Labor Day Labor

My 1 pound Pear

September is looking more like one big blur these days.  With the sun setting earlier each day there seems little time to get anything done, maybe getting older doesn't help either.  The other issue is the amount of rain we've had this summer.  Usually parts of my property gets pretty dry this time of year and requires little mowing but not this summer as we have had frequent and adequate soakings to keep all of the grass nice and green and growing.  The wet weather has taken a toll on a number of trees that are succumbing to fungus and blight and the outcome doesn't look to good.  My favorite apple is the Firesides I have and last year the wet spring killed one of the two I had and now the remaining one is full of fungus.  My Honeycrisp apple trees don't look any better and I have a rather large Sugar Maple that is dying as well so it looks like I have some work to do this winter with the chainsaw.  On the positive side it's been a wonderful year for my pears.  The trees weren't too loaded with fruit so it helps to create fabulous sizes on the pears that were on the tree.  I have included a picture of one of the largest off my Patton Pear tree, it weighs in at about 1 pound and is big as a softball.  Admittedly it's the largest pear I have ever seen come off my tree.  They are actually very good to eat as the fruit is crisp and sweet.  With the help of our neighbors and friends Lory and Lynn Brasel, we got the entire tree picked before they start rotting on the tree, which some have already started.  Later this week her and my wife plan on canning a bunch, something I have never done.  They canned the fruit from my SummerCrisp Pear tree by simply using apple juice instead of a syrup and it's pretty amazing how well they turned out.  Because those pears were smaller they used pint sized jars but these will definitely require quarts.

Flooding as the pond overflows in Eleva

Last week it was very hot, humid, with a strong south wind.  Sunday was no different as we drove down to Fountain City, Wisconsin to visit my wife's cousin and to attend Farm Fest, a small event on the top of the ridge just north of town.  It was pretty interesting to see all the old tractors and engines however I think that the hot weather kept a lot of people away.  Never the less it was nice to spend time with the guys, John, Greg, Bob, and John Charles solving all the worlds problems.  Sunday night had torrential rains forecasted so we headed back only to run into those rains around Alma and drove through some pretty heavy downpours for the next hour.  In my home town of Eleva it was a completely different story as they had severe flooding both from the north coming into the Eleva Pond and from the east when the dam in Strum breached and sent a wall of water down the Buffalo River heading right for Eleva.  Although the water is high in this picture, the damage happened after it had carved a channel through the dike surrounding the old Chicken Plant (now Family Farms) and completely flooded the lower part of the building.  Bud Tollefson use to live in the house below the bridge and definitely in the flood plain however it's been since 1978 when Eleva had the last incident.  Apparently that house had a foot of water on the first floor which meant the basement was completely full.  I called my friend Kevin and his son Ben and got the story, particularly the rush to sandbag critical areas before the wall of water arrived from Strum.  With over 100 volunteers helping, they averted most of the issues but it's still going to be a few weeks before things get back to normal.  They did tell me that it was necessary to pull the planks on the Eleva Dam and at this point the pond is empty.  I am going through on Saturday and see how everyone is doing.

Salsa cooking down

So it obvious that I didn't get out fishing this weekend.  Labor Day means one thing and for me it's not a rest from Labor but a day off from work to labor around the house more. There is still a lot of issues in getting ready for Lac Seul and to be honest, I'll get a month's worth of fishing in a week and with the harvest in peak mode, there's little time to get anything done (Sound like a broken record, uh!).  I did start working on getting the Salem Ice Cabin ready for the winter.  It's amazing that something you pull down a salty road in the winter uses standard steel screw to hold everything in place.  I have been changing them out with Stainless Steel and with some it's simply too late as the heads simply break off or in some cases are already corroded off. Everything is greased up and I like to repaint the frame areas that tend to rust easily, it simply makes it look nicer, that's all.  With the last of the tomatoes ripening I made the last batch of salsa on Monday night.  I've probably said this before but I do think my salsa is pretty good for homemade.  Not as good as fresh but certainly as good as any store bought I've had.  It does take a lot of work and time, about 4 hours to make 7 quarts. This year ended up around 33 quarts, enough for the football season at Tim's, my ice fishing trips at Red Lake, and maybe enough to take for opening fishing next spring.  It's really thick and tomatoey but I am always surprised that once cooked the heat of the peppers seems to wane.  Oh well, it's really easy to spice up and this year I'm going to try a trick that my friend Ricky Shermer does, adds freash cut onions to his salsa that he opens up and serves.  Seems like a great idea. Hopefully I can get out this weekend and make sure everything is working in the boat.  I have had some issues with glueing a panel to the underside of my console that I have bolted my ethernet hub to.  Originally I used Silicon adhesive but that didn't work very well and it fell off.  I've tried GOOP and liquid nails with little luck and believe my initial instinct of using 3M 5200 Marine adhesive will work.  It's hard to find but I need to do something before the following weekend.

