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.

A day at the dam.

Today Weston (almost 2), Brody (4) and I (early 30s) went to Orwell Dam near Fergus Falls MN. I had two rules for the boys, stay by me and stay out of the water. I strongly encouraged Weston and Brody to throw rocks into the water. Orwell Dam has millions of rocks, I have fished there once before with Brody and he threw rocks to his hearts content.

The fishing adventure started out great. On the first cast, I hooked a smallie. I knew I would catch lots of fish, and I did. Smallies of all sizes, and one Large Mouth Bass. As I fished, I kept a close eye on my boys. Not only were there numerous rocks to be thrown, there was many things to explore. Weston was all over the place. I kicked him out of my tackle box several times. He kept finding things on the ground and in the rocks to eat. Both boys had fun peeing in the woods. They were having a hoot. They did a pretty good job of following the rules, especially Brody. Weston did wonder off from time to time, and I found him sitting in the river amongst the rocks. Not only did I perfect my cast and fish landing abilities, my vocal chords got a great work out.

The first story I would like to share is that we came upon a mid size snapper turtle. The boys and I had fun as we followed it around. Weston and Brody thought it was fun watching the snapper hiss and bite at the stick that I was jamming into it's face. The snapper got itself lodged between many large rocks. No doubt it would still be stuck there had not the three of us showed up. Needless to say, the snapper did find the river. It probably had it's first flight lesson as it flew through the air and skipped across the water. Don't worry folks, we stood around and made sure the snapper was ok. Old snappy was sticking his head out of the water and swimming around, happy as can be.

The second story is kind of neat. I was catching so many fish, and having a lot of fun. Whenever I caught a small smallie, I would call the boys over and cast the fish back into the water. The boys would have fun reeling in the fish. This one time, I caught a small smallie. I casted it out to the middle of the river and called Brody over. Brody starts reeling in this fish and I was surprised by how difficult of time Brody was having. There was lots of splashing in the water. Here the little smallie had tripled in size and it was jumping out of the water putting on a big show. It must have been 14-15 inches. I was dumbfound. The small fish must have fell off when I casted it to the middle of the lake, and the large fish must have hit the gizzit as Brody was reeling it in (the gizzit was the brand name of the artificial rubber tube I was using to catch the fish). What ever happened, Brody was shocked and had a great time reeling in such a big fish.

This adventure was truly an adventure, one that my boys are certain to remember. They were so worn out when I put them to bed, that they went right to sleep with little smiles on their face. I have no doubt that they are dreaming about fishing! I will make sportsmen out of them yet:)