Fishing With Charlie

$59.95, 16 ounce musky bait

This thing called retirement, one truly has to wonder where you found the time to do everything while still working!  On the other hand there is no more excuses why you can't do anything.  On Sunday, July 21st we where invited to a memorial service for our good friend Chuck Teasley's wife Karla who passed away a few weeks ago from cancer.  Charlie has been a long time friend and met him in the early 80's while we lived in Osseo, MN.  He was a banker for Northwestern National Bank, which became Norwest, and is now Wells Fargo.  We had a lot of the same interests including fishing.  Eventually he moved out of the apartment building but we stayed in touch.  Deciding to move back to Duluth he sold his 1984 Lund Pro Angler to me and bought a 1986 Lund Nisswa Guide, a fiberglass tiller.  Chuck got married to Karla, who did work for Minnesota Power, a utility company in Duluth, MN.  Eventually she got transferred to on of their companies in Orlando, so Charlie decided that the Nisswa Guide boat was not going to work in Florida so I ended up buying that.  We kept in touch the entire time as Charlie and his now family would spend a week every July at Mount Carmel Ministries in Alexandria, MN and we usually found time to spend a nice day of fishing on Mille Lacs.  The memorial service was at Mount Carmel and after a day of remembrance, it was decided that I'd bring my boat back up on Monday and stay with Charlie the night and fish Muskies on Tuesday.  Charlie lives in Glen Carbon, Illinois just east of St. Louis, Missouri where Karla was last relocated.  There all his good stuff including an impressive collection of Musky fishing equipment was stolen.  On his way to Alexandria he called and asked where the best place to buy musky equipment in the cities, as he had an insurance check.  Thorne Brothers of course!  Meeting him on Saturday he had his daughter Morgan with him and I am sure he made the store's day with walking out with about $2000 worth of new baits, rod/reel, tackle box, you name it.  Arriving on Monday we decided to fish Lake Miltona, a known musky lake 5 miles from us.  All these lakes in the Alexandria area have zebra mussels and are incredibly clear.  Arriving at the landing which wasn't very good, we finally got out and surveyed the area.  A sunken island topping out at around 8 - 10 feet surrounded by deeper water looked to be a great place to start and with the wind blowing gently across it, a perfect place to start

Not huge but the action was great

casting.  These new musky baits are quite interesting and some can be very heavy, which is why I don't fish them much, getting too old and it's hard on one's self.  Never the less we drifted across the area, me throwing a large Mepp's and Charlie throwing literally the kitchen sink.  He had a nice follow but failed to get a hook up.  On one cast he lifted his line up only to see his $60 Beaver tail bait slide to the bottom, the clasp had either come unhooked or something.  It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, oh well with the wind it was lost forever!  To be honest it wasn't the perfect day for muskies anyway, a bright sky, cold front had just passed through, crystal clear water, we decided to head to the calmer side of the lake and fish for bass along the reeds.  Admittedly since my time in Texas with my friends Matt and Joe, wacky worming for bass has found a place in my strategies.  The reed beds were well developed on the west end of the lake and the wind was perfect for following the edges.  We'd land our plastic worms right at the edge and if there was a bass it would slam the lure and take off with it.  Within 5 casts we had our first bass.  Not big but a lot better then watching our big baits come back to the boat empty!  Wacky worming is a lot of fun.  The worm is hooked in the middle and with no weight it slowly falls in the weeds.  Even with slack in the line you can still feel the hit, often you see the line heading off across the water.  Ending the day with over 15 bass it turned out to be an interesting day on the water.  Deciding that I didn't like the landing, Charlie drove my truck to the east side landing which was much deeper and easier to load onto the trailer.  A quick bite to eat at a bar in Miltona then on to Carlos Creek Winery and see if it is possible to pick up a wine club order, no it's too early however we did end up getting some wine anyway.  Back to camp, it was decided that because we have a lot of lost time to make up for, I would stay the night and fish a half a day on Wednesday.  Mount Carmel is on Lake Carlos so we stayed there as there are 4 lakes accessible from Lake Carlos.  In the morning we attended another service at the chapel before heading out.  These lakes are crazy, full of structure and clear.  Even in 5 feet of water it seemed as though one would hit bottom.  Crossing into Lake Darling it was interesting to see how much current was flowing between the lakes.  The Long Prairie Rive runs through this chain and with all the rain, it was really moving.  Again our strategy was the same, hit the edge of the reeds and fish for bass.   Admittedly the action was great and in 5 hours we had at least 15 fish.  It was time to leave so I left Charlie with a bunch of baits, said our goodbyes and will look for the next opportunity to fish with one of my dearest friends!

New cracks in the splashwell area.

This year has not been very good to my Ranger boat.  Hitting the rock while heading into camp on Lac Seul put a huge crimp in pretty much everything.  While getting the boat ready to take to Alexandria, I noticed a bunch of cracks in the back by the splash well. Thinking it be damage from the hit on Lac Seul in May, on Thursday it went back up to Frankie's.  As well a couple of weeks ago when we were on a maiden run after the lower unit was repaired, an attempt to open the motor up with the trim full up met with an unsettling result, the engine lost all steering feel almost losing control.  The same scenario was attempted last week with the same results.  Anything over 4800 RPM's and 50% till caused the handling of the boat to be very scary.  Dropping it off last Thursday and discussing the issues, Joe grabbed the motor and twisted it, seems there is air in the steering lines.  The fiberglass cranks would need to be looked at by their guy. Asking that they water test the boat to be sure, my next big trip is back to Lac Seul and there is no desire to have any issues.  A call this morning confirmed a couple of things. First the steering issue was air, they bled out the system then tried it with success.  Also the cracks did not look like they were related to the hit, so they called Ranger who offered to fix them however the boat had to be sent back to Arkansas, otherwise I could use Frankie's and they would pick up half of the cost.  This seemed reasonable so another 2 weeks in the shop!  Oh well, it will give me plenty of time to hit the river as this is the prime time to be fishing smallies and catfish.  Not that I need an excuse but it certainly  better than waiting!  In the meantime the garden is exploding with cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, beans, you name it.  The onions and peppers look great as we have been making about 2 gallons of "Bernie Konter's Fall Feast Pickles" every other day, and they are delicious.  Plan on getting out on the river in the next day or so...too much to write, so little time!

New Safety Addition to the Ranger

Fell Marine MOB Wireless Safety Switch

The incident on Lac Seul last may got me thinking about a number of safety issues.  One of the issues is the safety shutoff tether that every boat has, it is supposed to connect to your self, maybe to your life vest so if one got thrown out of the boat, it would shut the outboard motor off preventing the so called circle of death.  This occurs when no one has control of the motor and the natural torque of the motor forces the boat to make circles in one direction, eventually running the operator over with little one can do.  Hooking up the tether has it's own problem as it really only allows movement withing a couple of feet of the drivers position and does not allow any movement in the boat without pulling the tether out and shutting the motor off.  After researching this I discovered a wireless MOB (Man Over Board) device that will allow one to walk around the boat without stopping the engine, however once the red fob hits the water of get's 50 feet from the device the engine will shut off.  The problem is that often I forget to attach the tether to the life vest, however I can simple put the fob around my neck or attach it to the life vest and VIOLA, I am connected wireless to the emergency shut off.  The boat motor will not start unless one pushes the center button on the fob to connect to the base unit shown here in black.  Once connected the green light comes on and you can start your motor, a nice fail safe feature. If you end up overboard and have someone in the boat, or something goes wrong with the red fob, one can press the center button on the main unit and override the system to start the boat.  Also one can stop the motor by simply pressing the button on the red fob or the main unit.  It also serves as a theft preventative device as not many people are familiar with this system.  Except for finding a good place to mount it the installation went pretty smooth and it looks good in the boat.  Last weeks post dealt with our trip to Mille Lacs and this device was operational during that time and work very well.  Truth is I hope I never have to rely on it however it seemed like a great idea as I am not getting any younger and the emergency cutoff tether is there for a reason!  One might as well take advantage of the current technology.

