The last 3 months

Well, I suppose I got a bit off course with my intentions on writing the blog itself. I have been writing in a personal journal, documenting quite a few of the little trips I've taken. Here is a brief rundown of the goings on since my last post, some outdoor related, some not.

First off, I have a new job. I currently work for a prairie restoration company in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, and have quit my previous job at a property management group. All days I've had in the past 2 weeks have been entirely outside, with the exception of 2 very rainy, windy days when we could not burn. My job for the next month or so will be helping with prescribed burns, chemical application, weed control, and explaining to people that I am not spraying for mosquitoes, and not everything in the plot of land I'm walking is weeds. Ignorance of native plantings is a daily occurrence, and this public outreach is, for me, the most important part of my job. Burning is every bit as fun as I expected it to be!

Needless to say, my new job is one of the best places to learn some of these outdoors skills I've wanted for so long. Everybody who works there does so because they love being outside as much as I do. In general, they're much MUCH better at fishing, hunting, plant identification, and the like. I've learned a metric ton since I started, and the pace is increasing with every bit I learn!

Non-fishing related, I purchased the last pair of boots I hope to buy in 3 years: a pair of Redwing full leather uppers with a steel toe. We'll see how that goes; breaking them in took a week of wearing around the house, and I'm not entirely sold on the steel toe thing yet.

At a Minnetonka Parks site earlier this week, I saw my first morel mushroom EVER! After work I came back, picked them, and brought them home. When I pulled up, I put one in the woods near our property, and brought the other to my Britney spaniel, Bailey (a trained bird dog). 45 seconds of training later, she sprinted right to where I had hidden the mushroom earlier, so I now own a morel-sniffing dog. I hope to have a little fun with that later this week if I'm not burning until 8pm every day!

Now for the fishing news!

Ice fishing has come and gone, and my patience with learning to fish for crappies paid off. Late season is when I really started to shine, and much of it was due to a spring bobber you can see on the main image at http://www.stcroixrods.com/product/legend_ice_rods . I decided to ignore Minnetonka, considered by many to be the premier crappie lake near Minneapolis' western suburbs for one big reason. The lake is monstrous in terms of places to fish. A spot can look promising but hold no fish, while identical spots across the lake could be holding them. I don't own a snowmobile, 4wheeler, or truck, and loading my equipment into my Trailblazer whenever I want to move across the lake got old, fast. Medicine lake, Parker's Lake, and Gleason Lake were my go-to spots, and I was able to consistently produce! Jigging spoons, at least for me, seemed to be overrated on these smaller lakes, especially on late-ice with a few noticeable exceptions. A tiny white spoon with an attached red flipper worked wonders for me on all lakes for all sizes of panfish. After I was tired of dinking around with rattle-spoons, tiny jigheads with mock-insects, or just plain ice jibs with waxies, this lure was what I used. Sadly, a big-mouth billy bass took my baby from me about a week ago, and I'm on a search to find someone online who carries these things!

 I did take one quick overnight trip up to Mille Lacs this year for jumbo perch. It was brutally cold (-5), but I was able to get the jumbos to bite, however slowly. This trip truly revolutionized fishing for me. It was the first time I decided to be TRULY mobile, and every fish I pulled out of a hole that day was within 1 minute of dropping the line in. Covering lots of ground, and targeting only active fish (those that come up and look at your bait the moment you drop it down) was the ticket. After an unproductive morning (only 2 jumbos), I donned all my clothing, started drilling, and started walking hole to hole to hole. Soon I caught fish after fish after fish. Go figure, I take my own advice, and it works! This just goes to show, movement is CRUCIAL to produce on picky fish.

This spring, after many many trips out catching (small) crappies, I decided I needed a change of pace. On the main lake of Minnetonka, there was still sheets of ice, but on tiny bays and marinas down in Wayzata, ice was off near the first of April. My arms ached for a stronger fish, and with the statewide opener over a month away, I took a quick run to the Coon Rapids Dam with a friend for crappies, and when they didn't bite, things got drastic. We walked into the woods, kicked up some dirt, grabbed some worms, and threw 'em in the slackwater. I am now an official rough-fish angler! After a night of catching sheepshead, small channel cats, and carp, I decided to re-rig one of my northern rods into a carp slaying machine!

For me, carp fishing was entirely new territory. I vaguely recall catching sea-lamprey covered carp on the Kettle River when I vacationed there with my family some decade and a half ago and had forgot it all. Carp fishing in Minnesota (but not Europe) is an EXTREMELY simple premise. Take the rig shown here to my right, throw out a little corn in a shallow bay, and wait! I keep my drag set extremely light on spinning reels so I can hear line going out, or keep the drag open on baitcasters with the clicker turned on. When you hear line going, pick up the rod, tighten the drag, feel for a fish, and if there nothing there, just wait for several minutes with your finger on the line. If you feel a fish, set the hook and get ready for a fight you haven't felt since pike fishing! I've had to wait hours for a fish when they're not biting much, so bring a book, a brew, or company.

