feb 23rd 2017

Well its been a interesting few days to say the least. The main thing were all the fishermen and customers were safe as well as the houses The standing water on the lake started to find more areas to drain causing a fishing frenzy for Marty and his wife shelly Monday night. The mother load swam right under marty and shell and boy did they have fun. They caught more then a few elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies.
Mean while Dave and his crew stood outside and managed to land 11 yes 11 elusive upper red lake crappies fishing in the rain. They also did real well on the walleye fishing with Kyle landing his first ever walleye.
Tuesday morning I was off to the dentist early then arrived back home to say good by to marty and shell. I was going crazy to get back on the lake and see what the conditions were like.
Closer to shore and most of the water has had drained down the cracks and holes. The biggest hole I have found so far   was where old minnesota was and is about 20 inches wide.
Driving out to Montana and Florida I stayed to the right of the road to conserve the road. I have a hard time driving by liter so a couple stops were made . I few wood blocks, a couple pop cans, a beer bottle. All and all not to bad as I have seen a lot worse over the years.
Buddy Hillmens bridge is in good shape.
Getting the skid houses over the pressure ridge is still possible and Buddy has started bringing some of his customers house’s home as well as one or two of his own. He has a special way of towing them over and was nice enough to call me when they were in the process of bringing one across so I could observe there system compared to how I got old Minnesota and north Dakota across two weeks ago. Man did that way work well as I pulled  a old house from the past over with his system with no problems.
 Trying to bring north Dakota and old Minnesota back out may not be a option though .
Every year I chase the mother load of the elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie but this year I may have to get montana and florida back over the pressure ridge rather then taking the whole fleet back out there. Common sense needs to prevail on this decision . I was planning on spending some quality time napping and fishing in old Minnesota but time and mother nature will tell how it pans out.
Jake and his crew are still planning on coming in march and I see no reason we will have any problems looking for the mother load as there’s still plenty of ice out there.
Out where montana and florida are there’s still some standing water but nothing like it was on Tuesday. With the cold temps coming back every thing should tighten back up in the next day or two.
I have a big crew with my son John coming today for the final weekend of game fish season. They have florida, montana and North Carolina plus the cabin.
I was in the process of hauling north Carolina out there yesterday when I remembered Jeff mentioned the ceiling fan was loose . I stopped to check it out and its hanging by one wire? For some reason I have 4 screw drivers in my tool box and not one of them is a phillip’s so I had to leave the house where it was  un tell I can get out there this morning and secure it.
As The temps drop we should be in good shape for the final weekend. Buddy hillmens road withstood what mother nature had to offer .
The good news is the red baron is repaired. Its just 50 miles away and I will not be able to go pick it up un tell some time  tomorrow.