Lead Line Success

This last week saw 2 excursions to Mille Lacs, taking advantage of the coming full moon which occurred on Tuesday.  Reports of fish being caught on lead lines had got me excited about trying to perfect the technique enough to give me the confidence to put it in my arsenal of strategies.  The first opportunity came last Saturday evening when my friend Mark Taylor and his son Jared agreed to grace my boat.  Mark and I are the best of friends however as we have grown older things have gotten in the way of our time together.  In our early days we have spent many hours in the boat together and along with his dad Earl, have many great memories.  Although this trip wasn't going to be very long, the weather was beautiful as it was a wonderful day to get out for a little walleye magic.  Picking them up we headed for the new Liberty Beach landing on the east side.  With dead calm conditions, the comfort level was quite high.  Having learned of the hoards of fish on the north side of a popular gravel bar, we headed there to try our luck with trolling crankbaits.  Because there were 3 of us, the strategy was simple; 1 rod out on a planer board, 50 feet from the boat, while a lead line rig on each side would give us a respectable 75 foot spread of lures attacking the water.  The planer board rig consisted of a #11 deep diving Rapala Tail Dancer in a rainbow trout pattern (Hot bait for some reason) trolled 150 feet behind the board.  Diving to about 26 feet, this would be perfect for the 28 - 30 feet we were fishing.   The other 2 lines took advantage of the lead core line.  Literally a braided line with a lead center, it sinks 5 feet for every 10 yards (30 feet) of line let out when trolled at 2.0 MPH.  Because the line controls the depth, you simply put a 10 - 20 foot mono leader on and you can now troll shallow running crankbaits in the deeper hotspots on the lake.  Lead core line changes color each 10 yards making it easy to keep track of where you are.  This year I switched to Sufix line as the colors are both bright and have great contrast to give you a better handle on where the line is.  My previous line had black next to brown, almost impossible to read.  I guess a line counter reel would help however I sort of like the old fashion method.  On the 2 lead cores I attached a couple of #5 shad raps in Clown and Hot Steel color.   Within 3 minutes Mark reeled up this dandy 24 inch walleye, the first to be caught with the lead core method in my boat................success at last!

Mark and Jared were new to this method and thought it was pretty slick.  The speed of catching the first fish always puts the anticipation level for the second one on high alert.  Hoping to get one on the planer board to show them how that works, the flag on the board went down about 20 minutes later.  Planer board fishing requires some good boat coordination.   One has to remove the in-line planer board from the fishing line before you can reel the fish in.   If one is not careful, this is the place fish are lost.  The release was successful and the battle continued until Jared reeled in a nice 23 inch walleye.   The calm weather had us dialed into this strategy for sure.  With an hour left before we would leave for the reef to do some at dusk casting, I noticed my blind side rod was doubled over and without hesitating I grabbed the rod.....my turn!  My second fish hooked on the lead line, it was exciting to reel in.  Finally seeing the fish, it was about 24 inches before a LDR occurred.  Long Distance Release is really good for the fish but terrible on the ego.  Therefore there are no pictures of me to complete the trio.  Oh well, it was great to get Jared and Mark out.  I tend to give Jared a hard time but never the less he is always smiling.  When in High School, Jared had an assignment, write a biography of someone important in your life.  He asked if I would be that person and requested an interview.  Agreeing only if I could see his finished product, he finished his paper and sent it in.  Jared is a shy sort and after a couple of months I pressed him to see his finished product and grade.  Relenting, he sent me the manuscript by mail.  Often one never realizes his impact on the younger generation, however Jared articulated it beautifully.  Admittedly I am tough on the kid.  I expect him to talk to me, am always pushing him to express himself better, however I never expected him to say the things he did about his dad's friend, Dave.  I believe that kids today need positive outside influences like I did growing up in Eleva.  I had 20 dad's growing up from my uncle's Dewey, Keith, Jerry, and Loren, to my dad's friends Art Kelly and Daniel Van Pelt, to my teenage bosses Vic Wenaas, Wille Drangsveit and Ronny Semingson.  Each added a little to who I am today and I try to pass that on to those kids in my life.  As for Jared, he turned out to be a pretty good kid. 

My second excursion on the night of the full moon, Tuesday was with my neighbor Tom.  It was dang near gale force winds and after fighting for a couple of hours we headed into Indian Point and tried some casting.  Tom managed to have a nice muskie follow but that was it.  No fish, no pictures, just got my boat carpet washed was all.  Maybe the next full moon will be better.

This week was the one year anniversary of the passing of my friend Rich Allen and my brother-in-law, Mike Rombalski.  They say time heals however I still miss them both.  Weddings this weekend so we will have to see what the next post brings.

Catching Up!

I often recall something my grandfather once told me when I was a young man.  Enjoy your time now, as you get older you will find the time goes fast and the days grow short.  This last week and a half has been nothing short of that example.  We are definitely in the "Dog Days of Summer" with high temperatures, high humidity's resulting in thunderstorms every other day.  The bite on Mille Lacs has been less than stellar and even with the hectic schedule, I have managed to get out a few times.  As stated my neighbor Tom and I did fish the Mississippi River south of Clearwater Mn a couple of Sundays ago.  I broke my #1 rule when going fishing.............make sure your camera is with and ready.  Having caught a number of nice smallies we were relegated to Tom's film camera, which I am waiting for him to develop.  Normally at this time of the year the river is quite low and caution is the word.  Tom has a 16 foot Lund which is more capable in these conditions however the river was running very high giving us a lot of freedom to fish where we wanted to.   Wanting to fish minnows, we picked up a dozen and a half red tailed chubs at Actions Bait in Anoka.  They were on the small side but adequate.  The fishing turned out to be great with around 20 smallmouth caught, the largest around 18 inches.  One of my goals was to continue the experiments with the circle hooks and they were 100% effective for corner of the mouth hook sets.   Last Sunday Tom, his daughter Brenna, and I spent a quite evening catfishing on the neighbors dock again.  Upon arrival at the dock I discovered that every nightcrawler in my crawler box had evaporated!  Luckily I had some new Berkley Power Catfish Bait.  I never believe this stuff is as good as crawlers but it's all we had.  The river levels were still high and the bite was off but I did manage to get this very nice channel cat.  We tempered the slow bite with a few of Tom's favorite beverages, Moosehead. 

One of the things this hot an humid weather does is make the garden grow like crazy.  From sweet corn, to potatoes, to cucumbers, everything is ready to go.   The last couple of weeks has been the attack of the pickle!  I tried something different in my garden this year.  Having visited my wife's uncle Bernie's garden, he had his cucumbers growing on a fence.  Thinking that was a great idea I headed to Fleet Farm (the store where if they don't have it you don't need it) and bought enough 4 foot fence and poles to create my own vertical pickle producer.   As plants go cucumber plants are pretty stupid.  I had to train most of them how to utilize the nice structure which was erected for them.  It took about 2 weeks but they finally figured it out and have been reacting like crazy ever sense.  One of the nice things I have discovered about growing cukes on the fence is that pickles themselves are off the ground and require very little scrubbing before use.  This picture shows the fence post at 5 feet and gives you an idea of how prolific the plants have been.

