Wow did she blow yesterday. I wanted to beat the winds and get minnesota moved befroe the white out conditions. Of coure the weathermen misssed there mark and she was all ready blowing when I got on the lake. I had ran into Chris and I had told them a general area to try, They did well and were headed home. Chris said they ended up on some dirty ice so I spent a little time trying to find that exaact spot. In the prosess I lost my phone murfeys law I guess. 9 years and 3 phones and this was the first time I lost or damaged my phone. With white out conditions pending I now was with out a phone with visabilty down to less then a 1/4 mile. Once I started on my journy with minnesota I got to beacon harbors bridge and it was under water, I stepped out of the protection of blue thunder to scott a new crossing. Returning to the truck walking side ways into the wind a wheel house pulled up and the two guys were scratching there heads what to do. I walked over to them to show them there was indeed a bridge under the water and darn if I need not get both my feet wet, Ish! Nothing worse then working with wet feet. What normaly takes a hour was closer to 2 hours moving minnesota in those conditions. Thats two weekends in a row I have gotten my feet wet. Last week I broke the carnial rule and went on the lake with shoes murfhys law. I will now be putting a exrta set of socks and boots in both trucks,
After getting minnesota set up I checked on andy and andy in montana and they were closing in on 50 fish caught and released. Cody and Mike in florida had there 7 and were also practing c@r. The general and faw- ki- naa had also packed up and moved out deeper.
After getting minnesota set up I hunkered down with wayne and phil and played cards and fished. I then received a message from tony as he was having generator issues in california. The generator had become drifted in and packed with snow, you would think a little common sense would of prevented this mishap. Now I had to put my wet socks and booots on Ish! Off I went in white out conditions to take care of the problem. I suggested they put the generator in the back of kurks pickup but they did not want in running in his pickup so I unloaded a box of blocks and set the unit in there.
I then scolled Tony on keeping a eye on things in the extream conditions we were facing.
Back to minnesota for more fishing and cards with wayne and phil. The wind died down to a small gail after dark and I headed home to pick up the red baron and put a extra propane on montana.

Crazy lake is all I can say. Another fishing site has a guy that caught 12 crappies. How sweet is that. All 4 houses were on new spots for my customers. Andy and Andy had the hot house with over 30 fish caught the last I had talked to them, California was holding its own while minnesota and florida were a little slower then expected.
Wayne in old minnesota is a old dear friend back from my auto painting days and as of now the plan is to move them this morning. Tehn the plan is hang out with wayne and Phil untell the wind picks up.

Its been a challenging week here on upper red lake. Not sure where the week went. Dave and his crew pulled out yesterday morning. After cleaning all the houses”I still get a kick out of vacuming them” it was again time to move. With this cold blast on the way my plans were to get all 4 houses out of there perches/nests/spots. The red baron made her first trip on the ice with out the v-plow. Today i will be able to pick new spots as there all staged and ready to move. Minnesota still gave me problems and It looks like I need a bigger jack or I will be battling her evertime I mave. Andy will be coming for montana so the pressure is on as he always has such high expectations. Wayne and phil are coming for minnesota and it will be nice to visit with wayne as he has not been here in a couple of years. The absolute funnest time I ever had in a fish house was with him, dave,my brother warren and I playing wee bowling for dollars. 6 hours of laughing, laughing and more laughing what a hoot it was. Tony coming for california and Cody from another fishing site will be coming for the first time.
Dave aand his crew did not pound on them but with 7 guys and 3 nights they managed to eat fish two of the 3 nights and take home a couple of limits. Jason and his family sue, megan and megans friend jake enjoyed there stay and said they would be back next year. My goal has and always willl be to treat my customers the way I would like to be treated. All my repeat cutomers have kept us going through the rougher economical times and I thank you.
Moving the houses.All 4 shacks will be on fresh ice tomorrow morning.Ther are times I will not move a house and this weeknd will be one of those times as the are predicting 30 below .If the temps are below 0 with winds I will not move a house If theres no wind i will go as far as 10 below but thats the cut off. I will not move a house in the dark,in a blizzard or white out conditions. I enjoy moving the houses as its part of the job and I love my job. A few guest over the years have rode in them while we moved I guess its quite the ride. With the cold snap this weekend I will be busy just keeping the vechicles up and running. More then likly its going to cost me a couple tanks of gas but thats better then trying to get them running in the extream cold.

Daves crew arrived around 2 as well as Jason and his family Sue, Megan ,Megans friend Jake. I sent them over to florida to unpack and told them I would be over in a few minutes. I arrive and Jason has the two kids lines down and they are fishing. He also has his line down and is working on the wife when swoosh, splash there goes his rod and real straight down the hole.
Last night making the rounds I stopped and visitted Ron and his two buddies they were fishing along the pressure ridge and had one in the bucket with a couple of misses, They were fishing the same spot they fished 2 or 3 weeks ago. I then stopped to check on the guys in minnesota and montana. To my surprise it was a little slow with only a couple of fish caught or should I say some 3 fish.
Jason and his crew had only caught two small ones.
Lets hope they all had some action last night. This may be one of those situations where A guy should of left the area this week rather then try to get another good week out of this area. I imagine I may be moving a shack or three today.Oh well atleast I love my work and do not mind moving the houses.
I did mention my fleet blue thunder,red baron and the prospector hoping not to jinxs them? The prospector is dead at this time and has a ignition problem. I got lucky with blue thunder while I was working her pretty hard friday night I could here a knocking in second gear. When I checked the oil saturday morning she was bone dry . Gotta love my chev. Blue thunder has been one heck of a great truck as well as the red baron

By last night we has lost 90 % of the snow cover and the lake was awash with standing water . What snow was left was like driving through mash patatos . I always enjoy driving through the slush when its like that. I did have the auger on the back of blue thunder uncovered with the choked closed. When I went to start it before Duey and crew arrived I could not budge the pull cord as the cyclinder was full of water. When I was home in the afternoon I pulled the plug and pulled the cord a few dozen times. Put the plug in and she fired on the third pull gotta love my strikmaster.

