I had some business to take care of this weekend that brought me up to my parents’ home in Nevis. While it was business that brought me there, it was “taking care of business” that I was most interested in. I have already filled my MN buck tag, so spending some more time in the boat and chasing birds has moved up my priority list! Luckily enough for me, I have a good buddy that lives nearby, and he was up for a late night run to Leech Lake. So pulling into his place at 10:30 pm on Friday when the temp was a frosty 32 degrees, meant bundle up and go time! We were only going for a couple hours, and were going to run Husky Jerks shallow to cover some ground and stay warm (i.e. no wet hands!). Well 10 minutes after dropping in we hooked up with this fat and VERY aggressive 25”. Unfortunately this fish was an outlier, and not indicative of a pattern as we didn’t boat another fish. Fighting that feisty 25” definitely scratched my walleye itch though!
After a quick 3-4 hour “sleep”, or nap depending on your perspective, my Dad was knocking on the door. Him and my 1.5 year old Yellow Lab were primed and ready to go chase some Grouse in the great Paul Bunyan State Forest. Well similar to Friday night we were barely into our first walk and there were two grouse pecking gravel. The first I dropped right off the ground, the second thankfully flew straight away down the trail and was able to drop it as well. This was my Lab’s 2nd grouse hunt, and first that resulted in some birds, so I was happy to see her take off and retrieve both birds in short order. As you can tell from the pic, what my Dad has in hunting knowledge, he lacks in technological knowledge after assuring me he got a good pic of Belle, the birds, and I. At least he got the most important two in one pic! After a few more walks, it was back to the cabin for brunch. Brunch was eggs and some fresh Garlic Polish Venison Sausage from Theilen Meats, which is my personal favorite. That provided sufficient fuel to help my Dad with the always depressing process of taking the boat, lift and dock in. Fall is passing quickly, make sure you maximize your time enjoying it!!!