Pressing Cider

Production Line

With deer hunting and winter coming quickly it was a great weekend to do something with my apples which means pressing fresh apple cider.  Picking apples started around the first of October with the Haralson, Honeygold, and Fireside's remaining.  The McIntosh apples are earlier and the Wolf River's didn't turn out very good which is OK as they are not the best to begin with.  Trying to not let the work expand too much we started on Wednesday and finished on Saturday.  Although the process is relatively easy, it's a lot of work to get 3 gallons of cider per pressing.  This year I put together my hopper that fits on top of the apple grinder which really worked well.  I could almost get 5 pounds of cut apples in there. The next best thing I did was to add a crank to the grinder wheel. It came with what looked like a ship's wheel with 4 pegs sticking out to turn the grinder.  It was slow and awkward at best.  A stop at Fleet Farm for an aluminum bar and 2 small u clamps, a cut here a couple of holes there, add the crank handle I had laying around and wow, what a difference.  I had help my neighbor Lory with the same equipment without the crank and it was a lot more work. With the help of my wife Lyn and friends Todd and Mark we set up a production line to try and get the job done quickly.  We set up my fish cleaning board for cutting the apples which is important because I'm not fond of grinding in the worms, rotten and bruised spots, and the apple cores into the pulp that we were going to press.  The commercial guys simply grind up everything because in order to sell to the public they are required to pasteurize it and that really affects the flavor.  Being careful to only grind the best we quarter them, cut out the core and anything else that looks suspicious.  With 3 people cutting you can fill up the press in about 45 minutes and another 15 for pressing.  We would get a little less than 3 gallons of fresh cider a pressing, 2 a night for Wednesday and Thursday for a total of about 11 gallons.  On Friday it rained and with no one around I did the work myself and got about 2 1/2 gallons then on Saturday it was a full court press (sorry) and with the same crew as on Thursday we did 8 gallons for a total of about 22 for the season.  That was enough!!  Mark did his own pasteurization by mixing a little Angel's Envy Bourbon with the fresh apple juice, mighty delicious!  Our neighbor Todd got a pretty serious kit to brew stuff with so we started a batch of home made hard cider.  We were surprised that the sugar content of the pressed cider was high enough to yield a 7% alcohol base.  You can add more sugar and get that higher but we thought it would be best to just try an make some first before we start experimenting.

Apple Blossom Time??? 

One of the more interesting things that I saw this week was one of my apple trees actually had a blossom on it. Man, the exceptionally warm October, maybe it got really confused.  I am not holding out much hope that anything will become of this but it sure was interesting to see this. In addition to getting the cider pressed I also got a chance to bring my boat in for that one last fix on all those pesky issues that you find over the course of a summer.  Things  like cracked trim pieces, a small seam in one seat coming apart, check out the motor sputter at 1600 RPM's, and finish the warranty work on the trolling motor, and fix the short in the trailer wiring, all covered under my warranty.  In addition I am having 2 cleats added to the front of the boat as there is nothing to tie an anchor or secure mooring ropes to the front.  Also I am adding gas spring assists to the baitwell and cooler lids.  It really bothers me that every compartment lid has one except these 2 lids so when you open them they clunk against the inside gunnel edge and it is leaving a crease in the carpet. For the life of me I don't understand why they left them out but I'm sure there's a good reason. I have replaced my HDS 12 Gen 2 Touch with a Gen 3 so if you know anyone looking for a nice 12 Touch, let me know, it's a pretty good deal.  I ordered a device called the Lock n Haul which acts as a stabilizer for the motor while towing.  All my other boats had a transom saver device that went between the motor and the back roller and kept the motor from moving.  Although the Evinrude has a built in trailer support the motor can still move and hopefully this will help keep the motor straight and prevent additional vibration while towing.  As soon as I get the boat back I'll probably order some Ezee Steps for the boat trailer.  This summer while loading up my boat I slipped off the trailer step that came with it and fell back first onto the landing.  Thankfully I hit the water and it broke my fall rather than breaking a few bones but that was pure luck.  The Ezee Steps have quite a few endorsements from guys that are my age which like me, are not as agile as we used to be.  My boat is much larger than my previous one and it's a chore to get in and out easily.

Sunday was spent with Jack checking out our deer hunting areas and I'll probably go back up again this weekend and set up a few stands.  Having the boat out of the way gives me an opportunity to get things more organized in the pole shed.  The lawn mower needs to have the leaf bagger attached as the trees are finally shedding their foliage after a wet year and warm fall.   It's suppose to be in the 60's next week however daylight savings time ends Sunday morning which means I'll just have to leave work earlier to get everything done.

Time For Trout

Absolutely Gorgeous 23" Rainbow

During the last couple of years mid October has been the time where I take a day of vacation, drive up to my friend Bill Lundeen's and head up to our secret lake to go trout fishing.  There are actually a lot of lakes within 2 hours that the DNR stocks with rainbow and brown trout, especially the old iron ore pits north of Aitkin, MN.  These lakes are usually spring fed, clear, and deep and are perfect for sustaining trout.  This Monday was my third trout fishing trip with Bill and I have to admit that it is a unique experience to say the least.  Bill had everything loaded up in his truck so all I needed to do was pack my fishing rod, a few lures that I thought might be useful, and a camera.  The lake that we fish does not have a boat landing and is only accessible to the public via a canoe.  It's quite a trek downhill to the small canoe landing and I can attest that going down is a lot easier than going up. The morning started out literally on the wrong foot as I opened the back door of the truck to get the trolling motor battery out, it had shifted and upon opening the door it fell out directly on my right foot. The same foot that got crunched when I tipped my motorcycle, the same foot that has some arthritis in it, there were a few choice words with an accompanying dance to express my pleasure. We used to have a saying "It'll feel better when it stops hurting" so we loaded the canoe up onto a nice wheeled bracket and in 10 minutes we were ready to fish.  I used a simple spinning rod rigged up with a small spinner rig with a single hook, a 3/8 ounce bell sinker, and a half a worm.  Bill had the same rig however he was using a bubble gum colored Gulp trout worm.  It was a gorgeous day as the lake was like a mirror, much different than the 20 mph winds predicted.  Within 2 minutes I had the first fish, a nice 12 inch rainbow trout and by the first hour we had 6 of our total limit of 10.  The next fish was a monster as Bill hooked what he thought was a nice largemouth bass however it definitely felt different.  As it came to the surface he had hooked the largest trout he had ever had so now the pressure was on me to make sure I would land it successfully with the net.  Fishing in a canoe is quite interesting as I was sitting in the front and can't turn around other than twist my body.  My feet are stuck facing forward with the fish bucket between them and the net in my left hand.  This fish wasn't too interested in getting into the net and I wanted to make sure and scoop it head first.  After a few tries I finally was able to get the fish in the net after about a 5 minute battle.  This was too good a fish to simply put it in the bucket and I was concerned that it could flop out of my grip so it stayed in the net.  Luckily we were close to the landing and decided to head back and get a few pictures to savor the moment and recover from all the excitement.   After settling down we headed back out in the lake to see if we could get 3 more trout to fill out our limit. Up to this point Bill had the hot fishing pole however I tend to be the late bloomer and actually caught the last 3 fish including a nice one of my own. We headed back to the bait shop with a nice mess of trout and the plan was to clean them, get something to eat before heading out back again to catch some crappies.

