Fishing Cajun Style, Part 2

Camp Dilligas, Cameron Louisiana

It's hard to contain the excitement of a new fishing adventure and the friends you make on the way.  Last week was about the fish but it really was too much to say in one post so as Paul Harvey would say, "The rest of the story".  As you drive along the coast one can see the problem with hurricanes in this area, the land is a flat as a pancake and it really would not take much water to flood a large area.  The first picture is our headquarters for fishing Camp Dilligas, a house moved next to a point in the brackish waters on the south end of Calcasieu Lake, about 4.5 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.  Essentially the lake is at sea level as it is connected to the Gulf by a canal used by ocean going freighters.  These huge ships travel about 40 miles inland to Lake Charles, Louisiana to drop off and pick up a variety of things needing to be moved.  As you can see the house is set on concrete pilings at least 12 feet in the air.  Between the pilings are steel beams on which the house is secured to, I suspect the house sits about 6 feet above sea level so the water would have to come up 18 feet before any damage would occur.  Now if you look at the area and assume that it is pretty flat all the way to Lake Charles, that's a lot of water pushed up ahead of a hurricane. Driving through Cameron, Louisiana the High School is on pilings, the churches, the hospital, any building where it's critical to survive the storm surge, they are set at 18 feet above the level of the Gulf, which is higher than the previous ordinances for buildings in that area.  As stated before we left the area heading east on Hwy 82 and for miles there were simply concrete slabs with nothing attached, washed away as Hurricane Ike slammed the shore.  Just in case you were curious like I was when asking Robert what Dilligas means.....his response was Do I Look Like I Give a S_ _ _?     I guess that answered that.

Control Weir Separating the Lake from the Gulf.

At the fishing camp the best place to fish was off the docks that ran along the side of the channel where the weir, or what we would call a control dam was centered.  With the Gulf on one side and Calcasieu Lake on the other, the weir had 4 gates to help control the water flow between the two for either maintaining water level for navigation or flooding.  The picture shows the structure with a fence enclosing the gate controls as apparently there was a time when the Corps of Engineers decided to mess with the water levels just as the shrimp were coming into the areas.  Shrimping is very important to the local economy and preventing water from allowing the shrimpers to be successful wasn't very popular so they decided to take matters into their own hands, opening the gates and destroying the mechanisms for operating them.  Right or wrong, sometimes you do what you have to do.  The tides in this part of the country are quite tame and move about a foot every cycle.  As opposed to the Homer Alaska where they can mover 25 feet every cycle, it was hardly noticed.  The water would slowly run from right to left before turning around.  The best fishing was this side of the weir as our timing had the water flowing in our direction, perfect for the fish to congregate.   I suspect the water differential on either side was small yet there was a nice current.  Returning from our Saturday guided trip, we baited up and threw our lines into the sweet spot identified by Robert.  So I'm watching the water flow and soon it became still then started running the opposite way.  Well even in Alaska, slack tide lasts more than 2 minutes but wow, did that change fast.  Asking one of the locals about what just happened to the water level, he looked to our left and confirmed, "yep, a ship just passed, heading up the canal" as there was a huge ship moving north, about 2 miles away.  He went on to say the the displacement of these large ocean going freighters is enough to raise the water level such that the flow will reverse.  Sure enough as the ship headed further up the canal the water slacked then reversed itself.  Now my first reaction was those Cajun boys were messing with us snowbirds but I witnessed this at least 2 more times.  On the other side of the weir was a dock where in September and October the redfish push the shrimp up into the channel and it's a free for all.  One of things that make this place so special is the shrimp run where they took over 10,000 pounds of large shrimp right off the docks via cast nets.  On Sunday morning Robert's 14 year old grandson was throwing a 6 foot cast net off the dock, catching various small bait fish as he was practicing his throwing technique.  I've watched this before when we fished Key West and our guide stood on the bow of the boat and loaded up with bait using his cast net. There is certainly an art to throwing one of these as they tried to teach me.  Knowing how to use these nets is a right of passage and although I was pretty bad at it, i'm going to buy one and practice here on the Mississippi River for smallmouth bait.  Hopefully if I ever return, I'll be a better student of their ways.  Tied to the dock were a couple of crab traps and they pulled them up before we left on Sunday.  Both had around 15 pounds of blue crab in them as they emptied them into a basket and washed them off.  I am allergic to them as well as shrimp and crayfish so it sort of puts the limit on what I can eat however I am told they are fabulous.  You can see where they get their name, from the blue claws and feet with the female crabs having the orange tips on their claws.  You have to be impressed with all the color coming out of these waters, the crabs and redfish are simply beautiful.

