Lake Oahe, part 2

29 inch Channel Cat

I have to be honest about last weeks post which forced me to use only the pictures I had taken with my phone.  On Monday morning I brought the boat back to the dealer to get the kicker mounted and the last place I remember my camera was in the dash compartment by the steering wheel of the boat. Of course all my bragging pictures were on that camera.  Well, I picked the boat up Friday and the first thing I looked for was the camera, dang, it wasn't there.  A quick panic then a look in my computer backpack......I had it all along!  So Our first day of fishing on Oahe took us south to the area called the Slide Hill.  Although the Lowrance still had the trails we made 2 years, because of the high water, they were now 35 feet deep and all indications stated the fish were in 15 - 20 feet. Contrary to the most popular method of fishing on the lake, pulling bottom bouncers, we like to jig fish.  One never knows what you will catch and it is fun to feel them hit as one sets the hook.  Unfortunately the catfish really like this slow presentation.  Wednesday afternoon I set the hook on a monster fish as it took about 10 minutes to land this nice 29 inch channel catfish.  These things really fight as they really are not interested in coming to the top and a 10 pound catfish feels like a 20 pound northern pike.  We took a few pictures and let it go but not before Steve remarked that his late father-in-law would not be very happy seeing this one swim away.  Wes was quite the catfisherman down in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and was a bonafide river rat.  This catfish was the largest fish we caught for the weekend but certainly not the last.  Unfortunately at this point, Wednesday July 15th was the 5th time I had the boat out, 3 trips to Mille Lacs, 1 to Osakis, and now Lake Oahe and I had yet to land a walleye. Pretty embarrassing if you ask me because eventually the excuse of "I'm still getting used to fishing from a wheel boat" would start to ring pretty hollow!  We fished the Slide hill pretty hard but it really didn't amount to much of anything.  Mark and Steve both caught some walleyes yet I remained walleyeless for the remainder of the day.  Admittedly catching the 10 pound catfish was nice yet we would load the boat up with a look for tomorrow to fulfil that simple barrier to the proper break in of the new Ranger!  The landing area has a great fish cleaning station, complete with water and a fish grinder to get rid of whatever is left.  Mark had caught a walleye that contained a tag through it's lower jaw which should be turned into the South Dakota Fisheries.  Unfortunately we forgot about it and that tag got ground up with the rest of the fish carcasses.  It was interesting that Russ had a tagged fish as well and ended up doing the same thing, grinding it up!  It was after this that we stopped by the Missouri boys camp and got the hot tip for the next day.

Mark with a Beautiful Crappie

After driving to the landing on Thursday and launching, we checked to see where Russ was fishing and stopped to say hi.  We are good listeners and after seeing the Missouri boys fly past us, it was time to follow them up the Moreau River.  It was a 10 mile run but as stated last week, we got an idea of where everyone was fishing and it certainly provided the strategy for the next 3 days.  Still feeling our way around the new area, we worked a shoreline that lead to a bay which curved 90 degrees out to a point on the main body of water.  I did get a small walleye on one of the casts but quite honestly, it didn't count.  As we approached the bay area where the water was calm, there were fish all over breaking the surface.  Hoping it might be stripers, to our dismay the bay was full of 15 - 20 pound carp, milling around in near the shore.  It was fun to watch but were were there to catch walleyes.  A few minutes later Mark nailed a beautiful 14 inch crappie in the bay.  I would normally doctor the picture to highlight both the angler and the fish better however it really shows the unusual background of the shorelines as well as how calm it was that day.  Thursday would prove to be the best of the 3 1/2 days of fishing with both the weather and the water conditions excellent.  Meanwhile the Missouri boys headed east of us trolling the shorelines with shad raps.  We never hooked up with them again so we weren't even sure how they did and I think it would have been nice to see their results.  Oh well.

First "Official" walleye of the new boat!

So I did catch my very first walleye in the new boat on Thursday late morning.  The small one I caught earlier just wasn't picture material and I'd have been embarrassed to even admit it.  When I finally nailed the 17 incher, it was like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders.  Ok, maybe not that bad but come on, 6 trips to get the first walleye........really?  It was really hot on Thursday and the sun was brutal.  I have started wearing long sleeve fishing shirts that are actually very comfortable and this year decided to buy one of those head/neck protectors that you can slide up over your ears and nose to keep the sun from burning too bad.  Yes, they look goofy but they also work pretty good.  Also I wear my inflatable life vest all the time, either my belt one or the full over the neck one.  The new boat can really move and at 60 years old, I doubt my ability to tread water is for very long.  After a while you never even notice they are on, especially the CO2 type with the automatic inflators.  I look like one of those muslim guys in the boat........thank God we didn't have any border security on the lake!  Friday was an OK day, not as productive as we managed to catch 7 walleyes from the same area as Thursday, up the Moreau.  On the other hand the cat fishing was phenomenal as they loved the slow nightcrawler presentation for sure.  On Saturday the wind decided to come howling out of the west with gusts to 35 mph.  We had 3 - 3 1/2 foot waves coming straight down the Moreau and would be the first true test of the boats ability to handle this rough water.  It was amazing as we easily cut through the waves skipping just the tops as the new Evinrude E-Tec G2 never skipped a beat via the new RX4 4 bladed prop that powered us through the roughest conditions (sounds like a commercial huh!).   We were all impressed by the almost Cadillac like ride, much better than I ever dreamed. The high winds proved challenging as we only ended up with 5 walleyes which put us at 23 for the entire trip.  As we said before the allure of Lake Oahe is the interesting variety of fish you catch, the completely different location and scenery, as well as the company, I'd definitely go back for sure. We ended the trip with a nice hunk of prime rib at a resort up the road as Akaska, SD leaves something to be desired in the steak department.

I am off on Wednesday for my annual fishing trip with Chuck Teasley and this year Dan Hoene is going to join us again.  We always have a great time and in 15 years I have only missed it once. This weekend has been a scorcher with very high humidities.  The tomatoes and cucumbers are growing like crazy as everything is pretty early, I've already made 8 gallons of my refrigerator pickles.

Lake Oahe, Part 1.

Good Looking Crew from Missouri!

Our much anticipated fishing trip to Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River began early Wednesday morning.  After picking up Mark at his house around 6:45AM we headed back to the pole shed to hook up the boat, load everything up and wait for my brother Steve to arrive.  Lucky for us he was also early and by 7:15 we were heading west.  It's been a scramble getting ready for the trip as I finally got the boat dialed in but felt because of the standing trees that still remain after the dam was built I should have a spare propeller so Monday night I ran back up to Frankie's to buy an aluminum prop.  There were some concerns that the right hub was not available however I paid for the prop and decided to look around on Tuesday morning.  After being on hold for about 40 minutes I finally got someone to answer and 15 minutes later they confirmed, no hub for the E-tec G2 aluminum props, dang.  I looked for aftermarket because I don't believe Evinrude makes their own props but works with one of the major aftermarket companies like Michigan or Solas to design a prop for their specific requirements.  Solas claimed to have one but there was no time left. Arriving at around 2:00 in the afternoon we unpacked our stuff and headed for the landing 10 miles from our cabin.  It's really different country and the drive to the river is very nice.  After paying our $6.00 daily pass we got on the river and headed south to a few known spots that produced in years past.  The problem was that the water levels were up almost 15 feet from 2 years ago and the whole dynamics had changed.  Really it meant fishing closer to shore for the most part.  About the only thing we caught of any significance was a small walleye and I nailed a nice 29 inch channel cat (unfortunately I took my boat to the dealer and left the camera in it) which I will have to post next week.  Anyway on the way out of the landing/camping area there was a couple of trucks parked by a tent sight so I drove over to introduce ourselves and to say hi.  The were 5 guys from Columbia Missouri, had been there a few days, and were getting fish!  Interestingly they were not shy about where they were catching walleyes as well as their presentation, trolling crankbaits in 8 - 12 feet of water.  We really didn't have much of a crankbait strategy, especially without a kicker motor but it was worth filing away about where the fish were.  The next morning we headed to the lake but had to stop on the road so my brother Steve could take care of some critical business over his cell phone while we still had service.  The guy in the nice blue fishing shirt was driving back to town and was kind enough to stop and see if we needed help.  Naw, Steve forgot he was on vacation was our answer however I noticed he had a bunk missing on his trailer, that wasn't good.  Agreeing to pick it up off the road if we see it sure enough it was about 4 miles further so we grabbed it and put it on the picnic table by their tent.  These guys certainly knew how to camp as they had 2 freezers plugged into the electric outlets as well the tents had 2 air conditioners on one end, that was amazing.  I gave them a Fishin' With Dave card and hopefully they check it out as I would like them to know how much we appreciated their help with our success.

