About Time!!!

Our ice Freezer

So, my good friend Kevin sent me an e-mail asking me about my blog and what the heck I was up to.  Admittedly it seems as though the events of the last 3 weeks have taken a lot of wind out of my sails.  With the boat still in the shop getting the bottom repaired, at least it won't be like last year yet it will still be 3 weeks (by next Friday) that I will get it back.  It is sort of unnerving having to deal with this again, both from the damage, loss of the use of the boat, and what consequences will happen with my insurance.  Luckily the insurance premium was set for 2020/2021 so I will be good for a year as I have already paid it!!!  This is always a busy time of the year and it has not been without it's issues.  Honestly I should be writing about my last trip for the Canadian Opener on Lac Seul but both that and our June trip were cancelled because it was deemed a non-essential trip......For Who???  I understand their concern as they do have limited health care in Sioux Lookout and of course there is little one can do about the situation.  Last week was my dear friend's Tim Kuntz's auction that his wife had to help get sell  quite a bit of inventory after his unfortunate death.  Volunteering to help during the inspection and the pickup's as it was an online auction and it went pretty well, except for Tim's new Ram 3/4 ton pickup.  The reserve had been met however it appeared as though the bidders forgot to mention it to their wive's and both backed out at the last minute with a few lame excuses.  The auction house, Auction Master's were great and they helped Connie with dealing with helping to make it right, which they did.  While helping out it gave me an opportunity to get our ice machine running.  Years ago I was fishing with a friend and neighbor Roger Weber with his friends in Akaska, South Dakota.  It was very nice as one of his friends had a commercial Ice Machine in his pole shed, all the ice one ever wanted.  It was nice and when Tim Kuntz moved into the neighborhood, I casually mentioned having experienced the convenience of having your own ice machine that

8 pound bag of fantastic ice

would be nice to have our own ice machine.  A couple of years later he came up and asked if I was serious.  Of course I was, and apparently after starting his landscape curbing business he was buying 4 - 5 bags of ice a day, spending between $40 and $50 a week, he asked if I was interested in going half with him.  We ended up getting a a commercial machine and he had a small chest freezer to store it in.  Eventually the freezer stopped working , probably wasn't made to be put outside, so we ended up buying a commercial Ice Freezer from a friend, with the compressor on the top for outside usage.  Remembering when we first plugged it in it only got to 20 degrees F, and we assumed a freezer should be around 0 degrees F.  As it would have it, I went fishing with my brother to Canada with the guy that had a company that these ice freezers were part of his business.  When asked about the temperature only going down to 20 degrees F he said, yes they are designed that way.  Any colder then the ice starts to evaporate and a 5 pound bag of ice becomes 4.5 pounds and the cubes are smaller.  20 degrees F assures that one gets what one pays for!   A great example of....you learn something new every day! Tim provided the space, we owned the equipment together, I bought a bunch of ice bags, and we were in business.  Eventually our old ice maker stopped working so we got a newer Manitowoc 140, it makes great ice.  Every year the machine needs to be cleaned chemically with a natural Citric Acid cleaner to remove any scale from the main ice grid, so I did this on Thursday while helping with the auction.  Bagging in the morning and in the evening, I can bag between 8 and 10 8 pound bags of ice per day and have the freezer half full.  It will hold about 100 bags of ice, when it get's full we'll turn off he machine and use the ice through the summer. It's a pretty good system and unfortunately with Tim gone, the freezer won't empty so fast yet it is good to run and turn over so the neighbors have been told that if they need any ice!!!

Northern Catalpa tree starting to leaf out

The garden is fully planted with sweet corn, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, dill, cucumbers, squash and  variety of flowers to add some color.  These days my main goal is to make pickles, salsa, frozen corn, as well the asparagus is late but doing very well.  The first of May started a little dry but it quickly greening up.  One of the last trees to leaf out is the Northern Catalpa tree.  These are pretty cool trees as my friend Kevin had one in his yard when we were kids in Eleva.  They have very large leaves and pods that hang through spring.  I have 2 and in a few weeks they will sport the big beautiful flowers adding a little sense of a southern location here in Minnesota.  We are going to try and freeze some rhubarb this week as it seems pretty easy.  Basically you wash the stems, cut off the leaf, cut them in cubes and freeze them on a tray.  Using my commercial type vacuum packer, will vacuum seal them for the freezer.  It works excellent for sweetcorn, hopefully I can find some gluten free recipes for anything rhubarb as it is very good.  Not so good of news is our wonderful friend Craig Beigert passed away the other night.  Craig has lived with Multiple Myeloma for years but did pretty well.  He had the opportunity to fish with his friend Pete Sipe and myself at Lac Seul one year, it was alot of fun.  We ended up fishing on the corner north of camp, we had caught over 100 walleyes that day, mostly off the point on that corner.  We have since named that excellent spot to fish, Craig's Corner, let him know that his hotspot was named and we were looking forward to his return.  He was a great guy, is

Jared with a very nice sauger!

sad but as one get's older you experience more of this unfortunate stuff.  The other thing that has me miffed is I was kicked off Walleye Central, a fishing forum that I've been a part of for 21 years.  No specific reason and the notice says reinstatement: never.  Looking back at my last post it had a picture of the bottom damage to my boat and the post didn't appear to be offensive.  the moderator remove the picture and kicked me off,  oh well, I have asked for an explanation but nothing yet.  So I will end with my new found fishing buddy, Jared!  Although I have known him since he was born as his Grandpa Kevin is my best friend from home, it's been interesting to keep track of him, something his dad, Ben does a lot by sending me his pictures.  I have been invited to join them but it seems there is always something that gets in the way!  Anyway last weekend Ben was trolling Lake Pepin near Pepin Wisconsin.  His side scan wasn't working at Leech so we stopped at Bill Lundeen's who had a transducer for Ben to try.  After mounting it, they went down and launched at the Pepin Harbor, he called saying....I can see the rocks!  Obviously it was working.  We are working out a few other issues but he sent this picture of Jared holding a very nice sauger.  You can see they are trolling the rock shoreline next to the railroad tracks that run on either side of the lake.   I have always wanted to do this as the end of May and first of June is an excellent time to try this technique.  Well, I am not sure if I am totally caught up but if not there is always next week.  Thanks for the patience!

