Thanks Guys! I’ve never fished Mille Lacs in the winter before. Do they set up the houses over reefs or other structure more or less in the same spot every year? Do they move them around periodically? Is there any real difference between the east side and the west side?

Now, with this tournament format, only 12 will fish Friday and only six boats will be out on Saturday? Is that the way it works? I was thinking that most of the people that don’t make the cut will be pulling out tonight… is that a correct assumption? Never been to one these.
Thanks!

Count me in….

If I wanted to see today’s weigh-in festivities where are they at? Looks like yesterday and today are at Treasure Island. Is it set up at the Marina behind the Casino? Then, Friday and Saturday are in Hastings at the Walmart? Just in the parking lot there? Are the crowds pretty big? One of the guys on pro side was a neighbor of mine growing up. I was going to try to say hello to him. Can you talk to the anglers at all during the weigh-in? Just wondering…

Sounds good… I’m in. Maybe I’ll bring the “Carnivour” along.

There are some other Brands available in 6# test that are abrasion resistant and may be worth checking out. Cabela’s has a Hi-Vis version of their store brand Flourocarbon line that looks like it would fill the bill – kind of spendy though. Ande has two Hi-Vis lines – Ande Tournament in a yellow color and Ande Premium in what they call “Envy Green.” Sufix has a Hi-Vis Yellow line and Triple-Fish has a new Hi-Vis line that has 4 differnt colors. The Ande seems to be the most reasonably priced and sure seems to be popular with the Salmon/Steelhead crowd.

I second that emotion concerning the Falcon rods. I picked up a 6’6″ medium baitcasting rod in the “Expert” series last year on closeout for less than $90 and use it for pulling 3-ways and casting jigs. I’m really pleased with balance and sensitivity. I could feel vibrations from my electric trolling motor when I was pulling 3-ways which I thought was kind of amazing. I thought there was something wrong with my motor at first. Being I’m kind of new to all of this, I have limited experience with high quality tackle, so, I don’t know how it compares to St. Croix or G. Loomis but it works for me.

Jack,
The Bloomington store had them on a table display yesterday but I didn’t see a price posted yet. It’s just amazing what you can do with digital photo retouching these days, James cleans up pretty well!

I read those two articles as well. I very rarely use live bait for any type of fishing so I’m always interested in discussions of this nature. One of the other things I noticed in relation to this has me puzzled. Packaged with my Jan. In-Fisherman was the Pure Fishing 2003 magazine/catalogue. In the product section they list Trilene XT Solar and in a story about jigging plastics, it is mentioned prominently as an aid to line watching. Considering the fact that it is now unavailable, did anyone else find that to be a little odd? I mean, the fact that it was being discontinued was known almost a year ago. Anyway, the IronSilk seems to be an adequate, although more expensive replacement(isn’t that the way it always goes?). I’m not sure, but it seems to get easier to handle with age. I used it on reel last summer and then put the reel on an ice rod this winter and it seems to be getting more “relaxed” somehow. Strange stuff.
After fishing with James and seeing how much of an advantage high visibility line can be when jigging plastics, I’m going to check out Sufix and Ande high vis lines as a possible “cheaper” replacement for XT. They both seem to have that same combination of color, abrasion resistance and line diameter that made XT Solar so popular.

Steve,
You’ve probably already done this but you should make sure that local, used tackle re-sellers are aware of the theft and what to look for. You may want to keep an eye on E-Bay as well to see if anything familiar shows up in the coming months.
The theft also made me wonder if any of my insurance policies would cover a similar loss. I’m going to have to check on that.
Good Luck

Actually, there are two units at Prairie Island. Only one unit has been down and it will probably be back up to full power some time next week.

Steve,
From what I’ve heard, one unit is down on a scheduled outage but should be back as soon as next week. The other unit is operating at full cpapcity.

I think the answer is “It depends on what kind of LCD it is.” Different types and different vintages of LCD’s are composed of a variety of different compounds. All LCD’s are essentially thermo-electric and sensitive to temperature. LCDs employ several variations of liquid crystal technology, including super twisted nematics (STN), dual scan twisted nematics (DSTN), ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) and surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC). The ferroelectric substances allow for more rapid switching and are more commonly used in non-repetitive displays. Also, it depends if it is a common pane, passive matrix or active matrix display. They will behave differently at different temperatures and it is not necessarily evident from the manuals what kind of display a particular unit may have. I’ve got a Bottomline Fishin’Buddy that I bought for ice fishing that goes blank at about 28 degrees F (if I’d known then what I know now… ) and I’ve got a Garmin GPS 12 that seems to work below zero. There is sometimes a temperature rating in the specs of the GPS unit. I think the Garmin 240 is something like 5 degrees F to 158 degrees F. When I saw that, I just figured it would be safer to bring it in for the winter. But, the question of permanent damage due to low temperatures may be a warranty question that should be directed to the particular manufacturer.

Especially in Minnesota where we sometimes need to build a charcoal fire under the propane tank to get it to boil (-44 degrees F!)

Now this is just a guess, but I think it may be the Richter anchor. I seem to remember seeing it advertised on the Tony Dean Outdoors show last year. Maybe? Anyone else want to take a crack at it?

Yes, there’s that channel that forms Pike Island that empties into the Minnesota just downstream from the Mendota bridge. I’ve walked out there a couple of times near evening and nothing so far. I rarely use live bait so I’ve been throwing Kalin 5″ grubs, Senko grubs, plastic shads, sinking Shad Raps, even threw some spoons. I use an 8 1/2 foot spinning rod and have tried drifting light jigs down the current edges as well. I walked all the way out to the tip of Pike Island a few weeks ago. That’s quite a hike though. You need more than a couple of hours if you’re going to hit the Confluence.

I’ve been trying to explore the section of the Minnesota in Fort Snelling Park near the boat launch and the Mendota Bridge. Haven’t found anything yet from shore but it sure is nice to still be fishing open water (even if the catching is scarce).

I used it for a week “Up Nort” this summer on some pretty clear water. It’s different. Seems to have a dull finish which makes it less visible under water. Also, seems to have a very low memory – doesn’t coil off the reel. Other characterisitcs were similar to XT Solar.
Noticed Mills Fleet Farm in St. Cloud still has a pretty good stock of 6 lb. XT Solar earlier this week if anyone wants to stock up.

If you go back in the “Outdoor Gear and Shoptalk” Forum to about 9/15/02, I asked a similar question, “Anti-Freeze in an Outboard?” Jon J graciously posted an exhaustive list of winterizing tips in response to my question. If you look at that post you can find an answer to just about any winterizing question you can think of. So much to learn… so little time!

Wow! Everyone, thanks for all the ideas. Dee Zee, thanks for the encouragement. That’s a good way to look at it. I started thinking about this last spring, when I had an hour to kill in Red Wing after a meeting so I fished from shore right in Bay Point park. I was the only one there so I kept looking for “No Fishing” signs! I caught two walleyes and I’ve never been so pumped up in my life! (again, I haven’t caught many walleyes so every one is like a gift!)
Dinosaur, you’re right, I just read the first post and now I see all the responses, kind of interesting. I see that rip-rap when I drive over the Wacouta bridge and I’ve always wondered….
DaveB, you’ve got some very good points there that I hadn’t considered that are unique to a big river like the Mississippi. I would think though, if you look at the relative number of boats fishing shoreline areas and the total hours spent fishing those areas during a given period of time that, statistically, a significant portion of the line and snagged lures would come from anglers fishing from boats? Maybe not, but, a good reminder, though, to be respectful and considerate no matter what you are doing.
RiverEyes, I know what you mean. Too often, it’s a lot easier for me to forego the hassle of the boat in favor of the “quick fix” of shore fishing. There is nothing like time on the water. I’ll keep an eye the trip swap forum and see what develops. That would really be a cool way to learn.
I grew up in ND where I believe there are only about 300 fishable bodies of water. I think 70-80% of the fishable surface-acres are tied up in Devils Lake and the Lake Sakakawea/Missouri River system. I hunted all the time but fishing wasn’t even on the radar screen. I really appreciate all the resources that we have here.

That’s a very good idea… I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. I just took up fishing about 4 years ago so I feel a little sheepish about my lack of skill and knowledge. I’ve gone out with James a couple of times and have confirmed that there is no end to the things I have to learn. I didn’t know Evert’s rented boats, that’s something to consider as well.
One thing though, and I’m not sure I’m imagining this or not, but is there a general feeling out there that shorefishing is in some way inferior to fishing from a boat? Again, I’m new to all of this so I apologize if my question on shorefishing isn’t appropriate. I have noticed on another site, however, some open contempt for people fishing from shore which didn’t seem to make sense to me. I suppose it’s kind of like the bass vs walleye or catfishing vs carp fishing or the whole fly-fishing thing. It’s funny, when I tell friends (who don’t fish) that I’ve taken up fishing, they automatically assume it’s fly-fishing. Some seem to think that fly-fishing is somehow superior to other kinds of fishing. I don’t know; it all seems like fun to me! And quite challenging!
Thanks for your response.

Jon,
Thank-you so much for the rather exhaustive list. You’ve given me less to worry about which is always appreciated. Looking at the list, I know why my wife says that if she is reincarnated, she wants to come back as my boat. I keep telling her that boats and wives have a lot in common, if you take good care of them, they will take good care of you (she couldn’t argue with that!).
Thanks again

Now… I just want to clarify here… you are talking about a FISHING rod… right?

I noticed last fall that Berkley was going to stop producing Whiplash line in 50# test and less. You can get 300 yards of the 30#/6 and the 20#/4 for about $15.00. I used it last fall and this spring and summer for trolling and it seems to work very well. It may not be as abrasion resistant as Powerpro or Spiderwire (just what I have heard, I have not used them before) but the price is right for a casual angler who wants to emulate the trolling performance of the more expensive superlines. It would be interesting to put Whiplash and Spiderline in a blind, side by side comparison in someone’s boat to see if, at the end of the day, you could tell which was which. I believe that Whiplash is made from Dyneema and Spiderwire is made from Spectra (I’m not absolutly sure of this).

I noticed that all of the Storm products and the new Jointed Shad Raps are assembled in Estonia. In the past, I believe, most of the Rapala products were assembled in Galway, Ireland. If the newer “problem” shad raps are being assembled in the Estonia plant that might explain the quality control problem. Looking forward to the new line of cranks from EFN (I’ll need to get another tackle box…).