Thursday's catch

So what was that success?  On Thursday we drove the 14 miles or so up the Moreau River and starting scoping out the activity.  It's easy to see the guide boats out there because for the most part they are all big pontoons with 150 - 250 hp outboards and 4 - 6 guys. Their strategy is quite simple, rig the lines with relatively heavy bottom bouncers, a 3 foot leader with a spinner and a night crawler, or better yet use the newer "slo death crawler hooks"with a crawler threader. I had an interesting conversation with a guide named Rick at the bait shop/tavern in town as we discussed the nuances of guiding in Minnesota vs Lake Oahe.  There it is simply about how many guys in the boat as they get paid by the person.  He was gracious enough to give me a ride back to the cabin but not before we stopped at his garage and checked out the boat, a 27 foot custom 3 tubed pontoon made in Poskin, Wisconsin with a 150 hp Honda 4 stroke and seating fit for a king with full captain chairs that recline.  There must have been 12 -14 rod holders on the rails as they basically drop the weights down and back troll with the big motor.  Those pontoon ends really will slow a 150 hp down enough to control the trolling speed to around 1.5 mph.  Fast enough to attract walleyes but too fast for catfish and sheepshead, which we soon discovered was a correct statement.  His rigs were pretty slick and he showed me his enormous collection of Slo Death rigs which were quite impressive.  My friend Bill Lundeen sold me the stuff needed to rig these a few weeks ago but I had forgot about it so the next day I dug it all out. Although Rick never let in to his secret spots, as I said before it's pretty easy to spot the guides and where they fish.  We left his garage as he gave me a ride back to the cabin to check out my new E-tec G2.  I'm not sure he would trade in his Honda but he was impressed.  We had ended the day with 9 walleyes, 1 nice crappie that Mark had caught and a smaller sheepshead that because fried fish was on the menu for the night, we decided to keep one and try.  Admittedly it was pretty good!  With a day and a half of fishing behind us, the next two days would be interesting.  Up to this point we used mostly jig heads with a half a night crawler dragged along the bottom and caught at least 10 catfish for every walleye we kept.  Up to this point my opinion was that the fishing was pretty slow but admittedly Lake Oahe is a very interesting waters to fish as the shorelines are completely undeveloped as you have the sense of being somewhere very special.

Monday morning I brought my boat back up to the dealer to have my 9.8 hp kicker motor installed as it came in while I was fishing.  We sure could have used it for trolling but we got by ok.  Along with the kicker installation there is a recall on my power steering on the main motor, a possible new GPS board in the Motorguide i5 electric motor, and a few odds and ends that need to be taken care of.  I am not sure what the weekend will bring but with a solid time in South Dakota and a planned trip with my friend Charlie next week on Mille Lacs, it will not slow down.

Running Hard

A couple nice crappies

Things are starting to come together for our trip to Lake Oahe this week so my post is early this week. One of the most important items I have been waiting for is my new RX4 20P prop that has been on order for a month now.  It finally arrived last Friday so I picked it up and at the same time learned that my replacement kicker motor should be in this week.  I never like surprises and my friend Pete called to see if I wanted to go and fish Lake Osakis on Sunday with his guide friend, it seemed like a great time to try the prop and see if I could finally land a walleye in the boat as it's been pretty uneventful in that department.  Pete claims his friend has been getting 20 - 30 walleyes a day using crawlers.  After getting the chores done around the house I put the new prop on and Sunday picked up Pete at his river place in Monticello.  Pete is a very accomplished fisherman who owns and operates River Run Guide Service specializing in fishing the Mississippi River upstream from Monticello, MN.  Check out his site, Pete does exceptionally well.  After stopping at McDonald's for breakfast we launched the boat at the southern end of the lake, right in the town of Osakis.  I have always wanted to fish the opportunity so this was a first for me.  First things first, we checked out the prop performance and it was excellent, great hole shot and it spun over 5800 RPM's which is just perfect as the motor's peak horsepower is at 5750 RPM.  From there we hit the first underwater hump and right away Pete got bit off by a northern.  He was using red tails while I tried crawlers.  The second drift ended with Pete getting bit off again while I landed a small northern which made shreds of my crawler harness. Unfortunately the walleyes were not cooperating at all.  Pete's friend Scott, who guides on the lake was done with his morning trip and stopped by the boat to see how we were doing and confirmed that it was a tough bite today and they didn't get one walleye either.  Deciding to try something else as Osakis is famous for it's big crappies and bluegills we headed to the calmer side of the lake.  The lake has a pretty deep weed line even though I wouldn't say the water is that clear, you could see the weeds in 15 feet of water.  While Pete tried a small piece of night crawler I pitched a small twister tail and did get 2 really nice crappies.  Usually crappies school and where there is one there's a number of them.  Unfortunately this was not the case Sunday but what the heck, it was fun to fish a new lake and for sure I'll definitely be back to Osakis.

Storm Damage to Keith's Place

On the way back from fishing on Sunday it was obvious that we were going to be in for a storm later in the day.  Being hot and exceptionally humid for the last couple of days and a cold front coming down from Canada, it's a recipe for some excitement for sure.  Although the maps were showing the storm front mostly to the northwest of us, and seldom do storms come in from this direction, it seemed to develop along the line heading right for the Twin Cities. Fortunately for us, the storm came after the sun went down which took much of it's energy away however it was a different case in Brainerd.  Striking the area a few hours earlier, the straight line winds tore up Brainerd International Raceway, the big resorts on Gull Lake, and my friend Keith Holtan's house on North Long Lake, just a stones throw from BIR.  Keith is in Alaska right now dealing with his own issues regarding the King Salmon fishery on the Kenai and I am sure this wasn't a welcome sight yet like he said, we are still have our health and that says alot!  Oh well, just another exciting week for sure.  With that in mind we head off tomorrow morning for Lake Oahe, SD which is a large reservoir on the Missouri River.  The last time I was there was 2 years ago when after the flood of 2011 swept 90% of the key forage fish, the rainbow smelt through the dam in Pierre.  In order to balance the situation at the time, the state increased the daily walleye limit from 4 to 8 and change the possession limit to 24 per person.  We did get a great variety of fish including walleyes, northerns, smallmouth bass, perch, freshwater drum, carp, and striped bass.  This year the water is up, and the limits are back to normal (4 walleyes, 8 possession limit) and because the lake is still feeling the effects of the reduction in smelt, the fish tend to be shallower where their current preferred forage the gizzard shad hangs out. This should make the fishing somewhat easier but I know it's still going to be hot as it always is in the middle of July in South Dakota.  We'll probably drag crawlers as our main method of fishing, it's a lot of fun.  We are staying at a rented house in Akaska and it's very reasonable for the 6 of us that are going which includes my brother Steve and friends Mark Applen and Russ, who has done all the arrangements.  

