Bullseye!

What a day; sunny, mid 70s, mild breeze. Brody and I went shooting at the Wahpeton Archery Range today. My first shot at twenty yards, bullseye! It all went down hill from there. All and all, it was a good day of shooting following months of sitting on my rear. My groupings were fairly tight. I also hit the bullseye a few times to boot.

I hate to say it, I am getting excited about fall opener. Wait, fishing opener is just over one month away! What am I talking about? I'm certain to get distracted from hunting with a fishing pole in hand.

One of my fondest memories is fishing for Panfish on Easter Sunday many moons ago with my Grandpa. On Most Easter Sundays it is usually cold, ice and snow covering the lakes; however not this year. I'm sure at my home on Easter Sunday you will hear "Hey Weston and Brody, wanna go fishing." That is after praising God at church.

My Brody Boy Dreaming

Thanks Todd for exposing my Brody to motorcycles. Here is the result to Brody's request: "Dad, draw a picture of me on Todd's motorcycle." For those that don't know Todd, he has a on/off road dirt bike.

Lake of the Woods

I went fishing with my friend Todd at the Lake of the Woods over the weekend.  This was my first fishing experience at the Lake of the Woods.  I had so much fun.  We went in at Adrians resort, and drove 11 miles past the island.  We really didn't know where to fish, we just picked a spot 30 or so yards off of the plowed road.


The first thing we did was drill a hole to check the water depth, 34 feet.  We decided to try the spot, so I put a tip up in the hole I just drilled.  We popped a couple more in, and got the two man fish house out.  We fished for about 1/2 hour, and I saw that the flag was up on the tip up.  I ran out to find the top of the tip up spinning like mad.  I set the hook, and boy did I have a fight.  I pulled up a 24.5" Walleye.  What a great way to start the fishing trip. 

We caught a couple of more 11-15" Walleye/Saugers on the first night (Friday).  Todd and I decided to have Walleye for dinner.  Todd fileted the Larger walleye he caught.  We used flower, salt, pepper and Lays potato chips as batter, fried the Walleye up on a skillet with cooking oil.  It was the best tasting Walleye ever.  Yum!  Friday night was wicked cold, -20 degrees to be exact.  We slept in a suitcase style fish house.  The fish house was heated well, however I could not sleep because my feet were so cold.


Saturday morning started off well.  We made some scrambled eggs using a conventional cooking method.  We cut up tomatoes, onions, sausages; placed them into a plastic bag along with three eggs.  We boiled the bags for 10-15 minutes.  What a great way to eat eggs without making a big mess.  It was delicious.

The fishing was excellent on Saturday.  The Saugers and walleyes bit steadily.  We had our limit by 4pm.  We also caught two White Fish.  We decided to pack up the truck, drive back to Brainerd and sleep at Todd's cabin.  What a great decision.  I slept like a baby, and it was warm.


On Sunday we fished on Nissiwa Lake near Brainerd.  Todd caught a lot of bluegills and I caught one northern.  It was a good way to end our trip, and we stayed some place warm to boot.  All and all, the fishing trip was a success.  I have four bags of Walleye in my freezer and I will be ready to go back next year.

Trial Run

Today I decided it was time.  Time to take the boys ice fishing for the first time this season.  One of my coworkers informed me that a slough just south of Fergus Falls was producing some nice Walleyes.  I thought it would be fun to get on top of some.  I knew that I would not catch any myself, as I was bringing my two inexperienced, impatient, clumsy and mischievous fishing buddings along.  You got it, Brody and Weston.

Brody and Weston couldn't be more excited for this fishing trip.  Brody was dancing around the house, as Weston followed me around stating repeatedly: "Me daddy, me go fishing too?"  The weather couldn't be any nicer.  Approximately 34 degrees, partly cloudy day the wind was 5-10.  

We made the trek out to Fergus Falls.  My coworker instructed me to take "the sunken highway," County Highway 1, out of Fergus and look for the slough that has all of the fish houses on it.  She pointed to the approximate place on the map.  Not willing to shy away from adventure, off we went.  We came upon many sloughs on "the sunken highway," however none with fish houses on it.  We also came upon a lake just outside of Otter tail County.  Nobody was fishing.  The ice looked dark, just like it does during the Spring thaw.  The kids asked, "are we going fishing daddy?"