Cold and Costly Opener

Heavy Wet Snow on Star Point, Leech Lake, MN

First the cold part.  As the week progressed the weather forecast became less than desirable each day for the Minnesota Fishing opener with the final insult, snow was predicted for Saturday afternoon and snow it did!  although we did not get out too early on Saturday morning, it was awfully chilly!  Although seemingly dressed for the weather, I was sadly mistaken as by 1 in the afternoon the cold, wet, and heavy snow started to take a toll on the 5 of us.  It didn't seem too bad on the drive up Friday morning as we stopped in Malmo to get our weekends worth of shiner minnows, the drive up to Brindley's Harbor wasn't too bad.  The weather reports on the radio were not so optimistic however with heavy snow predicted from the Mille Lacs area all the way up to Red Lake.  Getting up on Saturday it didn't look too bad however the wind was definitely coming out of the east, not a good sign.  My dad used to say, Wind from the west, fish bite the best, wind from the east, fish bite the least!  Well it was less than 35 degrees when we hit the water on Saturday morning, Luckily we decided to start on Pine Point, not too far from the resort.  My brother Steve fished with me and Kevin, Ben, and Jared fished in Ben's boat.  The water temperature was still below 50 degrees, we were in the heart of the post spawn period, the fish were not going to be too cooperative and not unlike last year we had to find some warmer water.  In an almost identical scenario from last year we followed the wind to the windward side of the bay, onto Star Point and yes the water was warmer there, maybe a degree, not enough to make much difference.  However the wind was more manageable so we started fishing the point, away from all of the boats.  A special note, we were surprised at the number of boats on the lake considering how "concerned" people have become.  By noon you could see the snow heading towards us as that far shore disappeared pretty fast.  In a short

Jared's Nice Walleye

time the heavy, wet snow was upon us, enough to decide after a while to put the top up.  Unfortunately that just only helped us from getting wetter than we already were. It snowed pretty heavy for a couple of hours and I was starting to get cold, feet, hands, and torso.  deciding to go in about 2:00, none too soon, we got the boats tied up and decided to take a trip to Reeds in Walker, a 15 minute run.  Being surprised it was open, they had the usual precautions but for the most part it wasn't too bad.  Warmer clothes were on the list as I returned with a light winter boot that was on sale at a great price, a pair of warmer socks, and some neoprene gloves. Sunday was just as cold but we did find some fish in the 10 foot depths including this nice spawned out female that Jared, my friend's son , managed to catch.  It was real windy on Sunday and with temperatures in the 30's it stayed pretty cold and we managed to catch enough to have fish dinner Sunday night.  The wind had died down a little bit but there was still ice covering everything the next morning,  I wouldn't say brutally cold but definitely uncomfortable for May 11th.  Deciding that Steamboat Bay might have warmer water, we headed to the area only to find the water temperature to be 43, not exactly post spawn walleye temperatures.  We manged a few more walleyes on the traditional jig and minnow but decided to go in and get ready for the last session of our trip, the Monday evening bite.  the weather as bad as it was had stabilized and there wasn't the boats around like the weekend.  by 10:00 Monday we had 14 walleyes, enough for each of us to take a limit home.....mission accomplished! It was fun fishing with my "hometown" crew again in fact I commented to Kevin that this was the third time we had been fishing this year together, something we hadn't done in maybe 40 years.  It was also fun to see Jared, 13 years old, hang with the men.  This is a good way to build his skills for the future, and of course we cut him absolutely no slack!

Bottom Damage from Banging into the rocks

Costly, what can I say?  Sunday afternoon we decided to head to Little Stony Point, a rock reef that sticks out from a point and holds fish in the deeper sand just off the rocks.  Because the wind was blowing into the rocks, we set the trolling motor to pull towards the waves in a controlled drift and was able to hold in 8 feet of water quite easily.  After trying to fix Ben's depthfinder by connecting it to my network, it really messed up my settings.  Having drifted this pattern a couple of times, it seemed like a good time to reset the electronics.  In the meantime there were 3 foot rollers hitting the front side of the boat.  Apparently the wind gust got stronger than the trolling motor could overcome so the first indication was a big thump as m lower unit hit a big rock as the boat went in the trough of the wave.  We floated up on the next wave then Thump, another hit.  trying to frantically get out of there I contemplated jumping out of the boat but that would have been dumb.  Another big thump, maybe every 3 - 5 seconds.  Telling steve to lift the trolling motor and hold it, that wasn't working so we switched and I took over while he got the net to push off.  Finally getting the trolling motor locked in and shallow running we were able to motor out of danger but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  Finally getting the boat on the trailer, it looked like someone took a hammer and chisel to the bottom.  Dropping it off at Frankie's, the estimate came back at about $8000 in damage.  My thought was that it might be able to run this summer and fix it in the fall but they said nope, water could easily seep in and completely damage the hull.  After talking to my insurance guy who was great, we decided that because my policy has already been approved for 2020 we should turn it in and deal with the nuances of the insurance later, as my fear is the $22,000 claim from last May isn't going to help me at all.  Anyway Safeco, who really was helpful is cutting me a check as I have authorized the work to begin.  Some people say my boat is bad luck but maybe I just need to up the attention span somewhat, that or buy an armored boat.  Well there appears to be some truth to what they say BOAT means........Bust Our Another Thousand!  Hopefully it will be done by Memorial Day.

Busy Getting Ready

My long lost friend, Tom Emmons

The last week has been a mad scramble to get everything ready for Saturday's Minnesota Fishing Opener.  As stated our large group is not going until October so just a few guys and I are going.  Our Governor just announced that people should stay within a full tank of gas when deciding to go to a lake, well I can get 14.5 MPG if I drive 50 mph, 26 gallon gas tank gets me 376 miles round trip.  Brindley's Harbor is 352 miles round trip so I should be in compliance with the Covid19 police.  Getting the boat ready has been quite a chore as it was pretty dirty and disorganized.  The boat is equipped with Sirius/XM Weather (Inland Marine Package) that can be shut it off in October and reinstated on May 1st.  Usually it's pretty easy to reactivate as it just takes a phone call to their automated system, request a new activation signal, and voila, it starts up perfectly.  Well not this time!!!  After 3 days of going through the motions with no tangible results a call while in the boat took place yesterday.  After logging into my account and printing the data the person asked me for my Radio ID number.  Heck it's the same as it was last summer.  Of course one get's this....Sir, I understand but I need that number!  No what.  Admittedly every year is more of a challenge as it has been 7 months since one has operated that equipment so it takes time to figure out where to find things you need.  While on the phone and frantically pressing buttons, under the settings/network there it was, a heading called Sirius Status.  Punched that and voila, up comes the Radio ID plus the current status of the signal, INACTIVE was all over the place.  After re-looking at the data it appears as though they deactivated this radio on 4-27-2020 and activated an old one of mine.  Well Sir, there will be a $15 dollar service charge to reactivate your current radio.  M'am, not to be argumentative however I did not call to deactivate the radio in the first place.  In October I called to deactivate it with a request to turn it back on by May 1st.  It looks like they reactivated it on 4-17-2020 but must have done something wrong.  the customer service lady waived the charges, reactivated the right radio then sent a signal.  You could watch the status change on the screen and finally it was on!  There was this problem with the Sirius being attached to the wrong USB input to my audio system but that was straightened out easier than what was assumed!  I hope it's not this difficult each year going forward, as it was frustrating.

