahead and if one lived in St. Cloud you can actually buy prepaid gas at the First Fuel Bank and enjoy stable fuel prices based on what you prepaid for and how much you bought.  It's a pretty novel idea and I suspect it will get a lot of attention at these prices.  Either way oil prices will really have to rise to get back to where it was this spring, and eventually it will!  Certainly a lot of people will definitely have a lot more disposable income to spend in the months ahead.

Thursday is our day to head to the annual St. Paul Sportshow, the first of the year.  Keith Holtan has his booth there and am looking forward to seeing him as tradition will have us catching up on the latest and greatest.  The week will finish off with a trip to Lambeau Field were a good friend and contact for our business has graced me with 2 tickets to the Packer/Dallas Cowboy game in Green Bay on Sunday.  It's going to be cold but is destined to be memorable, especially when the Packers win! It won't be as cold as the original Ice Bowl where Dallas came to Green Bay for a playoff game in 1967 and the temperature was -15F at game time.  Often called the greatest NFL game ever played, I hope the outcome will be the same as I have some well placed bets with my two friends from Dallas, Joe Stanfield and Matt Davis.  Either way I should have something to report next week.

Three Times a Charm

Ben's first Walleye on Red Lake

It's been a really busy week, especially since we fished Red Lake again for the third time this season and it's like they say, three times a charm. After spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with friends my brother Steve and I had planned to take advantage of the long holiday time off and head back to Red Lake.  On Christmas Day we had the pleasure of spending the evening at Matt and Christina Taylor's home, which was right on the way back home.  It's always fun to get together with the Taylor's our long time friends.  Jack was there with his 10 year old son Ben and the subject of Red Lake came up.  Our plan was to head up on Saturday the 26th and fish till Tuesday morning the 29th.  Jack stated he love to go and I suggested that he and Ben drive up with us and fish till Sunday as he had to work on Monday, they would be at the cabin and it's not really that much of a drive.  Well it worked out perfectly as we connected on the road heading north.  Also joining us was fellow Team Walleye member, Andy Achman and his wife Cheryl from St. Francis, MN.  Andy arrived an hour or so earlier and was anxious to get out after waiting for us to arrive.  Greeting us at JR's were Mark and Jan Applen as well as Russ Praught and his friend, all were waiting to have their fish fried up and suggested we wait and join them. Apparently the kitchen was changing oil in the deep fryer and it was going to be a while so after paying JR we hooked up the house that we had stored at the resort and headed back to the rockpile where our friends were parked.  Andy had arrived an hour or so earlier and was anxious to get out so we decided to go set up then come back for fish.  Although we didn't make it back in time there were still enough walleye to satisfy ourselves till breakfast.  Everyone headed back to our spots and getting  the poles baited it wasn't long before the first rattle reel went off and Ben went to work.  He's quite the fisherman for 10 years old and he pulled in the first walleye, too big to keep as it was over 17 inches. We took a quick picture with the phone and threw it back, ready for the next one.  Admittedly the bite had slowed somewhat as the fish weren't attacking our baits, the rattle reels proved effective. Ben had a great time pulling up our fish and he did really well as they visited both Andy and Mark to take advantage of any opportunity to pull one in.  After getting a few in the box it was time to get some sleep for the next day although I'm not sure how much Ben slept as he was on those rattle reels constantly.

