The Walleyes are biting on Mille Lacs!

15 inch Mille Lacs Walleye

Saturday morning I got a text from my friend Mark Applen asking if I was going to Mille Lacs.  I told him I was interested in fishing the flats so he said pick him up at 11:00AM.  It was a perfect excuse to leave.  It was about zero out and we knew it would be cold however I wanted to move around a little so we decided that we could both base ourselves out of my larger Clam insulated portable.  It's not that portable however I do have a trailer that makes it easy to load and unload so I hooked it up, loaded my auger, heater, propane tank, poles and Vexilar and picked up Mark.  Our first stop was Bill's to pick up minnows and get the latest information.  Our plan was to head over to Hunter's point Resort where they have a road plowed out to the flats, then find Sliver Flat, set up on the top (it's a very small flat) then fish the edges both the top edge and bottom edge.  Years ago I used to go out of Liberty Beach Resort, they would have a road out to 3 mile reef then extend it northwest right to Sliver Flat, you could turn south to 9 mile or turn north to Boot Flat.   I always like Sliver Flat however, there I go, fishing memories again!  Anyway, I forgot my trusted Lowrance HDS 9 Chart/sonar unit as it has the most accurate map and Sliver is funny, small and narrow.  I had the Navionics app on my phone and unfortunately it shows sliver as a round structure, not exactly correct.  Well, Mark had his handheld GPS but it had the Navionics map so we had a difficult time pinpointing the accurate depth.. As well there was a portable parked right on top of the flat and he had tip ups scattered up and down the top.  We ended up fishing the south edge and had to encroach on him only because he pretty much hogged the whole flat.  If I would have had my Lowrance Map with is based on the Lakemaster data, we probably could have successfully fished the north side but there was little I could do.  Either way we set up and Mark immediately caught a 15 inch walleye. Unfortunately Mille Lacs has a restricted harvest and one is only allowed a single fish that has to measure between 19 and 21 inches, not impossible but damn difficult at best.  To be frank, the tribal harvest and subsequent restrictions have really screwed up the lake. It is full of 13 to 15 inch walleyes and reports of 50 fish per day

Another small Walleye.

catches are not uncommon but you can't keep anything. People forget that mIlle Lacs was often called the "Dead Sea" or a current well deserved name "Home of the quarter pounder!" I had a blast as it's been a long time since I ice fished Mille Lacs, maybe a year ago.  I had fish constantly on my Vexilar and ended up with 7 walleyes in that 13 to 15 inch range.  In addition I lost a couple and had 2 really big ones on.  The story on Mille Lacs is the light bite so I switched to a Hawger Spoon with a single hook, my go to perch bait.  While sitting there talking to Mark all of a sudden a fish slammed my bait and the fight was on.  It had the classic walleye head shake and about halfway she came off.  Uffda!!! that was a nice fish and of course to speculate, maybe in that 24 - 28 inch range, I guess I'll never know.  The action was fast with some fish hitting the bait sand some just floating up to look at it and going back down. Either way it was enough to keep your interest as the ones that hit were aggressive and the one that just looked at it took some more finessing.  I sure would have liked to see those larger fish but maybe next week.  I definitely was cold out and for sure I will not forget my GPS mapping system next time. It's pretty accurate and is a big help to find that out of the way point of edge that can hold fish!

Uffda!

It's been pretty incredible what we have been paying for gas these days.  Never getting used to the $3.80/gallon price, on the other extreme I filled up on the way home (Saturday) in Princeton for $1.39/gallon.  25 gallons was $35.00.   Amazing. It's interesting that the pundits are saying that these low gas prices are not helping the economy, I guess everyone is used to paying high prices, go figure!  Anyway I am sure that places like Costco and Sam's club are 10 to 15 cents cheaper than this and I suspect it won't last long so stock up!  I have a 51 gallon tank in my boat so it would be nice if this stayed around the same price for at least 6 months.  I only would love to see the lower gas prices override the ethanol mandates but that's a whole nother discussion. My neighbor and friend, "Buck a Gallon Pete" says that we should see it go up and like clockwork it went up by $0.30 on Tuesday.  It would be nice to be able to stock up but that is somewhat impractical.  I am going to try to get back up to Mille Lacs this weekend and maybe even take a day off and help Bill do some pre-fishing next week for his clients.  The ice was not very thick for this time of year and with the forecast in the 50's for this Friday, it feels like ice out could be pretty early this year.  With MN fishing opener on the latest day possible, May 14th, it could be very good, especially if the water temperatures get into the high 50's, low 60's.  Time will tell, that's for sure.  With the mild weather I have been working on my boat and in addition to the new Ezee Steps on my trailer, Mark from Ezze Steps made me a special step to replace the one that was on my RangerTrail, ,mounted to the winch post.  It makes it much easier to climb in and out of the boat and when I get some more time I'll post a picture.

Working For Bill

On my home from Red Lake last week we stopped at Bills to say hi.  He was pretty busy and commented how next Saturday was going to be considering the the number of fishing contests going on.  I told him that I would come up on Saturday and help him so I got up extra early and was at the shop by 7:00 AM.  Bill get's up and starts to work around 5:00 so he already had a good head start as the people began coming in.  A scoop of fats, a dozen shiners, some decoy suckers for pike.  It took me a couple of hours to get in the swing of things and the biggest problem I had was using the license machine.  I managed pretty well and by 2:00 the rush had subsided enough to take a break and help tie up some rattle reels, getting them rigged for the evening rush.  My original plan was to work till noon them head out to the lake but a late rush kept me around longer than I had planned and by the time I felt it was okay, it was getting late.  I really didn't want to spend and hour getting set up for an hour's worth of fishing so I headed home.  I am sure there will be time this weekend but again I don't like to be rushed.  I am sure Bill and Kathy appreciated the help as it got pretty crazy a couple of times. Considering the current situation on Mille Lacs, a few good days sure don't hurt!  Actually it's pretty interesting the people you met, a lot of local celebrities tend to stop in and it's kind of cool to say hi to them.  I ended up getting another 5 pounds of Bill's famous and delicious Wild Rice and headed home around 4:30.  It was a good workout but it always feels good when you can help someone out like that, not that working a bait shop is that difficult for me, actually I'm sort of a natural for it.  It definitely brings me back 45 years ago when I worked for Vic at the Mobil Station in Eleva.  Same thing, need to balance the work, figure out how to be efficient and handle the money.  I would have to admit that the best part is that I have friends that trust me enough for me to help them.  That's something you just can't buy!

Working the Booth!

Unfortunately for the most of the week starting on Monday, I have been in Anaheim, California at the MD and M (Medical Device and Manufacturing) Show at the convention center close to Disneyland. They are having record heat here, highs in the upper 80's and lower 90's, when I arrived it was 92, 117 degrees warmer than it was on the morning of January 17th on Red L
ake when it was -25.3 degrees. These people out here can not even fathom that cold.  It has been a very busy show as we are a leader in ultra fine wire winding technology and have a lots of things going on in California.   It's also a great place to touch base with our vendors who support us in those products as they are usually at the show.  One such guy is John Ness, son of an old business relationship, Dewey Ness.  It was fun to see him as we always have a lot to catch up on, how was deer hunting, how's the old man, how's life treating you!!!  Anyway I get to see him maybe 4 times a year and this is one of them, half way across the country I'll take it.  I head back to the cold on Thursday afternoon, I usually stay till Friday but there is too much to do these days, besides the fishing isn't very good in California this time of year.  Maybe head up to Mille Lacs on Saturday or Sunday to take advantage of the great walleye bit that is suppose to be happening. Also I have a couple of crappie lakes in mind that nee to be explored.

