Back from Toronto

Westin Harbour in Toronto

This week was our annual Spring TTA meeting and for 2016 we decided to host it in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  We have a few members from that area and thought it would be good to support our northern members.  Toronto is a big city, actually the 4th largest in North America with only Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico City being larger.  It's a very clean city and I was amazed at all the high rise building and condominiums that were around.  We got to stay right on the water front on the 21st floor of the Westin Hotel.  Although the rate was @199/night in Canadian, is US Dollars that's only about $150 an a pretty good deal for a room right in the heart of the town. It had fabulous views from the room and on the top floor (38th) was a nice bar and restaurant where we stopped and had one on the last night.  Absolutely beautiful.  I took a picture but it didn't turn out so good. Of course Toronto can be expensive, however as my friends from Canada state, you get used to it.  Apparently housing is quite high and they have a 13% Provincial sales tax on everything!  When you come back through the airport, you do go through US Customs right there so once through, the concourse is considered United States soil therefore you can simply get off your plane and head out as though you were flying from Chicago to Minneapolis.  They did have a duty free shop on the US side of the security and their Crown Royal was pretty cheap, $37 US Dollars for two one liter bottles (about half price) so I did get a couple for my friends.  In addition I got some ice wine and a bottle of perfume for my wife.  I would have bought more but I had enough to carry already!

Onions Arrived

Arriving home it was raining and I was thinking about picking some night crawlers but it was pretty cold out and I was tired.  This weekend is time to plant my onions as the ones we ordered from Texas came in.  Along with the right fertilizer it's a perfect time to plant potatoes and the onions.  I use to get the big Texas sized onions but they don't last very long after you dig them up, maybe only a few weeks.  Like last year I buy the long storage onions, they still don't seem to last very long but better than the other ones.  I use them for pickling fish, making my salsa, and just plain eating.  The Texas onions are fabulous as I have 4 varieties this year, 2 white types, a yellow, and a red type.  Along with the right fertilizer I should be set for planting as you saw last week, Ricky Shermer came over and tilled up my garden so it's ready to go.  Besides planting a few things my asparagus is starting to really sprout.  I love it as it is so good and sweet and is great on the grill.  The raspberries still need some work which hopefully I can get finished this weekend.  With 2 weeks before opener I need to mount my 3rd depthfinder in the boat.  I have a new Structure Scan 3D module however I am somewhat nervous about mounting the transducer and am still waiting for the flush mount to be shipped.  Maybe that will just have to wait.  Next week I am planning on going to my cousin Greg's place as well, reports are that Mom is going to be released from the rehab center to go back home.  She hasn't stayed there since March 6th so I am sure she's looking forward to it.  So much to do, so little time!  Looks like I might even have to mow the grass this weekend.  I did go to a fishing garage sale and found a couple of items worth buying, a Abu Garcia Zmax 2 casting reel and a couple of packages of Northland Tackle 1/8th ounce Fireball Jigs for opener.  At $1.00 for a pack of 12, it was a good deal.

In memory of Bruce Amundson

New hives for 2016

Quite a few years ago my friend Terry Kienitz out a couple hives of honeybees on my property. He was living in Champlin and was interested in having his own honey.  Well, Terry eventually moved and lost interest in having bee's at my place however another guy from Champlin, Bruce Amundson contacted me and asked if I was interested in having bees on my property as I had done this before.  Because of my apple orchard and garden I enthusiastically answered yes as bees are just the ticket for a prosperous garden.   I had a bunch of stuff left over from working with Terry and after seeing Bruce was serious about this I simply gave him everything I had as it was in my best interest to have Bruce be successful and successful he was!  Eventually he got his two daughters involved and Bruce's wife Joni helped.  Along the way they lost their young son to an unfortunate accident when he was at camp and I know that the bee's helped Bruce to keep his mind occupied during those long summers.  The bee's are great.  I always had a great raspberry crop, my pickles were plentiful and my apples and pears got the pollination needed to be extremely fruitful.  I do remember one time my neighbor's wife expressed some concern asking me once......."do you still have bees down below?"  I replied Yes, why?  "Well", she sighed, "it seems I have bees all over my flowers and it is somewhat nerve racking.   I asked if they were the big yellow ones with the black marks on them.  "Why of course, they really make me nervous" she exclaimed.  I smiled telling her that those are not my bees, honeybees are smaller, they look almost like flies and she had bumble bees, probably they lived right in the ground by her flowers.  She wasn't happy but that's ok, never argue with a small town guy who was trained by the likes of my dad, grandpa, Gyle Tollefson and almost every farmer in town.  You see even at Wenaas's Garage where I worked, Vic would give me petunia's every Memorial day to plant and each year I would bet Joanne that mine would be nicer than hers at home.  She stopped betting with me!  It is a sad year but Bruce passed away this March, Bruce's obituary however to my delight his two daughters are keeping the tradition alive and put 2 new hives behind my place.  Not only do I get some honey at the end of the year but my garden and orchard get the benefit and everytime I look in the back and see those white towers, It reminds me of Bruce.  God Bless him for sure as Bruce was a good man.

Ricky Shermer at his finest.

So the beautiful weather has given me the opportunity to get my garden tilled extra early this spring. It has been somewhat dry so last weekend my good friend Ricky Shermer came over with his Kubota and 3 point tiller and really gave the garden a good scrub.  Ricky really reminds me of back home and Jerry O'Kroley as he showed up in the afternoon with the tractor and wearing only his bibs!  Like Jerry, the side buttons were undone as he worked the garden.  I had seen him earlier in the day and we agreed that it would be a couple of days then just like that, he showed up and did mine, what a great deal.  All I had to do was make sure we had enough beer to keep him satisfied.  It's really nice to have this done and does it ever do a great job of grinding everything up.  I don't want plant stuff too early as we have had late frosts in the past however I am waiting for my onions to arrive from Texas and now I am ready to plant those as it's the earlier the better for them.  I am getting to realize that my garden may be too big.  One person's theory of that is simply plant pumpkins and let them utilize the space, maybe that's a good idea as I could give them to the neighborhood kids this fall.  Either way I'll be looking for ways to reduce my overall work load, maybe go fishing more!

This spring is really progressing.  The leaves are starting to come out, the ice is off Leech Lake and the nightcrawlers are out.  I am working on putting Structure Scan 3D in my boat however the transducer doesn't look to fun to install but somehow I will get it figured out.  I have got most of the updates to my fishing electronics done however there is still a nagging problem with my new Ipod and it's going to drive me crazy.  Oh well, luckily I have enough smart people at work that can get me out of this jam!

Fishin' With Dave, Dave Kramer!

