Perch Extravaganza

Saturday was the 31st Annual Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza held at Nitti's Hunter's Point Resort on the east side of Mille Lacs.  It's an interesting event, a perch fishing contest with a ton of great attendance prizes like a couple of Ice Castle Wheel houses, 2 ATV's, I'd guess about 100 different prizes from ice augers to simple tackle bags.  Of course there are prizes for the biggest perch caught, $500 and they pay to 10th place, it seems like one could get lucky.  I have certainly had my luck in winning things lately with a very nice payout from what was assumed as my dismal 3-8 numbers on the Super Bowl.  Last year I met Mark and the gang, but arrived too late for the drawings, simply stayed over night in his wheel house as we fished for walleyes on the last weekend of the season.  This year it would be different, I'd meet Mark on the ice on Friday with my brother Steve and neighbor Pete, we'd get the house set up in the deeper water where we could fish all night and be ready for the start of the contest on Saturday morning.  Well, my last post predicted an interesting Friday as the storm dumped over 10 inches of snow from the Twin Cities north through Mille Lacs, and it was a mess.  What is normally a 90 minute drive took over 3 hours as Hwy 169 was pretty much glare ice all the way.  After getting bait at Lundeen's we met Mark and Russ on the ice, just off shore in a special area plowed for wheel houses.  As predicted, the plan was to get out to deeper water early in the morning so we waited.  The morning brought more confusion as the people in charge stated that anyone going out was at their own risk.  Around 9:00, and with no further updates we decided to head out on the ice, about 1.5 miles out.  Scott had left earlier and found a few lanes punched into the snow off the main road, long enough for your house and your truck, maybe not ideal but it was a place to fish.  A quick assessment with Mark and we decided to double stack our wheel houses in the plowed lane and park the trucks on the main road.  This would prove to be a smart idea on Sunday morning.  Mark drilled his holes and dropped the house, then I backed mine in, drilled and dropped.  The combined weight of the new fallen snow and our houses caused the water to immediately come through the holes, but we block our houses up with 4 x 4 timbers, it wasn't too bad.  Getting everything set we started fishing for that winning perch, and in 26 feet of water, it's possible as we had 4 hours to do it in.

Our own fishing show!

Almost immediately we started marking fish.  Steve decided to put his underwater camera down to see what was showing up on the Vexilar's.  First of all, it's amazing how clear the water is on Mille Lacs.  I have seen it this clear before however the camera really tells all.  With our holes being separated by around 10 feet, he could see the sucker minnow I put down for the possible big walleye or northern.  Behind that was my slender jig bouncing up and down, Pete's minnow hanging there to entice a fish, and perch, tons of them all 2 - 3 inches long!  The television in the house has a video input so we plugged the output of the camera into it and could watch on the big screen, There must be some interaction between the sensor in my camera and the frequency the television screen operates at which causes the squiggly lines, still you can make out whats going on.  The white lure the perch are looking at is a small jig with a waxie on it.  Underneath is a small flat rock covered with zebra mussels.  Just to the upper left of the white jig is my sucker minnow waiting to be inhaled and the black dot near the top is a sinker on Steve's line.  There are at least 9 perch scattered around as some tried to get the waxie in their mouths but were too small.  He did manage to catch one of these and based on the bite, the thought was that even something this small might win!  The problem is that the contest rules are quite loose with the official rules of catching it between 8:00AM to 2:00PM, it must be weighed alive.  It wouldn't be too hard to push those rules a little it but I think the weather conditions helped keep people honest.  I do know that 9th place was over a pound so we are glad that our 3 incher wasn't brought in.  Once the contest ended the drawing started at 3:00 and went on till about 5:30.  None of the guys we were fishing with won anything so we went into the bar and had a few conciliatory drinks, ordered some food for the evening, had a few conversations with the locals about the current situation on Lake Mille Lacs before heading back to the house.  By then the weight on the ice continued to flood the area and at 6:00 Sunday morning Mark was knocking at the door.....lets go, it almost up to my floor.  That's pretty amazing as both of us had our house blocked up on 4 x 4 and it was well over that at Mark's while mine had got to the top of the blocks.  As I said earlier, it was lucky we parked on the road as the flooding made it almost impossible to pull the house off it's resting point.  Mark had to get the jerk strap out and broke me free, then it was my turn.  I unhooked the house and returned the favor as his was even further into the water/ice mess.  It has reminded me that I need to get my strap and get it back in the truck as well, when these conditions exist it's nice to have a friend around.   Off the ice, we stopped and had breakfast before heading home.  Even though it was a lot of work we didn't get to fish where we wanted, didn't catch anything or win anything, but it's still always nice to get away and relax.

With the snow depths on the lakes what it is, I doubt the wheel house will see any more action this year unless Lake of the Woods opens up.  It's been plain brutal this week with low temperatures below zero since last Friday's storm.  It's hard to believe that the daily high for this time of year is now up to 32 degrees and the 10 day forecast shows no real return to normal.  This should be an interesting spring for sure, heck in about 2 weeks we go back to daylight savings time, uffda.    My John Deere 47 inch Snowblower has seen it's use this year and on Sunday I broke the main drive chain while cleaning up last Thursday's mess.  Hats off the Pete who let me use his heated garage to repair it in 65 degree comfort.  Sometimes when you work in below zero conditions you take shortcuts so working in the warm I was able to reset the sprocket alignment, the main cause of my problems in the first place.  The John Deere is ready for the next snow event, I'm glad because I'm not!  Looks like it will occur on Friday.  All inland walleye and pike fishing has closed as of Sunday so it's either on the border waters or panfishing from now till May. Winter obviously isn't done.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

4 foot snow banks

Well, if it isn't below zero here in Minnesota, it's snowing.  It's sort of like.........do you want beets for dinner or for supper..........pretty much a no win situation.  On Monday a storm came through the area and dumped about 5 inches total which put our total for the season to over 50 inches.  It finally warmed up to 45 yesterday however what that really means is another storm is about to come through again and sure enough, the National Weather Service is predicting 6 - 9 inches of snow tomorrow.  If this happens, we will go over the normal amount of snowfall we have for an entire year, which is about 55 inches total.  What's even more frustrating is we never had our January thaw, which is normal, and March is usually our snowiest month.   This has left the ground covered with at least 15 - 18 inches of real snow cover which is the most I can remember in over 20 years.  Yes, I know, when I was a kid we had twice as much and I would probably believe that except I was half as tall back then.  Well, the good news is the lakes should be full and the ground moisture will help the farmers get a good start on things.  One other thing that it helps is the snow does insulate the ice on the lakes and both Leech and Mille Lacs have ice thickness's less than it would normally be for this time of year, even considering the amount of below zero temperatures we have had.  With a little luck we will not have a repeat of the last years fishing opener where the ice was still on the lakes.   Back in 2012 I decided to retire my stand alone 8 hp dual stage snow blower for a 47 inch model that fits on the front of my John Deere X724 garden tractor.  It's actually a very nice unit, shaft driven and modular, it takes about 10 minutes to mount it to the tractor and with 28 hp behind it, the JD will throw the snow anywhere from 30 - 40 feet away.   In 2012 I used it twice for a couple of 2 inch snowfalls yet this year we are making up for lost time.  It's kind of fun blowing the snow and maybe next year I'll look at getting a cab for it. 

Thanks Sis!

