Back In Business

Brindley's Harbor Resort

Last week was the firm cancellation of our 47th Annual Team Walleye Leech Lake opener.  It has been officially moved to the first weekend in October, 6 months from now.  Hopefully this state will get back to normal!  Because I am an admitted cynic of this situation and will not comment, and as well really enjoy fishing Leech Lake in May, my brother Steve, friend Kevin Aiona, his son Ben and grandson Jared have confirmed a reservation at Brindley's Harbor Resort starting May 8th and leaving on Monday morning, May 11.  Because of the current situation, the resort cabins and slips will be open however the lodge is closed plus there are some minor changes like we have to bring our own sleeping bags, pillows.......just like we do in Canada.  Also strict social distancing is required however I believe we will be fishing most of the time so that should not be an issue.  As of this post, the ice is still covering Leech Lake however with temperatures in the 50's and 60's we should be ice free by May 8th.  As for Leech and it's official ice out, the trend for the last 10 years has been later where we tend to deal with colder water temperatures.  Late ice out tends to mean that the walleyes are in the early post spawn period and tend to be very shallow, usually in the 6 - 10 foot range.  They haven't spread out much from their traditional spawning areas such as wind swept rock shores and points along the lake, which there are many.  It will be hard to say what the water temperature will be however last year it was relatively cold, around 47 degrees.  To find active walleyes one had to search for warmer water such as Steamboat Bay or a shoreline where the wind was blowing the surface water into.  This proved to be a great strategy, enough to win the majority of the prizes for our Team Walleye annual event.  Another excellent strategy is early evening trolling shad raps along those rocky shores.  This technique is deadly and as discussed last week, these new UV colored patterns seem to be hot.  There is always a few spawned out females swimming around which definitely gives the opportunity to catch a nice fish in the 27 to 28 inch range.  Fishing on Leech should be good again this year as the limit is 4 walleyes each, everything between 20 and 26 must be released, generally we let all the walleyes go over 20.  With the current situation it could go either way, the lake's fisherman could be few and far between or it could be the opposite as people are anxious to get out.  Either way my prediction is for a great opener!

Diawa Low Profile Line counter Reel

Although a labor of love, the last week has required getting the boat prepared for the opener.  Telling Steve that he doesn't need to bring any tackle or equipment, forces one to re-evaluate everything.  Of course the lure selections are quite easy as the boat tackle storage is quite modular with jig boxes, trolling baits, bobber rig box, live bait rig box, along with some panfish style baits and a good selection of various crankbaits to try out.  I can leave the deep runner boxes as home as we don't need them.  Basically there are 4 types of equipment that will be required.  On Friday the plan is to go crappie fishing up in Sucker Bay, the tackle strategy of choice is the slip bobber....2 of those rigs in the rod locker.  Next is a couple of jigging rods with regular monofilament for the standard 1/8 ounce Fireball Jig plus 2 jigging rods that are stiffer, and loaded with braid which can handle a new technique that we are going to try, jigging a Jiggin Rap or Rippin Rap's.  There has been a lot of talk about these types of baits in colder water and Ben is an expert at these types of baits so we will give them a try.  The forth type of rod is a longer live bait rod for pulling Lindy type rigs, 2 of them in the rod locker.  Last but not least are 2 baitcaster's with standard sized low profile reels that have line counters on them.  The line counters are not really necessary but add an element of options if a specific length behind the boat becomes needed.  I might throw in a couple of light panfish rods in case those crappies are active with small plastic jigs. While putting away the snowblower attachments in the shed, it gave me a great opportunity to start both motors on the boat.  As usual the big Evinrude starts like it never slept a wink over the winter and is ready to go on a moments notice.  It is of course Electronic Fuel Injected (EFI) so there is not hesitation as she sat there and idled till it warmed up.  The 9.8 kicker is another story as she is as cold blooded as they come.  Maybe it's my fault (of course it is!) but this is a carbureted engine and it takes a while for the gas to get everywhere it needs to fire up.  As well I am always concerned about the ethanol blend that I run as the kicker is a 4 stroke but is fed by the main gas tank.  The winterization process requires some stabilizer in the gas to help but last year I could not even get the kicker started on Opener.  After about 30 seconds of cranking over it finally started running, good enough to get her up to operating temperature as well to fire up the iTroll system, which BTW is a great way to control a kicker motor.  Everything seems to work fine and we should be ready to go with the only thing left is to clean the carpeting.  All the electronics are up to date and on Friday I plan on restarting my 6 month subscription to Sirius/XM Weather service which runs till the end of October.  This is a great feature that allows one to set a lightning warning, if lightning is within 6 miles of your current location, even in Canada, a warning goes off.  You then can overlay the weather onto your chart and go back 3 hours to see where the storm is heading.  That and Willy's Roadhouse makes it worth every penny!

Shad Rap

Shad Rap in an Exclusive Fleet Farm color, Hot Flash

In one's fishing lifetime baits come and go.  In my early 20's Kevin and I would fish a Johnson Silver Minnow or a Moss Boss for bass in the mats of pond weed above the Alma, WI dam.We'd tie our own jigs to fish walleyes on the wing dams or in the sloughs. Smithwick Rattlin' Rouges were on the top of that list as it was a go to bait for trolling 3 Mile Reef on Mille Lacs, and did we get some dandy's.  Well the last 20 years or so, the number 1 artificial bait in the boat for catching walleyes is Rapala's Shad Rap.  There are plenty imitations and admittedly I have a few of them yet there is something about a Shad Rap that is irresistible to a walleye.   They run true out of the box, maybe it's that wobble, they do not have a sound chamber for internal rattles, about the only thing that I have figured out is often the color makes the difference.  Of course this is what they say about color, they are meant to catch the fisherman, not fish.  My obsession with these baits is sort of a testament to that theory, however over the years some proven patterns work better than others, and of course how would one ever know if a new color worked or not if one never tried it!  Being a guy that say's one never knows, in the boat is quite a menagerie of #5 and #7 Shad Raps of various colors.  Always on the prowl for the latest and greatest, Fleet Farm's ad this week featured Shad Raps on sale for $5.99 and included was some of their exclusive color schemes, unique to Fleet Farm.  Being deemed an Essential Business, essentially I was driven to check out what they had, knowing my collection needed an update!  It was once told to me that Fleet Farm sold more Rapala's than any other retailer.  I have no proof however last year Fleet Farm sold to a larger retail firm.  At that time their Shad Raps

A new twist called Frosted

were priced at $4.99 for a #5 and they would go on sale for $3.99, a real bargain.  After the new owners took over the price jumped to $6.99/$5.99 on sale.  They are still a little cheaper than most places however it is good that the majority of my inventory was bought before last year!   Seeking out their exclusive colors two really caught my eye.  The first is a derivative of a perch pattern called Hot Flash.  I have had good luck with the latest neon versions of  the perch pattern as they really stand out, especially at night.  Add to the fact that any orange seems to do well, it was a simply a had to have color and in the cart it went.  One of my thoughts for opener was a light colored crankbait, in a white, like what was posted a few weeks ago, a Wonder Bead pattern, this Shad Rap with an iridescent whit top and mirror chrome sides appeared called Frosted.  A great name, how on earth could one pass that up so it joined the other in the cart.  There were some other neat colors yet not enough to catch my interest, maybe later.  There is a trend in custom bait colors, similar to those first offered on deep diving Reef Runners , colors with funky names like Cheap Sun Glasses or Heat Stroke.  This trend has reached into the Shad Raps with a company called Viper Custom Tackle which offers various colors including ones that you might have developed, which has products in Cabela's.  They are not cheap but interesting as these weird colors are popular for fishing walleyes in clear water.  If in the future there is a have to have color maybe I'll pull the trigger but for now the tackle box marked Shad Rap's is pretty loaded to the gills!  Sorry for the pun.