Leech Lake Eelpout

Thank the lord someone had some patience, hint....it wasn't me but I was nice!  One thing that I did was to go through all the SD cards that I had in my storage cases.  They are a collection of files and updates that are associated with my electronics and become my library for data in case I lose them because of a malfunction, I can reload them or reset the software to a previous version.  One of the cards was full of pictures I had taken with my camera back in 2010 and 2011.  Pictures are interesting, the old film type, you would take a picture, get the film developed, print them and throw them in a box never to looked at again.  Today the process is easier but the results are the same.  You take a picture, it is now a digital file, stored somewhere, never to be looked at again!  They are more convenient as you can send them easier and move them around.  Well there was 3100 pictures on that card and many brought back some good memories so I thought I would share.  The first is a picture of my good friend Tom Emmons. He was a great guy, a great friend but unfortunately had some issues he was dealing with. He did not deal with them very well and he is no longer with us.  The next picture was in 2011 on fishing opener and I had caught an eelpout.  We don't get many of these and they truly are a colorful fish and very good eating.  It was probably the last eelpout that I had caught.  we did get 3 of them on Lake of the Woods this year but none were on the end of my line!

Steve's Lingcod

Speaking of odd but colorful fish is this picture of my brother Steve holding up a Lingcod he had caught when we were in Alaska.  This was a nice sized fish and they have a gapping mouth that seems like they could swallow anything! Notice the bulging stomach as these fish really are just big eating machines. The fish this is about as long as Steve is tall is and probably over 50 pounds, as you can see he is struggling a bit to hold it for the camera!  This was in 2012 and we are fishing out of Homer, Alaska.  We often talk about going back before we get too old but I keep saying that we should go south, not north to catch some peacock bass or other tropical species.  Now that Steve was relieved of his job, both him and I have a lot of fishing to catch up on this weekend.  For fishing opener it looks like the weather will be on the colder side with lows in the upper 20's in the morning.  This is fine although my friend Kevin called me this morning worried that the harbor might be frozen over.  I laughed as we got down to business of what food to bring.  the steaks are all ready for tomorrow night, fish on Saturday and maybe Brat's on Sunday.  With 5 guys it isn't so hard to figure that out.  Now all that is needed is to make sure we have enough warm clothes for the morning.  I guess clothes are pretty easy to figure out!  Either way it should be a great opener, if nothing else but to spend it with good friends.  Hopefully there will be a good report next week.

Back In Business

Brindley's Harbor Resort

Last week was the firm cancellation of our 47th Annual Team Walleye Leech Lake opener.  It has been officially moved to the first weekend in October, 6 months from now.  Hopefully this state will get back to normal!  Because I am an admitted cynic of this situation and will not comment, and as well really enjoy fishing Leech Lake in May, my brother Steve, friend Kevin Aiona, his son Ben and grandson Jared have confirmed a reservation at Brindley's Harbor Resort starting May 8th and leaving on Monday morning, May 11.  Because of the current situation, the resort cabins and slips will be open however the lodge is closed plus there are some minor changes like we have to bring our own sleeping bags, pillows.......just like we do in Canada.  Also strict social distancing is required however I believe we will be fishing most of the time so that should not be an issue.  As of this post, the ice is still covering Leech Lake however with temperatures in the 50's and 60's we should be ice free by May 8th.  As for Leech and it's official ice out, the trend for the last 10 years has been later where we tend to deal with colder water temperatures.  Late ice out tends to mean that the walleyes are in the early post spawn period and tend to be very shallow, usually in the 6 - 10 foot range.  They haven't spread out much from their traditional spawning areas such as wind swept rock shores and points along the lake, which there are many.  It will be hard to say what the water temperature will be however last year it was relatively cold, around 47 degrees.  To find active walleyes one had to search for warmer water such as Steamboat Bay or a shoreline where the wind was blowing the surface water into.  This proved to be a great strategy, enough to win the majority of the prizes for our Team Walleye annual event.  Another excellent strategy is early evening trolling shad raps along those rocky shores.  This technique is deadly and as discussed last week, these new UV colored patterns seem to be hot.  There is always a few spawned out females swimming around which definitely gives the opportunity to catch a nice fish in the 27 to 28 inch range.  Fishing on Leech should be good again this year as the limit is 4 walleyes each, everything between 20 and 26 must be released, generally we let all the walleyes go over 20.  With the current situation it could go either way, the lake's fisherman could be few and far between or it could be the opposite as people are anxious to get out.  Either way my prediction is for a great opener!

Diawa Low Profile Line counter Reel

Although a labor of love, the last week has required getting the boat prepared for the opener.  Telling Steve that he doesn't need to bring any tackle or equipment, forces one to re-evaluate everything.  Of course the lure selections are quite easy as the boat tackle storage is quite modular with jig boxes, trolling baits, bobber rig box, live bait rig box, along with some panfish style baits and a good selection of various crankbaits to try out.  I can leave the deep runner boxes as home as we don't need them.  Basically there are 4 types of equipment that will be required.  On Friday the plan is to go crappie fishing up in Sucker Bay, the tackle strategy of choice is the slip bobber....2 of those rigs in the rod locker.  Next is a couple of jigging rods with regular monofilament for the standard 1/8 ounce Fireball Jig plus 2 jigging rods that are stiffer, and loaded with braid which can handle a new technique that we are going to try, jigging a Jiggin Rap or Rippin Rap's.  There has been a lot of talk about these types of baits in colder water and Ben is an expert at these types of baits so we will give them a try.  The forth type of rod is a longer live bait rod for pulling Lindy type rigs, 2 of them in the rod locker.  Last but not least are 2 baitcaster's with standard sized low profile reels that have line counters on them.  The line counters are not really necessary but add an element of options if a specific length behind the boat becomes needed.  I might throw in a couple of light panfish rods in case those crappies are active with small plastic jigs. While putting away the snowblower attachments in the shed, it gave me a great opportunity to start both motors on the boat.  As usual the big Evinrude starts like it never slept a wink over the winter and is ready to go on a moments notice.  It is of course Electronic Fuel Injected (EFI) so there is not hesitation as she sat there and idled till it warmed up.  The 9.8 kicker is another story as she is as cold blooded as they come.  Maybe it's my fault (of course it is!) but this is a carbureted engine and it takes a while for the gas to get everywhere it needs to fire up.  As well I am always concerned about the ethanol blend that I run as the kicker is a 4 stroke but is fed by the main gas tank.  The winterization process requires some stabilizer in the gas to help but last year I could not even get the kicker started on Opener.  After about 30 seconds of cranking over it finally started running, good enough to get her up to operating temperature as well to fire up the iTroll system, which BTW is a great way to control a kicker motor.  Everything seems to work fine and we should be ready to go with the only thing left is to clean the carpeting.  All the electronics are up to date and on Friday I plan on restarting my 6 month subscription to Sirius/XM Weather service which runs till the end of October.  This is a great feature that allows one to set a lightning warning, if lightning is within 6 miles of your current location, even in Canada, a warning goes off.  You then can overlay the weather onto your chart and go back 3 hours to see where the storm is heading.  That and Willy's Roadhouse makes it worth every penny!