I did get old minnesota to a new spot. I augered two holes and plan on fishing it a bit this weekend. Stopped and talked to Scott and they had there 7 and were just fishing c@r.
I also drove over to beacon harbors roads from the lake and from his place. Lyle and his guys are out there . They only had two keepers but were confident the spot was going to turn on. There was a very interesting looking area where the pressure ridge fades away to just a crack. It was like a large pool of 4 feet water. A guy sure would not want to drive into that. As long as Buddy’s house stays where its at, I have a mental note of where it is.
Driving down buddy’s road /hillmens you go over a a stretch of rough ice/ white ice it run ne to sw. Man is it bumpy for 300 yards . Theres another area further out but only 100 yards wide. The rough ice always has the chance of holding a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie, At the end of the road where the p[ressure ridge is there were a few shacks to the left and right. I know fishermen in both directions so will see how they have done. One time I had alaska sitting in front of a pressure ridge and a giant chunk cracked under the weight of the snow drift behind the house. It sunk about a foot. , I noticed the house looked funny but did not put it togeter untill I went to move it as the back half was frozen into the lake , It could of been worse but all the snow that blew in to the low spot insulated it from totaly freezing. It was still a chore getting it out.
Looks like the 2 to 7 inches of snow missed us. The winds are blowing as anything.I type and I plan on staying off the lake untill this afternoon unless Duey and his crew need

Amazing I think the temp hit 50 yesterday. I did drive along the pressure ridge out of hillmens around 3 and it looked the same.
Hoagie and Don did real well as of last night they had caught over 20 some to small but still fun to catch. They also lost a few fish. Remember a few is in the high teens back in the crappie days. A couple is over ten and some is two or three.
Scott and his buddie had some, I did not get his buddies name but I did miss one when I stopped and his buddie lost one while I was there. Yesterday I spent part of the day moving minnesota and putting new propane on all 4 houses for the up and coming cold snap. I also had to run the sweety to town, When we got back home I helped buddy on the road for a bit .The temps wiped out 70% of the snow if not more. Banking the house with nice wet slush will be interesting. Minnnesota is open for the weekend so the plan is just to bank it once the temps drop and we get some snow cover. I may move florida this morning before Duey and the horse whisper/Sue arrive. all though as well as Hoagie and don did it would be interesting to see how it does its third time fished?. I also have caifornia open as Tom decided he did not want to drive all the way from Iowa in to this weather. I have always looked at it as it’s minnesota people move about but coming home from mpls thanksgiving night? What one long white knuckle drive that took 7 and half hours.

Wow looking at the weather, red lake and mother nature are about to show her ugly side. As a local told me with all the emotion a guy could have its a “grand lake and it owes me nothing” Trying to plan for this one may be tough. Since the wife is under the weather maybe we should hunker down in old minnesota so were out there with the customers.
Today will be a extra busy day as I try and prepair for white out conditions

I again will be moving the houses for the up and coming weekend. Yesterday I moved montana and today I will move california, Minnesota is still open this weekend so will be the last one to move. Hoagie will be up today so I imagine I will have to move florida friday after they leave as I still have a problem with a house being in the same place for more then 3 days of fishing. There’s nothing worse then telling the customers the guys that were here yesterday did not do very well.
We got some more snow last night, and it will be getting harder to move the houses with out plowing first. Blue thunder again is the work horse of the fleet. The red barons v-plow needs a little work before it hits the ice and the dodge prospector has became the new scoutting truck.
The fishing has been deccent but the area I’m at has been pounded pretty hard and I will be looking for a new area the next couple of days. Duey and his better half the fish whisper will be here friday. They have been coming for years and its funny to look back and remember how duey was so concerned the first time he rented from us he has a million questions. Should be another fun weekend.

Everyone headed home today. It was nice seeing Ben and Shawna. They managed to ice 30 fish for the weekend . Ben was happy saying they did good considering they did not fish that hard.
Montan had Jake and his crew they did all right but only took home 10.In hindsite I should of moved them yesterday.
Florida had Ryan and his dad Terry. They enjoyed the house and also caught a round 30 fish give or take.
California was a little slow but they caught some fish .
I will be moving all the houses again this week with florida the first one to move this afternoon as les and his crew roll in tomorrow.
I have not talked much about the trucks blue thunder and the red baron as I do not want to jinxe them. The dodge prospector has turned into a pretty good truck as well

Making the rounds last night just as the sun was going down and the sunset was spectacular. Ben and Shawna were having action as well as Jake and his crew in montana. Headed out in a bit to get another outfitters houses ready as he is a no show due to vechicle problems. Ryan and his dad roll in this afteernoon for florida with california open untell tomorrow.