Last Trip to Red for this Winter

Paul outside the Salem

Last weekend was my 4th trip to Red this year and the latest I have ever fished Red.  Last year we got out just after Thanksgiving and fished till the middle of January however this year the ice was late and we brought our houses up after Christmas and still had to stay on shore the first trip.  Fishing slows down in January and although we did catch enough fish to have a dinner at JR's, the action was spooty at best.  Although I did catch a few fish myself I would have to say that the total for the house was less than 15 for the weekend.  This week my guest were my brother Steve and our cousin Paul Anderson, from Hudson, Wisconsin.  Paul saw my last Red Lake post and e-mailed me to let him know when we were going again so I asked him if he wanted to go and of course he did.  Paul has been to Alaska with me and we did some snowmobiling in the Snowy Range of Wyoming a few times together but never ice fishing.  Steve usually stays at mom's in Eleva the night before and heads up in the morning.  Because he goes right by Paul's place Paul had to do little but to pack and jump in the truck as I had everything else that he needed to stay out on the ice.  It was significantly warmer this weekend than 2 weeks ago when we woke up to -25 below, so it was a lot nicer.  JR had open a new road northeast of the Center Bar and both Mark and Russ were already set up, it took a long time to get out there as it had to be at least 10 miles, 6 miles to Center Bar then north almost 2 miles then off to the east another 2 miles and at 10 - 15 mph, it was almost an hour drive.   It was nice as we were pretty much off to ourselves but a I said earlier, the fishing usually slows down after New Years Day.

Biggest  this weekend

We had enough fish to enjoy a fish fry on Friday night but thing definitely slowed after Friday.  We decided to keep our fish we caught so Paul and Steve would have some to bring home and by Sunday morning we only had 6 walleyes and a few perch.  Mark Applen had a couple so he gave them to us gving us 8 fish for the trip home.  Deciding that filleting them at JR's would be easier than at home we quickly cleaned them up including this nice 19 inch walleye that I had caught the evening before.   JR really improved the cleaning area of his place, with easy to clean stainless steel counters, fillet boards and a sink, it makes it much better.  Because I have enough fish in the freezer I let Paul and steve load up on the walleye this trip as I still have plenty of fishing to do. It was interesting as we came off the ice about 10:00 AM and was greeting at the access by JR.  With the amount of vehicles coming off the ice and the heave and cracks near the access, we just got accross the last bridge when someone summoned JR, there's a problem with the first bridge as you have to go over 2 bridges to get in.  I am glad we made it over because what happens is the the weight of the moving vehicles causes a wave of water to develope in front of the vehicle, under the ice.  That wave if it hits a weak spot of crack can blow a hole in the ice and form a very dangerous situation on the ice.  this is why there is a 10 - 15 mPH speed limit on the ice, it's not thick enough to sustain a lot of traffic, especially us guys pulling houses and maintaining the integrity of the ice.  Lord knows how long it may have taken to get off the lake after the bridge blew out.  So we got our fish cleaned and headed south with my wheel house in tow.  It was nice to get it home as I needed to get a lot of things done to it, rugs washed, get it heated up in the inside and dried out, cooking pans washed, and stuff put back away where it belongs.

Fishing is reported to be good on Mille Lacs so I will probably head up this weekend.  As well my friend Bill Lundeen could use some help on Saturday because all of the fishing contests start this weekend so I am getting up early.  It should be done by 10:00 so maybe I can sneak out on the lake and fish the afternoon.  Although I don't believe people are catching anything in the tight 19 - 21 inch slot, I do know they are getting them bigger than that as well, tons of those 13 - 15 inch fish from the great year class of a couple years ago.  It should be interesting for sure.  If nothing else I am looking forward to trying some crappie fishing soon.  I am going to be in California next week till Thursday, hopefully it don't get too used to the warm weather!!!

Slow weekend

New steps to get in and out of the boat

I am kind of in between fishing weekends as the house is still at Red and it's a long way up there.  I did get my Ezee Steps for my trailer that I ordered in December.  As stated earlier my new boat is significantly larger than my old on and sits on the trailer much higher.  Therefore it's more difficult to get in and out of as easy as my last 2 boats.  One of the first times I was loading onto the trailer I jumped out of the boat onto the provided trailer step and fell backwards off the trailer as though I was about to make a snow angel somewhere.  Luckily I ended in the water instead of on the hard landing and other than wet, I was no worse for the wear.  Still it bothered me.  After reading a number of post on the walleye forums I decided that Ezee Step was the way to go and I ordered a set.  Mark, owner of Ezee Step was very helpful and the warm weather allowed me to bolt them on the trailer this weekend, they work great!  He actually called me on Monday to make sure everything went well! The middle step is the one that came on the trailer and is the one I slipped off from. Mark wants to make me a step to replace it that even out the distance between the steps, which makes sense.  Although I didn't slip after the first time, I am not getting any younger and making sure I am safe is a good thing these days.  It was money well spent, better than a broken hip or a busted head! They were not to difficult to install and Mark is going to make a modification for the middle step, (the one that came with the trailer)  to make it even easier to enter and exit the boat in complete safety.  I am always impress by a good product and good customer service, definitely these fit that description. Working on the boat just get's me excited for the ice to go out and Minnesota Opener to get started.  Leech lake has had a lot of interesting new lately and because opener is as late in May as it can be this year (May 14th) it should be a good one! Unfortunately I will have to wait another 3 1/2 months but the way time is flying, that isn't that long!

Mark's Peacock Bass in Panama

My good friend Mark Applen is down in Panama for work and I have been pushing him to do some fishing down there.  Apparently he found someone to take him Peacock Bass fishing and he sent me a picture. Granted, it's not one that will top 6 - 7 pounds but what the heck, it's a fish he's never caught before!!! They are really a pretty fish and often time they look like a yellow perch caught on Mille Lacs but this was the spotted variety. You can see the classic black spot on the tail which helps it to avoid predators.  I am not sure where Mark is fishing other than Panama, but he is coming home later this week and we are going to Red Lake this weekend so I will expect a full and detailed report!!I only wish I was down there with him as I know he reported a temperature of 92 one day, much better than the -25 I experienced a couple of weeks ago!  Either way it's a new fishing adventure, those are the best kind!!  So this weekend my brother Steve will be picking up my cousin Paul Anderson in Hudson and we are going to Red on Friday.  This will probably be my last trip to Red Lake this year as I plan on towing my house back home on Sunday. My travel schedule for February makes it difficult to get back up there and of course the fishing seems to start slowing down after January.  Fishing reports on Mille Lacs have been good so maybe I will try that for a weekend.  Also Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza is at the end of February and Mark, Russ and the crew always go to that.  As well, I really would like to try some good old crappie fishing yet this year.   It can be difficult when you feel that you have to go to Red because your house is there.   Oh well, no complaining!  Our friend Russ will be going on Thursday night and hopefully he'll have everything scouted out while Mark is leaving at noon so we'll be right in front of him.