The ability to change the water flow!

A basket of blue crabs.

My Buddy Joe

In the past I have talked about my friend Joe Stanfield and thought it would be good to say a few good things about him as he is truly one of those guys that fit something someone told me a long time ago. Friends are like stars, you don't always see them but you know they are always there.  We met in Cincinnati at least 20 years ago and for some reason he and I hit it off right from the start. Joe isn't necessarily the tallest person I know and we often talk about the weight both of us need to lose yet it's a lot tougher for him as his heart is so big, it has to fit somewhere!  He's definitely a southern gentlemen and I simply treasure the time I can spend with him, usually a couple of times a year at various conferences and trade events.  In 2011 Joe arranged to met our good friend Jim Cox and myself in Corpus Christi to fish reds with his old neighbor Butch.  Seems like anytime I'm with Joe it takes 2 weeks to wind down from the excitement and fun as my post Texas Reds from March of 2011 clearly shows.  He gives me crap all the time about my motorcycle then he goes ahead and buys himself an airplane!  Now if it had floats, maybe he'd be on to something, I could fly down then we could head down to the bayou as the plane would have plenty of room to land.  Maybe I'll have to start working on this with Joe.  Here in Minnesota it's still cold as Sunday night it was 0F again.  I did go ice fishing on Sunday to a lake I haven't been to in a while, Lake John by Annandale, MN.  Most of the snow is gone off the lakes but the ice is still over 36 inches thick as one could drive anywhere.  I drove out to a couple of the basin area without a single fish.  As I planned to move closer to shore there was the distant sound of an auger, someone else was on the lake.  Heading in that general direction, stopped about 100 yards from the guy and drilled 4 holes to vary the depth.  In the meantime he walks over, leaving his gear about 30 feet from where I was fishing and introduced himself.  It didn't take long to get comfortable with Chuck as he claimed his age at 73. I thought that was pretty impressive he walked all the way on the lake until he looked at me and said "It's nice to meet another old guy on the lake".  Well, I guess he said it all!  I loaded his stuff in the truck as we drove around looking for fish as 2 lines are always better than one but no such luck.  As the sun started to set I could sense he was getting cold so volunteered to go whenever he wanted.  We packed up and headed to shore, helped him unload and said thanks and goodbye.  I guess it was nice to see a couple of old guys spending the afternoon together.  It does make you think.

Fishing Cajun Style, Part 1

Nice Black Drum, First Fish

Well, the big weekend finally arrived on Friday as I met my brother Steve at the airport on our way to Cameron, Louisiana.  First stop was Houston, Texas to meet up with our fishing party consisting of the both of us, Joe Stanfield, Mike Schubert, Jim Cox, Professor Doug Hopkins and Matt Davis.  After getting our rental car at the airport and loading everyone up, we headed east towards Port Arthur, Texas before turning south along the coast towards Cameron.  This area of Louisiana was hit hard by Hurricane Ike, which in 2008 cause extensive damage due to the exceptionally high water surge that occurred.  Not the strongest hurricane to hit the gulf, it ended up being one of the costliest as it changed much of the area where we fished.  Traveling between 100 yards to a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, evidence of the hurricane was all around us from slab foundations where houses sat to damage yet to be repaired.  Traveling east on Louisiana Highway 82 to Cameron it was amazing to see all of the refineries and oil related industries that went on for miles. Basically following the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a shipping channel stretching from Brownsville, Texas to Carrabelle, Florida, I was amazed at all the barge traffic moving up and down the canal, a superhighway for ships.  In addition we drove over many very high bridges which would allow ocean going freighters to travel up to a 100 miles inland to drop off and pick up cargo destined for who knows where.  Just before getting to Cameron we had to cross one of these shipping canals that had many refineries all the way up to Lake Charles, Louisiana via a car ferry.  Prior to getting there my friend Joe called to remind me that I needed a Ferry Pass, they were $8.00 and you could buy them at the store on the right, about a mile from the ferry.  Looking for the store that didn't exist all of a sudden we were at the ferry gate. Now what?  Assuming I could buy one through the guy directing the cars onto the ferry I had rolled the window and asked "Can I get a ferry pass here?"  "You don't need one" was his answer.  Damn Joe as our waiting in line to board the ferry allowed him to catch up, he was beside us with the whole car laughing hysterically as they asked the guy if that silver car inquired about a ferry pass. Well, at least the trip was starting out on the right foot.