9.25 - 10.25 inch Crappies

Back at the shop we measured the 2 biggest trout,  Bill's went 23 inches and weighed 3 pounds 13 ounces, not bad.  I put my largest on the scale and announce 21 inches!  Bill looked at me and said "Dave, you have to start at the 0 inches end, not the 36 inch end!"..............damn, only 15 inches.  Still a nice fish. After a hot bowl of soup we loaded up his 16 foot Lund and headed to a small lake west of Mille Lacs Lake to try for suspended crappies.  In the fall when the water cools down the crappies tend to suspend over the deep water.  On lakes were the deepest part is 30 - 35 feet, its fairly easy to motor around until you mark them on the depth finder and mark them we did.  Hovering 10 to 15 feet about above the bottom it seemed as though wherever you went in the basin, crappies were there.  It did take a while to find the larger ones as we did catch a number of small fish in that 5 - 7 inch range.  Using the trolling motor to hover on a position we were able to drop our jigs as we watched them fall to the correct depth on the depth finder then work the magic till we get a hit.  Bill had us pull those fish up very slowly as if you bring them to the surface too fast and you release them, their air bladder will keep the fish floating and most tend to die.  Although the eagles like this, we were careful making sure our fish survived the release.  The other thing that I learned is Gulp minnows work very well for this, unfortunately it was somewhat too late as Bill out fished me 3:1.  By the time I figured it out it was time to leave with our 11 fish in ranging from 9.25 to 10.25 inches.  Not monsters by any means but they are nice fish.

Mirror image!

Saturday was spent picking apples and in the afternoon I decided to take the boat out and see if the trolling motor still works.  Because I hit the rocks the week before it would also be a good time to check for any vibrations cause by a possible bend prop shaft.  I decided to try Lake John, just southwest of Annandale, maybe a little far but it has a nice landing and I know the lake pretty well. I will admit that the new boat is taking a while to get used to as it's quite a bit bigger than my old 620T and can be a hand full by myself.  Arriving at the lake it was as I expected, empty landing with the dock still in, perfect for a one man show.  Coming off the trailer nice, I secured the boat, parked the truck, and was ready to go.  Earlier I had set the shallow water alarm on the Evinrude display to 3 feet thinking that would be a great idea yet it's sort of a pain in the butt as I motored out of the landing area into the main lake.  Although it was plenty deep enough the weed tops kept sounding the alarm, I finally shut it off.  With the lake calm and about a mile long I decided to open it up and see what it would do.  With the colder and dense air the motors tend to run faster and I hit a new high in RPM's, 6050 with the fastest MPH at about 60.5.  In the warmer weather and with 2 guys it falls back to about 5850 RPM's and 58 mph.  I suspect that the reports of 62 MPH with one guy and a half tank of fuel (200 pounds lighter) is more than possible.  Like we did on Monday I searched the deeper basin's for crappies but did not have much luck. On the other hand the trolling motor worked perfectly AGAIN!  This time the water was calm and with no wind to set the direction of travel needed to stay in one spot, nevertheless it's performance was fabulous.  No twisting of the cords as the motor only traveled about 300 degrees before reversing itself to change directions.  Previous issues would have the motor just keep rotating until the cords were completely wrapped around the main shaft.  Working different areas, different heading lock modes, and trying the jog functions, everything seemed to be perfect let's hope all of the problems have been solved.

Time is running out as I need to start putting things away for the winter.  The boat heads back to Frankie's on Monday to fix a few things left that need to be addressed.  I've started pressing apple cider and am thinking about trying to make hard cider this year, we'll see.  The mid term weather forecast shows above normal temperatures thru the middle of November, I might just keep the boat available for one more crappie fishing trip yet deer hunting is right around the corner and I need to get ready for that.  For the most part I have finished the work on my Salem Ice Cabin, replaced all the screws with Stainless Steel and finally installed my wheel skirts which should keep things warmer when on the ice.  So much to do, so little time!

Perching, Twice the Fun?!?!

Mississippi River Perch

Hopefully this post keeps me back on schedule but unfortunately the older I get the busier I seem to be, especially this year.  The last 2 weekends have been focused on perch fishing, the first time on October 3rd on Mille Lacs and the second trip was last Sunday with my friend Kevin.  My reasons for going to Mille Lacs were two fold, obviously catching some fish would be nice and I needed to try my reprogramming that I discussed last week.  The unfortunate part of that trip was at the end of the day we were in Vineland Bay and with 4 foot rollers coming in I hit a small rock reef that is tucked back in the bay which did a number on my stainless steel prop and did some minor damage to the edge of my skeg.  I'm really careful but this time I was concentrating on my trolling motor accuracy and had left the GPS scale zoomed in way too much and was on the reef before I even realized it.  It never helps that I was in the tough of the wave as well.  We limped back to the landing and I dropped the prop off at the repair shop to be fixed.  All of this and we didn't catch a single fish.  Looking back at this year, Mille Lacs has been a total disaster in regards to fishing.  I never caught a keeper walleye in fact I never caught a respectable walleye for that matter.  Usually it isn't too hard to find perch in the fall, even if they are in the 6 to 7 inch range, they are still there.  We are waiting for the DNR to determine what the fishing regulations for ice fishing will be for this winter.  The official fishing season for the sake of walleye harvest quotas starts on December 1st and rumors are indicating that there could be a limited harvest for ice fishing, one can only hope. Red lake has turned into my go to walleye spot but it sure would be nice to not drive so far to fish! My next opportunity was last Sunday with my great friend Kevin Aiona.  My wife had a girl's event in Eau Claire and when talking to Kevin about it he suggested I meet him in the morning and we head to Alma to fish above the dam.

Back Channel of the Mississippi Above Alma, WI

That is an offer I simply couldn't refuse and although it would be difficult to launch the boat early in the morning, he accommodated my schedule and by noon we were trolling shad raps on the first wing dam.  It is interesting as it's been about 6 years since I have been fishing in the river above the dam and the river has definitely changed over the years yet there was no doubt I was in good hands.  Our plan was to work our way up to the perch hole by fishing the wing dams along the river.  It was almost like fishing Mille Lacs in the old days, there was a plan and we simply continued to fish spots until we found active fish.  After catching a number of smaller walleyes under 12 inches and losing a couple nicer ones we headed into the calmer water to try for perch.  If you've read my previous report you can see a picture of Kevin with a 14 inch perch, respectable for anywhere and we were ready to catch a few.  The perch were definitely biting however the average size was about 7 inches and there was a lot of them.  A simple small jig under a slip bobber set about 5 feet and it was nonstop action. We did manage to get 4 very nice perch in the 11 - 13 inch range but it took a lot of sorting.  I estimate we probably caught well over 200, along with one mooneye and a number of 5 inch largemouth bass.  Getting tired of the constant action of small fish we headed back out to the wing dams to see if the walleyes were going again. The wind was blowing pretty good up river and Kevin claims this isn't the best for walleyes which proved to be correct.  Surprisingly Kevin caught 2 nice sunfish trolling one of the wing dams with a #4 Salmo crankbait, go figure.  I did take a few pictures of some of the channels that we boated through, it's simply beautiful.

Loaded with Apples

It's definitely apple picking time and I am having a bumper crop of fruit this year.  The McIntosh apples were done a month ago but the Firesides, Harrelson's, and Honeygolds are in their prime right now. Saturday was spent trying to get everything harvested before we get our first hard frost, which looks to be this weekend. The Harrelson tree has always been the most prolific of the 10 or so that I have and there had to be over 8 bushels of nice apples that were picked.  Considering that I probably threw away another 2 bushels that had dropped to the ground over the last month, it's pretty incredible.  They are nice and crisp with few blemishes or worms to worry about.  My plans are to press some fresh cider this weekend while it's still nice out as the apple press is out and ready to go. My neighbor Lory pressed cider last week with it as we have made a few adjustments to the press to make it easier and faster.  He makes wine out of the cider, I simply like drinking it straight however it would be fun to try and make some hard cider out of it, hopefully it doesn't turn to vinegar.  We'll see how much time is left before deer hunting.  I need to get the boat out one more time to test the trolling motor and having added Sea Foam to the gas for storage, it would be good to get it distributed through the system.  My other issue is getting the boat into the dealer and have the few things left that needs to be fixed before storing it for the winter.  As well, I have been putting the finishing touches on the Salem Ice Cabin anticipating another great winter of ice fishing.

Lac Seul, Part 2.