Hanging with Charlie

Charlie's first Smallie

Last Thursday afternoon was the day to pick up my boat from Frankie's as they had the GPS module in the Motorguide replaced and a few of my minor warranty issues taken care of.  On the phone was a text message from Chuck Teasley, "Got time for lunch tomorrow?"  The fact that Chuck lives in Glen Carbon, Illinois which is just east of St. Louis, Missouri I just assumed he probably texted me by mistake so instead of wasting a long drawn out text event it would simply be easier to call him. Answering his phone I learned that he was in Iowa heading to the Twin Cities, his sister passed away and he needed to come and help with everything.  Well lunch was just fine however he had to join another friend, Hondro and I as it was already scheduled but that wouldn't be a problem, they would get along just fine.  Asking a few more questions like where was he staying gave me an opportunity to help by getting a hotel reservation at our corporate rate near the office, which would work out well for him.  Of course lunch didn't work out but with his daughter Cameron flying in to attend and see some friends, it gave us Saturday afternoon to go fishing on the river, and fish we did! Arriving at noon we headed to the Ace Hardware store to get some 4 - 6 inch sucker minnows. The big smallies love them and although it might be too early yet, it never hurts to have them with.  Hitching the jon boat to the Polaris Razor, we headed through my neighbors field and in 15 minutes we were on the river.  My plan was to work ourselves up to the 101 bridge just south of Elk River, Minnesota and work the bridge piers first then leisurely drift down while stopping at the deeper holes, casting the rock strewn shores, and enjoying the scenery.  At the bridge Chuck caught a small northern while I drifted one of the sucker minnows close to the rocky shore on the south side of the river.  I use a trick that Pete showed me, hang the big minnow about 2 feet under a bobber and hang on!  After 2 short drifts the third one finally saw the bobber disappear with vengeance, a 3 count and set the hook as the line snapped.  Must have been a nice northern as I was using 12 pound test line. As we started to drift down Chuck caught the first smallmouth on a bomber crankbait, the day was starting out pretty good. I suggested that he use a casting rod and reel as one can be more accurate pitching those crankbaits into the shore edges and

An  ill Placed Lure

with the rocky bottom the heavier line would hold up a lot better. When I first asked Chuck if he could cast this type of rig it was "No Problem!" however upon handing him the rig he sort of admitted he might not be as proficient as he sounded earlier. Never the less he wanted to try it and his first cast was not very well placed as the lure ended up in the front of my shorts....Oh My fishing for trouser trout, hey Charlie! Lucky for me the hook just caught my zipper or there might could have been a few more of the chosen words I had already just used.  It took about a minute to get resituated and was followed by taking the casting rod away and giving him a spinning rod with the same lure, it just seemed much safer. Oh well, Chuck asked me to post this so here it is. Just below the RV park that is below the bridge and on the west side is the first rapids to negotiate.  Usually I head up the east side of the river but really wanted to fish the rockier west side which looked tempting.  Normally I simply point the stern of the boat downstream then use the electric trolling motor to position the boat so both of us have access to casting towards the shore.  Well I got a little shallow and before I could make any moves a rock tore off my transducer from the back of the boat.  Although it is frustrating, often times you do expect some casualties if you're going to push the limits of your current river knowledge. What frustrated me the most was when I got home to replace the transducer with a spare I have, the depthfinder didn't work.  I am thinking that water got into the crystal element of the transducer and the output drivers of that part of the locator circuit didn't like that very well. Things happen in three's and with 2 down I was sure the next issue wouldn't be far behind and it wasn't as another rock tried to push my trolling motor under the boat which caused the T bar that holds the motor to the various bracket positions snapped off.  This usually happens a few times a year and luckily they are only about $1.60 each and take about 15 minutes to replace, as I have done this many times.  With all of that out of the way it was time to get serious about fishing.