34 inch Redfish

A short drive via a dead end road across private land, we arrived at Camp Dilligas our home for the next 2 1/2 days.  The camp sat on the top of 12 foot pilings to prevent any severe damage against the next hurricane that might hit.  Unloading our stuff I was anxious to get fishing from their famous dock next to the water control weir, one of 4 on Calcasieu Lake.  Fish congregate at these weirs and it was up to us to catch them.   Using raw shrimp as bait, the first fish I got was this nice Black Drum.  A great eating fish, it went straight into the cooler for Saturday night's dinner.  What we were really after was Redfish, often called Red Drum.  I've caught these before for they fight like crazy and are delicious to eat, as it wasn't long before I had one on and it was a nice fish. Bringing a 6'6" medium heavy casting rod paired with a Shimano reel and 12 pound  mono, it was the perfect match for these hard fighting fish.   It's amazing how hard they hit the bait and simply run.  It took about 10 minutes before they could net this 34 inch redfish, my best ever. One of the locals figured it weighed about 10 pounds but I knew better as it was a workout to hold that fish up for the picture.  Trying to get a few nice shots, my arms would only last about a minute before I had to let it down.  Checking the internet, the weight vs length charts put the fish around 18 pounds and it felt like at least that! The fish themselves are very beautifully colored with a distinctive metallic bronze hue along the back, reddish fins and a white belly.  They are members of the drum family, related to the pictured Black Drum as well the freshwater species we call Sheephead or sometimes croakers (they make a croaking noise after you catch them).  The world record is 94 pounds, I can't imagine.  Apparently as the fish get larger they head to the ocean and once over about 30 inches are then classified as Bull Reds.  I couldn't imagine what a 60 pound fish would fight like. Together Mike, Steve, Jim, Matt and I all got a few fish on Friday night, an great way to start the weekend.

Great eating size

On Saturday we were treated to a guided trip on Sabine Lake, a brackish water lake on the Texas/Louisiana border and is known for it's speckled trout fishing.  Getting up at 4:30, we made our way across the ferry and back 45 miles west of the camp to meet the guides. Steve, Mike and I went in one boat while Matt, Joe, the Professor, and Jim went in the other.  Not unlike here in Minnesota, the weather has been unusually cold as the water temps were about 61 degrees, 5 short of when the fish really start coming into the shallows of the lake and bite.  While Matt's boat went quite a ways north, we stopped at the first small reef and about the second cast I had this nice redfish.  Although sea trout was the target, I'll take these any day.  The spot only produced this one fish so we decided to catch up to the other guys and head north to what was called "The Coffee Grounds".  Sabine Lake has a channel on the west side that supports ocean sized freighters that service the oil refineries located between the gulf and Port Arthur, Texas.  All this boat traffic along with the shallow waters creates a pretty stained water although the guide stated it was pretty clear today, you could have fooled me as I thought it was still pretty dirty.  One thing surprising was how shallow we fished with the water seldom over 4 feet deep.  Our lure of choice was a 1/4 ounce jig with a simple rubber body about 3 - 4 inches long.  One of the other fish "bonus" fish we got was flounder.  A flat fish similar to the halibut we catch in Alaska, these were quite a bit smaller and if fact was surprised we even kept them.  The guide insisted that he'd trade flounder for redfish any day for table fare.  We'll have to see! Being about 14 miles from the landing we started working our way back and ran into the other boat.  Getting closer it was apparent the guide had the net in his hands as the Professor was fighting a fish.  Not much of a fisherman I even had to borrow him a hat, the only reason I knew it was him.  Around the boat he was going as they fought that fish for a good 15 minutes.  Finally bringing it in was a huge bull red, 30 pounds.  It certainly was the largest fish Doug ever caught, maybe the only one!  It was good enough for to take the big fish prize we had funded early in the morning.   As stated, sea trout was the target fish yet we fished all day without catching one to add to the cooler until the last place we went before heading back.  In a small shallow bay Mike finally nailed one and it was a dandy hitting over 7 pounds.  The guide claimed that he has only gotten a very few this big and it was truly a trophy fish.  Having finally caught a target fish we headed back to the landing as it looked like rain was about to start.  After getting the boats loaded and parked under the main bridge as the sky opened up.  The guides cleaned the fish and quite honestly I was quite disappointed.  Leaving about 25% of the fish on the carcasses, they simply were in a hurry and did a poor job.  Being fussy I've seen this before with other guides and I guess they simply take it for granted that the cleaning of the fish is simply an option, they should know better or I should have.

