All I can say as its been a great season so far and I will hate to see it end. The fishing has been outstanding this year. Were starting to see a lot more smaller fish. The dnr has sadi there is a abundance of the 10 and 14 inch class. I have not chased crappies and put all my effort into walleyes. Not sure what my plans will be after walleye closes next weekend. I may chase crappies for a bit if I can get a couple rentals,only mother nature and time will tell..

Thanks Mike you sure had a nice family. It was my pleasure to take care of you.
Yesterday I moved montana as I could not see it catching anymore fish. Wow what a great spot that was. I should learn how to mark those spots with a gps. Oh well I did not move it to far and if anything I did not move it far enough. Dave and his wife Sandy rolled in around noon, After traveling over half way out Sandy was having some second thoughts, I felt bad for her but the best thing to do was get them off the lake as she was just not comfortable.
Hoagies son Mark roll in today and I have them in california for one night, That house has not been fished a straight 24 hours so I left it where it was. Old minnesota is next on the move list followed by california.
Chasing crappies is not on my to do list,Even though there are reports of a few being caught I will keep concentrating on walleye fishing at this time. If any one catches a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie we will consider it a bonus fish.
The trucks sure are getting a work out now as I’m 7 miles from home. The snow just keeps coming it only take a trace when the wind blows to make a mess of things. Oh well I love being out there so thats a plus. Blue thunder is ready for a new set of plugs and that is on the to do list this morning. She’s backfirinfg pretty bad and missig on atleast one if not two cylinders. Driving out to move montana i thought for sure I was going to break down but she got me home gotta love those chevy’s.
Kellie’s step mom and brother are coming up today to spend a few days and lokking forward to catching a few fish with them. Kellie wantted to know why we do not fish in minnesota but if its rented not much I can do unless we fish with the customers. We wlll have a nice dinner out there with them one night as we spend some quality family time with them. maybe I can even get linda to play a game of scrabble.

You would think i could put the kids on good fishing once in a while. I had a solid plan to get out after lunch and spend the beautiful afteernoon on the lake. I had also built a snow slide in the yard. After lunch the kids all played on the slide . Foiled again we would go fishing after dinner. With the red baron packed with Kellie,me,Missy,Autum,Ashly,Brittnie,jason,jacob and matty. Crossing the bridge freaked them all out. After getting everyone set matty was a handful. The fishing was horrible with just a couple small dinks caught. Coming in when we went over the bridge they really freaked out as there was close to two feet of standing water hiding the metal plates. It even had me a little nervous.
For the weekend the houses did well again which was great to see. jacob,jenny and gabrial caught over 30 fish, Mike and his family also caught over 30 and maybe closer to 50. I moved california for Dale and his crew and they squekled out a limit by 1130 pm and called it a night. Rick,jason and matt were hitting the road this morning. Matt managed to catch a elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappie yesterdayis morning to move montana as it has produced well over 150 fish and it bound to burn out. I may just make a small move as dave rolls in around noon. California has only been fished from 2pm tell 1130 pm so i will plan on leaving it there for mark tomorrow

Due to mother nature I have not been able to put the houses on fresh spots. I hope to move california today. Minnesota,montana and florida may have to stay where there at untell friday or saturday. Montana and minnesota have been catching fish so thats a plus, all though I still would prefer them being on new spots. Jake is going to fish florida tonight and then he will help move tomorrow,I may have to recruit him to help with the other two as it goes so much smoother with two people.
Dave and Sarah were napping when I swung in last night so I did not get to visit with them. I hope he has started his truck while they were here or we may be dealing with that this morning. Brrr 20 below right now

I could not be happier about the bite right now. Brett and Melony have done real well in old minnesota. Dave and Sarah said last night they had the best fishing ever yesterday. They had me bring them oil and shore lunch when I came out to check on them and more minnows.
Today I will be moving california and florida out deeper as that’s where the better fishing has been. Old minnesota will also be moved and montana will be moved tomorrow after dave and sarah leave. Even though minnesota and montana are still producing fish I can not help but putting them on fresh ice for the up and coming weekend.
Jake, Jenny and Gabrial will be coming up this weekend along with all the grand kids mathew jakob,jason,ashly and brittnie and daughter Melisa.
I think I will put a prize on who can catch the most fish that should keep the kids entertained. Should be a fun weekend as kellie and I miss the kids.

well well it looks like the temps are minus 20 this morning with a high of minus 2 today. Going to be tough moving all the shacks for the up and coming weekend. Thursday more snow is predicted. I clocked it out and as of last night it is 7 miles to the door step of montana. Dave and Sarha rolled in around 9 pm last night. They brought me barbque from market barbque. Yummy and thanks. After checking them in I stopped to check on Brett and Melony. They had good fishing and had just finished walleye for dinner, They offered the left over fish so Bell the blueberry eating dog and I had a nice snack on the way in.
I still have not figuered out why the dodge prospector will not start and that needs to go on the to do list.
Hillmens road is in great shape. I spent some time friday night and saturday morning plowing

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