Ben and his family with a nice catch of fish

So last week my Godchild, Ben Aiona went out on Lake Michigan trolling for Salmon and trout.  He called asking me some questions and I stayed in touch with him as it reminded me of the time in 1986 when his dad Kevin and I went with another friend, Gary Barneson, who lived in Appleton, WI and would troll with his 14 foot Lund with a 25 hp motor.  We weren't much better as I ran a 16 foot Lund Pro Angler with a 50 hp motor.  In Wisconsin you can use 3 lines trolling so we rigged up 2 downriggers, ran 2 Dipsy Divers, and I had made 2 planer boards to fish off the side of the boat 50 - 75 feet.  We caught all sorts of fish however Gary eventually moved back to Eleva and the fishing changed on Lake Michigan so we stopped going there.  Well Ben decided to try it and did OK, getting a load of salmon and a few Lake trout at 150 feet. I still have all the equipment and lures so it would be fun to try it again.  Actually the last time I was on Lake Michigan fishing was maybe in 1987 with my brother Steve and my dad, we did pretty well then but I can't find any pictures. Informing Ben that I still have some stuff and it's been sitting in my garage for 30 years he might as well put it to good use, so we decided that we need to get together soon and get him set up.   Now that I am retired and I have a young buck to wait on me maybe I will have to join him some day as my boat would be perfect for this kind of fishing.  I know we are going to try and get to Lake Erie next spring.

This week my goal was to get out on the river but is was awfully hot.  I did help my neighbor Brian with his friends  Lowrance HDS 9, Gen 3, as they were going to Lac Seul.  We were successful in getting his map to the level he wanted it as well, I was able to show him some tricks that would make his experience on Lac Seul much more enjoyable.  Being quite knowledgeable with these electronics it was fun to help out and I am anxious to talk with him when they get back to see if it helped.  It's supposed to finally cool down this weekend, it will be a nice change of pace to the hot and humid weather we have had.

Great Bite on Mille Lacs Lake

Jack with a beautiful Walleye

Well, after over a month in the shop, the Ranger was finally ready for it's maiden voyage, the first of the year, to Mille Lacs Lake.  Because of the current political situation, the ability to keep any walleyes ended on June 1, therefore it is strictly catch and release on the lake.  These last few years of let's just call them, restrictions, have resulted in a huge population of large fish over 22 inches in the lake and they are hungry!   Monday I was joined by 2 retired electrician friends, Jack Taylor and Pete Mlinar with the goal of confirming if the great bite was still on. After meeting near Elk River we headed north.  In the past it would be pretty easy, we would stop at my friend Bill Lundeen's Tackle Castle and load up on all that was needed, however since he retired from the business and the shop remains closed, we had to do something I haven't done in over 30 years, buy bait somewhere's else, this time it was Prince's Bait just north of Milaca,  getting only 2 dozen Jumbo Leeches and 3 dozen crawlers, we felt that we were stocked up pretty good....little did we know!  Arriving at the old Cash's Landing things continued to plague each outing with the boat as when it came off the trailer something happened and it ripped the side cover from the front trolling motor.  Only cosmetic yet another thing to fix.   With a howling south wind, previous suggestions stated to simply head out to 7 Mile Flat right away.  Anyone knowing me is aware that I really like Sherman's flat and one has to drive over it to get to 7 mile.  OK boy's, let just check this out!  We were marking fish like crazy so naturally we had to stop!  With 3 in the boat and the fact is that I still haven't gotten that proficient in the proper boat control for following a break in 2 foot waves, I decided to simply input a route on my chart screen then tell the

It was bigger than it looks!

trolling motor to follow it.  It works pretty slick as we followed the break to the end of the route then reversed it.  It was easy to do because there wasn't anyone in our way.  Pulling crawler harnesses we were able to land 6 walleyes, all over 22 inches.  With the wind ever so growing stronger it was time to head to 7 mile where we could directly drift and edge by simply letting the wind power us and then use the trolling motor for the finer points of steering.  As we came by this fully wrapped Ranger with a single guy, we watched him land 2 fish as we slowly passed.  To us it looked like a tournament guy pre-fishing for an upcoming event and was just trying to establish a pattern as he didn't stay long.  Well, it didn't take us long to see what the deal was about that spot.  Immediately we were marking fish and a lot of them.  Enough to drop the trolling motor, engage the anchor mode and get out our slip bobber rods.  Sitting in the same spot for 3 hours, we went through the 2 dozen leeches, catching at least one walleye a leech and sometimes 2.  Exhausting all of our leeches, we decided to go exploring a little and headed for a similar spot on 9 Mile Flat.  With no leeches we simply hung a full crawler on our hook and caught another 4 walleyes.  By 4:00 the wind had begun to take it's toll so suggesting we long line troll the top of the flat with deep diving baits and lead core line.  The experience of using the kicker motor as the main source of power while using the main motor as a steering keel worked pretty well as I used my iTroll system to dial in the speed (2 mph) and my big motor to keep us straight.  The problem is that doing this in 2 foot waves takes a lot of effort and after 2 passes and nothing to show for it it was time to head back.  if the water would have been calmer it would be easier to assess where your baits were running.  This is something that we'll have to try later this month as it can be a lot of fun for sure.

Walleyes on the bottom

One forgets how much of a beating one takes when it's windy like that.  Getting older doesn't help it either!  The one thing that this trip showed is the importance of understanding your electronics as we had fish on the screen constantly.  I would shout to the guys, the walleyes are right under us and like clockwork, they would drop their bobbers next to the boat and withing seconds it would be down and a quick set of the hook and we were reeling up walleyes, for a total of 30. The picture on the left says it all as you can clearly see the fish hanging just off the bottom in 25 feet of water. The system in the boat allows me to scroll back in time to a group of marks like this, put the cursor on those fish then tell the trolling motor to go to that spot, it starts the autopilot and takes you right back to there and goes into anchor mode the minute it arrives.  In some of those spots one can see 5 or 6 fish stacked up.  As stated, while on Sherman's it was decided to try and pull spinner rigs up the "Cut".  Rather than struggle with boat control I simply engaged the route function then plotted a route on the screen before saving it and engaging.  Pretty slick as the trolling motor followed the route marked on the screen and once finished you could reverse it.  What was interesting is like on fishing opener, the Lowrance kept warning that it was running out of memory and I needed to delete something.  Not unlike at Leech I spent a lot of time searching duplicate way points, non critical routes and deleting them then purging the memory. Everything I did seemed to only free up small amounts of memory as way points take little space, there was still only about 2 mb of memory left.  This trip I had noticed on the warning to try and delete any alarms.  Searching for the alarm log, it was there, full of stuff like "Not in Neutral".  Nothing too important so figuring it out the Alarm log and deleting it, all of a sudden there was 128 mb of memory, more than enough!  With that said, it is still a struggle to figure everything out on these electronics as I have only scratched the surface.  That and the fact is any update can force one to relearn everything, most of it is intuitive once you start thinking about it, but admittedly it can be hard to keep up.

