march 2nd 2016

Well it was back to work yesterday. Buddy Hillmen’s highway is again wide open 10 miles out after a day of dragging and plowing. I talked to Buddy briefly and he plans on pulling two more of his houses to shore as just like that and the phone calls have all most came to a end. I ‘m never ready to pull the plug when those beautiful elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies are starting to put on there feed bags. The best report I have heard so far is 22 fish landed by a group of 4. With one person landing on the honey hole and reeling in 14 of the 22. The area I just left had a little corner of around 20 acres that produced a few over the last two weeks. Remember a few? A few in fishing lingo is 12 to 16. Not the mother load by any means but just landing one of these very elusive fish you get the feeling you landed a trophy. And that my friends is a good feeling. Looking for them on the other hand can be a tremendous amount of work on such a big body of water. If you get just one there’s a reason he or she was there and as we all know crappies travel in schools? The crappie highway is still out there and still very active in my book. That’s where I’m headed.
Yesterday after plowing for two hours I was off to the area I have ruined, With the wheel houses I set up we managed to ruin at least 100 acres of 48,000. We did manage to get a 7 elusive upper red lake crappies though out the weekend. Plus numerous walleyes, perch and a couple big pike .
Buddy said he thinks some pike have moved in to the area he was working as the elusive upper red lake all of a sudden became very elusive? If anyone can find them again it would be Buddy. I tried to get a hold of Tyler from bear paw as he can also find these very elusive fish. No answer though? Glad it was not a emergency. Yesterday after taking care of the road I was off to start the manual labor of digging out the houses. Florida was only sitting on 19 inches of ice where I had it and the water had oozed out and made quite the mess of things. Montana and North Dakota were sitting on well over two feet of ice? Those three house are now staged for there next destination. I will be heading out to dig out old Minnesota later this morning. I did wet a line a couple times while I was out there yesterday. When I dropped a forage minnow tipped with a minnow a big wide red line came charging up from the depths only to hit the breaks three feet off the bottom and slowly drift back to the bottom. My first thought seeing such a wide line was here we go a elusive upper red lake crappie. I may never know what it was though as it took a couple more looks and then it was gone. I’ll drop a line when I first get out there this morning while I prep old Minnesota for its journey. Jake is pretty excited about getting up here on the 9th of march and is chomping at the bit. The passion he has for fishing is second to none , If he is not fishing he is watching fishing ,reading about fishing, talking about fishing, getting a fish tattoo, pretending he is fishing and in general wishing he was fishing. Tyler also has that passion and that’s all they do if hunt and fish. Buddy Hillmens another one, when the ice leaves the lake he will be heading to Alaska where he is going fishing. Its fishing for a living but its still fishing. Wayne is another. He is a little different though as he has caught so many fish it really does not matter its more about the relaxation it produces for him. Its just tranquil to him, it reminds him of all the time spent fishing with his dad. Now me I love the comradery of fishing, I want to fish with people and catch the biggest? Not the most just the biggest. I find it hard to fish by my self. All though once I get the line wet I’m fine . Taking out the boat by my self can be a chore ,but once I’m out there its very relaxing. Pre fishing for a guided trip ? I have been catching fish on this lake since I was 6 years old puking out the side of the boat with my dad egging me on. I still think he did it on purpose ? The greek was born to fish. If I could paint pictures one that stands out in my mind is a year I talked the greek into leaving his boat on the water un tell the last day possible. We had to pull a boat and a pontoon at the last minute as a big storm was coming with below zero temps to follow. I was standing at the end of the dock with the wind blowing 20 miles a hours out of the north east. With white caps in the back ground and that little boat bouncing off the dock the greek jumps in and was leaned over pulling the rip cord to start it. Giant snow flakes were going down his open collar with his jacket un zipped, waves splashing over the boat and he was right at home . Yes I would love to paint that picture. Where is the greek now? Spending time living on a boat in florida un tell he heads back to Alaska to do what? Time to get to work as I’m on a mission. The hammer wants to fish tonight and if any one can catch a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie out of old minnesota it is her.