Dave's 10# 10 oz Texas Largemouth

Fishin' with Dave means Dave Kramer this week.  Dave Kramer is a friend of mine who runs the Kramer Open on the week after Labor Day, a Sporting Clay's shoot that raises money for a family that belongs to a friend of his who died early and give monetary help.  I used to shoot every year with my friend Tom Emmons however since his passing, I haven't had the opportunity as there has always been something going on that week.  I am looking forward to making it this year both as a tribute to my friend Tom and Dave always has a pretty good spread of food, beer, and friendship.  One of the things that my friends are always doing and to my delight, is send me pictures of their fishing adventures.  Dave was on vacation at the end of March and Hired a guide on Lake Fork, Texas to go largemouth bass fishing.  I am a huge advocate of hiring a guide when fishing a new area like in Texas.  Lake Fork is about 60 miles East of Dallas as is a reservoir on the Fork Creek and is really a trophy bass fishery.  According to the website 34 out of the 50 largest Largemouth Bass in Texas were caught on Lake Fork.  According to Dave they were sight fishing however the water was quite stained as the quide just knew the spot was a good one.  He had a NetBait Paca Craw, a crawfish shaped rubber bait rigged like a plastic worm texas style.  The fish hit the second cast. Wow, that's a nice fish considering that the Minnesota official State Record Largemouth is only 8# 15 oz, almost 2 pounds heavier.  I think Dave should get a graphite repoduction of this beautiful fish as it truly is once in a lifetime fish.  Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience.

Differences in Gold Colored Jigs

We have our Spring Canadian Fishing Opener trip dates set, I am going up with my friends Bruce Wiley and Pete Sipe along with 3 other guys on Monday, May 23rd.  We normally fish for 3 days and will plan on returning on Friday the 27th.  I have been fortunate to fly up the last couple of times however this trip looks like I get to bring my boat again, which is fun as well.  Flying takes about 5 hours by the time you mess around with everything and driving is about 9 hours, not too bad. One of the latest discussions is my partners love for gold colored jigs.  Lac Seul's water is stained a nice brown color even though the water is pretty clean, it's coffee colored.  The past notion presented to me is that Gold is the ticket and that color outfishes everything.  Well, I don't necessarily believe that notion but what the heck, if it works for them, I'm in.  One of the issues with gold jigs is that the color is plated on verses painted on.  Often times to facilitate the process the entire jig is plated, hook and all which tend to result in plating over the hook point and making it quite dull.  I bought some bulk jigs from Cabela's a couple of years ago to use however they are basically worthless unless you resharpen the hooks.  Bruce and I went to the sportshow and looked at Northland Tackle for Gold colored jigs.  I ended up ordering some for the guys both in 1/4 and 3/8 oz size.  I got them the other day and it was interesting, the picture above shows the 3/8 on top and the 1/4 oz on the bottom.  If you notice, the top on is only plated back to the wire keeper and the hook remains in it's original state.  The bottom one however is the 1/4 oz and for whatever reason, maybe it's just cheaper, but the whole thing is gold plated, hook and all.  If you do the thumbnail test you will find that the top, unplated hook really grabs however the plated one simply slides off the thumb.  I would never dispute their claims of fish catching abilities of Gold however my experience is that chartreuse or white works as well but then again.....whom am I to question the experts!  Oh well, the guys can sharpen these as we drive up!

Spring is finally arriving as I took the boat out of the pole shed to start the main motor, my 250hp Etec HO.  To my amazement it started within a second of hitting the start button, just like the 115 Suzuki's I had.  I am sure that because my E-Tec is fuel injected, that helped because my carbureted 9.8 hp kicker was a bear. Basically the gas drains from the carburetors and instead of being afraid to choke it too much (and flood the engine) it's the opposite, I really needed to choke the crap out of this motor.  After about 5 minutes of trying it finally fired up.  The choke is electric so I had to keep fiddling with it to keep it running until it warmed up enough, what a pain.  Anyway both motors got started and that is a great start to the season.  I did get my two depth finders to talk to each other as this was really bothering me.  I did everything possible and damn near wore out the buttons looking for the right menu.  In the end I ended up doing a soft reset of my unit up front and VOILA, the Sonichub 2 menu bar appeared.  As I told Pete, now he can change the music from the front of the boat if he don't like it!   My next project before May 1st is working on installing a third unit in the boat, this should be fun..............

Troubles with the Boat Electronics!

Lowrance HDS12

Man, one almost has to be a computer engineer to deal with the issues that I have been having with my depth finders and associated electronics on my boat, it's got me running in circles.  Let me explain my set up.  Back by my console is a flush mount Lowrance HDS 12 Gen 3 unit, a 12 inch color screen that is pretty sweet.  On the bow is a HDS 9 Gen 3 which is ethernet connected to the 12 so they will talk to each other, share maps, waypoints, and also if you are knowing what you're doing, will allow you to view the sonar screen from either unit.  Everything is also networked together with what is known as a NMEA 2000 network, a technology that allows communication between a number of separate modules and allows them to either be viewed on the HDS units, and or controlled by them.  These things include stuff like my Point 1 compass that came with the boat, it provides a GPS signal that my outboard motor uses for speed, fuel usage, distance traveled, which can be linked into my HDS or displayed on the display that came with the boat (RPM, Tilt, other stuff) which is communicated through the NMEA network.  Also my front trolling motor is linked to the main HDS unit and you can control it from the console as well, my sonic hub (audio server) is controlled via the network.  Here's is where I am having an issue.  Because my bow and console unit are networked, I should be able to control from both locations, but that doesn't work.  Also the ability to switch sonar views (Console transducer is in the back of the boat, bow unit is connected to the transducer in the trolling motor) has been an issue.  Well after watching a few YouTube videos I finally figured out the settings to allow me to switch it.  It now makes sense but it was painful getting to that point, I must have accessed every menu in the unit.  The next thing is to figure out how to get the SonicHub menu bar on the bow unit.  I have a suspicion that the network connections up front are not correct and I have picked up a few parts to hopefully make it right.  We'll see and if so the network may have been set up incorrectly from the start.  I would be glad if this was the problem.  I am a stickler on features that don't work as I like everything to work as it's supposed to.  I probably could get by without being able to control the sonichub from the back only but hey, that's just not right!  Also I expected the units to share trails but have learned that this is not the case so I have to download them from one to the other.  They do each have a wifi feature and maybe I can learn how to transfer via that.  I did figure out how to put a picture of me holding a walleye as background wallpaper which is pretty slick.

Well, by the time you read this the ice should be off of Mille Lacs Lake, quite early in modern

Almost off!

historical terms.  Open ice is defined by the ability to drive from Isle, in the southeast corner to Garrison, in the northwest corner without encountering any ice. Unfortunately the latest developments with the walleye regulations leaves much to be desired.   The fishing season has been deemed catch and release only with no live bait to be used. You can imagine that this is a real blow to my baitshop friend, Bill Lundeen as he sells a lot of live bait, leeches, crawlers, and minnows.  The has been a lot of talk regarding this as being totally ridiculous and true to my vow not to make the blog political all I am going to say is that I agree with the ridiculousness of the whole thing.  Managing the lake as though it's a farm is impossible and I am afraid we will never see Mille Lacs back to it's previous glory of being the premier walleye lake in Minnesota.  Oh well, I am pretty good at trolling shad raps and lead lining so fishing should be good, maybe because there will be no one around!  That is really sad considering how many fish are in the lake now. I am anxious to get the boat out soon and see how she runs after it's first winter.  Mom is back at the rehab center and we went to see her on Sunday, she looks a lot better.  Hopefully by the weekend I will have everything figured out!

