A picture sent to me by my friend Eric brought back many memories of fishing for salmon on Lake Michigan. Here Eric is holding what would be described as a perfect Chrome King. Still in the main lake, not unlike Alaska, the fish have that "just out of the ocean" look of bright silver. A few e-mails back and forth acknowledged that they were fishing no different than I did back in 1986/87. Back then my good friend Gary Barneson was living in Appleton. Although he lives in Eleva now, he was an important influence on my early days of fishing. He was the first to invite me to fish walleyes on Mille Lacs, advised me on my first boat, a 14 foot Lund Deluxe with a 25hp, and he invited us to fish salmon on Lake Michigan with our small boats. It did sound exciting, fishing these exotic fish out of our 14 and 16 foot standard boats. After a few discussions I began rigging my 16 foot Lund Pro Angler for the trip to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. First order of business was to find some down-riggers and mount them. A 2" x 8" x 7 foot board, clamped onto my gunnels proved effective. Next was to get some flexible trolling rods and reels, along with a couple of Dipsy Divers and some lures like the Northport Nailers, J Plugs, and flashers with squids. Some PVC pipe to act as rod holders and we were rigged! Arriving at Gary's we spent the night, heading out early in the morning to fish. My friend Kevin and his brother Brent always accompanied me on these trips. We were fast learners. Having the ability to fish 3 poles each, we put down 2 down-rigger rods, a dipsy diver out of each side (these were diving planer devices that would take your lure down and out away from the boat), and a couple of long lines running close to the surface. It was a surprise to find out just how close in to shore we were catching salmon and brown trout. The average depth was from the surface to no deeper than 45 feet. 
Last week saw the addition of a new occupant for about 100 square feet of my pole shed. She was a little rough and had not seen any tender loving care for a few years but underneath the dirt, cobwebs, and bird droppings was something special. My late brother-in-law enjoyed fishing the Mississippi River out of Trempealeau Wisconsin and what better rig than a simple Jon boat. Never one to travel far a 15 hp motor was more than enough to get him across the river for some good old sheepshead fishing. Living next to the Mississippi River 160 miles north of Trempealeau, the boat would be a perfect craft for chasing Smallmouth Bass in the shallow and rocky section north of Minneapolis. Discussing the purchase with his wife Susy, we agreed on a price and I pulled it out of the old cattle shed. After re-inflating the tires, fixing the lights, and finding an 1 7/8 inch ball, I got home in one piece. A 14 foot square front Alumacraft with a 1976 Evinrude short shaft outboard, she needed a good cleaning, a new propeller, the trailer was begging to be repainted and have it's rollers replaced. Having repacked the bearings by Saturday afternoon it was off to the neighbors river landing for her maiden voyage and a try at some smallies.
Having never been on this stretch of the Mississippi River in a boat there was a concern about the overall water depth. The river is fairly high for this time of year but without a depth finder, it was a visual guess. I was looking for a transducer to mount on the back and use my ice fishing flasher, an FL20 for the open water. Deciding to take it with and hang the transducer off the side for a quick reference, there was a chance that this would be good enough. Well that didn't work very well so I brought the transducer back in the boat. As the boat came on plane I put the face of the transducer squarely on the aluminum floor with some water between then and voila, the bottom showed up on the flasher. This proved to be a perfect solution giving me a great read of the river depth. Traveling up 8 miles thru 2 known rapids I began the drift back fishing with a shallow fire tiger Bomber Model A. The first cast into the riffle area produced a 14 inch smallie, life is good. With the river high the boat drifted a good 100 feet before the fish was secured and released. Motoring back to the starting point the next drift produced another 14 incher. The 3rd drift resulted in a small northern pike. Realizing there was a lot of water to cover it was off to the next spot, a deeper outside bend in the river. A couple of cast later and a nice 17 inch smallie was on the line. Man do these river fish fight! I had my camera with but with no one there to record the fish, it was up to me. Here is my attempt of a self portrait, not great but you get the idea. The trip ended with a better understanding of the Mississippi from Dayton proper to Anoka and the lure of getting back to try it again. I continue to add a few things to the boat like a permanent transducer, a Rock Hopper (a lower unit device for protecting the propeller from the bottom), and a trolling motor. I love being a river rat again.
The end of August means one thing in Minnesota, State Fair Time. For 12 days the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul comes alive as technically the largest State Fair in the United States. Texas claims to be larger in attendance however it runs 30 days. Either way it's usually a zoo. My wife and I attended last Thursday to watch one of the guys who works with me compete in the amateur talent contest. Welly Chou is both an excellent electrical engineer and an accomplished singer. Born in Hong Kong, he came to the United States as a teenager, participating in a student exchange program where he attended high school in South Dakota. He has been here ever since. It is quite amazing as he has shed his Chinese accent and you would swear he just stepped off the bus from Nashville. Welly has won many singing contests including an opportunity to open for Keith Urban a few years back. Using my Canon pocket camera, I did a movie clip of his performance and Welly put it on Youtube. If you have time, check out his performance, it's pretty good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4hh0Rap_8A. 
Of course one of my favorite attractions at the Fair is the Department of Natural Resources fish pond. A concrete structure literally filled with fish of every kind, shape, and size. A fairly large pond I would bet there is a 1000 fish from muskies, trout, paddlefish, carp, quillback suckers, crappies, sturgeon and everything in between. I am not sure where they all come from, however I know many are caught by hook and line prior to the fair. The other interesting thing at the fair is the animal barns. Because Thursday was the first day of the fair, the main attraction were the sheep and rabbits. Holy smokes, I did not realize how many different types of rabbits there were and the variety within those types. Here is a picture of one that almost looks like a small dog. There were rabbits you could hold in the palm of your hand to giants over 16 pounds. I guess you can house train them to use a litter box so they must be smarter than they look!
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 
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.
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!
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