So it was a very successful day, we ended up with 30 walleyes, I would say that 24 of them were over 22 inches with the largest being 26, 27 and a 28 incher.  Leeches were the ticket and with the wind, slip bobber fishing turned out to be the most successful as well as tolerable!  I still have to get the jon boat out on the river although the river is up again.  My friend Bill's mom Phyllis is not doing so well so say a prayer for her, she is such a sweetheart! I could go on and on but there is work to be done.  next week I need to talk about my Fell MOB system, a very nice addition to the boat.

Back at Full Strength

Evinrude RX4 Stainless Steel Propeller

Well, after a month of waiting the power aspect of both the Ranger and the 14 foot River boat have been resolved.  Last Thursday both Jack Taylor and his son Ben accompanied myself back to Frankie's to pick up the final pieces to my summer adventures, the prop to the Evinrude 250HO that just had the lower unit redone as well the new 25 hp outboard for the river boat.  First was the RX4 propeller, truly a work of art. this is a highly polished, 4 bladed stainless steel propeller and is an amazing piece of hardware.  The Ranger came from the factory with an RX4, 22 pitch prop but there was some concerns with the top full throttle RPM at 5400.  Although this is within the proper specifications of the engine it was on the low end as the horsepower range is stated at 5400 - 6000 RPM's and I felt it needed a lower pitch to get the RPM's up towards the maximum.  The dealer let me try a 3 bladed Rebel 21 pitch stainless prop and to be honest it did raise my RPM's a bit, it was also like putting racing slick tires on your truck in the winter, it was pretty interesting.  The 3 bladed prop would blow out in the corners, blow out at half the trim of the 4 bladed, off it came and ended up putting back on the RX$ in a 20 pitch.  It raised the RPM's around 400 or 5800 which was predictable as each 1" in propeller pitch change results in a 200 RPM change in engine speed.  The top speed was not affected however the boat had a much better hole shot with a load and seemed more responsive.  At cruising speed of around 3400 RPM's or about 32 mph, the 22 pitch does get better gas mileage, an important thing when going into Lac Seul, when we are back to a normal load but it struggles a bit when we first come in with a full load.  When replacing the lower unit the prop was damaged, the plan it to take the damaged prop and see if it can be fixed and reworked to a 21 pitch prop, maybe a nice compromise between power and speed as these props only come in even pitch sizes from the factory.  They are also quite expensive so at $700 each, it can get a little pricey trying to figure out what is best.  I agree with my friend Bill Lundeen, I am probably chasing a problem that doesn't need fixing however having a 20 pitch on the engine, a 22 pitch as my spare, as long as I have to repair the bent up prop they took off my boat anyway, maybe just seeing what a 21 will do sparks some curiosity.  Oh well!

25 hp 4 stroke Mercury

 the second thing we picked up was a new Mercury 25 hp short shaft Tiller outboard with electric start.  Originally I was looking for tilt and trim however it was impossible to find a short shaft motor with this feature.  Apparently few motors are short (15 inch) shaft and most boats these days are built for long shaft (20 inch) outboards.  After the last trip to Lac Seul and using a camp boat which had a 30 hp motor, it was probably a good choice anyway as a motor with tilt and trim does not "Kick" up like a standard motor so it is better that the motor does kick up when traversing the shallower areas of the Mississippi River which are full of rocks.  It is a heavy motor, a 3 cylinder, 4 stroke and it took all both of us to mount it on the jon boat.  We got it in place and tightened down the mounting bolts which are now hex head instead of the swivel lever, as well they recommend adding 2 more bolts to secure it, which seems like a good idea.  I don't think I will do that until I take it for an initial run to see if the motor needs to be higher on the transom.  Taking off my rock guard on the wore out 25 hp that was on the boat, I got that mounted as well.  it works pretty well as if you hit a rock it tends to protect the lower unit and propeller from damage which I seem to be prone at!  Looking at the specs of this motor verses the old one, they both have the same RPM range, lower unit gear ration yet the new motor has a 9.5 diameter x 11 pitch prop but the older motor had a 10.38 diam by 13 pitch, oh well here we go again!  The other big difference is the older and wore out motor was a 2 cylinder and came in at 112 pounds where as this new one is over 150 pounds, a big difference.

The plan is sometime this week to get both boats out for a trial run.  The walleyes are still hitting like mad at Mille Lacs and the River is almost back to normal so the smallies should be going.  We've had a lot of rain the last few days and the garden is coming along pretty well.  Even though I am retired it seems like there just isn't enough time in the day.  Oh well, along with that comes other stuff, like I just received from Amazon a 3000 yard spool of P-Line CX fishing line, 15 pound test, moss green.  I really like P-Line CX as it is quite supple, strong, with little memory and it is about one size thinner than most lines.  The 8 pound I use on my spinning reels is a strong as 10#, the same diameter as 6#, and is perfect for walleye fishing.  I bought the 15# for my baitcaster's as I like something more beefy.  One of the rods that I had in Canada needed the line replaced and after receiving the spool and pulling off the line from the reel, I set the spool in a box which provided the perfect tension for re-spooling the reel.  A couple hours later, and cleaning up the work area I grabbed the boxes to burn them.  Noticing the "different" smell coming from the burn area, thinking nothing of it until a few hours later looking for that new spool of fishing line and not finding it..................forgot to remove it from the box............that explains the different smell!  Luckily I could order another one but that wasn't very smart, CRS I guess!

Back From lac Seul

Lac Seul Outpost "Red Tops"

Interesting, usually I find time to write this either at lunch hour or stayed late after work to finish this however now that I don't go in and I was all set up on my computer I have had to relearn how this even works!  As you can see, I did figure it out but finding the time is also an issue believe it or not.  So a couple of weeks ago Bruce called and two guys on their June trip cancelled at the last minute and asked if Pete and I would like to go back up.  The dates would be that we would have to be at the docks at Deception Bay at 8:00 AM on Friday, June 14th, returning out of camp on Tuesday morning June 18,  This put into motion a number of things that needed to be resolved.  First was the Ranger sitting at Frankie's, the insurance issues needed to be resolved before the boat could get started on.  Getting a hold of the insurance guy and straightening a few things out by Friday night the 7th it was a go.  The next Monday found me at Frankie's to see what the possibility of getting the boat by Thursday evening.  It would all depend on when the parts came in.  I did not put the burden on them and I know they did their best but on Wednesday the critical part, the main motor mount, was not in and could not promise.  That's OK, Plan B, talking to my brother Steve, who just got back from Lac Seul a week ago.  "Ya wanna go back up, we are leaving Thursday night, we need your boat, I'll drive" but he had too much going on at work. He did say we could use his boat, that was nice but too much screwing around. Plan C, rent a boat from camp, so Pete called Ken and explained our situation, he confirmed an asked if we could drive a couple of his Red Top boats back into camp, which definitely put us in that Drive All Night strategy. with nothing more than gas and the border in front of us, we left at 7:00 PM on June 13th with the plan on being at Deception around 4:30 AM, sleeping in the car for a bit then head to camp at 8:00.  The ride up was rather uneventful until we left Ft. Francis, Ontario at 12:30AM.  About 20 minutes north on hwy 502 we came across something black laying on the road.  Originally it looked like a piece of tire off a truck so at the last minute I decided to straddle it.  In a split second we decided it was a bear most likely dead already as we ran over it, the big thump and the truck rising up a couple of inches pretty much gave it away.  Everything seemed fine so we kept

