A friend of mine swears he seen a snapping turtle covered with zebra mussel crossing the road. He even stopped and got out of his truck to get a better look.

I’m not 100% sure but I believe MN law says any trailer over 3000lbs has to have brakes. With hydraulic brakes you shouldn’t need anything for your tow vehicle unless it has a five wire connector.

I have one and I love it. They seem to be pretty accurate. If you’re going to use it for tournament fishing its a huge time saver and no more culling the wrong fish. I use mine in conjunction with numbered cull pins. The cull tags that come with the scale are a joke. Be sure to find a safe place to keep it. I broke the screen on my first one and they do go through batteries but its a small price to pay for the convenience for tournaments.

Save your money and buy fleet farm brand. I’ve tried a lot of different batteries and now I’m back to fleet farm I got five years out of my last set. The agms might last a little longer but at twice the cost is it worth it.

As tradition I’m fishing a small friends and family tournament on a small local lake. Its my favorite tournament of the year as its the only one my daughter wants to fish with me. Looks like perfect weather and fish should be going pretty good.

Mine would be one of those 12′ Columbia river giant sturgeon.

I don’t have a brand or model to suggest but I have something for you to consider. I was watching some fishing show awhile back, I don’t remember which one but the guy was talking about using a short rod so you can work the rod downward without hitting the tip on the water. I dug out an old 6′ medium I had laying around and I tried it. Wow what a difference, by being able to sweep straight down my suspending jerkbait stays a lot deeper and I can work the bait much easier. I’m only 5′ 9″ and I have a bass boat so you might be able to get away with a longer rod. If I could pick the perfect rod it would have the same length from reel seat to tip as the one I have but a longer butt grip would be nice for two handed casting. I like the medium action and the fast tip. You do lose casting distance with the short rod but it is definitely worth it in my opinion.

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Let’s be honest Tom when was the last time you used a new rod that costs over a hundred dollars and you didn’t like it. I own a lot of different brands and I like them all one of the things I consider is warranty service. I won’t say what company but I recently had a bad experience with a warranty issue and that will probably be the last time I purchase that brand.

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It is not much help to other fishermen if you don’t post who the bad experience was with. Is there something here that I’m not aware of that would prevent you from saying who it was. I’m like you in that service plays a key role in what product that I chose to purchase. Like others here I fish several different brands of rods and reels. Some are better than others.

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I’m not affiliated with any brand and I have no reason not to bad mouth the company other then the fact that I don’t like to do that. I’m not a big fan of people ranting about that one bad experience they had and how nobody should ever do business with them again. The company in question is very popular, very reputable company that make most of their rods here in the U.S.. The issue I had was I went to replace a lifetime warranty rod that broke in half while fighting a fish and when I sent it in they told me I had to pay a $70 fee plus shipping to get a new rod. I asked him why the fee and he said it was because the rod was close to ten years old. I thought lifetime was lifetime. Now this isn’t a horrible thing and it might not be a deal breaker for some but it is for me. I’ve dealt with other companies on warranty stuff and never had an issue so I’m going to lean towards their products because in my opinion if you’re looking in the similar price points the differences in quality are minimal.

Let’s be honest Tom when was the last time you used a new rod that costs over a hundred dollars and you didn’t like it. I own a lot of different brands and I like them all one of the things I consider is warranty service. I won’t say what company but I recently had a bad experience with a warranty issue and that will probably be the last time I purchase that brand.

Sounds to me like maybe the batteries aren’t hooked up correctly. That is a 24 volt motor so the batteries have to be hooked up in a series.

I’ve wrapped it in tin foil but its more like baking, but I like it. I’ve grilled lake trout directly on the grate with the skin and that turned great.