On Saturday night I met my neighbor Pete at Tim's heated garage where solving the worlds problems start (unfortunately we never get that part finished!).  Pete suggested we head to Pelican Lake on Sunday afternoon, an invitation hard to resist.  Because it was somewhat nice out we decided to load up our portables into my trailer and fish outside first, having shelter if we needed.  I had been out there a number of weeks ago and did pretty well, but got stuck in the deep snow by myself.  Deciding that the snow should be settled by now we headed back to the same place and my assumptions were completely wrong.  Someone had plowed a narrow road out about 1/2 mile and at the end we decided to cross country it to my previously marked spot.  We went about 100 feet before the wheels started spinning, we were again stuck on the ice.  Luckily I had Pete with yet it wasn't quite enough as we needed the help of 2 cross country skiers passing by.  Unhooking the trailer and pushing it back to the hard pack, the truck proved a little more difficult.  After shoveling and pushing we were able to clear ourselves, relief!  Ahead of us was another individual that had the same idea as we did, stuck on the ice.  4 of us managed to push him out as well, we thanked everyone and decided to simply fish where we were.  Pelican lake is a shallow lake and we were in 10 feet, about the average deepest part.  It would prove to be a tough bite and although we marked a lot of fish, they pretty much had lockjaw.  I managed a few crappies but nothing to take home, we fished till 7:00 then left.  Much to my sadness the DNR is about to drain the lake and manage it for waterfowl.   If you click this link Pelican Lake Draining, this is today's article in the paper which outlines the plan.  I have complained about this in previous posts but it seems like it's kind of like pushing a rope.

Now, I'm not much of a Facebook fan yet it's hard not to exist these days without having some link to people you know.  So I get this e-mail, a notification that my sister Beth had posted something and I should check it out.  Pulling it up was this picture and a comment "Is this why U fish so much, LOL".
I guess she knows me pretty well and it was great to know she's thinking about me.  As I finish this post we are under a severe winter storm warning with the season's worst storm slated to start Thursday morning.  Some areas east of Minneapolis are predicted to receive up to 18" of snow, different than stated in my first paragraph.  Depending on the final storm track this could shift more to the west and we could be right in the middle of it.  Either way, I started the post complaining about the snow and I see it did a lot of good.  Friday looks like a clean out day then expect to meet my brother Steve at the house, pick up Pete and head to Hunter's Point on Mille Lacs.  Hopefully Steve can make it from Lacrosse safely and the resort will have enough spaces plowed out for our group of 5 wheel houses.  Either way we are simply not getting a break on the snow this year, uffda.

Stuck in LA

Fishouflage European Carp Pattern

OK, another idiot move by yours truly!  The second week in February is always the MD & M Show in Anaheim, California and my company, Precision Inc., always has a booth there.  It's been awfully cold in Dayton this year with at least 50 days where the temperature has been below zero, the 80 degree weather in California would be a welcome change.  Catching the early flight to LAX, it was a typical -18F when I left the house.  Looking at my flight options for the return flight I decided to book the redeye back on Thursday night, board at around 1:00 in the morning, the 3 hour flight would get me in Minneapolis around 6:30AM on Friday.  Good plan, saves me a hotel room and I could sleep on the plane.  Well, reread my plan......leave Thursday night at 1:00, well that is actually Friday morning.  The Thursday night flight booked was leaving 24 hours earlier than what was in my head so I had to rebook.  the Friday morning Redeye was full so I am finishing this  post from 35,000 feet, a few days late but at least I am back on track.  From my view the weather is very nice in Los Angeles yet that's about all that's nice.   It seems like there is a gazillion people living in LA as you can drive for hours and never leave the city.   One interesting thing about shows are the people you meet.  The booth next door to me was a German company and the guy in charge had just arrived.  After talking to him for a while we soon discovered something in common, both of us love to fish.  In Germany he often fished for European Carp as well as zander, similar to our walleye.  He also talked  about pike, whitefish, eels, but I forgot to ask about German Brown Trout.  Of course I had to describe ice fishing to him, something he thought was pretty interesting. Yesterday I showed him a site where he could buy shirts with a European Carp imbedded in the pattern.  Fishouflage is one of my favorite sites and I own a number of their products, mostly in the walleye or crappie patterns.  He thought that the carp pattern was quite interesting and took down the website.  I was not sure they shipped to Germany but promised if he had any trouble I would take care of it for him.  He'll probably be the first in Germany to flaunt his passion on his shirt, it was a lot of fun talking to him and we left with.....if you're ever in Minneapolis I know someone who could entertain you for a day of fishing.


Marbled Godwit

One thing I like in LA is to walk along the beaches and jetties on the ocean.  This time of the year the water is around 55 degrees and the only thing around are the crazy surfers in wetsuits and shorebirds.  My friend and colleague Mike Schubert was my host and after setting up our booth on Monday we drove around the area of Huntington Beach where he lives.  Mike has a boat harbored at the American Legion where there is a big area of channels and harbors in Alamitos Bay, Newport Beach.  Showing me the entrance to the harbor it was pretty nice as I saw Californian Sea lions swimming  up the entrance as well a number of shorebirds feeding in the surf.  One in particular called a Marbled Godwit, had a very and pointed bill, it must have been 6 inches long.  These birds would walk along the sand, just as the water receded, looking for bubbles, a tell tail sign of sand crabs their favorite food.  They would shove the entire length of their beak into the sand in search of their next morsel.  No bigger than a dime, they would pull the crab out of the sand and immediately eat it, it was fascinating to watch them work.  As well there were small birds, usually in packs of 6 - 10 that would race in and out with the waves, just staying ahead of the water.  With the surf's mesmerizing rythme, it was very relaxing to just stand there and take it all in.  Sort of like another world, behind me was the big city and in front of me was the peacefulness of the ocean.

It's finally threatening to warm up next week.  After the last 2 months of below normal temperatures, it will be a welcome relief.  I am anxious to get out and do some crappie fishing, maybe Sunday.  The Mille Lacs Perch Extravaganza is next week and I probably need to practice up for that as well.  The winter is going fast as we only have another 9 days of Minnesota inland fishing season for walleyes and pike, not very long.  Lake of the Wood stays open till April 15th and I might just have to make one more trip up north, we'll see. Planning for my Louisiana trip has been fun and I am really looking forward to catching and eating some redfish.  Our host, Dick called me as one of his guides read this blog and was interested in walleye, offering a trade, walleye fillets for flounder.  Seems like a good trade to me and I'll be bringing some with!

Maiden Voyage

Morning on Red Lake

After working on customizing my "new" used Salem Ice Cabin, last weekend was the scheduled maiden voyage.  I love rigging my boat, installing the electronics, trolling motors, and all those cool personal touches that make your rig yours.  The previous owner Terry had already added a few items giving me a chance to add to the conveniences.  One of the first things was getting an electric auger hookup for drilling holes inside.  Electric is nice because one doesn't have to deal with fumes yet self contained electric augers only come in 8 inch and I was interested in a 10 inch.  These are usually connected directly to a deep cycle battery yet in this house the battery is completely enclosed with no inside access.  Taking a clue from my Ranger trolling motor connections, it seemed a great idea to install a Ranger receptacle into the house and replace the large jumper cable style clips with a connector.  The battery is located in a sealed compartment under the sofa requiring me to remove it along with the wood panel cover.  Underneath was 3 compartments, one for the main battery converter/charger/fuse center, one for the battery housing (battery has no internal access to the terminals), and one just sitting there waiting to be taken advantage of.  It's is really wired nice as I cut a 2 inch hole in the front panel underneath the couch, bolted in the receptacle, and wired it into the main battery connections.  Looking at the third compartment area and thinking about it I decided to order a standard door from Salem and cut a hole underneath the couch and make a storage area for my cables and extension cords.  I have received the door but will wait till warmer weather to finish the job.  Next job, organize the storage for my broom, ice chisel, and shovel.  The house has an enclosed "bathroom" area so I mounted special wall clips to snap in each of the tools.  It's pretty slick.  I also bought a 6 gallon pail with a toilet seat for those needs away from modern plumbing.  There was a basic 24" TV but after being in Mark's wheel house, I enjoyed his larger TV with built in DVD, I replaced it with a 28" and an Omni Mount wall bracket that allows a considerable amount of movement and secure storage.  The Salem came with 2- 20# propane tanks....somewhat light so I replace them with 30#er's.  The dealer wanted $35 for a kit to change but it really only needed a longer threaded rod, $5.00 at Fleet Farm. 