18.5 Inch Bass

Above the Crow River is a couple of nice holes where I've seen a few guys fishing.  We stopped to fish some nigh crawlers on the bottom as I am sure this is a great place for walleyes.  The only thing that bite was about a 4 pound carp, they do fight pretty good but not necessarily what we were looking for.  I also got a small channel catfish, maybe 13 inches at best, it was time to move. As we drifted the shorelines for the most part we stay on the north side of the river as it is has more rocks associated with it and because of the influence of the Crow River, it tends to be more clear on that side.  There are also 3 nice side channels on the north side which I always catch fish along the edges.  I would say that we had caught almost 15 smallmouth by the time we hit the second side channel but they were pretty small, often less than 13 inches.  Never the less they were really hitting those baits as sometimes you would see them actually come right to the boat before slamming it.  We even had a few that hit it so hard they came off right away.  Coming down the channel there was a nice small eddy that had formed at the edge so I perfectly placed my Bomber Crank and 2 seconds later had a very nice 18.5 inch smallie, best of the season so far.  As you see the river was almost perfect for fishing that day, nice and calm and the level is almost perfect.  The water temperature is down degrees from the last time we were out and as the water cools it will drive those smallies into the deeper holes.  I still haven't caught a walleye in the river yet this year, maybe it's just not my year for them, yet there is plenty of time.  We ended the day catching about 20 smallmouth bass and had a number of fish that followed the bait to the boat so all in all it wasn't a bad day.  I had been telling Chuck all day about the menu at Clives, a nice place to eat in Champlin, MN where they had deep fried northern pike you could order for fish and chips.  Northern pike is actually pretty good to eat and I think it has more flavor and texture than walleye so we decided to have dinner there.  Well, to my disappointment it was no longer on the menu so we settled for catfish instead. After a few hugs and well wishes we headed our own ways as Chuck had a busy schedule on Sunday.  It was great to get out with him again, he is one of my most sincere friends as I have known him since about 1978, when I first moved to the cities.  I can assure you he is a bit tamer than he was but his spirit hasn't changed a bit!

My goal of getting the Lowrance HDS 7 touch for Bruce for our trip to Lac Seul was now in jeopardy as something happened and for the life of me I could not figure it out.  No transducer pinging probably meant that the output section of the circuit got fried.  Calling Lowrance we did a hard reset with no results so was resigned to send it to their service center in San Diego with a 7 - 10 day average turn around.  This would really cut it close so it went overnight.  Well, late last night I got a shipment confirmation in the e-mail, I should have it back by Friday.  Now I wonder what the heck, maybe I missed something, I guess we will  see next week.  Anyway we are back on schedule for sure!  My friend Lory helped me with the calibration of my trolling motor board, that went pretty simple.  He's a great guy to have around as he and his wife helped me make 9 quarts of my famous salsa on Tuesday night, no simple task and it was pretty humid.  It's a busy weekend and is also my 1 year anniversary of totalling out my motorcycle.  I still haven't decided how much I miss it yet with everything moving so fast these days, not much.  Hopefully I can get out fishing if there's anyone around!  

Taking The Weekend Off

At the Races

With severe storms, high winds, and colder weather scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday of last week I decided to go up with my friend Kevin Sonsalla and Lory to BIR (Brainerd International Raceway) on Friday instead of picking up my boat at Frankie's. The GPS board in the Motorguide needed replacing so I dropped it off on Monday but they still had some stuff to do and it wasn't going to be fully done so it worked out well.  The NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) has their annual race week at BIR and all the big boys are there for this national event.  Although there are many classes of drag racers, the stars of the show were the Top Fuel Dragsters and the Funny Cars.  Kevin always get's tickets to the events as he has his contacts with Don Schumacher Racing so we get right in and have special hospitality passes to DSR's area's which is pretty cool.  The races are amazing as both the Top Fuel's and Funny Car's cross the finish lines in under 4 seconds, often at speeds over 320 miles per hour. That's damn fast when you consider they start from a dead stop and race to the 1000 foot mark, which is less than 1/5th of a mile.  They moved the finish line back from a 1/4 mile when the speeds started getting unsafe.  It seems like they have caught up to those old times again.  One interesting thing we saw was 2 Funny Cars that had lined up and both crossed the finish line in under 4.0 seconds.  The track announcer stated that this was only the 3rd time in NHRA history that both cars lined up broke the 4 second mark.  Even more interesting was the next 2 drivers that lined up and they also broke the 4 second mark...2 in a row.  The sound is deafening as you can feel the speed as they go by.  It's quite interesting for sure and with the cool weather coming in, things were bound to get faster, which they did!  Sunday's high was only around 60 degrees F and with the cloud cover the track was insanely fast.  Checking the results on Sunday night 4 NHRA speed and time records were broke including a 3.68 ET for top fuel, the fastest time ever recorded at 332.75 mph in Top Fuel, a 329.58 mph fastest Funny Car time ever, and a record setting 3.664 ET but could not be verified via NHRA rules.  When we were there the announcer gave a update on one run, at 660 feet the Funny Car had accelerated from a dead stop to 288 mph in less than 3 seconds while covering the last 340 feet in another second. Uffda!!!