Gary Blinn, a sight for sore eyes!

going only to catch a glimpse of a moose entering the ditch to our right, just crossed the road.  That is something one doesn't want to tangle with.  I was surprised at the amount of deer around Dryden but finally at 4:20 we pulled into the landing, parked and attempted to get some sleep.  We were 500 miles north of home and at that time the sun was already starting to rise.  Having slept about 90 minutes the boats started showing up and Mike Wiley, Bruce's son, who stayed in Sioux Lookout would soon be here.  Helping Mike load up the boat, the first of 3 camp boats showed up, it was Ken.  Tying him up and 10 minutes later the barge (the one who towed me back a couple weeks earlier) and 2 more Red Tops show up.  Helping one of the boats, the guy driving was none other than Gary Blinn, a gentleman I know from my friend Keith Holtan.  Gary was in camp last June when we were there and he brought a group again this year, I missed him by a week!  He has a business in Chattanooga, Tennessee and boy did they have the stuff!  Actually the barge was loaded with their groups possessions, enough that they rent an enclosed trailer in Minneapolis, their plan was to drive back then fly south.  I got him to pose for a picture to send to Keith.  He is a very nice man and it was a nice surprise to see him unexpectedly.  It would have been nice to be in camp with him as one of his guest, Lord I don't remember his name, but he is a fabulous picker and it is a pleasure just to hear him.  He remembered me as he got off the boat, we said hi.  Usually Gary will go to Alaska and stay with Keith in the even years as that's when the pinks and silvers are in the Kenai River and apparently both Gary and I believe, is the best time to go.  Maybe I will see him next June.  It was time to leave so after helping Gary load, I got in the Red Top with Mike's friends Dave and Alex and I followed Ken back to camp.  It went pretty good as we passed the scene of the crime from 3 weeks ago and made it in without any trouble.  After unloading and settling in it was time for a little nap which really helped!  We scheduled the rental for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday so the rest of the day was relaxing, not hard to do up there!

Alex and his 35 inch norther off the dock. 

Alex, Dave's son, is 11 years old and reminds me of myself when I was that age.  He could not wait to get up in the morning and fish the dock before breakfast.  The dock at camp is a great place to fish as it's easy to catch walleyes, saugers, and northern pike.  While getting our nap in, Alex was down catching walleyes, one after another.  After finally getting set, it was time to see how Alex was doing.  Within a couple of minutes from arriving he tangled into something that definitely wasn't a walleye.  Finally landing it, it was a 35 inch northern, a beautiful fish.  we got it unhooked, snapped a few pictures and let it go.  That was a great way to start a trip.  He actually casts a bait casting reel pretty good for an 11 year old, I will have to give him credit.  His tackle selection wasn't very good for northerns so I dug into my box and set him up with a leader and some spoons for casting.  With Friday behind us Saturday was the start of a new day as our rental boat was ready and in front of the cabin.  It was a brand new Lund 16 foot with a 30 hp Mercury tiller on back, no electronics, just and anchor and a cooler.  I told Pete he could drive, as it was my turn to relax and complain!  Our first day was in Tuk Bay, one of my favorites.  We did catch a lot of walleyes but admittedly one get's used to the electronics and the trolling motor's anchor function, but heck we were in Canada.  In previous satellite maps I saw where the Tuk River flowed into the bay which looked much like where the Wapesi empties into the lake and we headed up to investigate.  We found the rapids however it wasn't as deep therefore the fishing wasn't very good however we got out and walked up a ways seeing moose tracks, eagle feathers, and the leftovers from something's whitefish dinner.  As we were coming out of the area, I was casting the stumps and a few lily pads for northerns using a red and white Daredevil when something hit it.  it wasn't that big and when it arrived at the boat it was a walleye!  I should have took a picture as the last walleye I caught on a Daredevil was 47 years ago with Hub Rose, we were trolling a small channel going into a lake off of Lake Nipigon, when a walleye hit it.  Hub threw it back because at that time we were fishing northerns and not interested in these trash fish!

Typical Chamberlain Narrows Sunset.

The next 2 days were Sunday in Wapesi and Monday we fished the Bear Narrows region.  It wasn't bad but again really missed the electronics.  Sunday we headed to the Wapesi River and caught a few but not spectacular.  It was good to see a full river as the rapids was beautiful as always.  While fishing a point by an island a camp boat kept going back and forth, we figured he was lost.  Coming up to us we gave him the way out however when we left, about 3 miles up the lake he was still running around.  He finally saw us and decided to follow us home, thanking us later.  Monday was fishing down by Bear Narrows, close to where I had hit the rock.  Coming up to the green buoy it was located in 12 feet of water, apparently someone had moved it to the right position.  We finally found an area along an island on the north side of Bear Narrows that with the wind, offered a perfect drift patterns.  Pete had a hot rod using a chartreuse curly tail so I followed suit and we would get 5 to 7 walleyes each pass.  The wind was perfect and within a couple of hours we had our 8 fish to take home as well a a great time.  Drifting at a pretty good clip made the plastics a great choice, and it was a lot of fun despite the fact that we knew little about the depth, figuring it to be somewhere in the 12 to 18 foot level.  It was one of the best times I have fished Lac Seul, maybe because of the simplicity. Admittedly the Ranger is a lot more comfortable! Heading back on Tuesday was uneventful however I did want to mention that I drove my 2018 GMC Sierra 1500 with a 6.2L V8.  Keeping track of my mileage I was amazed that we averaged over 24  mpg for the 1000 mile trip, and the best we got in a 25 mile segment was 30.1 mpg, pretty impressive.  I will leave you with the view we have each evening, absolutely beautiful!

Uffda, What Just Happened the Last Week!

An appropriate Farewell

The last few weeks have been crazy busy.  The largest challenge was that on Friday, May 31st, I officially retired.  After 43 1/2 years in the business it finally came to an end.  It is sort of bittersweet but as we all know life marches on regardless what we think. one thing that is for certain, I was blessed with some of the greatest employee and they insisted on holding a retirement party for me in the lunch room with fishing as the main theme.  Apparently after all this time it is pretty hard to hide your passion, I suppose having all those mounted fish on the walls was a dead give away!  It was great, I walked into work and immediately noticed everyone was wearing black mustaches!  In my younger days my mustache was quite dark so they did a tribute to me by imitation, which is said is the best tribute.  They catered Famous Dave's for lunch and had made this huge card, a caricature of myself on the front a with everyone signing inside.  Of course I had to make a speech and usually I am pretty good at this however it was hard not to break down.  Some of these people have been with me for well over 25 years, work did become my second family.  Know this day would come about a year ago, I prepared myself for the inevitable.  Convincing myself that it is just like graduating from High School, you can't stay there forever, time to move on, all those people, well one may never see them again, that's just part of life. Of course everyone thinks that I am retired, there is something missing in my life now..........quite contraire!!! Because of the cold spring I finished the last of planting the garden this weekend.  Friday was our 17th Annual (and last) ENA Charity golf tournament, which I was fortunate enough to purchase a half day guided bass fishing trip on Lake Minnetonka, something I bought for Mark Applen and myself to enjoy.  The house needs a good power wash, the weeds are thick this year, the shed needs to be cleaned out, hopefully just in time to see my boat fully repaired!  Speaking of the boat, there was a week delay in the handling of the paper work but it finally got done.  Last Thursday was the day to get the oil changed on my truck.  Dropping it off at Pete's, I called Bruce to see if I could buy him lunch.  He agreed if he could