Beautiful Walleye

OK, so I need to get back into my standard routine however being out during the week of fishing on Lac Seul and the fact that I really seem crazy busy these days, It's hard to find any time.  Oh well it doesn't pay to whine does it!  I am still winding down from our trip of 2 weeks ago as it seems like not too long ago the time would never come.  One thing that I love about Lac Seul is the dark stained water produces some really nice looking fish ranging from a bright golden color to dark brown to having a teal colored hue to them. Depending on where you catch them the fish in Wapesi are different than the fish in Tuk Bay verses the ones coming out of the main channel in front of the resort.  Some say that the genetics are different for each area, this might be true and as well I am sure the bottom structures have something to do with it as well.  Bruce claims that the walleyes in Wapesi never leave that bay which is an interesting thought.  Speaking of Wapesi, we did spend the last 2 days fishing Bruce's favorite bay which is about a 15 mile run from the cabin.  So the second real day of fishing was different than the first day as the wind had calmed down somewhat.  There are a couple of spots way back in the bay that we tried and for the most part caught fish however we had to go looking for them.  Now the original plan was to eat fish on Tuesday night, which we did, have steak on Wednesday night then have walleye again on Thursday before we left.  I was somewhat concerned that because we could only have a limit (4 walleyes) each in possession, eating fish on Thursday would leave us short of fillets to bring home as we couldn't have our limit + dinner.  Luckily they saw my Norwegian logic and agreed to have fish on Wednesday then steak on Thursday which left us the need to get 19 walleyes for Thursday.  Fishing was tough but Pete had the secret hole which allowed us to get our limit and the other guys only had to pony up 7 fish, which they did!

Another great Sunset on Thursday night

With a freezer full of fresh walleyes I made Steak ala Kienitz, the same way I did this spring however I used ribeye's instead which are much better.  Leaving Friday morning meant trying to pack up everything early so we could get back to the boat landing and home at a reasonable time.  One of the interesting features on my new Evinrude Etec G2 is the trip computer and because of the distances, gas usage, and price of gas at the resort, it would be really nice to accurately understand your situation.  It actually has 2 separate trip recording modes so I reset the one on Monday prior to leaving the boat landing and heading to camp. On Thursday night it said we had gone 142 total miles and used 39.9 gallons of gas.  The tank holds 51 gallons and not being sure how full it gets plus not knowing the accuracy of the trip computer I decided to put in enough gas (10.5 gallons) to get back to the landing with at worse case about 6 gallons minimum to spare if the fuel usage is +/- 10%.  Arriving at the landing the computer said 177 miles, 49.9 gallons used.  When we finally got back to Pete's I filled up the boat and it took 39.5 gallons which means if you consider the 10.5 gallons in the tank proves that the computer is extremely accurate.  This will help with future trips to better manage my fuel consumption and with high dollar gas purchase it is nice to have the confidence that you know exactly what's in the gas tank.  One other thing it tells me is we sure travel a lot during the trip as it's 35 miles in, 35 out, and interesting that we averaged about 35 miles each day heading to and from our fishing destinations.

Precise anchor control

I have been having issues with my Motorguide front trolling motor and it's ability to successfully hold a position in the anchor mode. Sometimes it works great then the next day it acts as though it loses where it at and goes totally stupid and damn near twisting off all the cords. The picture to the left is a screen shot of our anchoring positions on Lac Seul on Tuesday afternoon on Dan's Hole.  The trolling motor has a jog feature that allows you to move over in 5 foot increments and each spot represents a 15 - 20 foot moves to the right or left, up or back.  By the way, we really did well moving around the point and catching fish, what a great feature. The next day the trolling motor went crazy in anchor mode and started spinning the shaft looking for a position to the point of wrapping the cords up so tight it pulled one out of its exit location. It was very frustrating especially considering how well it worked the day before. Upon returning I called Motorguide to discuss the issue of losing it's place and twisting to the point where a cable had pulled out of the plastic housing.  They suggested I do an upgrade on the software and Ok'd me messing with the cable to reinstall.  Lucky I had to take the brackets apart as the main pivot shaft was missing it's end clips and had come out one side which caused all sorts of issues as well. Actually I am pretty good with all of this and actually fixed the trolling motor better than when it came from the factory.  After upgrading the software with the dongle MG sent me earlier in the week, Lory and I went to Mille Lacs to try it out on Saturday.  Once we calibrated the position and compass functions the motor worked beautifully. Unfortunately it's history has been to work great the first day and not so hot the next so we'll have to try it again next Saturday.

Back From The Big Lake, part 1.

Monday Night Sunset

We finally made it back from a very successful trip to Lac Seul, my fifth one in 2 years now.  Our fall trip usually consists of our fearless leader Bruce, his friend Wayne, my neighbor Pete, Dan the Landscape guy, myself, and a sixth guy who this year happened to be my brother Steve Anderson.  After what proved to be an interesting Sunday night Steve and I got up at 3:15 AM on Monday morning, hooked up the boat and was at Pete's by 3:45.  Picking Dan up at 4:00 we finally saw sunlight about Cloquet, MN.  Meeting the rest of our crew in Orr, MN we crossed the border about 10:00 and sailed right through.  A stop in Dryden to buy groceries and a final stop in Sioux Lookout to get our parking pass for the boat landing (which they ran out again), we were in the water by 2:00 and at camp around 3:15.  The ride into camp is about 35 miles by water and depending on how much gas you want to burn, takes about an hour to 75 minutes.  It's always interesting coming into camp as Bruce pretty much knows the way by heart yet this year I helped him decide to upgrade his 15 year old technology with a Lowrance HDS7 Gen 2 touch and a map chip that shows Lac Seul.  These things look interesting while working in the garage but they really shine when you are using them for real.  Lac Seul can be very tricky to navigate and the GPS with the base maps are pretty nice. Once we arrived it took about an hour to unpack and clean the place, we were able to get out for a few hours of fishing on the point that is just north of camp.  It has a great view to the west which makes for a great place to be as the sun goes down. Getting back into camp we were just in time for burgers on the grill as there was not enough time to do anything with walleyes, besides there was plenty of time in the next 3 days for fish dinners.  The weather was quite warm however a cold front was due thru the area and just after dark the lightening and thunder moved in, not a very long storm but enough to change the weather significantly. After a couple of cocktails to celebrate a safe trip in, everyone was pretty exhausted and by 10:00 we were out!

Pete's 25 inch Walleye

Tuesday was our day in Tuktegweik Bay, an area that we did well last year.  Unfortunately the prior day's 78 degrees was now in the 50's with the wind blowing like crazy. We have some nice fishing spots marked on the GPS however the cold front that came through really put a damper on what I would call a normal day of fishing yet it was still pretty good.  I'm the guy that believes you need to see the fish on your depth finder to make sure that you're not wasting any time fishing an area where there is no fish.  There were plenty of marks on the screen yet most were tight to the bottom, a sign of inactive fish for sure.  We did manage to catch quite a few fish however, including this nice 25 inch walleye that Pete caught. Last year we caught quite a few walleyes that had a blue hue to them, quite pretty and unusual.  We did get a couple that had this coloration but nothing like before.  It was interesting as I really rely on my electronics to help locate and catch fish however both Pete and Bruce, who have many more years of experience, rely on past successes as it relates to where we would fish.  With the cold front quite established, the walleyes had lockjaw and took a lot of patience to get them to bite, but they were there.  Back on our favorite point we exercised my new trolling motor with pin point accuracy to move around in 15 - 10 foot increments which proved to be quite successful.  The walleye size limit is anything 18 - 21 inches must be released and of 4 fish, they all can be under 18 but only 1 can be over 21 inches.  As a rule we like to try and keep only fish in the 16 - 17.75 inch range and releasing everything else.  Although we did catch a lot of fish in that 15 inch range, keeping these would have to wait when we get more desperate!   I suppose we got a total of 60 - 70 walleyes with a few northerns scattered in between, not a bad day, especially after a significant cold front moved through.  Because fried walleye was on the menu that evening we kept 8 walleyes while Bruce's boat turned in 6.  My brother Steve is pretty good at filleting fish so we had those 14 walleyes cleaned in no time and were deep frying them within the hour.  There is nothing like fresh fried walleye to end the day.