July 4th and the Blue Angels

Navy Blue Angels in Eau Claire.

After a busy week of being in Boston, fishing for Stripers, and coming back to a desk full of work I decided that the 4th of July weekend is one to get caught up on a few things around the house and if I had a chance, maybe get out and do a little fishing.  With Friday the 3rd being our official work holiday it was time to get the lawn mowed and the garden hoe'd. Saturday my wife Lyn and I were invited to her cousin's house for a 4th of July picnic with the benefit of having a front row seats to the Chippewa Valley Airshow at the Eau Claire Airport featuring the Navy's precision flying team, the Blue Angels. I love big machines and because my dad was in the Air Force, I love airplanes.  Our hosts Mindy and John live in her father's old house right on the corner of the Eau Claire Airport so we had as good of seats for free as could be!  I would have loved to pay the $30 to go inside but we were at a family event and that probably would not have been too smart, never the less our sight lines for the airshow part of it were  fabulous.  First to perform was an acrobatic biplane and these guys are crazy.  I can only imagine how difficult this is being in an open cockpit high powered single engine plane. The next plane to fly by was a F-16 jet doing some low altitude fly bys.  It was quite interesting as the jets flew by the noise was earthshaking yet if they were coming toward you, because of the speed you would not hear anything until the jet was almost on top of you and of course when they passed was amazing.  The team with the F-16 also had a WW2 class long range fighter/bomber plane, a P-51 which is usually regarded as the fastest propeller plane made.  It was almost impossible to get pictures because of the

An Official Photo

speed and angles however both planes came flying by, the P-51 in top and the F-16 on the bottom flying upside down, belly to belly. They were at the same speed and I can only imagine how difficult this was.  Of course the stars of the show were the Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron which put on a 30 minutes, precision flying demonstration that quite honestly, if it didn't make you feel like a 10 year old kid again, you probably don't have much of a sense for excitement. It also stirs that Patriotic emotion which rise to the top and in my case it's impossible not to be proud to be a citizen of the United States of America!(Ok, enough flag waving!) As stated, it's difficult to get real pictures of the jets as they flew by but I did manage one that gives some idea of the closeness they fly.  One interesting aspect of the sky conditions that still exist into this week is the haze generated by forest fires in northern Canada.  The wind continues to blow smoke into our area to the point where on Tuesday the air quality in Minneapolis was the same as in Beijing China. Personally I doubt it but it was pretty bad! Anyway the show was fabulous, the food was great, and I did enjoy spending time with the boys, John, Greg, and Bob...I guess you would call them cousin-in-laws!

Knee high plus by the 4th

With almost perfect growing conditions with adequate rainfall each week has giving me a break from watering the lawn and garden, with the exception of my onions, and they are looking fabulous these days. Actually the garden looks really good this year with the corn pushing over 4 feet and starting to tassel, so far for knee high by the 4th.  The potatoes are starting to lay down and the tomatoes love the hot and wet weather we are having. My first crop of raspberries are doing well, just about everything is looking great.  The only issue is having to mow so often so I cut down on the fertilizers this year hoping to extend the need to cut the lawn by a day or two.  A few phone calls and finally my RX4 x 20P prop arrived at Frankie's, the third prop I will have tried.  With a peak horsepower rating at 5800 RPM's my first 22P prop only spun at 5400 RPM. The second was the 3 bladed 21P that turned at 5800 RPM but the handling was different and frankly not acceptable. With a little research and calculating, this 4 bladed 20P should turn close to 5900 RPM and really improve the hole shot and handling, we'll find out this weekend.  I will probably go to Lake Osakis on Sunday to try everything out before heading to Lake Oahe next Wednesday.  Because of my schedule the postings for the next couple of weeks might be a little out of wack but I have big expectations there will be some nice fish pictures.  As a follow up to last weeks post on the striper's, I put some on the grill and they are as good as any fish I have prepared and ate.

Stripers are Running

Nice Atlantic Striped Bass

Tuesday afternoon was our planned 1/2 day fishing charter out of Newburyport, Massachusetts at the mouth of the Merrimack River where it meets the ocean.  Our host for the afternoon was Captain Chris Valaskatgis, owner of Manolin Charters.  Chris runs a 23 foot center console boat with a 150 hp Yamaha 4 stroke and is perfectly set up for the fishing we were about to do.  My good friend and business associate Karl Cry set up the trip because last year when I visited him we were talking and I mentioned striper fishing off the east coast was on  my bucket list.  Planning on coming out to Boston to call on customers this week, Karl surprised me with a half day trip just north of Boston.  Along with our Captain was Karl Cyr, his sales guy Jim Sheedy, my guy Scott Cameron, and a customer of Karl's named Dennis.  Arriving at 1:30, we stopped at the harbor bar and grill before jumping in the boat that was docked below.  Right away I could tell Captain Chris was going to show us a great day by his demeanor.  Very cordial and open, we went through the standard safety lecture and it was off to the jetty about a mile down the Merrimack River it and the Atlantic Ocean meet. One thing everyone said was this outlet is the 2nd most dangerous on the east coast from Florida to Maine.  The tides, river volume, and other factors cause the swells to become quite large and there is a sweet spot where the river meets the ocean that have turned over many a boat.  Our strategy was pretty simple, a heavy 6"6" saltwater casting rod with a open trolling reel loaded with what looked like 20 pound test.  A 1 1/2 ounce egg sinker, swivel, and a 3 foot leader with a plain circle hook tied at the end was all we need.  The preferred bait for this time of year were called "tinkers" which were whole mackerel anywhere from 8" to 13 " long, simply hooked through the lips. These are very pretty fish, quite oily and it really didn't matter if they were dead or alive, the stripers love them.  Because low tide was at 5:15 in the afternoon, we had perfect conditions to fish with the outgoing current.  Our first run was pretty wild and Capt. Chris put our sea legs to test by picking a pretty rough drift through the swells which gave us a great insight into the issues of dealing with the water situation.  Our second drift was somewhat easier on the body as we picked a calmer route.  Fishing was pretty simple and methodical, when a fish hits let it run for about 3 - 4 seconds then engage the spool on the reel and start reeling. Because he used circle hooks the fish basically hook themselves in the corner of their mouths and the battle was on.  The limit on Stripers is 1 per day and it must be longer than 28 inches and with a lot of fish caught the circle hooks make catch and release much easier on the fish.

Karl with a beautiful fish

Action was steady most of the afternoon with 1 or 2 fish per drift with the largest coming in over 36 inches. Our group caught at least 20 fish and kept 4 that were big enough to legally harvest.  I found it amazing how veracious these fish are as we caught a number of them in the 24 inch range and they swallowed a bait half their size.  I ended up with 3 stripers in the boat and lost 2 very large fish, one due to my swivel coming untied and the biggest one was a result of crossed lines and before we could untwist them, 2 lines at 90 degrees is not a formula for success.  Oh well, keepers or not, I finally caught a ocean run Striped Bass and battled a couple of really nice ones, enough to want to come back.  At the dock we washed up the fish and took some pictures before the Captain was going to start cleaning fish.  Having one fish left to clean I asked him if I could fillet, go ahead with somewhat of a skeptical answer, I jumped in and using his knife got to work.  I think he was satisfied that I did a great job on the first side as he acknowledge it looked pretty good however the other side is much more difficult, which it is. When I finished with a a skimpy looking carcass, I think he was impressed that I wasn't just blowing smoke.   We ended up with about 10 pounds of fillets so we split them up and  Karl volunteered to ship me about 5 pounds overnight via UPS Red.  Well they arrived in perfect condition today and I plan on having some tonight.  One observation, it was interesting when the tide changed and the wind started picking up from the Southeast, the big swells started coming in and for a short period of time some of them got really large and start rolling over.  A big 28 footer came in right at the wrong time and got sideways in front of the face of the swell, I swore that boat was going to roll as it was almost 90 degrees on it's side, I'm not sure what saved him but he was awfully lucky. I love saltwater fishing and this was pretty cool.  One of the interesting things were the amount of Lund 17 1/2 foot boats with 40 - 60 hp motors fishing the area.  I suppose if you are used to it but to me, it would be a stretch for me to hop in one of those on that water.  I am trying something new here.  I'd love to post more pictures however it get difficult at best for an old man like me!  Therefore with the help of my friend Lory Brasel, he set me up with a Dropbox where I can put all the pictures on the "cloud" and simply provide you with a link to look at them.  So with that in mind please click HERE to see all the pictures that I currently have from my trip.