Neon Green Tiger UV

Trolling Shad Raps at night during our Annual Minnesota Fishing Opener with Team Walleye has been my go to methodology, good for about 8 - 10 walleyes in the boat during that 90 minutes of time between sunset and completely dark.  With 7 boats in our team, the other guys seem reluctant to troll, whether they are uncomfortable trolling, don't have the equipment, I am not sure but it is a deadly technique, especially in the shallows ( 5 - 7 feet) in the spring.  While the tried and true method is a jig and minnow on Leech Lake, one can cover more ground looking for active fish via trolling a Shad Rap.  A #5 Shad Rap runs about 5 - 7 feet with about 75 feet of line out and is perfect.  As stated earlier these new colors offer new opportunities and last year this Green Tiger UV (Also a Pink Tiger UV) were on fire.  I would have to say that my number one color is the crawdad but that's changing and the reason that first color, Hot Flash is so appealing, a cross between a crawdad color and the tiger pattern, how could it miss!  A favorite memory is fishing Sunday night on Leech a number of years back.  With Mark Mayerich and his son Adam in the boat, we stopped at 8:30 and it was announced.....we are going to troll.  Not exactly the style they were used to and eventually I had to rig them up as it made no sense trolling with spinning rigs and 8 pound test, those shad raps were too expensive to leave on the bottom of the lake.  I carry bait casting rigs specifically for these situations so attached a different colored Shad Rap to each rod and told them to simply let out so many passes of line on the spool.  In 90 minutes we had netted 18 walleyes, one every 5 minutes, with Mark catching the majority.  Of course this is the problem with having so many colors to chose from, if one is hot you'd better have a second one for yourself, dang another reason to shop!  In truth my theory is all crankbait strikes are reaction strikes.  This thing coming through the water is creating a pressure wave that the fish can feel, it goes to investigates and notices this thing trying to flee..........bang, it hits the lure out of instinct, hit first, taste later.  Having said that, it's both the vibration and profile that are the true triggers, and believe that color just helps add to that profile, how visible is it in the waters you are trolling?  Over the years I have had identical baits both in size and color yet one seems to hammer the fish while the other is left alone.  The thought is that the good bait has a better vibration pattern, something it is difficult to quantify, much more attractive to fish than just the same bait.  Maybe the lip is off, or is perfect, it's hard to tell except for the teeth marks or the battered edge of the diving lip on the bait that really works well.

Crawdad Color, Currently My #1 Color Success

So waiting for opener has been decided.  It seems like it's the first of November, will there be enough ice by Thanksgiving or will we have to wait till after Christmas?  Mother Nature has decided that we need to cancel our traditional opener scheduled for May 9th and move it to the first weekend in October.  It is looking more like our two trips to Lac Seul, one in May and the other in June don't look like they are happening either.  So much for all the new strategies for this year! The good news is that October should be an ideal time to troll walleyes on Leech Lake and I have some perfect spots where no one in my group has fished, some shallower mid lake reefs as well as Rocky points.  My brother Steve and I are working on Plan C, maybe just a couple of us will head up to Leech, assuming it's open, and we can stay in a small group. It might take till the end of the month to decide.  Either way Fleet Farm's sale ends on Saturday, maybe another excuse!

April Snow and Other Issues

Our Mid April Snow Storm

It would be nice to say that everything is back to normal but trying to figure out what is normal these days is a mystery in itself!  Because of the current Corona Virus situation, our illustrious Governor has extended the Stay in Place order until May 4th and there is talk that he might extend it till June. Our 47th annual Minnesota Fishing Opener is looking more like a delayed event than something that even a later than usual Ice Out in 2013 could not diminish.  Even if all the restrictions are lifted by the May 9th fishing opener there are quite a few that may opt to stay home or in my nephews case, simply cannot fly from Portland, Oregon to MSP.  We do have Plan B, which is to move our annual event to the first of October.  Given the situation it seems like it would be a good time to reschedule, especially as one of my favorite ways to fish walleyes is trolling shad raps, it would be a great time of the year for doing that!  We should know shortly but I am not putting any money that it will happen in May.  This issue drags into our trips planned for Lac Seul this spring which was scheduled for May 16th, Ontario's walleye opener, as well as the usual trip in June.  It may be too soon to predict the outcome but it may not be until July before this thing settles down.  To top it off Mille Lacs Lake is only catch and release this year with the entire lake closing down for the month of July.  There are tons of walleyes to catch in Mille Lacs so this will probably be the Goto destination for May and June, we'll have to see.  The great weather the last couple of weeks inspired me to get the dethatcher/bagger system on my lawn tractor (more on that below) which required the snowblower and cab to be removed and put away.  Well you know what that means, if you do this before April 15, it's going to snow!  After getting the blower cleaned off and with the help of the neighbors, the cab properly stored, we got 3 - 4 inches of snow on Saturday night/Easter Sunday.  Luckily we were on the northwest corner of the storm and to our southeast got the brunt of it yet it goes without saying that the curse is still in existence!  The good thing is the concrete surfaces were warm enough so nothing stuck and the snowblower wasn't needed yet it seems as though someone was saying....don't
try that again!

Dethatcher hitch

So after getting the hitch attachment for the dethatcher on the lawn tractor, it finally got mounted and admittedly it works pretty slick.  There were a couple of snafu's to deal with including the frame was a little warped so the click in pins didn't click in, the mounting holes through the main mounting were hand drilled and not exactly perpendicular to the mounting holes, plus the green paint was not John Deere green so it's close but not the same!  After mounting the attachment to the quick hitch, with a hammer attempted to make a mark by the hole to see where it needed adjustment but instead it clicked in, good enough!  Next the holes that mounted the dethatcher to the hitch were off so using an 11/64th drill and a mild reaming, the bolts now went through the tube so they could be tightened up.  As far as the green paint, Fleet Farm had John Deere Green spray paint and after the season it will be repainted in the right color.  After a few issues of my own like hooking the hydraulic lines to the wrong place it finally is working and it is certainly a lot better than trying to lift it via the pull bar that came with the unit originally.  Unfortunately the snow has put a damper on any year activities for a few days however the forecast is for the 60's to return next weekend.  There are a number of neighbors that I let use this system as it really works great yet maybe there could be an opportunity to make some cash as it makes the lawn look great and along with an application of Scott's Truf Builder, one is set through the summer.  Then again, that would be work!