Fishing in the Deep Freeze

Sunday morning Temperature -25.3F  Brrrrr.

Well, I went to Red lake last weekend for my third trip of the year and definitely the coldest trip I had been on and certainly it wasn't without it's problems.  My guests were my brother Steve and good friend Keith Holtan.  Steve drove up from LaCrosse, WI and we had to pick Keith up at his winter home in Brainerd.  Leaving about 9:30 we headed up and stopped at Bills to pick up some wild rice for JR and some minnows, plus I always like to stop and say hi.  The plan was to call Keith from Garrison however my cell phone decided to quit working about then and I got 1 last call in as we approached Brainerd. Luckily Keith was ready and it didn't take but 5 minutes and we were off to JR's.  Heading up highway 371 we went through Walker and stopped at Reeds where Keith's friend worked.  I found a nice shirt, we headed out towards Cass lake and the shortcut to Blackduck.  From there we headed up Hwy 72 and arrived at JR's about 2:00.  Hooking up the Salem we pulled it up to the access and had them fill our empty 30# propane tank.   With below zero weather scheduled we didn't want to run out of heat.   The other problem is that as stated earlier, my phone wasn't working and Russ was already set up and I had planned on fishing by him.  Luckily my brother Steve's phone worked and although I didn't have Russ's number, I had forwarded him a text from Russ and we were able to call him. He was out about 4 miles so we headed out.  We got about 3 miles out when we heard a big clunk as I looked back and saw the wheels on the Salem locked up.  Here the receiver hitch had completely pulled out of the hitch, apparently when I had Keith insert the hitch pin the hitch was not inserted all the way and the pin sat behind instead of through the hitch.   I was surprised that it lasted this far and thought that it would have pulled out right away.  The fact that it has quite a bit of tongue weight probably answers that but eventually we got everything hooked up and back on the ice road towards Russ's.  Also my friend Andy Achmann and his brother Pete were coming up so I remember my friend Jack's phone number and we left a message from Steve's phone to text us Andy's number, which he did.

My first Walleye of the Trip!

That worked perfect as Any and Pete came up on Saturday however had to replace a leaf spring on Andy's Ice Castle and that took about 5 hours in -6F weather.   When we got to where we wanted to set up out little incident a mile ago was evident as there was stuff scattered all over the inside as the inside doors opened up and spilled the contents. As I drilled the holes, Steve and Keith started jacking up the house to pull the pins on the axles.  With 3 guys, setup works pretty good and fast as I barked orders!  Once set up we touched base with Russ and Mike who was set up in the morning, the bite was going pretty good for them.  The plan was to see if we could get enough fish for us and go in and have a fish dinner.  The fish cooperated as we got 4 pretty fast including the nice on pictured here.  This fish basically inhaled my spoon tipped with a minnow head.  It was about 17 inches, perfect for eating.  We definitely got enough fish to eat as we only needed about 2 walleyes per guy and headed in at around 6:30, cleaned the fish and turned them in.  Along with Russ's infamous horseradish flavored tarter sauce, it's all we needed and ate fresh walleye on Friday night.  Getting a good nights sleep we got up to a good bite and by 1;30 in the afternoon we were ready to go in so we could eat and get back for the sundown bite and watch the Packer game.   Andy and Pete got their spring fixed and ended up setting up about 75 yards from me, which was good.  They came over to watch the game and have a few and talk about their struggles with the spring.  I know that year ice castles had spring issues and I'm glad they got it fixed.  The problem is that Saturday night thru Sunday morning was supposed to be cold, REAL cold, in fact at 7:30 game time the temperature outside the ice house was -15F.  As you see in the first picture, it got down to -24.3 F and my Honda Generator didn't like it.  It kept stopping after about 30 minutes of running in the cold, I'm sure the carb was icing up.  I wasn't sure what to do other than go out and restart it.  almost everything runs off my 12 volt battery and we were safe inside but it made me nervous not having backup power.  It stayed warm in the house but I still didn't sleep very well and got up at 4:00 AM and went outside and started my truck.   Steve got up about 6:00 and shut it off and by 8:00 it would turn over but not start, I had to get Andy to jump me.  I am sure that the battery voltage was too low and it was probably a little flooded.  We finally got it started, put the Salem back at JR's and headed south to drop Keith off and of course Steve had another 4 hours of driving.

Upon arriving at home I started researching how to keep the generator running in cold weather and found a couple of things, a cold weather kit that heats up the breather tube to prevent icing, also it was suggested that I cover it with a blanket to do the same thing.  I do plan on heading up the last weekend in January to fish and will probably pull the Salem home.  I would like to fish more on Red however it is 250 miles from Dayton and one almost has to take a day off to fully experience everything.

Opps

Well, I quickly rewrote the introduction to this post, I was suppose to post it last week however I just got too busy!

Frankie's new showroom!!

Last weekend was a reprieve from ice fishing as my boat dealer Frankies Marine had their open house on Saturday.  Frankie is a long time dealer in Chisago City with a lot of outdoor storage but little in the line of indoor show rooms so he built a new building that houses his new indoor heated show room as well as sales offices.  It is very nice!  Since most boats are ordered in January through March time frame and the main shows are in January it only makes sense.  Planning on spending at least and hour milling around Lyn and I stopped there around noon on Saturday, with the plans to heas to our friend Jessica's to have her give me a haircut.  We spend about an hour at Frankies and met the usual people that I enjoy talking to, Frankie's wife Deb and his son Joe.  They had a Ranger 620FS in the show room with a front stand up pedestal and seat which looked very nice so I asked them to order me one.  It nice because all they have to do is look up my Ranger serial number and can order a matching seat right from the historical build information.  I really like Frankie's because I can just ask them to do this for me and because they know me, they can order it on my word, which is good enough and I will pay them when it gets in.  I really enjoy that kind of relationship with businesses as I like it when you can be trusted.  I spent over an hour there and the highlight was spending some time with Debbie and Joe and talking to Larry Dahlberg, star of Hunt for Big Fish.  Also there was Dennis Anderson, outdoor writer for the Star Tribune.  A couple of observations, Dennis was taller than I though and Larry was shorter than I thought, oh well, it was a pleasure meeting them both!!

The cold weather has really put a damper on things as it's tough to get outside after work and get things done.  My plans for the rest of the week is to head down to the St. Paul Sportsman Show on Thursday then up to Red this weekend with m brother Steve and maybe Keith Holtan.  The weather isn't looking too warm but at least it's making ice!  I will probably leave my house at JR's till the end of January and pull it back then as I hear the fishing on Mille Lacs is picking up, which would be nice.  I have to travel to California on February 8th and will also go back there in the middle of March, hoping the guys can get a fishing trip scheduled for then!

Back to Red!