The Professor's 30# Red

Mikes Trophy Sea Trout

Crawfish Heaven!

I have to admit we ate pretty well at Camp Dilligas.  Dick's Charity, The Lighthouse Charity Team, provides food for those in need such as serving over 30,000 meals to the volunteers and Emergency Responders working to help those affected by Hurricane Ike.  Food is their deal and food we had.  Friday night was an authentic crayfish feed as Dick's good friend and genuine Cajun Cook, Robert Gaspard took the reins.  Robert is a true gentleman and really knows how to cook everything in Louisiana style.  Unfortunately I am allergic to shrimp, crayfish, crab, and lobster, Robert took pains to make sure the food did not get mixed as his mom has the same problem.  Cooking 20 - 30 pounds of live crayfish, they turned a bright red the minute they hit the boiling water. Robert has a special way of cooking them with a secret process that produces the best, tenderest, flavorful crawdad's as attested to by my brother Steve.  Served in an 18" platter, everyone was given at least one of these and seconds were definitely available.  It's an art to suck crawfish out of their shell and within a short time he was an expert.  For me they cooked up some fried oysters, dipped in a special Cajun coating and deep fried to perfection.  Partnered with their homemade cocktail sauce, I must have at 20 or so.  Truly an authentic meal.  On Saturday Dick had been marinating 18 ounce ribeye steaks again with their special recipe and through them on the grill.  I'd say they were as good as anything I have had.  In the meantime Robert put on a couple of the redfish fillets on the grill, preparing them "On the Halfshell" meaning the skin and scales were left on and that side was set directly on the grill. Coated with hot sauce and salsa, the fish was fabulous.  If you were not much of an eater, this wasn't the place for you!  It's too much to write in one week so stay tuned for next week, just too many pictures and experiences.

Fast Week!

Ben's Devils Lake Perch

If last week was a slow week, this one went by at super sonic speed.  With driving down to see my mom on Sunday to the parade of guest at work this week, I had little time to think about anything, especially this weeks blog!  Well, luckily my friend Ben Aiona has come through to save the day.  Ben had planned to go to Devils Lake, North Dakota on Tuesday however a tragic snowmobile accident left one of Eleva's outstanding young citizen, Brandon Semingson's funeral on Wednesday.  Ben is part of the Eleva Fire Department as was Brandon and Ben delayed his trip to pay his respects.  Eleva is a close knit town and Brandon was the grandson of a good friend, Sidney Semingson.  It's a terrible thing when a town loses one of it's own and unfortunately these things happen regardless.  My condolences to the Semingson family.  I am assuming Ben left after the services and arrived on Wednesday night, in time for his guided trip with the Perch Patrol on Thursday.  The Perch Patrol is a guide service out of Devils Lake, North Dakota specializing in catching the big perch that roam the lake.  My friend Bill Lundeen know the guy that started this, Steve Dahl, a former guide from the Mille Lacs area. It's interesting to read their site (click the link), their claim to fame was having fisherman hop on the Empire Builder, the Amtrak train that runs from Chicago to Seattle, stopping at Devils Lake, ND at 6:00 AM.  They would pick you up upon your arrival and take you fishing for 2 days then load you back on the eastbound train to complete your trip.  It look pretty nice however lately with the amount of oil trains coming out of North Dakota, they are no longer recommending on taking the Empire Builder as Amtrak is secondary to the freight traffic and is often delayed up to 8 hours.  On the same topic, we visited my wife's cousin Carol, who lives in Fountain City, Wisconsin and works at La Crosse Milling in Cochran, Wisconsin. La Crosse Milling makes oatmeal from prepared oats that originate in Winnipeg, Canada.  She has seen her work hours cut because they cannot get their oats delivered and she stated they were 32 train cars short, waiting for delivery.  The oil trains have taken over most of the traffic on the rails.  As a side note, driving up highway 35 on Sunday night, I saw not less than 8 trains parked on the rails, waiting for the traffic to clear, something in the 40 years of traveling those roads, have never seen.

