Wow where did the week go?  Mother nature sure can raise hel when she wants. My no wind  no snow dance never had a chance. Tuesday night  the winds picked up out of the north west and has not stopped since, throw in  dropping temps and it has been brutal out there.
Tim and his son in laws were able to have a big fish fry and even got to know Ole a bit. They were nice enough to share some of there fish fry with Ole and Greg. Ole sure appreciated that.
He is quite the character. He has been a trophy hunter  as long as I have known him 39 years.  He use to go up to low chasing pike in march as he wanted a 25 pound pike for his wall. Well he finally got that fish but he got it here years ago. When he landed it he threw it on the seat of his jeep and came off the lake to get it weighed. Who puts a 25 pound live fish in the passenger seat of your vehicle? Only Ole I think.
Another quick story about Ole, I was bow hunting years ago. I was walking out to my stand when a beautiful 10 pointer walked right in front of me. I never got a shot and he walked away. I told Ole about this deer when he arrived. It was a very dry year and I ask him where would that deer go to get water?  he did a little scouting and found  the spot he figured he would get him. It was about a mile from where I saw this deer. He set up a ground blind then paced off the distance he could see down the trail. Then he came back to town and went to the gravel pit where he shot a couple rounds just to make sure every thing was good. The next morning  with the temps close to zero he settled in to his ground blind. He looked at all his bullet’s and picked out the smoothest one. Two hours later he got him in one shot. He then confessed that the first night he saw a doe when he  had told me he did not see any thing that night. He said he new that buck would show himself. Totally impressed even though he got that deer I had been chasing for a couple years.
Any way back to the fishing and mother nature. I headed out Wednesday morning to say good bye and see how everyone did. Very slow. Tim did get a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie plus a couple more walleyes. Ole also ended up getting a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie.
I set Van and his two buddies up in florida. I set Glens buddies up in old Minnesota they are from Oklahoma and drove 11 hundred miles to catch some fish. I was visiting Wednesday eve just before dark when Glen set the hook on the first fish. Yep another elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies. Then the rattle wheel went off and glen said grab it. Swing and a miss as I lipped him darn paper mouths.
yesterday   I headed out to say good bye to van and they only landed 3 walleyes.
The guys from Oklahoma got one walleye and another elusive yet still catchable upper reed lake crappie. They wanted to know if I could move them. I explained that mother natures winds have been making a mess of things and if I moved them I would more the likely have to move old Minnesota again today so its on fresh ice for the weekend plus all my other houses need to be on fresh ice for today.  Busting butt , Joe said they would help so I prepped a new area back  a half mile and rickety split had them moved and set up in no time.
Then my helper Jimbo showed up and we proceeded to get Florida, Montana and north Dakota all on fresh ice in what I would say brutal conditions minus 8 with 15 to 20 miles an hour nw winds . It was only the second time this year I had to where a face mask out there while working.
  I come off the lake last night after spending 10 hours out there and get the phone call that Adam  he will not be coming for north Dakota this weekend. Ouch, Oh well!  Do I have a surprise for Jerry” allis Dakidd ” on Saturday, as I plan on bumping them in to north Dakota from north Carolina. I then plan on using north Carolina as a day house the rest of the season. Again plan a has changed to plan b
Buddy Hillmen’s highway is in great shape .We have plowed the crap out of it the last 3 days plus Buddy some how found time to add two more miles of road? I’m not sure how he does it as I was busy prepping houses for today. I would say there’s 12 miles or more of hillmens highway. I will be widening  it  everyday as I come and go off the lake, plus cleaning up all the drifting snow.
Remember the secret to upper red lake is distance from others and with all that open space out there you should have no problem finding your own private piece on such a grand lake