I have an early 90s Johnson and as Grouse said, after Robbinsdale Marine closed it’s tough to find a shop willing and able to touch it. Didn’t like anything close so I’ve ended up over at Roberts Marine, Brian and Zach are great to work with.
Had mixed luck with Pro-Tec in Albertville years ago, have not gone back. Good luck with what you choose.
I make a cold brew concentrate 3-4 times every summer, use 1 part coarse ground beans to 4.5 parts water by weight and steep it for 12-24 hours in a stainless pot. Even though I strain it though cheesecloth, I still get some sludge on the bottom of every batch.
I prefer making a big batch with at least a 12oz bag of beans each time, keeps in a glass jar in the fridge for about a week and can make a cup as strong or weak as I’d like. Great in cocktails too.
Scheels usually has their branded A/M 24 on sale for around $80 during their fishing sale, I’ve picked one up the two last years, will probably do the same this spring as my boy will be big enough for it shortly.
I wear mine constantly when I’m out solo and/or when water temps are under 50 degrees, put it on with the kill cord every time I’m behind the wheel otherwise. Once you get used to it, you don’t even notice and I’d rather be safe then sorry. Good luck with what you decide.
Sorry Grouse, I know KWP was a good friend of yours – I just saw you say big brookies on mouse patterns and my mind instantly went to that post. Cheers
The late forum member KWP went to God’s Lake and then up God’s River to fish brook trout.
The pictures were unreal. Huge brook trout. They were slamming mouse fly patterns. He had a terrific time.
Great trip if you get a chance.
Since Grouse mentioned it, I had to find the REPORT cause it’s a beauty, both the description and the pictures. Hope it helps with your planning, good luck when you go.
I won the office chili contest last year by using leftover smoked brisket. There were 8-9 contestants and about 22 votes in total. I got something like 14 votes and 2nd place had 3-4 votes.
You can order online, but I buy dried chilis from WalMart or a Mexican grocery store. 3-4 ancho, 3-4 guajillo, and a 2-3 arbol peppers. Remove the stems and seeds and soak them in hot water while getting everything else ready. Blend them into a paste using a little of the soaking water. When your onions are slightly softened, add a little oil if needed, and fry the pepper paste, regular chili powder, cumin, and a small can of tomato paste until it darkens in color. Wing it from there with whatever else you like.
This is the way.
Regardless of what the final number is, I would rather support aligned regulations statewide in an attempt to make it less confusing for the weekend angler. The confusing regulations is actually hurting angler recruitment and I’ve heard from many first hand that they are very frustrated trying to figure out the regulations for every lake they try to fish. Instead, they just won’t go.
Micromanaging every pond and stream with their own set of rules is not helping.
I’ve long been in favor for reducing the walleye limit for exactly the reason Darren lays out here.
If they implemented a 4 fish limit with one over 18″, they could toss out 90%+ of the special walleye regs statewide. KISS
And I’m glad no one has mentioned minimum length requirements either, those only encourage targeted harvest and actively damage class structures in fish populations.
Gimme two lines state wide while we’re at it, too!
If a lake is partially wide open now, generally, how much ice will this cold weather that is coming make in a week?
A lot, pretty quickly. Only a guide of course but we should have 6+ inches if the forecast holds.
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New Glarus version is very good, Steel Toe in St Louis Park also has their Scotch Ale out right now, named Wee Heavy, has won a few fancy beer awards over the years.
It’s in 6 packs this year and worth it if you see it, they don’t distribute very widely though.
If your group willing and able to pony up for it, a SnoBear trip at either Devils or eastern SD is usually worth it.
No matter the weather, the guides that invest in those machines stay on fish pretty good all season long. Good luck with what you decide.
Was out of Hudson with the FW on Monday during banker’s hours, we did well for not being out there since early August.
Kept 5 legals + 4 others bites, pulling lead in community spots, 20-26 FOW. First bite was a big whitey that really wanted that crank. 62.5 was surface temp, hope to be back out on Sunday afternoon.
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Windy for me. I also like that it has the Euro forecast model (ECMWF), not many apps do and I find it more accurate than GFS or other NOAA versions.
@Rodwork
Do you worry about the bad pathogens for allowing your meat to lie in the 40f to 140f exceeding the 4 hour period?
Not a concern for me either – beef in general is not hospitable to the types of bugs that get you sick, primal cuts especially, since those bugs rely on surface area exposed to air + other surfaces. Plus the enviro inside a smoker is doubly tough for that, the method of smoking was developed to preserve meat after all.
Proper food handling prior to going on the smoke and everything should be just fine.
I have not done it but Kenji does great work in developing these recipes and this should give you a good spot to start, his YouTube channel is terrific too.
https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-barbecue-smoked-bbq-brisket-texas-recipe
There’s two different styles of beer sold as “Oktoberfest” – a Marzen, which is darker and maltier, and a Festbier, which is lighter with more of hop bite – both good but most people have a preference. Lots of the big German brewers make both styles, so it pays attention to check labels.
Both Schell’s and New Glarus are Marzen style, so while excellent beers, they just might not be your jam. Sierra Nevada has an excellent Festbier in 12pk cans that I’ve been buying a lot, good luck finding something you like.
One thing to mention about Nissan/Subaru – certain years in the models that have been mentioned do have problems with the CVT, with many of those years being covered in class action suits to extend factory warranties.
