Oh my gosh! What’s the old sayings. You should not be allowed to have this much fun? Laughter is the best medicine? Having good friends and or family is what’s life all about. I have been fishing most of my whole life. I started fishing in Colorado for trout in the streams and lakes of the rocky mountains. The first time I came to Waskish I was 6 years old and my dad brought us up here to see my grandma Olga. My first cast in the tamarac river I caught a 5 lb northen pike. Grandma is the one that gave me the nick name cookie and my dad hated it. He said no son of mine will be called cookie. Dad died in a car accident leaving Waskish after a hard day at the farm in 1978. My parents were divorced so I only got to spend a couple weeks a year with my dad and I be leave if that would not of happened I would of ended up raising my family in Bemidji working at his car lot just north of Bemidji. Dad would take me fishing on red lake and we would troll spinners. I would get sea sick and puke over the side of the boat . Dad loved it as they always bit when I was chumming. My mom remarried when I was 15 and moved me to Minnesota where I met my sweet heart Kellie the hammer. I met her on my 16th birthday and it was love at first sight. We raised our family in the forest lake area and would come visit grandma mostly on holidays when we had 3 day weekends such as the 4th of July etc. The greek and I became best friends when we met as he heard my step dad took me hunting and he wanted to learn how to hunt. We hunted up in swift west of Baudett and always stopped here to have lunch or dinner with grandma on our way up and on our way back home from hunting. Grandma nicked named Billy the greek because he turned her on to greek seasoning salt. Fast forward to this last weekend good friends, good food and fun times were had by all. I’m headed out on the lake yesterday morning to fish with Wayne and maybe get in a game or two of cribbage o before I get to work for the day. As I’m driving out I get a text from Wayne of a pic of a 14 1/2 inch crappie laying in a 14 inch frying pan and the caption says Why do they call them pan fish when there bigger then the pan . I arrive to old Minnesota and say. I want to take that same picture and I put the crappie in the pan where I take the pic. I bend down and pick up the pan and his fish does the crappie flop and goes head first right down the hole. A perfect one and a half gainer with hardly a splash. Oh my gosh it was so funny . I don’t know maybe you had to be there. It was so funny and what were the odds. I know my good buddy Jake possessed with upper red lake crappies would be proud on releasing such a trophy. Wayne headed home yesterday with his 3 walleyes and the crappie the hammer caught. I got to work on the lake about 10am . With Dan the carpet mans help we would be making a big move with Montana to put them in a new area that has not been fished. He was my helper as Marty has not made it back up yet. Some how in the process of moving I missed that I had not cinched the 2 hundred pound propane’s on the back of the house and one of them fell off during the move breaking the line and falling off the house. We dealt with that and I got them all set up in the new area I’m about to ruin by 2. I then headed back to eat lunch and dig North Dakota and North Carolina out for the big move. Old Minnesota and Florida will be dug out today and also be moved. If the weather man is right the wind is going to be brutal out there today with gust out of the nw at 26 mph. Where’s good help when you need it? Drive safe Marty and will see you when you arrive. Old Minnesota will be the next house moved as Rick arrives tomorrow at 10 am for two nights on such a grand lake. When I left the lake I stopped to check on Amy, Mel, Rob and Dan and they had 3 more walleyes in the bucket and were anticipating a good bite as the sun set on such a Grand lake. On a side note yesterdays sunrise was nothing short of spectacular