Easter with Mom

Myself, brother Jon, Mom, Sister Beth and brothers Steve and Blake

My mother has been going through a lot of issues lately as about 2 weeks ago she was hospitalized with pneumonia then let out to recover in a Rehab center only to see her heart rate skyrocket, a definite sign of Atrial Fibrillation, which is a dangerous stroke risk.  She went back into the hospital then was sent back to the rehab center on Easter Morning. Our plans were to have Easter dinner there with her and it worked out perfectly.  For $5.00 each we could enjoy a nice dinner, nothing to cook, no dishes to clean up, easy.  My wife Lyn and I drove down on Sunday morning and arrived around noon, just in time to fill out the menu.  Mom will be 82 this April 18th and despite having smoked all her life, deals with type 1 diabetes, and has had heart surgery, she has outlived all of her siblings.  We sat with her till around 7:00 that evening when the nurse came in to take some vitals.  Her blood sugar was really high and her heart rate was over 125, both triggered a call to the doctor.  They gave her some more insulin however the heart rate issue was serious enough to have her transferred back to the hospital.  So away we went, I could have drove her but concerned about the stroke risk she went via a non emergency ambulance which could cope with any issue that might arise.  I sort of think they probably let her out too fast without getting her heart rate under control but who knows.  Sometimes I think insurance and Medicare determines this stuff and it ends up costing more unless of course you die in between things.  She is feeling much better and because fishing is essential non existent for now, we will probably go this weekend and spend some quality time with her again.  I know she appreciates it and it probably isn't going to get any easier for her.

Northwest Sportsman Show

It's Sportshow time and the Annual Northwest Sportsman Show is this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I really like attending this show as I get to see all the major fishing guys, boats, and "what's new" out there.  My dealer, Frankie's Marine will be there and I know that those guys catch all the fish that's in the big fish tank where they hold seminars.  A couple of weeks ago Joe, Fankie son, showed me a huge northern that they caught for the tank and I am looking forward to seeing it.  The DNR will be there and it will give me a good chance to bitch about their current Mille Lacs decision, which is crazy.  One booth I am looking forward to is the Lowrance one as I just got done upgrading my own electronics and have some serious questions for them on configuring my units.  As well, I upgraded to a new sonic hub and that thing is not as good as my previous one for sure.   I am slowly but surely working on getting the boat ready and even though I could get out on the water in the next few weeks, I still have lot's of stuff to do around the house.  My friend Jim Cox did send me my fish from the week before and I am anxious to have a meal of California Rockfish.

Fishing in Long Beach

California Whitefish

My long awaited fishing trip out of Long Beach, California happened last Sunday.  Our original plans included up to 6 guys, Jim Cox, Joe Stanfield, the Professor, Matt Davis, Mike Schubert and Myself, enough to consider hiring a private charter we often call a 6 pack.  In the end there were only 3 of us as the Professor was busy at our APEC conference, Mike's wife schedule him to be on a cruise boat, and Matt stayed home in Texas.  This left only Jim, Joe, and myself so we decided to go out of PierPoint Landing and take a 1/2 day charter on one of their party fishing boats.  Although crowded it was reasonable and it fit our schedule very well.  Basically it was $60/guy, I needed to have a fishing rod that Jim was able to furnish (otherwise you can rent one), a Non resident California fishing license, and some 8 - 12 oz sinkers that we got in the bait shop.  The charters load at 5:30 in the morning so we had to be there by around 4:30, they run about an hour out of the harbor towards the oil derricks, where we would fish the bottom for resident rock fish. Interesting as there must be at least 30 species of rockfish available in the waters off the California coast and I am sure there were at least 20 different ones caught on the boat.  We even caught something called a whitefish, nothing like I figured but it was fun for sure.  Before leaving the harbor I suspect at least 35 guys got on board so fishing was going to be tight.  There were assigned spots along the rail with a number each 2 feet of so.  You got a Tag with that number and a gunny sack to put your fish in, the tag had a wire attached so you could attach it to the gunny sack. Everyone had a chance for $5.00 to get in the big fish pool, what the heck.  I was in California for our annual APEC conference and every year we have tried to go fishing (look back in the archives, it was Charleston last year, Louisiana in 2011).  The fishing was very interesting

as the rods were very stiff and had open spool reels with about 150 feet of Mono tied to a base of braided line, maybe more than we needed however we did have 10 oz weights on to get it down fast

Our boat

and to help keep the lines from tangling into the next guys.  I watched how the helpers on the boat rigged everyone.  The sinker would go at the end of the line then they would tie a couple of loops were about a foot long and 18 inches apart.  they would then sort of loop the hooks on by passing the looped end through the eye and simply looping that so the line would secure the hook through the loop and not a knot.  Therefore you would add either a piece of sinky cut bait, usually sardines, or a piece of squid to the 2 hooks and drop it down.  Fishing in 160 feet of water it still took about 20 seconds to get to the bottom and you'd better have the ability to keep in in "your" zone or you will end up getting tangled.  I now know why they looped the hooks on, it was easier to take them off when getting untangled from the next guy as it happened to me about 4 times.  The boat hands are really good at helping because when you get a fish, they often twist around the next guy's line.  Once they got to the tangle off came the sinker and hooks and it was pretty easy. These guys definitey had patience as someone was always untangling someone.  We mostly drift fished, maybe drifting a half mile or so before turning back upwind.

Joe's Monster Fish!

I thought the fish were surprisingly small with the majority in the 12 - 15 inch range.   In addition, they have swim bladders so once you caught them and brought them to the surface they were all but dead.  Hanging around the boat were always a couple of pelicans to take advantage of the easy meals. As well we saw a number of sea lions and they didn't bother to grab anyone's fish, I am sure they are well fed however.  Also when you brought  up some of the fish their eyes would almost pop out of their heads!  We all did OK but Jim did the best of us 3. It really takes a lot to get used to fishing that deep and dealing with the line stretch.  The picture on the left is Joe with a Vermillion Rockfish about 8 or 9 inches long.  They are going to die anyway to we kept him, sort of like what we do ice fishing.........we call them Hate to's.  Hate to keep'em, hate to throw'em back!  That one went into the gunny sack.  Although it didn't matter Joe kept throwing his fish in my sack so in the end I had a pretty good haul.  We fished till about 11:00 making 4 drifts before heading back to the dock.  A couple of the deckhands started cleaning fish, $1.00 each, which wasn't to bad.  They sure had a process, slab each side as they cut through the rib bones, flip it and do the same.  Once slabbed they literally cut off the rib bones, flesh, everything leaving a slab of boneless meat.  Me, I would have taken the time to cut around the rib bones however their way was very fast and with a few hundred fish to clean they needed to get done in a hurry.  The sea gulls that followed up sure like the methodology and were quite content following the boat.  I had them clean all of our fish and they had a lot of extra fish that people didn't want so I had them throw about 5 more in our pile.  I suppose I ended up with about 8 pounds of fillets and Jim was going to vacuum pack in dinner sized portions, freeze them,  and overnight them to me next week.  I am really anxious to try them out as they will be great deep fried.  The deckhands leave the skin on so if a game warden stops them, they can prove what kind of fish it was, just like here.  On of the more interesting things about the trip was a Japanese man we met, Mr. Suzuki.  He was here from Japan to attend the same conference so we looked him up on Monday.  It is always nice to meet different people and I have to give him credit for going out on the boat on his own.