Steve Comfortably Fishing!

With all the changes in place my brother Steve and Kevin Aiona met Mark Applen and I as we headed north to Red Lake with the plan to meet Keith Holtan at the resort for a weekend of walleye fishing.  Also our friend Russ and his brother Randy were already on the lake "saving" a spot for us.  Mark  had stored his house at JR's and arriving about 30 minutes before me, he was hooked up and ready to go.  After locating Keith at the wrong resort we paid JR and headed out 6 miles to the Center Bar for the Friday night bite.  Unfortunately the bite wasn't as good as it was at New Years and by Saturday morning Russ had decided to move in closer to shore.  Packing everything up, by 9:00 we were up and on our way to meet Russ.  Luckily Keith pulled his weight and we had enough fish for a Saturday Night fish fry.  Depending on how you look at it, "un"fortunately Keith had to leave early which with one less mouth to feed allowed us to really pig out on the fish!  It was great to fish with him again and I am sure it won't be the last this year.  Heading back to the shacks after filling ourselves with fresh deep fried walleye, we settled in for the night with the plan to head back south by 9:00 Sunday morning arriving in time for the Super Bowl party.  Fishing stayed pretty uneventful through the evening with a few 13 inchers being caught but that's about it.   One never knows if it was smart to move back in but that's water over the dam.  It was a great time to be with everyone and the next planned trip is the Perch Extravaganza at Mille Lacs at the end of the month.  One thing I learned was my assumption that the propane valve was dedicated to which tank you have it set on was wrong.  On Saturday night we ran out of propane at 4:00 in the morning and I had to get up and switch tanks via the valve.  Apparently if I would have just opened both cylinders, the valve would have automatically switched them preventing the furnace from shutting off.  At -20F, that would have been a lot nicer!  On the other hand the stars really put on a show in the darkness of Red Lake, cold and crisp and clear.

Russ and Shadow

All in all I really like the wheel house.  We got the setup and tear down times to about 30 minutes, not bad, especially when we worked as a team, one drilling holes, letting the electric jacks down, banking with snow, cleaning the slush out of the hole, and getting things straightened out.  With a heavy travel schedule in the next 4 weeks as well as the deep snow on the lakes, there may only be a few more opportunities to get out on the ice but then again things can change fast.  The holes are very well placed and it's very comfortable to fish out of.  Steve and I had stopped at Walmart in Grand Rapids to pick up a coffee maker and saw one of our favorite movies, Secondhand Lions starring Robert Duvall and Michael Caine, in the $5.00 bargain bin.  It's pretty cool to fish in a comfortable and warm environment, watching a great movie while trying to outfox a walleye.  Our friend Russ has a young pointer named Shadow and I happened to check on them on Saturday afternoon in his house.  Looks like they were enjoying a mid afternoon nap when I walked in so I took a picture.  The cold weather continues as we are setting 40 year old records for below zero nights during the winter of 2013-2014, and it's getting old.  What's more interesting is the current snow cover on the lakes insulates the ice and has prevented it from getting very thick which should make ice out dates more normal.  We certainly don't need a repeat of last years fishing opener's ice cover.  I'll probably hit a local lake this weekend before heading to California on Monday.  I got to admit it's going to be nice to see mid 70 temperatures again!

Lake of the Woods

George's winning walleye

This weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying my wife's side of the family to celebrate her uncle Andrew's 75th birthday.  Andy's son Jason Rombalski and son-in-law George Wimmer came up with taking a trip to Lake of the Woods for some fishing and asked if I could fill out the forth spot.  Not a hard job, I gladly accepted as I really like hanging with these guy, especially Andy.  It was nice to have someone else make all the arrangements for once and all I did was bring my expertise with.  Jason settled on booking with Slim's Resort on the Rainy River, just as it empties into Lake of the Woods.  Although I had never heard of Slim's a little investigation explains that it's the new owners of the old Shuster's Resort, a Lake of the Woods icon.  It was actually a pretty good deal as the plan was to arrive late Friday night, fish Saturday and Sunday while staying at the accommodations at the resort.  Sounded good to me!  Arriving at around 10:30, there was a note at the front desk, Rombalski Cabin 15, be ready at 8:15, Nick will pick you up in front of your cabin.  After a few congratulatory toasts it was off to bed, ready to hit it hard on Saturday.  The ride out was typical Lake of the Woods as the driver stopped with his 1940's model Bombardier, no longer made, a throw back from the past.  Driven by a rear engine, it accommodates a driver and 6 - 8 passengers, and is driven by 2 tracks with skis on the front end.  They are quite a machine and only in northern Minnesota will you see them still working as they did 70 years ago.  Loud and somewhat slow, they do the job as we piled into the wood Bombardier, getting its name from the construction of both interior and exterior surfaces, wood paneling!   I guess anything to keep them running.  Our destination was house # 1 at the end of the line of rentals, a 30 minute ride from the resort.  Dropping us off along with a cooler of fathead minnows, we were on our own.  It didn't take long to start fishing and settle on the day's contest, first fish, biggest fish, most fish...a chance to win $15.  As Lake of the Woods goes, it wasn't the greatest bite but we did get a number of walleyes and saugers along with a few tullibees.  In the end it was George who came from behind to win the biggest as he already qualified for the first.  George isn't much of an ice fisherman so we ended up coaching him through the day.  I guess all of that training paid off as he nailed a nice 26 inch walleye a half hour before the bombardier was scheduled to pick us up.  One last lesson to give George was how to take a fish picture.  Being a good student of the game, as you see his walleye was pretty nice. Of course he got the $15 with that fish.   After our reunion with the guide we headed back to the cabin to clean fish, make supper, play a little cards, and reflect on the day.  Because the guides go out in two shifts, we were relegated to the early shift on Sunday, 7:15 was the pickup time as we headed for bed.

Huge Tullibee!

Sunday was definitely on the downside as far as the weather was going.  Strong north winds prompted blizzard warnings for the entire northwest portion of Minnesota.   Showing up at 7:15, we boarded the bombardier, picked up a couple of guys from Iowa and headed back out.  The resort rotates times and houses so you get a chance to fish something different each day.  After making sure our house was clear, the guide allowed us in, admittedly I liked the previous day's house a lot better.   For one thing, the hole setup was quite different as one had to constantly step over the slots in the floor to move.  I could see a real problem if you had one too many beers.  The second thing that made it uncomfortable was the furnance's thermostat never shut the heat off.  Although the heat is appreciated, it must have been at least 90 degrees unless you kept the door cracked.  Seems like a waste of propane, but hey we were fishing.  The irony was that the fishing wasn't so hot in the house.  Although we managed a few walleyes and saugers, they were few and far between.  One bonus fish was the tullibees we were catching.  The action was neither fast or furious but considering the slow walleye bite, we appreciated the occasional hard fighting silver fish.  I did save the ones we did catch hoping that maybe these didn't have the parasites the previous tullibees caught on Lake of the Woods but it wasn't the case.  Once filleted you could see the opaque worms embedded in the flesh, it just didn't look very appetizing.  Managing to catch the largest walleye of the day, a plump 18 inch fish, it was good enough for the big fish of the day and I got my money back.  Beyond that, we probably ended up the 2 days with 6 walleyes, 8 saugers, 77 tullibees, and a nice perch.  On Saturday I did have something big on my line, it gave a good fight before throwing the hook.  Maybe a big walleye, maybe a big eelpout, who knows but it would sure have been nice to see.  The guide came by around 2:00 and announced the whiteout conditions will force us to cut or trip short, fine with us as it was getting pretty bad out.  What normally took 30 minutes to shuttle us back to the resort turned into an hours as we crawled back on the trail.  Quickly filleting the fish we finally got on the road and headed south.  One interesting note, we met a family in the cleaning room who had the same luck as we did on Saturday.  On Sunday it appeared as though they were fishing a different lake with a nice bunch of walleyes including a 29 inch hog.  Oh well, that's the way it goes.

