First off, apologies for not just quoting your post Werm, and for the novel-length response. I don’t come on here enough to know how to pick and choose parts of a post, and I don’t want to copy the whole thing and wasting a bunch of screen space with my original post. And I’m a Poli Sci major who has always had a passion for geopolitics, which I don’t get to express all that often.

To your first point, that’s why I chose the wording that I did. NATO has interfered with other countries (i.e. Libya, Bosnia/Serbia, I won’t include Afghanistan, because that was the entire point of NATO as an entity), but they never had any intention of expanding into them (territorially, gaining soft power and influence is a different story). I would have a hard time equating an internationally-backed peacekeeping mission (and I’m not saying that those missions don’t have their own whole host of issues and problems) with what Russia did in Chechnya (twice) or is doing in Ukraine right now. As far as throwing countries into chaos, winning the peace is absolutely more important than winning the war, and I do wish that the West as a whole had a better track record there. When it comes to overthrowing dictators being concerning to Putin…I guess I don’t really care? If cracking down on bad guys makes bad guys nervous, maybe they shouldn’t be bad guys. Being fearful that they might lose their power doesn’t give them the right to be authoritative, gynocidal, megalomaniacal D-bags. To me, that argument seems fairly close to the idea of feeling bad for gangbangers who flee from cops, or assault or shoot them, because the police’s history of arresting people who break the law made them nervous?

As far as NATO expanding in Eastern Europe, I’d just go back to my original post. It’s not NATO’s fault that they’re a better choice than Russia. Each country should have the freedom to choose the alliances and partners that it wants, without fear of reprisals from other countries. The fact is, as far as Russia is concerned, NATO is and has always been next to no threat. Do you really think that if an individual country chose to invade Russia, the rest of NATO would go along with it? Or that NATO would ever be able to convince Hungary or Turkey that offensive action against Russia is a good idea? Heck, the main powers in NATO would never even think of attacking Russia, because it makes no logical sense, and has many, many drawbacks. Russia is just mad because through its own choices over the decades, its sphere of influence has shrunk again and again. That’s not NATO’s fault, that’s Russia’s. I’m not sure if you’ve been following what’s been going on in Armenia and Azerbaijan, let alone what else the Russian version of NATO (the CSTO) has(n’t) been able to accomplish over the years, but if any country were to weigh that against the pros and cons of NATO membership, I can’t imagine the CSTO looks that appealing.

When it comes to the difference between 2014 and now, there are almost assuredly plenty of political differences, and probably plenty we aren’t aware of. Rather than speculating on that, I’ll discuss what we do know. In 2014, compared to now, the Ukrainian government showed very little interest in seriously opposing Russia’s occupation. Now they’re treating it like an existential threat, and much more willing to fight. Also, it IS an existential threat. In 2014 it was a territorial dispute, and a bit of a land grab. In 2022/2023, Putin has stated one of the official goals of the invasion is to overthrow the Ukrainian government, and essentially occupy the country. Yes NATO has conducted similar actions, but I would love to see someone try to argue that Zelensky is on the level of Hussein or Gaddafi, as far as evil dictators go. Again, comparing Russia’s actions in places like Georgia and Ukraine to NATO’s actions in Libya or Bosnia is very much apples to oranges. Also, if anything, NATO’s actions in 2014 are evidence of how little of a threat Russia actually faces from them. Russia got away with Crimea essentially scott-free, and even after fully invading and decimating a sovereign country, NATO can’t agree on what weapons to send or who Ukraine’s grain should be shipped through. It’s obvious that the last thing NATO wants to do is get into a shooting war with Russia.

As far as gearing up for WWIII, I think that’s a pretty big overreaction. We’re essentially in the 1939-1941 phase of WWII, where we’re sending everything to our allies and letting them fight for us. That didn’t work in WWII, but Nazi Germany was a much more powerful foe that Putin’s Russia. I highly doubt we would need boots on the ground to finish the fight in Ukraine, if we outfited the Ukrainians properly. But if we use halfway measures and drag our feet, we very well could have another Vietnam on our hands.

You’re not wrong about the benefits of spending the money elsewhere. But I’d again bring up the fact that a lot of this money is going into revitalizing our defense industry and our armed forces, not just a blank check to line corrupt politicians’ pocketbooks. I’d also point out the ridiculous “bang for the buck”, no pun intended, of hamstringing Russia and potentially catalyzing a regime change, for what in the grand scheme of things is a miniscule amount of our GDP. Also, doing this is a huge wake up call to China, as far as their intentions towards Taiwan. And if anyone is unclear on why a China-Taiwan (let alone China-Taiwan-US) war would be the most devastating global event since WWII, and honestly potentially the most devastating event in the history of the modern world, think about the COVID supply chain issues, multiplied by about a thousand. Stopping that from happening is worth quite a lot, in my opinion. And again, Ukraine has been quite public about their desire and progress in tamping down corruption. I’d argue that the fact that they’ve fought this war as well as they have proves, to a point, that they’re succeeding. If corruption was such a problem, they wouldn’t be getting all these supplies to fight with, which means they wouldn’t be as successful as they have been.

Oh and as far as propaganda goes, only an idiot would say that the US doesn’t have any, and that what we do have isn’t very dangerous to small-minded people. One way to take care of that would be looking into something called Ground News, it’s an app that collates news articles that cover the same story from different viewpoints, as well as gives the reader an idea of what biases the reporting agency may have, and allows the reader to view coverage of an event from agencies that have opposing viewpoints to their own. I don’t have any stake in it, but it’s a great way to makes sure you get the whole picture. It’s a lot faster than trying to cruise through FOX, CNN, and the BBC’s websites, trust me.

But to your point, Dutchboy, last time I checked, the US hasn’t codified laws that make reporting on certain subjects or certain viewpoints illegal and punishable by a decade or more in prison, and I can’t remember the last time a US reporter or media figure happened to fall out a window or die of painfully obvious mysterious circumstances. Oh, and as much as I dislike Kamala Harris, she isn’t on FOX or CNN explaining how easy it would be for our ICBMs to annihilate Russia, complete with CGI diagrams. Or regularly threatening or calling for nuclear war in general. Feel free to do the research on how many times Russia’s MOD and that cheerful guy Dimtri Medvedev have done stuff like that. So yeah, I’d say there’s a pretty big difference between our levels of propaganda.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TMF89 wrote:</div>
The big problem I have with all the “what if Russia was in Canada or Mexico” arguments is that it really is apples to oranges, like a previous poster mentioned

That’s easy for you to say when you are not a member of the country where so many of your enemies want a chance to have direct access to your border. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I agree with, or support what Russia is doing. All I’m saying is they may look at this issue far differently that you or I do. I think sometime people here think that Russia or China are these big evil countries that ever other country hates while the USA is all Good and every other country loves. I got news for you, there are a lot of countries that would love to see the US get knocked down some. Probably the only reason we have not had a war fought on our own soil is the fact of our Geographical location. Being surrounded on three sides by mostly oceans and a large ally on the 4th sure has its advantages.

It’s easy for me to say because I have a full understanding of the geopolitics and the history of the parties involved. Russia’s government has shown time and time again that it can’t be trusted. Not in the least because they constantly lie and manipulate their citizens into believing things very similar to what you’re trying to get across. The average citizen in Russia almost assuredly has a different opinion of the situation than I do. That’s not their fault (to a point), that’s the result of the propaganda they’ve been fed their entire lives. However the people that make decisions in Russia most certainly realize that all their excuses about NATO expansion are completely fabricated, because they’re the ones fabricating them. So I don’t blame the average Russian citizen for thinking differently than I do, but that doesn’t mean Russia gets to do whatever it wants, or that I’m not right about the situation. The fact is that when you look at Russia and NATO, only one has any history of aggressive expansion. NATO literally exists solely as a counter to Russia, because everyone back then saw the writing on the wall.

Also the War of 1812 was and the Mexican American war could arguably have been fought on US soil.

A few things worth pointing out:

Most of the aid money we’ve “given” to Ukraine is actually earmarked for replacing the outdated systems we’ve sent them, with brand new tech. At one point it was something like 70% of the total amount set aside was going to go back into the US defense industry, not to Ukraine. That number is a month or two old, though. Keep in mind that the aid takes various forms and involves various programs, and is FAR from a blank check or a suitcase of money flown in to Kiyv. It’d be like if your friend asked you to buy them a beater car, so instead of buying them one, you got yourself something nicer and newer because it was time for that anyway, and gave him your old car. Also there have been several arrests related to corruption since the war started, both related to the aid as well as other issues. Zelensky was elected primarily on an anti-corruption platform, and while we know politicians are politicians, the Ukrainians have made some solid steps towards dealing with that in their government.

Also, what was the majority of our current military arsenal built for? As a whole, it’s mostly older than the 20 years, and who were we preparing to fight before roughly two decades ago? It’s essentially finally being used for the purpose we originally intended. Again, its mostly outdated, and we’d be replacing it at some point in the near future anyway, at least now it’s going to a good cause, and we’re able to replace it through mechanisms that don’t stress the traditional military budget as much.

A quick side note on this being “Europe’s problem so they should step up and deal with it”. One, it’s a world problem simply because it affects the entire world, indirectly at the least. We’ve also stepped into the role as the world’s sole superpower. Being the world’s police is over-rated, but that doesn’t stop Uncle Ben from being right about power and responsibility going hand in hand. Also, Europe IS pulling its weight. Well, some of them are. If you look at percentage of GDP given, we’re currently in 11th place. But because the average European country’s GDP is so much lower than ours, that’s usually forgotten (granted there are several European powers that could step it up, and I’d be happy to see them do so).

I’m not quite sure how NATO has gotten such a bad rap for expanding over the years. I mean I understand the rationalization, but I don’t see how it holds water. If I start a club, and say anyone who wants to join can join (with certian preconditions), and then it turns out to be a popular club, but everyone joining makes some person that can’t be in the club mad, how is that my fault? Russia has been the main aggressor in Europe for the last hundred years. They have a history of authoritarianism, corruption that makes anything in the US (or Ukraine for that matter) pale in comparison, and various war crimes and crimes against humanity. Is it a shock that when given the choice, countries that are otherwise vulnerable to a traditionally aggressive neighbor would choose to protect themselves against it? Are we supposed to feel bad for Russia? They dug the hole and made their bed, these are the results of their actions over the years.

The big problem I have with all the “what if Russia was in Canada or Mexico” arguments is that it really is apples to oranges, like a previous poster mentioned. NATO is a defensive alliance that has zero desire to conduct offensive operations, or gain territory through means other than political. And joining NATO isn’t an easy or simple task. Whereas Putin has repeatedly made statements about reversing the Russian Empire’s decline, that the territory they’ve ceded is still Russian, and that the biggest tragedy of the 20th century was the fall of the USSR, and that it should be again, reversed. For Russia, a NATO neighbor would be like living next to someone you really don’t like, respect, or agree with on anything, so you both primarily keep to yourselves and ignore each other. For a NATO member having Russia as a neighbor, it’d be like living next to a guy that’s always shouting insults and barbs at you whenever you go out in your yard, threatening physical violence if you call him out on it, and worrying that one morning you might wake up to slashed tires or a privacy fence that’s 10′ over the property line.

Not to mention this is a huge win when it comes to containing China (you do NOT want Taiwan invaded, unless you want the COVID supply chain issues to look like a single Walmart semi that got a flat tire), and showing the rest of the world that Russia isn’t as powerful as everyone thought it was. Also, there’s the whole “right thing to do” part of it.

I place most of the blame on the parents. Of course I do that as a single guy with no kids, but it is what it is. I’m usually a hair right of center on most issues, but if I could snap my fingers and make a law requiring a test or some sort of certification for people to be allowed to have kids, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

I have a friend who is trying to raise a child who is constantly getting into problems. He got in trouble for fighting a group of kids who were physically assaulting (pulled him out of his car window at a drive-thru) a mentally challenged kid. The group of kids were in a foster home, with the youngest kid that threw a punch being 9 years old. Their foster mother is a juvenile delinquent parole officer. Or at least she was, until it was discovered that she was using her access to find out addresses of kids her foster kids didn’t like, so they could go vandalize their homes and assault the people living there. Of course, I believe she still works for the jurisdiction, just not as a parole officer. Because of course they wouldn’t actually want to fire people who tick certain boxes, no matter the justification.

Was out trolling cranks today, 9 walleyes between 17-22″, about that many under 15″, and a handful of kicker sauger to boot. Hot color was definitely silver or chrome, with pink and chrome being the hottest. We kept it around 14-18′ for the most part, although never did give shallower or deeper a serious shake. Marked a bunch of small fish around 25′ at the start of the basin, but never got anything down there to check em out.

I really like the size 30, I have two of them on 7′ rods.

They changed the law awhile back to allow regular quick strike rigs and treble hooks, but prior to that, they were illegal unless they were part of a “lure” (to allow exceptions for crankbaits), which is why all quick strike rigs used to have the tiny blades on them. Boom, you’ve got yourself a spinner rig.

And I’d be ecstatic if our state let me give them even more of my money for a 2nd/3rd line.

Stayed at Tall Pines resort on Wabaskang a few years ago, and had a pretty good time. We did decent for walleye (20-50 a day), but there are also a bunch of options for pike and perch, if the kids want to do something different. Cabins and resort were in great shape, and the drive was pretty easy.

Another one I’ve done is Dogtooth, which is just east of LOW and a short drive across the border. They have things like kayak rentals and a swim platform and slide for the kids, but also the potential for 15lb walleye! I wouldn’t expect numbers there though, so that might put a damper on it for he kids. We did find a back bay that let us put the hammer on a few dozen 10-14″ crappie though, I’m sure that would be a blast for them. It’s also a relatively short drive to Kenora, which has pretty much anything you need, and would be a good option if some of the group wanted to spend a day away from the resort.

There are a ton of options in Ontario, so narrowing down your search by prioritizing what you care most about might help. Creature comforts and amenities? Quality of fishing? Remoteness, or lack thereof? Price can also be a deciding factor, as well as things like American plans or boat rentals and guides, depending on what you’re looking for.

Thanks for the advice guys!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’m going on 3+ seasons with the Summit pole and I use it for both winter & summer fishing, it works great, not a single issue. Yes, if you want to troll a heavy lure 5mph then there are better options, but they will cost you 4x the price of a Summit.

My post was meant to counter those who want to build a cheap pole out of pvc or something, thats where I meant spending a little more $ and just getting a Summit makes more sense imo…

I plan on getting Live Target from Lowrance this year, and I like the Summit option because it’s the cheapest, while having features for both open water and ice fishing. Do they not hold up well a high trolling speeds or cruising around the lake at 5-8 mph? I plan on using it a lot for 2-3 mph trolling for walleye and salmon, but I also was hoping to utilize the forward view to help avoid any rocks on new waters in Canada, and it’d be nice to go a bit faster than 2-3 mph up there. Thanks!

Something I’ve started always doing if I have an extra hole is throwing them on a stringer. You can get quite a few fish on them, the chain ones work pretty slick. One tip I would give is to find some sort of cheap weight that weighs just a few pounds to pull the stringer down. Sometimes you’ll have too many fish, or for whatever reason they won’t go down the hole easy. I’ve kept walleyes and pout alive on them for multiple days. That way you don’t have to deal with filleting a frozen fish, and they’re generally alive so you can bleed them right before you head off the ice.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been on about 16 fly-ins in my life, and everyone here’s generally got a good idea of what to bring. We bring a pump-handle water filter just to get all the extra crap out of there, although some years it breaks and we just go the boiling route. I would highly recommend Crystal Light or similar packets to add flavoring.

I’d definitely also recommend the mosquito coils or a good Thermacell, especially in the bedroom for a little bit before you go to sleep, unless you want to lay in bed hearing the buzzing and swatting at them all night. Although how well the cabin is sealed will really make a difference on the bugs you get. Mid-August they’re usually not too bad, at least comparatively.

Since you’re only going for a few days, I’d probably just bring one change of clothes or so, along with some lightweight long underwear, a hoodie/jacket, and lightweight rain gear, just in case. We’ve been on trips in August where we were using the wood stove every night!

As far as lures go, I honestly haven’t used anything other than 1/4 or 3/8oz jig and some Gulp for probably the last five years for walleye, unless I was bored with catching them that way and wanted to try something different. Just pick up a few packs of each size (chartreuse, gold, white, pink and orange) and a few packs of Gulp twister tails (chartreuse is pretty much my go-to, but I’ve also used white and their mixed colors with success), and you’re set! Other guys will use bait, but since you can’t bring salted minnows across anymore, we don’t bother.

If you chase pike, just bring plenty of leaders, spoons, spinnerbaits, and pretty much whatever else you want to play with! I always add a few vibrating crankbaits like Rattle Traps or Rippin Raps, I do really well with those.

Good luck on your trip, I’m sure it’ll be a blast!

Have the Striker Hardwater bibs and jacket which are super warm, but not super lightweight. I rarely wear the jacket unless conditions are super poor. I’m excited to try some Blackfish stuff I ordered over Black Friday, the Stormskin Gale hoodie and insulated softshell pants. I’m thinking with a few layers underneath, I might not even need my bibs if it’s relatively nice out. Would definitely not have a problem going with Striker again though, although they’re pretty proud of their product at this point (admittedly for good reason)!

I haven’t heard of any of the batteries offered in that class being particularly bad, so I think you’ll be fine with whatever you choose. I have an Amped 12ah that I really like, I actually don’t know how long it lasts, since I’ve never ran it dry in up to three days of fishing.

I have poor circulation too, and pretty much always wind up with cold feet. I bought a pair of cheap heated socks on Amazon, and they actually worked pretty good. One of the batteries did go bad after about a year and a half, but replacements aren’t that bad (although I haven’t bothered getting one yet. The socks had three power settings that would last pretty much all day if I alternated through them (the battery had a button on it and it was at the top of the sock, so getting to it wasn’t a huge issue). One thing I will say is they’re mostly synthetic and cotton, so they don’t wick super well, and my feet usually do wind up sweating a bit. Having said that, the heating aspect did manage to keep my feet warm, even with a bit of sweating. I’ll probably find a replacement battery, or do some research and see if there are any better pairs out there.

Having said that, I mainly really like the socks for days with large temperature swings, like if I’m out deer hunting and expecting it to change 30 degrees throughout the day. Then I can wear a lighter boot and still stay warm. If I’m ice fishing or expecting constant, extreme cold, then I just throw on the Baffins and call it good.

Had bucks eyeball me in a stand twice this year, and once last year. I would say that all three of them were looking at me as soon as I was looking at them (i.e. I didn’t move or make a noise to let them know I was there first). The second one this year was nice enough to bound off about a 100 yards and then stop and quarter away from me just long enough for a double lung shot. I definitely believe the deer are smart enough to look for us, especially bigger, older bucks. I mean heck I’ve literally seen deer in my suburban neighborhood look both ways before crossing a street! They can definitely be trained and conditioned.

Attachments:

1. 

   314402756_10160407178578707_6380025369901978372_n.jpg
   

Probably too expensive for what you’re looking for, but I absolutely love my Savage 220 left-handed model. Not a youth model, but they come with a bunch of different sized spacers to adjust length of pull, and it’s relatively easy to work with since it’s basically a large caliber bolt action rifle. Super accurate and can shoot 20 gauge sabots all day long without feeling it at all.

You can find some 20 gauge sabot slugs on Gun Broker if you want to pay $40 a box or more, and I saw two boxes of Federals at Joe’s a few weeks ago. Those are the only boxes I’ve seen in person in a longgggg time, and I always check the shelves when I go to the stores. Heard from a guy who knows a guy at Federal that they’ve switched a ton of lines over to 5.56 and 7.62. And Remington being in the situation they’re in makes finding anymore Accutips a dicey proposition. I’m hoping to switch over to Barnes, I have a couple boxes I need to try in my 220. I’ve heard that the Barnes Vor-TXs are the same bullet that the old Remington Expanders that everyone loved had, and that Barnes makes the rest of the shell as close to that/the Accutips as possible. Current bid on 25 shells is about $255 on Gun Broker!

I figured it wouldn’t, but it’s too bad it didn’t get past $150,000. A $5,000 fine and a jail sentence that’ll probably get pled down is too little for these POSs. Hopefully they stick them with at least a year, but I doubt it. I also wish more of their sponsors would publicly disown them, have any come forward yet?

Anyone know how much they would have taken home from the tournament if they got away with first place? Here’s a list from a Ohio defense firm on fines and jail time for fraud, depending on the degree.

Fifth-degree felony

$1001-$7,499

6-12 months

$2,5000

Fourth-degree felony

$7,500-$149,999

6-18 months

$5,000

Third-degree felony

$150,000-$749,999

9-36 months

$10,000

Second-degree felony

$750,000-$1.499 million

2-8 years

$15,000

First-degree felony

$1.5 million or more

3-11 years

$20,000

If bringing a small, cheap one man hub is an option, I’d recommend that. Bring along a heater and then you can do your business in relative warmth and comfort, without stinking up the main house. Plus they collapse down and don’t take up much room, and can keep people entertained if they want to do some hole hopping.

I know a lot of guys will soak shiners in the channels when the water starts cooling in the fall.

I can see the bobbers being useful for wheelhouse fishing after dark. Could take the place of a rattle reel while you’re cooking or playing cards or something.