36" Northern Pike

I always seem to get a nice northern pike in the 34 - 36 inch range and this year was no exception. I did bring some gear to specifically fish for pike but in the end, one never does as the walleyes take center stage, which is OK.  They are pretty voracious and will slam your jic/minnow combination with vengeance however one only get's lucky about 50% of the time where they hook themselves in the corner of the mouth and your line is fairly safe from being cut off by their sharp teeth and knife like gill plates.  They are fun to fight on light tackle for sure.  The only real problem with northern pike is that they are very slimy and it gets all over the boat, enough that we try to keep it in the net while unhooking then you can wash the net before putting it back on the floor.  Sometimes you simply have no choice and there is white slime all over the place.  Oh well, it does wash off nice!  Actually I replaced the main carpet in the passenger seat side of the boat with a heavy duty outdoor floor mat type material custom cut to fit right in.  This was the best thing I have done to the boat as it certainly takes the abuse of sand, slime, stepped on minnows and garbage that gets dropped while fishing and quite honestly it still looks like new. With two days gone and 3 days to go time was really flying.  I will report on the last 3 days later this week.  Thanks and sorry for being late!

Posting from Cleveland

14" perch, WOW!

I guess maybe I need to stop complaining how crazy it's been, maybe I could get some fishing in sometime.  Actually I am hoping to get a months worth of fishing in next week with 3 1/2 days at Lac Seul, the clock is ticking down.  Writing from the Airspace Lounge in Cleveland-Hopkins Airport with 3.5 hours to kill, it's giving me time to write this weeks post.  As stated, not much fishing has gone on as I was thinking about going last Sunday but it was pretty windy and everyone was busy. On Saturday my wife and I attending a family reunion in Independence Wisconsin and after 5 hours we headed to Eleva to stop at my friend Kevin's place to discuss the upcoming wedding of his son Ben, which we are attending. Of course it doesn't take very long for the conversation to evolve into fishing and Kevin showed me a beautiful perch that he had caught in the Mississippi River earlier in the week.  This thing is huge!  I definitely needed some material for this week and he reluctantly agreed if I promised never to give up his secret, something I wouldn't do anyway.  He has promised to take me there someday and maybe when I get back from Canada, we can make that happen.  In the meantime I am looking forward to a pretty good evening of fish talk with the boys on Saturday.  Our good friend John Felix will be there as well as most of the good old boys from Eleva, it will be a fun time for sure.  The wedding is at a the Barn Again Lodge just Southeast of Mondovi, Wisconsin and it's a pretty cool place.  The reception is in the machine shed, the barn is remodeled and features sleeping quarters, it's nice and self contained for an event like this.  

All Hooked up!

I do not lack in people who claim that I should have my head examined!  Well on Monday I did just that and had an EEG, electroencephalogram at the University of Minnesota Hospital.  I have had some issues with short spells of dizziness and they are trying to pinpoint a possible problem.  The EEG takes about an hour however at least 40 minutes of it is dedicated to attaching 38 different electrodes to your head by first measuring everything then marking the locations with a crayon.  Next they scrub those areas with something that to be honest, my head still hurts where it feels like they used sandpaper.  Next they apply some adhesive before attaching the electrodes.  It was interesting and the good news is they did find some brain activity. One of the tests involve shining a strobe light into my eyes to see how I react, both with your eyes closed then open. Apparently that did nothing for me.  Before they unhooked everything I asked if I could take a selfie as I was sure it looked pretty stupid. I was right.  I won't know the results for a few weeks but the good news is they let me leave. Next on the testing plan is to hook me up to a heart monitor and leave it attached for 2 weeks to see if I have any issues with my heart stopping which could affect the blood flow to my head.  I decided to wait until mid October to do that as I didn't want to be tethered to anything while I was fishing.  Something tells me that won't show anything either but one never knows as I am not getting any younger.  I suspect losing about 20 pounds would hurt either. It's about 3 days before we leave for Lac Seul and the weather is looking very good with no snow predicted like there was this spring. Normally we bring our blue Clam ice fishing suits but I don't think it's going to be necessary this time as it looks like the mid to high 60's are predicted.  The boat is pretty well packed as I have removed all of the unnecessary tackle boxes, packed my boat fenders, updated my electronics including downloading all of my friend Bruce's information on the lake, changed out which fishing rods I would like to bring with, and made room for everyone else's stuff.  The oil reservoir is filled, my spare prop put away, and all of the safety equipment double checked and ready to go.  I certainly don't need any run in's with the the conservation officers.  

Because I will be in  Canada all week, returning Friday, next weeks post may not happen, we'll see. There is extremely slow internet at the cabin and I am sure it will not like pictures but we'll see.  If not, I'll post as soon as I can with hopefully another great report. 

Labor Day Labor

My 1 pound Pear

September is looking more like one big blur these days.  With the sun setting earlier each day there seems little time to get anything done, maybe getting older doesn't help either.  The other issue is the amount of rain we've had this summer.  Usually parts of my property gets pretty dry this time of year and requires little mowing but not this summer as we have had frequent and adequate soakings to keep all of the grass nice and green and growing.  The wet weather has taken a toll on a number of trees that are succumbing to fungus and blight and the outcome doesn't look to good.  My favorite apple is the Firesides I have and last year the wet spring killed one of the two I had and now the remaining one is full of fungus.  My Honeycrisp apple trees don't look any better and I have a rather large Sugar Maple that is dying as well so it looks like I have some work to do this winter with the chainsaw.  On the positive side it's been a wonderful year for my pears.  The trees weren't too loaded with fruit so it helps to create fabulous sizes on the pears that were on the tree.  I have included a picture of one of the largest off my Patton Pear tree, it weighs in at about 1 pound and is big as a softball.  Admittedly it's the largest pear I have ever seen come off my tree.  They are actually very good to eat as the fruit is crisp and sweet.  With the help of our neighbors and friends Lory and Lynn Brasel, we got the entire tree picked before they start rotting on the tree, which some have already started.  Later this week her and my wife plan on canning a bunch, something I have never done.  They canned the fruit from my SummerCrisp Pear tree by simply using apple juice instead of a syrup and it's pretty amazing how well they turned out.  Because those pears were smaller they used pint sized jars but these will definitely require quarts.

Flooding as the pond overflows in Eleva

Last week it was very hot, humid, with a strong south wind.  Sunday was no different as we drove down to Fountain City, Wisconsin to visit my wife's cousin and to attend Farm Fest, a small event on the top of the ridge just north of town.  It was pretty interesting to see all the old tractors and engines however I think that the hot weather kept a lot of people away.  Never the less it was nice to spend time with the guys, John, Greg, Bob, and John Charles solving all the worlds problems.  Sunday night had torrential rains forecasted so we headed back only to run into those rains around Alma and drove through some pretty heavy downpours for the next hour.  In my home town of Eleva it was a completely different story as they had severe flooding both from the north coming into the Eleva Pond and from the east when the dam in Strum breached and sent a wall of water down the Buffalo River heading right for Eleva.  Although the water is high in this picture, the damage happened after it had carved a channel through the dike surrounding the old Chicken Plant (now Family Farms) and completely flooded the lower part of the building.  Bud Tollefson use to live in the house below the bridge and definitely in the flood plain however it's been since 1978 when Eleva had the last incident.  Apparently that house had a foot of water on the first floor which meant the basement was completely full.  I called my friend Kevin and his son Ben and got the story, particularly the rush to sandbag critical areas before the wall of water arrived from Strum.  With over 100 volunteers helping, they averted most of the issues but it's still going to be a few weeks before things get back to normal.  They did tell me that it was necessary to pull the planks on the Eleva Dam and at this point the pond is empty.  I am going through on Saturday and see how everyone is doing.