This hot weather generates enough to do about 12 jars every 3 days.  Needless to say I am busy.  One of the best things I have discovered is Mrs. Wages Pickle Brine Mix.  Once again Fleet Farm saves the day and carries a number of these convenient brine mixes in Polish Dill, Kosher Dill, and Bread and Butter flavors.  Besides tasting excellent, the pickles are ready in little as 24 hours after processing.  Although I have dill, the classic flavor is in the mix.  Adding some chopped garlic, mustard seeds, and peppercorns to each jar, it gives it my distinct signature.  Using the Refrigerator Bread and Butter mix, the batch made last week is excellent.  The unfortunate part of all this is in a normal year with the heat, moisture, and deer, the cucumber plants would be done by now.  Up on the fence the plants get plenty of air and look to yield for at least another 2 - 3 weeks.  I hope some of you like dill pickles! Having to replant my sweet corn this spring and it is also finally ready to process.  Using my chamber vacuum packer to seal them in bag for freezing, this works very well for preserving.  If the deer continue to leave my peppers and tomatoes alone, salsa is next on the project list.

Hopefully I will have and August full moon report next week.

Charlie's Day

As happens every year my good friend Chuck Teasley shows up for a day of fishing on Mille Lacs.  A break from a week long family event, our trip to the pond gives Charlie a chance to catch up with his friends back in Minnesota.  One of the things that I look forward to is seeing Dan Hoene, an old friend of Chuck's from Duluth.  Dan skated on the University of Michigan's varsity hockey team and has a lot of interesting stories in the boat.  Last year he was fishing Eagle Lake, Ontario and did not make our trip.  This year Dan was able to join us for our annual outing and we took full advantage of him (what are friends for anyway?).   Our trip starts out the night before, gathering at the pole shed and loading up.  We like to head up early, catch dinner at the lake, staying in a hotel, assuring an early start in the morning. Like last year we again stayed in my friend Mark's ice house.  More like a small cabin, Dan was skeptical.  Although I assured Dan that the ice house had air conditioning, he had his doubts as a room at Eddy's sounded a whole lot better.  Upon arrival we heard no complaints.  Chuck and I have many things in common including open heart surgery.  After last years fishing trip he returned home meeting his cardiologist the next week only to be told he was not leaving and scheduled a quintuple bypass surgery immediately.  Our scars are quite visible and we used them to our utmost advantage.  It took little to convince Dan that both of us had 10 pound lifting restrictions as a result of our surgery and we needed his help.  For the next 24 hours we never had to lift anything as our good friend did all the work from carrying coolers to tackle boxes to unloading everything.  We were going to eventually tell him but it was so nice not having to do anything and watching him be such a sweetheart was touching!  In the end he left before we could fess up so if you read this Dan there are 2 things, thanks for being such a good sport and don't even think about missing next year.   The first picture from left to right is Dan, Myself, and Charlie.

After having breakfast in Isle, MN we headed to the landing north of the casino.  The wind was out of the west north west and being on the west side of the lake would prove to be more comfortable.  Meeting us on the lake would be a friend of Chuck's he met in St. Louis,  Mark Setterstrom.  Charlie is a Infant Swimming Resource instructor teaching children as young as 6 months how to survive an  accidental fall into water, such as a pool.  He had taught his children as Mark is a player for the St. Louis Rams football team.  Fishing was painfully slow as we drifted Seguchie Flat.  A mistake on my part, I had forgot to put in additional gas in my boat.  With a strategy of trolling all day, I did not want to take a chance and had to go in to get some petro.  We decided to put Chuck in Mark's boat before we finished our drift, then go in.  I had a few extra trolling rods and suggested to Mark they try off the flat using a rainbow trout colored Reef Runner with 150 feet of line out.  Away they went as we finished the drift.  5 minutes later we drove by as we headed to shore only to see them acknowledge a released 26.5 walleye after 3 minutes of trolling.  I looked like a genius.  As happens, this omen was short lived and was the only nice fish caught between us.  We actually snagged an 18 incher later in the day but this was it!  Here is Mark's nice fish.  We still had fun fishing as there was a whole year to catch up on things.  I had the pleasure of meeting Mark and maybe one day can fish with him again.  We finished off with dinner at Chico's, double taco night, 6 for the price of 3.  Who can beat that!  A special thanks to Mark Applen for the use of his ice house. 

I did get out Sunday as my neighbor Tom and I hit the river for smallies.  He has some pictures I am waiting for as my camera was dead on arrival.  Hopefully I can post later this week as we did very well.

An Evening on Lake John

Lake John is a small L shaped body of water just west of Annandale MN.  I was introduced to the lake over 30 years ago by Tim Guzek, a good friend of mine.  At the time our quarry was northerns fished with a bobber and medium sucker minnows.  After a successful day of catching pike and crappies, the lake became on of my favorites.  Over the years there has been many successful trip  bagging mostly crappies and sunfish along with the occasional northern and largemouth bass.   It was such a good lake that one year we decided to put a permanent ice house on the ice.  Fishing was great  and we had a wonderful time.  That year was exceptional and the snow piled deep on the lake.  Our house was not very sturdy and built on a simple 2 x 4 frame.   It got to the point where the weight on the ice was heavy enough to cause the water to gush up through the holes drilled in the floor.  Towards the end there was about 3 inches of solid ice covering the entire inside of the house.  In Minnesota one needs to remove their ice houses by March 1st.  The house was definitely stuck to the ice.  Our first strategy was to pour rock salt on the ice covering the floor in hopes to melt it away.  That actually worked pretty good as we came back the next day and the ice was gone, melted and drained away.  Hoping that it did the same for the ice below the floor, no such luck, it was still frozen solid to the lake.  As we were chipping away a young man came by and asked if we wanted some help and claimed he could get it free.  You just need to buy me a box of 30-06 shells and he would take care of it!  Chipping in we bought the shells and returned to the lake where he proceeded to shoot rounds through the floor claiming the bullets would shatter the ice and voila.  Well 20 rounds later and severe ringing in our ears proved unsuccessful.  We ended up tearing the house down side by side and dismantled the floor.  Totally ruined but off the ice, that ended our experiment with permanent ice houses.

Today I still enjoy a yearly trip to Lake John, hoping for some nice crappies and sunfish.  Last Sunday night my neighbor Lory Brasel and I did just that.   Lory was interested in getting some northerns as I was looking for anything that bit.  Although we did not slay the fish, we did accomplish our goals.  Taking his lund it was nice to have someone else take the controls.  Lory got a couple of small northerns as this one he is holding while I nailed a few crappies, sunfish, a number of small bass and a larger one which I am holding.  Nothing too large it was nice to get out for a few hours.  It was a peaceful way to spend last Saturday night. I will have a report on my annual trip to Mille Lacs with Mr. Teasley in a few days.