Grapes!

It's really getting to be garden time and although the corn and pickles are done, the tomatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, raspberries, onions, are in full harvest mode. This is the first year that I have raised grapes and with the help of Lory we actually got a few this year. They are pretty flavorful, have seeds in them, and are probably pretty useless for wine but it's sure cool to see them hanging on the vines.  I have to take care of them this winter, making sure the roots get covered an protected from a hard cold January.  That should be pretty easy as I have lot's of leaves and a good system to pick them up with.   My carrots are really doing well this year.  Usually I dread planting them then having to thin them out to assure they have room to grow then I never do. This year I bought the coated seeds, they are about the size of a BB and really easy to plant. Not crowding allows then to grow nice and big so everyone is amazed at my carrots this year.  I love carrots and eat them raw right out of the garden.  My dad always said they were good for your eyes and to this day I still have 20/15 vision, not bad for an old guy!  Somewhere I read that you can also cover any carrots left in the garden with leaves such that the ground doesn't freeze and you can harvest them all winter long, I don't really know about that but it might be worth a try.  As well the tomatoes are really

Nice Looking Carrots 

starting to ripen.  I've canned tomatoes in the past however it seems like all they do is sit in the jars for years until they rot, I clean out the jars and repeat the process.  Well a few years ago I decided that the tomatoes are best use to make salsa and quite honestly I seem to be getting better at it every year.  I hate soupy salsa's preferring the thicker, cling to your chip type and have perfected my process.  There are a couple of secrets and I know many simple don't want to take the time but first is after peeling the tomatoes I squeeze out the juice then put them in a pot to boil it down.  The second secret is towards the end add a large can of tomato paste, it's like adding cornstarch to gravy. Anyway the batch I made the other day was excellent with a lot of garlic, lime juice for increasing the acidity, and 6 different peppers from the garden.  I also have about 6 different varieties of tomatoes, most of them heirloom type as I think they have considerably more flavor.  One of the other items in the garden that are huge this year are the potatoes.  I dug one hill up the other day and I swear it yielded 5 pounds of huge tubers.  I like to leave them in the ground and use them as needed because they stay fresher that way.  I might have to take some to Canada with me next month.  I hear that potatoes have to be in a commercial bag that they come in from the store, that wouldn't be hard to do, we'll see.

Picking up the boat before the weekend as I just got my snaps for the new replaceable carpet and can get them installed.  The new GPS board on the Motorguide needs calibrating so there's a great excuse to get out on the water this weekend.  It's easy to do just press a couple of buttons and drive in circles, something I do very well.  Countdown to Lac Seul is now 3 weeks away, I'm getting excited!

Back to Lake Osakis again

Nice Bass, my only fish

First of all it can be challenging to come up with a topic every week, especially if you've taken the weekend off from fishing to work on other less important things such as mowing or getting stuff done around the house.  When I ran across my old picture album last week it brought back memories of 1997 when fishing in Cabo San Lucas and it's funny, the pictures took my memory back to that time but it seemed to skip 2008 when I first posted the very exact same story and pictures on my October 6th post, amazing!  Oh well today is a new day and what I know is a new post. Because it was forecasted to rain on Sunday, Lory and I decided to try Lake Osakis again on Saturday to see if we can run into some of those nice crappies and maybe a walleye or two. With the temperatures predicted in the 90's and strong south winds, a day on the water might feel good.  Osakis is straight up Interstate 94 about 105 miles northwest of the house.  It's an hour and 45 minute drive, about 30 minutes further than Mille Lacs but it does seem longer.  Arriving around 1:00 Lory backed the trailer into the water as I started the outboard to back it off the trailer. The minute I hit reverse the motor came to an abrupt halt, not thinking about the bungee cord around the prop to prevent it from spinning while towing was still attached. A second time did the same thing before the realization hit me, the strap is still on.  Lory pulled the boat up carefully enough to jump out and remove the strap that was now wrapped tight around the lower housing, back it in again and this time it worked. life sure gets frustrating sometimes!  Our first stop was a nice hump that seemed to have walleye written all over it.  After 5 drifts across we changed our minds and headed to the area where we caught a few crappies the last time.  Almost immediately we marked schools of fish that were in 16 - 18 feet of water and they seemed to be stationary.  Our first thought, this should be pretty easy, like spearing fish in a barrel.