Salsa cooking down

So it obvious that I didn't get out fishing this weekend.  Labor Day means one thing and for me it's not a rest from Labor but a day off from work to labor around the house more. There is still a lot of issues in getting ready for Lac Seul and to be honest, I'll get a month's worth of fishing in a week and with the harvest in peak mode, there's little time to get anything done (Sound like a broken record, uh!).  I did start working on getting the Salem Ice Cabin ready for the winter.  It's amazing that something you pull down a salty road in the winter uses standard steel screw to hold everything in place.  I have been changing them out with Stainless Steel and with some it's simply too late as the heads simply break off or in some cases are already corroded off. Everything is greased up and I like to repaint the frame areas that tend to rust easily, it simply makes it look nicer, that's all.  With the last of the tomatoes ripening I made the last batch of salsa on Monday night.  I've probably said this before but I do think my salsa is pretty good for homemade.  Not as good as fresh but certainly as good as any store bought I've had.  It does take a lot of work and time, about 4 hours to make 7 quarts. This year ended up around 33 quarts, enough for the football season at Tim's, my ice fishing trips at Red Lake, and maybe enough to take for opening fishing next spring.  It's really thick and tomatoey but I am always surprised that once cooked the heat of the peppers seems to wane.  Oh well, it's really easy to spice up and this year I'm going to try a trick that my friend Ricky Shermer does, adds freash cut onions to his salsa that he opens up and serves.  Seems like a great idea. Hopefully I can get out this weekend and make sure everything is working in the boat.  I have had some issues with glueing a panel to the underside of my console that I have bolted my ethernet hub to.  Originally I used Silicon adhesive but that didn't work very well and it fell off.  I've tried GOOP and liquid nails with little luck and believe my initial instinct of using 3M 5200 Marine adhesive will work.  It's hard to find but I need to do something before the following weekend.

Hanging with Charlie

Charlie's first Smallie

Last Thursday afternoon was the day to pick up my boat from Frankie's as they had the GPS module in the Motorguide replaced and a few of my minor warranty issues taken care of.  On the phone was a text message from Chuck Teasley, "Got time for lunch tomorrow?"  The fact that Chuck lives in Glen Carbon, Illinois which is just east of St. Louis, Missouri I just assumed he probably texted me by mistake so instead of wasting a long drawn out text event it would simply be easier to call him. Answering his phone I learned that he was in Iowa heading to the Twin Cities, his sister passed away and he needed to come and help with everything.  Well lunch was just fine however he had to join another friend, Hondro and I as it was already scheduled but that wouldn't be a problem, they would get along just fine.  Asking a few more questions like where was he staying gave me an opportunity to help by getting a hotel reservation at our corporate rate near the office, which would work out well for him.  Of course lunch didn't work out but with his daughter Cameron flying in to attend and see some friends, it gave us Saturday afternoon to go fishing on the river, and fish we did! Arriving at noon we headed to the Ace Hardware store to get some 4 - 6 inch sucker minnows. The big smallies love them and although it might be too early yet, it never hurts to have them with.  Hitching the jon boat to the Polaris Razor, we headed through my neighbors field and in 15 minutes we were on the river.  My plan was to work ourselves up to the 101 bridge just south of Elk River, Minnesota and work the bridge piers first then leisurely drift down while stopping at the deeper holes, casting the rock strewn shores, and enjoying the scenery.  At the bridge Chuck caught a small northern while I drifted one of the sucker minnows close to the rocky shore on the south side of the river.  I use a trick that Pete showed me, hang the big minnow about 2 feet under a bobber and hang on!  After 2 short drifts the third one finally saw the bobber disappear with vengeance, a 3 count and set the hook as the line snapped.  Must have been a nice northern as I was using 12 pound test line. As we started to drift down Chuck caught the first smallmouth on a bomber crankbait, the day was starting out pretty good. I suggested that he use a casting rod and reel as one can be more accurate pitching those crankbaits into the shore edges and

An  ill Placed Lure

with the rocky bottom the heavier line would hold up a lot better. When I first asked Chuck if he could cast this type of rig it was "No Problem!" however upon handing him the rig he sort of admitted he might not be as proficient as he sounded earlier. Never the less he wanted to try it and his first cast was not very well placed as the lure ended up in the front of my shorts....Oh My fishing for trouser trout, hey Charlie! Lucky for me the hook just caught my zipper or there might could have been a few more of the chosen words I had already just used.  It took about a minute to get resituated and was followed by taking the casting rod away and giving him a spinning rod with the same lure, it just seemed much safer. Oh well, Chuck asked me to post this so here it is. Just below the RV park that is below the bridge and on the west side is the first rapids to negotiate.  Usually I head up the east side of the river but really wanted to fish the rockier west side which looked tempting.  Normally I simply point the stern of the boat downstream then use the electric trolling motor to position the boat so both of us have access to casting towards the shore.  Well I got a little shallow and before I could make any moves a rock tore off my transducer from the back of the boat.  Although it is frustrating, often times you do expect some casualties if you're going to push the limits of your current river knowledge. What frustrated me the most was when I got home to replace the transducer with a spare I have, the depthfinder didn't work.  I am thinking that water got into the crystal element of the transducer and the output drivers of that part of the locator circuit didn't like that very well. Things happen in three's and with 2 down I was sure the next issue wouldn't be far behind and it wasn't as another rock tried to push my trolling motor under the boat which caused the T bar that holds the motor to the various bracket positions snapped off.  This usually happens a few times a year and luckily they are only about $1.60 each and take about 15 minutes to replace, as I have done this many times.  With all of that out of the way it was time to get serious about fishing.

18.5 Inch Bass

Above the Crow River is a couple of nice holes where I've seen a few guys fishing.  We stopped to fish some nigh crawlers on the bottom as I am sure this is a great place for walleyes.  The only thing that bite was about a 4 pound carp, they do fight pretty good but not necessarily what we were looking for.  I also got a small channel catfish, maybe 13 inches at best, it was time to move. As we drifted the shorelines for the most part we stay on the north side of the river as it is has more rocks associated with it and because of the influence of the Crow River, it tends to be more clear on that side.  There are also 3 nice side channels on the north side which I always catch fish along the edges.  I would say that we had caught almost 15 smallmouth by the time we hit the second side channel but they were pretty small, often less than 13 inches.  Never the less they were really hitting those baits as sometimes you would see them actually come right to the boat before slamming it.  We even had a few that hit it so hard they came off right away.  Coming down the channel there was a nice small eddy that had formed at the edge so I perfectly placed my Bomber Crank and 2 seconds later had a very nice 18.5 inch smallie, best of the season so far.  As you see the river was almost perfect for fishing that day, nice and calm and the level is almost perfect.  The water temperature is down degrees from the last time we were out and as the water cools it will drive those smallies into the deeper holes.  I still haven't caught a walleye in the river yet this year, maybe it's just not my year for them, yet there is plenty of time.  We ended the day catching about 20 smallmouth bass and had a number of fish that followed the bait to the boat so all in all it wasn't a bad day.  I had been telling Chuck all day about the menu at Clives, a nice place to eat in Champlin, MN where they had deep fried northern pike you could order for fish and chips.  Northern pike is actually pretty good to eat and I think it has more flavor and texture than walleye so we decided to have dinner there.  Well, to my disappointment it was no longer on the menu so we settled for catfish instead. After a few hugs and well wishes we headed our own ways as Chuck had a busy schedule on Sunday.  It was great to get out with him again, he is one of my most sincere friends as I have known him since about 1978, when I first moved to the cities.  I can assure you he is a bit tamer than he was but his spirit hasn't changed a bit!

My goal of getting the Lowrance HDS 7 touch for Bruce for our trip to Lac Seul was now in jeopardy as something happened and for the life of me I could not figure it out.  No transducer pinging probably meant that the output section of the circuit got fried.  Calling Lowrance we did a hard reset with no results so was resigned to send it to their service center in San Diego with a 7 - 10 day average turn around.  This would really cut it close so it went overnight.  Well, late last night I got a shipment confirmation in the e-mail, I should have it back by Friday.  Now I wonder what the heck, maybe I missed something, I guess we will  see next week.  Anyway we are back on schedule for sure!  My friend Lory helped me with the calibration of my trolling motor board, that went pretty simple.  He's a great guy to have around as he and his wife helped me make 9 quarts of my famous salsa on Tuesday night, no simple task and it was pretty humid.  It's a busy weekend and is also my 1 year anniversary of totalling out my motorcycle.  I still haven't decided how much I miss it yet with everything moving so fast these days, not much.  Hopefully I can get out fishing if there's anyone around!  