The Catfish are Biting

Finally arriving home on Thursday, my first encounter was with a snot nosed Custom’s agent standing in the exit area just outside the airplanes door. About 150 steps out of the jet way I suddenly remembered where my Japanese tea I had bought in Narita was, still in the overhead compartment. Passing a “too young to have a uniform on” Custom’s guy who was giving a family grief because he could, I approached from behind tapping him on his shoulder and asked if it was OK to re-enter the plane to retrieve my stuff. His first words were Okay, which was all I needed to hear as my next steps were against the flow of people. Just as fast came a “Hey get back here, where do you think I am going?” Looking him straight in the eye my response was, “Look, I asked you a question and YOU said OK, what do you think that meant?” He decided to lecture me on coming up from behind and tapping him on the shoulder then, which I replied, stay on topic, why did you say it was OK then? Obviously frustrated by his immature authority, he finally gave me the right procedure, which I kindly thanked him and as I walk away told him to take a deep breath! Immigration is always fun as they are pretty good at asking a few well placed questions. Traveling with my beloved Packer Hat, he asked if I was from Wisconsin which prompted a quick Yes Sir! Where was the next question; Eleva! And where was that? South of Eau Claire. I am sure he was a fellow Cheesehead as we are always curious.

The weekend was pretty much spent readjusting to the time. Jetlag is a real problem as one’s schedule has shifted 13 hours. Once in China it takes a few days to stop getting up at 3:00 in the morning as well the same issue when you get home. There are many theories as to how an minimize the effects, vitamin C, lots of water, stay up as long as you can, however I think the best way is to have a few stiff drinks before you go to bed. I slept well on Thursday night, Friday I was up from 2:00 – 4:00 AM, and Saturday night was a good 13 hours. Slept like a baby last night as I am heading for a customer supplier event in Ft. Collins Colorado on Wednesday. One nice thing about flying into Denver is both the mountains and they have a Bass Pro Shop near the airport. The store is much larger than the Cabela’s near me and is a must stop. The word is that Bass Pro was going to build a large store at the Mall of America, in Bloomington MN but I am sure the recession had put a damper on that plan. Word is with the improving economy, it finally might get built. Although there is plenty of competition in the Twin Cities area, a Bass Pro would be a welcome destination and would provide a better variety of brands to choose from. We’ll see.

Not having the energy or the will to load the boat up and drive an hour north, my plan was to get away for a couple of hours and fish the river. My neighbor Brian Holcomb has a nice dock with a bench seat in the shade, just perfect for a relaxing evening. One thing about fishing the river is one never knows what you will catch. Targeting catfish on my last trip, all we caught were carp and suckers. On Sunday night it was a catfish slaughter! Fishing with crawlers, I decided to try a small freshwater circle hook. Originally bought for bobbering walleyes, I had not had the chance to try them. Circle hooks are unique in the way their point is facing the hook shaft. They work as the hook is dragged out of the fish’s throat and rotates when it comes to the edge of the mouth, resulting in the classic “corner of the mouth” hook set. This is the preferred hook for fishing halibut as the fish will swallow the bait. As the line tightens up the hook is dragged out and I have yet to see one that is not hooked as stated. This results in a 100% safe hook out and release, assuring the survival of the fish. The key for success with circle hooks is to NOT set the hook rather simply tighten the line. Simply reeling in the line is adequate to get a great hook set. Catfish are notorious for swallowing the bait so I was anxious to try them. A glob of crawlers and 5 minutes saw my first tap. Instinct took over and I set the hook on a nice 15 inch channel cat. Unfortunately it was hooked deep……1 for the frying pan. Deciding that didn’t work and determined to prove the hook’s effectiveness, all future strikes would be met with a simple reeling in the line technique. Rebaiting and 5 minutes later another opportunity presented itself. This time a simple few turns on the reel handle and the fight was one. This time it worked, hooked in the side of the mouth guaranteed a successful release of another 15 inch channel. For the next hour and a half the method proved effective as at least 10 catfish, all hooked in the corner, were either released or became part of my dinner later that night. The top picture is my largest catfish, about a 20 inch channel. I have included a picture of circle hook as you can see its unusual shape, and of course leave you with the moon rising over the river, something I never get tired of. Next weekend I will be busy with helping my sister-in-law move however Charlie is coming for his annual visit. We will be at Mille Lacs doing a little lead lining. My report will be a few days late however hopefully it should be worth it.

Quick Post from Hong Kong

Having arrived in Hong Kong, we are keeping our fingers crossed that our flight in the morning will leave on time.  The hotel slid a report under the desk warning of the pending tropical storm due to hit about the exact time we are to take off.  The last few hours it has moved more west, which will work in our favor.  Although Hong Kong is now controlled by the Chinese, they still allow a full access to the Internet.  In celebration of getting back to some sense of freedom, an update was appropriate!  Keep your fingers crossed my flight doesn't get cancelled and soon I will be drinking a beer at the Tokyo airport.  I leave you with a picture of the eels available for dinner from the restaurant we were at on Thursday night. 

Pigging Out in China

Well as I had heard, China's censorship has blocked Fishin'' With Dave or any Blogspot address from the common people of China!   Apparently the Chinese government is worried about the political slant of walleye fishing in Minnesota, go figure.  Checking on http://www.youtube.com/, this too enjoys the proverbial, website not available.  There is a way through my work desktop however that connection is incredibly slow and impossible to utilize. Today I am in Dong Guan, Guangdong, China, north of Hong Kong at one of my closest manufacturing partners.  They are a Taiwanese company and can link their Internet through the home office in Taipei.  Because Taiwan has no restrictions on web surfing the blog is coming in clear and fast.  This allows me to post an update from this far away place. 

A great topic and one of the things I always look forward is the food in China.  Our first real restaurant was in Wuxi, a city west of Shanghai.  Chinese food can differ greatly based on geography.  In the US Chinese food is usually Cantonese style (chow mien, egg foo young, moo goo gai pan) or the spicer Sichuan style if you like it hotter.  Cantonese foods have their origin in the south of China, north of Hong Kong.  In China their are subtle differences that transforms a variety of foods into completely different dishes.  In Wuxi the sauces are darker and sweeter than in in Shenzhen.  All items are served family style and often are put on a large Lazy Susan to eliminate reaching over the table.  Appetizers include bamboo spouts, dried fish, pickled vegetables and chicken feet, pictured here.  Most of the chicken feet (a very popular dish) in China comes from the United States.  I have previously wrote about growing up in Eleva where the chicken processing plant was the main industry in town.  Digging through barrels of entrails to pluck chicken livers for catfish bait, we encountered thousands of chicken feet, cut cleanly off and headed for the rendering plant.  Today those feet are cleaned, packed and sent to China where they remain very popular.  I have tried them and although they have a nice flavor, it is like eating pure gristle.  As they say, when in Rome............