The Motley Crew, Dennis, Scott, Jim, Dave, and Karl

On Friday I decided to head up to Frankie's at noon to pick up a new 3 bladed 21" Rebel prop to try on my boat.  This is what most of the newer boat combinations like mine had been coming with and they have been working pretty well.  I'm still convinced that the 20P 4 bladed prop will be perfect but I agreed to try it.  On Saturday afternoon I made it up to Mark's place on Mille Lacs as he agreed to come out with me to try the new prop.  Launching at the resort where his shack is we headed out to 7 Mile Flat where he had some good luck a few hours earlier.  Arriving at the small inside corner of the edge of the flat, we trolled a few crawlers over the area with not much to show for it.  I did get to show off my navigational system with the depth finder and trolling motor however the fish were not cooperating.  Deciding to move we headed for sliver flat before going to 9 Mile but still nothing but a nice perch.  We tried bobber fishing near the July Bar where I did have two bites that took the bobber down but I went zero for two.  A final stop at the Banana Reef before heading to calm water to see how the prop worked.  We opened up the boat and as predicted got the RPM's up to where we need but I felt the 3 bladed prop was not as stable as the 4 bladed prop and the rough water handling was a lot better with 4 blades.  The speed didn't change much, still around 58 mph, hole shot wasn't any more impressive, and it didn't like to be trimmed out as much as the 4 blade prop.  Hopefully they will have it by the time I head to South Dakota in 2 weeks.  It really rained on the way home and I damn near went into the ditch near Izaty"s Resort when out of nowhere driving square into a solid wall of rain.  It was quite the experience, one I don't care to repeat again.  I was going to take my wife out on Sunday however the rain put a damper on those plans but it did give an opening to mount the RAM rod holder mounts to the inside of the boat.  It's difficult to start drilling into a new boat but after the first one it actually went very well and they are solid and look good.

This weekend is the Fourth of July already and the plan is to head to Eau Claire on Saturday to watch the Airshow from Lyn's cousin's house, right next to the airport.  The Blue Angels are supposed to put on a great demonstration and it would also give us a chance to check up on my mother who just had eye surgery.  It does leave Friday and Sunday open and with summer flying as fast as it has, it will not go to waste.  My friend Bruce made it back from Lac Seul with his boat that they put a new lower unit on at the landing and as stated there's plenty to do before we leave for Lake Oahe on the 15th.

Summer in Full Swing

The first walleye in the new Ranger

This time of year is the peak time for fishing Mille Lacs.  By now the walleyes have moved out to their summer haunts like the deeper gravel bars, rock piles, and the flats.  Last weeks outing with Bill was more or less a test run and this week I was determined to push my experience further down the path of feeling more comfortable not sitting in the stern all the time.  Saturday my friend and neighbor Lory Brasel volunteered to put up with me and the new boat for a few hours on the pond, so with everything supposedly fixed we took off at 11:30 and planned on being on the water by 1:30.  A quick stop at Lundeen's for coffee, leeches, and advice we met our goal and took off from the landing at 1:30 on the mark.  Because I've been having issues with the propeller it's very important that it there isn't one ding, one scratch, any evidence of even hitting mud on it.  At $700 I was very careful coming out of the landing as I have bottomed out before with my other boats and this one is even heavier.  Making it safely out of the landing our first stop was what Bill calls Roland's Flat.  It has some other names but I like Bill's the best.  Immediately I started marking fish at the 20 foot level so we decided to deploy the trolling motor and pull crawlers.  Normally in this situation I would simply start the rear trolling motor and slowly back troll the edges.  It''s quite a bit different to front troll with the motor for a number of reasons, mainly because I wasn't used to it!  While I'm figuring out how to get a handle on my boat control Lory let's me know he's got something on the end of the line, the first official walleye caught in the new boat.  It also gave me an opportunity to use my new folding net, which stores nicely in one of the side compartments.  Measuring 23", too long to keep we snapped a couple of pictures and let it go.  We were really pumped as we were marking a lot of fish, landed a nice 23 incher withing the first 10 minutes, it was going to be a great day, right.  Trolling around a couple of deep points produced nothing so we decided to park on top of an area where there were a ton of marks on the depthfinder and bobber fish with leeches, nothing.  It did give me an opportunity to fix my Sirius Radio receiver as it was not working at all, another yellow wire problem.  From there we took off to a deep rocky area just south of Sherman's Point where it can be great, I caught a medium sized smallie.  Heading to Sherman's flat we trolled my goto side with just a nice perch to show for it.  Next stop was Sliver Flat but there was someone on it already so I decided to let him have the whole thing as we headed for the 9 Mile Flat.  Again we marked fish but no takers.  I did fool around with the Autopilot feature by creating a route around 9 mile that basically went up and down the side walls of the flat, from 25 feet to 35 feet then back up again.  Setting it on newly created route on Navigation the trolling motor followed the trail, enough to impress the heck out of both Lory and I, it was pretty cool to see it follow the outer diameter of 9 Mile.  One big thing I noticed was the system GPS is mounted to the back of the boat, 20 feet away from the Motorguide GPS which is used to steer the motor.  I was about 20 feet from my points, not that it made any difference however I think I might move the main GPS puck to the front to be more in step with the Lowrance units, we'll have to see as that might cause problems as well.

Catching nothing and having to control nothing I took the time to text my friend Mark Applen, who was staying at his small cabin at the Fisherman's Wharf.  Inviting us to come over for a burger and a cocktail, we stopped at 3 mile to cast for bass before heading over to his dock.  The water had calmed down significantly from early that day so it was time to get some more practice with the wheel control.  Putting the throttle all the way down the next thing was to start trimming it up.  Before the engine would only turn about 5000 RPM however I was getting better acquainted with the set up and this time the motor got it up to 5400 RPM and 57 MPH, a significant improvement over last weeks experience.  The good news should be that the 20 Pitch prop the dealer ordered should be just perfect as for every inch of pitch change, the RPM should change 200 - 250 so going down from a 22P to a 20P should gain me the RPM's I am looking for running in the 5800 - 5900 range.   After making it to Mark's for a refreshing vodka tonic and a burger that hit the spot we decided it was getting late and with 12 miles back to the landing, we made a beeline to the other side of the lake.  This was a great opportunity to repeat the max RPM test which was very successful, 3 times we could trim up the motor to 5400 RPM's and 57 MPH.  Lory took a quick video of us flying across the lake.  The last time we loaded the boat on the trailer it was very difficult to use the winch to pull the bow tight to the roller.  I was thinking about it and remembered 14 years ago when I had the same problem with my 2001 Ranger.  Earlier in the week a planned detour to Fleet Farm to buy some dry Teflon Lubricant, I got out of the boat and sprayed the carpeted bunks that the boat sits on with the spray.  All I can say is Hallelujah, it worked pretty slick as the boat snugged up to the bow without even a slight disagreement!  You just have to make certain the winch strap stays connected when you back down as it could slide off the trailer on it's own.