Shad Rap

Shad Rap in an Exclusive Fleet Farm color, Hot Flash

In one's fishing lifetime baits come and go.  In my early 20's Kevin and I would fish a Johnson Silver Minnow or a Moss Boss for bass in the mats of pond weed above the Alma, WI dam.We'd tie our own jigs to fish walleyes on the wing dams or in the sloughs. Smithwick Rattlin' Rouges were on the top of that list as it was a go to bait for trolling 3 Mile Reef on Mille Lacs, and did we get some dandy's.  Well the last 20 years or so, the number 1 artificial bait in the boat for catching walleyes is Rapala's Shad Rap.  There are plenty imitations and admittedly I have a few of them yet there is something about a Shad Rap that is irresistible to a walleye.   They run true out of the box, maybe it's that wobble, they do not have a sound chamber for internal rattles, about the only thing that I have figured out is often the color makes the difference.  Of course this is what they say about color, they are meant to catch the fisherman, not fish.  My obsession with these baits is sort of a testament to that theory, however over the years some proven patterns work better than others, and of course how would one ever know if a new color worked or not if one never tried it!  Being a guy that say's one never knows, in the boat is quite a menagerie of #5 and #7 Shad Raps of various colors.  Always on the prowl for the latest and greatest, Fleet Farm's ad this week featured Shad Raps on sale for $5.99 and included was some of their exclusive color schemes, unique to Fleet Farm.  Being deemed an Essential Business, essentially I was driven to check out what they had, knowing my collection needed an update!  It was once told to me that Fleet Farm sold more Rapala's than any other retailer.  I have no proof however last year Fleet Farm sold to a larger retail firm.  At that time their Shad Raps

A new twist called Frosted

were priced at $4.99 for a #5 and they would go on sale for $3.99, a real bargain.  After the new owners took over the price jumped to $6.99/$5.99 on sale.  They are still a little cheaper than most places however it is good that the majority of my inventory was bought before last year!   Seeking out their exclusive colors two really caught my eye.  The first is a derivative of a perch pattern called Hot Flash.  I have had good luck with the latest neon versions of  the perch pattern as they really stand out, especially at night.  Add to the fact that any orange seems to do well, it was a simply a had to have color and in the cart it went.  One of my thoughts for opener was a light colored crankbait, in a white, like what was posted a few weeks ago, a Wonder Bead pattern, this Shad Rap with an iridescent whit top and mirror chrome sides appeared called Frosted.  A great name, how on earth could one pass that up so it joined the other in the cart.  There were some other neat colors yet not enough to catch my interest, maybe later.  There is a trend in custom bait colors, similar to those first offered on deep diving Reef Runners , colors with funky names like Cheap Sun Glasses or Heat Stroke.  This trend has reached into the Shad Raps with a company called Viper Custom Tackle which offers various colors including ones that you might have developed, which has products in Cabela's.  They are not cheap but interesting as these weird colors are popular for fishing walleyes in clear water.  If in the future there is a have to have color maybe I'll pull the trigger but for now the tackle box marked Shad Rap's is pretty loaded to the gills!  Sorry for the pun.

Neon Green Tiger UV

Trolling Shad Raps at night during our Annual Minnesota Fishing Opener with Team Walleye has been my go to methodology, good for about 8 - 10 walleyes in the boat during that 90 minutes of time between sunset and completely dark.  With 7 boats in our team, the other guys seem reluctant to troll, whether they are uncomfortable trolling, don't have the equipment, I am not sure but it is a deadly technique, especially in the shallows ( 5 - 7 feet) in the spring.  While the tried and true method is a jig and minnow on Leech Lake, one can cover more ground looking for active fish via trolling a Shad Rap.  A #5 Shad Rap runs about 5 - 7 feet with about 75 feet of line out and is perfect.  As stated earlier these new colors offer new opportunities and last year this Green Tiger UV (Also a Pink Tiger UV) were on fire.  I would have to say that my number one color is the crawdad but that's changing and the reason that first color, Hot Flash is so appealing, a cross between a crawdad color and the tiger pattern, how could it miss!  A favorite memory is fishing Sunday night on Leech a number of years back.  With Mark Mayerich and his son Adam in the boat, we stopped at 8:30 and it was announced.....we are going to troll.  Not exactly the style they were used to and eventually I had to rig them up as it made no sense trolling with spinning rigs and 8 pound test, those shad raps were too expensive to leave on the bottom of the lake.  I carry bait casting rigs specifically for these situations so attached a different colored Shad Rap to each rod and told them to simply let out so many passes of line on the spool.  In 90 minutes we had netted 18 walleyes, one every 5 minutes, with Mark catching the majority.  Of course this is the problem with having so many colors to chose from, if one is hot you'd better have a second one for yourself, dang another reason to shop!  In truth my theory is all crankbait strikes are reaction strikes.  This thing coming through the water is creating a pressure wave that the fish can feel, it goes to investigates and notices this thing trying to flee..........bang, it hits the lure out of instinct, hit first, taste later.  Having said that, it's both the vibration and profile that are the true triggers, and believe that color just helps add to that profile, how visible is it in the waters you are trolling?  Over the years I have had identical baits both in size and color yet one seems to hammer the fish while the other is left alone.  The thought is that the good bait has a better vibration pattern, something it is difficult to quantify, much more attractive to fish than just the same bait.  Maybe the lip is off, or is perfect, it's hard to tell except for the teeth marks or the battered edge of the diving lip on the bait that really works well.

Crawdad Color, Currently My #1 Color Success

So waiting for opener has been decided.  It seems like it's the first of November, will there be enough ice by Thanksgiving or will we have to wait till after Christmas?  Mother Nature has decided that we need to cancel our traditional opener scheduled for May 9th and move it to the first weekend in October.  It is looking more like our two trips to Lac Seul, one in May and the other in June don't look like they are happening either.  So much for all the new strategies for this year! The good news is that October should be an ideal time to troll walleyes on Leech Lake and I have some perfect spots where no one in my group has fished, some shallower mid lake reefs as well as Rocky points.  My brother Steve and I are working on Plan C, maybe just a couple of us will head up to Leech, assuming it's open, and we can stay in a small group. It might take till the end of the month to decide.  Either way Fleet Farm's sale ends on Saturday, maybe another excuse!

April Snow and Other Issues

Our Mid April Snow Storm

It would be nice to say that everything is back to normal but trying to figure out what is normal these days is a mystery in itself!  Because of the current Corona Virus situation, our illustrious Governor has extended the Stay in Place order until May 4th and there is talk that he might extend it till June. Our 47th annual Minnesota Fishing Opener is looking more like a delayed event than something that even a later than usual Ice Out in 2013 could not diminish.  Even if all the restrictions are lifted by the May 9th fishing opener there are quite a few that may opt to stay home or in my nephews case, simply cannot fly from Portland, Oregon to MSP.  We do have Plan B, which is to move our annual event to the first of October.  Given the situation it seems like it would be a good time to reschedule, especially as one of my favorite ways to fish walleyes is trolling shad raps, it would be a great time of the year for doing that!  We should know shortly but I am not putting any money that it will happen in May.  This issue drags into our trips planned for Lac Seul this spring which was scheduled for May 16th, Ontario's walleye opener, as well as the usual trip in June.  It may be too soon to predict the outcome but it may not be until July before this thing settles down.  To top it off Mille Lacs Lake is only catch and release this year with the entire lake closing down for the month of July.  There are tons of walleyes to catch in Mille Lacs so this will probably be the Goto destination for May and June, we'll have to see.  The great weather the last couple of weeks inspired me to get the dethatcher/bagger system on my lawn tractor (more on that below) which required the snowblower and cab to be removed and put away.  Well you know what that means, if you do this before April 15, it's going to snow!  After getting the blower cleaned off and with the help of the neighbors, the cab properly stored, we got 3 - 4 inches of snow on Saturday night/Easter Sunday.  Luckily we were on the northwest corner of the storm and to our southeast got the brunt of it yet it goes without saying that the curse is still in existence!  The good thing is the concrete surfaces were warm enough so nothing stuck and the snowblower wasn't needed yet it seems as though someone was saying....don't
try that again!