Our 6 walleyes for Lunch on Saturday

My friend Mark Applen decided to go with me up to Red last Friday so we headed up at 9:00 in the morning on friday and got to JR's Corner Access by 1:30.  Ice conditions have been changing on Red and although we were not allowed to pull our own houses out, JR promised he would take care of that so upon arriving we just got in line.  30 minutes later JR came in and stated that he was backed up to my house and to go hook it up!  The house has electric jacks to lift everything, which is really nice.  I put a master battery switch inside the house to shut all the power off so nobody can mess with them when I'm gone so I had to unlock my house and turn on the power in order to set the house onto his trailer hitch.  Although JR was in charge of pulling out the house, he allowed us to follow in my truck figuring we could pull it back off on Sunday.   It was nice to have that option as I have lot's of stuff for the house including my generator, food, clothes and it is sure better to not have to pull everything out with the ATV and sled that we brought up, just in case!   Mark wanted to go where he was just before Christmas and our friend Russ was parked there along with his brother.  So JR though we were in an unusual spot but come to find out it wasn't that bad.  We dropped the house on the ice in 14 feet of water, just off a rock reef and drilled through about 12 inches of ice.  it was about 3:00 by the time we got fully set up and I suppose I got my first walleye of the season by 5:00.  It was about 16.5 inches, on of the middle 2 in the picture and we were in bed by 10:00.  I have DirecTV in the ice house so we watched a number of stuff as the rattle reels kept going off, all the way till around 2:00AM before they stopped.  Mark did most of the catching and I would say we got 3 of our 6 fish limit and missed probably at least 4 walleyes before we were able to get some sleep.  By morning the wind had switched out of the northwest and the bite really shut down.

19.5 inch walleye.

We were able to bring our fish is along with Russ and have a fish dinner at JR's.  He had a couple so 8 walleyes between 6 guys, we were stuffed by the time we left.  It takes about 3 - 4 hours to complete the meal process, about an hour to ge
t in line to clean the fish and another at least 2 hours before your fish are done (at 3:00 in the afternoon).  Mark got a couple of nice walleyes as the limit on Red this year is 3 which only 1 can be over 17 inches.  We got 2 over 19 including this beautiful 19.5 inch fish.  I have to admit that we had a lot of fish to eat for sure and left JR's pretty full of walleyes, french fries, and .2 beer!  By the time we got back to the shack  it was around 4:30 and settled it felt like bed time and it was only 7:00 but that fishing takes a toll on a guy! Out by 8:00 both Mark and I had enough fun for the day.  The change in the weather really turned the fish off and we didn't get another fish the rest of the trip.  I marked them on my Vexilar but they just were't interested.  JR said it was OK if we pulled our own house off and by 8:30 Sunday morning we were ready to go.  Back at JR's we park the Salem and headed south for the 250 mile drive back home.  Admittedly it doesn't go too bad, a few gas stops and some breakfast and we were home by 1:30.    In time to put everything away and get ready for the Packer Viking game.  Uffda!!

Home Sweet Home on Red!

Anyway with below zero temperatures forecasted for Red Lake this weekend, it should finally start making some decent ice.  There is really only about 2 good weekends to go back up, the weekend of the 16th and the 30th, then my travel shedule kicks in as I have a show in February and March in California. We are trying to arrange a fishing trip for the March trip, the weekend before our conference but there's a lot of undecided locations as March fishing in California isn't that hot. Personally I don't care as I am more interested in trying something different as opposed to catching a ton of fish. The usual crowd is getting together, Joe Stanfield, Mike Schubert, Matt Davis, Jim Cox and maybe a few others. I thought I would include a picture of my house set up on Red.  I like to fly my flags and the pole has a Green blinking LED light, the flags make it easy to spot my house among the many houses and the light assists at night.  Either way when my friends come by it is easy for them to identify which house is mine!  Home Sweet Home, we have all the amenities a guy needs, food, Whiskey, a place to sleep and a TV.  By January 16th we should be able to drive wherever we want! A lot of my friends have been asking how well I am doing and to be honest not too bad.  I get tired easily but as far as my doctors go, they report that there seems to be nothing wrong with me (I'm sure some of you would argue!), which seems like good news but in reality they don't know what to treat.  Oh well, I have a number of upcoming appointments that should help answer a number of questions.  Either way I am trying to get more exercise by walking a mile every night.  Hopefully that will help my situation.

Merry Christmas....

From Matt, my friend and fishing buddy!

With Christmas falling on a Friday and the ice conditions still iffy in northern Minnesota, I decided to go to my Mom's Christmas Eve and our niece wanted to get together on Saturday to see her as it's been a while and she has 2 beautiful kids, Kaylee and Zack, it gave us a chance to run back down to Eleva and see Kevin who like clockwork had Lefse for Lyn and I, his Christmas gift to us (The best ever).  We did watch the Packer/Arizona game at his house, not a very good game but it's tough to lose any sleep over it.  In the meantime my friend Mark went back up to Red Lake on Saturday and is expected to come home on Wednesday night, in time for New Years.  I have been coughing terribly and  maybe will wait to Friday to go back up to Red, we will have to see who wants to go with me. I did call Mark on Tuesday morning and he claims that they are making ice fast with at least 11 inches and the fishing has been good.   Certainly am getting anxious to go!  I did decide to come into work today (Tuesday Dec 29th) and to my surprise my friend and fishing buddy Matt Davis sent me a Christmas Present, a commemorative bottle of my favorite whiskey in the world TX number 2713,  along with some glasses for my ice house, a hat, T Shirt that says basically Texas Made.  WOW do I have good friends or what!!! first Lefsa and now TX.  I am not sure a guy could ask for anything more for Christmas, that's for sure!!!  Just having friends like Matt Davis, or Joe Stanfield is more than anyone could wish for or want! I am going to get them both up ice fishing some day, as I know they'll never experience this kind of fishing in Texas.  Although I enjoyed Red fishing in March much better in Louisiana than sitting on the cold ice, you have to play the cards your dealt and having the Salem Ice Cabin stocked with TX is almost as good!

Ezee Steps on a Ranger

This week I ordered my Ezee steps for my Ranger Boat.  This new boat I have is quite a bit larger than my old 620T and takes more finesse to get it properly loaded onto the trailer.   It is too heavy to simply pull up that last 4 inches and you have to make sure you drive it on until it hits the front bow support.  Then it takes some acrobatics to get off the bow and onto the trailer to hook the winch rope and snugg it up while there is still some floating going on.  Well Last July I loaded the boat then went over the bow onto the step that is on the winch post but somehow slipped and fell back first onto the ramp.  Luckily I fell towards the water side and hit a foot of water to break my fall instead of breaking my back.  It spooked me and made me much more careful however I ran across these Ezee steps and after looking at the videos and testimonials I decided that I'm not gettting any younger and ordered a set.  It was quite the ordeal for sure as the owner of Ezee Steps, Mark actually called me to make sure I got all the right dimensions needed for a proper fit.  He was really thorough and impressed me. Because of the fact that the water will be hard for at least 3 more months I told him I wasn't in any particular hurry but he insisted that I would have them by February.  Getting old isn't so bad if you have the right stuff!  These should really help getting in and out of the boat safely.

My friend Mark is at Red Lake and claims he has been doing really good.  Today he decided to go trout fishing on the Red Lake Reservation on a guided trip.  I am anxious to see how that goes as he wants the trout for pickling.  Mark makes by far the best home made pickled fish I have ever had and I gave him some trout that Bill and I had gotten this fall to pickle and boy, did they turn out fabulous!!  Anyway he said that he might be willing to go with me to Red Lake on Friday, which sounded great.  He will be home on Wednesday and we should have everything resolved by then as I am getting anxious to get out.  Apparently you still can't drive on Red Lake but JR claims to be ready to take care of us!