Taking The Weekend Off

At the Races

With severe storms, high winds, and colder weather scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday of last week I decided to go up with my friend Kevin Sonsalla and Lory to BIR (Brainerd International Raceway) on Friday instead of picking up my boat at Frankie's. The GPS board in the Motorguide needed replacing so I dropped it off on Monday but they still had some stuff to do and it wasn't going to be fully done so it worked out well.  The NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) has their annual race week at BIR and all the big boys are there for this national event.  Although there are many classes of drag racers, the stars of the show were the Top Fuel Dragsters and the Funny Cars.  Kevin always get's tickets to the events as he has his contacts with Don Schumacher Racing so we get right in and have special hospitality passes to DSR's area's which is pretty cool.  The races are amazing as both the Top Fuel's and Funny Car's cross the finish lines in under 4 seconds, often at speeds over 320 miles per hour. That's damn fast when you consider they start from a dead stop and race to the 1000 foot mark, which is less than 1/5th of a mile.  They moved the finish line back from a 1/4 mile when the speeds started getting unsafe.  It seems like they have caught up to those old times again.  One interesting thing we saw was 2 Funny Cars that had lined up and both crossed the finish line in under 4.0 seconds.  The track announcer stated that this was only the 3rd time in NHRA history that both cars lined up broke the 4 second mark.  Even more interesting was the next 2 drivers that lined up and they also broke the 4 second mark...2 in a row.  The sound is deafening as you can feel the speed as they go by.  It's quite interesting for sure and with the cool weather coming in, things were bound to get faster, which they did!  Sunday's high was only around 60 degrees F and with the cloud cover the track was insanely fast.  Checking the results on Sunday night 4 NHRA speed and time records were broke including a 3.68 ET for top fuel, the fastest time ever recorded at 332.75 mph in Top Fuel, a 329.58 mph fastest Funny Car time ever, and a record setting 3.664 ET but could not be verified via NHRA rules.  When we were there the announcer gave a update on one run, at 660 feet the Funny Car had accelerated from a dead stop to 288 mph in less than 3 seconds while covering the last 340 feet in another second. Uffda!!!

Grapes!

It's really getting to be garden time and although the corn and pickles are done, the tomatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, raspberries, onions, are in full harvest mode. This is the first year that I have raised grapes and with the help of Lory we actually got a few this year. They are pretty flavorful, have seeds in them, and are probably pretty useless for wine but it's sure cool to see them hanging on the vines.  I have to take care of them this winter, making sure the roots get covered an protected from a hard cold January.  That should be pretty easy as I have lot's of leaves and a good system to pick them up with.   My carrots are really doing well this year.  Usually I dread planting them then having to thin them out to assure they have room to grow then I never do. This year I bought the coated seeds, they are about the size of a BB and really easy to plant. Not crowding allows then to grow nice and big so everyone is amazed at my carrots this year.  I love carrots and eat them raw right out of the garden.  My dad always said they were good for your eyes and to this day I still have 20/15 vision, not bad for an old guy!  Somewhere I read that you can also cover any carrots left in the garden with leaves such that the ground doesn't freeze and you can harvest them all winter long, I don't really know about that but it might be worth a try.  As well the tomatoes are really

Nice Looking Carrots 

starting to ripen.  I've canned tomatoes in the past however it seems like all they do is sit in the jars for years until they rot, I clean out the jars and repeat the process.  Well a few years ago I decided that the tomatoes are best use to make salsa and quite honestly I seem to be getting better at it every year.  I hate soupy salsa's preferring the thicker, cling to your chip type and have perfected my process.  There are a couple of secrets and I know many simple don't want to take the time but first is after peeling the tomatoes I squeeze out the juice then put them in a pot to boil it down.  The second secret is towards the end add a large can of tomato paste, it's like adding cornstarch to gravy. Anyway the batch I made the other day was excellent with a lot of garlic, lime juice for increasing the acidity, and 6 different peppers from the garden.  I also have about 6 different varieties of tomatoes, most of them heirloom type as I think they have considerably more flavor.  One of the other items in the garden that are huge this year are the potatoes.  I dug one hill up the other day and I swear it yielded 5 pounds of huge tubers.  I like to leave them in the ground and use them as needed because they stay fresher that way.  I might have to take some to Canada with me next month.  I hear that potatoes have to be in a commercial bag that they come in from the store, that wouldn't be hard to do, we'll see.

Picking up the boat before the weekend as I just got my snaps for the new replaceable carpet and can get them installed.  The new GPS board on the Motorguide needs calibrating so there's a great excuse to get out on the water this weekend.  It's easy to do just press a couple of buttons and drive in circles, something I do very well.  Countdown to Lac Seul is now 3 weeks away, I'm getting excited!

Back to Lake Osakis again

Nice Bass, my only fish

First of all it can be challenging to come up with a topic every week, especially if you've taken the weekend off from fishing to work on other less important things such as mowing or getting stuff done around the house.  When I ran across my old picture album last week it brought back memories of 1997 when fishing in Cabo San Lucas and it's funny, the pictures took my memory back to that time but it seemed to skip 2008 when I first posted the very exact same story and pictures on my October 6th post, amazing!  Oh well today is a new day and what I know is a new post. Because it was forecasted to rain on Sunday, Lory and I decided to try Lake Osakis again on Saturday to see if we can run into some of those nice crappies and maybe a walleye or two. With the temperatures predicted in the 90's and strong south winds, a day on the water might feel good.  Osakis is straight up Interstate 94 about 105 miles northwest of the house.  It's an hour and 45 minute drive, about 30 minutes further than Mille Lacs but it does seem longer.  Arriving around 1:00 Lory backed the trailer into the water as I started the outboard to back it off the trailer. The minute I hit reverse the motor came to an abrupt halt, not thinking about the bungee cord around the prop to prevent it from spinning while towing was still attached. A second time did the same thing before the realization hit me, the strap is still on.  Lory pulled the boat up carefully enough to jump out and remove the strap that was now wrapped tight around the lower housing, back it in again and this time it worked. life sure gets frustrating sometimes!  Our first stop was a nice hump that seemed to have walleye written all over it.  After 5 drifts across we changed our minds and headed to the area where we caught a few crappies the last time.  Almost immediately we marked schools of fish that were in 16 - 18 feet of water and they seemed to be stationary.  Our first thought, this should be pretty easy, like spearing fish in a barrel.

2 nice Crappies

Lory quickly caught the first crappie, a very nice 12 inch fish, seems like we were in for a great session!  We stayed on the school as well as others but those fish were not much in the mood to bite as Lory nailed another one and that was about it. It's pretty frustrating for sure as you know they are down there, you know they are nice fish, and you know you're not that bad of a fisherman. Oh well, maybe we are when it comes to mid season crappies.  I know from my ice fishing experiences that crappies can be finicky with needing just the right presentation.  Maybe we should have had minnows with slip bobber to be more effective, who knows.  It is definitely worth trying again as one can see that there are a lot of nice fish in Lake Osakis and it is worth doing some more exploring for sure.  It is a fairly large lake and this time of year it has quite a few weeds along with that slimy clumps of algae near the shorelines.  We did enjoy watching the western grebes work the depths with their young.  Usually there were two dull colored almost grown grebes with their parents swimming in the open water.  The hen would dive down and 15 - 30 seconds later would surface with a minnow in her bill as the young would race to see who get's the newly caught morsel. It was easy to watch this over and over again but we were the ones needing to catch the fish!  If you think about it, there had to be a ton of baitfish in the lake as the surface was covered with groups of 3 and 4 grebes all feeding on minnows and usually where there are minnows there are larger fish as well.  Actually there are so many grebes that you really need to be careful when you drive across the lake as they don't move very fast and one would hate to hit any my mistake.