This week is Easter Sunday and my wife and I are going to have Easter Dinner with my almost 82 year old mother who is at a rehab center after being in the hospital for about a week.  She had Pneumonia and her heart was screwed up somewhat.  It's time to seriously get the boat ready and this weekend is suppose to warm up so that's good.  Most of the lakes are ice free around home so it might be a great excuse to get out.

That Time of Year

New steps

Living up north we have to deal with 2 times of the year that keep us grounded!  The time from about October 15th to December 1st and from the middle of March to May 1st.   Well unfortunately we got hit on both end this year with ice fishing.  We didn't have solid ice until after Christmas (usually after Thanksgiving) and at this time the ice is coming off the lakes pretty fast.  This is because of the relatively warm winter, there wasn't much ice thickness and the weather has really warmed up early this year.  With what I see, it looks like most of the big lakes will be ice free by April 10th and looking at the latest date opener can be, it should make for a fabulous fishing opener.  That's ok because it should give me time to get everything ready as I am a pretty fussy when it comes to my boat.  I just picked it up from Frankie's on Wednesday as it had a couple of recalls related to the motor. My previous post of January 27th showed a new set of trailer steps that I got to make it easier to get in and out of the boat. Well, Mark from Ezee Steps looked at the pictures I sent of the original installation and decided that he should redesign the middle step which originally was a step that the Rangertrail already had come with.  He had been thinking about this for a while and after some discussion he made it and sent it to me.  What an improvement, it looks great and it definitely helps in the getting in and out of the boat.  I did run into a problem a week ago Saturday when I dropped my boat off at Frankie's, on my way to Birchwood, WI.  If you see to the left off the top step there is a rather tall grab pole attached, which really makes it easy to get in and out.  However before one pulls the boat out of the garage, one has to make sure that the garage door is high enough, unfortunately I did not do this when I left for Frankie's and the top of the grab pole hit the door.  Of course I didn't even notice ti until I heard the pole hit the floor when the force broke off the u bolts holding it to the trailer.........Uffda!!  Anyway I did order new stainless U bolts and got it fixed, had to bend the garage door back so it would shut, no worse for wear but still reminds me of all the stupid stuff I do!  I do love the steps however and it should make life easier, now I just have to find someone who can tighten my door lift assist springs so the door goes all the way up when I open it.  I am lucky I didn't cause anymore damage than I did.

Party fishing boat.

On Saturday I head to Long Beach, California to attend the annual APEC conference which usually occurs in March.  For the last 4 years there is a group of us that usually gets together to fish on the saturday or Sunday before the conference starts on Monday.  It all started in 2011 when we had a APEC in Fort Worth, Texas, I met Joe Stanfield, Jim Cox in Corpus Christi, Texas to fish reds in the saltwater marshes.  That was a blast and in 2014 we followed that up with our trip to Louisiana then last year in Charleston, South Carolina.  Although the Gulf and Atlantic coast fishing is better this time of year than in Southern California, that isn't the point.  It's to get out with my friends and do something different!  Looking at the various websites what seems to be hitting is mostly bottom fish, Rockfish, Red Snapper, and I see a few lingcod mixed it.   Because of our late start and location, we are down a few guys so instead of doing a 6 pack charter it's easier and cheaper to just do a 3/4 day party fishing boat.  At $60/guy we'll see how it goes but it is something I have never done before so that in itself will be fun!  This year it will be Joe, Jim, and I again and hopefully I will have some pictures and big fish tales to report.

Lake Minnetonka's ice officially went out today, the second earliest in since they kept records.  This should bode well for the rest of the lakes in Minnesota, Mille Lacs is starting to pull away from the edges although the cooler weather predicted for this weekend should slow things down however the ice fishing is about finished.  I have already put my stuff away for the year and as you see am working on the boat as I have about 6 weeks to get everything ready.  That sounds like a long time but  I can assure you it dissappears fast!  The Northwest Sportsshow begins in 2 weeks and I am really like going to that show.

Fishing Crappies on Big Chetac Lake

Louie's Finer Meats, Cumberland, Wisconsin.

So Saturday I finally got out to fish with my wife's cousin Jason and his dad Andrew as well as his brother-in-law George Wimmer, the honorable mayor of Isanti, MN.  Jason's wife, Abby's parents have a cabin on the channel between Chetac Lake and Birch Lake in Birchwood, WI, just northwest of Rice Lake.  The plan was to leave about 8:00, drop my boat off at Frankie's Marine as my new Evinrude had a couple of recalls that needed attention, then head over to Turtle Lake before turning northeast to Cumberland, Wisconsin with a planned stop at Louie's Finer meats on the north side of town to pick up their "World Famous" home made bratwurst. One of my favorites is their Packer Brats' a bratwurst loaded with sauerkraut and cheddar cheese and because we are very close to St. Patrick's day they had some fresh Ruben Brats, excellent!!  I ended up gettting a dozen brats, some fabulous brat buns, and some great beef sticks for munching on.  I tell you nothing beats Wisconsin meat markets for the best beef sticks, they add that cured sour taste to them, just like a the old Slim Jim's.  Here in Minnesota the meat sticks are OK but rather bland in comparison.   My stops made me think that I was going to be late however I arrived at the cabin at least a half hour before George and Andy so I didn't feel so bad.  I was surprised at the amount of snow on the ground as it's been fairly warm but I would say there was around a foot of so still in the woods.  The lakes were covered as well but not enough to be a problem.  George brought his ATV up as he didn't trust the ice but heck, if someone is already out there with the same size truck I have, I'm usually good to go.

Jason's Bass

Our intent was to fish Chetac lake, part of the Red Cedar River chain of lakes and is a fairly shallow lake with a few well marked 25 foot basins which are perfect for Crappies.  We started on the northeast side around 1:00 but it was pretty dead.  There were some nice areas between the islands on the south end and gradually we ended up there.  At the access point there looked like a lot of cars and trucks where my map showed the basins but as we got out there the people were more spread out than it looked. Finding a spot on the other end of the crowd, I started catching sunfish.  There were not terribly big however they had a lot of black spots which I have been told don't hurt you but they still look unappetizing.  Towards late afternoon I had caught a nice crappie, maybe 11 inches and it was looking like it would get better.  In the meantime Jason really hooked onto something big which turned out to be a 2.5 pound largemouth bass., some excitement!!  Anyway just as the Crappies started hitting George and Andy decided they had better get back to George's place and see if his son Alex and the dogs were OK.  By that time I had my limit Ok sunfish and 4 nice crappies in the bucket.  Well, I could have stayed but it wasn't in the cards so we headed back to the cabin to cook some of those great bratwursts.  After finishing up I was looking forward to the 2 1/2 hour drive back home and was thinking of maybe stopping at the Black Bear Outdoors shop however it was closed so I continued back over to Highway 8 then west to home. Andy got all of my fish and the way the week has been it looks like ice fishing is on it's last legs.  On Saturday March 18th I fly to California and have a fishing trip planned on the Ocean out of Newport Beach on Sunday.  We'll have to see who shows up. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is our annual industry APEC conference and we always try to schedule something interesting on a boat around that time.  Last year we went to Charleston, South Carolina to fish Sheepshead, that was amazing.