I am getting ready to head back up to Red on Friday with Mark, my brother Steve, friend Kevin, Mark, and Keith Holtan.  Our plan is to get there in the afternoon and fish till Sunday morning.  It will be the maiden voyage of my newly acquired fish house and were anxious to try it out.  With all the comforts of home, all we need is the fish to cooperate.

Back in the Deep Freeze

Iowan Pro on Mille Lacs!

So I woke up on Tuesday morning to a now "this is getting old" temperature of -20F.  You would think that this weather should be making ice like crazy on Mille Lacs yet there is only a few resorts with roads yet and if one wants to fish the flats such as 7 Mile, 9 Mile, Sliver, you need a snowmobile to get around.  As cold as it has been there are still areas with only 10 inches of ice and 4 inches of slush.  For sure it's been tough on the business's around the lake as 2013-2014 ice fishing on Mille Lacs is heading for a bust.  On the other hand my new friend Terry, previous owner of my new Salem Ice Cabin has taken the time to send me some pictures of the walleyes he has been catching on Mille Lacs.  Using a snowmobile, he has been able to get out to the offshore areas and by his pictures, hasn't done too bad.   Terry is from Iowa and has a place near Garrison, MN.  He and his family fished both Saturday and Sunday and although wouldn't say that they killed them but considering the reports, it's nice to see someone is getting fish.  Although I never asked, I assume that this is his boy and you have to be impressed with the photo, the next Al Lindner for sure.  Just when I'm planning trips for the next 2 weekends, I have to admit that a few days on Mille Lacs would be nice by the looks of things.  On the other hand Lake of the Woods is going and Red Lake is still putting out fish.  Having committed to the next couple of weeks, I guess Mille Lacs will have to wait.  February is looking good and hopefully the weather will be better, at least Terry has inspired me to get my snowmobile running and ready to go if  needed.  It sure would be great to get into some of those big walleyes that are swimming around in the lake these days.  Rumor also has it there are a few jumbo perch being caught as well as some nice tullibees, which make great pickled fish.  It amazing, every year is different on Mille Lacs, 2 years ago we had large patches of open water into January, last year was great, this year is proving to be challenging. 

Sunset on Pelican

I did get out this weekend deciding to fish Pelican Lake which is close to home.  Friday night saw 6 inches of snow so all day Saturday was spent cleaning up the mess.  Sunday's temperature was pretty nice for a January, in the 30's so I decided to fish outside.  Having waxies from my last trip I simply drove out to the east side of the lake and used the access right off the road.  The snow was a little deeper than I figured but staying on the trail, it wasn't a big issue.  I've installed a Navionics App on my cell phone, it cost about $14 but it's pretty cool. The amount of lakes and information is pretty incredible, especially having it right on your phone.  Running off the GPS, I have all of their lake maps at my disposal, including a huge number of ones that feature 1 foot contours, including Pelican Lake.  With my phone its easy to simply drive to the underwater structure you are looking for as I simply picked an area that looked productive.  And productive it was.  After drilling a hole to check the depth, put in the transducer and was marking fish right away.   The first one came withing 20 seconds of the lure getting down to 9 feet, a nice sunfish around 7 3/4".  Pelican has some big sunnies in it but if you want to take some home it pays to be less fussy.  Sorting through about 1 fish per minute I ended the day with 12 big enough to fillet.  Staying after dark to see if the crappies would bite wasn't as productive as expected although I did get a few little ones.  The plan was to pack up and head back in time to catch the last half of the San Francisco/Seattle game at my neighbor Tim's.  With everything loaded, put the truck in drive and didn't move an inch.  A half mile out, nobody around and the truck just spins.  Something seemed different but that wasn't my first concern, heck getting out there wasn't hard, I should have been able to walk right out of my spot.  Having a shovel with I cleaned about 2 feet behind each wheel, backed up and got back on top of the snow however success was short lived.  After jacking around for 15 minutes I finally broke free and was able to get off the ice.  What a pain.  Looking back it was as though my 4 wheel drive wasn't even working.  Well, it wasn't!  Apparently the new computer controlled trucks get confused easily and the remedy is to shut the truck off for about a minute, let everything reset itself, then restart and go.  My neighbor Pete has the same truck and he confirmed this happens to him when he plows snow.  I guess your never too old to learn something new, its just remembering it all that's a problem. Off to Lake of the Woods and hopefully the reports are true.

Not Much Happening

Work Sharp Ken Onion

With last weeks weather in the tank, this weekend was time to get a few things done before my flurry of fishing trips planned for the last two weeks of January.  We had a comfortable 40 degrees on Sunday, enough to get everything back in order including the fixing the snowblower and other neglected items.  Thursday night was the opening of the St. Paul Sportsman Show, the first of the season so Lory and I took off from work around 5:00.  Not the largest show, it's still fun to get out and start looking at things.  What has become a tradition is meeting my friend Keith Holtan and his wife Jane at their booth.  It's fun to hang around as they have developed a nice clientele of people that stop by and say hi. Thursday night tends to be slower so we head over to the Liffy, an Irish Pub in the Holiday Inn across the street to unwind.  Once there, one never knows going to show up, a reason in itself to go.  Keith went to school and met a guy who eventually became a lawyer in Minneapolis, starting his career as a public defender.  I don't think I've laughed so hard as he told stories, you can only imagine!  It was nice to see Keith and hopefully we'll get out fishing again this winter.  I do like looking at all the new gadgets at these shows and found a couple of things that were interesting including a device for helping to add line to your reel.   One of the best purchases I have made in the last 6 months has been the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition knife sharpener.  Struggling with speeding up the process of sharpening my fillet knives as my old Lansky Sharpening system just took too long and I never really liked the results.  Years ago I bought a Leech Lake Fillet knife at the Northwest Sportsman show and one thing they offered was free sharpening if you brought it back to the show.  They uses a belt like sander with a very fine grit to give it an edge and a polish that was incredible.  The guy who made the knives passed away a few years ago so that service is no longer available.  Well, this device does exactly the same thing and coupled with a quality butcher steel, my knives are razor sharp and stay that way.  This is a fantastic product and can honestly say it really works!

Salem Ice Cabin

Sunday found me at Bill's on Lake Mille Lacs as I had been negotiating with a guy in Iowa to buy his wheel house for ice fishing.  For the last 3 months I have been trying to talk my brother Steve into go in half with me as the older I get, the more I like to be comfortable.  I understand he is 3 hours from me but I do like fishing with him.  Also, my recent trips to Red Lake and LOTW's seem much more enjoyable staying out on the ice.  Checking Craigslist each week a Salem Ice Cabin showed up, a 2013 and the price was too good to pass up.  Mark Applen and I have been looking at these for a couple of years now and he was a big influence in my decision, or at least I can blame him.  I have the whole thing tore apart right now trying to configure things the way I would like them as there are some things that are nice and others that need improvement.  The gentlemen I bought it from was a super guy and I can understand his reasoning behind it as it's a little too big for the areas he fishes in Iowa.  He does have a summer place on Mille Lacs and I hope to hook up with him this summer and maybe do some fishing.  The plan is to head back to Red at the end of the month and try it out, Steve and Lory, and possibly Keith will join me.  Otherwise my schedule is getting pretty crazy.  In February I head to California for a week and in March we are all set up to fish Louisiana for a couple of days.  Maybe look at going back to LOTW at the end of March if time permits and the weather cooperates.