In more fancier restaurants, one can often pick your own food which are swimming, crawling, or walking around.  It almost has the feel of walking into a pet store.  This trip saw everything from Ring Neck Pheasants to turtles.  It is kind of interesting to look at and of course you are assured that your main dish is extremely fresh.   Breakfast in the hotel's is usually served buffet style with a cook assigned to create omelets and eggs to your liking.  Often it is a mixture of traditional cereals, breads, bacon (called smoke meat), rather bland sausage with a good variety of fresh fruits, mainly watermelon, banana's, and oranges, with some exotics like Dragon Fruit, Lychee, and Longan.  The picture on the right is Longans for sale at a grocery store next to the hotel.  They are almost grape like with a hard skin that needs to be peeled off to get to the translucent fruit inside.  Mixed in with the traditional American style breakfast food are more unusual Chinese dishes.  Dim Sum (a number of small individually dough wrapped foods), smoked fish, porridge, steamed vegetables can be present however this dish caught my eye.  If you look closely at the small sign explaining the dish in English it says "Mouth watering and authentic drug".  What the hell is that!  The best that we can deduce is the mouth watering part is the chopped green vegetable and the authentic drug is the strips of mushrooms mixed into the dish.  Mushrooms have been known to have medicinal properties in China, but then again who knows! 

Tonight we will go back to the restaurant we visited last night.  It serves Taiwanese food, somewhat different than the surrounding area.  Last night we had cold squid with pickled red onions, salt pork with vegetables, a spicy chicken dish (the chicken was mostly bones as my comments were translated to the cook, he sent a new dish with more meat!), squid balls (no, not what you are thinking), bamboo shoots with mayonnaise, fried oysters, fried rice, and plenty of Tsing Tao beer.  I can't wait!

Tokyo With Love!

Bored out of my mind, I decided to fire up my computer on the plane and write my week’s post from 40,000 feet. We are just over Alaska on our way to Narita (Tokyo) hoping we catch our connecting flight to Shanghai. I told my friend Jeff King to wave as we go by! The trip started off delayed as one of the engines on our 747 didn’t start. Being assured this was a normal situation, it would take 10 minutes and we would be off. A half hour later the pilot announced they switched a wrong valve and now that needed to be rectified. An hour later we were assured of taking off in 15 minutes but not to worry……..they’ll pour the coals to the engines and what is suppose to take 12 hours will now be 11 so we will only be about 45 minutes late. Well in Narita one doesn’t just get off the plane in a secure area and get on board your next international flight, you go through security again. I am not sure I understand the logic, but the same restrictions apply, no liquids over 3 ounces per container. Anything brought on board from Minneapolis better be empty or it goes in the garbage. I suspect they will hold our plane as Shanghai is a final destination meaning it won’t be turned around till the next morning (we arrive at 8:20 Tuesday evening) so it can be late.

I am on a Boeing 747-400 Jumbo Jet, the work horse of overseas air travel. These were the money makers for Northwest Orient, who basically owned the routes from the US to Japan and points from there. Now that Delta has acquired Northwest, they have spruced them since my last trip to China in 2008. New leather seats, upgrades to the overhead storage, and the projection TV’s have their colors in sync for once. Although not totally full, its close as these birds will hold about 400 passengers. When I first started flying to China, all drinks were free for the first couple of years however that stopped about 2004. Now that Delta is in charge, beer and wine are back on the complimentary list. We will get 2 meals and a snack before us land. Because the flight has a substantial amount of Japanese passengers, our meals usually consist of a teriyaki based main course with shrimp cocktail, rice, and green tea. I loaded up with Jack Link’s Beef Jerky and the nut mix from the Sky Club. At this point we have been in the air about 7 hours. Being 11:00 Minneapolis time I fight the urge to fall asleep as my theory is to stay awake till we get to our final destination. Being up for at least 24 hours usually helps me fall asleep the first night. I watched the first movie, Invictus, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. It was pretty good. The next one is Dear John, which prompted me to write, if you know what I mean.

As far as fishing this week, I didn’t have much time to do anything. On Saturday we ran to my sister-in-laws to help her look for a car. It turned out to be a pretty funny situation as we spent at least 3 hours at a Ford dealership in Onalaska, Wisconsin test driving a Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Edge, Hyundai Santa Fe, and a Cadillac SRX. Looking for a crossover SUV the Ford was the best, even giving the Caddy a run for its money. Unfortunately for the salesman he had little inventory and had sort of discounted us. While waiting in their customer lounge I noticed an ad in the paper for Brenengen Ford in Sparta, they had advertised 17 new and used Edge’s in stock. Closing at 4:00 we took off arriving with about 15 minutes to look. Well that’s about how long it took to find a fabulous 2009 model with all the bells and whistles for about $8000 less than we were quoted just a hour ago. To top it off they gave her double what the other store would give for her old car. It is amazing what 20 miles and a different dealership can make. Sunday saw me tying up the loose ends around the house, mowing, tilled the garden, finished my planting, and packing. Fishing remains strong, however and it has been announced that Mille Lacs will move the slot size you can keep by 2” upward. It will go from having to release all fish under 18 to under 20 inches, sure just when I leave!

I am in Tokyo right now as my flight to Shanghai is delayed for an hour.  I have taken 2 pictures, one of the greatest beer machine in all the world.  It tilts your glass then fills it down the side.  About 3/4 full the glass tips up and another nozzle fills it with foam to finish it off with a great head.  The second is me in my travel garb.....aka my Green Bay Packer Hat.  People the world over recognize this as I have already got a thumbs up here at the Narita Airport.  I hope to post from China however friends say that my site is blocked in China.  We'll see.  It's 5:00 in the morning Minneapolis time and I have to go.  Later!

Summer's Flying By!

Summer seems like it's whizzing by at 150 mph.  It's as though trying to get out fishing is almost work these days.  My landscape project is sort of in a holding pattern until I get my design done from the local nursery.  Having had to replant my sweet corn as I think I burned it with starter fertilizer, it almost made the "Knee High by The Fourth" requirement.  My raspberries have almost come and gone, and the two whitetail bucks have made a smorgasbord out of the majority of plants that have been growing in the garden.  I have been enjoying fresh blueberries as I beat the birds to them.  With over 2 inches of rain the last 3 weeks, my John Deere has been racking up the hours as well.  With all that is going on I got a hair up my you know what and bought a motorcycle.  A lot of us used to ride when we where young, then either stuck with it or abandoned it for "safer" activities.  I had always wanted to get into it as I enjoy the outdoors, understand the risks, and have lived past those crazy years!  Near the house was a 2007 Honda VLX600 Shadow for sale.  It had 325 miles on it and it looked like a good bike to get re-established again, so I bought it.  Lacking a motorcycle endorsement, I did get my permit and plan on taking a riders course next month.  It's one of those things, if it becomes enjoyable I can always move up and if not, it will cost me little.