2 nice Crappies

Lory quickly caught the first crappie, a very nice 12 inch fish, seems like we were in for a great session!  We stayed on the school as well as others but those fish were not much in the mood to bite as Lory nailed another one and that was about it. It's pretty frustrating for sure as you know they are down there, you know they are nice fish, and you know you're not that bad of a fisherman. Oh well, maybe we are when it comes to mid season crappies.  I know from my ice fishing experiences that crappies can be finicky with needing just the right presentation.  Maybe we should have had minnows with slip bobber to be more effective, who knows.  It is definitely worth trying again as one can see that there are a lot of nice fish in Lake Osakis and it is worth doing some more exploring for sure.  It is a fairly large lake and this time of year it has quite a few weeds along with that slimy clumps of algae near the shorelines.  We did enjoy watching the western grebes work the depths with their young.  Usually there were two dull colored almost grown grebes with their parents swimming in the open water.  The hen would dive down and 15 - 30 seconds later would surface with a minnow in her bill as the young would race to see who get's the newly caught morsel. It was easy to watch this over and over again but we were the ones needing to catch the fish!  If you think about it, there had to be a ton of baitfish in the lake as the surface was covered with groups of 3 and 4 grebes all feeding on minnows and usually where there are minnows there are larger fish as well.  Actually there are so many grebes that you really need to be careful when you drive across the lake as they don't move very fast and one would hate to hit any my mistake.

It is a really busy time of the year as the personal stuff has accumulated to be a crazy last part of August through September.  With reunions, weddings, Labor day, and fishing trips it will be a challenge to get everything done in time.  The good news is that Bruce has set our fall trip to Lac Seul for September 21 - 25th and I will be bringing the new boat along.  My good friend Mark Taylor set me up with a friend of his that runs a company called Mat Crafters, which makes custom floor mats for businesses.  Mark had given me a large heavy duty floor mat and this guy would cut if for me however we decided it was too heavy so he picked a lighter, more flexible material.  Using my existing removeable carpet as a pattern he cut it perfectly.  I did order snaps and an installation tool to add the snaps to secure to the floor which will be really nice.  Now I have a heavy duty carpet to use in the boat when we are at Lac Seul, it holds sand really well and should help to keep the boat properly clean which means I won't have to yell at Pete as much!  This trip my brother Steve is going with which I after he invited me to go with him to Canada a few years ago, is a great payback.

Blast from the Past, La Palmas de Cortez, 1997

Nice Bull Dorado

Saturday was spent running back to Wisconsin to attend a wedding party in Mondovi with my wife and her relatives.  Here I thought it was an outside affair but it turned out to be simply a party as they did the ceremonial stuff on Friday which means I dressed up for nothing!  I did met a gentleman by the name of Steve that after a few questions determined that he enjoyed fishing as much as I did. He lives in Durand so I explained the time when I was about 16 and I got the royal crap beat out of me by a guy in Durand and it expanded from there.  Today he fishes Lake Pepin, something I am anxious to try and hopefully he will contact me sometime to let me tag along.  With little opportunity to go fishing last week last week I was looking for something interesting and ran across a small photo album with some great past fishing pictures, including some from my trip to Cabo San Lucas.  In April of 1997 I was invited to go fishing with a business associate, Walt Benecki of Arnold Engineering.  For a number of years only his company would produce a special part needed in an implantable application which made us successful.  Walt had learned I love to fish and over the years we had talked about fishing the Sea of Cortez and that year it finally happened.  As a note, Walt wrote a book about his fishing adventures and it's still available on Amazon HERE.  His book was the influence for me to start my blog to document my fishing experiences.  So, getting back to the story all I needed to do was get to LAX by 6:00 AM on April 25th and he would take care of everything else.  What was interesting is Paul Wenaas had a round trip travel voucher that was due to expire on April 30th so we he heard I was going offered me a really good deal, $125, I was set. The flight was due in at around 10:00 the evening before however we sat on the runway till 11:00 and it was midnight before I got to my hotel.  Unfortunately the person who booked my room at $69 had done it for Friday instead of Thursday and of course there were no rooms left at "that price" and the

