TennesseeGuy

Great trip. Super report. Thanks for sharing with us. It seems that a bit of nasty weather excites both fish and fishermen. Certainly not a time to be sitting in the cabin.

Nice! Big pike like eating JSM.

Really nice. Super report. Good to see everybody catching fish and eating fish.

Leave the toilet seat down for me.

I fish alone at least one week a year. I no longer take pike from the water, as they stay in my huge Frabill for unhooking, then I lower the net as they swim away, which makes for a nice short movie. Fishing alone for 9 days in May 2015, I shot only one picture, a movie of 2 eagles having at it in mid air. My first trip to Ontario was in 1959 when most fishermen used the fingers in eye sockets method of handling pike. Hard to imagine how we ever thought that was a good idea.

Thanks guys. Nothing major here, but enough to keep me from hitting the road August 6. Instead I checked with my family doctor, who is also a regular fishing partner. He gave me a ticket to ER, rather than a sandwich for a ride to Red Lake, as he told ER something bad must be happening with me to keep me from a fishing trip. My pump checked out great, but we found a blood clot in each lung, plus pneumonia in my left lung. After spending two nights in the hospital I was allowed to go home with very few restrictions. We've determined the level of Coumadin for me and should be preventing any future blood clots. My grass has been trimmed, sweet corn sprayed for worms, latest stand of sweet corn side dressed with fertilizer and tilled. Only problem is that I was here to do the chores instead of being up yonder during what seemed to be a great fishing week for my Iowa friends. It really turned on as they approached the Friday new moon. A couple of days in a hospital can make this fisherman wimpy and that's what happened. I should be able to get past that by working out lightly for a few days. Breathing exercises are bringing my lungs back to what they were before the clots and pneumonia. Looking good on this end. Not really a big deal.

Great trip, especially good with the whole family going at it. Makes me want to go fishing. Pretty sure I was wanting to go fishing before I read your report. What happens when those solar farms suck all the warm from the sun?

Gerritt is doing well and is at the top of his class in physical therapy. He's getting it done!

I miss Canadave. Dave Cameron.

Lots of good friends on the forum and they carry on with each other. Most of the time it's all in fun and they understand. Good friends cut their friends some slack.

Hey Gerritt, it's not going to be easy and it's going to take a while, but you seem to be a guy who will accept the challenge and be successful in your recovery. Satisfying the PT folks and asking for more is a good road to travel. Check Gunny's Rules, written by R. Lee Ermey. You're probably already living must of what he writes. Don't allow the disease to see you hurting. Attack it and make it go away. Don't miss a day, even after you're at home on your own. You have a lot going for you.

Thanks for an evening of great entertainment.

You're right. Good idea. Guess I was wanting a body count.

Glad you're okay Lew. Could have been much worse. I was lucky in almost your same situation when I disturbed a hornet nest in shrubs I was trimming. Fortunately the hornets attacked the electric hedge trimmer and dive bombed it as I dropped it to the ground and ran. They continued to dive bomb the hedge trimmer even after it was unplugged. Late in the afternoon I drove my truck to within about 10 feet of them, rolled down the window a few inches and sprayed the little guys. It worked. Don't give them a chance to get you again when you spray. Since your system is already topped up with their nastiness you might consider having a neighbor do the job for you. I'd volunteer if the drive weren't so long. My shrubs are ready for a trimming and last week I sprayed them with insect spray so I'll be okay to trim in coming days. I was lucky the first time. Believe I already said that. Since they're in the ground you might locate their hole in the ground and start a walk behind mower over their nest, then wait for the sun to come up which will cause them to get out of bed and head out of the hole. Still a good idea to check the hole for a few days.

Thanks Mike. Another great trip. Watched it on my TV. You surely captured the colors. I'll be hitting the sack while you compile the report. We need to work at getting Bren to show his teeth for fish photos. .

Back in 2000 the transmission went lame on my Caravan while returning from fishing trip in NW Ontario. Towed it from upstate Illinois to Cookeville, TN with a rented dolly and a Ryder truck. That's the only towing I'd do with any minivan, let alone one with a Chrysler transmission. My repair guy showed me the inside of the transmission and I'm surprised it didn't go sooner. It's underbuilt for towing. I would never purchase a used minivan equipped with a trailer hitch.

You do it right!

Mike, thanks for a beauty of a report. Topping it off was the way you coaxed your big fish to the cradle, not exciting those post spawn females into wearing themselves down. Good for you and Brendan by the way you handled your catch. I'll read your report again. And maybe another again.

Roy, your living there probably gave it a boost in the ratings.

Weather is keeping us in the house today and probably tomorrow. Freezing rain is close. Snow tomorrow. Lots of sunshine yesterday. Six nice pike for me and we had a meal of small walleyes last night. Strong rap around wind is bringing waves to the dock. We should be able to fish off the dock and pick up walleyes for dinner. Big pike will be lurking after walleyes. Internet access is spotty at best.

Bill, at the Bug River bridge I saw lawn chair tracks and cigar ashes. Yours?

A little late, but Happy Birthday Joey. Our friend Whopper is due in about 10 minutes, but a low ceiling is going to keep him in town for a bit.

I played his stuff on my ride Wednesday from International Falls to Red Lake. Do it every trip up here from an SD card I insert in my navigation system.

Traveling alone, I arrived at Little Vermilion Lake yesterday for my 31st consecutive walleye opener on LV, if I can include 2013 & 2014 when late ice out delayed our visit for a few days. I thought it would be a good idea to arrive 2 days early for some pike fishing. That didn't work to my satisfaction, but it's okay. Weather is really nasty and will become worse Sunday when 1-3" of freezing rain is expected. Snowfall is expected to reach 1-3" Monday. Kenora is expecting a big snow, but Kenora is way down the road from here. We'll be feasting on walleyes since we didn't bring any of our infected poultry across the border. The rest of our party is expected to arrive within an hour or so, if we get a taller ceiling and planes can be in the air. Whopper is bringing his world class home brewed pasta sauce for tonight's dinner, which will be prepared about 5 hours before walleye season opens. Eight days ago our weather forecast was straight from Junior Gore's playbook, predicting plenty of sunshine and heat. I invested in sun block and emailed our guys to bring a cooler for each boat so we could store walleyes on ice to keep them from starting to turn on us. This week our catch will stay fresh on the floor of the boat in a burlap bag. We'll have a great week in camp and on the water. When/if I learn to fish LV I'll check into another lake and try finding fish. Won't promise a 31 year streak for the next lake. I'm already planning my August 8 week fishing LV. Find walleyes just off humps in deep water, then move to shallower water on the hump where big pike will be hanging out, looking for a stray walleye. Tie on a larger jig, tip with a bigger salted minnow, lift the jig off the bottom 3 or 4 feet and hang on for a battle with some nice pike. It works. All pike don't live in cabbage.

Happy Birthday Beans. Good pictures today will make it a great one.