Pink Clown Rippin' Rap

So this isn't Yard Maintenance with Dave so I did get some things done on the fishing front.  Deciding that the tackle boxes need better organization as there were 3 separate boxes that stored Rapala Shad Raps, they got organized into a single box.  Another box was assorted Rapala lures with another box of Flick'r Shads, Smash Shads, and other shad style walleye crankbaits and it's starting to look good.  Last fall we did really well with jigging raps on Long Lake in Wisconsin, as well Ben Aiona caught his share of nice walleyes using Slab Raps and Rippin' Raps through the ice yet a search of YouTube videos shows some interesting open water catches on these types of jerk baits.  I separated a box of these types of jigging lures and was excited to experiment with them on both the Minnesota and especially the Ontario fishing opener.   Lac Seul's water is a dark tea color and the rattle aspect of this lure might hold some real promise as we mostly vertical jig fish walleyes.  We'll see what becomes of our season but there will be a time to experiment!  There is a lot to do before any official Fishing Opener so stay tuned!

Crazy Weekend

One of Vic's Favorite fish, Channel Catfish

The events of this weekend have delayed (as good excuse as I could come up with!) my posts but things are settling down enough to put some thoughts online.  The weekend started Friday morning when I missed a call from Paul Wenaas, my friend from Chippewa Falls.  Having to drive to Eau Claire that morning, I promised him a call on the way as it was more convenient but really contemplated the conversation.  Unfortunately I was right, although not unexpected, my first real boss, Vic Wenaas, Paul's father died Friday morning.  He was 92 so it was no surprise.  When asked to give a presentation while I was working often the introduction involved where I attended school when having needed a background of my "stature" as President of Precision.  My go to answer would say that I have an Associate's  Degree in Electronic Technology and my MBA from the Victor Wenaas School of Business Management.  That went well with those guys who had degrees from MIT and MBA's from Harvard! Vic owned the gas station that was once owned by my grandfather.   I started working at 15 and at that time I had 2 jobs, half the nights was loading chickens in a truck for the local chicken processing factory and half being a gas station attendant, the kind that would pump your gas and wash the windshield.  In the fall Vic said I had to make a decision as he needed a full time guy, work for me or the chicken truck.  It was no use running to my dad for advice because he really didn't care but rather he gave me a lesson,  make up your own mind .  So at 15.5 I decided to be a grease monkey and work for Vic for 75 cents an hour.  This was in July of 1970 and I worked there until January 25th, 1976.  My favorite story is while working on car repairs on Saturday my job was to do the oil changes while he might be changing a water pump in the other bay.  He would always have WAXX, 104.5 FM Country on the radio.  This was the early 70's so I cut me teeth on Johnny Cash, Eddie Arnold, Porter Wagner, Hank Snow, Dolly Pardon and all the Older country stars.  I still can name damn near every song from 50 years ago.  Anyway Eddie Arnold's song, Cattle Call started playing and while changing oil which prompted me to start singing the part where he does the cattle call, I liked that part!.  Vic came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, looked at me and said........"You know something Davy, I can't sing either!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JX50rZae2M  Vic loved to catfish in the summer and often we'd go down by the buffalo bridge or for a real adventure, up to Eau Claire and fish NSP point where the Eau Claire River met the Chippewa River.  There were always a few guys along like my dad, Art Kelly, and Daniel Van Pelt.  Our favorite bait was chicken livers that we harvested out of the back of Doughboy Foods chicken processing plant in Eleva.  It is with regret that in my archives there are no pictures of Vic but I know where catfish stood!  

Tim Pulling Pork for his Annual Pig Roast

The second event was the passing of my good friend and neighbor Tim Kuntz.  Saturday night at around 7:00 pm my good neighbor Tim died at home from stage 4 urinary tract cancer.  He found out on Feb 2, and 8 weeks later we hauled him out of the den where his hospice bed was.  He was 63.  Tim was always the center of the neighborhood, had a separate garage always had a cold beer, simply drive by and if the light shined through the window, it was your indication that you were welcome.  A couple years ago he moved an enclosed trailer in front of the window enough so you could not see the light so a few of use complained that we no longer knew he was in the garage.  Enough so that he went out and bought a neon store sign saying OPEN, with it wired to his light switch, if he was in the garage, the sign was definitely lit with the connotation, come on in.  Anyway for the last 2 months I saw him as much as permitted and every time I left I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him.  Tim's nickname was Tool man Tim,  proper name as he seemed to either have every to tool known to man or he could make something do.  Tim was the center of the neighborhood as he hosted the annual Superbowl Party to watch the Super bowl in his heated garage/man cave.  In the early fall Tim would get a 230 pound whole hog and have a pig roast, he was quite a BBQ chef as well he really enjoyed being the host.  The stories could go on but the reality is that it is over and after visiting Tim last Friday night, he was ready to say goodbye.  My grandmother Myrtle had a picture in her kitchen of a man praying and the prayer was...God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Rest in peace my friend.

The last thing is a project involving my friend Greg Kinblom's idea to make a bracket for my John Deere Lawn tractor to change the way the dethatcher attachment connects to the front end of it.  Basically has made a bracket, adapting it to the hydraulic quick hitch which controls the lift from the drivers seat.  The quick hitch came with the snowblower attachment and works quite well.  It is very nice however not without some issues.  Although not related to his work, I did have to accommodate some of his holes by enlarging them somewhat.  The bigger issues dealt with once I attached the mower deck the front bracket of the deck hit the hitch.   Also when reattached the hitch would not lift, 15 minutes later it was discovered that the black hose was attached to the grey connector, after switching it worked great again.  Focusing on getting the lawn thatched and ready for fertilizing, things should go better this week.  Maybe there will be some pictures next post.  The original plan was to head to Lake Erie today however their is a 14 day quarantine for new arrivals so the Mississippi River is plan B.  The problem is the river is at flood stage and the peak will happen early this week.  I'm am sure we'll think of something!

Stuck Inside!

