When I started writing the drafts for my posts about my trip, I had intended to do a post for each day. As I was reading over them, I realized they were BOR-ing. They were uninteresting because there was no action. I would be bored reading them, so you’d be snoring before you finished the first paragraphs. Therefore, I’m going to summarize the next 4 days of my trip into one sentence: I caught 5 smallies all under 12″ and a northern at 17″. Exciting, I know. I’ve... (more...)
Date: 8/21/2010 Time: 3:30pm – 5:30pm Body of water: Poplar Lake Location: Gunflint Trail, MN Weather Conditions: sunny We drove up to my in-laws’ cabin late Friday night to avoid traffic. We didn’t get in until 2am Friday night, so Saturday morning, I decided not to get up early to hit the water. Besides, I didn’t know if my father-in-law, Ken, had a boat tied up to the dock and ready. It wasn’t until late afternoon that I would get a chance to get on the water. ... (more...)
Date: 7/31/2010 Time: 7:30am – 11:00am Body of water: Tiger Cat Flowage Location: Hayward, MN Weather Conditions: partly cloudy After my initial success from the night before, I had high hopes the next morning. I woke up at 7:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I decided to get up. My brother repaired my scum frog before we went to bed, so I cast with that for about a half hour with no bite when my brother came down to the dock. We decided to take my dad’s canoe out on the... (more...)
Date: 6/6/2010 Time: 8:00-11:00am Body of water: White Bear Lake Location: White Bear Lake, MN Weather Conditions: overcast, windy My phone rang at 7am Sunday morning. “Hello, ” I said groggily, knowing full well who was on the other end. “Let’s go!” It was Mark. Saturday, after our outing, I asked him if he was going out Sunday. He said to have my phone close by. Frankly, I didn’t think he would go that morning. Saturday night I had gotten all my stuff ready... (more...)
I haven’t been able to get out on the ice in the past few weeks, so I haven’t had any ice fishing stories to tell. However, in talking with my buddy, Dan, he recalled an amazing story that happened to him and one of his friends while ice fishing in Northern Minnesota several years ago. Dan and some buddies were up in the Boundary Waters ice fishing. (For you non-Minnesotans, the lakes on the border between Minnesota and Canada are often referred to as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA).... (more...)
Welcome to 2010! The beginning of each year brings New Year’s resolutions. I’m not much for resolutions as they tend to become broken promises. However, goals are more realistic and give you something to strive for. Here are mine for 2010: Fish 40 days out of the year (28 in 2009) Have patience to try new lures and new techniques Start float tubing Catch an average of 1.5 fish per day (1.04 in 2009) Catch an 18″ Smallmouth Bass (2009 best: 15″) Catch an 18″ Largemouth... (more...)
Thanx to my diligence in using FishSwami this year, I have a summary of my fishing excursions for 2009. Here are the results: Days Fished: 28 Fish Caught: 29 Locations Fished: 7 Patterns Fished: 6 Most fish caught in one day: 3 on June 14th Northern Pike: 10 Smallmouth Bass: 9 Largemouth Bass: 7 Walleye: 1 Muskie: 0 These probably aren’t very impressive numbers to you hard-core anglers, but I’m happy with them. Of course I would have liked to catch more (and bigger) fish, but the best... (more...)
The results are in. And nobody was voted off! After letting our Northern simmer and stew in pickling brine for the minimum 8 days (we were impatient), we finally got to try some. They turned out great! The taste and texture was just like pickled herring. The difference was that our pickled Northern, especially in the smaller pint jars, was a bit more sour than store bought pickled herring. My stomach wasn’t used to it, so I couldn’t eat too much in one sitting–even though... (more...)
I know you’re as anxious to hear how our pickled Northern turned out as I am to try them. I’ve got a few more days to wait, but in the meantime, here’s the Pickled Northern recipe all in one place (click on the step link to see my result): Pickled Northern Step 1: Cut 60 to 75 bite size pieces of fish One cup of non-iodized salt to 1 gallon jar 1/2 full of water Add fish until jar is full Let stand for 48 hours Step 2: Pour off salt water, rinse Soak fish in white vinegar for 24... (more...)
After soaking our Northern Pike for 24 hours, we were now ready to finish the recipe. My wife did step 3 without me: Boil together for 5 minutes the following ingredients: 1 1/2 cup of sugar 3 cups of white vinegar 4 bay leafs 1 tsp whole all spice 3 tsp mustard seed 1 1/2 tsp whole black pepper 6 to 7 red peppers or whole chili peppers Let cool at room temp – Make sure the brine is cooled down before adding items below or your meat will not be firm !!!!! She made two versions: one spicy... (more...)