Dethatcher hitch

So after getting the hitch attachment for the dethatcher on the lawn tractor, it finally got mounted and admittedly it works pretty slick.  There were a couple of snafu's to deal with including the frame was a little warped so the click in pins didn't click in, the mounting holes through the main mounting were hand drilled and not exactly perpendicular to the mounting holes, plus the green paint was not John Deere green so it's close but not the same!  After mounting the attachment to the quick hitch, with a hammer attempted to make a mark by the hole to see where it needed adjustment but instead it clicked in, good enough!  Next the holes that mounted the dethatcher to the hitch were off so using an 11/64th drill and a mild reaming, the bolts now went through the tube so they could be tightened up.  As far as the green paint, Fleet Farm had John Deere Green spray paint and after the season it will be repainted in the right color.  After a few issues of my own like hooking the hydraulic lines to the wrong place it finally is working and it is certainly a lot better than trying to lift it via the pull bar that came with the unit originally.  Unfortunately the snow has put a damper on any year activities for a few days however the forecast is for the 60's to return next weekend.  There are a number of neighbors that I let use this system as it really works great yet maybe there could be an opportunity to make some cash as it makes the lawn look great and along with an application of Scott's Truf Builder, one is set through the summer.  Then again, that would be work!

Pink Clown Rippin' Rap

So this isn't Yard Maintenance with Dave so I did get some things done on the fishing front.  Deciding that the tackle boxes need better organization as there were 3 separate boxes that stored Rapala Shad Raps, they got organized into a single box.  Another box was assorted Rapala lures with another box of Flick'r Shads, Smash Shads, and other shad style walleye crankbaits and it's starting to look good.  Last fall we did really well with jigging raps on Long Lake in Wisconsin, as well Ben Aiona caught his share of nice walleyes using Slab Raps and Rippin' Raps through the ice yet a search of YouTube videos shows some interesting open water catches on these types of jerk baits.  I separated a box of these types of jigging lures and was excited to experiment with them on both the Minnesota and especially the Ontario fishing opener.   Lac Seul's water is a dark tea color and the rattle aspect of this lure might hold some real promise as we mostly vertical jig fish walleyes.  We'll see what becomes of our season but there will be a time to experiment!  There is a lot to do before any official Fishing Opener so stay tuned!

Crazy Weekend

One of Vic's Favorite fish, Channel Catfish

The events of this weekend have delayed (as good excuse as I could come up with!) my posts but things are settling down enough to put some thoughts online.  The weekend started Friday morning when I missed a call from Paul Wenaas, my friend from Chippewa Falls.  Having to drive to Eau Claire that morning, I promised him a call on the way as it was more convenient but really contemplated the conversation.  Unfortunately I was right, although not unexpected, my first real boss, Vic Wenaas, Paul's father died Friday morning.  He was 92 so it was no surprise.  When asked to give a presentation while I was working often the introduction involved where I attended school when having needed a background of my "stature" as President of Precision.  My go to answer would say that I have an Associate's  Degree in Electronic Technology and my MBA from the Victor Wenaas School of Business Management.  That went well with those guys who had degrees from MIT and MBA's from Harvard! Vic owned the gas station that was once owned by my grandfather.   I started working at 15 and at that time I had 2 jobs, half the nights was loading chickens in a truck for the local chicken processing factory and half being a gas station attendant, the kind that would pump your gas and wash the windshield.  In the fall Vic said I had to make a decision as he needed a full time guy, work for me or the chicken truck.  It was no use running to my dad for advice because he really didn't care but rather he gave me a lesson,  make up your own mind .  So at 15.5 I decided to be a grease monkey and work for Vic for 75 cents an hour.  This was in July of 1970 and I worked there until January 25th, 1976.  My favorite story is while working on car repairs on Saturday my job was to do the oil changes while he might be changing a water pump in the other bay.  He would always have WAXX, 104.5 FM Country on the radio.  This was the early 70's so I cut me teeth on Johnny Cash, Eddie Arnold, Porter Wagner, Hank Snow, Dolly Pardon and all the Older country stars.  I still can name damn near every song from 50 years ago.  Anyway Eddie Arnold's song, Cattle Call started playing and while changing oil which prompted me to start singing the part where he does the cattle call, I liked that part!.  Vic came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me and said........"You know something Davy, I can't sing either!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JX50rZae2M  Vic loved to catfish in the summer and often we'd go down by the buffalo bridge or for a real adventure, up to Eau Claire and fish NSP point where the Eau Claire River met the Chippewa River.  There were always a few guys along like my dad, Art Kelly, and Daniel Van Pelt.  Our favorite bait was chicken livers that we harvested out of the back of Doughboy Foods chicken processing plant in Eleva.  It is with regret that in my archives there are no pictures of Vic but I know where catfish stood!  

Tim Pulling Pork for his Annual Pig Roast

The second event was the passing of my good friend and neighbor Tim Kuntz.  Saturday night at around 7:00 pm my good neighbor Tim died at home from stage 4 urinary tract cancer.  He found out on Feb 2, and 8 weeks later we hauled him out of the den where his hospice bed was.  He was 63.  Tim was always the center of the neighborhood, had a separate garage always had a cold beer, simply drive by and if the light shined through the window, it was your indication that you were welcome.  A couple years ago he moved an enclosed trailer in front of the window enough so you could not see the light so a few of use complained that we no longer knew he was in the garage.  Enough so that he went out and bought a neon store sign saying OPEN, with it wired to his light switch, if he was in the garage, the sign was definitely lit with the connotation, come on in.  Anyway for the last 2 months I saw him as much as permitted and every time I left I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him.  Tim's nickname was Tool man Tim,  proper name as he seemed to either have every to tool known to man or he could make something do.  Tim was the center of the neighborhood as he hosted the annual Superbowl Party to watch the Super bowl in his heated garage/man cave.  In the early fall Tim would get a 230 pound whole hog and have a pig roast, he was quite a BBQ chef as well he really enjoyed being the host.  The stories could go on but the reality is that it is over and after visiting Tim last Friday night, he was ready to say goodbye.  My grandmother Myrtle had a picture in her kitchen of a man praying and the prayer was...God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Rest in peace my friend.