Effective Adapter Plate for my HDS 9 Live 

It is probably no surprise what the current crisis is going on today as of tonight we have a Stay in Place order from our governor.   Oh well, I have plenty to do at home.  The apple trees need pruning, the garden needs cleaning up, and with the current warmer temperatures and rain forecast, it's probably a good time to put away the ice fishing equipment for the year.  There has been a lot of interesting things going on especially as opener is coming upon us fast.  First situation is that my boat has been at the dealer since December 4th as it had some warranty issues taken care of as well some cosmetic stuff that has been bothering me.  One of those issues was the mounting of my depthfinders as I needed a new console to fit my "New to Me" HDS 12 Live that I traded my friend Bill for.  In the process of mounting it into the console I requested that they make sure to drill the through hole on the top in a different place than it was, as is it will interfere with the HDS 9 live bracket mounting.  Well, after bringing it home I was disappointed to find that the thru hole was in the same place as the old one.  Now I can either make a huge fuss or simply solve the problem myself, which I decided to do.  Having an idea and walking next door to my neighbor Todd, a self employed mechanical design engineer, we discussed the issue and maybe having him print an adapter plate to accommodate the misalignment problem.  Instead he stated drawing a 3D print of what I had envisioned, we finalized the requirements and loaded it to an online site that offers machining services. In 2 minutes we had a quote and immediately ordered an aluminum plate that was machined to print, had the holes drilled with one tapped, a quick credit card entry and 2 weeks later it shows up via Federal Express.  After mounting the adapter plate on the console it looks quite nice and functional, everything is solid and it certainly is a better and faster solution than waiting for another console, which is 8 weeks out, and with last years disaster, I am not much in the mood for having the boat out of my shed for most the summer!  Besides this was a bunch of stuff including all new trailer tires to go with my new rims that were replaced under warranty, any of the plastic interior trim that was cracked, was replaced.  Of course last November the front axle on the trailer was replaced.  The boat is like new again and ready for both the Team Walleye 47th Annual Leech Lake opener as well as the Ontario fishing opener at Lac Seul a week later.  That is of course if our current problem seems to be deemed as under control, don't hold your breath!

Smash Shad in Wonder Bread Pattern

A couple of other interesting things, Cabela's (Now Bass Pro Shop) annual Spring Sale is going on and they have some fabulous deals on some crankbaits.  One that looked interesting is their fabulous deal on a Storm product called a Smash Shad.  These crankbaits are in the same category as Berkley's Flickr Shad, or a number of shad type baits primarily used for walleyes.  Trolling at sunset on Leech is a favorite technique of mine and we have been having a lot of success with funky colors so this Wonder Bread pattern has got to be good as the light color should be a real winner this opener.  Also at $1.49 each it's a little easier handing out these for my friends to use instead of my $7 Shad Raps and they should be just as effective.  Picking up about 20 or so in 7 different color patterns  and 2 different sizes, #5 and #7, it was a pretty good deal.  My brother Steve loaded me up with some Northland long shanked jigs last Christmas when the Gander Mountain Store closed by him so I am returning the favor.  My friend Kevin Aiona laughed at me because he said they don't run true out of the box, that might be but they are easy to tune.  I also picked up some square bill bass crankbaits for the smallmouth fishing on the river as the action of these baits are quite effective as well. 

Custom Whiskey aging Barrel

The other thing that is going is I have purchased  my own personal whiskey aging oak barrel from Amazon.  Basically you can buy a small oak barrel that has been charred on the inside, the same as the big distillers use to age whiskey in.  In large barrels it takes a lot of time to age whiskey because of the barrel surface area vs the liquid volume.  In these smaller barrels that ratio of wood to liquid is much more favorable to age whiskey significantly more quickly.  At a neighbors a few weeks ago he gave me a sample of some Crown Royal that had been in his small barrel 6 months and it was quite good.  When you buy these on  Amazon the option is to be able to personalize them to your own custom details as you can see here.  This one is filled with TX from Texas sent to me by my friend Matt Davis.  The barrel needs to be soaked in water to make sure the wood expands and seals which took about a week.  You can see where the water initially leaked out with the black color of the charring leaching out.  Once sealed it was filled with whiskey and I am figuring out it will be ready for our September trip to Lac Seul.  Also it can be used a couple of times and I have some nice scotch that could benefit from a couple months in the barrel.  There will definitely be an update when the barrel is tapped! Hopefully my patience will pay off.

Last Trip With the Wheel House

Kevin's size of choice!

Not much has been going on these last few weeks other than trying to find a roll of toilet paper in any store, my Lord this country has absolutely gone crazy, least I say more but I won't.  So in an effort to escape this madness on Friday my friends Kevin Aiona, Paul Wenaas, and I hooked up the Salem for what will probably it's last trip for the 2019/2020 ice fishing season.  Kevin's son Ben had left his ice house up at Springsteel Island Resort, where we fished this year on the week of January 9th and his plan was to go on up and fish the weekend, bringing his house home.  Arriving at 8:00 as planned we headed north to meet Ben at the resort, a 6 hour drive from home.  Both Paul and Kevin are retired so we were in no hurry to get home and the plan was to stay until Monday.  Arriving at the resort around 2:30 we ordered something to eat in the bar while we waited for Ben.  As the resort had stated you could go about anywhere around the resort and for the most part that was correct, if you stayed on the roads.  The snow was pretty hard off the roads but it was easy to spin down to the ice and you were stuck.  Our first stop was just east and right off what they called the DNR reef which came up to 16 feet however the surrounding area was about 22 feet.  Drilling the holes, I was reminded of my forgetfulness these days as I forgot to bring my cordless drill to run my Slushcopter, a wonderful device to push the slush down the holes once drilled as well as my slush scooper to finish what's left of what little ice there is.  Ben came to the rescue and let me use one of his.  We finally got settled in and started catching fish right away.  Admittedly many of them were quite small as though we were fishing sunfish.  I can't tell you how many walleyes we caught under 8 inches but I would say for every "keeper" fish we caught, we released at least 10 dinky ones.  It was surprising how aggressive these little fish could be.  They would rush up from the bottom and smack your lure, often dressed with a minnow head on the hook for some scent.  Sometimes they would come up almost 5 feet before hitting the lure, which is a lot of fun seeing it and having the anticipation of the fish slamming

Largest Walleye of the Trip, 21"

it, only to feel in the first second that it's another small fish.  We did catch a number of keepers, enough to take into the resort for a walleye dinner on Saturday night.  Ben was a little frustrated with the smaller fish that we caught by DNR reef so he decided on Saturday morning to move to deeper water.  He has chains on the truck so it was easier to go off road.  He was having some luck in deeper water out a few miles more so on Sunday morning we decided to move out as well.   As we lifted the house one of my pivoting axle's stuck and the axle spring shackle that secures the wheel to be able to drive was not moving.  Calling Ben, who had a propane torch, he drove over and as I suspect the grease around the axle was either too stiff to move or there might have been water in it because a minute of heating and the wheel started to slowly move down to allow us to secure it and move.  It was a good reminder of the next thing for the tool box.  Finally free we were able to get back on the road and head east a couple of miles.  Finding an old road we decided to back in so we had a clear path when we decided to leave, it was nice and flat so we set up.  It takes about an hour to properly set up the house, even with 3 guys but we were fishing by 9:30 in 25 feet of water.  No much deeper but different.