It is a really busy time of the year as the personal stuff has accumulated to be a crazy last part of August through September.  With reunions, weddings, Labor day, and fishing trips it will be a challenge to get everything done in time.  The good news is that Bruce has set our fall trip to Lac Seul for September 21 - 25th and I will be bringing the new boat along.  My good friend Mark Taylor set me up with a friend of his that runs a company called Mat Crafters, which makes custom floor mats for businesses.  Mark had given me a large heavy duty floor mat and this guy would cut if for me however we decided it was too heavy so he picked a lighter, more flexible material.  Using my existing removeable carpet as a pattern he cut it perfectly.  I did order snaps and an installation tool to add the snaps to secure to the floor which will be really nice.  Now I have a heavy duty carpet to use in the boat when we are at Lac Seul, it holds sand really well and should help to keep the boat properly clean which means I won't have to yell at Pete as much!  This trip my brother Steve is going with which I after he invited me to go with him to Canada a few years ago, is a great payback.

Blast from the Past, La Palmas de Cortez, 1997

Nice Bull Dorado

Saturday was spent running back to Wisconsin to attend a wedding party in Mondovi with my wife and her relatives.  Here I thought it was an outside affair but it turned out to be simply a party as they did the ceremonial stuff on Friday which means I dressed up for nothing!  I did met a gentleman by the name of Steve that after a few questions determined that he enjoyed fishing as much as I did. He lives in Durand so I explained the time when I was about 16 and I got the royal crap beat out of me by a guy in Durand and it expanded from there.  Today he fishes Lake Pepin, something I am anxious to try and hopefully he will contact me sometime to let me tag along.  With little opportunity to go fishing last week last week I was looking for something interesting and ran across a small photo album with some great past fishing pictures, including some from my trip to Cabo San Lucas.  In April of 1997 I was invited to go fishing with a business associate, Walt Benecki of Arnold Engineering.  For a number of years only his company would produce a special part needed in an implantable application which made us successful.  Walt had learned I love to fish and over the years we had talked about fishing the Sea of Cortez and that year it finally happened.  As a note, Walt wrote a book about his fishing adventures and it's still available on Amazon HERE.  His book was the influence for me to start my blog to document my fishing experiences.  So, getting back to the story all I needed to do was get to LAX by 6:00 AM on April 25th and he would take care of everything else.  What was interesting is Paul Wenaas had a round trip travel voucher that was due to expire on April 30th so we he heard I was going offered me a really good deal, $125, I was set. The flight was due in at around 10:00 the evening before however we sat on the runway till 11:00 and it was midnight before I got to my hotel.  Unfortunately the person who booked my room at $69 had done it for Friday instead of Thursday and of course there were no rooms left at "that price" and the

First Days catch, 3 nice Dorado's.

hotel was full.  After some checking they miraculously fine one room left at $149, it was now almost 1:00 and I had to get up at 5:00, I'll take it.  I supposed the right thing might have been to just wait at the airport, I could hardly sleep anyway but the little sleep I got helped.  At 6:00 I met Walt, Fred, and Shok as we boarded for Los Cabos Airport at the tip of the Baja Peninsula.  Arriving at around 10:30 we loaded into a van and headed northeast, not before stopping at a little shack and getting a Pacifico for the ride to La Palmas de Cortez, our destination.  It was really cool driving through the desert then coming over the hill to see the Sea of Cortez, it's aqua blue color and the white sands of the beaches below.  We arrived at the resort and it certainly was the most impressive place I'd ever been to.  Unpacking in a gorgeous room overlooking the ocean we headed to the beach to sit at the veranda just in time to watch the boats come in.  I'll never forget that afternoon when we met some guys from Intel Corporation, Portland Oregon.  After a few introductions and where we were from (Eleva, Wisconsin) the head guy looks at me and says, that explains it.  Explains what? I asked.  Well it's not pronounced Oregon (last syllable sounds like on) the way you midwestern guys say it but rather Oregon (las syllable sounds like gun).  I explained that it has an O in it and not a U, still he insisted.  Ok, then tell me if you are from Oregun, are you an Oregunian or an Oregonian? FU was his answer, you can't outsmart an Eleva boy as he bought margaretta's the rest of the night.  The next morning we woke up at 6:00 to have breakfast in the dining area before boarding our fishing vessel for the day, a 26 foot with a single engine and a fly bridge for spotting marlin.  Our first stop was at a small boat just off shore where they purchased bait, maybe a few hundred minnows about 5 - 6 inches.  We headed out about 5 miles into the deeper waters and started looking around anything floating whether it be net buoys, vegetation or garbage in the water as you could easily see 40 feet or more down, they would look for fish, especially dorado.  Often the captain's mate would throw a few minnows in the water and with no cover they swam for their lives.  If there were any fish in the area they would definitely make themselves known.  The second they saw something they'd rig a pole up with a hook and a minnow and toss it overboard trying to get it to hit.  Usually they were successful and as soon as the fish was on they handed you the pole.  Because there were 2 of us fishing, we flipped for the first fish then it was every other hookup meaning if you a pole was handed to you, that was your turn regardless if you landed it or not.

Neon colors at their finest

I was first and immediately fought and landed a huge bull dorado that you see in the first picture. Pictures and words can not describe both how beautiful these fish are in the water and how awesome they fight.  Many saltwater fish light up like a neon sign when under stress and the dorado is the king. Bright neon blues, greens, and yellows it's a sight to see for sure.  Not only are these fish fun to catch but they are fabulous to eat, which I will get into later.
The next hookup was another dorado and it was up to Fred to land the fish which he did perfectly.  I was 52 at the time and Fred was around 62 but not as good of shape as I was. These fish took a lot of effort to land them as you needed a break after your turn was complete.  The next fish hooked was nice 9 1/2 foot striped marlin and it was my turn!  I have never experienced what I was about to embark as this thing used all it's power to shake the hook.  Of course being an avid fan of the Sunday morning fishing shows on cable, I was familiar with the antics of a marlin however experiencing it was a whole new deal.  After a number of crazy runs and leaps out of the water, it's final strategy was to go deep directly under the boat.  Man, it was like reeling in a big rock. 30 minutes later the marlin was along side the boat with it's pectoral fins lit up in a neon blue.  I have to admit I needed a break.  We snapped a few pictures and released the fish to fight another day.  The next couple fish were hooked and release then Fred hooked a very nice dorado. Besides having fun, the other thing going on was Walt's annual Cabo Fishing Tournament.  Each fisherman was assessed points based on type of fish and its rarity along with other factors such as total catch in your boat as well as bonus sizes for trophy sized fish, say a 500 pound billfish.  Black Marlin were worth 40 points, blue marlin 30, striped marlin 25, sailfish 20, wahoo 15, dorado 3, and tuna 2.  These are pretty much based on how common those fish are.  The other qualifier is each rod has a leader connected to a swivel and a "caught fish" was awarded when the swivel passed the rod tip, regardless if it got off after that.  Well Fred was battling this dorado and the swivel was about a foot from the tip when all of a sudden the boat surges forward as the captain cranked on the throttle, he had seen a marlin in front of the boat and marlins = tips.  Poor Fred was hanging on for dear life (as well as shouting a few expletives) as the line was peeling off the reel.  About 100 yards later no sign of the marlin and Fred was stuck reeling that fish back in again, I thought he was going to have a heart attack.  Later that night Fred demanded that he should be awarded double the points for having had to reel it in twice.  No such luck but we did end the day with 3 dorado caught and a striped marlin.

Ready to Land a Striped Marlin, notice the blue fin.