The last thing is a project involving my friend Greg Kinblom's idea to make a bracket for my John Deere Lawn tractor to change the way the dethatcher attachment connects to the front end of it.  Basically has made a bracket, adapting it to the hydraulic quick hitch which controls the lift from the drivers seat.  The quick hitch came with the snowblower attachment and works quite well.  It is very nice however not without some issues.  Although not related to his work, I did have to accommodate some of his holes by enlarging them somewhat.  The bigger issues dealt with once I attached the mower deck the front bracket of the deck hit the hitch.   Also when reattached the hitch would not lift, 15 minutes later it was discovered that the black hose was attached to the grey connector, after switching it worked great again.  Focusing on getting the lawn thatched and ready for fertilizing, things should go better this week.  Maybe there will be some pictures next post.  The original plan was to head to Lake Erie today however their is a 14 day quarantine for new arrivals so the Mississippi River is plan B.  The problem is the river is at flood stage and the peak will happen early this week.  I'm am sure we'll think of something!

Stuck Inside!

Effective Adapter Plate for my HDS 9 Live 

It is probably no surprise what the current crisis is going on today as of tonight we have a Stay in Place order from our governor.   Oh well, I have plenty to do at home.  The apple trees need pruning, the garden needs cleaning up, and with the current warmer temperatures and rain forecast, it's probably a good time to put away the ice fishing equipment for the year.  There has been a lot of interesting things going on especially as opener is coming upon us fast.  First situation is that my boat has been at the dealer since December 4th as it had some warranty issues taken care of as well some cosmetic stuff that has been bothering me.  One of those issues was the mounting of my depthfinders as I needed a new console to fit my "New to Me" HDS 12 Live that I traded my friend Bill for.  In the process of mounting it into the console I requested that they make sure to drill the through hole on the top in a different place than it was, as is it will interfere with the HDS 9 live bracket mounting.  Well, after bringing it home I was disappointed to find that the thru hole was in the same place as the old one.  Now I can either make a huge fuss or simply solve the problem myself, which I decided to do.  Having an idea and walking next door to my neighbor Todd, a self employed mechanical design engineer, we discussed the issue and maybe having him print an adapter plate to accommodate the misalignment problem.  Instead he stated drawing a 3D print of what I had envisioned, we finalized the requirements and loaded it to an online site that offers machining services. In 2 minutes we had a quote and immediately ordered an aluminum plate that was machined to print, had the holes drilled with one tapped, a quick credit card entry and 2 weeks later it shows up via Federal Express.  After mounting the adapter plate on the console it looks quite nice and functional, everything is solid and it certainly is a better and faster solution than waiting for another console, which is 8 weeks out, and with last years disaster, I am not much in the mood for having the boat out of my shed for most the summer!  Besides this was a bunch of stuff including all new trailer tires to go with my new rims that were replaced under warranty, any of the plastic interior trim that was cracked, was replaced.  Of course last November the front axle on the trailer was replaced.  The boat is like new again and ready for both the Team Walleye 47th Annual Leech Lake opener as well as the Ontario fishing opener at Lac Seul a week later.  That is of course if our current problem seems to be deemed as under control, don't hold your breath!

Smash Shad in Wonder Bread Pattern

A couple of other interesting things, Cabela's (Now Bass Pro Shop) annual Spring Sale is going on and they have some fabulous deals on some crankbaits.  One that looked interesting is their fabulous deal on a Storm product called a Smash Shad.  These crankbaits are in the same category as Berkley's Flickr Shad, or a number of shad type baits primarily used for walleyes.  Trolling at sunset on Leech is a favorite technique of mine and we have been having a lot of success with funky colors so this Wonder Bread pattern has got to be good as the light color should be a real winner this opener.  Also at $1.49 each it's a little easier handing out these for my friends to use instead of my $7 Shad Raps and they should be just as effective.  Picking up about 20 or so in 7 different color patterns  and 2 different sizes, #5 and #7, it was a pretty good deal.  My brother Steve loaded me up with some Northland long shanked jigs last Christmas when the Gander Mountain Store closed by him so I am returning the favor.  My friend Kevin Aiona laughed at me because he said they don't run true out of the box, that might be but they are easy to tune.  I also picked up some square bill bass crankbaits for the smallmouth fishing on the river as the action of these baits are quite effective as well. 

Custom Whiskey aging Barrel

The other thing that is going is I have purchased  my own personal whiskey aging oak barrel from Amazon.  Basically you can buy a small oak barrel that has been charred on the inside, the same as the big distillers use to age whiskey in.  In large barrels it takes a lot of time to age whiskey because of the barrel surface area vs the liquid volume.  In these smaller barrels that ratio of wood to liquid is much more favorable to age whiskey significantly more quickly.  At a neighbors a few weeks ago he gave me a sample of some Crown Royal that had been in his small barrel 6 months and it was quite good.  When you buy these on  Amazon the option is to be able to personalize them to your own custom details as you can see here.  This one is filled with TX from Texas sent to me by my friend Matt Davis.  The barrel needs to be soaked in water to make sure the wood expands and seals which took about a week.  You can see where the water initially leaked out with the black color of the charring leaching out.  Once sealed it was filled with whiskey and I am figuring out it will be ready for our September trip to Lac Seul.  Also it can be used a couple of times and I have some nice scotch that could benefit from a couple months in the barrel.  There will definitely be an update when the barrel is tapped! Hopefully my patience will pay off.

Last Trip With the Wheel House

Kevin's size of choice!

Not much has been going on these last few weeks other than trying to find a roll of toilet paper in any store, my Lord this country has absolutely gone crazy, least I say more but I won't.  So in an effort to escape this madness on Friday my friends Kevin Aiona, Paul Wenaas, and I hooked up the Salem for what will probably it's last trip for the 2019/2020 ice fishing season.  Kevin's son Ben had left his ice house up at Springsteel Island Resort, where we fished this year on the week of January 9th and his plan was to go on up and fish the weekend, bringing his house home.  Arriving at 8:00 as planned we headed north to meet Ben at the resort, a 6 hour drive from home.  Both Paul and Kevin are retired so we were in no hurry to get home and the plan was to stay until Monday.  Arriving at the resort around 2:30 we ordered something to eat in the bar while we waited for Ben.  As the resort had stated you could go about anywhere around the resort and for the most part that was correct, if you stayed on the roads.  The snow was pretty hard off the roads but it was easy to spin down to the ice and you were stuck.  Our first stop was just east and right off what they called the DNR reef which came up to 16 feet however the surrounding area was about 22 feet.  Drilling the holes, I was reminded of my forgetfulness these days as I forgot to bring my cordless drill to run my Slushcopter, a wonderful device to push the slush down the holes once drilled as well as my slush scooper to finish what's left of what little ice there is.  Ben came to the rescue and let me use one of his.  We finally got settled in and started catching fish right away.  Admittedly many of them were quite small as though we were fishing sunfish.  I can't tell you how many walleyes we caught under 8 inches but I would say for every "keeper" fish we caught, we released at least 10 dinky ones.  It was surprising how aggressive these little fish could be.  They would rush up from the bottom and smack your lure, often dressed with a minnow head on the hook for some scent.  Sometimes they would come up almost 5 feet before hitting the lure, which is a lot of fun seeing it and having the anticipation of the fish slamming