Paul with a nice 38 inch northern pike

We encounter about the same fishing as the last place.  I think right off the reef was a good morning/evening spot but the deeper water offered what might be a better day bite.  I thought we did better at the second place we setup, including the 21 inch walleye you see above.  The northern pike bite was better as both Paul and I caught 2 nicer northern's with Paul's being a respectable fish.  The fish did not come without inflicting a little revenge on all of us as before we got him up to the hole it had managed to swim around everyone of our lines and tangle them up beyond repair.  I guess we should have known better, when someone gets a nice fish, pull up the lines.  Oh well, the excitement overrides common sense and we spent the next 30 minutes cutting out lures, lines, retying our lines and lures.  To add insult to injury, we released the fish in Kevin's hole and it got stuck in his line, causing another problem of tangling up everything even more. It definitely was a mess but it did a couple of things for the good.  It made us retie fresh line on our rattle reels,

Tangled Mess!!

pull off the well used line on our existing poles and it was a great excuse to change lures.  In addition it provided some good entertainment as well as stories for the future.  I suppose we ended up with 7 keeper walleyes and a sauger, 1 nice perch, and a ton of smaller fish that we let go.  The DirecTV in the house made it nice and time sure flies when you are having fun.  We did watch the movie, Stand By Me, the 4 boys who head up the railroad tracks to find a dead body, it reminds me of growing up back home in Eleva.  We used to walk the tracks all the time and the trestle scene was right out of our memories crossing the trestle across the Buffalo River, especially when the train came roaring down the tracks.  That was over 55 years ago but it seems like it was just yesterday, time flies way to fast.  Well it was fun to spend the weekend with my 2 friends from back home, we had a blast and it was good to compare notes as to what each of us remembered what it used to be.  The last line in the movie Stand By Me says it all: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?”   I guess I am am very blessed that those friends are still in my life!
 

2019 in Review

Cold day on the lake

Last Sunday the 2019 walleye fishing season is officially closed in Minnesota except for the border waters of the Mississippi River as well as Lake of the Woods.  A this time the Mississippi River stays open season all year however the Rainy River and Lake of the Woods will close in early April.  Minnesota's 2020 fishing opener is Saturday, May 9th and Ontario's walleye opener is the following Saturday, May 16th which starts the whole process again. 2019 certainly wasn't may most productive walleye season but who's complaining.  These days I seem to spend more time fishing Ontario than Minnesota as last summer included 3 days on opener fishing Leech Lake and 1 day fishing on Mille Lacs Lake.  It certainly didn't help that my boat was in the shop for over 9 weeks getting repaired from hitting the reef on Lac Seul, sounds like a good excuse huh!  It was also a pathetic year for ice fishing walleyes as there were 3 days at Red Lake, 3 days on Lake of the Woods and 1 day on Mille Lacs. Meanwhile I fished 10 days on Lac Seul this year, not a record however it can be looked at as fishing 1 day a week for 10 weeks on Mille Lacs, sounds reasonable doesn't it!  I did fish 4 days of largemouth bass in the Alexandria area as well about 4 trips on the Mississippi River behind the house in my jon boat, when you add it all up it comes to about a fishing trip every 12 days or so.  I guess that makes it sound better and I am not getting any younger.  Of course a day fishing in Naples l at the dealer getting a number of little things taken care of and hopefully it will be ready this week as it's been there since the first of December and I'm getting a little anxious about storage, the batteries, and other stuff.  I did go help my  friend Bill Lundeen this Monday as he had a large corporate group out ice fishing and we scouted some areas.  A large heave developed a few miles out from the landing and prevented us from getting to some of the better areas but according to Bill it went alright.  The first picture is one of my favorites from 2019.  We were on Red Lake last January 27th and a rattle reel went off early in the morning.  Getting up and catching the fish I wondered what time it was as it was still pretty dark.  The clock said 4:20 AM but it seemed cold and no wonder, it was -28.5 outside the ice house.  Certainly this winter has had it's days below zero but nothing like last winter.  I leave it at that!

Record crowd at the Perch Extravaganza

Last Saturday was the annual Johnson Portside Perch Extravaganza.  Usually a few of us get together and pull our wheel houses up to Mille Lacs, park them together and spend the weekend.  The Perch Extravaganza at Hunter's Point Resort is based on a perch fishing contest with the largest perch getting $500 however there are so few perch in the lake anymore, it has really morphed into a huge button drawing, you buy a button with a number and if they draw it you could win quite a number of good prizes including new ATV's, Generators's, coolers stuffed with fishing gear, and this year they had 3 new wheel houses.  The weather was fabulous and because of the cancellation of a few event's around the area, there were thousands of people attending.  Rumor has it they sold over 16,000 tickets so one's chances of winning were slim this year.  Never the less the anticipation is fun and as they say, you'll never win if you don't enter!  Also our group was worried about the ice conditions on Mille Lacs as the early snow and slush put a damper on things as the first year I attended we were flooded. Mark Applen has a small place just south of Hunter's and I met him there about 8:30.  We headed to Malmo to have breakfast then gathered our gear and headed out onto the lake.  I was surprised that one could dang near drive where ever you wanted, as well the ice was at least 30  inches thick.  We had never seen so many wheel houses on the lake, we estimated around 8000 houses.  It was a zoo as every piece of structure had a number of houses parked on top, literally there was few places to fish.  We did fish for a couple of hours, attended the drawing and headed back home.

One of the fishing shows I like is In Depth Outdoors as they have a new show every week.  A few weeks ago they were fishing in Pool 2 on the Mississippi River, just south of St. Paul. It is prompting me to get the jon boat ready as I remember fishing that area in the late winter with my friend Pete. It certainly might be worth a try. 

Big Walleyes But Not Mine!

Jared's 28 inch LOTW Walleye!

Last week we celebrated the fact that time does not stop, the problem is trying to make sure one is not left behind.  This year seems that there has been a little bit of this, especially for ice fishing.  Maybe it's just getting too difficult to trudge through the snow and slush, I don't know, it seems like I have a ton of excuses!  One problem is trying to figure out who to go with as I get older, it's always nice to have another person with to help in case one has any issues.  In the meantime it is fortunate that my friends share their fishing experiences and this week was no exception. The first picture is of my best friend, Kevin Aiona's grandson Jared.  His dad, Ben left his ice house at Springsteel Island Resort from our January 9th trip.  He has been back there 2 times since, once on Superbowl and last weekend.  Admittedly fishing has been slow on Lake of the Woods. They have been fortunate not to have the deep snow as well the ice thickness is approaching 30 inches.  Arriving last weekend, Friday was slow however on Saturday a big mark appeared above Jared's jig on his Vexilar.  Ben told him to lift it up and the fish, almost on script the walleye followed it up and smacked his lure.  Getting it up the fish was about 28 inches, a very nice walleye.  Of course Jarred struck a nice pose, I am glad he will be around when I get really old!  They really didn't get many fish this trip however Ben did head out to 16 Mile Reef, an area we fished years ago with Toby out of Arneson's resort.  Ben was able to get out there via his Polaris Ranger that has tracks instead of wheels.  I suppose he could have dragged his house out there, a good 10 miles, yet Kevin was with and they decided to stay closer to the known roads.  the story is that in another month the fish will move closer to the reefs and fishing will improve.  With Red Lake being a slush fest, Lake of the Woods has taken a lot of the pressure this year and maybe that pressure has had an effect on the slow fishing but it's hard to say.  There is talk about planning a trip after the first of March.  My friend Adam Mayerich is up with a bunch of guys fishing the Southwest side and am looking forward to talking to him when he gets back.