Sunday saw me back up on Mille Lacs with my friend Tom and his friend from Colorado Springs.  The wind was set up to blow exactly like the direction last week be by the time we got set up it had died.  We fished Sherman's again and picked up a few before heading to the 7-Mile Flat.  I don't remember marking so many fish and catching so few.  We did try bobber fishing for a while and caught a few over the slot but nothing really big.  My other friend, Tom and his son Cory were parked on a deep reef I suggested as we headed over to see how they were doing.  Corks were going down left and right but they were pretty small.  My guests were ready to leave a little early so I dropped them off at the landing and headed back to the reef.  Having caught a few more fish, the bugs descended on us like the plague and we headed out early.  Ending up with a couple of meals worth of fish we did ok.  A few days later I learned that my friend John had done real well on a flat just north of us.  Because I had 3 in the boat it was a little tougher to make the right presentation.   Hopefully the bite continues for another week.  Here is Tom with one of his larger walleyes. 

Next week I have the pleasure of returning to China for 10 days of business meetings.  It is extremely hot and humid this time of year and frankly I do not look forward to it,  however these things must be done.  It is a 22 hour flight to Shanghai with our return flight out of Hong Kong.  I should have stories of my adventures as there is always something interesting a half a world away!

Nice Ending to June

June has turned out to be a pretty good month for fishing walleyes on Mille Lacs.   The early spring put the fish in a pretty aggressive mood for the month with the fish being somewhat deeper than they normally are this time of year.  I usually reserve Sunday afternoon's for my trips as the lake is less crowded and it gives me a chance to get caught up around the house.  Along with great fishing we have had excellent rainfall that has keep me busy around the house.  I am in the process of replacing all of my landscaping that was put in 18 years ago.  Because I still am feeling the effects of my surgery I have some help in the form of 2 excellent gentlemen recommended by my good friend Tom McAtee.  Antonio and Jose are brothers and farmers from just north of Mexico City and have been coming to Minnesota for over 15 years to work as landscaping laborers during the summer for a number of nurseries in town.  Saturday is their day to make some extra money and half a day on Sunday,  they have been a Godsend for me.  Together we have removed about 15 tons of rock, removed around 20 mature overgrown shrubs, and have the areas prepared for an all new look!  It always seems to be something.

So this Sunday was Lory Brasel's turn in the boat.  Heading up around 1:30, our usual stop at Lundeen's gave us some indication of the current bite status.  With the wind howling from the west-northwest, there were no shortage of white caps. It was an interesting wind as it was blowing hard enough to create a frothy surface however the size of the waves were not as large as I would have expected.  Maybe we were just lucky to be on the right side of the lake and the big rollers were on the south and east side.  Our first stop was a set of humps just east of the landing.  They have been a good producer however it was starting to get too late in the season to really count on them.  Catching nothing we decided to head directly to Sherman's flat, as reports have been good.  This meant however that we would be subjecting ourselves to a little more punishment.  Starting at the what is known as The Cut, we would fish the top edge of the flat, just where it drops abruptly from 24 feet to 34 feet.  This drop runs for almost a mile in a SW to NE direction, perpendicular to the days wind direction.  This is a great opportunity to use a technique called quartering.  Pulling night crawlers on spinner rigs, the intent is to stay on the top of the break.  If you put the motor in reverse, backing into the wind, the physics of it will push the boat almost perfectly at a 90 degree angle to the wind, allowing us to stay on the break.  It is pretty neat but unfortunately it did not produce any fish.  Getting beat up somewhat we headed to the north side of the flat where there is an edge running exactly parallel to the wind.  This would allow us to drift right on the break with minor adjustments.  This proved to be a great strategy as we started catching fish immediately.  The run was about 1/4 mile long and we were catching 1 - 2 fish every 15 minutes (basically 1 run).  The first 4 were over 18 inches and had to go back however in the end we ended up with 5 keeper walleyes and 5 very nice perch in the 12 inch range.  I was surprised that we did not get any nice walleyes over 20 inches.   I decided not to take any pictures of my fish as I was looking for something large which of course never happened.   Well, it never hurts to be a little over confident!  The top picture is Lory with his largest, a nice picture for my post. 

This weekend is the traditional 4th of July outing with my friend's the Tom's.  Hopefully the bite will continue as I have yet to get skunked on the pond this year.  I am leaving you with a nice picture of a musky caught my my good friend and former Team Walleyer, Eric Hayes of La Crosse.  Eric and his family spend some time on Lost Land Lake, east of Hayward Wisconsin.  This year turned out to be a fantastic year for his group as they did very well on the muskies, including this nice on he nailed on Teal Lake, connected to Lost Land.  It is great to see my friends send in their trophy pictures as I always say, So many lakes, so little time! 

Still Waters

Friday was another successful ENA golf tournament.  Our 8th annual produced 184 golfers, a record, as well some beautiful weather to raise money for a great cause.  My job was fairly simple.........help set up the proxy holes along with the hole sponsorship signs, take pictures of each foursome as they prepared to tee off the first hole, and spend money.  I did all three very well, especially the last part winning the highest silent auction bid on an Ardent C400 Fishouflage Walleye bait casting reel.  Although I had never heard of this brand, I was assured by the donor that not only it was a good reel but my winning bid was quite bargain.  Looking it up on the Internet that night proved to be an eye opener.  Made in the USA,  the reel is a high end product worth about $230.00.  Although my winning bid was about half that, I will probably have to throw in a few extra bucks to clear my conscience!  Saturday and Sunday morning was spent tearing out all of my landscaping which is 18 years old and about 5 years past due for being replaced.  Sunday afternoon was Mille Lacs time with my neighbor Tom Olson. 

My strategy for this weeks trip was to allow Tom a chance to call the shots for the first 3 hours then transfer the decisions to myself.  Tom wanted to try for smallmouth bass so we launched at Cove Bay Landing and fished the shallow reefs on the south side of the lake.  The rather large reef at the end of the Cove Bay outlet is a great place to start.  Really any part of the lake marked by hazard buoys spell smallmouth bass.  The water was somewhat stirred up from the previous days wind however what remained was quickly dying down.  There were a few active bass chasing minnows on the surface yet they were more interested in the real thing than the menagerie of imitations we threw at them.  Seeing a number of fish cruising the bottom, a 4 inch tube proved just as uninteresting to them.  After hitting a different reef we simply gave up on the smallies as I suggested we head to Sloppy Joe's, a deep gravel bar about 2 1/2 miles off shore.  I had done pretty good on this spot a few weeks ago and it was worth a try.  Rigging up a bobber and leech it took about 5 minutes before this very nice 24 inch walleye took the float down.  With such a quick hit, I figured we hit pay dirt.  Ah, the joys of premature thinking.  Marking a ton of fish on my depth finder we only ended up with 3 more fish, all on Tom's line as I could only just sit and watch.  We kept one and released the other 2 as they were pretty small.  After trying a spot my friend Bill Lundeen was parked on, we headed to Anderson Reef to finish the night trolling Shad Raps.  Once again all I could do is sit and watch while Tom caught 2 more smallies, including this beautiful 19.5 incher as well as a nice 17.5" keeper walleye.  It's interesting that fishing 3 hours for smallmouth produced nothing yet post sunset trolling seems to be the ticket.  I have caught a surprising amount of smallies after dark, something that would have been unheard of 5 years ago.  In all it was a great time as I had not been fishing with Tom since prior to my surgery. 