First trip to Red

 

View from my Chair in my portable 1 man

Working with my friend Mark who along with Russ brought their houses up to Red Lake last weekend and stored them at JR's while walking out to their fishing spots, we decided to head up on Friday, I'd drag my Salem up there, called my friend from Chippewa Falls, WI, Paul Wenaas and brother Steve from the La Crosse, Paul brought his ATV, we arrived at JR's about noon.  Russ was a champ and he and his dog Shadow rode up with me as I have had some medical issues a few weeks ago and my wife wanted someone to be with me, while Mark drove up himself.  Arriving at JR's I got my Salem house parked and got ready to head out pulling our portable fish shacks.  It was interesting as a large crack of about 50 feet opened up about 1/2 mile from shore and we were forced to fish in 8.5 feet of water whereas it would have been preferred to be in around 11 - 12 feet yet fishing till dark it was too dangerous to be wondering around in the dark. Mark and Russ was fishing close to me however I didn't have much luck, not even a perch!  Because JR'a or any resort for that matter was not allowing ATV traffic until the hazards were marked and the bridges over the cracks were in place, we walked out.  In the meantime Mark and Russ had caught some fish, while I was skunked. Between them and Steve and Paul we had enough fish to fry them up at JR's and a pizza filled us up pretty well.

 It was interesting as you can see in the picture, the ice was about 7 inches thick on Saturday and it might be ready to pull the houses out in another week.  In the meantime it was pretty cozy however I did go through 3 1#bottles of propane it wasn't too bad.  Also my Skinny Dipper I bought at the Blaine Ice Show got burnt so I had to order another one as they are pretty nice to have.  Saturday was nicer than Friday as the wind had switched from out of the west on Friday to out of the south on Saturday.  Saturday we were allowed to drive our ATV out and 7 inches of ice was plenty for that provided we drove slow still it was a slow weekend for me regarding fishing.  I think I had one bite, that was it! and it was on the rattle reel to the left (you can only see the line going down into the hole).  I marked plenty of fish but they didn't seem to like what I presented them with, who knows.  It still was fun!!!

JR's Corner Access (That's russ in the lower right corner!)

JR's Corrner Access is a great place to ice fish.  This year he redid the back cleaning area to accomodate more bench space for cleaning fish, took out the pool table and added a couple of new tables to seat more people.  It's simply a heated pole shed, I feel just like home there!  He just sells beer and Set ups so you can BYOB (Bring your own bottle) of whatever and buy a glass of ice or they cook our fish up for $5.00 a guy, served with a heaping pile of french fries what more can on ask! JR is from St. Joseph, MN just west of St. Cloud and is a great guy.  He treats both Mark and I like special guest everytime we arrive.  He loves my friend Bill Lundeen's wild rice so we brought him up 10 pounds of it this weekend, along with a quart of my fresh homemade salsa and I gave him a salmon fillet from my friend Kieth Holtan.  I was a nic wild run sockeye salmon fillet and Keith has met JR before and I am sure he wouldn't mind.  As well my friend Paul is going up to Alaska next year and I suggested he get in touch with Kieth for a great time.  JR really watches what he eats and is always appreciative of home grown food and naturally harvested stuff.  There are a lot of great people in JR's, met the guy I bought a custom crappie rod at the Blaine Ice Show, so that was nice.   Actually one of the bartenders up there is the grandson of one of our Team ENA members so we had a great time with him.  Mark and Russ are huge in playing FARKLE so on Saturday night after a hard day of fishing we had JR cook our fish and sat down for a couple of games of Farkle before hitting the sack which was good after a long walk and a good day of fishing.  A longwalk because we didn't leave the ice till after dark and Paul was driving the ATV and was naturally nervous about where he was going! Either way I can't wait to get back up to Red with my brother Steve and my friends from Sconnie and am looking forward to maybe heading up next Monday.  I am anxious to catch my first walleye of the season.

This waiting for ice is Killing me!

Mark's Red Lake catch

Well my friend Mark made it to Red Lake last friday and it turned out to be quite an adventure.  I would have gone with him however I had some tests scheduled, I get to that later.  Mark left Thursday night an ended up staying in Deer River in his wheel house because of the weather and arrived at JR's Friday morning.  The first thing he did was bury his wheel house in the mud, enough to have to be pulled out by a cat.  Uffda, that didn't sound like fun.  He did do pretty well although they were relegated to walking out on the ice as it wasn't safe enough to drive.  They walked out about a mile and really got into them, here is Mark, Russ, and Randy's supper for Saturday night.  Apparently the ice was 6 inches thick and where they drilled they caught fish. Back at JR's they had them for supper and came home on Sunday.  Both Mark, I, my brother Steve and a friend from Chippewa Falls are heading up on Friday, I talked to JR and they should be allowing ATV's to run on the ice, much nicer traveling although we still need to stay on shore.  I am looking forward to getting out on the ice, normally by December 1 Red Lake is frozen enough to drive on but not this year.  Oh well haven't shovelled any snow yet either so it isn't all bad.  Mark was using his Electric Auger with a quick coupler I had got him unfortunately the coupler came uncoupled and the entire auger drill when right down the hole to the bottom.  I rigged a powerful magnet to see if we can find and retrieve it, that would be real sweet if it happens.  I am looking forward to a fresh walleye dinner at JR's soon as he really does fish nice.  Go catch them and bring them into his bar/restaurant to clean them, give them to him and for $5 a person he will deep fry them for you.  With a boxful of french fries, you can't go wrong! Hopefully I'll have better stories about me fishing next week than having to rely on my other experiences or someone else's fishing adventures!

An 8 inch needle into my spinal cord

As stated Friday was test day for me and I had a TEE (trans esophageal echo) which is an echo cardiogram taken from down your throat and then at 2:00 I had a Lumbar puncture which they use to refer it as a spinal tap.  Either way neither was too much fun although they put you under before the shove this huge probe down your throat, and the spinal tap...........well just say that I'm no looking forward to any more of those!  Uffda!  The worse thing was the novacaine that they injected into my spine before the put the 8 inch needle in. As my title indicates, waiting for fishable ice is still more painful but this came close!  I got the test results and they don't look too bad. Admittedly my doctors have been pretty good although one made a referral for me and they called me notifying me of an appointment they set up for me, Oct 18th.  I asked what year? They didn't think that was too funny however I didn't think the earliest one could get in was in 10 months, too funny either!  I would like to thank everyone who has sent their well wishes and of course all of the prayer's that my friends have said for me, it's truly appreciated.  I am doing really well and I have great care between my wife, doctors, and friends plus I have a  lot of fishing to do yet, two months of ice fishing,  I just got the invitation to Leech Lake for Minnesota opener and we are already talking about Canadian opener at Lac Suel as well a trip next December fishing grouper in Naples Florida. Geez, I am just learning how to fish out of my new boat!  Oh well, I am lucky to have such a great support system.  Here's hoping we get some fish.

Patience is a Virtue!!