Kevin's nice Winnipeg Green Back Walleye

Another very interesting walleye picture is on from a fellow Team Walleyer, Kevin Jayson.  Kevin has fished a bucket list destination of mine, Lake Winnipeg, home of the giant "Green Back" walleyes.  Here is a giant that Kevin caught so I poached it from his Facebook post as this fish is quite amazing for sure.  Hopefully I will get to discuss with him the technique, location and details of heading to Canada to catch one of these beautiful fish as it certainly is impressive.  It would really be nice if one could haul a wheel house out and stay for a few days on the ice. Hopefully we'll have some interesting information by next week.  In the meantime one can only wish!  The bulk of my time is getting things cleaned up in the pole shed as getting the fishing equipment organized and waiting for my boat to finally get finished.  Also the weather continues on a roller coaster script.  In the 40's a couple of days, 4 inches of snow the next couple of days, -15 the next couple of days.  Thank the Lord we are not like Alaska where my friends report record cold (after a record hot summer) with temperatures dropping to -59... Uffda!!

FG Knot

So one of the things I am guilty of is once I get an idea in my head about a new technique for fishing, the tendency is to jump in with both feet.  I have never been much of a braided line user for jig fishing other than for ice fishing.  One of the advantages of braid while jigging is it doesn't exhibit the line twist like monofilament lines do. The negatives are it takes more finesse when setting the hook as braid has virtually no stretch and one can pull the jig right out of the fishes mouth very fast.  Also the braid is very visible and it can be difficult to tie new jigs to braid.  The standard way to overcome this is to tie a fluorocarbon leader to the braid.  This can be done with a simple swivel to make the braid/fluorocarbon connection or a more acceptable way is to tie the braid and fluorocarbon together as there are a couple of knots like the Alberto knot, or double Uni Knot however it is well acknowledged that the FG knot is the strongest knot as well as the smallest diameter knot to tie however after looking at the YouTube video's, it also looks like it's also the most difficult.  I am very focused on learning this knot and maybe heading down this path will make jigging for walleyes on Lac Seul a lot easier with less line twist.

Life's Milestones

My new 3 Insurance Cards!

Well this week I had the pleasure of celebrating my 65th birthday.  I remember when my grandpa Roy turned 65 then my dad, now me!  Certainly did not bring it in with a lot of fanfare as the last month, in between a couple of fishing trips, was filled with what seemed to be an endless task of applying for Medicare, cancelling my regular health insurance, signing up for Plan B so I can get an aftermarket Medicare Advantage policy as well as Part D, Drug coverage.  Now instead of 1 medical insurance card, I have 3 of them....one for Medicare Part's A and B, one for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Advantage policy, and one for BCBS's Part D drug plan.  Just more stuff to lose!  Admittedly I was surprised that my current total Medicare cost is quite a bit higher than my standard Medical insurance but that's another story.  It's quite a feat just to make sure everything is paid for so there is no lapse in coverage.  Also the US Government is not very forgiving on the sign up dates.  I did it on line and although it was easy, I got a call to verify my information.  A little research shows that according to the records their are 6,500,000 social security numbers being used who's age is 112 or older.  Well documented organizations state that there are only 42 people in the world older than 112 so there is definitely some fraud happening here and it's certainly costing all of us our rightful monies that both ourselves and our employers have paid in over our lifetimes.  You wonder why they say Social Security is going broke!...Ok, enough of the soapbox however it is a good reminder that if you have yet to turn 65 do your research as it will pay off, or call me, I got a lot of experience!  Either way the worst thing is the need to switch pharmacy's as my current one does not have a contract with BCBS...ugh!!  Oh well, I have all this time right!  I'd rather be fishing.

Keeping it looking good!

Speaking of Fishing I got a call from Lake Area Canvas, the canvas place that originally made my Bimini top for my boat.  Back around December 3rd I dropped it off as it seemed like the zipper areas were coming undone and wanted them fixed.  It was ready so seeing it's on the way to my dealer Frankie's I decided to stop by, pay the bill a huge $21, and pick it up. Loading into the truck the next step was to head to Frankie's and drop it off but also to check the status of my boat.  Well, everything is done except to replace the bait well aerator switch control, and that should be done by early next week.  When I do get the boat back it will have a new front axle, all new 17 inch black chrome mag rims, all new tires, a new Minnkota 460 battery charger, all broken plastic trim pieces in the interior replaced, some outside cosmetic work done on some dock rash as well as cleaning up some previous repairs, a new console installed because the HDS 12 live would not fit into my existing console, The bait well switch fixed, she should be just like new.  Having paid for our annual 47th annual Leech Lake Opener, I am anxious to get things ready and going.  I am also anxious to try a few new techniques this year for walleyes, especially using the rattle type baits and swim baits like we did last October on Long Lake in Wisconsin.  It's sometimes difficult to give up something that is an almost guaranteed however catching walleyes with a new technique can be very fun and rewarding for sure and my goal is to give it an honest effort. these include Rapala's Rippin Rap ,  Jigging Rap, and Slab Rap, Salmo's Chubby Darter, and Lindy Glow Streak along with a few others.  We are only about 2 months away from open water and because of the early snows the ice thickness is minimal so Ice out could be early!

Mid Week Adventure

My First Mille Lacs Walleye, about 16 Inches

Being retired no longer requires that all fishing trips are either on days off or weekends.  With Red Lake being such a mess this year and the Salem has been parked by the pole shed, my friend Jack Taylor suggested we try Mille Lacs on a mid week, a lot less pressure on the lake might make for a good outing.  On Wednesday we headed up to Mille Lacs with my wheel house with the intent on staying the night and coming home on Thursday.  Another friend Pete Mlinar met us at Rocky Reef Resort where we decided it was a place to get on the ice.  Ice conditions on Mille Lacs this year have been sketchy, especially with the amount of snow that has fallen.  Last weekend the ice conditions changed for the good and there were many resorts getting out to some of the more popular fishing spots.  Mille Lacs Lake is full of walleyes however the current situation hasn't improved much therefore the limit is 1 walleye and it must be between 21 and 23 inches, what remains of the great 2013 year class.  There are plenty of fish in Mille Lacs but let's not get into that!  Anyway our first stop was at the resort to get a road pass for the 24 hours we were going to be out on the ice.  We had a chance to discuss the "good" spots with their road guy, Dewey.  After talking to him a while it dawned on me that he looked awfully familiar.  "Didn't you used to run a road out of Vineland a few years back?"  Yes was the response as I reminded him of the time a number of years back when I went on his road but the heave messed up his bridge and while he was trying to fix it the ice was moving too much so Dewey, his helper, and myself stood around drinking his home made Apple Pie.  Uffda and after 1 too many I decided to stay on the safe side of the heave and fish the sunset.  He remembered that day and it was enough to secure some good information like where his shack was, what the fishing has been, and how to get there.  Once on the ice we headed straight east