Largest Walleye of the Trip, 21"

it, only to feel in the first second that it's another small fish.  We did catch a number of keepers, enough to take into the resort for a walleye dinner on Saturday night.  Ben was a little frustrated with the smaller fish that we caught by DNR reef so he decided on Saturday morning to move to deeper water.  He has chains on the truck so it was easier to go off road.  He was having some luck in deeper water out a few miles more so on Sunday morning we decided to move out as well.   As we lifted the house one of my pivoting axle's stuck and the axle spring shackle that secures the wheel to be able to drive was not moving.  Calling Ben, who had a propane torch, he drove over and as I suspect the grease around the axle was either too stiff to move or there might have been water in it because a minute of heating and the wheel started to slowly move down to allow us to secure it and move.  It was a good reminder of the next thing for the tool box.  Finally free we were able to get back on the road and head east a couple of miles.  Finding an old road we decided to back in so we had a clear path when we decided to leave, it was nice and flat so we set up.  It takes about an hour to properly set up the house, even with 3 guys but we were fishing by 9:30 in 25 feet of water.  No much deeper but different.

Paul with a nice 38 inch northern pike

We encounter about the same fishing as the last place.  I think right off the reef was a good morning/evening spot but the deeper water offered what might be a better day bite.  I thought we did better at the second place we setup, including the 21 inch walleye you see above.  The northern pike bite was better as both Paul and I caught 2 nicer northern's with Paul's being a respectable fish.  The fish did not come without inflicting a little revenge on all of us as before we got him up to the hole it had managed to swim around everyone of our lines and tangle them up beyond repair.  I guess we should have known better, when someone gets a nice fish, pull up the lines.  Oh well, the excitement overrides common sense and we spent the next 30 minutes cutting out lures, lines, retying our lines and lures.  To add insult to injury, we released the fish in Kevin's hole and it got stuck in his line, causing another problem of tangling up everything even more. It definitely was a mess but it did a couple of things for the good.  It made us retie fresh line on our rattle reels,

Tangled Mess!!

pull off the well used line on our existing poles and it was a great excuse to change lures.  In addition it provided some good entertainment as well as stories for the future.  I suppose we ended up with 7 keeper walleyes and a sauger, 1 nice perch, and a ton of smaller fish that we let go.  The DirecTV in the house made it nice and time sure flies when you are having fun.  We did watch the movie, Stand By Me, the 4 boys who head up the railroad tracks to find a dead body, it reminds me of growing up back home in Eleva.  We used to walk the tracks all the time and the trestle scene was right out of our memories crossing the trestle across the Buffalo River, especially when the train came roaring down the tracks.  That was over 55 years ago but it seems like it was just yesterday, time flies way to fast.  Well it was fun to spend the weekend with my 2 friends from back home, we had a blast and it was good to compare notes as to what each of us remembered what it used to be.  The last line in the movie Stand By Me says it all: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?”   I guess I am am very blessed that those friends are still in my life!
 

2019 in Review

Cold day on the lake

Last Sunday the 2019 walleye fishing season is officially closed in Minnesota except for the border waters of the Mississippi River as well as Lake of the Woods.  A this time the Mississippi River stays open season all year however the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods will close in early April.  Minnesota's 2020 fishing opener is Saturday, May 9th and Ontario's walleye opener is the following Saturday, May 16th which starts the whole process again. 2019 certainly wasn't may most productive walleye season but who's complaining.  These days I seem to spend more time fishing Ontario than Minnesota as last summer included 3 days on opener fishing Leech Lake and 1 day fishing on Mille Lacs Lake.  It certainly didn't help that my boat was in the shop for over 9 weeks getting repaired from hitting the reef on Lac Seul, sounds like a good excuse huh!  It was also a pathetic year for ice fishing walleyes as there were 3 days at Red Lake, 3 days on Lake of the Woods and 1 day on Mille Lacs. Meanwhile I fished 10 days on Lac Seul this year, not a record however it can be looked at as fishing 1 day a week for 10 weeks on Mille Lacs, sounds reasonable doesn't it!  I did fish 4 days of largemouth bass in the Alexandria area as well about 4 trips on the Mississippi River behind the house in my jon boat, when you add it all up it comes to about a fishing trip every 12 days or so.  I guess that makes it sound better and I am not getting any younger.  Of course a day fishing in Naples l at the dealer getting a number of little things taken care of and hopefully it will be ready this week as it's been there since the first of December and I'm getting a little anxious about storage, the batteries, and other stuff.  I did go help my  friend Bill Lundeen this Monday as he had a large corporate group out ice fishing and we scouted some areas.  A large heave developed a few miles out from the landing and prevented us from getting to some of the better areas but according to Bill it went alright.  The first picture is one of my favorites from 2019.  We were on Red Lake last January 27th and a rattle reel went off early in the morning.  Getting up and catching the fish I wondered what time it was as it was still pretty dark.  The clock said 4:20 AM but it seemed cold and no wonder, it was -28.5 outside the ice house.  Certainly this winter has had it's days below zero but nothing like last winter.  I leave it at that!

Record crowd at the Perch Extravaganza

Last Saturday was the annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  Usually a few of us get together and pull our wheel houses up to Mille Lacs, park them together and spend the weekend.  The Perch Extravaganza at Hunter's Point Resort is based on a perch fishing contest with the largest perch getting $500 however there are so few perch in the lake anymore, it has really morphed into a huge button drawing, you buy a button with a number and if they draw it you could win quite a number of good prizes including new ATV's, Generators's, coolers stuffed with fishing gear, and this year they had 3 new wheel houses.  The weather was fabulous and because of the cancellation of a few event's around the area, there were thousands of people attending.  Rumor has it they sold over 16,000 tickets so one's chances of winning were slim this year.  Never the less the anticipation is fun and as they say, you'll never win if you don't enter!  Also our group was worried about the ice conditions on Mille Lacs as the early snow and slush put a damper on things as the first year I attended we were flooded. Mark Applen has a small place just south of Hunter's and I met him there about 8:30.  We headed to Malmo to have breakfast then gathered our gear and headed out onto the lake.  I was surprised that one could dang near drive where ever you wanted, as well the ice was at least 30  inches thick.  We had never seen so many wheel houses on the lake, we estimated around 8000 houses.  It was a zoo as every piece of structure had a number of houses parked on top, literally there was few places to fish.  We did fish for a couple of hours, attended the drawing and headed back home.

One of the fishing shows I like is In Depth Outdoors as they have a new show every week.  A few weeks ago they were fishing in Pool 2 on the Mississippi River, just south of St. Paul. It is prompting me to get the jon boat ready as I remember fishing that area in the late winter with my friend Pete. It certainly might be worth a try. 

Big Walleyes But Not Mine!

Jared's 28 inch LOTW Walleye!