I wanted to point out that  I have linked to a couple of new blogs this month on the left side of the page. I am a big fishing forum junkie and I found both of these while searching articles. The first one is The Stream in Time, I ran across Len before as he has that northwoods look that I have seen on some of the forum posts, as well he has 2 things going for him, 1 he's from Sconny and he's got a great beard. I ran into his blog the other day and I see a lot of similarities, he started when I did, in 2008 and he uses Google's blogspot as his host.   As I stated my blog is basically my diary of my fishing adventures and my dad really like to read the books I printed from that.  I love his title because it really does say it all.  The second blog I added was Wild Smallie.  I discovered his blog when I ran across his post on Mille Lacs, which I thought was excellent!!.  I did ask permission to link as that's only right but I encourage you to check both of them out as Len from The Stream of Time and Chris from Wild Smallie are excellent writers and both have the ability to take you away from the daily grind.  Enjoy, I certainly have!  Pick the boat up tonight, maybe fishing Pool 2 before long with this 60 degree weather.

33rd Annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza

2016 Official Logo

My brother Steve decided to join me along with Mark and Jan Applen, Brian and Lee Bak, Russ and his brother Randy Praught, and their friend Scott Anderson from Onamia for the 33rd Annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  We all pulled our wheel houses to Hunter's Point resort on Friday and set up in a good looking spot not too far offshore.  The contest is more like a huge button drawing whereas you buy a button with numbers on it, they write that number on a tag then it goes into a huge hopper and at 3:00 Saturday afternoon they start drawing numbers and if it matches yours, you win! They really give out a lot of prizes and some real nice ones such as 2 Ice Castle wheel houses, a 4 wheeler (UTV), a bunch of ice augers both gas and electric, TV's, tackle packages and this year they had some drones in the drawing.  The buttons are $20 each and I suspect there were around 3000 people there to claim at least 100 different prizes. There were some nice perch entered however most everyone thinks that they could have come from anytime, any place so nobody seems to get too excited about the perch part of this.  Either way the third place winner was by us at the drawing with his 1.57# fish and Wow, it was a beautiful perch, about 15 inches in length and personally I have never seen one this big in all the years I have been fishing Mille Lacs and that one was only third place with 2 bigger than this.  Uffda.  Only one person in our group, Lee Bak, won something at the drawing, a cooler stuffed full of ice fishing lures, gadgets, and summer baits as well as a ice fishing rod case with 5 nice rods, some reels and a bunch of baits.  I'd say it was worth at least $300, not a bad haul.  Everyone is hoping to get in on the big drawing but I would be happy to simply get my money back.

View from the fire pit to my house on the ice

As stated we set up camp about a mile northwest of the resort and about a quarter mile off the road. Ice conditions were pretty bad last week and the cool weather during last week refroze the ice back up good and solid but it was awfully rough driving.  We set up our 5 houses in an area about half the size of a football field and in the middle we set up our patio.  Russ has a cast iron fire "pit" where we started nice camp fire.  We then have a nice tripod grill that we can suspend over the fire and cook on it.  Brats, marinaded steaks, beans, burgers, along with some chile and a large bean casserole, with enough beer to wash it down, we were set.    It a very nice and relaxing setup as we enjoyed a camp style dinner and watched the sun go down.  Fishing wasn't very good and most of us were in bed by 9:00.  Steve and I were set up in the deepest end of our camp, about 20 feet of water with a real sandy bottom.  Steve put the camera down and stated that it did look like a desert down there, little structure and sand in every direction.  We did see a small walleye swim by but that was about it.  Our plan was to stay until early Sunday morning when I had to be in Eau Claire by 11:00.  The ice stayed pretty solid considering it was almost 52 degrees on Saturday.  I had trouble with my Directv hookup and ended going to the hardware store in Isle to get a new antenna cable.  I got the cable connection working however my receiver needed to be reactivated so I called work to get the 1-800 number.  I did get a hold of the right person and they sent down a satellite signal to reactivate it, it started working.  As well, both Steve and I met our friend Bruce Wiley in Lundeen's and went to the Walkon Inn for lunch.  Unfortunately I had left my good coat in there, forcing me to drive back after sunset to get my coat on Friday night as I knew we would be going by there before they opened on Sunday morning.  Because the ice conditions were unpredictable, Hunter's decided to only allow ATV's to park close to the drawing area and everyone else was scattered out 400 feet from shore.  Things held up fine but it obvious that with the warm weather predicted for this weekend and all of next week that the ice isn't going to last that long.  Already all the snow is gone except in the woods and my neighbor Brandon has started tapping the maple trees in the neighborhood.  So the Extravaganza represents the last trip on the ice for my wheel house until next winter.  Sort of sad to see it end but it can only mean open water soon!  I have lots of things to do to get the boat ready for opener which is on May 14th this year.

That Time of Year

Water covering the ice.

It's that time of year where one day it can be 10 degrees out and the next it can be 50.  Because of the late ice cover and the relatively mild temperatures, the ice thickness on Mille Lacs is about 24 inches.  This is pretty light as normally we would have around 30 - 36 inches.  Last Saturday was very nice out and we had .5 inches of rain around home which along with the warm weather basically melted all of what little snow we had on the ice and polled about 2 - 5 inches of water on top of the ice.  I met Mark Applen who had his house out a couple of miles out of Hunter's Point then because the road was open to the flats I decided to drive the extra 10 miles or so out to Sliver again.  This time I had my Lowrance HDS 9 with me which has the accurate map and it was pretty easy.  Mark's son-in-law, Brandon was interested in coming with so we headed off.  Hunter's stated that the road to the flats was ok however they were going to remove the bridges Sunday Morning so if I had a wheel house I needed to get off before 9 or I'd be stuck.  We were just going out for the day so that wasn't an issue however it was pretty sloppy all the way to the flats however the bridges were in pretty good shape. With all the water on the ice it was interesting to drill a few holes as the water could drain through those holes.  The action wasn't as hot as last week but we did get some fish, a lot of those 13-15 inch walleyes again, it was fun.  I am sure that this was my last trip out to the flats but at least I got to fish them a couple of times.

Hand Carved Birthday Present from my Cousin Paul

Tuesday saw me head back to Mille Lacs to help Bill prefish an area with his friend Don,  as he had a number of clients he was taking out on Wednesday and wanted to see if we could identify a bite.  We drove out of Mac's Twin Bay and fished around Hennepin Island in the 30 - 33 feet of water.  Bill must have drilled about 100 holes and all three of us basically skipped from hole to hole looking for active fish.  Unfortunately we didn't find many.  No small walleyes and I did hook a nice tullibee but it came off.  I did get a nice perch and Bill nailed a couple of tullibee's and a smaller perch but fishing was spotty for sure.  A cold front had come through and the ice had solidified pretty well.   Getting back to work, on Wednesday my cousin Paul Anderson stopped by to give me a birthday present that he made for me.  I was absolutely shocked at how nice of a job he had done on this, hand carving it from a pine board, adding a fly to the second hand, and the nice touch a Cabela's Mean Eye crankbait on the pendulum!   Wow, Paul and I were best friend growing up and his dad (my uncle) was really special.  I am really speechless and excited about my special gift that Paul has given me!!