Not wanting to disappoint the boys, I came up with a backup plan.  After driving endlessly around in search for the Walleye producing slough, I made the trek back to Fergus Falls to Pebble Lake.  To my surprise, there were a couple of people out fishing.  Perhaps the boys will get their lines wet after all. 

We ventured out onto Pebble Lake at around 2:30.  The boys enjoyed a bumpy ride on the one man fish house that my brother gave me a few years back.  Armed with two ice fishing rods and a dozen grubs, we poked a couple of holes into the ice with my Jiffy Ice Auger (she purred like a kitten).  I taught the kids how to use the Vexlar, and set the depth with slip bobbers. 

The bite was tough, however we were able to catch one trophy shiner, chad, or sucker (I am not sure what it is).  Brody and Weston couldn't be more proud.  Both helped me real this pig in.  Not wanting to offset the ecology of the lake, we released this fine specimen so that it can produce more offspring for us to catch in the future. 

I will say that the first ever Resemius boy ice fishing trip was a smashing success.  There were very little tears, no fighting, and everybody had fun.  We didn't catch our limit of walleyes, however I am certain that my boys will be wanting some more angling action soon.

As for catching walleyes, my buddy Todd and I are planning a trip to Lake of the Woods during the second weekend of February.  The kids are staying home, so I expect that we will be doing some hard core fishing.  Hopefully I will have some limits to report then, that is, if my fingers don't freeze off.

I titled this post Trial Run because I had no expectations for this trip.  My desire is for the boys to have fun so that they will come to enjoy fishing, just as I do.

Beautiful night.

I saw two does 35 yards in front of me tonight. They were grazing in a field very peacefully. They had no idea I was there. I heard some rustling behind me along with some grunting. I was anticipating a big buck and out came a raccoon. The raccoon stood on it's hind legs and stared at me. How annoying, I thought. The little bugger ran pretty fast after I started shooting arrows at him. Luckily for him, I wasn't out for the kill:).

Orwell Dam with the boys!

Brody, Weston and I went to the Orwell Dam yesterday.  It was overcast, 65 degrees and buggy.  I thought the fish would be biting, and was hoping for a walleye or two.  I purchased a box of angle worms, peanut M&Ms and a 12 pack of Coke.  My wonderful father-n-law, Gary, swears by worms; especially for river fishing.  No such luck for the boys and me.  I did switch over to the rubber tube, Gitzit.  We ended up catching two smallies.  The boys had fun reeling them in.

We also met another family while fishing.  We gave them some tips, and I gave them a Gitzit to try.  They also were using the angle worm with no luck.  The Gitzit I gave them produced one smallie for them as well.  We didn't spend long fishing, as the boys were getting bored.  Once they starting running off, I decided to take the line in and let them play at the park. Hopefully one day, the boys will rather fish than swing, slide and spin at the park.

The next time I take them fishing, I am going to tell them that they can not have any M&Ms or Coke until they at least catch five fish each.   Just kidding.  So far, fishing has been fun.  They are certain to take up fishing if they find it a fun experience:)

A shout out to my friend Todd.  We went fishing a month ago on Big Birch Lake and slaughtered them.  I did not blog about it because I was so busy.  The pictures in todays post are from that day, August 21st, I think.  Both Todd and I did well that gorgeous day.  We caught some nice smallies, a fairly large crappie, a very nice Large Mouth Bass, Northern and maybe a sheep head.

Ice fishing is just around the corner.  I am trying to talk the wife into a portable 4man ice house.  There is one on Amazon that is fairly cheap.  I am sure to get more time fishing if I can bring the family, well the boys anyways.

I am hoping to get some time in the deer stand soon, perhaps this week.  I am dreaming of the monster buck.  I have some good literature about bow hunting.  One article indicated that where the does are, there are bucks too.  Lets hope so.


Peace out!

Nada!

First hunt in Breckenridge. Didn't see a thing. I did see deer as I was driving off of the field. My friend AJ assures me that the deer will start moving as it cools off. Today was warm and very windy. On a positive note, I had some good God time:).