First Days catch, 3 nice Dorado's.

hotel was full.  After some checking they miraculously fine one room left at $149, it was now almost 1:00 and I had to get up at 5:00, I'll take it.  I supposed the right thing might have been to just wait at the airport, I could hardly sleep anyway but the little sleep I got helped.  At 6:00 I met Walt, Fred, and Shok as we boarded for Los Cabos Airport at the tip of the Baja Peninsula.  Arriving at around 10:30 we loaded into a van and headed northeast, not before stopping at a little shack and getting a Pacifico for the ride to La Palmas de Cortez, our destination.  It was really cool driving through the desert then coming over the hill to see the Sea of Cortez, it's aqua blue color and the white sands of the beaches below.  We arrived at the resort and it certainly was the most impressive place I'd ever been to.  Unpacking in a gorgeous room overlooking the ocean we headed to the beach to sit at the veranda just in time to watch the boats come in.  I'll never forget that afternoon when we met some guys from Intel Corporation, Portland Oregon.  After a few introductions and where we were from (Eleva, Wisconsin) the head guy looks at me and says, that explains it.  Explains what? I asked.  Well it's not pronounced Oregon (last syllable sounds like on) the way you midwestern guys say it but rather Oregon (las syllable sounds like gun).  I explained that it has an O in it and not a U, still he insisted.  Ok, then tell me if you are from Oregun, are you an Oregunian or an Oregonian? FU was his answer, you can't outsmart an Eleva boy as he bought margaretta's the rest of the night.  The next morning we woke up at 6:00 to have breakfast in the dining area before boarding our fishing vessel for the day, a 26 foot with a single engine and a fly bridge for spotting marlin.  Our first stop was at a small boat just off shore where they purchased bait, maybe a few hundred minnows about 5 - 6 inches.  We headed out about 5 miles into the deeper waters and started looking around anything floating whether it be net buoys, vegetation or garbage in the water as you could easily see 40 feet or more down, they would look for fish, especially dorado.  Often the captain's mate would throw a few minnows in the water and with no cover they swam for their lives.  If there were any fish in the area they would definitely make themselves known.  The second they saw something they'd rig a pole up with a hook and a minnow and toss it overboard trying to get it to hit.  Usually they were successful and as soon as the fish was on they handed you the pole.  Because there were 2 of us fishing, we flipped for the first fish then it was every other hookup meaning if you a pole was handed to you, that was your turn regardless if you landed it or not.

Neon colors at their finest

I was first and immediately fought and landed a huge bull dorado that you see in the first picture. Pictures and words can not describe both how beautiful these fish are in the water and how awesome they fight.  Many saltwater fish light up like a neon sign when under stress and the dorado is the king. Bright neon blues, greens, and yellows it's a sight to see for sure.  Not only are these fish fun to catch but they are fabulous to eat, which I will get into later.
The next hookup was another dorado and it was up to Fred to land the fish which he did perfectly.  I was 52 at the time and Fred was around 62 but not as good of shape as I was. These fish took a lot of effort to land them as you needed a break after your turn was complete.  The next fish hooked was nice 9 1/2 foot striped marlin and it was my turn!  I have never experienced what I was about to embark as this thing used all it's power to shake the hook.  Of course being an avid fan of the Sunday morning fishing shows on cable, I was familiar with the antics of a marlin however experiencing it was a whole new deal.  After a number of crazy runs and leaps out of the water, it's final strategy was to go deep directly under the boat.  Man, it was like reeling in a big rock. 30 minutes later the marlin was along side the boat with it's pectoral fins lit up in a neon blue.  I have to admit I needed a break.  We snapped a few pictures and released the fish to fight another day.  The next couple fish were hooked and release then Fred hooked a very nice dorado. Besides having fun, the other thing going on was Walt's annual Cabo Fishing Tournament.  Each fisherman was assessed points based on type of fish and its rarity along with other factors such as total catch in your boat as well as bonus sizes for trophy sized fish, say a 500 pound billfish.  Black Marlin were worth 40 points, blue marlin 30, striped marlin 25, sailfish 20, wahoo 15, dorado 3, and tuna 2.  These are pretty much based on how common those fish are.  The other qualifier is each rod has a leader connected to a swivel and a "caught fish" was awarded when the swivel passed the rod tip, regardless if it got off after that.  Well Fred was battling this dorado and the swivel was about a foot from the tip when all of a sudden the boat surges forward as the captain cranked on the throttle, he had seen a marlin in front of the boat and marlins = tips.  Poor Fred was hanging on for dear life (as well as shouting a few expletives) as the line was peeling off the reel.  About 100 yards later no sign of the marlin and Fred was stuck reeling that fish back in again, I thought he was going to have a heart attack.  Later that night Fred demanded that he should be awarded double the points for having had to reel it in twice.  No such luck but we did end the day with 3 dorado caught and a striped marlin.