Goher trap

pick the place and without any transportation there wasn't much choice.  He picked me up, drove to his hanger at Crystal Airport then we took off and had lunch at the restaurant at the Eau Claire Airport, Hanger 54.  It was quite good and as well an interesting 3 hours.  Wednesday was spent in New York Mills at the funeral of my friend Lory Brasel's brother Lyle.  It was very nice and we had a great time after at Lory's homestead where he grew up.  New York Mills reminds me a lot like Eleva, a small town, farming community that sticks together.   While walking through the barn there was about 50 of these wire type pocket gopher traps which reminded me of of over 50 years ago when I trapped gophers with these traps.  Apparently Lyle, Lory's brother did a lot of trapping for his fellow farmer friends.  Seeing all the old equipment and tractors put a smile on my face.  He even had a Massey Ferguson 35, the tractor that is almost just like mine, it is the same thing except the name reflects the evolution from Massey Harris, Massey Harris Ferguson, to Massey Ferguson.  I promised Lory I'd give him some operating instructions!

Steve's Friend with a 49" Muskie

So my brother Steve ended up going to Lac Seul last week with some guys from LaCrosse.  They did a fly in to one of Anderson's outpost camps just northeast of where we stay, in Pickerel Narrows.  This is probably 8 miles from Lac Seul Outposts and because it was a fly in they used the camp boats.  The discussion about lower units came up and the camp doesn't provide depth finders but does tell you that if you ruin a lower unit it's $2200.  He sent me this picture of a nice 49 inch muskie as well stated they caught a 51 and Steve had one clamp onto his walleye for about a minute.  Often north of camp is noted for their muskie fishing but honestly in 6 years of going and fishing that area myself or anyone else I know has caught one of these.  Asking "Were you fishing for them then?" the answer was nope, all caught while fishing for walleyes.  Interesting for sure.  Oh well, it was definitely a nice addition to the trip.  Speaking of Lac Seul I got invited to go this Friday back up for a few days.  Last week the insurance information for my lower unit was resolved so we will see if it will be done by Thursday.  It would be nice but not having it, we'll just get a boat from the resort.  All my tackle is in the boat so the plan is to drive up and get an idea of when it will be done...........just one more thing to do!  Hopefully it works out well as it could be a good report for next week!  Another note, I did arrange for my Friend Paul Wenaas to get my Lorwance HDS Carbon for his houseboat trip that he is on right now, he is parked just south of Chamberlain Narrows.  Our conversation was mostly around where I hit the rock so I gave him all the details.  Maybe I will get to see him on his way home!

Back From Lac Seul Outposts

When you hit a Rock at 34 mph!

It has taken me over a week to recover from last weeks Lac Seul experience but with everything coming to a head this Friday, it's just been crazy.  So the recap of what was a pretty exciting week at Lac Seul Outpost starting last Tuesday.  After meeting in Sioux Lookout on Monday night, the plan was to stay overnight at the Best Western then head into Chamberlain Narrows on Tuesday morning, fish the afternoon, Wednesday, and Thursday before heading back home on Friday.  Our first order of business on Monday night was to find a place to eat.  Monday was Victoria Day in Canada and is similar to Memorial Day in the United States except almost everything is closed, especially places to eat.  We finally found a Chinese place, New Kowloon open and for the most part it was pretty good as they served beer.  After a decent meal we headed back to the hotel only to get up by 6:00 with the goal to be at the landing in Deception Bay by 7:00, to beat the rush.  We had met a guy at the hotel that had a Range like mine, and was also going in the morning but had planned on following the camp boats.  Stating we knew the way in, he decided to follow us as I took the lead.  Well about a mile up from the Bear Narrows Red Buoy Corner, I was off a little to the left however the green buoy was still on my left as in this part of the lake one should stay to the left of the Red Buoys and the right of the Green Buoys.  Well even though off course a little I still had plenty of room between me and that green buoy.  All of a sudden a loud crashing sound, my outboard hit the bottom with vengeance as the motor suddenly stopped.  Obviously the green buoy was to far on the reef to be trusted.  The force of impact left 2 rather large holes in the front of the lower unit, quickly draining out the gear grease, therefore triggering a sensor that prevents the motor from starting when the crankcase was low.  As you see the prop didn't turn out too bad as most of the damage was to the housing.  Anyway the guy that decided to follow up must have damn near had a heart attack as this wasn't pretty.  RJ said that if I'd been over by less than 10 feet I would have been OK.  We were only 5 miles from camp so RJ decided to pull me in to less than a hero's welcome.  Well we were in camp and had 2.5 days to fish, we decided that the kicker motor would have to do as the fish were going in the Narrows and one didn't have to go very far.  We come to learn that the guy following us did the exact same thing at the same spot 2 years earlier.

26 inch walleye on

As far as fishing, it was pretty good close to the camp Admittedly it looked pretty funny with a 20.5 foot Ranger being pushed by a 9.8 hp Kicker motor but it performed very well.  Having a remote control steering on the kicker, it was interesting trying to get somewhere  as it was easy to overcompensate as we zig zagged up Chamberlain Narrows.   Later we found that if one just pointed the kicker straight, dropped the big motor into the water then steer with the big motor, it would work pretty good, at least we went straight!  There were a lot of fish in the channel and for 2 in the boat we ended up with 160 fish for the 2 1/2 days, not bad.   Also the big females were starting to make their way back to the big lake so we did catch quite a few over the 22 inch mark.  We ate good both Tuesday night and Wednesday as fresh walleye and northern pike were on the menu.  It was one of the softest bites that I have ever experience.  The fish just came in and either inhaled the minnow or took it's merry old time, often holding the minnow up to 30 seconds.  This took a lot of patience and understanding of how the fish were reacting, Yet we did miss only a few as the bite was good if you had the patience   Also a few weeks ago I mentioned the new long shank Fireball Jigs from Northland Tackle worked very good. they are perfectly set up for minnow fishing on Lac Seul  as most of my fish on Sunday morning were dead minnows and the long shank jig.     We did try plastics for some success yet I because of the weather, we stayed under the Bimini Top most of the time making it difficult to cast.  Also I was excited to try the new Genesis Live software upgrades that I installed but that never happened either.  The real excitement happened on Friday on our way out!