Mark's 15 inch Crappie

Sunday brought another nice day and the surprise breakfast that Mark Applen brought over to our house.  He's an excellent cook and makes the best fried potatoes, bacon, and eggs.  With Russ leaving and Andy heading to Center Bar, Mark and I decided to move closer to the Reservation line as quite a few people had left the lake in the morning. During the evening Mark had caught this nice crappie, something that Red Lake is famous for prior to the comeback of the walleye populations.  I caught one of these last year and they are quite a sight coming through the hole. Our plans for the day were set, with the DirecTV working, we were looking forward to a day of football as both the Vikings and more importantly the Green Bay Packers would take up most of the afternoon.  After watching most of the Vikings game Jack and Ben bid farewell, something that Ben wasn't too happy about as he was having a blast.   Because Steve and I wanted to watch the Packer game in it's entirety, it was compromised with Mark that we would go back into JR's for fish at 6:30, which suit me just fine.  It was definitely worth it as the Packer's won 30 - 20 over Detroit and more importantly I won a bet with my 2 friends Glen Collins and Gary Hicks, both die hard Lions fans.  At 6:30 sharp we headed back to JR's, ate then drove back to the houses to settle in for the night.  Fishing was pretty slow and Andy's reports from Center Bar were more positive, we decided that a move was scheduled for Monday morning. We were really only a couple of miles away yet I never trust traveling cross country on unknown ice.The temperature was dropping and by morning we woke up to -14F with my Honda generator shutting off sometime in the night.  I have had this happen before and I think the carburetor get's iced up so I threw some gas antifreeze, brought it in the house and it started right up and ran good for the rest of the trip.   Fishing was OK on the rattle reels overnight, enough to pull them and attempt to get some sleep but in the morning fishing was slow.   By 9:00 we were getting ready to move and also helped Mark pack up in the now very brisk wind, definitely the weather had changed quite dramatically from Saturday's arrival.  We got the house connected to the truck and made our way back to JR's main road to the Center Bar.

Monday night walleye

Andy had been catching fish in the morning as we approached the waypoint he had given us.  Now packing up to leave,  Steve and I set the house near a small patch of snow so we had enough to bank. I made the big mistake of setting the house on 4 x 4's rather than directly on the ice.  Because we had enough snow to bank and the temperature was not going to get above zero anytime soon I thought it would be best to simply do the 4 x 4's incase we would have been frozen in.  Our problem was the ice was at the air temperature and the extra room just allowed plenty of cold air to circulate under the floor much easier.  We had a constant battle to keep the holes from freezing and the wind certainly did not help the situation at all.  Up to this point we had been pretty spoiled by the nice weather while fishing and now we were stuck with conditions that made fishing, even in the house a challenge.  By 4:30 on Monday afternoon we had enough fish to go into JR's for our nightly walleye feed and luckily there were only a few people left.  I was nice as we got pretty good service and was able to spend a little quality time with JR, Adam, and the rest of the crew.  One of the bartenders brought out a jar of his concocted horseradish pickles using Milwaukee Baby Dills.  They were excellent and I'm anxious to try them as the recipe is pretty easy.   Through Monday night the furnace never stopped running and even though the fish were biting I finally had to close up all but 2 of the holes and put the insulated covers back on.  Surprisingly this helped quite a bit as before doing that the temperature had fallen to under 50 degrees in the house and by morning we were back to the low 60's.  Even though it was still well below zero and the wind was crazy, at 7:30 Tuesday morning the fishing was great and stayed that way for the next 2 hours.  I suspect we caught about 20 walleyes and perch in that time period, enough to each bring home our limits.  Packing up once again we were faced with limited parking and JR was good enough to help take care of us.  We were on the road by 11:30 and counting our stops pulled into my pole shed at 4:00, not bad.  My strategy is to head back up one more time, maybe either January 10 or the 17th, depending on the weather and will probably pull the Salem home.  My schedules pretty full for the rest of the winter and I'd like to try Mille Lacs a couple of times as it's not so far to drive and I hear the fishing is pretty good.

Sunset on Red

So here's wishing everyone a happy and safe New Year.  I'm going to try and find some crappies this weekend, hopefully I'll be successful.  The St. Paul Sports Show starts on January 8th and I'm looking forward to seeing Keith and Jane again and have our usual Guinness at the Liffey Bar in St. Paul.  We still have remarkably little snow for the winter as Red Lake basically had no snow and we have about 3 inches on the ground around home.  It's certainly a lot different than last years record snowfall and I'm not complaining.  I suspect buying that new cab for the John Deere has something to do with it as you see when I bought a brand new 47 inch snowblower attachment for my John Deere lawn tractor, we didn't have hardly any snow that winter and I really had to wait until the following year to use it.  I'm just saying!  I'll leave you with a gorgeous sunset on Red Lake, taken at -10 below zero.  I love it because the air is so clear and crisp, it's too bad they only last a minute or so.