Dec. 29th 2016

Well it been a few crazy days. We had a great time down for Christmas but coming home sunday was a little longer trip due to the roads and weather. Our good friend Wayne held down the fort out on the lake in old minnesota doing a few chores for me and meeting some customers that were going to arrive sunday afternoon. They had to cancel as Buddy Hillmen closed his ice road do the the impending weather. My no snow dance must of worked as we did not get anywhere close to the snow they predicted , but wow with the wind. Having all the houses pretty much ready to go worked out well other then the snow drifts had to be broken up and moved. I had augured 4 holes in montana for rick and heather. There was quite a bit of snow around it with the typical flooding I felt. About the third pass with the red baron and I thought I saw a hole in the ice .Sure as sh a crack had went by the house and water was bubbling out of it due to all the snow drifted in front of it. Once I got the blunt of the snow moved away she quit bubbling.. Glen and Joe would be spending one night in there. I then wanted to put old Minnesota on fresh ice for Wayne’s last night as he had been fishing in the same spot since Friday evening. That went well and we had it moved a ready to fish in no time. He had averaged about 5 fish a day. So not so good. The wind just kept getting worse through out the day creating white out conditions off and on. I had my helper Jimbo meet me to help move north Dakota as Tammy and Scott has spent friday night in there with little action. Scott was new to ice fishing and was his first time while Tammy had a little bit of experience. The hammer and I then met wayne out in old Minnesota for some surf and turf and a little card playing. 530 on the dot and I landed a very nice walleye on the green genze worm tipped with a minnow. While I was landing that on the rattle wheel the hammer landed a 21 incher. Just a tad bigger then the 20 incher I landed. We missed a couple more fish and then they just shut down. With over 20 holes to auger tuesday morning we called it a night around 9pm. Arriving out to montana Tuesday morning and Glen and Joe had tremendous fishing and Glen said the rattle wheels were just nuts. Mean while 150 feet away Wayne had 3 or 4 bites but was able to get his 3 to take home. After auguring all the holes it was time to start helping build Buddy Hillmens highway. We had 1.5 miles of road to clear off. There is a crack at 1.5 that crossed the road and buddy decided to cone it off for now and maybe it would heal up with out having to put a bridge out. By 2 pm I had all our customers checked in for the day and spent the rest of daylight cleaning up all the snow that had blown in front of the access. I did have my first casualty with the red baron and lost all of the exhaust from the y pipe back. She louds now but that 454 can let out some of them spent gasses a little better.
I had pool league Tuesday night so everyone was on there own. Yesterday morning making the rounds and Montana has landed 10 , North Dakota had 6 and they lost one while I was checking in on them. Old minnesota only had 2, while Ken and the girls in florida never landed a walleye. I’m hoping they did much better last night so we will see. Today we will be saying good bye to Frank and his crew Shwagg ,Breck, Gordy, Bradly and Danny and ken and the girls while Pat, Ryan and the two boys are here one more night. Big plans today as I attempt to put 3 of the 4 house on fresh ice before every one arrives. Jake and his crew in the cabin found some fish in there portables but did not pound on them. Still falling behind on my fishing reports but hopefully I have it dialed in now? Still spending to much time on the facebook page Cookie’s on Upper Red Lake. I posted a pic from last night and all I could say was wozer. Check it out and feel free to leave a comment as I keep farting around with that page. And as Dave the old timer said to me “ITS A GRAND LAKE AND IT OWES ME NOTHING, NOTHiNG”