Jan 9th 2017

Another weeks has arrived and some how I survived. I headed out just after sunrise to check on Ron and his cousins Ted and Eric “THE JERSEY BOYS” They had 5 in the bucket and Eric had landed a 40 inch pike in the middle of the night. Ron also said the heater in North Carolina quit. I knew right away the propane had liquefied due to the cold so I boiled up some water to poor on it to get the pressure back. Well I learned a valuable lesson and got lucky. As I was walking over to the tank the water sloshed out right on my hand. I had a cloth glove on and could not get it off quick enough. It got the inside of my hand pretty good and stung the rest of the day but never blistered Note always where a leather glove when walking with a pot of boiling water. I got the heat going then did some prep work with the red baron and headed home to get blue thunder. I headed back out, the first thing to do was grab Tony’s old house California and get that set up. As soon as I took off in tow old blue thunder all of a sudden had a clunk. OH OH this did not sound good. I was committed to have it set up so I slowly continued while getting a hold of my mechanic Tom to get out here and see what kind of a problem I had. I was able to get California set up and then head over to north Dakota and start digging it out. Luckily I had broken up some of the banking with the red baron when I was on the lake earlier that morning as when tom arrived it was not good news. The front drive shot was on the verge of falling out as all three u joints are shot. being pressed for time I decided I would give it one shot pulling north Dakota out of its perch with only 2 wheel drive. 1 attempt was made and it was not happing I got her moving but after moving less then a foot she spun the tires and it was done moving. Looking back The one mistake I made is I was dealing with a phone call at the same time and should of had all my attention on the initial pull . Seems I’m always learning from my own mistakes. Now just like all most every day plan A had been changed to plan B. Back home a third time, transfer all the gear back into the red baron as she now was going to do blue thunders work. Once I arrived back out there and again the phone rings Tanner and his crew of 12 were here. They were willing to help so I gave them directions to come on out and I continued. using the v-plow to bank a house is tough and quite a bit of shoveling had to be done to bank the houses.. The guys arrived and were like what can we do. perfect augur the holes. Ten minutes later and they came over there augur would not start and would need mine. We got the hole augured and them checked in and I was off to move old Minnesota. I was running out of time, but luck was on my side as Hunter and his crew were not arriving un tell 8 pm. A lot of hand digging was in order as the v-plow can not move the snow away from the houses. The move went pretty well other then the time and labor it takes to hand bank a house. just as I buttoned it up and Ring were here. Wow what a day.12 straight hours of humping and all the customers were checked in.
Saturday morning making the rounds and darn with all the houses on fresh ice the fishing was not that good, Florida had a few more fish, old Minnesota had one fish , montana none and north Dakota one. A few fish were missed and lost but pretty darn slow. I made a few phone calls and from what I gathered it was pretty slow all over the lake. Stupid fish . Chuck and his wife in there wheel house had got 3. a couple outfitters also had poor fishing. Goose was down south and had tremendous fishing Thursday but it had slowed way down. Tanner and his crew were playing dice every time I checked in while the guys in montana had borrowed my augur to run and gun. They did find a few perch and another of the very elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie. A nice 14 1/2 incher. Tanner invited me out to watch the oakland game. I arrived just after kick off and again they were all playing dice . 20 minutes later and bang a fish was missed while another was caught. Then bang another fish caught another missed. Just like that the dice were thrown in the corner and every one was fishing. That was nice to see. I headed home for dinner. Making the rounds later and florida was up to 14 fish caught they would be leaving early sunday morning. I hung out and visited with Ted,Eric and Ron where not a fish bit while I was there. Stupid fish. I called it a night after a quick stop to old Minnesota with hunter and his group. They only had 3 in the bucket. I told them I would plan on moving them the next morning as they were here for 3 nights. Sunday morning and Tanner and his crew of 12 were packing up, they all took off Saturday evening to hit the casino, so there was no fishing in montana or north Dakota from 8 pm un tell they arrived back a some time in the middle of the night. We said our good buys and I headed over to old Minnesota where I bumped the guys into north Dakota for there last night. I then headed to shore where I helped Buddy Hillmen get all the bridge out of the woods as if were going to go further west there will be a couple cracks and pressure ridges to cross. Jimbo met me at the house around 2pm where we went out and prepped houses and moved montana before it got dark. Last night Hunter and his crew had caught a 32 inch pike rite after I had left earlier plus they had another walleye in the bucket.. The hammer and here friend Nancy arrived in old Minnesota where Nancy lost a big fish. They also landed 1 keeper walleye. The hammer was marking fish but they refused to bite. Stupid fish. We called it a night and headed home. Chuck and his wife did manage to get there 6 in there wheel house, Kim and Tim had got 5 in there wheel house and I headed home tired and worn out. All in all it was a grind on a Grand Lake that as the old timer Dave told me ITS A GRAND LAKE AND IT OWES ME NOTHING !NOTHING!!!!