We bought a 2016 Rogue last spring with 78XXX miles on it and the tranny crapped out by September. We were lucky enough to still be within the factory warranty (under 84K per class action) but it was close on the milage. Have known friends/family that have dealt with the same on Subarus.
We do like our Rogue now that it’s fixed but would not purchase another, just to avoid CVT issues. Good luck with what you decide.
Thanks Steve, this is a really great post. Question for you, Andy, anyone with tying experience – do you have any recs for vices + bobbins? There’s a pretty big variance in prices for tying equipment and I’m mostly curious of things to look for and/or avoid when shopping.
Adding plain salt can help lower stress levels and replace electrolytes. I too was having issues until I dumped in about 3/4 of a cup into my 55 gal aquarium. Since I started adding salt I have not had near the dead minnows I had before. It used to be that every fathead was dead within a week and now I loose a few the first few days. The strange thing is I only had problems with fatheads. I have kept leftover shiners alive for months without any issues. I’m assuming like was mentioned before that they come from the bait shop disease ridden.
Have seen the same thing myself this winter, get a scoop of fatheads plus a dozen shiners and a week later I’m at less than half my fatheads but have lost maybe 1-2 shiners, glad I’m not the only one who had this happen.
I’m just using a 5 gallon bucket and fish tank supplies from PetSmart, dragging back and forth from uninsulated garage to basement bathroom as needed. Have had success going about three weeks each batch this way and I call it a win. Keeping them cold, under 50 degrees, is the best way I’ve found. Hope this helps, good luck.
I stayed in a sleeper by Metro Lakes Marina. It was a really good experience. They had people come out and fill the generators all weekend and they had heated porta-pottys very close. We were over a deep crappie whole and caught plenty of decent <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappie and bluegill (metro decent) to keep busy. The houses were well equiped and clean Ice Castles.
A family friend owns Metro Lakes Marina, he runs a really nice operation – new and clean houses, good staff, on top of his stuff. I’m sure there’s lots of other good places on the lake, good luck with what you find
Soil temps need to stay at something over 56 degrees for them to start, it’s about the same time the lilacs start to set flowers and you should put down the crabgrass preventer.
I’m in the MSP metro and I’d say we’re about 10-14 days away, assuming we get enough rain to get it going. The season here is usually from around walleye opener through June 1, give or take 7 days on either end depending on temps and rain. Hope this helps, good luck.
I would suggest that anyone that wants any sort of cut of meat, including burger, stock up. This includes chicken, beef, pork. The 3 big ones.
This is going to be the new AW. The problem is this won’t be so easy to recover from. It takes along time to raise and process food.
X2, this is a really big deal.
I’m making a big order from Hack’s in birdtown tomorrow for delivery next week plus I’m fixing to make an order from my wife’s cousin who raises feeder cows near Glencoe. I’d suggest anyone that has the means and capacity to do the same.
Sweet, wasn’t sure if they were compatible, thanks!
This is very very bad news for farmers and consumers. Producers can’t just decide not to bring animals to market. They need to go when they need to go. If not they are killed and buried. They have younger animals coming and they need to keep the process going. They can’t just change processors either.
This will have very long term effects in economies.
We need to look at this as a national issue, not a local or regional issue to get our meat processed.
I could process my own pork or beef if needed. I know of small butchers who will take in beef or pork. They will slaughter and process.They will not be doing 20K hogs a day. I know of people who can do a couple hundred chickens a day. They won’t be processing a million chickens a day.
These are both correct. Everyone needs to look past their own nose about this, it’s gonna be bad for a lot of disparate people for quite some time and that’s IF we can all stay home for another few weeks. Anything else is telling lies that might make yourself feel better.
My coworker skis a lot, both downhill and XC, thus drives a lot in poor winter conditions. He bought some aggressive, higher end Yokohama’s for his Outback and loves them – he’s normally a snow tire guy but hasn’t felt the need, he’s on his third year with them and they’re wearing nicely. If I find out which model he got, I’ll update this later.
My dad has a 2018 Trophy 175 with a Yahama 115 and factory prop. He’s in his 60’s and didn’t feel necessary to max it out cause he’s mostly done fishing in bad weather and not in a hurry to get anywhere.
I’ve driven it a few times and it rides nice, the lack of top end is noticeable but doesn’t affect general performance much. If he had a nicer prop I’m sure it help a good bit though.
Not apples to apples but hope this helps, good luck with what you decide.
Have also had good luck with FishLectronics on University, nice guys to work with.
If you bleed them out. and then cut most the red meat out of the center line on the fillet and then cube them…. and batter and fry them..
you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and the almighty walleye.
Yup, have caught and eaten a lot over the years and agree with this, especially from cold water. They also do smoke really well, my dad does a few batches a year and it’s pretty tasty.
Most of the single use burner stoves work reasonably well but don’t get to your desire for keeping the running cost down because the fuel canisters aren’t cheap.
I’d probably go with a stove with a refillable fuel canister, MSR Whisper Lite is the industry standard with lots of accessories and refillable canister options.
patk makes a good point about lighting those types of stoves but one could whip together something to make sure you don’t burn a hole in your boat; I would think lighting the stove inside of a big cast iron pan would probably do the trick. Good luck with what you decide.
In order for fermentation to be successful, the food must 1) be starved of oxygen, and 2) allow the CO2 created to be released. Those silicon lids with the burp top on that allow for both of those things to happen without tightening a normal canning lid just so. I just got those lids plus weights last year and really like them both, will be buying more this summer.