Ready to Land a Striped Marlin, notice the blue fin.

What was fabulous about La Palmas de Cortez is they kept the dorado, often known as Mahi Mahi, and serve it each night for dinner.  It's absolutely fabulous and I really made a pig of myself, so much that the older Mexican lady serving it told me "Senor, you will get ill eating like you do!" The next day was my turn to be with Walt in his boat as we changed strategy for the morning bite and went for yellowfin tuna. Even though they are the least amount of points, you can usually catch quite a few if you get into them.  Unfortunately most of what I caught were bonita, basically a trash member of the tuna family.  They did fight excellent and I did finally catch a yellowfin and the rest of the day was pretty slow.  In then end my score was 63 which puts me in the middle of the list of guys that fished during the 13 years that Walt held this contest.  It was a great time, I met a lot of great people and there is nothing better than relaxing on the veranda on the beach drinking a Negra Modelo, which unfortunately by Saturday night had cleaned out the resort of this great beer.  I have it on my bucket list to get back to La Palmas de Cortez, it's still relatively inexpensive place to go and hopefully my brother Steve and I can make it someday.  That trip ranks in the top 5 of my lifetime fishing experiences for sure.

The Mille Lacs situation continues to play itself out and I will definitely have more to say on that later. This week we have finalized the dates for our September Lac Seul trip as we will leave on the 21st and return on the 25th.  This time my brother Steve is coming with and I am really excited to return the favor from him inviting me on his trip a couple years ago to Burrows Lake, east of Lake Nipigon, Ontario.  Lots to do!!!

Walleye Fishing Over on Mille Lacs for 2015

Charlie and the last walleye caught in my boat legally on Mille Lacs

It finally happened, 15 years of total mismanagement by both the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the State of Minnesota have resulted in the closure for all walleye fishing on Lake Mille Lacs starting August 4th to December 1, 2015  After pre spawn netting by the tribes and targeting those same size fish that are netted, the allocation of walleyes to the public have been reduced to 28,000 pounds for the 2015 fishing season on Mille Lacs. I would love to go ballistic regarding this terrible political situation (IMHO) however I am bound to keep my mouth shut and not pollute my post with anything but fishing yet it's difficult because it affects both my favorite fishing destination as well as my friends that are severely impacted by this ineptness.  What makes matters worse is sitting on the side watching the slow and inevitable decline of the lake and there is little you can do about it.  So, I have decided to provide links to articles that better explain the situation and the Princeton Union-Eagle is a small town newspaper which does an excellent job and probably best leans towards my political views regarding this.  My first link HERE is the announcement of the closure of the walleye season on Mille Lacs on August 3rd. The second link HERE really does a nice job of documenting the latest issue regarding the Governor's visit to Isle, MN and the local reaction to the situation.  HERE really says it all in regards to my feelings about the situation and whole hardily agree with Joe Ward as I am a member of PERM and fully support their charter in dealing with this problem.  So the closure of walleye season really had no restrictions which is interesting.  I suspect I can troll for northerns or muskies this fall on the reefs with large stick baits like a Rattlin Rouge, or fish smallies on the deep reefs with leeches, I'm not even sure what this all means and if I catch a walleye it certainly must be released.  Ridiculous is all I have to say about it.  I have 2 friends in Alaska, Jeff King and Keith Holtan, both run salmon fishing guide service on the Kenai.  This year because of declining populations, the first salmon run which occurs in late May thru June was cancelled which quite frankly affects their income.  I would bet that if you did some research you would fine that the same issues that plague Mille Lacs are eerily similar to those that shut down the fisheries on the Kenai.  The more things change the more they stay the same. I am in constant communications with my friend Bill Lundeen, I feel bad for him and I wish I could do something as I am helpless other than keep pressuring our government to make changes in the way they approach the problem.  Good Luck!

The star of the show!