Friday my brother Steve and I head to meet Mark Applen, Russ Praught, and his brothers to fish the Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  It's a perch contest but rally it turns into a button drawing and they have some really nice prizes.  This is usually the last time I get out my wheel house as it's suppose to be 50 on Saturday.  I really love staying on the ice and my brother Steve enjoys going with me.  Too bad his son Kevin isn't around as I know he'd be with us.  Either way with the relatively warm winter and the unusually thin ice, ice out should be quite early this year and provide a fantastic opener.

The Walleyes are biting on Mille Lacs!

15 inch Mille Lacs Walleye

Saturday morning I got a text from my friend Mark Applen asking if I was going to Mille Lacs.  I told him I was interested in fishing the flats so he said pick him up at 11:00AM.  It was a perfect excuse to leave.  It was about zero out and we knew it would be cold however I wanted to move around a little so we decided that we could both base ourselves out of my larger Clam insulated portable.  It's not that portable however I do have a trailer that makes it easy to load and unload so I hooked it up, loaded my auger, heater, propane tank, poles and Vexilar and picked up Mark.  Our first stop was Bill's to pick up minnows and get the latest information.  Our plan was to head over to Hunter's point Resort where they have a road plowed out to the flats, then find Sliver Flat, set up on the top (it's a very small flat) then fish the edges both the top edge and bottom edge.  Years ago I used to go out of Liberty Beach Resort, they would have a road out to 3 mile reef then extend it northwest right to Sliver Flat, you could turn south to 9 mile or turn north to Boot Flat.   I always like Sliver Flat however, there I go, fishing memories again!  Anyway, I forgot my trusted Lowrance HDS 9 Chart/sonar unit as it has the most accurate map and Sliver is funny, small and narrow.  I had the Navionics app on my phone and unfortunately it shows sliver as a round structure, not exactly correct.  Well, Mark had his handheld GPS but it had the Navionics map so we had a difficult time pinpointing the accurate depth.. As well there was a portable parked right on top of the flat and he had tip ups scattered up and down the top.  We ended up fishing the south edge and had to encroach on him only because he pretty much hogged the whole flat.  If I would have had my Lowrance Map with is based on the Lakemaster data, we probably could have successfully fished the north side but there was little I could do.  Either way we set up and Mark immediately caught a 15 inch walleye. Unfortunately Mille Lacs has a restricted harvest and one is only allowed a single fish that has to measure between 19 and 21 inches, not impossible but damn difficult at best.  To be frank, the tribal harvest and subsequent restrictions have really screwed up the lake. It is full of 13 to 15 inch walleyes and reports of 50 fish per day

Another small Walleye.

catches are not uncommon but you can't keep anything. People forget that mIlle Lacs was often called the "Dead Sea" or a current well deserved name "Home of the quarter pounder!" I had a blast as it's been a long time since I ice fished Mille Lacs, maybe a year ago.  I had fish constantly on my Vexilar and ended up with 7 walleyes in that 13 to 15 inch range.  In addition I lost a couple and had 2 really big ones on.  The story on Mille Lacs is the light bite so I switched to a Hawger Spoon with a single hook, my go to perch bait.  While sitting there talking to Mark all of a sudden a fish slammed my bait and the fight was on.  It had the classic walleye head shake and about halfway she came off.  Uffda!!! that was a nice fish and of course to speculate, maybe in that 24 - 28 inch range, I guess I'll never know.  The action was fast with some fish hitting the bait sand some just floating up to look at it and going back down. Either way it was enough to keep your interest as the ones that hit were aggressive and the one that just looked at it took some more finessing.  I sure would have liked to see those larger fish but maybe next week.  I definitely was cold out and for sure I will not forget my GPS mapping system next time. It's pretty accurate and is a big help to find that out of the way point of edge that can hold fish!

Uffda!

It's been pretty incredible what we have been paying for gas these days.  Never getting used to the $3.80/gallon price, on the other extreme I filled up on the way home (Saturday) in Princeton for $1.39/gallon.  25 gallons was $35.00.   Amazing. It's interesting that the pundits are saying that these low gas prices are not helping the economy, I guess everyone is used to paying high prices, go figure!  Anyway I am sure that places like Costco and Sam's club are 10 to 15 cents cheaper than this and I suspect it won't last long so stock up!  I have a 51 gallon tank in my boat so it would be nice if this stayed around the same price for at least 6 months.  I only would love to see the lower gas prices override the ethanol mandates but that's a whole nother discussion. My neighbor and friend, "Buck a Gallon Pete" says that we should see it go up and like clockwork it went up by $0.30 on Tuesday.  It would be nice to be able to stock up but that is somewhat impractical.  I am going to try to get back up to Mille Lacs this weekend and maybe even take a day off and help Bill do some pre-fishing next week for his clients.  The ice was not very thick for this time of year and with the forecast in the 50's for this Friday, it feels like ice out could be pretty early this year.  With MN fishing opener on the latest day possible, May 14th, it could be very good, especially if the water temperatures get into the high 50's, low 60's.  Time will tell, that's for sure.  With the mild weather I have been working on my boat and in addition to the new Ezee Steps on my trailer, Mark from Ezze Steps made me a special step to replace the one that was on my RangerTrail, ,mounted to the winch post.  It makes it much easier to climb in and out of the boat and when I get some more time I'll post a picture.

Working For Bill

On my home from Red Lake last week we stopped at Bills to say hi.  He was pretty busy and commented how next Saturday was going to be considering the the number of fishing contests going on.  I told him that I would come up on Saturday and help him so I got up extra early and was at the shop by 7:00 AM.  Bill get's up and starts to work around 5:00 so he already had a good head start as the people began coming in.  A scoop of fats, a dozen shiners, some decoy suckers for pike.  It took me a couple of hours to get in the swing of things and the biggest problem I had was using the license machine.  I managed pretty well and by 2:00 the rush had subsided enough to take a break and help tie up some rattle reels, getting them rigged for the evening rush.  My original plan was to work till noon them head out to the lake but a late rush kept me around longer than I had planned and by the time I felt it was okay, it was getting late.  I really didn't want to spend and hour getting set up for an hour's worth of fishing so I headed home.  I am sure there will be time this weekend but again I don't like to be rushed.  I am sure Bill and Kathy appreciated the help as it got pretty crazy a couple of times. Considering the current situation on Mille Lacs, a few good days sure don't hurt!  Actually it's pretty interesting the people you met, a lot of local celebrities tend to stop in and it's kind of cool to say hi to them.  I ended up getting another 5 pounds of Bill's famous and delicious Wild Rice and headed home around 4:30.  It was a good workout but it always feels good when you can help someone out like that, not that working a bait shop is that difficult for me, actually I'm sort of a natural for it.  It definitely brings me back 45 years ago when I worked for Vic at the Mobil Station in Eleva.  Same thing, need to balance the work, figure out how to be efficient and handle the money.  I would have to admit that the best part is that I have friends that trust me enough for me to help them.  That's something you just can't buy!

Working the Booth!