Paul's 31 Inch Walleye

My friend Bruce Wiley e-mailed me on Saturday from Lac Seul with the message "Help, need a lower unit for a 2002 Honda 130 Hp Outboard!"  Oh oh, that didn't sound good.  He is up fishing at Lac Seul Outpost for Father's Day weekend with his boys and apparently he found a new rock.  Oh well, that's my biggest nightmare with Lac Seul but if your careful and have a good GPS system it really helps to stay ahead of the game.  And of course you really do need to explore new fishing spots and that presents some risks but as they say, no pain no gain.  Unfortunately he did not bother to give me any useful fishing reports as I would like to think that not everyone is doing as poorly as I have been.  Well this morning I got an e-mail from my good friend Paul Wenaas with a photo of a 31 inch walleye he nailed during his trip to Lac Seul last week.  In fact he got a number of fish in the 27" - 31" range and I was fortunate enough to learn where he was!  Actually I had fished near his spot last fall where we got the "blue" walleyes and I had always wondered how it would be further up the bay. Paul makes at least 2 trips to Lac Seul, one in the middle of June and another in July.  He was talking about going back up in September and maybe he'll be there the same time I am, that would be a blast for sure.  I am not sure what is the program for this weekend but hopefully the new propeller will be in and ready to test. There are still a couple minor issues that need to be resolved like my touch panel, boat numbers, and license plate for the the trailer, and dealing with the Lowrance "yellow" wake up wires.  This could put me in Chisago City on Saturday morning to try out a few thing and maybe getting some crappie fishing in.  Next week I'm in Boston and the rumor is we are going out on a 4 hour charter for ocean run stripers, another thing on the bucket list. If it happens don't be surprised by a late post next week.

Back to School

First fish in the boat!

Yep, back to school is what I describe as the process to unlearn what is no longer valid, relearn a new system of fishing, and try to figure out what all this connectivity means between the satellites, my depth finders, GPS, trolling motor, and my entertainment center.  A smart man looks around and figures out who is best to at least help you to move forward and that guy is Bill Lundeen. I've talked about Bill many times as he's pretty sharp with the Lowrance stuff and had expressed an interest to see how the new Motorguide i5 works when networked into the HDS units.  We agreed that Sunday afternoon would be a great time for me to drive up, we'd head out of Cove to try our hand at some fishing and more importantly play around with the new electronics.  We were on the water by 2:00 and heading for a gravel hump a couple miles out.  The first thing we tried pretty simple, mark a fish then tap that mark on the screen which then pulls up a cursor on the GPS side. Pushing the command "go to the cursor" and voila, it circled back to that point.  The next thing we did was to simply set a heading, slowed the speed down to 0.7 MPH and let the motor control everything while we dragged some spinners and nightcrawlers.  We traveled in a ridiculously straight path, impressive. Once we were at the end of where we wanted to go our next experiment was to create a new route that we wanted the trolling motor to follow.  Bill created a waypoint 200 yards to the north of our current location then another one 25 yards to the east of where we were.  Naming the route Test1, we then told the motor via the HDS unit to go to the start of the route, follow the route, then stop at the end of the route. Immediately the motor headed directly north at 0.7 MPH until it reached the first waypoint we entered then did a precise hair pin turn to the right and headed back to the second waypoint which was the end of the route.  The boat traveled as though it was on rails then promptly stopped at the end.  It was amazing and the possibilities are endless.  I suspect it's simply going to take more practice to be good at it.  We did fish a couple of spots both for walleye and smallmouth bass with little to show.  Seeing the bass on the reefs was nice but they appeared not interested in what we had to offer.  I finally felt a hit yet I knew it wasn't too big and as predicted, a small rock bass.  Oh well, regardless it's still my first fish in the boat so what the heck!  Beyond that we really didn't do anything else and coupled with the fact that it was looking like rain, we headed back to the landing just in time to get the boat on the trailer before it poured.

Loon near the boat.

So, there are a few things that I need to address regarding the boat. First, my Sonic Hub disconnects from the system and my radio goes dead.  The only way to make it work was to restart the depthfinder, which is a pain if you need to do it after each time you start the engine. The second issue is the propeller that came with the boat.  Although the hole shot is amazing and the boat gets up on plane very fast, I can only get about 5000 RPM's out of the motor.  The rated full throttle range for the ideal horsepower is 5600 - 6000 RPM's.  At 5000 RPMs it indicates that the propeller has too much pitch and is overloading the engine.  I have talked to my dealer as the prop that came with the boat is a RX4 15 x 22P (4 bladed, 15" diameter x 22 inch pitch) and it looks like the same prop in a 20 inch pitch would be much better.  I am working on both issues and believe I have the first one solved by reconnecting the power cords while the second issue with the prop needs a little more patience but the dealer is working on it.  The third issue is that the boat is almost impossible to winch tight to the front roller when loading.  It is frustrating because on Sunday we had to back it into the launch to tighten it up.  It finally dawned on me that I had the same problems 14 years ago when I bought my first Ranger and was told to spray the trailer bunks with silicon to make it glide easier.  I'll be getting some spray and the next time I go fishing, before I load the bunks will get a good dose of it as I remember that it solved the problem.  I remember being warned that it is important to keep the winch on the boat until it's in the water to make sure it doesn't slide off the trailer at the wrong time. Beyond this it's just more time on the water, dang it!  Bill always complains that he attracts loons to the boat which I was curious if he meant me as well in that statement.  While experimenting with the trolling motor we had a really nice loon following us, maybe looking for an easy meal.  I took a picture with new Samsung S6 Edge, I'm pretty impressed how clear and detailed the picture is.  It's really cool seeing these birds "fly" under the water as it hung around the boat for a long time.

I am still have a lot too learn and with good reports coming out of Mille Lacs it is a great possibility we will be fishing on Saturday.  We have a upcoming trip to Lake Oahe in South Dakota in July and it would be nice to have most of these issues resolved before then.  My friend Hondro wants to meet the weekend of July 4th and there is already planning for our late September Lac Seul trip.  I told those guys that if they wanted me to bring the boat to Lac Seul they would have to wear surgical booties over their shoes before they get in my boat.  Last year I made them wipe their shoes on a rug at the dock and no feet on the gunnels as it is really sandy there.  Although I probably won't require booties it's really good to get the guys thinking early about my passion to keep the boat looking new!
I got my Sirius Radio working, I am not too impressed with how slow the weather portion of it is, and the bluetooth connection is working which allows content from my cell phone to be ran through the radio.

Wow!!!

Ranger 620FS, Uffda!