Too Cold To Fish?

Monday Morning Wake up Temperature

Now normally I would not even broach the subject of temperature and ice fishing, for crying out loud, we need something to thicken the ice on Mille Lacs this year.  Well we got that something in the form of what is known as a Polar Vortex, a fancy way of describing the scientific phenomenon when a high pressure ridge forms in southern Canada which forces the jet stream to purge south which brings Arctic temperatures with it.  It all pretty humorous as every weatherperson is falling all over themselves trying to be the coldest.  I don't know if it's just me but growing up in Eleva, subzero temperatures in the winter seemed like a non issue, unless of course you were trying to start your old carburated automobile which had a tendency to flood quite easily when the temperatures dropped.  Eleva is in the Buffalo River Valley, about a mile or so wide and cold air sinks so we often had some of the most frigid air in the region.  We didn't do much ice fishing when I was young as the Eleva Pond contained trout which the season was closed until May.  Ice fishing for me started when I was about 17, I had a car and could drive to Alma, the closest place for decent fishing.  Along with the introduction of the Mora Ice Auger, things progressively got better, easier, and a lot more fun.  Now the Sunday after Christmas saw Mark and I woke up to -25 below zero temps on Red Lake, not a big deal as we were 5 hours north of home snug in our wheel house catching walleyes, besides the previous 2 days were a comfortable 30 degrees out.  Starting on Saturday, January 4th was the beginning of a 5 day run where temperatures would not get above zero at all.  I guess I am just getting older (some say wiser)  but with Sunday's high temp of -10 and Monday a whooping -16, it is just  best to let old Mother Nature build some ice for the rest of the winter. 

Matt and Christina

Saturday saw on of our long time Team Walleye members, Matt Taylor get married to his long time sweetheart Christina.  Matt is the son of my great friend Mark Taylor, my adopted Minnesota family.  He has been with Team Walleye since 1991 when Mark Mayerich, Mark Taylor, Gary Ullom, and Ron Edberg all brought their 10 year old son's to the Leech Lake Fishing Opener to make sure the traditions continue and Matt along with Adam Mayerich have never missed a beat.  So Matt and Christina, after 7 years, decided to tie the knot, assuring that the moment would be cherished by their families forever.  Because of the circumstances their reception isn't scheduled till July, which works well for me.  They are quite the couple having travelled all over the world, he is a computer  systems guy and she teaches in the public schools system.  Both are very adventurous and have worked hard to get those things they want to do, out of the way before they really settled down.  Christina's one goal was to be part of the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleader squad.  She finally realized her wish and is on the 2013 rooster.  Meanwhile Matt has taken on the role of being his mom's James Bond guy.  That is pretty hard to deny.  The only thing I commented when they announce their wedding, don't schedule it on Fishing Opener!  My wife loves taking wedding pictures and she arranged this one using the flowers on the alter.  Not knowing much about Catholic protocols, she got a friendly push from one of the custodians about rearranging flowers on such a sacred place.  We got our pictures, put the flowers back in plenty of time, at least enough get this shot.  You have to admit, a pretty good looking couple, congratulations.

The weekend looks as though we might get a January thaw with highs in the mid 30's by Sunday.  The 55 degree swing in the temperatures will be welcome however it will cause some havoc with the ice.  Ice is at it's greatest volume at around freezing then shrinks as it gets colder causing cracks. When the temperature warms, the ice expands and has a tendency to cause heaves.  We'll see what Sunday brings as I am planning to go to Mille Lacs to do some business and stop at Bill's.  The Packers lost, somewhat disheartening but little I can do about it.  The game provided a good excuse not to go fishing in the cold however maybe I should have just went anyway.  My good friend Phil Gordon has season tickets and asked if I wanted to buy them if they were available.  We inquired at the prescribed 9:00 call time but apparently they were only selling so many to those who had not committed earlier and we did not get them...it still would have been nice to go.  I know they had tickets available but they were nosebleed seats, the television is a better place to watch the game.  Thursday night is the opening of the St. Paul Sportshow, the first of the year.  My friend Keith Holtan has a booth representing his Kenai Alaskan business Beaver Creek Cabins  and guide service.  Stop by and see Keith, he would appreciate it.  I already have the end of January booked for trips as I leave with my wife's uncle and family to Lake of the Woods on January 24th then the following week go back to Red to pick up Mark's wheel house that's parked at JR's.  It's a tough job but somebody has to do it!

Another Year Gone

Monster Northern

2013 ended on a positive note as Mark and I headed back up to Red Lake, our second trip within a week, hoping the good bite was still on.  Having spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in Wisconsin, the plan was to head up Thursday afternoon, enough time to clean up the 4 inches of snow that had fell the night before.  When we left JR's last week he told us not to arrive earlier than 2:30, anticipating it would be a busy afternoon, lucky we did.  Arriving at the resort you could sense the craziness of the hours before our arrival, some guys confirming that the line to get on the lake was almost a half mile long.  JR's does it right, he plows his roads then perpendicular to the main road are side roads with well spaced plowed spaces for your wheel house.  The houses are spread out enough so no one is on top of each other yet close enough to be by your friends as Russ Praught and Mike were joining us later.  Mark and I are patient guys and we knew it would be a while before JR would let us on the ice.  Fact is he was out of spots and needed time to plow a few more places for us.  We would wait as getting on the ice at 7:00 or 10:30 made no real difference in our plans as there was plenty of time for fishing in the next few days.  Just about the time Russ showed up JR said we're going!  Perfect timing.  Our patience was rewarded with a spot at the end of the road, 6 miles out, and had yet to be fished.  We were settled in by 11:00 and started catching fish right away.  After putting a few in the box, it was time to get some sleep as we had 2 full days of fishing ahead of us.  By Friday morning the the cooler had 4 walleyes waiting for the fillet knife as it was decided we would try to beat the evening rush and take our fish into JR's for cooking around 2:00.  About 9:00 that morning the walleyes suddenly disappeared.  Up to this point there were always fish on the Vexilar, coming and going, we catch a few, mark a few.  All of a sudden my rattle reel went down, a quick jerk and the line became limp.   All the signs pointed to a northern lurking below.....the disappearing walleyes, cut line.  Time to bring out the heavy artillery, my rod loaded with Fireline.  A few jerks of the lure and something inhaled the bait and the battle was on.  After about 5 minutes Mark gaffed this huge northern pike, it was about 39 inches and weighed close to 15 pounds.  We snapped a few pictures, put her back down the hole, and the walleyes magically returned.  I did catch another nice northern pike, a little over 28 inches, they are quite fun to catch but their sharp teeth certainly raise havoc with your lines and lures.

14" Crappie, My Largest Ever!

Both Friday and Saturday were beautiful days on Red with temperatures in the high 20's.  This was about to change quickly.  The temperature on Saturday started falling and by nightfall we were in full ground blizzard conditions.  Not wanting to miss out on our daily fish fry at JR's we managed to drive in before it got too bad out, too late as you could tell we had better make our visit short as it was going to be a long night ahead of us.  Driving back to the houses proved to be an adventure as the wind and snow continued to start plugging up the roads.  Arriving at the houses called for a shift in our parking strategies, it would be critical to keep our generator out of the wind, assuring proper operation through the night.  Finally settling in in for the night the temperature had dropped well below zero and the blowing snow made it all but impossible to see more than 100 feet, enough to make Russ's house disappear into the blizzard.   Luckily the walleyes continued to cooperate, they weren't jumping through the holes yet they kept things interesting.  One of the rattle reels went off, I got up and set the hook, something didn't feel right as it was a good fish but it fought differently than the walleyes and perch we were getting.  Up through the hole came the largest crappie I have ever caught, a 14 incher.  13 years ago Red Lake's walleye population was decimated by the commercial fishing on the lake and crappies like this filled the void.  I never was able to take advantage of the crappie bite however this fish was enough to tell me I really missed out on some great fishing action.  I still prefer walleyes to crappies but a limit of 10 like this one would have been pretty nice.  During the first trip to Red that we made before Christmas, 90% of the fish hit the rattle reels, with few on the jigging lures.  I caught quite a few more on Jigging Raps and Slender Spoons this time, my favorite way to fish walleyes.  There is nothing like seeing the mark on the Vexilar shoot up from the bottom to smack your lure, sometimes you have to have the patience to wait as it's easy to pull it away from the fish before it really has it.