2 Limits of 14" Perch

Ben took over the Heating and Air Conditioning business from Mike Wenaas, his long time employer.  With this winters weather he has been plenty busy and after stopping by on Sunday, he was ready to get out of town.  He sent these pictures via text messaging of his wife and his successful day on Devils Lake.  These perch are in the 14 inch class and one has to be impress for sure.  Apparently they each got a limit of walleyes as well but I didn't get a picture of them.  Knowing Ben, he'll be out tomorrow fishing again before returning for the weekend.  With a little luck I'll be invited to the fish fry.  These pictures remind me of the time Ben's dad Kevin, Paul Wenaas, my brother Steve, and I went to Devils Lake to fish walleyes an perch in the winter.  I remember bringing my secret bait, freshwater shrimp, a sure bet for perch.  Well the locals pretty much laughed at me as the lake is full of them, to the point where they float up to the top of your hole, oh well.  Not having any luck on Devils Lake, we got a tip about a lake east of there, Stump Lake, where the water was once too salty to support fish but the overflow from the rising waters at Devils Lake had brought the level in Stump Lake up 32 feet.  Enough water entered the lake to again support fish so the North Dakota DNR planted over 2 million perch in the lake and we arrived at the perfect time.  Driving to a spot where the trees extended out of the ice and we could look into the old blue heron nests, we started catching perch, all in the 10 - 11 inch range, and hundreds of them.  It was probably the best perch fishing ever yet it looks as though I need to reschedule a trip back out to take advantage of these beautiful looking perch.  Thanks Ben!

Tomorrow morning I head for Houston to meet up with my brother Steve, dear friend Joe Stanfield, Jim Cox, Matt Davis, The Professor (long story), Mike Schubert, and Dick of Lighthouse Charities for a weekend of fishing the coastal waters of central Louisiana.  I had done this with Joe a few years earlier in Rockport, Texas and it was an absolute blast.  We are headed for a private fish camp near Cameron, LA and I'm looking forward to showing those Cajun boys a thing or two about fishing.  We have a few surprises in store and interesting, Dick asked if I could bring down some walleye fillets for them to try.  Not one to skimp on who we are, Steve is bringing some Wisconsin Cheese, I have the walleyes as well I'm bringing some real hand harvested wild rice from my friend Bill.  I'm not sure what they will think but you can bet this Yankee will give em hell regardless!  I have the APEC show in Fort Worth on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so it will be a busy weekend for sure.