We got a later start on Sunday as Tom's son had scheduled a phone call to him from Afghanistan.  A Captain in the Air Force, he is in charge of building infrastructure such as schools and roads.  It is a dangerous job, one that has Tom isn't particularly fond of yet he is tremendously proud of him and all the men serving in harms way.  Sending pictures of our weekend trip  to him was a nice finish to another successful fishing trip. This was the third time in a row that I had glass like conditions on Mille Lacs, a tough situation when everyone is saying that the bite is hot when the wind blows.   I leave you with another picture of the gorgeous sunsets on Mille Lacs.  Like snowflakes they are all unique and represent a welcome finish to a wonderful day.  It truly is a beautiful world.

Walleyes with Weber

Last weeks fishing report from Mille Lacs was nothing short of phenomenal.  My good friend Jon Bathke conveniently takes off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of each week during June to take advantage of the potential post spawn bite.  Reports from Jon included over 50 walleyes caught each day last Wednesday and Thursday.  Of course that talk gets my repaired heart a going and I knew that Sunday would be the day.  As luck would have it my old neighbor and friend, Roger Weber was working in the area last Friday and called to meet for lunch.  Never passing and opportunity to spend some time with Rog, we headed over to the new restaurant next to work, the Mango Tango.  They say that nothing will ever replace your experience with the first neighborhood you live in.  This was certainly true with my first house.  Being young and inexperienced, we counted on each other for help and support.  As neighbors, we each had our talents, me an electrical guy, our neighbor Troy, an excellent bricklayer, and Roger, enthusiastic laborer, we counted on each other for help and support.  As most things go time changes things and we all move apart.  Roger, Troy, and I continue to maintain contact with each other as there were too many good experiences to throw the friendships away.

Roger Weber and I had a lot in common as we both grew up working our way through the teenage years in a full service gas station.  Although Roger wasn't the most proficient fisherman I knew, he sure had connections.  Growing up in Aberdeen South Dakota, he was good friends with Tim Kessler and his family.  Bob Kessler owned the largest independent Super Valu store in the Midwest and had made a comfortable business for him and his family.  In 1989 and 1990 I had the great opportunity to be invited to fish Lake Oahe, a large reservoir on the Missouri River, west of Aberdeen.  Our 1990 trip was the most memorable as we were to fish with then South Dakota Governor Mickelson for the unofficial Governors fishing opener.  This was a private affair with the Governor, the Kessler family, Roger, a good friend Nels Johnson, and myself.  Staying in what I describe as the Kessler Compound, a house and 3 cabins moved to Akaska, South Dakota, it was a fascinating experience.  Akaska was a small town south of Mobridge, about 10 miles east of Lake Oahe.  Basically a one bar, one gas station town, at one time a cattle drive destination town,  it served well as a fishing camp.  At that time the Missouri was still experiencing the effects of the 1988 drought and the levels were down over 36 feet.  I found interesting was the boat landing was originally made to be usable as the lake first filled up, it became critical serving us as the levels went down.  Fishing was good however the lake had a 15 inch minimum size limit for walleyes.  One of the governor's staff came by my boat asking "Any Luck".  Responding that we were catching many walleyes however they were below the 15 inch minimum size.  I will never forget his next remark.............."Well you had better start keeping some of them, the Governor wants a shore lunch!"  I was more than happy to oblige and a shore lunch we had.  Being pretty proficient at cleaning the fish, that was my duty while the rest of the guys got the fire going and started cooking the potatoes, beans, with all the fixins.  I could not ever remember a better time eating fresh caught walleye, sitting on the banks of the Missouri River, and listening to the incredible stories Governor Mickelson shared about the history of the region.  Being a respected historian, we sat around the fire mesmerized by the tales of the days when cattle drives were the norm as the railroads forever changed the life in the west.  Unfortunately Governor Mickelson was killed in a tragic plane crash 3 years later, I feel lucky to have met such and interesting individual.

Meeting me at the house at noon on Sunday, Roger and I along with my good friends Tom McAtee and Mike Schuenke headed up to the pond.  After a stop at Lundeen's to get the latest info, we landed just north of the casino and fished the west side.  What ever the conditions causing the walleyes to go crazy earlier in the week had all but disappeared.  Maybe the cold front affected them as well the lake was like glass.   Fishing Rolands Flat, Sherman's Flat, the 20 Footer, excellent June spots prove fruitless.  I did get this nice smallmouth on Sherman's Reef, 20 feet of water in the rocks.  That's a lot deeper than I would have expected.  Heading to 4 Mile Gravel, we tried bobber fishing as one didn't even need an anchor to stay put.  There I nailed a nice 17.5 inch walleye, one for the box.  Deciding to finish the night back on Roland's, we anchored as Roger hooked this nice 20 inch walleye.  To big to keep it went back in the water.  The hit coincided with the wind picking up and after an hour we decided to leave with our single keeper.   Tom's boat had one as well, not the best day of catching, but a great day of fishing.  Spending the day with Roger reminded me why we have stayed friends for all these years.  Hopefully we can do it again.

In The Money!

Fishing Mille Lacs as much as I do often prompts the question from my friends and colleagues, "Do you fish any tournaments on the lake?"  Mille Lacs is a popular lake for both professional as well as amateur tournament events.   Professional organizations include the Masters Walleye Circuit, FLW Walleye Tour, and Cabela's National Team Championship.  This events are the big money tourney's with top rated pros like Gary Parsons, Ted Takasaki, and others with total winnings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The amateurs events include the Wave Wacker, various resort sponsored tournaments, and the Minnesota Tournament Trail (MTT).  My answer is always the same...............Fishing tournaments are too much work as I would rather just have fun.  True, I am pretty competitive in the boat and the thought had often crossed my mind yet the opportunity never presented itself until Sunday.  My friend Mark Applen had received a slot in any MTT walleye tournament as a charitable gift auction item for his Eric Nicolin Applen Charity Golf Event.  Not wanting to waste a good prize, Mark and I bought the position for the full amount, maximizing the charitable gift.  We decided that we would fish day 2 of the MTT on June 6th, 2010.  It will be a fishing trip I'll never forget.