Saturday was the big day, time to pick up the new boat from the dealership.  It has been 3 months from the day I ordered it and as you can imagine it was pretty exciting.  Arriving at Frankie's by 11:00 the first order of business was to take a look at everything and all I can say is they did an excellent job of rigging and getting everything prepared.  The initial inspection looked good so it was time to settle up the bill and when Deb presented the balance it was significantly less than what I expected.  Acknowledging a computer issue we went over everything and got it straightened out, never want to short anyone.  Next on the agenda was to go over all of the new features which included keyless ignition, all the nuances of the motor, and generally how everything works.  Upon firing up the Lowrance electronics the first thing stated was the Motorguide needed updating.  Joe Dusenka, Frank's son was helping me and did a fabulous job of walking me through everything. As stated before this boat is a significant departure from what I have been running for the last 40 years and it's pretty exciting.  After making sure I knew what I was doing, we hooked it up to the truck as I planned on dumping her into the water close to the dealership in case there were any obvious issues. The first thing that stood out is the boat sits up about 4 inches higher on the trailer than the previous 620T so it will need to be launched at the deeper landings.  They only put enough gas in the tank to start the motor so it was off to the Marathon across the street to fill up the 51 gallon tank.  Figuring about $140 to fill it up the pump stopped at $75 so the heck with it, that was plenty.  About 1/2 mile from Frankie's is a nice landing on Chisago Lake so I dumped it there.  It definitely isn't as nimble as my previous boat.  Once in the boat I started the motor and was very surprised how quiet it was.  The landing is in a no-wake zone and it took about 5 minutes to idle out to the main lake where I punched it.  OMG!!! It was on plane in about 2 seconds, amazingly quick.  Deciding to check a few things out, the boat back trolls at around 1.8 mph, forward trolls at about 2.6 mph, not bad.  The power steering is effortless, almost too much as when I pushed the throttle the boat climbed to over 50 mph immediately and really felt squirrelly so I backed it down, I guess it will take some getting used to.  It is all basically "fly by wire" as the steering is electric, the gear shift is electric, very smooth indeed. It loaded up very easy as I headed back to Frankie's to park the boat for a couple hours as I went to a friends house in Wisconsin.  Home by 6:00 the neighbors all stopped by to see and the very first comment was, you had better get some lugnut locks on those wheels! I suppose they have a point.

Beautiful evening Rainbow

I have spent the week trying to get everything loaded and working together.  For instance, I mistakenly loaded Version 3.0 of the Lowrance software into my main unit then when it was time to review the link between it and the Motorguide motor, it wasn't available as an option on the screen.  I know it works because Joe showed me it yet now I had to figure it out. Reading the instructions there was a big point in stating that the Lowrance software must be version 3.5 or newer. Not realizing that I had put in an older version of the software, 30 minutes later it dawned on me so I re-downloaded the right software via my phone and updated it.  Bingo, it worked great however I punched the wrong button on the control screen and turned the Motorguide on then listened to the propeller grind against the winch with little idea on how to stop it.  10 seconds later it stopped but not before completely ruining the prop and part of the plastic on the winch.  So much for the newness.  It's been a slow progress yet it's a labor of love as one decides where everything should go, how to organize, and the need to fill in the gaps with the technology like getting my Ipod connected to the sound system which by the way worked out really good.  The storage options are significant and one thing I have to decide is whether to put my Plano 3700 boxes in the designed storage in the boat or to simply keep my traditional tackle box in tact.  I guess there is no reason not to use the storage, it definitely is drier and if I need they can always go back into the soft sided tackle box.  The front compartments have a built in fan that helps dry out things that are stored there.  This would be a great place for drift socks, rain suits, anything that can get wet.  One other thing of note is there is a drain in every compartment and anywhere there is a channel to take water away.  This should be a lot nicer if a wave ever comes over the bow, which I know there will at some point. There are a lot of little things like the LED lights that didn't stick to where they were put, some foam missing on the windshield, and overspray on the windshield, for the most part everything was pretty easy to fix. I also have a panel that appears to be cracked and they have a new one coming for me.  Between getting the garden planted, working on the boat, mowing the lawn, there's hope that I can get to Mille Lacs on Sunday for it's maiden voyage.  Scrambling to get everything done, Tuesday night was interesting as we got a brief shower that for the most part put a damper on my mowing. The sun did come out but not enough to dry the grass and allow me to finish yet it did result in a beautiful rainbow to the southeast so I snapped a picture before it went away.

This Friday is our 13th Annual ENA Golf Tournament at Daytona Gold Club in Dayton.  ENA is the initials for Eric Nicole Apple, son of my good friend Mark Applen (Red Lake fisherman extraordinaire) who had his life cut short by a rare form of cancer.  Both my wife and I have been volunteering our time along with a number of wonderful people that give their time and energy to our cause.  I encourage you to read about Eric at his website located HERE.  All the proceeds are dedicated to helping less fortunate families deal with the hardships of childhood cancer as we try to bring a smile to those that need it the most.  To date we have raised over $300,000 and every dime available goes to the cause.  I am proud of the work we do as there is nothing more satisfying than to provide a little joy in the life of someone who's life is feeling hopeless.  We do have a nice silent auction and raffle, admittedly I have bought some really nice stuff like my Showdown Ice Fishing Depth finder, heck a good way to help and get something nice as well.  

Getting Close!!

Mike with an interesting pose

A few weeks ago I received a call from Frankie's, my boat dealer informing me that the title for my old boat was missing.  "What title? I don't ever remember a title for the boat!?!?"  Well yes there is a title but Lord knows where that was so on May 13th I called the State of Minnesota and got the process down and sent in $11.00 along with the application, it should be printed next Tuesday. Well it arrived on the 29th and because the boat should be here later in the week  I decided to drive up to Frankie's on Saturday to personally deliver it and my electronics.  With a fresh cup of coffee and things loaded up, it was off to Chisago City.  Arriving at the store, the lot was completely filled as I waited for a parking place to become available.  Apparently there was a bowfishing contest the night before and the weigh in was taking place.  Deciding to go back and take care of everything first, the service manager, Deb Dusenka (Frankie's wife) saw me and had a big smile, "Guess what, your boat is in!".  It really took me by surprise as I didn't expect it till later in the week and admittedly it was a little emotional....I know!  Anyway their son Joe was in with his kids to head out fishing but when when he looked at me it was almost immediate, Hey Dave your boat is here!  After a few minutes of talking he suggested to head over to the back lot and unwrap it as it just got off the trailer.  I felt like a kid at Christmas as we untied the factory wrap.  The first thing we looked at was the Evinrude 250 motor, we were expecting a 3 bladed stainless steel however it came with a 4 blade RX4 with adjustable vents.  Joe immediately confirmed that this was the first he's seen that came from the factory with this specific prop as the big dealers have been recommending a change to this for much better performance.  I did notice a problem however, the kicker was a 9.8 Evinrude tiller rather than the remote control kicker that was on the work order. Apparently they ordered the wrong thing, oh well.  The good news is that the existing motors are blue in color which looks somewhat odd and the new ones being built will be graphite, perfect to match my boat.  The bad news is that they are not expected to be delivered until mid to the end of July.  I could keep the tiller but am not crazy about having to control everything while standing up so it will be worth the wait.  I pick it up Saturday.  Too excited to take any pictures there is none for this week so I decided to post one last picture of Mike Wiley and a walleye he caught 3 weeks ago on our snowy Monday at Lac Seul.  I loved the pose!

Ben's perch from last weekend

Not having the boat meant I could concentrate on the garden.  The onions are starting to do really well, potatoes are up and the asparagus is about done with. Tomatoes and peppers are in however the recent cold weather (frost warnings last Saturday night) has stopped any progress for them.  I plant 3 rows of sweet corn early then 3 more about 3 weeks later and they are all up. Beans, cucumbers, dill, cabbage, brussel sprouts, zucchini and winter squash, zinnia's, dahlia's round up the list.  Raspberries are coming along well and the apples look better than expected.  The Amundson's finally got the bees in and have 2 really healthy looking hives in the back.  I was worried about the pollination of my apple trees but there seems to be plenty of apples and they are doing fine, enough for me to spray them for the first time on Saturday.  That should have been done earlier but the rain has delayed it somewhat so we'll have to just have to wait. I do need to spray again with Sevin, which acts to thin the apples for a better crop.  Hopefully there will be enough apples for cider this fall as last year was a total bust.  Anyway this is "Fishin with Dave" and not Gardening with Dave so instead of the pictures of the progress of my plantings the next picture is of Ben and a nice perch he and his dad got out of Platte Lake where their cabin resides. Ben's quite a fisherman and if you look closely at his hat you'll find a Green Bay Packer pin just above the walleye's head, that a boy!