Marks truck surrounded by a drift.

Our plan for Sunday morning was to leave early, getting home early in the afternoon however the previous nights weather caused a delay in our strategy.  Waking up to a beautiful clear sky, the road completely drifted in and the temperature was a crisp -25 below zero.  The wind was still contributing to the wind chill but everything certainly had settled down.  Unfortunately I had left my "warm" boots in the car back home which meant I had to keep moving to stay warm, luckily we had lots to do.  With a lot of water still coming up through the ice and considering the cold weather, the house cranked up pretty well.  Our plowed spot ran northwest from the road so Mark pointed his truck into the wind as stated before but caused a pretty good drift to form along side the truck.  We ended up shoveling a path for the truck, assuring we could at least get it hooked up to the house.  Of course the main road was completely plugged and even after a couple of passes with the truck, it would have been hard to make it through and even worse, we didn't want to be in the way when the plow came by.  By the time the house was hooked up we could see the plow truck heading our way, perfect timing.  A few passes and we were on our way off the lake, another successful trip which included a couple nice northerns, 2 wonderful walleye meals at the resort, a limit of walleyes for each to take home, and a great way to spend time with my friends Mark, Russ, and Mike.  Mark left his house at the resort, I guess another great excuse to go back up to Red Lake.  I am getting to like this wheel house fishing and am thinking about seeing what's available on the market, maybe if I buy one my brother Steve might join us.

We are headed for the coldest weather of the year next week.  Monday's high is suppose to only get up to -15 below zero.  Let's hope this next cold spell will start freezing up Mille Lacs Lake.  It is a sad sight for sure as the water and slush has prevented any movement at all on the lake. Some reports still have the ice thickness at less than 10 inches and when we drove by on Sunday there were no houses yet on the lake.  For being a top destination for walleyes, everyone certainly has to be hurting for business as there is simply no one around.  If the resorters can get a few roads started the cold should shore up the ice and get some action going.  Some of my friends are headed for Red this weekend and I am anxious to see their reports.  Here's hoping 2014 will be a great fishing year!

Red Lake Reunion

Mark with a keeper walleye

After a hectic last week, Friday morning arrived with the news, they are still not allowing wheel houses on Red Lake........Plan B I guess.  I always have plan B, it just works out better that way.  After a short call to Mark on Friday morning we decided to pull up the wheel house and park it at JR's resort for future trips.  The plan was to bring our portables as they were still allowing small 1/2 ton trucks out on the ice.  The weather wasn't predicted to be too bad and this would work for a day of fishing, we could drive up Friday afternoon and stay in the house.  Leaving at about 1:30 we stopped at Cabela's to pick up a few items, said hello to Bill Lundeen as we purchased our bait before finally arriving at JR's at 7:30.  JR's Corner Resort is located on the south shore of Red Lake, the last one at the end of the road.  Settling down for the evening we fired up the furnace in the wheel house and decided to have something for supper before retiring to bed.  About 9:30 JR arrived with great news, their allowing wheel houses back out in the morning, get ready to go.  Back to Plan A!  After getting to know a few of guys that already had been out, we were excited to again be the first wheel houses out for the year, similar to last December's trip.  Waking up at 8:00 and getting everything set, all we had to do was drink coffee in the resort, waiting for the go ahead to hit the ice.  Apparently he had a plow making a special area for our houses, an area no one had fished yet.  What seemed like forever finally arrived as Mark and I were the first ones to lead a caravan of houses to the newly plowed area.  Red Lake has quite a bit of snow on covering the ice which slows the progress of making ice, even with the number of below zero nights, it can be a challenge.  Along with the slush under the snow and on top of the ice, it can make travel impossible.  I am sure that without the snow, they would have been driving on the lake 2 weeks ago.  Mille Lacs, on the other hand is still at a standstill because of the slush and snow.  We traveled 5 miles out and settled on a plowed "camping lane" where we parked the house and began setting up.  The ice wasn't as thick as we expected and the first hole drilled saw the water shoot up out of the hole.  The weight of both our truck and the house pushed down on the ice causing the water to seek it's real level.  Quickly hustling to drill and clean out the holes (which was very easy as the water pushed the slush out), we blocked up the frame, dropped the house on the ice and moved the truck away from the house.  A half hour later it was warm and cozy as we set up the rattle reels and 

Lots of fish!

were fishing by 11:00.  Next I got out my jig rod for the 2nd hole when the rattle reel went off, wow a 23 inch walleye within 5 minutes, it's going to be good.  Thinking I should take a picture but with this fast of a bite, there will be plenty of opportunities, think again as it was the largest fish of the trip!  Never the less we started catching fish and by 6:00 we thought we had our 8 in the bucket, and had let at least 10 walleyes back into the lake as it's easy to get fussy when your catching fish.  The next move was to drive into JR's, clean our fish then have him fry them up, a great deal for $5.00 a person, eat before heading back out for the evening.  Well, closer examination showed only 7 walleyes, so much for my math skills.  We were back on the ice by 7:30, through a movie in, as the bite had slowed down significantly.  Mark hit the sack while I stayed up till past midnight and just as I was about to shut everything down the rattle reels went off.  In the next 90 minutes I had 3 keepers and threw back at least 3 smaller one.  Finally giving in I settled down while Mark had gotten up, tending to the fish that seemed to hit all night.  Sometimes you can sleep through the noise and sometimes it will keep you up, we managed to get some sleep and by sunrise had 5 in the bucket.  A new day, we determined to fill out however we only managed 2 more before it was time to leave.  Well, I'm not complaining, 2 days of fishing, a great meal of fresh fried walleyes, and enough to bring home, what more could you ask for.

Avenue of the Pines, Hwy 46 north of Deer River, MN

The drive home was beautiful as the trees were covered in a blanket of freshly fallen snow.  Red Lake is 4.5 hours from home and the route goes through some of the prettiest scenery in Minnesota.  Getting home on Sunday, work on Monday, back home to Eleva to see everyone on Christmas Eve, Mark and I are heading back up Thursday afternoon to meet another friend, Russ, back to Red Lake and JR's.  We hope the bite is still as strong as I estimated we caught about 30 walleyes in a 24 hour period last week.  As they say back home, you have to make hay when the sum shines and right now the bite on Red seems pretty hot.  We will probably stay till Sunday morning before heading back home, our last gasp of fishing for 2013.  Over all it's been a good year of fishing for me.  Early in January we did well at Red Lake.  Mille Lacs ice fishing wasn't all that hot and coupled with May's fishing opener completely froze out, well one could say it started slow.  My return to Canada with brother Steve in June was great, our trip to Lake Oahe in July was very successful, and getting to go with my neighbor Pete to Lac Seul in September was fabulous.  Along with this trip to Red, overall these adventures have made up for all that has transpired this year.  Hopefully 2014 will bring an new set of adventures as I am already looking forward to a trip in March, fishing the bayous of Louisiana, fishing opener in May, maybe back to Canada again, Oahe, Devils Lake, who knows where the future will see me wetting a line.  Either way as I get older, it just seems more important to live life to it's fullest as the clock just keeps ticking away.  Happy New Year and hopefully my next report is as good as this weeks!