So my last official walleye trip was last Wednesday when I had the pleasure of taking both Chuck Teasley and Dan Hoene in my new boat.  Charlie is a friend from way back and Dan is his buddy from high school. Each year Chuck comes to Minnesota with his family to visit a camp on Lake Carlos near Alexandria.  We try to get away during that week and this year it worked out that both he and Dan could make it.  The plan was to meet at the pole shed, drive north to Mark Applens place, go out to dinner, then fish the big lake.  When I showed up at the pole shed both guys were there but to my surprise Chuck had a new addition to his right leg as it now was aluminum and Dan was hobbling around on a cane that Chuck had made for him.  Quickly loading up the boat we headed north as I got the story.  Chuck had a serious motorcycle accident years before I met him and his leg was mangled up pretty bad.  Over the years it became worse and eventually it needed to be removed below the knew.  Dan was a star college hockey player for Michigan but degenerative arthritis has blessed him with 3 hip transplants, the third was recent and he still needs some rehab.  I was glad I had the new boat as it would be much more comfortable for them as I felt fortunate to be able to spend some time with these 2 great guys.  After dinner at Hunter's we headed to Mark;s place at Fisherman's Wharf, settled in then sat outside on the picnic table enjoying a few cocktails, a nice cigar that Dan brought, and the beautiful full moon.  Unfortunately the wind had picked up from the west and although it made the evening mosquito free, it wasn't looking good for tomorrow's wave action.  Waking up to 30 mph winds, we decided to head to the west side and launch where it would be so windy.  After stopping at Bills to get bait we arrived at the landing only to be greeted by the DNR's AIS (Aquatic Invasive Species) unit and trust me, with the walleye closure upon us, I was in no mood to be hassled by these guys.  I know it's not their fault and most are simply interns doing a job but they need to know how screwed up their future employer really is.  As well, we were the only boat in the landing, another waste of tax payer dollars, oh well.  The waves were terrible and 1/4 mile out from shore they 2 feet and breaking.  It really forced us to simply drift the rock humps south of Sherman's point where we did get some fish including my first walleye on Mille Lacs for the year, a 11 incher.  Chuck ended up catching the 2 largest fish for the trip, a 16 inch walleye and a nice 17 inch smallie.  As for Dan and I, there were no pictures worth sharing as we stayed in that 9 - 12 inch walleye range.  Because of the wind it was really hard to fish so our pattern was a simple nightcrawler rig  pulled along the bottom as we drifted out until it becam uncomfortable then repeated that pattern.  Being pretty beat up by the wind and waves we headed back to the landing where in an attempt to secure the boat I fell off the front step and landed back first in the water but not before my side hit the step and caused a huge bruise.  Thank God there was water to break my fall.  Now with 3 of us "crippled" up we headed down the road for dinner at the Long Siding Bar, it was pretty good.  Arriving back to the pole shed we said our goodbyes to another year, another good time with friends, and the reality that we are not getting any younger.  I am already looking forward to our trip next year.

Lory's Golden Redhorse

Saturday gave me an opportunity to finally get the jon boat out and start fishing the river.  After cleaning it out, hooking up the electronics, and starting the motor (3 pulls BTW) I was ready for a planned trip up the river with Lory Brasel on Sunday.  After getting a few things done we headed to Blair's landing and up passed old town where the Crow River joins the Mississippi.  It's amazing how dirty the Crow river is and how it affects the water clarity down stream.  Because it joins from the south, the north side of the river stays much more clear until it gets close Blair's.  Fishing wasn't very good as I only got one 8 inch smallmouth and had a few strikes but no hookups.  We decided to anchor on the downstream side of Cloquet Island however when I dropped the anchor it didn't hold very well, probably because it came untied from my anchor rope and is now sitting on the bottom in 10 feet of water.  With no means to hold us in the current we decided to go down to our neighbors dock, tie up and fish the flat area in front of his property as the fish tend to feed in those areas. With a glob of nightcrawlers we casted into the current and it wasn't long before a fish grabbed Lory's and started running up against the current.  We landed a nice 6 pound golden Redhorse, took a couple of pictures and let it go.  Overall the fishing is bound to get better on the river and luckily I have another anchor to through on the boat so I should be back in business.  On interesting thing, when I pulled the boat out of the river something looked funny and sure enough, I had left the "earmuffs" on the motor that garden hose attaches to for running it out of water.  The prop had torn it up pretty bad and to be honest, I am lucky that it didn't interrupt the normal flow of the water to cool the engine.  Just another thing to replace.  I am not sure if I'll get out this weekend as we have a wedding in Mondovi, WI and it's fall fest time in Independence, my wife's home town.  Either way it's like every weekend, busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest!

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.