My wife Lyn and I went to Eleva on Sunday to visit Mom.  It so happened to be the Eleva Broiler Fest, the annual town festival complete with tractor pulls, demolition derby's, live music, and charcoal chicken.  Back when I was a kid we had a Doughboy Fryer's chicken processing plant and it was the largest employer in town.  It is just not right if you don't have some of that charcoaled chicken however like a lot of things, something has changed over the years.  I suspect most of it is age yet I still think Walt Gehring's chicken was a lot better than what they make today.  Maybe it's the chickens, who knows.  It was great to see a few of my friends, Jeff Koxlien, Roger Olson, Big Dave Pedersen, my cousin Paul, and Kevin Aiona.  I've been gone now for almost 40 years however it seems like I just left yesterday.

Canadian Opener, part 2.

Me with a nice walleye and my caretaker!

Sitting in the cabin while there's fish to be caught is pretty hard.  Admittedly I have become a little softer in my age yet I knew that the walleyes were continuing to move through and we were missing out.  Of course the temperature continued falling as well as the rain but for a moment around 7:00 Sunday evening there appeared to be a small opening in the rain, as not to be so miserable. There were plenty of guys fishing off the main dock and they were catching fish yet I wasn't too excited to stand with 6 other guys vying for a spot.  Just north of our cabin and a little ways up from where the Beaver was parked was a sand bar that jutted out from the shore about 100 feet of so forming a perfect place for walleyes to congregate.  There always seemed to be boats working the area and as I walked the quarter mile hike along the shore there was one parked off the bar.  Arriving on the bar, we exchanged a wishful greeting as they pull away without much luck.  Fishing from shore has it's place and this sand bar had walleye written all over it!  I am sure you could fish it effectively from a boat however on shore you have the perfect vantage point to work the sharp drop that it formed as well as the eddy that wrapped around the downside shore.  I think most guys simply don't feel comfortable fishing as close to the shore as they need to be.  It was pretty easy, cast straight out from where the sand is off the shore, feel your jig tumble down the edge, then bring it back through the eddy. Because the wind was blowing pretty good it would create a huge bow in my line which was difficult to control yet I could see the fish hit the jig by the change in that bow, enough to nail a nice walleye. My second cast repeated the first, a large bow in the line, that slight movement, tighten it up and set the hook.  2 casts, 2 walleye.  At that point I decided to change to a heavier jig as better control was needed.  Putting on a 3/8 oz jig proved to be positive as now it was easier to reel in the tension without dragging the jig too far.  The walleyes didn't seem to care and for the next 90 minutes each cast produced a fish from 13 - 24 inches.  It started to rain again, the temperature was still falling as well my hands were getting numb yet the fishing was too good to stop.  With 3 fish on the stringer, cold hands, and the rain intensifying I decided it was time to pack up and leave before it got worse.  As I headed towards the cabin here was Bruce walking my way to get my butt back, my hamburger was getting cold.  I guess when the walleyes are biting, nothing else seems to matter yet there is something special when your friends do care about you.  In the end it was an unforgettable experience, I guess up there, they all are! Unfortunately because of the rain, cold, and by myself, I didn't take any pictures of that night so the first one is Bruce and I the next morning with a nice walleye.

Pete on Monday afternoon

Saturday was beautiful, Sunday was cold and blustery but Monday saw us waking up to 3 inches of snow covering the ground and 27 degrees.  Uffda!!!  Water to the cabins were starting to freeze, water in the propane regulators were starting to freeze, what a mess.  It took a few hours to get everything usable again as I pulled off the top of the stove to see if there were any problems.  Man was it dirty! Deciding that we were not going fishing for a while as the snow was coming down horizontally I got out the cleaning spray and started cleaning the mess from a couple years of use, spills, and neglect.  Once everything settled down we decided that time was a wasting and our purpose was to fish, let's go!  Bruce, Pete, Mike, and I decided to take the boat out after scraping all the most of the snow aside to comfortably fit 4 guys in the 20 foot Alaskan.  That was a mess in itself as we had no shovels to move the snow,  we pushed it to the sides with our feet then used the net to get out what we could. With the weather the way it was our plan was to try and find some wind protected shore to keep the misery factor an a minimum, which was hard to do. Luckily the fish were still biting and the good news was that we didn't need a cooler to keep the caught walleyes in as they did just fine laying on the deck in the snow.  On Saturday I did really well using Gulp on my jigs  however by Sunday the water had cooled and it was strictly a minnow presentation.  We tried a number of areas but the best spot seemed to be the sand bar that I had fished the night before.  With the snow coming down it did limit the amount of boats fishing and we were the only one on the point at this time.  It was pretty much a fish a minute with 4 of use flinging the jigs and by the time we were done there were 4 walleyes and a big lake whitefish on ice.  Lake whitefish are common in these lakes but tend to be very hard to catch.  I was pulling a jig and minnow across the sand bottom when it went thump and the battle was on.  Whatever it was, it fought

Nice Lake Whitefish

hard thinking I might have the biggest walleye of the trip here!  Actually as it came up near the surface it looked sort of like a walleye yet usually you can see the white tip on the tail, this fish had none.  Getting it closer to the boat it became obvious it wasn't anything I've caught before, a Lake Whitefish.  It was exciting to catch one as they are supposed to be excellent to eat and of course a delicacy smoked.  After coming back in it was time to show the boys my real talents for making steak on the grill. Bringing up 8 nice 18 oz New York Strips my intent was to make the famous Steak ala Kienitz after a recipe by my old neighbor Troy.  Previous posts in this blog have described the culinary masterpiece but for those who don't want to search again here is the simple procedure.  After setting the steaks in an aluminum roasting pan take a bottle Tabasco Sauce and empty it over the meat.  Next open a medium bottle of Frank's Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce and empty that on the meat, turning the steaks over to get it on both sides.  Next dump a bottle of hot Pace Picante Sauce then let it marinate for at least 2 hours at room temperature.  Fire up the grill and simply throw the steaks on right out of the pan, keeping as much sauce on as you can.  A little messy and you have to watch the fire so the sauce doesn't burn, cook no more than medium rare. Other than Mike, the rest of the guys looked at me like I was crazy but a quick sample and their minds had changed from thinking they would need a bottle of Tums to put out the fire to WOW, this is fantastic.  You can teach these old dogs new tricks!  With dinner out of the way and the need for 3 more walleyes to fill our limits, Mike and I decided to go back to the sand bar and see if we couldn't accomplish the task.  Although it was cold, snow is nicer than rain so we suited up and walked the 1/4 mile to the point.  It didn't take long to get our remaining fish and as a bonus Mike caught another lake whitefish, a twin to my earlier fish.  With that we returned for a couple of cocktails before getting ready to head out in the morning, 6:00 would come soon enough.

Morning on Lac Seul

Tuesday morning greeted us to a gorgeous blue sky, light winds, and the promise of above freezing temperatures.  This was perfect as ice and snow covered the airplane and the only deicer was the buckets of lake water we could throw onto the plane.  In the meantime Bruce, Tom, Wayne, and Mike were loading the boat in time to follow the camp boats back to the landing as it is takes the guessing game where the rocks are when the water is as low as it is. While Pete and I brought our stuff to the dock, Garith warmed the plane up and tried to park it in the sun to help melt everything.  Once loaded it still took a few hours to make sure we had everything melted off before we took off. Rising off the lake in the plane is an awesome feeling and the view is spectacular.  Heading east, Garith always likes to fly around the major airports to avoid having to talk to the control towers as well as any traffic.  This time he headed more east than he thought as sitting in the copilots seat I could see the GPS and the instruments stating our destination and ETE (Estimated Time En-route).  At take off it was 1 hour 32 minutes but after about 15 minutes in the air it said 12 hours.  The GPS showed us flying straight east so after a little discussion and making a 90 degree turn we got back on course which was good as we only had about 2.5 hours of flying time with the gas we had on board.  Finally landing on Crane Lake and going through customs we added about 55 more gallons of fuel and headed home.  The weather was perfect and by 1:00 we were at Surfside.  It is always fun to fly over the Iron Range by Hibbing, Eveleth, and Virginia, Minnesota.  From the air the view is spectacular and it really is amazing the impact on the area.