Himilayan salt lamp

Well our latest El Nino is doing exactly what it was predicted to do, give the upper midwest a mild winter.  They weren't kidding, with daily high temperatures for Red Lake predicted in the 30's and lows in the upper teens, that's hardly enough to make ice very fast.  It's suppose to cool down next week so it may be possible to bring my house up next Friday and walk from shore, we'll see.  My friend Mark Applen is bringing his house up to JR's this friday and it will be good to get a report from him.  So as time ticks away I have a couple of things that I have been doing, one is improving the little things in the Salem Ice Cabin, like taking off the pads off the axle jacks and having them redone, sand blasted and re-powder coated as they were pretty rustyfrom the road salt.  I added mudflaps to my fenders this year to help reduce the salt that flies up off the road.  Will this help the fish bite better? no, but stuff like that drives me crazy.  Another thing I bought for the Ice Cabin is a himalayan salt lamp  if you click on the link it will tell you all the benefits that these lamps are suppose to do.  hopefully it will help our fishing somewhat and if nothing else it's a good s conversation piece.   it's interesting I got it from Amazon and I thought I would buy one for my friend Mark Applen who has the same Salem Ice Cabin that I have. Can you imagine if and when we have our houses close together, you'll never stop us from hauling in the walleyes!!! next thing you know I'll be giving yoga lessons on the ice........NOT!!!

HDS 9 and 12 on my dash

So my other project is to add a third depth finder to my new boat.  My previous boat had a Lowrance HDS 7 Gen 2 touch on the front deck mounted with a RAM mount so I could easily move it from my Ranger to my Jon Boat for fishing the river.  This year I sold the HDS 7 to Bruce and my front depthfinder on my new Ranger is built in and not easily removeable.  Therefore after selling it to Bruce I didn't have anything for the river.  Last month I upgraded with my friend Bill and got a newer HDS 12 Gen 3 which is for the back, and a HDS 9 Gen 3 which I already thought about running a second one on the console, one that can be removed and moved over to the jon boat.  I got a Johnny Ray mount which works great, is low profile and it is easily transferred with a simple push of a button.  After talking to the Lowrance guy at Cabela's on Black Friday he help me with the possible configurations and iit was as I planned, the HDS 9 will used primarily for GPS and charting including the interface with my Mototguide trolling motor and the HDS 12 will be used to run both standard sonar plus downscan/sidescan.  We talked a lot about searching for fish and I am going to spend alot of time this year learning this skill!  The big plus is I'll have my unit back for my Jon Boat.  My single biggest fear is that Bruce who is now really used to using my old HDS 7 will now what to upgrade to the 9!!  Oh well, the nice thing is that all of these units are networked together and work in unison to really give almost too much options for me to learn, yet when I do, watch out the BS will be simply a flowing!  I am very lucky to understand all of the connection requirements, how to hook up the NEMA 200 networks and how to connect the ethernet cables between the units.  It can been fairly complicated for sure.

This picture says it all

Maybe this week I can head up to the Alexandria area and find a lake I can walk out to get crappies.
Something to scratch this itch that has been bugging me since Thanksgiving.  First ice is always good for big crappies and sunfish and maybe I can fnd some!  my friend Keith sent me a picture of the state of ice fishing in Minnesota about now.  Those who ice fish will understand!  If you don't that's OK.

In Orlando

Sunrise on a 737

I am in Orlando at out fall TTA meeting at  the Hard Rock Hotel at Univesal Studios.  I flew in on Wednesday morning, had to get up at 4:00AM and  catch a 7:00 flight and fortunately I got my first class  upgrade and picked a seat on the left side of the airplane knowing I have to fly down the Mississippi River near my home town of Eleva, therefore I love being able to visualize this area from the air.  Unfortunately it was cloudy right away, once we hit 10,00 feet and all I got to see was the cloud cover and did get an opening around fountain City, otherwise the only interesting thing wa to watch the sunrise over a cloud covered Wisconsin.  I arrive in Orlando at about 11;30 Easten Stanmdard time and headed to the Hard Rock hotel at Universal Studio's.  Coming into Orlando Airport there is a considerable amount of small lakes and canals we have already made interconnecting those lakes and I noticed a lot of boats traveling between these lakes , I am sure most are fishing bass.  Normally when I am in an area like this I try to arrange a fishing trip and my friends who have vacation homes in the area are going however I need to be back for the weekend, to attend the ice fishing show in St. Paul and I have a Taylor family event on Sunday that I need to attend. One friend, Tim Smith has a house and a boat in Naples Florida and I am invited to join them for Grouper fishing this weekend, we have decided to come back to this area for our meeting next year and have already made significant commitments for fishing next year.  Besides I am getting anxious to go ice fishing and trying to take it easy after my situation of 3 weeks ago.  The forecast for ice hasn't been very good but it's bound to get colder!  the highlight of my trip was to see everyone in my industry as well we did catch a preformance of the Blue Man Group which was very good.

Heather and Jared with her nice 10 pointer

My wife and I did get back to Wisconsin to see her Uncle Bernie and my At Bernie and Nellie's we had a nice meal including Bearmeat from the bear Bernie shot with his bow a few weeks ago near his farm South of Eleva.  It was excellent as I don't recall having bear perpared like this. What we had was ground bear mixd with mustard seed, it was amazingly good.  Thank goodness They shared some and we brought home a few pounds of ground bear meat.  We also stopped at Ben Aiona's house to visit with him and hopefully see my friend Kevin.  I suspect they were out deer hunting but Ben and his wife, Heather was there, they were canning venison.  Ben had sent me a picture of his wife's 10 point Buck she shot on Saturday, Wisconsin deer opener.  It was very nice. Ben shared some venison with us, I cetainly had enough for the coming year with the nice doe we tagged 4 weeks ago, the bear meat we got from Bernie and the extra meat from Ben.  A stop up to Lyn's uncle Andrew resulted in a few more packages of venison and we should be set.

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My friend Rick

One of the things we got to do while at mom's was to visit with a old friend and classmate of mine Rick Semingson. Rick went to college and onto working for the National Forest Service in North Carolina and settled in a town called Mycaysville, Georgia.  Rick's dad Dunk and my dad were best of friends so it was natural that we hung together in school.  Rick and I graduated in the top ten of our class and we both agree that he was probably number 6 or 7 and I was number 7 or 8.  We definitely have different hobbies however when we were in high school definitely drinking Walter's Beer was something we both enjoyed.  Beyond that we stay good friends even though we don't get to see each other very often.  One time, maybe 15 years ago I had a conference in Charlotte North Carolina and Rick picked me up at the Atlanta airport and we spent the weekend together, it was nice traveling through the area, up around his house, up over the blue ridge mountains and down into Charlotte.  It was a trip I'll never forget and one I'd love to return and visit again. I went to the St. Paul Ice fishing show on Saturday with Mark Applen and Lory Brasel and met a few other friends down there, I did buy a few things and had an opportunity to talk to the resorts on both Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods, and Red Lake an it probably will no be until after  Christmas before we get out with the wheel house and maybe next week we can find a smaller lake to try for some crappies.