Unfortunately for the most of the week starting on Monday, I have been in Anaheim, California at the MD and M (Medical Device and Manufacturing) Show at the convention center close to Disneyland. They are having record heat here, highs in the upper 80's and lower 90's, when I arrived it was 92, 117 degrees warmer than it was on the morning of January 17th on Red L
ake when it was -25.3 degrees. These people out here can not even fathom that cold.  It has been a very busy show as we are a leader in ultra fine wire winding technology and have a lots of things going on in California.   It's also a great place to touch base with our vendors who support us in those products as they are usually at the show.  One such guy is John Ness, son of an old business relationship, Dewey Ness.  It was fun to see him as we always have a lot to catch up on, how was deer hunting, how's the old man, how's life treating you!!!  Anyway I get to see him maybe 4 times a year and this is one of them, half way across the country I'll take it.  I head back to the cold on Thursday afternoon, I usually stay till Friday but there is too much to do these days, besides the fishing isn't very good in California this time of year.  Maybe head up to Mille Lacs on Saturday or Sunday to take advantage of the great walleye bit that is suppose to be happening. Also I have a couple of crappie lakes in mind that nee to be explored.

Last Trip to Red for this Winter

Paul outside the Salem

Last weekend was my 4th trip to Red this year and the latest I have ever fished Red.  Last year we got out just after Thanksgiving and fished till the middle of January however this year the ice was late and we brought our houses up after Christmas and still had to stay on shore the first trip.  Fishing slows down in January and although we did catch enough fish to have a dinner at JR's, the action was spooty at best.  Although I did catch a few fish myself I would have to say that the total for the house was less than 15 for the weekend.  This week my guest were my brother Steve and our cousin Paul Anderson, from Hudson, Wisconsin.  Paul saw my last Red Lake post and e-mailed me to let him know when we were going again so I asked him if he wanted to go and of course he did.  Paul has been to Alaska with me and we did some snowmobiling in the Snowy Range of Wyoming a few times together but never ice fishing.  Steve usually stays at mom's in Eleva the night before and heads up in the morning.  Because he goes right by Paul's place Paul had to do little but to pack and jump in the truck as I had everything else that he needed to stay out on the ice.  It was significantly warmer this weekend than 2 weeks ago when we woke up to -25 below, so it was a lot nicer.  JR had open a new road northeast of the Center Bar and both Mark and Russ were already set up, it took a long time to get out there as it had to be at least 10 miles, 6 miles to Center Bar then north almost 2 miles then off to the east another 2 miles and at 10 - 15 mph, it was almost an hour drive.   It was nice as we were pretty much off to ourselves but a I said earlier, the fishing usually slows down after New Years Day.

Biggest  this weekend

We had enough fish to enjoy a fish fry on Friday night but thing definitely slowed after Friday.  We decided to keep our fish we caught so Paul and Steve would have some to bring home and by Sunday morning we only had 6 walleyes and a few perch.  Mark Applen had a couple so he gave them to us gving us 8 fish for the trip home.  Deciding that filleting them at JR's would be easier than at home we quickly cleaned them up including this nice 19 inch walleye that I had caught the evening before.   JR really improved the cleaning area of his place, with easy to clean stainless steel counters, fillet boards and a sink, it makes it much better.  Because I have enough fish in the freezer I let Paul and steve load up on the walleye this trip as I still have plenty of fishing to do. It was interesting as we came off the ice about 10:00 AM and was greeting at the access by JR.  With the amount of vehicles coming off the ice and the heave and cracks near the access, we just got accross the last bridge when someone summoned JR, there's a problem with the first bridge as you have to go over 2 bridges to get in.  I am glad we made it over because what happens is the the weight of the moving vehicles causes a wave of water to develope in front of the vehicle, under the ice.  That wave if it hits a weak spot of crack can blow a hole in the ice and form a very dangerous situation on the ice.  this is why there is a 10 - 15 mPH speed limit on the ice, it's not thick enough to sustain a lot of traffic, especially us guys pulling houses and maintaining the integrity of the ice.  Lord knows how long it may have taken to get off the lake after the bridge blew out.  So we got our fish cleaned and headed south with my wheel house in tow.  It was nice to get it home as I needed to get a lot of things done to it, rugs washed, get it heated up in the inside and dried out, cooking pans washed, and stuff put back away where it belongs.

Fishing is reported to be good on Mille Lacs so I will probably head up this weekend.  As well my friend Bill Lundeen could use some help on Saturday because all of the fishing contests start this weekend so I am getting up early.  It should be done by 10:00 so maybe I can sneak out on the lake and fish the afternoon.  Although I don't believe people are catching anything in the tight 19 - 21 inch slot, I do know they are getting them bigger than that as well, tons of those 13 - 15 inch fish from the great year class of a couple years ago.  It should be interesting for sure.  If nothing else I am looking forward to trying some crappie fishing soon.  I am going to be in California next week till Thursday, hopefully it don't get too used to the warm weather!!!

Slow weekend

New steps to get in and out of the boat

I am kind of in between fishing weekends as the house is still at Red and it's a long way up there.  I did get my Ezee Steps for my trailer that I ordered in December.  As stated earlier my new boat is significantly larger than my old on and sits on the trailer much higher.  Therefore it's more difficult to get in and out of as easy as my last 2 boats.  One of the first times I was loading onto the trailer I jumped out of the boat onto the provided trailer step and fell backwards off the trailer as though I was about to make a snow angel somewhere.  Luckily I ended in the water instead of on the hard landing and other than wet, I was no worse for the wear.  Still it bothered me.  After reading a number of post on the walleye forums I decided that Ezee Step was the way to go and I ordered a set.  Mark, owner of Ezee Step was very helpful and the warm weather allowed me to bolt them on the trailer this weekend, they work great!  He actually called me on Monday to make sure everything went well! The middle step is the one that came on the trailer and is the one I slipped off from. Mark wants to make me a step to replace it that even out the distance between the steps, which makes sense.  Although I didn't slip after the first time, I am not getting any younger and making sure I am safe is a good thing these days.  It was money well spent, better than a broken hip or a busted head! They were not to difficult to install and Mark is going to make a modification for the middle step, (the one that came with the trailer)  to make it even easier to enter and exit the boat in complete safety.  I am always impress by a good product and good customer service, definitely these fit that description. Working on the boat just get's me excited for the ice to go out and Minnesota Opener to get started.  Leech lake has had a lot of interesting new lately and because opener is as late in May as it can be this year (May 14th) it should be a good one! Unfortunately I will have to wait another 3 1/2 months but the way time is flying, that isn't that long!

Mark's Peacock Bass in Panama

My good friend Mark Applen is down in Panama for work and I have been pushing him to do some fishing down there.  Apparently he found someone to take him Peacock Bass fishing and he sent me a picture. Granted, it's not one that will top 6 - 7 pounds but what the heck, it's a fish he's never caught before!!! They are really a pretty fish and often time they look like a yellow perch caught on Mille Lacs but this was the spotted variety. You can see the classic black spot on the tail which helps it to avoid predators.  I am not sure where Mark is fishing other than Panama, but he is coming home later this week and we are going to Red Lake this weekend so I will expect a full and detailed report!!I only wish I was down there with him as I know he reported a temperature of 92 one day, much better than the -25 I experienced a couple of weeks ago!  Either way it's a new fishing adventure, those are the best kind!!  So this weekend my brother Steve will be picking up my cousin Paul Anderson in Hudson and we are going to Red on Friday.  This will probably be my last trip to Red Lake this year as I plan on towing my house back home on Sunday. My travel schedule for February makes it difficult to get back up there and of course the fishing seems to start slowing down after January.  Fishing reports on Mille Lacs have been good so maybe I will try that for a weekend.  Also Johnson's Portside Perch Extravaganza is at the end of February and Mark, Russ and the crew always go to that.  As well, I really would like to try some good old crappie fishing yet this year.   It can be difficult when you feel that you have to go to Red because your house is there.   Oh well, no complaining!  Our friend Russ will be going on Thursday night and hopefully he'll have everything scouted out while Mark is leaving at noon so we'll be right in front of him.