Last week we celebrated the fact that time does not stop, the problem is trying to make sure one is not left behind.  This year seems that there has been a little bit of this, especially for ice fishing.  Maybe it's just getting too difficult to trudge through the snow and slush, I don't know, it seems like I have a ton of excuses!  One problem is trying to figure out who to go with as I get older, it's always nice to have another person with to help in case one has any issues.  In the meantime it is fortunate that my friends share their fishing experiences and this week was no exception. The first picture is of my best friend, Kevin Aiona's grandson Jared.  His dad, Ben left his ice house at Springsteel Island Resort from our January 9th trip.  He has been back there 2 times since, once on Superbowl and last weekend.  Admittedly fishing has been slow on Lake of the Woods. They have been fortunate not to have the deep snow as well the ice thickness is approaching 30 inches.  Arriving last weekend, Friday was slow however on Saturday a big mark appeared above Jared's jig on his Vexilar.  Ben told him to lift it up and the fish, almost on script the walleye followed it up and smacked his lure.  Getting it up the fish was about 28 inches, a very nice walleye.  Of course Jarred struck a nice pose, I am glad he will be around when I get really old!  They really didn't get many fish this trip however Ben did head out to 16 Mile Reef, an area we fished years ago with Toby out of Arneson's resort.  Ben was able to get out there via his Polaris Ranger that has tracks instead of wheels.  I suppose he could have dragged his house out there, a good 10 miles, yet Kevin was with and they decided to stay closer to the known roads.  the story is that in another month the fish will move closer to the reefs and fishing will improve.  With Red Lake being a slush fest, Lake of the Woods has taken a lot of the pressure this year and maybe that pressure has had an effect on the slow fishing but it's hard to say.  There is talk about planning a trip after the first of March.  My friend Adam Mayerich is up with a bunch of guys fishing the Southwest side and am looking forward to talking to him when he gets back.

Kevin's nice Winnipeg Green Back Walleye

Another very interesting walleye picture is on from a fellow Team Walleyer, Kevin Jayson.  Kevin has fished a bucket list destination of mine, Lake Winnipeg, home of the giant "Green Back" walleyes.  Here is a giant that Kevin caught so I poached it from his Facebook post as this fish is quite amazing for sure.  Hopefully I will get to discuss with him the technique, location and details of heading to Canada to catch one of these beautiful fish as it certainly is impressive.  It would really be nice if one could haul a wheel house out and stay for a few days on the ice. Hopefully we'll have some interesting information by next week.  In the meantime one can only wish!  The bulk of my time is getting things cleaned up in the pole shed as getting the fishing equipment organized and waiting for my boat to finally get finished.  Also the weather continues on a roller coaster script.  In the 40's a couple of days, 4 inches of snow the next couple of days, -15 the next couple of days.  Thank the Lord we are not like Alaska where my friends report record cold (after a record hot summer) with temperatures dropping to -59... Uffda!!

FG Knot

So one of the things I am guilty of is once I get an idea in my head about a new technique for fishing, the tendency is to jump in with both feet.  I have never been much of a braided line user for jig fishing other than for ice fishing.  One of the advantages of braid while jigging is it doesn't exhibit the line twist like monofilament lines do. The negatives are it takes more finesse when setting the hook as braid has virtually no stretch and one can pull the jig right out of the fishes mouth very fast.  Also the braid is very visible and it can be difficult to tie new jigs to braid.  The standard way to overcome this is to tie a fluorocarbon leader to the braid.  This can be done with a simple swivel to make the braid/fluorocarbon connection or a more acceptable way is to tie the braid and fluorocarbon together as there are a couple of knots like the Alberto knot, or double Uni Knot however it is well acknowledged that the FG knot is the strongest knot as well as the smallest diameter knot to tie however after looking at the YouTube video's, it also looks like it's also the most difficult.  I am very focused on learning this knot and maybe heading down this path will make jigging for walleyes on Lac Seul a lot easier with less line twist.

Life's Milestones

My new 3 Insurance Cards!

Well this week I had the pleasure of celebrating my 65th birthday.  I remember when my grandpa Roy turned 65 then my dad, now me!  Certainly did not bring it in with a lot of fanfare as the last month, in between a couple of fishing trips, was filled with what seemed to be an endless task of applying for Medicare, cancelling my regular health insurance, signing up for Plan B so I can get an aftermarket Medicare Advantage policy as well as Part D, Drug coverage.  Now instead of 1 medical insurance card, I have 3 of them....one for Medicare Part's A and B, one for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Advantage policy, and one for BCBS's Part D drug plan.  Just more stuff to lose!  Admittedly I was surprised that my current total Medicare cost is quite a bit higher than my standard Medical insurance but that's another story.  It's quite a feat just to make sure everything is paid for so there is no lapse in coverage.  Also the US Government is not very forgiving on the sign up dates.  I did it on line and although it was easy, I got a call to verify my information.  A little research shows that according to the records their are 6,500,000 social security numbers being used who's age is 112 or older.  Well documented organizations state that there are only 42 people in the world older than 112 so there is definitely some fraud happening here and it's certainly costing all of us our rightful monies that both ourselves and our employers have paid in over our lifetimes.  You wonder why they say Social Security is going broke!...Ok, enough of the soapbox however it is a good reminder that if you have yet to turn 65 do your research as it will pay off, or call me, I got a lot of experience!  Either way the worst thing is the need to switch pharmacy's as my current one does not have a contract with BCBS...ugh!!  Oh well, I have all this time right!  I'd rather be fishing.

Keeping it looking good!

Speaking of Fishing I got a call from Lake Area Canvas, the canvas place that originally made my Bimini top for my boat.  Back around December 3rd I dropped it off as it seemed like the zipper areas were coming undone and wanted them fixed.  It was ready so seeing it's on the way to my dealer Frankie's I decided to stop by, pay the bill a huge $21, and pick it up. Loading into the truck the next step was to head to Frankie's and drop it off but also to check the status of my boat.  Well, everything is done except to replace the bait well aerator switch control, and that should be done by early next week.  When I do get the boat back it will have a new front axle, all new 17 inch black chrome mag rims, all new tires, a new Minnkota 460 battery charger, all broken plastic trim pieces in the interior replaced, some outside cosmetic work done on some dock rash as well as cleaning up some previous repairs, a new console installed because the HDS 12 live would not fit into my existing console, The bait well switch fixed, she should be just like new.  Having paid for our annual 47th annual Leech Lake Opener, I am anxious to get things ready and going.  I am also anxious to try a few new techniques this year for walleyes, especially using the rattle type baits and swim baits like we did last October on Long Lake in Wisconsin.  It's sometimes difficult to give up something that is an almost guaranteed however catching walleyes with a new technique can be very fun and rewarding for sure and my goal is to give it an honest effort. these include Rapala's Rippin Rap ,  Jigging Rap, and Slab Rap, Salmo's Chubby Darter, and Lindy Glow Streak along with a few others.  We are only about 2 months away from open water and because of the early snows the ice thickness is minimal so Ice out could be early!