Jacks second walleye

for Spirit Island and came across the first road to the left (North) which looked like it went to Indian Point, our destination.  About a mile up it dead ended by Rocky Reef so back down to the main road then we found the right road headed north and got to our spot without much fanfare.  Locating Dewey's house we set up about 50 yards from him in 27 feet of water, and area of scattered rocks on

the bottom.  In about an hour we were set up and fishing.  I was surprised how well the ice was and it was about 22 inches thick.  Mille Lacs is very clear and when we started to mark fish I put my camera down and at 10 feet I could see the bottom already.  It was definitely scattered rock and everyone was covered with zebra mussels.  The fish we were marking were small perch, a good sign as where there are small perch there are walleyes!  It wasn't until the late afternoon before we hooked a walleye, Jack had a nice fish, got it up and it went about 20 inches, just an inch shy of the minimum length.  I gave it to Jack so I could get a picture but he let it slip out of his hands and back in the hole it went.  The picture on the right is his next walleye, about 13 inches.  It was funny as he was reminded which fish was going to be put on the blog!  I hooked a nice 16 incher on my flutter spoon and got that picture.  In the end we had 6 fish, the one 20 incher, a couple of 16's and another couple 12 - 13's with a small walleye under 10.  We certainly didn't light them on fire but it was a good shot trip, enough to get away for the night and enjoy my friends.  Actually it was a perfect spot, no heaves in the ice, the road had to be 80 feet wide, the ice was solid and one never knows what will swim by these days as a couple of friends were out there last weekend and caught a few over 27.  I'd take that any day as I have plenty of walleyes in the freezer.  I am sure that there is alot of good fishing left on Mille Lacs and I am not sure if this is good news or not but even though we have about 22 inches of Ice it should be almost 3 feet by now.  Maybe ice out will be early this year, I guess time will tell.

Last spring my friend from work, Mike Scheunke  bought a wheel house and we were talking about various things to have and I showed him my generator box I had bought at Red Lake.  The box really helps to keep what little noise there is down, and in sub zero weather prevents the carburetor freeze ups and come in very handy.  He asked if he could use the box as a pattern, I said of course but you need to buy enough materials for 2 as mine is made with chipboard and it's both heavy and not very good to hold the screws for the hinges, in fact I have replaced mine this year already.  Anyway he called on Tuesday stating my box is done and he'd like to drop it off.  It is a work of art, made with strong plywood, full hinges, self closing hinges, and painted up in the perfect colors, it is absolutely perfect!  I asked what I owed and instead of money he wanted some lures and maybe a good walleye rod.  Taking one of my better rod/reel combo's off my rack, I found a tackle box then I gave him some of my best lures, seemed like I got the better of the deal however.  It is definitely a work of art and certainly one can see the care he put into making this!  Thanks Mike.  Went to the boat show last week and didn't get a single answer to a few questions I have with my Minnkota Charger, Lowrance/Evinrude NEMA 2000 communications however the big Sportshow is coming in the first of April and I will definitely have time to get some real discussions going as I should be working Frankie's booth the entire show.  What does the future look like, well maybe another trip to Mille Lacs, maybe back to Lake of the Woods in March, chasing some crappies with Bill Lundeen.  Winter is far from over!

BTW tomorrow I officially join the old man group as on February 1st I begin Medicare.........damn where did the time go?

Summer Sausage Time

Although deer hunting was not as productive as I would have liked, a couple of events gave me the needed venison that I was looking for to get a couple of homemade sausages made.  First was my neighbor Jake.  Jake found a freshly killed doe on the road in front of our neighborhood so he called the police, gutted it out and quartered it up.  Volunteering to help him we did the 2 front quarters and my reward was some trimmings.  Second, my friend Kevin and his son Ben did pretty well this year and had some leftover trimmings, about 25 pounds worth and gave them to me.  The first project was to try and make some venison summer sausage.  After ordering the seasonings from Psseasoning, a good source for sausage seasonings in Iron Ridge, Wisconsin the intent was to make 25 pounds of Summer Sausage using 1/2 venison and 1/2 70% lean pork trimmings.  One of my big complaints about Minnesota made summer sausage is it's pretty plain.  Locals like it but if you ever had Pat's Summer Sausage from Arcadia, Wisconsin you would know what I am referring to!  Most Wisconsin based summer sausage has a distinct tang to it cause by using bacterial starter cultures to change natural and added sugars in the meat to lactic acid which adds that tang to the flavor.  Because the curing takes a few days in a moist and warm environment, there is a product called Fermento, a dried whey/protein mix (essentially dried buttermilk) that can be mixed with your sausage meat prior to stuffing and smoking and it gives the same effect without having to cure the meat first.  So last Saturday my neighbor Lory and I tried our luck at our first batch of summer sausage.  I got 13 pounds of  70/30 (70% lean/30% fat) pork trimmings at the meat market in Rogers, MN.  Using a premixed Psseasoning's Blue Ribbon Summer Sausage seasoning, 12 pounds of venison trimmings and some sausage casings from Cabela's Lory had ground the meat before I arrived and we were ready to go.  Because I like mustard seed and garlic in the sausage, we split up the meat into 12.5 pound batches as I have a meet mixer that does a great job of mixing the pork, venison, seasonings, the fermento,

Fermento

together.  The seasoning mix comes with maple cure which give the sausage the right amount of salt and sodium nitrite to assure the right flavor and food safety while smoking.  Although I have an old fashioned sausage stuffer, Lory had his grinder/stuffer set up in place so we decided to use that.  Mixing all the ingredients together we ended up with a nice tube of meat ready to be stuffed in the casings.  It took longer than we expected because the grinder/stuffer set up wasn't exactly the ideal situation as the meat being re pushed into the auger, then another auger to push the meat down the stuffing tube, it tended to mush up the meat somewhat.  Never the less we were able to get all 20 smaller casings stuffed and thanks to out neighbor Tim, it was easy to seal the ends with his hog ring pliers.   Because it was easier to track the progress of the smoke from his family room overlooking the patio, we brought my electric Cookshack insulated smoker over and set it up where we could easily see it.  As well, I had ordered a Bluetooth Smokehouse temperature probe that has 2 separate sensors, we could monitor the progress right on our cell phones.  The first part was to preheat the smoker to 100 degrees F then put the meat in the smoker for about an hour.  What this does is slowly heat up the meat so the outside stays moist and doesn't have a tendency to dry out.  The next 3 hours, we turned the temperature up to about 175 degrees and put some apple wood in the wood drawer and induced a heavy smoke for about 3 hours.  After the smoke had done it's job it was simply a waiting game until the meat got to 146 degrees F, about 4 total hours in the smoke house.  Once the correct temperature was obtained we removed the meat from the smoker and put them in the sink with ice water, for about 2 minutes.  The first sample tasted fabulous but the casings stuck to the meat and it needed to sit for a while to dry out somewhat.  As stated before the texture of the finished product was not very coarse and was quite fine, as stated a product of the stuffing method.  Both Lory and I agreed that we need to use the old fashioned stuffer the next time.  The flavor was pretty good however, just the right amount of smoke and the fermento did it's job.  As well some time in the refrigerator has helped to firm it up somewhat.  We have decided it is good enough to try again as both Lory and I have plenty of venison scraps.  We've ordered more seasoning, fermento, casings, and did get some high temperature cheese to see how that works.  Our goal is to make another batch sometime in late February depending on how long our current supply lasts.