Fishing in the Deep Freeze

Sunday morning Temperature -25.3F  Brrrrr.

Well, I went to Red lake last weekend for my third trip of the year and definitely the coldest trip I had been on and certainly it wasn't without it's problems.  My guests were my brother Steve and good friend Keith Holtan.  Steve drove up from LaCrosse, WI and we had to pick Keith up at his winter home in Brainerd.  Leaving about 9:30 we headed up and stopped at Bills to pick up some wild rice for JR and some minnows, plus I always like to stop and say hi.  The plan was to call Keith from Garrison however my cell phone decided to quit working about then and I got 1 last call in as we approached Brainerd. Luckily Keith was ready and it didn't take but 5 minutes and we were off to JR's.  Heading up highway 371 we went through Walker and stopped at Reeds where Keith's friend worked.  I found a nice shirt, we headed out towards Cass lake and the shortcut to Blackduck.  From there we headed up Hwy 72 and arrived at JR's about 2:00.  Hooking up the Salem we pulled it up to the access and had them fill our empty 30# propane tank.   With below zero weather scheduled we didn't want to run out of heat.   The other problem is that as stated earlier, my phone wasn't working and Russ was already set up and I had planned on fishing by him.  Luckily my brother Steve's phone worked and although I didn't have Russ's number, I had forwarded him a text from Russ and we were able to call him. He was out about 4 miles so we headed out.  We got about 3 miles out when we heard a big clunk as I looked back and saw the wheels on the Salem locked up.  Here the receiver hitch had completely pulled out of the hitch, apparently when I had Keith insert the hitch pin the hitch was not inserted all the way and the pin sat behind instead of through the hitch.   I was surprised that it lasted this far and thought that it would have pulled out right away.  The fact that it has quite a bit of tongue weight probably answers that but eventually we got everything hooked up and back on the ice road towards Russ's.  Also my friend Andy Achmann and his brother Pete were coming up so I remember my friend Jack's phone number and we left a message from Steve's phone to text us Andy's number, which he did.

My first Walleye of the Trip!

That worked perfect as Any and Pete came up on Saturday however had to replace a leaf spring on Andy's Ice Castle and that took about 5 hours in -6F weather.   When we got to where we wanted to set up out little incident a mile ago was evident as there was stuff scattered all over the inside as the inside doors opened up and spilled the contents. As I drilled the holes, Steve and Keith started jacking up the house to pull the pins on the axles.  With 3 guys, setup works pretty good and fast as I barked orders!  Once set up we touched base with Russ and Mike who was set up in the morning, the bite was going pretty good for them.  The plan was to see if we could get enough fish for us and go in and have a fish dinner.  The fish cooperated as we got 4 pretty fast including the nice on pictured here.  This fish basically inhaled my spoon tipped with a minnow head.  It was about 17 inches, perfect for eating.  We definitely got enough fish to eat as we only needed about 2 walleyes per guy and headed in at around 6:30, cleaned the fish and turned them in.  Along with Russ's infamous horseradish flavored tarter sauce, it's all we needed and ate fresh walleye on Friday night.  Getting a good nights sleep we got up to a good bite and by 1;30 in the afternoon we were ready to go in so we could eat and get back for the sundown bite and watch the Packer game.   Andy and Pete got their spring fixed and ended up setting up about 75 yards from me, which was good.  They came over to watch the game and have a few and talk about their struggles with the spring.  I know that year ice castles had spring issues and I'm glad they got it fixed.  The problem is that Saturday night thru Sunday morning was supposed to be cold, REAL cold, in fact at 7:30 game time the temperature outside the ice house was -15F.  As you see in the first picture, it got down to -24.3 F and my Honda Generator didn't like it.  It kept stopping after about 30 minutes of running in the cold, I'm sure the carb was icing up.  I wasn't sure what to do other than go out and restart it.  almost everything runs off my 12 volt battery and we were safe inside but it made me nervous not having backup power.  It stayed warm in the house but I still didn't sleep very well and got up at 4:00 AM and went outside and started my truck.   Steve got up about 6:00 and shut it off and by 8:00 it would turn over but not start, I had to get Andy to jump me.  I am sure that the battery voltage was too low and it was probably a little flooded.  We finally got it started, put the Salem back at JR's and headed south to drop Keith off and of course Steve had another 4 hours of driving.

Upon arriving at home I started researching how to keep the generator running in cold weather and found a couple of things, a cold weather kit that heats up the breather tube to prevent icing, also it was suggested that I cover it with a blanket to do the same thing.  I do plan on heading up the last weekend in January to fish and will probably pull the Salem home.  I would like to fish more on Red however it is 250 miles from Dayton and one almost has to take a day off to fully experience everything.

Opps

Well, I quickly rewrote the introduction to this post, I was suppose to post it last week however I just got too busy!

Frankie's new showroom!!

Last weekend was a reprieve from ice fishing as my boat dealer Frankies Marine had their open house on Saturday.  Frankie is a long time dealer in Chisago City with a lot of outdoor storage but little in the line of indoor show rooms so he built a new building that houses his new indoor heated show room as well as sales offices.  It is very nice!  Since most boats are ordered in January through March time frame and the main shows are in January it only makes sense.  Planning on spending at least and hour milling around Lyn and I stopped there around noon on Saturday, with the plans to heas to our friend Jessica's to have her give me a haircut.  We spend about an hour at Frankies and met the usual people that I enjoy talking to, Frankie's wife Deb and his son Joe.  They had a Ranger 620FS in the show room with a front stand up pedestal and seat which looked very nice so I asked them to order me one.  It nice because all they have to do is look up my Ranger serial number and can order a matching seat right from the historical build information.  I really like Frankie's because I can just ask them to do this for me and because they know me, they can order it on my word, which is good enough and I will pay them when it gets in.  I really enjoy that kind of relationship with businesses as I like it when you can be trusted.  I spent over an hour there and the highlight was spending some time with Debbie and Joe and talking to Larry Dahlberg, star of Hunt for Big Fish.  Also there was Dennis Anderson, outdoor writer for the Star Tribune.  A couple of observations, Dennis was taller than I though and Larry was shorter than I thought, oh well, it was a pleasure meeting them both!!

The cold weather has really put a damper on things as it's tough to get outside after work and get things done.  My plans for the rest of the week is to head down to the St. Paul Sportsman Show on Thursday then up to Red this weekend with m brother Steve and maybe Keith Holtan.  The weather isn't looking too warm but at least it's making ice!  I will probably leave my house at JR's till the end of January and pull it back then as I hear the fishing on Mille Lacs is picking up, which would be nice.  I have to travel to California on February 8th and will also go back there in the middle of March, hoping the guys can get a fishing trip scheduled for then!