Better Weekend

Shotgun Red and Steve Hall

Well, anything would be better than last Sunday's outcome so i am happy to report a pretty calm weekend which included going to the Ice Fishing Show at the National Sportscenter in Blaine on Saturday with my neighbor Lory Brasel, he is really helping to take care of me!  The show was pretty good, I bought 4 things there, the most interesting thing was a Skinny Dipper for my Ice house, and new Crappie ice rod from a real nice guy that was making them himself, a new knife and a LED flashlight, I am a sucker for those things.    The guy selling the Skinney Dipper was Steve Hall, a name from the past for sure.  Steve is the creator of Shotgun Red a well know puppet on the Nashville scene and was a star on TNN, The Nashville Network and appeared on Ralph Emery's show often. It was interesting to see him selling his invention, the Skinny Dipper at the show and we quickly talked about our connection back in the early 1980's when I hunted the Skime Minnesota area with my friends Ron Edberg, Mark Mayerich, Gary Ullom, Mark and Jack Taylor. We hunted public land as well Ron had secured permission to hunt an additional 3000 acres of land adjoining the public land, it was quite interesting.  Steve Hall used to hunt the same land and would stay at a local farm, Marvin Olsen, who like a lot of locals believed he controlled the land next to his as we had a few run in's with him.  Steve ended up buying 1000 acres of our prime hunting area, even though we hunted the south side of his land and he gave us permission the first year, Marvin didn't see it that way and when he burst into out cabin in Skime and threatened to shoot us if he saw us on Steve's land again. we decided it was best to stop hunting that area.  At the show Steve and I talked about the good ol'days, and it was interesting to compare notes.  He has long since sold that land and I often wondered what happened. He continues to sell the Skinny Dipper and a bought a Green Bay Packer colored one but he did have Viking colored ones here is a link to getting them skinny Dipper It looks pretty handy and i have already put it in my ice house, it looks really good and should be a great addition to my ice house. I also bought a custom made ice rod for crappies.  Last year a bought a TURC (Tuned Up Custom Rods) and it broke right away.  This one looks alot better and I got a Black Betty 6061 reel to go with it.

Steve's nice 8 pointer

Sunday was the first Packer Viking game of the season and it comes after Green Bay  had suffered 3 consecutive losses including 1 to Detroit last weekend..uffda.  Well I didn't know if my heart and brain could take another loss but the Pack came out okay with a 30-13 win over the hapless Vikings!During the game my brother Steve texted me this picture of a nice 8 point buck that he shot his last weekend, Saturday was the start of Wisconsin deer hunting season.  I call him yesterday to see if he needed any help but in true Anderson Fashion he said no, he was doing just fine! I told him what he told me, take 3#'s of bacon and grind it with 10#'s of venison however he gave credit where that recipe came from. our dad!  Makes sense now and I am glad he told me There are a lot of deer hunting stories around and I can use them for fillers in the coming weeks seeing that ice fishing could be a little behind.  Way to go Steve!!!  Speaking of ice fishing it's time this weekend to get out my portables and get my equipment ready. Lory and I rigged a couple of nice crappie rods, the one I bought at the show, and this year I went with 2# test line, I really like how you can see the line react to a light bit, it takes some gettintg used to, like my buddy Kevin Aiona, he really has that knack.  Since last Sunday I have been taking it easy and no getting too much done around the house. That is going to have to change soon as my schedule get's pretty hectic the next few weeks, with Thanksgiving coming up, doctors appointment on the 1st,  a trip to Orlando on the 2nd, Ice fishing show on the 5th, Christmas party on the 6th with the Taylors....no rest for the wicked that's for sure!
oh well, I did get some what they call 303 aerospace vinyl protectant for my Ranger Boat cover, they are expensive and it really pays to put it onthe boat when I travel, I get at least 2mpg better so I found something that would help to perserve it better.

Thanksgiving is this week and I wish everyone of my followers a wonderful thansgiving, I personally have a lot to be thankful, my friends who take care of me, my family, my wife, my health (it's still pretty good!) qg=hich wasn't much affected by my stroke from last week,  my fishing partners Keith, Jeff, Bruce, Mark, Pete, and Bill. Please take some time to look around and appreciate that which you should be thankful for!!! Ok, enough, let hope next week we will be thankful for some cold weather and some good old fashion ice making we need about 3 inches for me to be comfortable!  I need to try out that new rod!

Tough Weekend

Pay Attention

Last weekend was sort of a tough one, however unlike the well deserved hard time Jeff gave me, no I didn't have a stroke to generate a topic this week because the ice fishing hasn't come through yet! That's correct, I suffered a stroke on Sunday, was in the hospital until Wednesday and I am just getting things back to normal!  Strkes scare the crap out of me, my grandpa Roy had a sroke at my age and it completeley disabled him, enough to know that IT'S SOMETHING I had dreaded.  Now 50 years later I am faced with the same.  I noticed something was wrong when I was cleaning out the pole shed to put the boat away for the winter and get out my ice fishing stuff.  I sat down to take a small rest then got up and promptly feel tight down on the floor.  No being able to get up I crawled around back to my chair and was able to get up and sit back down.  resting a bit I got on my lawmn mower to head to Tim's house to catch the rest of the game, he finally brought me home in his van when my wife took on look at me and we both verified i had not been drinking on bit, she got me in the car and we headed to the nearest emergency room at Mercy hospital where they promptly and wisely started treating me as a stroke victim and there's where I stayed until Wednesday night.  It could have been a lot worse and I certainly am high risk for a repeat performance even with the different blood thinners and anti clotting drugs I am now on.  Everyone says take it easy but often that's easier said than done. What I really need to do is drop a few pounds  and get some exercise.  That's the same thing I did in 2010 when I had my open heart surgery, I actually got down to 200 pounds, I looked as good as my brother Steve.   Anyway I have a lot of work to do.

Ice fishing Show coupon

It's been pretty slim on the ice fishing side, there is no hard water yet in the state.  I still need to get my ice fishing gear out and maybe with the help of my neighbors they can assist me in at least getting it out in the open so I can start to get rigged up.  The St. Paul Ice fishing show is December 4,5 and 6yh and is one of my favorites.  there is always something to look at and buy at the show and I am sure I can find something this year.  I have included a coupon that you should be able to print and use if your cheap like me and want to save a buck!  i have most everything I need and tend to look for the latest and greatest gadgets especially for my Salem Ice Cabin, maybe look at new panfish poles, or hopefully there might be some new reels coming out that are a little better than the existing ones out there today, we'll see.

Anyway thanks to everyone who offered well wishes to me in the last few days.  Hopefully things work out well and the hard water is upon us soon!!!

Deer Hunting and Stuff

Sunrise on the Stand

Last weekend was the 2015 Minnesota Deer Hunting opener.  Since 1979 I have been deer hunting with my friend Jack Taylor and the last 12 years we have hunted around his cabin on Platte Lake, which there are a few posts if you go back in the history.  Although it gets more difficult every year to get oneself out to hunt, I enjoy the comradery of getting together at  Rich's old place and hanging with the boys and this year was no different.  Brett now owns the property and there is no one that makes us feel any more welcome than he does, excluding Rich of course. As it has been for all the years I have hunted, the swamp you have to maneuver across isn't any drier now that is ever has been. Unfortunately my ability to trudge across isn't any better.  The last few years Jack and I have hunted his neighbor at the lake Loren's land, 80 acres about 10 miles down the road. It's not a bad place to hunt however it is quite surrounded by hunters, especially the neighbors that post right on his property lines to take advantage of  his open fields.  Last year he found a gut pile in his field, not that it was much of a problem but the slob left his cleaning gloves and other garbage that the coyotes don't eat on the pile.  Some people are pretty stupid.  This year I set up a tree stand on one of the corners of the field looking east.  In years past I would go up anywhere from 16 to 18 feet however I have gotten wiser in my old age and only put up 12 feet of ladder and reduced my height by half, although I am not sure falling 8 feet would be any less painful these days.  Part of the lure of