I’ve had many run ins with lakeshore owners.I once asked a co what to do and she told me to politely tell them it is public water and Minnesota has a law against angler harassment. then she asked me which dock I had problems with so her and her co husband could fish it in plain clothes and pull out their badges when the guy starts harassing them. Another time I called a co after a guy screamed at me and tried to ram me with his pontoon for fishing near his dock. The co told me the best way he can describe the law is it is like parking your car in public parking lot. Anyone can walk around it crawl under it or even touch it just don’t do any damage. He had a talk with that guy and now all he does is wave when I fish his dock. I had a guy yell at me for fishing his dock one day and I told him I wish he didn’t put his dock on top of my favorite fishing spot he didn’t say another word. If people politely ask me not to fish by their dock I respect that but if they act like buttholes I fish it as much as I can and sometimes I’ll tell my friends to fish it too.

The clamp part on my Yamaha broke and replaced it with a regular hose clamp I had laying around.

A couple of years back I got my truck broken into at a public access in the middle of the day nonetheless. They got a couple hundred dollars worth of goodies and my checkbook. I stopped payment on all of the remaining checks. I didn’t hear nothing for six months then I started getting phone calls for writing bad checks guess which checks. The stores that got screwed all said the guy used the paper license application as an id, that should be a huge red flag to anyone excepting a check. One of the stores got a partial license plate and a description of the guy and the car. After many phone calls to my county investigator I got him to run the plates but after fringing out the truck was registered to a guy in different town it got transferred to a different police dept and the said there is no way to prove the guy that wrote the check was the guy that drove the truck so they weren’t going to waste their time. Talk about make a guy mad. You are one of the lucky ones that might get to see some justice. I hope the guys gets what is coming to him.

Can you please post again on Monday. I know I will forget by then. Maybe you can also put in link to where these proposed changes are listed. Thank you.

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…NOBODY keeps enough bass to harm the populations.

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except maybe pissed-off walleye die-hards on a mission

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Not nearly enough of them to make an impact.

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the thing that worries me is the launches. I talked to a guy last year that ran one of the launches and I asked him if they keep smallies and he told me that they purposely target them because their customers want to bring home meat no matter the flavor. In my opinion the launches put a huge dent in all the species and I think maybe its time to look at them. Gregory’s resort has a sign in front of their resort that says ” DNR sucks have a nice day” maybe they shouldn’t be pointing fingers.

I was by wigwam bay at 2oclock today and there was ice as far as I could see.

Im just taking a stab in the dark but it might be a confidence thing on your dad’s part. Take him out as much as you can and see if you can get to run the boat as much ad possible. See if you can get him to drive the boat on the trailer while you back in. Loading and unloading seems to be the part that people lose their confidence in.

I want to see the netting stop as much as the next guy but I know and a lot of other people know that the netting isn’t the only problem with the walleyes. Red lake was destroyed by nets but this is different situation. There is a lot pike and I’m guessing a lot of smallies killed in the nets along with the walleyes and those population s are doing fine. Stop the netting, you bet I’m on that bandwagon but we all know that’s not going away anytime soon so I say we should help where we can and our hands aren’t tied. By suing the DNR to stop the night ban is step in the wrong direction in my opinion. I know I’m going to ruffle feathers but I hate when people are pointing fingers at some one else when there is more they can do themselves.

I don’t want to take away from your post and I think you might have a good idea but all this talk about our heritage got me thinking. When the white man first came to continent and for many years after we completely raped the land of fish and wildlife. Look at what we did to the buffalo and closer to home, look how decimated the sturgeon on the rainy river. So is this the heritage we are talking about or is the more recent heritage of friends and families getting together and enjoying hunting and fishing that is regulated by government that we appoint to preserve fish and wildlife for future generations. I do believe mismanagement is major problem with mille lacs but now that the DNR is taking measures to protect the walleyes certain people want to stop them, what form of heritage are they protecting.

Water in your light fixture could simply be condensation. If your house was built in the last 20-30 years you likely have a vapor barrier on the ceiling and a light fixture is common place that doesn’t get sealed and a lot of air gets passed through a small area. When warm moist air meets cold air( which we had a lot of this year) you get condensation. If you had extra people in the house for an extended period or a lot of extra activity in the house the moisture content will go way up. I had customer call mW about a leak around Christmas and the first thing I asked him how guests he had over the holidays, he thought I was crazy until I explained it to him and that’s what it was. As far as the plywood goes it could just be the plies seperating. But if you’re uncomfortable call a contractor, they shouldn’t charge you to look.

I can’t help with a contractor but who ever you get make sure you get someone to a good look at your shingles as well. Hail damage on a shingle is hard to spot with an untrained eye. Hail will diminish the integrity of the shingle and greatly decrease the longevity. A good insurance company knows that and should work with you. Good luck.

Trapper 14 please reread my first post. I don’t like the tribes netting the fish that our money is spent on anymore than you do I’m just saying I think these guys that are filing the lawsuit are hypocrites because they want everyone else to stop taking fish but they want to be left alone. The lake is not going to get fixed in a courtroom, this is just a huge waste of time and money.

At normal water levels I would say anything more then 14 miles up river from neimeyers you had better know what you are doing and know the river if you are going to take a deep v. I take my bass boat way up all the time and there are several sections that is idle with motor trimmed all the way up and you still have to dodge rocks. I’ve wrecked a couple of lower units myself and know of a lot people doing the same. One of mine was wrecked on a tree in 12′ of water so beware.

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Ok I try to bite my tounge on these type of topics, but seriously launches kill more fish than netting ? Not positive but wasn’t it something over 600, 000lbs netted in 2013

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when I say they kill more fish I’m not talking about just harvesting, I’m talking about harvesting and accidentally killing fish by deep hooking. Walleye fishing by nature has a high hooking mortality rate especially by inexperienced angler such as people that would go on a launch. The best way to stop fish from being killed with hooking mortality is to reduce the number of angler hours and that is what the DNR is doing with the night ban. That’s the problem I have with this lawsuit. The DNR is trying to do something to help and these people are mad at the DNR for not doing something. I guarantee that they would soppurt the night ban if it didn’t hurt their own pocket books. As far as the number of fish taken or killed by natives vs. Anglers you better look at the numbers before you disagree with me. I know the numbers are skewed that the natives actually pull out of the lake but you’re a fool if you think there not skewed by the anglers as well. Just one small example would be the lake home owners that got caught with all the walleyes in their freezer and we all know that goes on a lot . I’m sure there is even people reading this that may kept a few out of the slot. And that’s my opinion about that.

I don’t get it. They say they want mille lacs to return to its former glory and they want the numbers to come back so they want to lift the night ban. Unless they plan on having night fishermen put walleyes in the lake I don’t think its going to help. I’m pretty sure more walleyes are killed by launches then are netted, I’m not saying I approve of the netting but I think these guys are being hypocrites.

What a waste of time and money. What do they think they are going to accomplish with this, well besides the lawyer getting rich. Maybe this lawyer should be in charge of the lake so the next time there is a natural downswing in the fish population we can all sue him. This is pretty typical for today’s give me society, protect my walleyes but let me do what ever “I” want to do.

I just started using square bills but I really like the storm arashi, they are tough, run true, have nice colors and they catch fish. For jerkbaits I go old school and stick to the Smithwick rogues. I’m sure there are better choices out there but they’re cheap and they work and they seem like they have a huge following.

[but having a thin wall piece of metal holding up a 1500 lb motor does not give me any piece of mind. The torque of the motor running is putting way more stress on the transom than when trailering.

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1500 lbs no wonder those evenrudes are so slow. a transom saver should easily support 1000 lbs which is about twice the weight of most large outboards. Even if they only handled a little weight wouldn’t a little protection be better then none and its not so much the weight as it is to stop the bouncing. They’re cheap, I would never go without one.

I’m sure you’ll be fine with the ice but if you want an update PM me and I can give you an update later. I will be fishing the river as soon as I can so I’ll be watching it closely. That sounds like a fun trip, me personally I would wait till fall for some of the best small mouth fishing in the state or perhaps the country.