Bruce had arranged for my boat to be towed out by the barge, a large boat with twin 150's on the back.  The schedule was to be at the dock at 5:00 AM and we'd get hooked up and pulled back to Deception Bay Landing (35 miles).  Tying a long ( about 80 feet) rope to my boat, I was requested to trim up my motors and away we went.  Having my GPS on, we quickly got to 30 mph when my boat started to swing back and forth wildly.  I was attaching my life vest when the first swing threw me on the floor.  Desperately grabbing the steering wheel I struggled to stay in the boat.  The boat continued to sway violently until it was perpendicular to the tow boat, just ready to be jerked in the opposite direction and during that process the tow rope ( a 1 inch twisted rope) broke.  It was the best thing to happen as the extreme swaying stopped.  Quickly fastening my lifevest, the barge came back and checked on my condition, he said he was going back to camp to get another rope.  After getting reset, I put the main motor down to act as a keel, and we took off.  This time the tow rope was quite a bit shorter and the boat ran right up the first wake, although tracking better it also wanted to sway as well I was getting pretty wet from the prop spray.  Stopping we added about 20 feet more of rope and things settled down nicely.  It did take about 5 miles for me to settle down but the rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful.  Finally making it back to the landing we headed south and was able to drop the boat off at Frankies before 6:00.  I made the claim earlier this week and we'll see how it shakes out.  So far I am 2 for 2 this year with the motor, on opener the power steering goes out and the very next trip I take out the lower unit!  Oh well, just remember the Serenity Prayer, God grant me to accept the things I can not change, change the things I can and the Wisdom to know the difference.  So all in all it was a successful trip!                                                                                                 

2019 Fishing Opener is Now in the Books

Nice 27 Inch Walleye for Saturday

Time sure does fly as last weekend was the official 2019 Minnesota Fishing Opener, which we celebrate at Brindley's Harbor Resort on beautiful Leech Lake.  As always we had a full house with 22 guys for what we call Team Walleye.  This was our 46th annual Fishing Opener on Leech Lake, we have 2 of the original guys that started this back in 1973.  A Lot has changed since then as I have been going since 1990 so this was my 30th year spending opener at Leech.  Prior to this it was spent on Mille Lacs Lake, and even though I was pressured to join Team Walleye, I still like hanging with my friends at Scenic Bay Resort in Isle Minnesota.  Unfortunately that group which consisted of Gary and Dennis Barneson, Brent Enos, Kevin Aiona, Barry Kolden, Dale Larson, and I believe Paul Wenaas had basically disbanded after 9 years so it was pretty easy to switch groups.  Thinking about the early years on Mille Lacs with a simple Lund S14 Deluxe and a 25 hp Evinrude, we had no electronics and the strategy was simple, hold your anchor about 5 feet under your boat then drive towards the reef until the anchor hit the bottom, then you knew you were on the reef!  The strategy at that time was to fish with lighted bobbers and leech's, we did pretty well.  Leech Lake was completely different as the accepted way to fish was dragging an 1/8 ounce jig and a shiner minnow, it proved to be quite effective.  With the wind on Leech usually present, one could drift across a point and always get fish.  Today with modern electronics and a better understanding of the lake, we employ a lot of techniques that 20 years ago would have never even been considered.  And so that theory applied this weekend, it took a while but in the end we not onl found the fish but actually caught a few as well!  For our fishing weekend, we fish 3 days, breaking each day into 2 sessions for a total of 6 session, organized by boat.  Saturday morning was windy and somewhat cool, so my guests and I headed for Pine Point to start everything.  The first drift produced a walleye however 3 drifts later and nothing more.  The water was cold, maybe 49 so it was decided to look for warmer water and Steamboat bay might be the perfect spot.  We headed there and fished a couple of areas as it was definitely warmer water but not much for a bit.  The next strategy was to find shallower water where the wind was blowing into the shore like Hardwoods Point, yet as wee got out of the Narrows area, the first point was solid boats.  To me, shallow water and boats tend to scatter fish so we headed further up the shoreline until there were few boats and the wind would work in our favor.  This was about noon and by 3:00 we had 13 walleyes in the livewell with 4 of us in the boat.  Prime rib was on the menu for the evening so we headed in to compare notes.  Actually my boat did pretty well considering the rest of the guys.  We all decided to head back to the same area for the evening fishing which turned out to be basically the same program, we would drift into the shallow areas near shore, from 6 - 7 feet then any shallower we used the trolling motor to zig zag up the shoreline.  One of the fish that I hooked was a very nice 27 inch fish.  By dark we had 7 walleyes in the boat.  Thinking this might be a good spot to troll shad raps, over the skeptical partners in the boat, I hooked up a #5 Crawfish Shad and started to troll.  Interesting, my remote controlled steering was working when I checked it out before opener however it would not work this weekend.  Suspecting that the battery in the remote was bad, brother Steve volunteered to go into town to get one.  Unfortunately on Sunday everything was closed by the time he got there.  This forced me to try and troll with the big 250 hp motor, which was a little fast but we hammered them on Saturday night as I simply let everyone take a turn at reeling in a walleye, we ended up with 6 more and the bite was fast and furious, probably caught them all in a span of 30 minutes.  Sensing the guys wanted to go, we headed in at 10:00 with another 13 fish caught, for a total of 26 walleyes in the Ranger Boat.  Along with the 27 incher, Team Dave lead 3 out of the 5 categories, Largest fish, Most Individual Points, and Most Team Points. 

Steve's 1st Place Walleye, a 28 Incher!

On Sunday the bite really shut down on the main lake.  heading back to the hot spot the day before
found that the population of boats quadrupled.  Although we did get a walleye, the wind had all but stopped blowing,  the water temp was still about 50, we headed up the shoreline to see if we could identify any new spots. I also used that time to experiment with a better trolling technique which turned out to be back trolling.  4 bladed props do not back up very well and we could keep it at about 1.8 mph, better than the 2.5 mph in forward.  After trying a number of different places we ended up trolling at night with crankbaits on Ottertail Point, a favorite of mine.  While trolling something happened to my power steering, it wasn't there any more.  One could still steer but it was difficult. We caught 5 more walleyes which extended the lead even more as the bite was tough for the rest of the guys.  Monday was nice as we spent a lot of time looking for fish again.  Adam had done well at Little Stoney Point, another trolling area I like.  Having a chance to get back to town, the hardware store was open and was able to secure a new A23 battery, which worked perfect.  Little Stoney is quite rocky so we fished till almost dark and landed one fish but because of the amount of boats around it was decided to head back to Ottertail Point and try the kicker.  It worked perfect and we proceeded to catch another 6 walleyes.  Steve, his son Kevin, and Tom were also on Ottertail, I am sure that Kevin, who was with me the night before had given out my hotspot.  Bringing our score sheet in to be tallied it was soon revealed that Steve had caught a 28 inch walleye on a jig just before dark.  In the end it was OK, he did well and winning 2nd place plus maintaining the top Individual and top Boat award was still pretty good. 

It certainly wasn't our best opener but it also wasn't too bad either.  We were right in the peak post spawn time and it was hard to get them to bite.  The good news is we each got to take home our 4 fish limit of walleye.  The weather wasn't bad at all but admittedly getting older is taking a toll on our durability.  Monday we head to Sioux Lookout, Ontario to fish Lac Seul on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, returning on Friday.  All indications are that it should be a great year there, it always is.  As of now the boat is at Frankies' Marines as they got me right in and have the steering fixed for Monday's trip.  Things are getting crazy as there is a lot to do before heading out.

Finally Here!!!!

Spottail Shiner Minnow

Friday we head up to Brindley's to participate in the Minnesota Fishing Opener.  This morning was the final step in getting everything organized for this year's trip.  Most who know me understand that I am not much of a Global Warming, the sky is falling guy and the last 10 years seem to back me up.  These late spring's has really put a damper on the minnow supply for fishing opener, especially the spottail and golden shiner situation.  Late ice tends to keep the shiners from entering shallow waters early, therefore changes the spawning times and the ability to trap bait.  As well the heavy snows of February has put the levels of those ponds which raise various bait very high making trapping difficult at best.  In addition the traditional lakes where spottail shiners are usually harvested for bait are mostly infested with zebra mussels, that along with a ban on bait imported from other states makes it very difficult to secure our bait for this year.  Spottail shiners are the preferred like bait for Leech Lake and of course golden shiners, rainbows, and fatheads will work but the confidence factor is much higher when using spottails.  With my connection at Lundeen's no longer available we are on plan C right now as the situation changes almost hourly! I have secured some for my boat based on previous conversations because I like making decisions and moving ahead.  Two days before opener is cutting it close but we have had this situation at least 7 out of the last 10 years.