Deer Camp Deer

deer hunting is actually experiencing the outdoors at it's finest.  Looking east I could watch the sunrise each morning from my stand and it was quite a show.  If you click on the picture it should enlarge and you can see the beautiful alignment of the Moon, Venus, with Mars and Jupiter (not visible on the picture)  all in a straight line at a 45 degrees.  Except for the occasional mufflerless pickup truck roaring by the show was well worth getting up at 5:00 for.  Jack and his son Ben were in his ground blind about 200 yards from me and for both Saturday and Sunday neither one of us seen a deer.  It was really windy on Sunday morning and although the rut had began, nothing was moving around us.  That story repeated itself with the conversations that we had with some of the other hunting parties around except for Brett.  Back in the swamp he was seeing deer all over the place and both him and his son Trenton bagged a nice smaller buck and a doe on Saturday.  On Sunday afternoon I was near Brett's stand when he texted me that he had a nice doe in range and was I interested in it.  Of course....bang, it was down and I had a deer.  Brett was gracious enough to get his ATV and pull it out for me, I gutted it out and hung it up to cool (the one on the left).  With success defined as the chance to have some fresh venison this year, Jack and I left deer camp and headed home.  With the temperatures in the upper 50's we scrambled to get the deer skinned, boned and package on Monday.  I talked to my brother Steve on Tuesday and he mentioned an idea that's worth trying.  When making venison burger instead of adding pork or beef fat simply grind 3 pounds of bacon to 10 pounds of venison meat.  Man that sounds delicious and I report my findings next week.

Uncle Loren Nelson

On Friday my dear uncle Loren Nelson died at the ripe age of 87 at his home in Eau Claire.  My wife and I attended the funeral on Tuesday and it really became a true celebration of his life.  Loren and Lavonne (my dad's sister) were my Godparents and for years I was alway wondering why they were my only aunt and uncle that gave me a birthday present. One year when I was about 8 they gave me a book on pirates and for sure it was the first book anyone gave me except the bible my grandmother did.  I was fascinated by it's content about Blackbeard, Black Bart, Captain Kid and a host of others that made a definite impression on my young mind.  The best part of being related to Loren was having his children as my cousins.  Back when we were kids the big events were getting the families together and just hanging around. This is were we got very close to our cousin's that were around the same age and there was no shortage.  Loren's son's that I had the most interaction was Greg and Tom Nelson. Although Tom had left the area after college Greg settled down in Hudson, WI and it was pretty easy to find an excuse to get together.  From ice fishing to Alaska, we always found time to stay up to date on the family.  After a few years we finally got Tom up to Alaska and now he's wondering when we are going again! A few years ago Loren was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Although we had seen him a number of times at "Booger Hollar" it was difficult to stay in touch. Time flies so fast and when we got the news of his passing two things come to mind. First was wow, 87 years old, I didn't realize he was that old.  The second is the guilt associated with the fact that one hadn't seen him in the last couple of years, something we should have done.  In the end there is little one can do other than try to be better with those valuable relationships while you still have a chance.  Loren was a great guy, a fantastic uncle, and we always enjoyed each others company when we had the chance, and I'll never forget what he called be all the time..........Hey Anderson!

Weather and Procrastination

November's Temperature Forecast for Red Lake

To say that this Fall's weather has been fabulous certainly depends on your point of view.  It's the first of November and we are still in the 70's forcing a huge amount of procrastination in getting things done for the winter. Although we've had a killing frost about 3 weeks ago, the area has not seen a "hard" frost, lows down in the lower 20's yet which has left many of the leaves still on the trees.  The month of September and October were fairly dry however the last couple weeks have been quite wet with a good inch of so of rain each week.  The nice weather begs to be spent fishing on the river or maybe some crappies on the nearby lakes but unfortunately each year it seems more difficult to get everything done before winter sets in.  The sprinkler system still needs to be blown out, the potatoes are still in the ground, the boat needs a final cleaning and tucked in unless of course this weather continues to hold out.  I know I've mentioned it before but the latest we have open water fished on Lake Mille Lacs was December 6th and it looks like we are heading towards a very late freeze up this year as well.  Contrast that to last year when we were able to drive on Red Lake ice the day after Thanksgiving, November 28th,  it will be a delayed start for sure.  The long term forecast for Red Lake shows 10 degree above average temperatures meaning my early December travel schedule will probably not make any difference in my ice fishing plans. Hopefully by the second week in December it will be cold enough to get out for the weekend but that might be pushing it for sure as a few years ago we didn't get out until New Years. Looking at the forecast above shows Thanksgiving week to have highs about 40, and that's 250 miles north of the Twin Cities! The weather might be the bad news for the season but the good news is that they decided to open up Mille Lacs to ice fishing this year with a limited harvest of 1 walleye between 18 and 20 inches or 1 walleye over 28 inches.  This is more of a token effort to assist the area businesses and is welcome yet for all practical purposes the limit could be 6 walleyes in the same slot values simply because there are so little fish of this size in the lake. The good news is the lake is full of 12 - 14 inch fish and the catch and release action is promising to be fantastic.  As well it is reported that Red Lake will be changing it's current limit of 2 walleyes under 17 inches to 3 fish of which 2 must be under 17 inches and the third can be under 20 inches. The late ice will help the fish populations so we will see how the season shakes out as these regulations go into effect on December 1st.

From My Talented Uncle Jerry

So my Uncle Jerry has been at it again and shipped a special package to me this week.  I immediately know it's from him however the anticipation of what's inside the box is always special.  Upon opening the box there were 3 items that both figuratively and literally had my names on them.  The first is what looked like a hand carved statue of me after a successful day of fishing. Along with the blue eyes and my gray mustache, Uncle Jerry really captures the essence of who I am by posing me with a large fish in my left hand. The other added touches to a beautiful sculpture is the fact that my name is on the hat and if you look really close you can see my shirt is one of the Green Bay Packers and even has a GB engraved.  WOW!!!  The second thing of interest was a hand carved mouse lure packaged in a box especially made for it, complete with a sliding lid.  I know for a fact that I had one of these in that tackle box he gave me almost 50 years ago (I still have some of those baits) and it was one of his favorites when fishing down at Alma.  It's absolutely perfect and even has a leather tail.  My heart tells me to display it but my logic tells me to try and catch a fish on it as this would be the best of two worlds.  Hard water is coming soon so if I do it will have to be next year.  For sure I'd have to use braided line to make sure I didn't loose it. The third item was a nice wooden spoon and I have the perfect place for it, in my Salem Ice Cabin.  I know Jerry would scoff at the thought of putting it in the kitchen when it could much better to use while fishing, and it will be! I am extremely lucky to have an uncle that thinks so much of me, I love him dearly as he always has a special place in my heart!

Well, it's off to deer hunting and the weather is looking pretty good.  I put up a tree stand this year, not too far off the ground but high enough to get a better view of things. It will be Steak ala Kienitz on Friday night as usual and back home on Sunday night.  With the weather predictions of in the 50's again for next week it might be tempting to take the boat out one day, we'll see.  Good luck to all you Minnesota hunters!