What was fabulous about La Palmas de Cortez is they kept the dorado, often known as Mahi Mahi, and serve it each night for dinner.  It's absolutely fabulous and I really made a pig of myself, so much that the older Mexican lady serving it told me "Senor, you will get ill eating like you do!" The next day was my turn to be with Walt in his boat as we changed strategy for the morning bite and went for yellowfin tuna. Even though they are the least amount of points, you can usually catch quite a few if you get into them.  Unfortunately most of what I caught were bonita, basically a trash member of the tuna family.  They did fight excellent and I did finally catch a yellowfin and the rest of the day was pretty slow.  In then end my score was 63 which puts me in the middle of the list of guys that fished during the 13 years that Walt held this contest.  It was a great time, I met a lot of great people and there is nothing better than relaxing on the veranda on the beach drinking a Negra Modelo, which unfortunately by Saturday night had cleaned out the resort of this great beer.  I have it on my bucket list to get back to La Palmas de Cortez, it's still relatively inexpensive place to go and hopefully my brother Steve and I can make it someday.  That trip ranks in the top 5 of my lifetime fishing experiences for sure.

The Mille Lacs situation continues to play itself out and I will definitely have more to say on that later. This week we have finalized the dates for our September Lac Seul trip as we will leave on the 21st and return on the 25th.  This time my brother Steve is coming with and I am really excited to return the favor from him inviting me on his trip a couple years ago to Burrows Lake, east of Lake Nipigon, Ontario.  Lots to do!!!

Walleye Fishing Over on Mille Lacs for 2015

Charlie and the last walleye caught in my boat legally on Mille Lacs

It finally happened, 15 years of total mismanagement by both the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the State of Minnesota have resulted in the closure for all walleye fishing on Lake Mille Lacs starting August 4th to December 1, 2015  After pre spawn netting by the tribes and targeting those same size fish that are netted, the allocation of walleyes to the public have been reduced to 28,000 pounds for the 2015 fishing season on Mille Lacs. I would love to go ballistic regarding this terrible political situation (IMHO) however I am bound to keep my mouth shut and not pollute my post with anything but fishing yet it's difficult because it affects both my favorite fishing destination as well as my friends that are severely impacted by this ineptness.  What makes matters worse is sitting on the side watching the slow and inevitable decline of the lake and there is little you can do about it.  So, I have decided to provide links to articles that better explain the situation and the Princeton Union-Eagle is a small town newspaper which does an excellent job and probably best leans towards my political views regarding this.  My first link HERE is the announcement of the closure of the walleye season on Mille Lacs on August 3rd. The second link HERE really does a nice job of documenting the latest issue regarding the Governor's visit to Isle, MN and the local reaction to the situation.  HERE really says it all in regards to my feelings about the situation and whole hardily agree with Joe Ward as I am a member of PERM and fully support their charter in dealing with this problem.  So the closure of walleye season really had no restrictions which is interesting.  I suspect I can troll for northerns or muskies this fall on the reefs with large stick baits like a Rattlin Rouge, or fish smallies on the deep reefs with leeches, I'm not even sure what this all means and if I catch a walleye it certainly must be released.  Ridiculous is all I have to say about it.  I have 2 friends in Alaska, Jeff King and Keith Holtan, both run salmon fishing guide service on the Kenai.  This year because of declining populations, the first salmon run which occurs in late May thru June was cancelled which quite frankly affects their income.  I would bet that if you did some research you would fine that the same issues that plague Mille Lacs are eerily similar to those that shut down the fisheries on the Kenai.  The more things change the more they stay the same. I am in constant communications with my friend Bill Lundeen, I feel bad for him and I wish I could do something as I am helpless other than keep pressuring our government to make changes in the way they approach the problem.  Good Luck!

The star of the show!

So my last official walleye trip was last Wednesday when I had the pleasure of taking both Chuck Teasley and Dan Hoene in my new boat.  Charlie is a friend from way back and Dan is his buddy from high school. Each year Chuck comes to Minnesota with his family to visit a camp on Lake Carlos near Alexandria.  We try to get away during that week and this year it worked out that both he and Dan could make it.  The plan was to meet at the pole shed, drive north to Mark Applens place, go out to dinner, then fish the big lake.  When I showed up at the pole shed both guys were there but to my surprise Chuck had a new addition to his right leg as it now was aluminum and Dan was hobbling around on a cane that Chuck had made for him.  Quickly loading up the boat we headed north as I got the story.  Chuck had a serious motorcycle accident years before I met him and his leg was mangled up pretty bad.  Over the years it became worse and eventually it needed to be removed below the knew.  Dan was a star college hockey player for Michigan but degenerative arthritis has blessed him with 3 hip transplants, the third was recent and he still needs some rehab.  I was glad I had the new boat as it would be much more comfortable for them as I felt fortunate to be able to spend some time with these 2 great guys.  After dinner at Hunter's we headed to Mark;s place at Fisherman's Wharf, settled in then sat outside on the picnic table enjoying a few cocktails, a nice cigar that Dan brought, and the beautiful full moon.  Unfortunately the wind had picked up from the west and although it made the evening mosquito free, it wasn't looking good for tomorrow's wave action.  Waking up to 30 mph winds, we decided to head to the west side and launch where it would be so windy.  After stopping at Bills to get bait we arrived at the landing only to be greeted by the DNR's AIS (Aquatic Invasive Species) unit and trust me, with the walleye closure upon us, I was in no mood to be hassled by these guys.  I know it's not their fault and most are simply interns doing a job but they need to know how screwed up their future employer really is.  As well, we were the only boat in the landing, another waste of tax payer dollars, oh well.  The waves were terrible and 1/4 mile out from shore they 2 feet and breaking.  It really forced us to simply drift the rock humps south of Sherman's point where we did get some fish including my first walleye on Mille Lacs for the year, a 11 incher.  Chuck ended up catching the 2 largest fish for the trip, a 16 inch walleye and a nice 17 inch smallie.  As for Dan and I, there were no pictures worth sharing as we stayed in that 9 - 12 inch walleye range.  Because of the wind it was really hard to fish so our pattern was a simple nightcrawler rig  pulled along the bottom as we drifted out until it becam uncomfortable then repeated that pattern.  Being pretty beat up by the wind and waves we headed back to the landing where in an attempt to secure the boat I fell off the front step and landed back first in the water but not before my side hit the step and caused a huge bruise.  Thank God there was water to break my fall.  Now with 3 of us "crippled" up we headed down the road for dinner at the Long Siding Bar, it was pretty good.  Arriving back to the pole shed we said our goodbyes to another year, another good time with friends, and the reality that we are not getting any younger.  I am already looking forward to our trip next year.

Lory's Golden Redhorse

Saturday gave me an opportunity to finally get the jon boat out and start fishing the river.  After cleaning it out, hooking up the electronics, and starting the motor (3 pulls BTW) I was ready for a planned trip up the river with Lory Brasel on Sunday.  After getting a few things done we headed to Blair's landing and up passed old town where the Crow River joins the Mississippi.  It's amazing how dirty the Crow river is and how it affects the water clarity down stream.  Because it joins from the south, the north side of the river stays much more clear until it gets close Blair's.  Fishing wasn't very good as I only got one 8 inch smallmouth and had a few strikes but no hookups.  We decided to anchor on the downstream side of Cloquet Island however when I dropped the anchor it didn't hold very well, probably because it came untied from my anchor rope and is now sitting on the bottom in 10 feet of water.  With no means to hold us in the current we decided to go down to our neighbors dock, tie up and fish the flat area in front of his property as the fish tend to feed in those areas. With a glob of nightcrawlers we casted into the current and it wasn't long before a fish grabbed Lory's and started running up against the current.  We landed a nice 6 pound golden Redhorse, took a couple of pictures and let it go.  Overall the fishing is bound to get better on the river and luckily I have another anchor to through on the boat so I should be back in business.  On interesting thing, when I pulled the boat out of the river something looked funny and sure enough, I had left the "earmuffs" on the motor that garden hose attaches to for running it out of water.  The prop had torn it up pretty bad and to be honest, I am lucky that it didn't interrupt the normal flow of the water to cool the engine.  Just another thing to replace.  I am not sure if I'll get out this weekend as we have a wedding in Mondovi, WI and it's fall fest time in Independence, my wife's home town.  Either way it's like every weekend, busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest!