Long time reader, first time contributor to this thread (I think..) The Rossi progress, or lack thereof has bothered me so I took some time this morning in a very important work meeting to take a look at the center draft picks 9-18 from 2020.

Pick # Centers GP G A P +/-
9 Marco Rossi MIN 21 0 1 1 -8
10 Cole Perfetti WPG 51 8 22 30 10
12 Anton Lundell FLA 138 30 47 77 34
13 Seth Jarvis  CAR 150 31 48 79 21
14 Dylan Holloway EDM 51 3 6 9 0
15 Rodion Amirov  TOR Russian
18 Dawson Mercer  NJD 164 44 54 98 -3

How different would this team look with Lundell, Jarvis, or Mercer? I don’t follow the league all the much, but are either of those 3, which have over 1.5 seasons under them, a 1C candidate?

May hamper our expectations for Rossi a bit…

Thanks for the ideas and bringing up last year’s thread. I haven’t thought about using maintenance free decking. I’ve actually got a pile of it from a friends deck I help disassemble that I couldn’t throw out as I figured I could find something to use it for. We’ve got plenty of time to discuss options still – just need to get buy in from the boss.

We plan to also join the home garden crowd this spring. We had a couple raised beds at our old place and will be making a few for our new place (well have been here 3 years now..)

What does everyone like to use for building their raised beds? At our old place I used treated 2x10s, but have heard that using treated isn’t the best idea – which may explain why the first couple of years our boxed were great, but the last few things didn’t grow all that well.

I’ve been leaning towards using corrugated steel as the boss wants them to look nice. But it’s not cheap and it’s difficult to find any used. Anyone build some with something they really like?

Tlazer – those boxes look very nice – how did you build those?

I also plan on attempting to make a backyard rink again. Last year didn’t go very well, but hopefully I have learned a few lessons. I won’t be trying to complete the initial flood all at once and instead will try to do it in 2 layers. Last couple of years I have had issues with laying down 8″ – 4″ of water (due to drop) and the top freezing a couple inches but have a breach/small hole due laying plastic down on rougher terrain and then having a few inches of ice with no water below.

Also, did some landscaping this spring and have grass there now and leveled it out a bit more. Probably still have a few inches of slope, but hoping I won’t have a breach in the plastic with just grass there now.

I haven’t bought a liner, but purchase vapor barrier plastic – will probably go that route again this year as it’s readily available to buy when I’m ready.

Another LTIR for Vegas?
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/34383958/vegas-golden-knights-goaltender-robin-lehner-set-hip-surgery-expected-miss-2022-23-season

I’ll 2nd the drill recommendation. I use a 6″ lazer from my hand auger unit and it works well. Bought the drill attachment online. It’s great up to a foot or so of ice. Once you have a couple feet of ice, it’s slow going but still worked for me.

I’d go G3N as well for the network potential. I got the G3 when it was new and wish I would have spent extra for the G3N as I look to upgrade the boat and add a unit…

I have a 7, 5, and 3 year old that I try to get out in a hub a couple times a winter – it is quite a bit of work and like most of you know, it takes just as much time to get things ready and back as we spend fishing.

Some of my best ice fishing memories when I was younger was sitting in a permanent shack with my uncle, dad, or buddies fishing all day and late at night. Granted, that’s pretty much all we had before portables came to the scene.

This fall we found a decent deal on a wheeled house which was just an empty shell with minor finishing and decided to give it a shot-didn’t spend the big $ on a nice house with all the amenities, but something that would be warm and I could leave out on the lake. Questioned myself most of the winter if we should have bought it as we waited for decent ice and finding a spot to be able to bring it (in Duluth area). Finally got it out on the ice 3 weekends ago.

We have fished in it every Saturday/Sunday night since, usually about 3-4 hours, bringing supper and lots of snacks (bucket/potty a must). We’ve done nothing but play games, talk, and fish – every week it’s been the question of when do we get to go fishing.

The kids are already planning the fish house remodel as they want bunks and to sleep out on the ice now. Another thing to add to my to-do list this summer.

From my perspective, it’s been worth it. It wasn’t cheap, but it’s now something we all want to do and we all enjoy. I’ll still force them to fish in a hub early season, but if we can get a couple months of solid fishing to help grow that fishing bug it’ll be worth it. We’ve also been lucky that we’ve been a decent bite of small crappies. I haven’t caught a fish in the last 3 weeks – like everyone said, it’s all about them.

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Thanks for the heads up with Marcum. I had a hole develop in one of my lithium batteries and will reach out to their customer service to see if there’s anything they’ll do. It was being used in a power wheel when it melted the hole, all my lead acid batteries have never had a problem-

What do you all think is the minimum ice thickness needed for a good rink?

Yeah, I found last year that in one big flood the ice didn’t turn out the greatest – hence why I was questioning my process. I’ll have to split it up this year.

We have snow on the ground up here, so not too many leaves blowing around anymore. We I flooded last year, it was around 0 degrees, so ice formed fairly quickly as well.

It wasn’t a very good rink last year with the smaller size and issues I had as it was hobbled together, but the kids used what we had. I’m hoping to improve on the several lessons learned and make something a bit more fun this year.

It’s nice to hear that everyone else also experiences the elevation differences – I was cheap last year and cut plywood into 8″ strips to maximize the amount of boards per sheet, but it only gave me about an inch of ice on the opposite side. So will obviously need to increase the height of my boards this year to compensate so I can get a larger sheet.

Another question for you experts, do you typically try to flood the rink over a couple of nights instead of flooding it all in one night? I also had that problem where one side took awhile to freeze up as it was 6″-8″ deep and was thinking it may make more sense to do it over a couple nights… May not be a big deal though.

I utilize a makita drill and 6″ lazer set up for early ice and haven’t ran into problems as long as I have 2 batteries, and I drill 50-100 holes a day. Any big difference to justify the Lite Flight over the lazer besides weight?

I attempted a 20’x40′ last year in an area of the yard that wasn’t landscaped yet, but made my boards too low and on an out of level area, so could only flood about 2/3 of the rink before it reached the top of one side. Lesson Learned #1. I bought poly from Menards for the liner, but it ended up getting a hole punched in it as there was a few larger stumps that were hidden – Lesson Number #2.

Was going to attempt a rink again this year as the kids keep asking, but haven’t put anything up yet. What does everyone do for a liner? Buy one specifically for a rink?

same as Ron – Mother’s day, wife’s birthday, then our anniversary all within a couple of weeks makes May an expensive month…

Just a follow-up – did end up purchasing the all-season mount. Maybe I didn’t look close enough prior to buying but you actually get 2 sets of clamps for each side.

I’ve been out only a couple of times and haven’t found a use for the clamps yet for ice fishing, but think it’ll be beneficial to have them for year-round use.

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A few good thoughts I’m going to try. I have several lakes here in the Duluth area I fish, but feel I don’t have a great grasp on any of them as I tend to change lakes every couple weeks (mainly after I skunked). I know a couple of spots on a handful of lakes. I think I’m going to go the route of trying 1-2 lakes this winter and try to really figure them out.

Also will keep in mind the shanty towns – the fish will be in that area at certain times but like FBRM said, the fish congregate somewhere else before they move there, so I should focus on intercepting them.

Missed that detail – thanks for that. I think I’ll still try to brine then.

I was going to brine and smoke our turkey but looking at what the FW bought, she got a jennie-o turkey that already has a turkey solution injected. From what I’ve read online, I shouldn’t need/do a brine then? Would I be good to go just to rub it down and smoke?

Birthday Cake Oreos – stopped at 3 grocery stores last weekend to pick some up and they were all out

when everyone references fishing garden island, what side of the island is everyone typically referencing? We ran up there mid july and fished the southwest side where there were a few other boats, but didn’t catch a fish and didn’t see many caught. Maybe we just missed the bite? Or are there quite a few spots that are fished around garden?

I was up at LOW last week out of Arnesons. Thursday we fished half a day and only caught 2 slot fish. Friday fished most of the day but came off the lake a couple hours early due to storms coming and only managed 7 fish with 4 eaters and a 24″ and 25.5″. Saturday we put it together and caught 46 fish, but the biggest was only 21″ but a lot of 15″-19″ fish so we were able to bring home our 12 fish. Most caught on the south end of the lake in 25′-30′ of water.

We did run up to garden island and fished the south west side on Friday and didn’t catch a fish. We had never been up there but with everyone always saying how good it was we wanted to try it out. Not sure where everyone else fishes when up near garden island?

Caught the biggest fish pulling plugs

I’ll be up Thursday-Saturday – can’t wait. We are planning to fish all over – reefs, mud, etc. Looks like we may need to start in the mud! With the warm temps, has there been an algae bloom yet?

I tried it for the first time a month or so ago. I boiled a couple of smaller ones in 7up. They were a bit sweet, so I think I’ll have to try the half 7up/half water next time, or maybe just water/salt.

I filleted a couple 21″ers into 3 different “boneless” filets, but the backstraps still had a ton of small bones in them. Is that typical of the smaller fish, or did I cut down too far?

found a few schools last weekend in the heat and flat calm. They were in 10′-12′ off the edge of deep cabbage. we tossed little spinners tipped with plastics and your standard jig and small plastic. We tried slip bobbers as well, but those would get bit by the bluegills before they could get down to the crappies.

No – if it’s a political thread, I most likely won’t read it.

I have refroze them as well – same issue as the OP said. Take a few bags out day before a big fish fry only to have a few people back out.

I freeze my fillets in a zip bag full of water, so it takes a day to thaw out. If I take out too much, I just put the bag back in the freezer. I haven’t noticed a difference in flavor either.

Man, I was just thinking the same thing about the need of getting into new fishing podcasts now that KFAN is only doing 1 show a week.

Every once in a while I’ll listen to Fishin’ Paul Bunyan Country – has several MN guides weekly.

Just tried to update the Navionics card and see that I have to pay for a 1 year subscription at $100/yr.

Round and round I go. Now the question – what does everyone prefer for a card – Navionics or Lakemaster?

sorry for the confusion – I just realized my lakemaster chip is in my old H2O and is only an SD card.

I currently have a 2012 Navionics Premium HotMaps chip in my Elite 5, which is why it is working in the Helix 7.

Reading online, looks like I can update the 2012 card. I wonder if I can still use the shading feature on the Helix 7 with it?