Courtesy of BigWerm’s Facebook

via Live On Patrol

“BELIEVE IT OR NOT – JULY 15 – Two juvenile suspects were arrested a third time last night for several robberies, after being released to their parents twice in the last week. Female victims were punched in their face several times. Minneapolis Police did pursue the suspects in a stolen car and arrested the two juvenile male suspects and two females. More info tonight on “Live on Patrol” at 9:11 pm.
In case you missed them, here are the previous crime spree posts.
JULY 14 UPDATE ON LAST WEEKS HENNEPIN COUNTY JUVENILE CRIME SPREE
The juvenile suspects released to their parents last week – mentioned in the post below – continued their crime spree this week. On July 12, two of them were seen stealing from the Speedway Gas Station at Cedar and 47th in Minneapolis. They ran to a blue Kia that they had stolen earlier and attempted to flee by ramming a Minneapolis Police squad car. They were arrested again – and released to their parents again.
Not surprisingly, one of the suspects was arrested again this morning (7-14) by Edina police after he rammed one of their squad cars with a stolen vehicle from Brooklyn Park.
In case you missed it, here is last weeks post:
From 07/05 – 07/07 a juvenile crime wave of 4 offenders swept over the southwest suburbs of Minneapolis.
The crime wave started on 07/05 with 5 thefts in the span of about 3 hours in City of Edina. A worker had his lunchbox and credit cards stolen. The suspects did not stop there and rummaged through two more vehicles and ran into an open attached garage committing a burglary stealing items then fleeing from the home owner when confronted. The suspects Used stolen credit cards form the thefts in St. Paul and Roseville.
The crime wave continued on 07/06 with the suspects committing a burglary in Eden Prairie stealing credit cards, sunglasses, and rummaging through two vehicles. The crime continued where a Gray BMW X7 was stolen from an open garage with the key in it. The credit cards were used at the Cedar Food and Grill and a Holiday Gas Station. The suspects were seen using the same stolen Gray BMW X7 to rummage through other cars. Later, in Minneapolis a citizen called in a complaint of 4 – 5 people smoking something around a dark colored SUV. The SUV was the same BWM X7 stolen in Eden Prairie earlier that night. The vehicle fled before MPD arrived.
On Thursday the crime wave yet again struck when Minnetonka PD responded to a burglary where two vehicles were stolen. One of the vehicles stolen was a Tesla Model S which was located later by MPD in Minneapolis with a credit card from the Edina thefts. The second vehicle stolen was a BMW 328i Later in the day, Minneapolis PD was dispatched to Cub Foods on Snelling Ave S on a report of several juveniles causing a disturbance the juveniles fled in the EP Stolen BMW X7 and another vehicle (thought to be Minnetonka’s stolen BMW 328i).
The spree culminated when Bloomington PD were alerted to the presence of the two stolen vehicles at the Mall of America. Using video surveillance Bloomington PD tracked the suspects inside of the Mall. When BPD attempted to detain the suspects they attempted to flee on foot. The suspects were apprehended and had two handguns on them. One handgun had the serial numbers scratched off. Two of the suspects had the key fobs on them for the vehicles which were located in the parking lot. THEY WERE RELEASED TO THEIR PARENTS because the Hennepin Juvenile Detention Center does not hold property crime offenders. All 3 suspects have an auto theft history and 2 have a weapons history prior to this arrest. – Back on the streets.”

We didn’t have to, thankfully. We basically just maxed out the depth of whatever Shad Raps, Flicker Shads, or Smash Shads we had out (10-15′), and that kept us in the zone.

Fiiiiiinally made it down there, and had a better day than I expected! We trolled shad baits in 15-22′ and managed 33 fish, mostly walleye, with a respectable dozen for our limits. Bite was definitely better in the morning before the rain came through, and our best baits were natural patterns with plenty of flash. Lake City’s ramp is pretty nice, although having to back the boat around some guy that parked his car a the top of the ramp so he could fish from the dock wasn’t exactly ideal! But what can you do?

We’ll be on the water on the NE side at midnight on Saturday, trolling cranks like we have the last few years. Should be a good time!

Appreciate it! Crazy how fast that thing can go when she wants to!

BigWerm wrote:

I think that Vexus guy was breaking in his engine or something, because he was running around all weekend. At least twice Saturday he came by flying one direction then 15 minutes later he’d be headed the other way.

Friday was tough, yesterday was fun and today was meh. I’ll post a bigger report later, but caught most our fish yesterday jig and a minnow and our biggest on a shad rap.

Werm, we’ve found that spending our time watching other fishermen and trying to figure out what the *$#@ is going through their heads is a tried and true method of killing time up on the Rainy! Does anyone know how far the open water’s made it downriver so far? We’re heading up next week, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to launch at Wheeler’s and slip up the boat at the resort overnight. Thanks guys!

They work great on my dual exhaust Ram, like Karry said, the install is pretty straightforward.