The tourney was held at Hunter's Point Resort located on the east side of the lake.  There were a total of 87 two man teams registered  for the day's fishing.  The first 50 boats would leave at 7:00 returning at 3:00 while the second flight, boats 51 - 87 left at 7:30 returning at 3:30.  The rules were simple, 8 fish per boat allowed, 6 could be weighed.  This would help to accommodate the no culling rule and define each teams overall strategy.  Rules included only fish under 18 inches or 1 fish 28 inches or better.  This meant that if your fish measured 18 inches, you would be disqualified but a fish could be on the 28 inch line and be fine.  The money strategy was simple, catch 7 fish under 18 then go look for the hawg.  This way you would have your 6 fish to weigh and if you got a big fish you could swap it out and include it in.  Looking at the results from the day before, no one caught a 28 inch fish.  With the no cull and lack of big fish caught we decided to get 8 fish over 17 inches to maximize or position.

Mark and I did some prefishing on Saturday night to validate a possible location strategy.  It has been a deep water bite with most coming out of 25 feet and deeper.  Going out at 7:00 on Saturday night we checked out a shallow rock/weed spot in 10 feet of water.  In an hour we had 5 walleyes measuring in that sweet spot of 17 - 17.9 inches long.  We decided that would be a good place to start in the morning.  Arriving at Hunter's at 6:30 I signed the necessary paperwork, attached a ribbon to my bow eye, and had the boat inspected.  The first flight took off on schedule and we got out a half hour later.  Heading south we arrived at our spot only to see a boat from the earlier flight parked 50 feet from our spot, working the area.  Fortunately they were off the mark as we began to fish the weed line.   Within 5 minutes Mark had our first fish.  Keeping the net low, we managed to boat our first keeper while our company was oblivious to our quick strike.  After cutting them off as they approached, it became apparent to them that the fish were not shallow.   10 minutes later they fired up the engine and left, leaving us by ourselves.  Apparently they did not see us net our fish, foolish move.   In the next 3 hours we proceeded to get our 8 fish, with at least 5 of them over 17.25 and a couple in the 16+ range.  Almost all the fish were caught on night crawlers with spinners in 10 feet of water.  As stated, the rare 28+ fish prompted our strategy to weigh 6 fish over 17 and with a penalty for dead fish, we headed back to Hunter's to weigh them.  Being the first in, they were somewhat taken back but acknowledge we had done well.  Our fish weighed 10.71 pounds, good enough for fist place!  Done for the day and turning our fish over, we decided to try some lead line tactics.  Within 30 minutes the rain showed up so we headed back to load up the boat and watch the weigh in.  We knew a big fish would knock us out and as luck would have it a 7.56 pound walleye showed up.  After all said and done we ended up with 3rd, just 1.44 ounces behind the 2nd place team.  Not bad out of 87 boats.  Mark and I had agreed before hand that in the rare chance we would win, all monies would be donated back to the charity.  Along with a side bet, we netted $1046 for winning and $168 on the side bet.  Not bad for 3 hours of work.  Keeping the side bet money to cover our expenses, the balance of the monies went for an excellent cause.  Check out http://www.eric-nicolin-applen-fund.com/ to learn more about our charity.  As far as my ego, sorry it got a pretty good boost on Sunday, one I will never forget!

Mille Lacs 2010 Maiden Voyage

Having skipped last week's opportunity to hit Mille Lacs Lake, it gave me time to get a few things caught up around the house.  Memorial Weekend is usually my first real excursion to the pond and this year was no exception.  Monday is a great time to hit the lake as most of the traffic is heading south and the lake is substantially less crowded.  The reports from Mille Lacs has been excellent with a lot of fish being caught and a good number of them acceptable for the live well.  Mille Lacs has special restrictions due to the current Native American netting which goes on in the spring, during spawning, and before the fishing season opens.  These restrictions include a bag limit of 4 fish which must be under 18 inches with one allowed over 28 inches.  In the past 5 years the average walleye was exceeding 18 inches and bringing home some fish to eat was difficult.  This year has started out much better with many slot fish available.  The Minnesota DNR regulates the total amount of fish harvest based on the Indian harvest and available sportsman harvest.  The last few years the total harvest has been less than half of the total allowed (around 460,000 pounds).  This year we may have the opportunity to utilize our full allowable take of fish.  The first picture is the largest fish I landed, about a 22 incher.

Deciding to go out of the west side, we headed for a deeper rock reef south of Sherman's Point.  My friend Bill Lundeen had insisted that we fish deep, 26 - 30 feet.  The water temperature was 62, a number I expected to be higher.  After 30 minutes on the rocks I called my friend Jon Bathke to see if he was on the pond.  He answered the phone but was at home.  A short discussion of yesterday's success changed my strategy.  Hitting a special spot on Sherman's Flat, I nailed a couple walleyes, one keeper and one to long.  Action was slow so we moved to another favorite spot of mine, The Cut.  Although we marked a ton of fish as well I had a very nice fish on, that was about it.  I finally conceded to Mr. Lundeen's suggestion, headed south and bobber fish the deep water gravel.  Picking a popular gravel bar, we anchored in 28 feet of water, away from the assembled crowd.  Using slip bobbers set about 18 inches off the bottom baited with a leech, I had our first fish within 5 minutes of anchoring.  The next 3 hours proved to be quite successful as we put 7 more in the box giving us a total of 8 walleyes with a couple of nice perch thrown in for a bonus.  One interesting experiment that I like to do is target the fish just below the boat which show up on my depthfinder.  My guests were a couple of frequent friends, Tom McAtee and Tom Emmons.    Mr. McAtee had some issues with his line so I let him use my bobber rig as I jigged directly under the boat, watching the jig and fish on m depthfinder.  It was just like ice fishing as I caught at least 4 walleyes this way.  In an interesting experiment, I have a very cool stereo system in my boat.  As I marked fish directly below me, I cranked the volume to a definite uncomfortable level (Lot's of bass!).  The fish never moved.  So much for noise scaring fish.  This picture is of my good friend Tom Emmons with a nice keeper walleye.

This weekend I will be competing in the MTT Walleye Tournament on Mille Lacs.  Held out of Hunter's Point Resort on the east side,  Mark Applen will be my partner in our attempt to capture the $5000 grand prize.  It should be interesting as I have never fished an open water tourney on Mille Lacs.  I will report our results next week with the hopes that both bank accounts will be substantially larger on Monday!

The Rest of the Story

One of the more interesting things we do for our Leech Lake Opener event is to try and take data on the walleyes we catch.  Ron Edberg puts this together as it provides a wealth of information on the numbers, size, and location of the fish. The graph above is derived by everyone recording the length of each fish caught over 12 inches. Because they count towards the individual points and team awards, it is pretty easy to get the guys to participate. The two horizontal red lines on the graph represent the slot limit on Leech Lake, meaning any fish 18 inches up to 26 inches must be released. Under 18 and over 26 can be harvested. The total number of fish caught was 314. Of that 235 were under 18 inches and were legal.  About 80 fish were over 18 with a nice number of them over 22 inches.  Certainly not as good as last year Catch Chart for 2009 Leech Lake Opener, we were surprised at the numbers of fish under the 15 inch size.  Last year fish slightly over the 15 inch size were quite numerous and we expected seeing that population shift upwards to the 17 - 19 inch range dominating our catch.  This years catch represents the all of those 10 - 12 inch fish that we caught a ton during the 2009 opener, but did not record them.  Note that the last fish on the right was my winning 26.5 inch walleye.