Fell Marine Wireless MOB System

Hanging around my good friend Bruce Wiley and his airplane, a Cessna 182 RG, then observing his safety equipment has prompted my ordering a wireless MOB (Man Over Board) switch for my Ranger.  Not that I think about it much as these days but I do wear my Onyx A/M24 Inflatable lift vest 100% of the time in the boat.  I am getting too old and God forbid I have another seizure while in the boat I definitely want to be safe.  The biggest issue that engine cutoff's prevent is the infamous Circle of Death, it occurs when one gets thrown out of the boat for any reason and if the motor is running and in gear, the torque of the motor forces it to start making circles and it really places the guy in the water in harms way. a terrible way to go, watching the boat make circled and coming towards you....No Thanks!  Everytime I start my outboard I TRY to connect the engine shutoff lanyard to my life vest which shuts off the motor in the event the guy at the wheel is thrown out of the boat or for that matter, displaced off the seat.  Truth be told I never connect it when making short runs, which in reality is the most dangerous.  This device is wireless and get's hooked in parallel with the existing cutoff switch in your boat.  Simple easy to hook up, now as long as you keep it in your life vest, around your neck, or clipped to yourself, anytime the red FOB gets 50 feet away from the base unit the engine will shut off.  After 6 seconds of being off the unit resets itself and someone can restart the engine and come back to pick you up.  It seems like a great idea as I am not getting any younger.  Because I actually do wear my inflatable life vest 100% of the time in the boat, I'll figure out a way to keep it there which should not be to difficult.  Interesting, I have these inflatables for each passenger in my boat, I also have regular life vests in the boat to stay legal if they don't wear one.  I let them decide however I make sure they know that I'm not jumping in to save them if they don't wear it.  It reminds me of a great story but that is for another time.

Left to right, top Dave, Brothers Jon and, Steve
 Left to right bottom, brother Blake and Sister Beth,
Good Job Mom!!!

Fishing opener in Minnesota is traditionally on the second Saturday of May and usually coincides with Mother's Day, which is on the second Sunday in May, which causes a few issues with some guys.  Well every 7 years May 1st is on a Sunday so the next Sunday is Mother's Day and opener isn't for another week yet.  My Mother died on her birthday, April 18, 2017 and although living in Minnesota and celebrating fishing opener, she never really gave me any problems with missing Mom's Day.  We would eventually get there and give her some flowers but she knew my love for fishing and like a great mom, never made a big deal about it.  Mom was quite a looker in her younger years however that era of the 50's and 60's it was popular and fashionable to smoke cigarettes, which didn't do her any favors in her later years. Not having any ready available pictures of her, I stole this picture from my sister's Facebook page and am posting it for a couple of reasons.  First it represents what my mother had to put up with so Happy Mother's Day mom.  The second reason is that this is the second year without our brother Jon, at the Team Walleye Opener.  Jon had a congenital affliction that ultimately took his life.  Before the disease claimed him, Steve and I would treat him to a weekend away from everything at Leech Lake.  Although Jon's issue had left him with a number of deformities on his face, he always appreciated the chance to get away.  On the last year of his life, on opener he stayed in the cabin all weekend because the pain was enough to make it difficult to be in the boat.  I told him that if he didn't want to go fishing that it was OK, and if he didn't want to come up again, that was OK as well.  His answer was pretty to the point, Dave, I love coming here as your friends treat me like a normal person and I would never want to not come.  Just sitting on the porch watching the lake was exciting and a welcome change to his normal routine!  Not bragging but the Anderson's have done quite well at Leech, I hold the record for most years winning the Largest Walleye of the opener award and Jon has won the most DCS (Didn't Catch Sh#T) awards.  Not bad as those are the 2 plaques we give out!  If you go to the left side of the blog and check out "See Team Walleye on Minnesota Bound" or simply click here  you can watch our story and learn more about the DCS award as well, maybe you can catch Jon walking by as he has the black patch over his eye.

Hopefully there will be a great report next week.

One Week And Counting

HDS Carbon 12"

Well we are down to the final countdown.  The Okuma Coldwater 350 reel came in on Monday but not before a trip to Cabela's this weekend to use some points and find a nice matching rod to create a effective combo.  Got the reel loaded with my favorite line, P-Line CX, which tends to be one diameter less than most mono's so 12 pound test is about the same diameter as standard 10 pound test which has an effect on both the amount of line one can put on the reel as well.  In addition most trolling depth charts that give you the depth a lure will run vs the amount of line you have to let out is based on 10 pound diameter Trilene XL so the charts will be pretty accurate.  This will come in real handy when we eventually get to fish Lake Erie or do some long line trolling on Mille Lacs.  Admittedly it is pretty slick setup and I am anxious to try it next weekend.  It's getting harder to get all the things done that one needs to and luckily I can peck away at it an hour at a time.  Doing my usual horse trading with my friend, I have just got done reinstalling my depth finders in my boat before upgrading all of the software.  This takes alot of time as the entire system is networked together with either ethernet cables or via the NMEA 2000 network.  Basically I have 3 GPS/Sonar units in the boat and they are all interconnected.  This means that everything can be controlled from each unit provided they are talking to each other.  One of the issues is that it's been a year since these were last done and try to remember how it goes can be a real challenge.  Not to mention the new software upgrades have changed the menus as well as other subtle changes.  After getting everything installed, updated, connected, it was time to try and see if it all works.  Plugged my Ipod into the audio inputs and nothing.  Doing a network check it showed nothing was networked in.  Now what!?!?!?!   Well after you upgrade the software one should go into the network menu and refresh everything.  After doing that still nothing and the though was I guess I know what I am doing this weekend.  It took about 10 minutes but all of a sudden everything showed up that was networked in to my relief.  The music started to play, I sighed a sigh of relief!  Interesting conversation I had with a friend of mine's son, David Grant.  Letting him use my FL28 for a lake trout ice fishing trip to Canada about a month ago, he brought it back.  It was stupid but he commented why I just don't use my phone for the music.....Well, I don't want to use up all the memory...........which he grabs my phone and showed me where to add a high capacity microSD card for more memory.  Dang kids anyway!!  Ordering a 256gb microSD card, it's next on the list of things to learn and do.

Trapline Gopher Traps are Very Effective

Our guy did a great job on Team Walleye's hat's this year, they look fabulous.  The goal this weekend is to get the entire yard fertilized as it is supposed to rain on Sunday.  As well the outboard motors on the boat need to be started, I will probably simply use earmuffs around the water intakes and start them in the driveway.  That should work OK.  Besides spring being the time for fishing opener, it is also time for pocket gophers to be on the move.  Those pesky animals tend to move out of their winter hibernating areas to look for new ground.  You can easily tell where they are because in their process of making tunnels they create these rather large mounds of dirt on the surface.  Back home the farmers hated them because when mowing hay the hay sickle would hit those mounds and dull the cutting blades.  When I was you I used to get $0.50 a gopher from the farmer and another $0.50 from the county as there was a bounty on pocket gophers.  Back where the honeybees are there were a number of new mounds.  Digging my traps out it was time to take action while they are still active.  The Trapline style of traps has been my favorite method as if I say so myself, I am pretty good at this.  The process is to find a fresh mound, find the plugged hole and using a spade dig down till you find the main tunnel.  These traps fit perfectly in the tunnel and I usually put one into each hole, 2 per set.  The final nail in the coffin is to put some peanut butter on a piece of cardboard between the traps then cover the hole with something that keeps the light out.  The gophers smell the bait and being almost blind they walk right into the trap!  After work yesterday I checked the set and to my surprise I had one in each trap, I don't recall ever getting a double.  Thinking maybe of starting my own local Pocket Gopher trapping service, $5.00 a gopher....cash!  Oh well, I'll bet last fall I got over 10 of them on the property.  We'll see.