It was a great trip again but ironically was a repeat of the Minnesota Opener, beautiful on Saturday and turned to crap for the next 2 days.  My boat was scheduled to be started on May 20th and takes about a week.  Assume it's shipped this week, Frankie's should have it next week and Deb has promised that they would take care of me.  That's all one can ask.  In the meantime I have a lot to do around the house getting the garden planted, the lawn mowed, as the rain has finally decided to get back to normal, heck the Mississippi River is up 6 feet already and more rain is forecast for this week.  My Grandpa Roy always said that you can never get enough rain. I guess that after living through the depression and the drought years of the 1930's, he's probably right.  On the other hand my friends in Dallas, Joe and Matt might just disagree about now.

Canadian Opener, Deja Vu??, part 1.

Our ride!

After the fast paced events and crappy weather associated with last week's Minnesota Fishing Opener at Leech Lake, Friday finally came as Pete picked me up then headed over to pick up our pilot, Garith Anderson and continue on to SurfSide Seaplane Base in Lino Lakes, MN.  The weather was raining during the previous 2 days and Friday was forecasted to clear up yet the last minute change included fog in the morning. Arriving at 6:00 AM we had a pretty low ceiling and the owner said that until we see the lights on top of the 500 foot tower across the lake we were staying put.  After 2 hours of BS and coffee the ceiling lifted enough to take off for Lac Seul.  The flight plan was to head north following Interstate 35 then over Eveleth/Virginia and landing at Sand Point Customs on the Canadian side of the Crane Lake area.  The low ceiling was with us the entire first leg of the route and we were forced to "Scud Run" at about 500 feet above the ground.  Scud Run is a term based on our military's Scud Missile system where they fly below the radar view and follow the terrain.  I thought it was pretty cool as you could easily see the wild turkey's in the fields and the deer but Pete wasn't as comfortable as I was.  An hour into the flight Garith noticed something unusual in a tree, 3 black bears!  I guess it gives one a perspective of how low we were really flying.  Landing at Sand Point Customs we were greeted by the agents who took our passports, asked the usual questions including our alcohol cargo. You are allowed 1 liter of booze or 1 bottle of wine or 1 case of beer per person, any more than this requires you to pay duty on the excess.  Well we had an extra bottle of wine and a case of beer over our allocation and when we declared that the guy said "It's your lucky day boys, the tax computer is down".  With that we got back in the plane for the short 1 1/2 hour flight to Chamberlain Narrows and Lac Seul Outpost.  Arriving at 1:00 it was time to unpack and get settled in and meet the guys who included Bruce and Mike, Wayne, and Tom.  Because opener was on Saturday and northern pike was the only fish you could catch, some of the guys were out trolling rapala's while we took care of a number of maintenance items at the cabin including sweeping up the constant sand and washing windows.  Wayne, Tom, and Mike came back from "northern" fishing to report that while pulling Rapala's, they could not keep the 22"+ walleyes off the line, a great sign for Saturday.

Bruce with a typical 22+ inch walleye.

Saturday was gorgeous, just like opener at Leech the week before.  Bluebird skies and a gentle breeze provided the perfect setup for a great day of fishing.  With 7 guys, normally we would have 3 boats however the lodge had a limited supply of boats and coupled with Bruce's change in plans to bring his own because of transom issues, we had 3 in the rental and 4 in Tom's Smokercraft.  This is my 4th trip to Lac Seul and this year Bruce (our host) asked me if I would fish with him.  Normally I fish with Pete but it would be a nice change of pace to fish with the master of the area. Our first stop was north and around the corner however there were 2 houseboats parked in the sweet spots.  Anchoring close to one of them, the walleyes were biting but the noise of the generator was a huge deterrent to staying there.  Next we heading further north off a point, anchored and caught a number of really nice walleyes, a couple of northerns around 36 inches and a few for our dinner later that evening.  Moving back down towards the cabin we hit a small cove that proved to be quite productive before finally ending up directly across the cabin off a sandbar that formed a nice eddy, the perfect place for a walleye to stop.  The lack of wind allowed us the perfect anchor position to fish either inside the eddy, right on the current break, or in the deeper water. Hammering the walleyes just doesn't do it justice as waves upon waves of walleyes from 15 to 26 inches keep coming thru on their way to the main lake after spawning.  The fish were plentiful and hungry as the weather and the bite gave me the opportunity to fish with a 3 inch white Gulp Minnow Grub that was on fire.  The success almost forced Bruce to switch however I think there was a primary reason for the hot Gulp bite.  Although the bite was light and both Bruce and I agreed that scent was a key factor, with Gulp I could cast my jig 20 - 30 yards then drag it back covering more area.  With minnows the typical tactic was to simply drop it off the side of the boat, wait for a walleye to swim by then hang on.  By working more water I feel it's an effective tactic to get your bait in front of more fish and I like being more proactive anyway.

My 26 incher.

Continuing catching one after another we stayed across the channel for the next couple of hours.  I ended up with the my largest fish of the trip, a nice 26 incher. Because of the spawn these fish were skinny but hungry. We ended the day with about 70 walleyes caught and released then kept about 8 for our fish fry later that evening.  I would say that over half of the walleyes we caught on Saturday were over 22 inches, quite impressive.  Interesting that I probably caught more walleyes in the first 2 hours of fishing than I did for the 3 days we spent fishing Leech the previous week. Volunteering to clean all of the fish I filleted 14 walleyes on Saturday night and zippered 8 for frying. With the help of Garith, we deep fried those fish to perfection. There is nothing better than fresh caught walleye to end the day. A few cocktails of TX whiskey provided by my good friends Joe and Matt really rounded out the day.  I wouldn't say that I was tired of catching fish however admittedly it was a pretty satisfying day.  Things were about to change dramatically in the next 12 hours as we woke up on Sunday morning with a strong northeast wind and temperatures in the low 50's and dropping.  It was a repeat of the the previous week where we had beautiful weather for opening day and it went downhill from there.  With sheets of rain traveling horizontally down Chamberlain Narrows there wasn't much of an incentive to get in the boat and subject ourselves to the punishment outside.  We had lots of time before making any decisions so when someone suggested we have omelets for breakfast I thought it would be fun to test my skills.  The ban on poultry and eggs coming across the border forced Bruce to buy eggs in Dryden and eggs they were!  A three egg omelet was a big as a 4 egger yet everyone seemed satisfied.  Bruce, his son Mike and I decided that we came to fish so let's go fishing as we bundled up for a 3 hour session.  Trying to get out of the wind because our anchor would not hold, we were not very successful yet we did manage to keep a few fish towards our take home numbers.  This would have been the perfect time for the anchor lock function on a bow mounted trolling motor.  Unfortunately neither Tom nor the rental boat had that luxury as we struggled to stay in the bite zone.  Unlike the previous day my Gulp wasn't working as well so was forced to switch back to a plain minnow and jig.  The challenge to catch fish on artificials is great but there is no reason to be stupid.  The rain became relentless as all three of us decided it was insane to continue so we headed in to dry our clothes, warm up, and have a cocktail to reflect on the day.  What came up that evening was quite an experience for me however I'll wait till next week to finish the story!

The good news is the boat should have started to be built on Wednesday so it shouldn't be long now. It's probably good as I need to get some things to get done around the house.