 

December's Cold Moon

Full Moon Over the Pole Shed

The Native Americans had a tradition of naming each of the full moons such as March's Worm Moon or October's Harvest Moon.  December's Full Moon bears the name of Cold Moon and occurred on December 16th of this week.  Interestingly enough the shortest day of the year is the is December 21st and the full moon on the 19th will represent the longest moon lit night of the year.  This week is as crazy as they all seem as Sunday was filled with picking up Lory at the airport port as he returned from his trip to China.  This was at 2:30 in the afternoon, brought him home then turned right around and drove back to pick up 2 business associates from Taiwan at 6:30.  The Taiwanese are not used to the cold and it was quite entertaining to see their reactions.  Two days of meetings with them, dinner each night, Wednesday would see me boarding a flight to Denver (where I am writing this from).  When I travel to China visiting them at their factory we have a tradition of going to the 101, a Taiwanese based  restaurant near the hotel.  The food is excellent and if you look back at some of my previous posts their is a picture of me with the owner.  While here I wanted to take them to a genuine Minnesota place to eat and decided on the  Tavern on Grand in St. Paul.  I believe they serve the best walleye around town and offer it in various forms such as walleye cakes, walleye spring rolls, pan fried, blackened, broiled, and served with deep fried dill pickles or their lefse dish, you can't beat it.  Scrambling to get things done on Tuesday night, I rounded the corner by my garage and was taken back by the beautiful scene created by the full Cold Moon's effect on the new fallen snow.  Grabbing the camera I snapped this picture, a winter wonderland right in my back yard.  If you see notice the bright object just down and left of the moon, this is the Planet Jupiter as they travel together through the night.  Wow.

Nice Sunfish

With the cold weather and snow it's was questionable whether I's get out ice fishing or not.  With a ton of snowplowing to do before Sunday. Luckily my neighbor Tom stopped over about 1:00 to see what was going on, that's all it took as we planned to go to Pelican for the evening.  Not sure of the ice or snow conditions we loaded up the Razor and headed out.  Approaching the lake there were trucks on the ice!  I have been keeping track of ice conditions up north at Mille Lacs and Red Lake, with the snow it hasn't froze much at all.  Well, I'm not driving on the ice so we pulled off the Razor and headed to an area we have done pretty good in the past, about 3/4 mile from the landing.  Drilling our holes I was pleasantly surprised at the 16 or more inches of ice.  Even more interesting was the ice was virtually devoid of any deep snows.  I have at least 6 inches in the yard but there was about an inch on the ice.  It was actually evenly distributed so it wasn't the wind that blew it off.   I suspect the early snow caused water to cover the lake and it refroze allowing it to create the fairly thick ice so early.  Honestly, I would not have been afraid to drive out but with another week of cold weather, it's should be perfect by now.  We did get a lot of little ones however both Tom and I each nailed a nice sunfish.  OK, only about 8 inches but heck, better than 99% of what we've been getting the last couple of years. 

Returning on Friday, Mark and I are planning on going to Red Lake Friday afternoon to pull the wheel house up to JR's.  A text from him yesterday didn't sound very good as the resort was pulling all wheel houses off the lake and restricting travel via snowmobile or chained ATV's at this time.  Apparently the slush is real bad and has created an undesirable situation.  Now if they didn't have any snow and accounting for the low temperatures, the lake should have 20+ inches of ice by now.  The snow unfortunately insulates the ice from freezing very fast so Pelican lake here next to home has much more ice than Red Lake which is 4.5 hours straight north of here.  Even with the many sub -20 degree nights, it's still not making ice like we need.  We are keeping daily updates and if we get the all clear, Mark and I plan on leaving Friday afternoon.  If not, well hopefully after Christmas will find better conditions.  All I know is the fishing reports from Red are excellent and we are missing out!Merry Christmas to everyone and we'll see what the weekend brings.

Arctic Blast

San Antonio River Walk from my balcony

Last Sunday was relatively balmy as Tom and I fished Pelican Lake.  Tuesday ended in San Antonio's 70 degree evening,  even humid enough to turn on the air conditioning in the hotel room.  Leaving Minneapolis, it was already snowing with a significant snowfall predicted during the next few days.  Meanwhile it was 80 degrees on Wednesday, unfortunately I was stuck in meetings all day.  San Antonio is beautiful this time of year.  If you've never been there I certainly recommend spending a few days in Texas's most visited city.  The focal point of downtown San Antonio is the Riverwalk, a man made canal which included the San Antonio River, circling an entertainment district downtown.  Staying at the The Omni La Mansión del Rio right on the Riverwalk, our room balcony on the 4th floor faced the river.  With the Christmas Season in full force, the area was one big holiday celebration.  By Thursday night the weather I had left in Minnesota was barreling through Texas and arrived in San Antonio unwelcomed.  Now this is a relative term as it was still a comfortable 45 degrees, enough to still walk around with my sleeves rolled up.  In the meantime the locals looked as though it was -10 below zero, bundled up in coats, stocking hats, with the outside propane heaters at full on.  I'm sorry, I just had to laugh as the predicted temperature when I arrive at MSP was -16, 45 degrees seemed tropical!  I guess it's simply relative to what you are accustom to and it was obvious no one was ready for this cold front.  The reality is we are a group of "tough bastards" up north but then again, everything is relative.  We'd probably complain about the heat come August!  The reason for being in San Antonio was our annual TTA fall meeting.  The TTA stands for The Transformer Association and I have been it's President for the last 2 years.  My tenure has been highlighted with a number of successes including an increase of almost 20% in membership and an increase in it's assets.  Probably my greatest success is leveraging my humble (don't laugh) upbringings growing up in Eleva, Wisconsin by making fun of my own heritage....Ole and Lena jokes.  The TTA has members from California, Texas, Illinois, New York, and everywhere in-between.  For me, it doesn't matter, I am who I am and damn proud of it.  I think that at first some people felt it was somewhat backwoods but in the end I believe that my genuine portrayal of who I really am became important.  I am proud of my Norwegianness, my parents, my up bringing, and my home town of Eleva.  I guess there's not much else!

Crappies from last week

Sunday was set aside to attend the St. Paul Ice Fishing show at the St. Paul Civic Center.  I really like this show and this year was accompanied by my friends Mark and Russ, two die hard fishing friends.  I've often talked about Mark, he is like a brother to me and Russ....well, just another friend that I share much in common.  I have had the chance to fish with Russ at Winnibigoshish, Red Lake, and this year we spent some time at Lake Oahe in July.   Mark and I have been discussing Wheel Houses for ice fishing and the show gave us a chance to check out all the pluses and minus's of the different brands.  I'd like to talk my brother Steve into going in with me on a new Wheel House as him and I have a lot of future plans, we'll have to see.  In the meantime Mark has added a few improvements to his wheel house and we will have an opportunity to utilize them over the Christmas holiday's, probably at Red Lake again.   So admittedly I am a sucker for these show specials that you run into while checking everything out.  My first purchase was a flag/bite indicator to install on my dead stick rod that I usually have fishing out of my portable.  Normally I have a rod with a slip bobber setup yet when a fish takes it down, you really have to pay attention.  With the flag, you have a better indicator of the bite.....we'll see!  There was a booth from Wisconsin selling Lily River Fish Breading coating, it's delicious.  I suppose just because it's from Sconnie I had to have at least 2 different varieties.  Could be worse.  Next was a device called  The Filet Claw, a stainless steel device for securing your filet while skiing to ensure a clean and effortless process while using your preferred technique (OK, I stole that from the package).  Either way it looked pretty cool so I bought 2, one for me and one for my brother Steve.  I have to admit, he's a pretty lucky brother as I am always thinking of him.  I finished the show with a purchase of a TUCR noodle rod for ice fishing.  We'll see if it lives up to it's reputation.   I decided to post a picture of last week's crappies, a limit is 10 but I did share with my neighbor Tom.  With the sub zero weather last weekend it is making ice, let's hope I can get out this weekend.