Two Weeks and Counting

Being at a conference in Nashville since Monday, I finally got to post something.  Lot's of things are happening fast, the ice is slowly melting and by the looks of the Modis current satellite picture Mille Lacs is about 70% ice free while it looks like Leech is still struggling but it should be off by opener.  I have to admit that it seems as though the later the ice our, the better the fishing on Leech.  We will have to see how that goes but for the most part the walleyes will be quite shallow, which is nice.  Had the chance to get the Ranger 620FS out of storage last Friday.  Although she was in good shape, after getting her settled in the pole shed it was time to take a first look inside, and trust me, it wasn't pretty.  Apparently some mice had decided to shred up the paper towelling I had in the rear starboard storage area as well as the front port storage.  First opening the rear storage, what a mess as a whole roll of toweling was made into a mouse condo with a partial roll serving as it's toilet.  Other than the mess, it appears to be just cosmetic and got most of it cleaned.  Opening the left front compartment, the first thing I see is a mouse staring at me.  In a frantic attempt to make him pay for the mess that was in that compartment, it slipped away.  Frantically throwing stuff out to get an attempt at his life, no such luck as it was obvious it went down the drain hole in the corner.  Not even cleaning, a mouse trap baited with peanut butter was set and the compartment door closed, a look the next morning was successful as the score was now evened!  After 7 days of continual trapping opportunities it has appeared as though any resident mouse has been eliminated!  Now it's a matter of disinfecting everything, vacuuming, organizing my tackle and putting everything in it's place.  The Lowrance's have been installed and the latest and greatest software updates are loaded into each unit.  The electronics looks good but there is still a lot of cleaning and getting everything in order.

Okuma LOw Profile Line Counter Reel

Previous posts dealt with 2019 as a year to try out new strategies.  On our Leech Lake Fishing Opener one of my new strategies is to troll crankbaits along the shallow and rocky shorelines.  The usual procedure is to put on a #5 shad rap then put the lure in the water and put out about 8 passes of line out, hopefully about 100 feet or so.  What appeared this week in the mail box was a new Scheels sales flyer featuring a cool looking low profile line counter casting reel for trolling.   Usually line counter reels tend to be larger and more bulky however this reel looked like it would work pretty good.  There was a nice price on it in the flyer however it meant that a trip to St. Cloud, the closest Scheels store, would be needed.  Deciding to look online instead, and already sites reacting to the sale, I found it for $2.00 less and free delivery to the house.  It isn't that I would not enjoy a trip to Scheels, but the practical guy in me thinks, that would have cost at least $18 in gas so what the heck.  It will be delivered on Monday and I'll just take my favorite walleye trolling rig, throw on some 10 or 12 pound test monofilament line just in time for opener.  This way if one can establish a pattern, it will be a lot easier than guessing how much line one has behind the boat.  This should be a great rig for fall trolling on Mille Lacs or even getting those deeper diving lures down further than one can by casting.  Also I have the trolling app on my phone, you can easily look up a lure, with 10 pound test and 2 mph, it will tell you the depth the lure is running based on how much line one lets out.  It's a real nice app called the Precision Trolling.  Basically you buy the app and it updates the data when a new lure comes out.  Although the app is not free, the updates are. Now I just need to practice using my kicker motor more precisely!

Spring is definitely here with a lot of yard work to get caught up on.  Asparagus should be sprouting soon and our Texas ordered onions will show up next week.  It's supposed to snow tomorrow, if so it will not last for sure.

Easter Weekend

Beautiful Stream Caught Brown Trout

Time continues to fly like crazy, here it's another weekend coming up....Easter Weekend.  Today is Thursday, April 18 and it marks the 2 year anniversary of the passing of my mother, Betty Anderson.  It has changed our visiting habits as Easter was always a tradition we spent with my wife's uncle, we will still do that this weekend, however we will not drive down home to see mom.  It just makes you think about things.........oh well.  So in the fishing side of things, not much is happening except a lot of lakes around Minneapolis are ice free.  With only 3 weeks till opener, lets hope that old mother nature can put the ice melt on high and Leech will be ice free by May 10th.  We've had it really close a few time where we had to fish only certain spots as the ice was still filling up certain bays.  And who could not remember 2013's Team Walleye Leech Lake Opener when the ice never did go out and we ended up spreading Ron Edberg's ashes on the ice instead of fishing.  The forecast looks great for the next couple of weeks and with the warm sun and rain, I am sure things will be okay.  Actually the mid winter's heavy snow prevented as much ice as there could have been so it might not take too long.  I also think that a late ice out produces more fish as the male walleyes are quite shallow and the females may still be waiting to spawn. So earlier this week my good friend Mark Applen went with a friend of his down near Whitewater State Park, northeast of Rochester, MN to do some stream trout fishing with light tackle and spinners.  Telling Mark I needed a good picture for the blog, on Monday I got this text with a note that the fishing was fabulous.  I am glad that someone is at least getting out and wetting a line.  Embarrassingly I haven't been out since January 23rd of this year.  The heavy snows of February and March as well as my birthday put a damper on any practical fishing outings the last 3 months.  Of course this has left me posting my friends adventures but hey....at least someone is fishing!

Panther Remote Controlled Steering

So with Team Walleye's 46th Annual Leech Lake fishing opener in 3 weeks, it's probably a good idea to head up to Bill's and get my boat out of his pole shed.  That in itself is a long story but it definitely needs to happen this weekend.  There is a lot of things to do before taking her out on the water as she's been hibernating since October.  There are new software updates for all of the electronics on the boat, engines need to be started, especially the kicker as it hasn't been run for at least 9 months.  One of strategies that has proven to be successful is trolling #5 shad raps however it's taken a few years to get the hang of slow forward trolling with the 9.8hp kicker motor, especially now that I have the iTroll system for adjusting speed and the remote Panther T5 steering system, it is actually pretty nice.  My goal is to get more proficient with it and head to Lake Erie.  Putting in a plug for In Depth Outdoors, they had a great show on last week regarding fishing Lake Erie.  Actually one of their techniques was to use the front trolling motor running in the opposite direction of the kicker motor to help maintain a more constant speed.   I was on the forum, and actually asked the host, James Holst a question regarding this technique and he actually answered, that was pretty cool.  I recommend looking at all their recent shows, one of their recent ones was Lake Trout fishing in the fall on Lake Nipigon.  What was interesting is it was in the same area that I fished with back in the early 1970's with my friends the Tollefson's and the Semingson's.  That went back on the bucket list as well!

On Tuesday I pulled off my 54" front mounted snowblower attachment off the John Deere X734 lawn tractor.  The real purpose is to assure that the amount of accumulating snow is finished for the spring.  Now comes the hard part of cleaning the lower deck, sharpening the blades and getting everything properly greased then mounting it on the tractor.  It is on of these new...."simply drive on" attachment but after looking at the YouTube video, it doesn't look that easy.  Oh well it has to be done!