Monday, May 29, 2006

Bad News for Pat

A couple of years ago on one of our trips, we hired a guide, Frank House from Deere Horn, and went out to Rainey Lake. Pat caught the 1st fish, but after all the laughing and bragging he did, that was about it for him. Jim came out the big winner that day catching 4 or 5 big ass walleyes. Too bad they had to go back. Jim offered to let Pat hold his pole on the next one so he could see how it feels, but he declined. Even my 8 yr. old grandson showed him how easy it was.

My oldest son, Tom just went after northerns and even got a few. Even he caught more fish than Pat plus helped his son.

It was a great day, especially when we got back to Kettle Falls. Nothing better than telling fish tales over a couple of brewskies. Pat was kind of quiet tho. Don't know why. My grandson Mikel Agony sure had a lot to say to him.

The way back, the water was like glass and we went as fast as we could. We got back in about 25 mins. Said it was the fastest he ever made it. That 250 can really push you around.

EIGHT WEEKS and counting!!!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Fish Food

"FISH - FOOD" I was going through my stuff, getting ready to go, and I found this recipe. It's for "Cajun Crappie" and it's pretty good. Luckily for me, my sisters do the cooking, we just have to get the food. I never seem to get it right.

4 Crappie fillets
2 tablespoons butter
3 teaspoons paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3 ounces cognac
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon corn starch
4 cloves fresh garlic
Ground or fresh basil
Ground or fresh thyme
Ground or fresh parsley

Combine the thyme, cayenne pepper, basil, pardley, garlic, and paprika. Sprinkle the mix over the fish in a bowl. Melt 1 tbls. of butter in a skillet, add fish, and cook until soft but not hard. About 2 minutes on each side. Don't dry out the fish. After the fish cooks on both sides, remove it and add brown sugar to the pan. Add the remaining butter and return the fish to the pan once the sugar is melted. This will glaze the fish and finish cooking the fish. Remove fish to a serving plate and deglaze the skillet immediately, adding heavy creamonce the cognac is boiling. Reduce by 25 percent. Combine a small portion of liquid with corn starch and add to the sauce. Allow sauce to boil for about 1 minute. pour the sauce on top of fish and garnish with fresh parsley.

If you like spicey foods, this is it.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Crayfish All Over the Joint

CRAYFISH HAZARD

The only problem we had fishing at the rocks were the crayfish. Those little basterds would grab your bait, pull it into the crevices, and you'ld be snagged. I must have gone through 20 hooks. Pat managed to catch a couple of them, so we threw them out where we thought they'd get picked off. I tried a 3 way rig with a split shot on the bottom and it worked better, but they still got me. This year I got about 20 floaters, so I hope that'll be the shit.

Another place I want to try is in Sullivan Bay above the mouth of the Ash River.All those houses have lanes cut in them so people can get their boats in and out. I can't believe that there aren't a couple of big boys waiting for the easy meat in there, especially early. Nobody ever wants to stop tho.

God I can't wait to get back up there again. Last year on the way back it seemed like it would never get here, but here we are 9 weeks to go and counting!!!!

Ya Baby

Saturday, May 06, 2006

The Family Trip

For the last 5 years, my whole family goes to Lake Kabetogama in Voyageurs National Park for 2 weeks during the summer. By that I mean my ma, dad, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, kids, and doggie woggies. We take up half the resort. They used to go back in the 70's, but I never went with. Just dumb I guess. We usually go the last week in July and 1st in Aug. My ma and sisters like the summer sidewalk sale. It's ok I guess. One year I did manage to get some pretty cool fishing stuff, but Pat found some old fishing lures, still new in the boxes, but he didn't come back until he bought all of them, that jerk. He never did like to share. He always brings his dogs and that makes it tough to get in his tackle box.

Last year was something else. Fishing can be tough that time of year, but over the years we did manage to find a couple of good spots, but not like last year. The 1st 4 or 5 days it was beautiful in the morning, but by 2 or 3, it would start raining, and we ended up having to buy clothes. then it cleared up. Jim brought his girlfriend, she didn't like the smaller boats, so he got stuck taking ma, dad and my sisters out in the pontoon everyday. That thing is too slow to get anywhere.
One day, Pat and I were out all day, into Namakan a little, but didn't catch much. Nothing to brag about anyway. On the way back we went into Sullivan Bay fished awhile, and ended up going down the Ash River to the falls. We started fishing by some rocks. Nothing. I wanted to go. I was hungry, tired.NO FISH,it was late, and we were atleast 1 1/2 hrs. away from the cabin.Pat pissed and moaned, moved the boat over about 6' and hopped out on the rock. I wanted to leave him, but right then we started hammering smallies, and I mean HAMMERING them. All sizes from 3/4 - 2 1/2 pounders we brought back for proof. We ended up staying so late, we barely made it back before dark, and that's about 10:00 up there. What a riot . I got the biggest one that night. About 2 3/4 pounds. Pat didn't want to tell anyone else where the spot was saying fisherman never give up their spots, but I told him I'ld bring them there. How are you not going to tell your mom and dad.
My parents don't like to go out in the morning so we all go out in 2 or 3 boats somewhere and come back about noon for everybody else. We got to the Falls about 2 or 2:30 and sure enough the fish were there. We must have caught 75 of them. A few nice rock bass but all smallies. We went there almost every day and it was the same. Middle of the afternoon and hundreds of fish.
We did manage to catch them in other places also. But, I have to say, it't nice to have a place to go when your not catching anything. I was casting right around there with a #3 Mepps, and I caught a little perch. He wasn't hooked tho, he couldn't get his mouth around the whole treble, he was just stuck on it. All I had to do was just pull the little guy off.
It sure is beautiful up there, but things can go bad, too. Last year they had the worst pinefly hatch that anyone could remember. It was the 1st time we had ever seen them. They were everywhere. In the morning they'ld be stuck to the boats and everything. It was wierd tho, when you went east, they seemed disappear. I don't remember seeing any on Namakan or the Ash. But when you got to the west half of the Kab, you had to hold a rain coat in front of you. There were clouds of them out there towards evening. One night on the way back from Locator Lake, we passed a small island and they were pouring off. It looked like an oak tree in winter. A great big trunk with huge limbs and branches coming off about 15 or 20' up, I swear. I made Pat stop so I could take some pictures, but the camera disapeared. That seemed to be the only one too. I know there were other people there, so if anyone who reads this has any, I'ld like to see them. Please post them.