You can tell that winter is in full swing.  My friend Jeff King and his wife have left for Mazatlan, a sure sign it has started.  My other friend Keith Holtan is settled in Brainerd and catching walleyes on his lake.  In the meantime the weather continues to challenge the global warming crowd with a predicted -20 below tonight.  The weekend is suppose to warm up to the high teens, maybe enough to get out and try for some more crappies.  With the recent snows, it will be challenging for sure.  I have guests from Taiwan arriving on Sunday and their first request was if I had coats so we'll see how that goes.  Other than that, experiencing a 100 degree temperature swing is enough excitment for one week!




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First Ice

It doesn't get any better!

This Thanksgiving holiday turned into a drive fest as Thursday was spent in Lacrosse with my brother Steve and his family, brother Blake, and mom.  I was surprised how quickly we made it, 2 1/2 hours.  While there Steve and I hit Gander Mountain where I picked up a new blade guard for my old auger bit then stopped by Festival Foods to get some Lefse that they offer as private label made in Blair, WI (It's absolutely heavenly!).  My friend Eric lives 1/2 mile so we decided to drop off a few calendars for the guys at his work.  As we got out of the car his son Carter was looking through the window and exclaimed......Hey, it's the guy that went fishing with us!  He's a great young man as his mom said, he never is without the Cabela's small multi-tool that I gave him during last summer's fishing trip in Alma.  Sure enough, it was on the kitchen counter as he set it down to see us.   Eric and Carter wanted us to see their new duck boat so we walked over to his mom's garage to check out the beast.  We left with a standing invitation to take it for a ride next year, something that looks like a lot of fun.  Leaving Eric's we headed back to Minneapolis only to turn around on Friday to attend my wife's uncle Andrew's 75th birthday celebration.  Quite a cast of characters, it was good to see everyone before we left for home.  My friend John Delestry works at Scheel's in Oakwood Mall so a slight detour was in order.  On the way down our friend Greg called to wish us a nice Thanksgiving and give me the inside scoop on John's crazy morning which included stitches in his hand, a result of his earlier attempt to butcher his deer.  Greg, John, are friends of Eric and we have become great friends over the years.  It's a perfect example of the people you meet over the years, who sticks and who doesn't.  On Saturday I headed up to Jack's cabin (another 1 1/2 hour drive) to take down my tree stand and maybe try out some ice fishing in front of his place.  Arriving around 11:00 we decided to ice fish first as the day was perfect.  I brought my newly repaired Jiffy auger to see if it actually worked.  With over 7 inches of ice, we walked about 100 yards off shore to the deeper 16 foot hole in the bay.  Jack and his son Ben already had a couple of northern pike from earlier in the day using tip ups, Ben's favorite way to fish.  Although I was after panfish, it really turned into a test run for the auger, my new FLX28, my new panfish rod, and a simple opportunity to get out.  Well, the auger engine ran great but the blade cut terribly, the FLX28 is going to be great, the jury's out on the new fishing pole but something's don't change, like Ben's enthusiasm for tip up fishing.  Watching the top of the tip up spin as the fish runs with the bait is pretty addicting.  In one of my brighter moments I took a video of the event and you can see it by clicking this link Ben nails a northern pike.  Posing for the victory picture, I'm not sure I have taken a better picture. 

Dan keeping his hole company.

Jack's neighbor Dan, was also out on the lake with his son Tony.  Dan is retired and a permanent resident of Platte Lake and a pretty good guy!  He also loves to fish and with all of us on the lake, it represented 3 generations of avid sportsmen.  I had forgot my camera at the cabin and walked back to get it, snapping this picture on the way back.  While taking the picture I noticed his Vexilar FL8 wasn't in the hole.  When asked him why his response was that he really didn't know how to use it while fishing as it was used mostly to check the depth.  Not missing an opportunity to help I explained that I'd be lost with mine and we started his lesson!  Although the FL8 doesn't have a zoom feature it can still provide an invaluable look at what's happening under the ice.  We first verified what he was seeing and when I asked if he had a sinker above his bait, he was surprised.  Not really as I could see the 2 marks move in unison when he lifted the line up then let it fall.  Pretty soon you could see marks rising off the bottom as I explained they were fish and look for the marks to turn red as the got right on the bait.  A quick hook set and up came a perch, about 4 inches long.  After catching 4 identical fish Dan got the hang of it as I left.  Whether he continues to use it or not, it was fun to help and maybe he will catch more fish this winter.  Soon it was time to head out to the swamp and take down the stand.  Normally I wouldn't be such a hurry to take it down but it is in need of repair and leaving it in the woods just would delay something that honestly, may not get fixed until next year anyway.  At least it's not exposed to the elements anymore than it has to be and should give me plenty of time to get the job done.  I'll probably contact the manufacturer and see if they have a ready made hardware kit for it, or better yet Brett is talking about making some permanent stands, I like that a lot better.

Tom with a few fish already

Sunday was very nice and with the high around 34 degrees and zero wind, it was a perfect day to try Pelican Lake, just 20 minutes west of the house.  My neighbor Tom was running by the house on Sunday morning when he stopped to see how the weekend was going.  Stating it would be better if we got out for a few hours in the afternoon and do some ice fishing as my few hours at Jack's lake wasn't very productive.  Agreeing to leave around 1:30 he showed up as I was loading the truck. Knowing the journey would be walking we packed a tub sled, a couple of pails, my Vexilar, one for Tom, and my old Jiffy auger which I had the chance to sharpen the blades in the morning.  For insurance we also packed the Eskimo hand auger, just in case.  Our first stop was the hardware store in St. Michael to pick up bait.  Dressed like we were going fishing the guy greeted us with a message.....We are all out of waxies and eurolarva.  What!! That's impossible, nobody runs out of waxies.  Well, the early ice caught them by surprise and by 2:00 they were sold out.  Plan B, buy some of the new plastics, they are supposed to work really well.  Arriving at the parking lot there was 1 position left as a well worn path to the lake was already made.  I suppose there was 30 guys on the ice which was a surprising 6 inches thick.  Meeting some of the people coming off they all had fish and offered some locations.  9 1/2 feet is about as deep as it gets so we spread out.  The great news is the Jiffy cut like a new auger as I punched about 10 holes in various places.  Putting on some of the plastic I started catching small crappies right away, and I mean small.  The fish would definitely come and look at the plastic but seemed hesitant to hit it unless they appeared aggressive.  If they just came up to the bait, it would take a lot of movement to get them interested.  Deciding that the fish needed a switch I tied on a Purist, a bait that my friend Kevin is a master at catching fish with.  A fairly large one, black with a white tip the fish, it was the answer to the slower bite.  Ending up with over 25 fish caught, I brought home my limit of less than respectable but adequate crappies.  I'll take it as it was great to finally catch something through the ice.

This week I head to San Antonio, and just in time.  We are expecting a substantial cold front to blow in on Wednesday night with -10 to -15 below zero predicted while the 70's are predicted for the home of the Alamo.  I can guarantee it will be making lots of ice here.  Saturday is the St. Paul Ice Fishing Show and Mark Applen and I will try to check out the latest and greatest.  Sunday could be back out ice fishing, it will depend on the weather.  Either way the winter of 2013/2014 is shaping up to be great for ice fishing.