Jared and Ben with a nice walleye on Lake of the Woods

The weather forecast for last weekend was snow on Friday and Saturday.  Although we did not get the predicted 8 - 12 inches, it still made for a wintery weekend, a good one for making Summer Sausage.  On the other hand my good friend Ben went with his wife and son Jared back to Springsteel Island Resort to fish the weekend.  We stayed in touch as he arrived on Thursday night as they planned on staying in the heated ice house for the weekend.  Our new friend Dave was going up as well.  Ben kept me updated throughout the weekend as they said Thursday was slow, Friday picked up quite a bit, proof is in this picture, while Saturday was slow again.  They were supposed to get a good dumping of snow up north but it sort of fizzled out before they had to leave.  Ben left his skid house up there which presents a great opportunity for me to drag my wheel house up there for a weekend of fishing on the ice.  Normally Mark Applen, Russ Praught and a few others would be on Red Lake this weekend however the significant amount of snow has really dampened the opportunities on Red as they are only getting out 2 - 3 miles.  As well they have a layer of slush under the snow and on top of the ice that makes getting out and back in a problem.  Red closes at the end of February but Lake of the Woods is open till April 15th, so there might be more opportunities to fish and Springsteel Island is only about an hour further north than JR's is.  I feel sorry for JR's but it's pretty hard to fight Mother Nature.  Anyway the winter is far from over!  The next few weeks may determine what is the next ice fishing strategy as Bill Lundeen and I have made some definite plans to fish closer lakes.

  

Back from Lake of the Woods

Ben's nice northern

Our January 9 trip to Lake of the Woods finally arrived.  Originally the plan was to leave my wheel house at JR's a couple of weeks ago then pick it up on the way and use it.  Unfortunately the snow storm at Red Lake changed our plans but definitely not for the worse as Dave Johnson, our host had plan B.  Our destination was Springsteel Island Resort just north of Warroad, MN.  Dave knew the resort very well and got us a cabin almost next to his, and with his hard side portable fish houses we were all set.  Dave Johnson is a person I met at Dick's Bar in Osseo.  A great place to have our necessary fishing board meetings, I had the pleasure of being invited along for an ice fishing adventure last week.  Along with Dave, the others included Bruce Wiley, Pete Sipe, Dan Sadler, (all Lac Seul veterans), my friends from Eleva....Kevin Aiona and his son Ben, as well as myself.  Ben and Kevin are not afraid to try anything as Ben built his own wheel house, took the wheels off and made it a skid house.  Bought an toy hauler RV trailer and gutted it to haul his tracked Ranger UTV and his skid house.  He had some issues but finally got it to he could at least pull his skid house in it, as he met us at the resort.  Although the snow was not that deep, Dave had the resort pull his houses out along with a road leading to them as well as a turn around for Ben's skid house.  It worked out very well as we were able to get set up and fish that Thursday night.  Fishing wasn't exactly on fire that first night but it was good to get settled in and get a feel for the lay of the lake where we would spend the next 2 days.  The resort is very nice and a place that I have always been curious about.  Many years ago we had a sales rep in Minneapolis by the name of Bob Fieck.  Bob had a place on Springsteel Island and in the summers would hitch a ride to Warroad with Marvin Window's corporate plane.  It seems as though it was only $25 if they had an empty seat and Marvin's would simply donate any moneys to local charities as they had to fly anyway.   The Warroad Airport is about 1 mile from the resort so it was very convenient.  Bob passed away about 15 years ago, however I asked on of the owners if they remembered him.  Oh Bob, he had that light brown cabin just over there!!  It was interesting for sure as Bob had always invited me because of my love for fishing, but like a lot of things in life, never made it.  This trip was sort of a never to late trip, one that makes me think about what I have missed not taking up Bob on his offer.  Well, I now have another friend who is up there and will definitely have to not let this one slip by!  Ben and his dad were planning on going up the weekend after Christmas but Ben had trouble with his trailer and ended up at Devil's Lake, North Dakota, so it was good to get them up.  Being we were all from Eleva, Ben, Kevin, and I stayed in the rented cabin.

Kevin's nice 22 inch walleye

Our first full day of fishing was on Friday, it was definitely cold like it always is as Springsteel Island is on the west end of Lake of the Woods, 6 hours north of Minneapolis as we were within just a mile or so from the Canadian Border.  Getting our holes re-drilled, cleaned out, heaters turned on, we were fishing in a half hour.  Bruce and I took on shack, Pete and Dan in another, Kevin and Ben were in their larger skid house, while the ever so humble host, Dave moved around from his single house to make sure everything was going well.  Lot's of small fish as the action was pretty steady.  Our fish included smaller (< 13 inch) saugers, walleyes, a few real nice eelpout, an occasional northern pike, and some larger tulibees (Cisco's).  It seems like the fish would come in spurts, hammer the baits well for 15 minutes then go silent for 15 before another school came by.  Kevin and Ben did get some big fish including a couple of real nice eelpout that we kept as they are excellent boiled, served with melted butter...known as "Poor Man's Lobster".  The eelpout we got were at least 10 pounds each and ended up with 4 for the 2 days we fished.  The picture above was a 22 inch walleye that Kevin caught.  He released it as the regulations are 6 fish, no more than 4 can be walleyes and the walleyes between 19.5 and 28 need to be released.  We each ended up with plenty of fish, all smaller walleyes and saugers so it was a good trip.  Thursday night we ate down at the restaurant at the resort as we dropped off our fish and they cooked them up and served them along with coleslaw, beans, American Fries, an excellent shore lunch as we were quite full.

As stated it was great to spend a few days with a new friend, Dave Johnson.  He grew up on a pig farm in Iowa and his stories as a young teenager were fabulous.  Certainly a lot of things hit home for all of us as we also grew up having to work for what we had, often there was no choice!!!  Either way I have told my friends about Springsteel Island Resort as it's only about an hour further than Red Lake and I would not say the fishing is better, maybe the catching is as we had action all day.  I am hoping to get up their a few more times, maybe bring my house up as Lake of the Woods is open until April 14th, 1 1/2 months more than inland waters.  The resort is very wheelhouse friendly and very accommodating so we'll have to see.  Usually I spend the month of January at JR's on Red but they are still digging out from the end of December's storm as the amount of snow is limiting how far they get out, which is only about 3 miles now.  LOTW (Lake of the Woods) didn't have much snow at all and it looked like one could go almost anywhere reasonable, however that can change fast.  We will have to see what develops again in the next couple of weeks.  I know there are still big issues on Mille Lacs with the amount of snow and lack of good strong ice, and there is another 7 inches predicted for this week!  It should be interesting!