As I stated last week, the fish were quite scattered.  Many of the guys scored very well in the evening fishing the shallower 6 - 10 foot water next to Pine Point.  Although the larger females were found in the deeper water off the reef, schools of 13 - 15 inch males were still hanging around the shallow spawning areas looking for a quick meal.  Some of the guys did real well including Troy, who won the team award this year.  Troy's boat had Saturday nights catch totalling 19 fish with Monday night's hitting 22.  Most of the fish were those shallow males still thinking the spawn is on!  This year I concentrated on trying to catch larger fish.  A few years ago my partner Eric Hayes and I discovered a rock hump about a mile up the shoreline from Otter Tail point.  In the subsequent years we seldom saw a boat fishing this hump which topped out at about 12 feet, dropping to 20 at the outer edges.  I decided to try it this year and to my surprise there were about 30 boats on my "secret" spot.  Although I had caught fish on this spot in the past, with all the boats you could see that the action was steady, not fast, but they were getting some nice fish.  When we arrived, Ryan quick called me and told me to get out of his spot!  I had given him this way point a few years ago and he had the same idea as I did.  Before hanging up he confessed that my brother Steve, who was in the boat with him, had just lost a dandy fish appearing to be well over 27 inches.  All I can say is I have caught many 28 inch fish that measured just under 26!  It did confirm the bigger fish were there, however. 

On Sunday morning we did a draft (like an NFL draft) where the lowest point guy got to pick the boat he wanted to go in for the session.  It was an interesting way to mix up the competition and have the guys get to know each other better.  This carried over to Sunday evening where I had the pleasure of having Henry and his nephew James in my boat.  Now James and I are like oil and water.  We are about as opposite as you can get politically.  I will admit however that he did check out some of the facts I threw at him and admitted that I was right!  That's a great start.  We decided to head back to the where the bigger fish were being caught.  Stopping short of the were I wanted to fish, we got everyone ready to go and would use the electric to get us the rest of the way.  In 20 feet of water it took James about 3 minutes to hook into this beautiful 26.25 inch walleye.  This was the largest walleye he had ever caught and I could see dollar signs in his eyes, thinking he just it pay dirt as it would be the largest fish caught as of Sunday night.  Excited as he was, my experience said not to count your chickens before they hatch.  At the end of the tourney James was in second place.  Although I gave James a hard time, he took it standing up.  It was fun to watch him catch this fish as well having both the first and second place fish coming from my boat.  Nice job James!  Henry really enjoyed the night as I fired up the stereo as we rocked to the sounds of 1965, the year he graduated.

This week I caught up on some yard work then went to the Twins/Brewers game at the new stadium on Sunday.  I had a great time as the new Target Field is very nice.  Memorial weekend is coming up and that means only one thing, my maiden voyage to Mille Lacs.  Reports are the fishing has been phenomenal so I cannot wait.

Successful Leech Lake Opener

This year was the 37th annual Leech Lake Minnesota Fishing Opener for our group, Team Walleye.  The tradition was started by my friends Mark Mayerich, Ron Edberg, Mark Taylor, and Gary Ullom, in 1973, while I was still in high school.  Having started out camping it only took a few years to wise up and get a cabin at a resort.  Settling on Brindley's Harbor on the north side of Traders Bay on Leech, the group has been there ever since.  I started going up with these guys in 1990, 21 years ago.  Back then we had 13 guys with Ron doing the major planning, Mark Mayerich taking care of the food, while Mark Taylor and I were in charge of the beer.  Looking for the cheapest brands, we would buy a 12 pack a day for each guy, 3 days of fishing X 13 guys = 20 cases of beer.  I was never much of a beer drinker so at least 2/3rds of my allotment was available, and we still ran out by Sunday night.  Those were the days.  Today we have dispensed with the group providing the beer and concentrate on the essentials, food, lodging, bait, covered slips, and peripherals like hats.  It is much easier as our groups have varied over the last few years with 24 guys on this opener, a record.  My first picture is of my Brother Steve with a huge perch, the first fish we kept on Saturday morning.

Besides fun the main event of the trip is the Big Fish Contest.  When I first began to fish with the group, we could catch and keep any fish so it was easy to bring them in and have these fish weighed at the resort.  Today the size restrictions force us to release all fish between 18 to 26 inches and generally we release anything larger than 26 as well.  Therefore the contest relies on measured fish as the largest and is done in 1/8" increments.  The last 3 years it has taken a fish longer than 26 inches to win first prize.  This also includes a nice chunk of money as well as being able to possess the traveling trophy, which has been in play since 1978.  The winner of the Big Fish Contest has until next opener to get his name engraved on the plaque. We also recognize the 2nd and 3rd place.  In addition to the Big Fish Contest, we keep track of each boat's total catch and individual catch.  We award a prize for the best individual performance and best team performance.  It also helps to keep track of how many fish we have in the freezer.  I am delighted to announce that this years Big Fish winner with a beautiful 26.5 inch walleye is me!  This will be my 5th first place finish in 21 years catching Mark Mayerich's total after he clinched last years title.  As far as individual and team performance, although in the top 10, this year was a tougher year for Team Anderson.  Never the less the first place win made up for any issues of the total walleye catch.  My good friend Kevin Aiona, who with his partner John Felix are rookies, ended up with the top individual performance and 3rd place in the Big Fish Contest.  This picture is me holding the winning fish!

This year Team Anderson consisted my brothers Steve and Jon along with myself.  Steve has been my fishing partner for the last 4 years however it was Jon's first time with us.  Jon has had a tough life with a genetic condition that causes the arteries in his face to deteriorate, creating a number of serious problems.  He has had many operations to repair damage to his upper lip and palate resulting in the removal of one of his eyes and nose, as well as grafting tissues to his cheek area.  He is one tough hombre and both Steve and I are very proud of how he has dealt with this.  Jon and I don't agree on a lot of things but I still love him and it was fabulous to spend the weekend with him at Leech Lake.  Steve and I are what I would call accomplished fisherman and admittedly we expected it would take some patience with our younger brother.  Were we wrong!  I set him up with a nice St. Croix rod with a Stradic reel and he fished as an equal to both of us.  Here is a picture of a very nice 25.50" walleye that he nailed at a new spot I found on the lake.  Maybe it's just instinct,  but I was impressed how well he did, of course he is our brother. 

The forecast for this weekend is very windy and being away leaves me with tons of stuff to do around the house so we will have to see what develops.  I do have the opportunity to go and see the Twins in their new stadium, which will be hard to pass up. Next week I will have more to report on the opener so stay tuned.