Slow Week

Heddon River Runt, Bass Oreno, Whizzling Sparrow, Pfueger Chum Spoon

Now that fishing season has closed for game fish in Minnesota in conjunction with once again, below zero temperatures, there was no fishing done last weekend.  The best I could do was to do some snow blowing with my newly fixed snow blower, which by the way worked pretty good.  The guy at the John Deere dealership warned me that some people don't like a chain that needs to have a link connector added verses a complete chain as they make more noise but to be honest, I don't hear the difference at all.  Actually a length of chain with a connector turns out to be a lot easier and if it breaks again, I'll just use bulk roller chain.  I nice surprise last week was a letter from my Uncle Jerry in Boise, Idaho.  Getting a letter is still pretty exciting as Jerry is pretty old fashioned and I really appreciate the time he takes for me.  The letter include another letter that was in my Grandma's photo album he ended up with, one from the Colonel at Howard Air Force Base in Panama, congratulating my dad's parents on his promotion to Sargent in the US Air Force.  It's interesting as the letter spelled out a personal recommendation of my father, at that time it was hand typed on a typewriter, I'm sure my grandparents were pretty proud.  I am also sure at the time, my dad couldn't wait to get out! Either way I have talked about Uncle Jerry in previous posts, he's one of my lifetime hero's and probably solely responsible for my love of fishing.  One of the things I have never mentioned was the time I visited him at my Grandmother Myrtle's house one summer when he returned from Boise to Eleva.  As bad as my memory is I was probably around 12 years old and every kid needs someone to look up to as my grandma always said I reminded her of Jerry, her youngest son.  Before Jerry left that summer he presented me with his Wisconsin tackle box, a brown metal box with a single tray and loaded full of baits.  I suspect that living out west had changed his fishing strategies more towards fly fishing for trout and with zero bass or northern pike in Idaho, there was little need for a box full of "Mississippi River " baits.   Of course I felt I had just hit the jackpot!  Now back then baits were meant to be used and although that tackle box would probably worth thousands of dollars today, it was simply an opportunity to catch fish 47 years ago.  The tackle box was full of classics including a number of Heddon baits like the River Runt, Jointed River Runt, and Pumpkinseed as well as original Daredevils, Pfueger Chum Spoon, Bass Oreno, Whizzling Sparrow, Johnson Silver Minnow, Creek Chub, Mepps Original, Jitterbug, and many others I never even heard of. Most of those baits are either hung up on a stump near Wilbur's (up river from Alma) or hanging in some fishes mouth, as quality line wasn't the priority back then.  Amazingly I still have some of the original baits from that tackle box given to my by Jerry, as you can see in the picture.  These baits were the rage of the day, long before companies like Rapala hit the scene. You can still buy new Bass Oreno's as some of the old classic's never fall out of favor.   I know he does read my blog and I hope the picture brings back those same great memories as it does for me.  Love ya Uncle Jerry!

Excellent!

With the cold temperatures for the weekend, my wife Lyn and I went to the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Saturday.  It's been a while since we have been there and I sort of enjoy the stuff they have for sale that you can only find at these shows.  You always seem to find a deal and we certainly took advantage.  One of the first booths was Deli Direct Wisconsin Aged Cheddar Cheese Spread in their Horseradish flavor.  I have always loved horseradish and remember eating roast beef at grandma's house where my grandpa Roy and I would always have a good dose of horseradish on our meat.  Now I can't be sure if I really liked it or I simply wanted to be as tough as grandpa was.  Either way I'm a horseradish lover and this cheese spread will be a nice treat for my next fishing trip.  Another thing we bought as an innovative invention called the Gripstic.  A simple device, it's a plastic device for sealing potato chip bags, salad bags, anything that you want to seal tight for assuring freshness later.  The third thing we ended up with were some very well done Mexican painted pottery.  My wife must have impressed them as we got a buy 2, get 2 free.
Personally I don't think it was that good a deal but the people were very nice and I have to admit the pots looks pretty good.  It also gave me a chance to talk with some insulation guys, garage door companies, and windows.  After 22 years of being in the same house, some upgrades are coming due.

With the weather warming, it still might be time for some ice fishing.  On a sad note the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had declared one of my favorite lake for the past 6 years Pelican Lake, open fishing as you can take all the fish you want.  The early freeze, heavy snows, cold temperatures, and overall shallowness of the lake has dropped the dissolved oxygen levels below what can sustain fish.  Reports show guys sawing large holes through the ice then scooping up fish that come to the surface gasping for oxygen.  The lake is essentially dead and will be declared officially froze out.  This is unfortunate yet the DNR had planned on lowering the water lever anyway to restore the lake to a duck pond.  Although I don't agree, it pretty much a mute point now.  With a little luck I may get out this weekend and if nothing else start preparing for our trip to Louisiana.  I can't wait!

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!