For a week or so, I caught, cleaned and collected carp meat (off those carp I caught under 8 lbs or so). After I had about 30 lbs of filets, I went to a college friend's house and learned how to use a smoker! Although smoked carp IS palatable, if I ever do it again I'll brine the fish for at least 24 hours in a brine heavy on spice and lighter on brown sugar than what I used. Although the carp I smoked wasn't bad with cheese and crackers, my dogs seem much more fond of it than I am, so smoked carp is now my default dog treat!

There are several more stories I've got, but I feel they warrant a post themselves. In the meantime, I'm getting my gear ready for an afternoon of pike fishing, and an evening of crappie fishing! Good luck out there!

Day 1, Post 2

So, necessities out of the way, I'm excited to dive right in! I've spent the last several years following an outdoorsman just beginning to make a name for himself, and figured I may as well give Travis Frank a shout-out. We met under curious circumstances, and although he may not have realized it, his blog, seen above, was instrumental in the creation of this one. I've watched his blog with regularity throughout college, and in many ways lived my life vicariously through his stories as I've been studying for finals, working in the summers, or wasting my time surfing the internet. So, thank you Travis, for being the straw that fixed the lazy camel's back!

I'm starting this project in a goofy time of the year, from a goofy place in my life. I'm a recent graduate of Gustavus Adolphus' Environmental Studies program, working for a property management group out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I don't own a boat, I don't own a house, I don't have a long-term job, and I don't know exactly where I will physically be in a year. Something about all that is flat-out exciting; this is the time for a journey, and I'm just all smiles that certain other things in my life have aligned in a way that I'm able to write. Like my fish-finding abilities, however, I am if anything a novice. As I do this more and more, I hope my penmanship will develop along with my aim. So bear with me (hooray for puns!)

The first leg of this trip will invariably be ice-fishing. Now, I'm no slouch when it comes to ice-fishing, but I have an obscene amount to learn. I've broken that barrier of getting consistently skunked, but fishing alone, endurance has remained my greatest downfall. There is use in that mindless bravado that ice-fishermen seem to have whenever a novice is out with them, and it is in resistance to cold. On a solitary cold evening, should the fish not bite, I've often packed up much sooner than I anticipated and I know I can't be the only one. These days, the most important piece of tackle I carry along with me is companionship and the idiotic machismo that follows two young men, or a young man hoping to, I suppose, impress a young lady. Trust me, ice-fishing, like prison-time, is much better with a good friend.

To you, reading the following, please understand that this advice is NOT for an expert fisherman. You already know all this. You will only get stories and opinions out of what is to come.

Surprisingly to me, I've only been out twice this year, once to the northeast corner of Lake of the Isles and once to the Long Lake near Wayzata, both times for crappies (and luckily both times not being skunked)! Like I said, I'm excited that I'm no longer getting skunked, and the great thing is I can tell you the exact moment that happened, December 25th, 2009. Christmas that year was the day I gained THE MOST important part of my ice-fishing arsenal, my fish flasher. If you ice-fish and you don't own this piece of equipment, sell things until you can afford one. When push comes to shove, I simply will not ice fish without. Not only do these things tell you when you are wasting your time, but they turn ice-fishing into something of a video game. When the wind starts whipping around you, the mercury starts dropping, and the fish seem to be full, I find I can ignore so much of my skin's agony by watching red, green and yellow lights move slowly around a ring. Alone, I won't fish without one; twice I have literally driven back home to pick it up. They're relatively inexpensive, can be used to great success even in summer if you fish out of a canoe, and put crappies on the top of ice where they belong.


Now, because I'm no expert, I don't feel bad doling out fishing advice. It's free, it's from an admitted non-expert, and it just might be worthless! But that being said, let me show you exactly where I've been on fish on Long Lake west of Wayzata. Following this is the map; click the link, and zoom out slowly to see where I've been on fish.
Here be crappies. 
Some things I've come to learn about crappies.
1. They're everywhere, and they'll bite on an obscene amount of lures.
2. They're often not where you want them to be, and sometimes they'll bite on nothing.
3. They taste FANTASTIC

4. About half the crappies I caught from Long Lake seem to have these giant sores on their flanks. Any  biologists reading this care to weight in on that? My suspicion is water-lice, but, in going with the overall theme of this blog, I feel obligated to admit that I have no solid answer
5. The crappies at THAT SPOT are in a 30 foot hole, suspended between 20 and 10 feet from the bottom. Their favorite food (as far as I've been able to tell) is a fathead minnow hooked through the dorsal fin.
6. If you aren't using a bobber or a flasher, have a damn good rod, because these suckers will bite like butterflies.

This place, like most spots I intend to fish, are within walking distance from a road; I just bought a new vehicle, and it won't meet the bottom of a lake until I have at least a  full year with it

My techniques are going to be the focal points of my ice-fishing this year. I've only fished one winter with any sort of intensity,  and a majority of that was spent teaching myself the basics: where to set-up my pop-up and when, what the easiest targets are (crappies, perch and bluegills), and how to properly analyze my fish flasher. That said, I want to hone in on knowing what to switch to, and more importantly why.


My good friend, Tou Xiong, has been fundamental in this. He is a much more accomplished angler than myself, and has been espousing upon me the benefits of having more than one rod set up at a time. There is a science in switching lures around, and from what I can tell, the easiest way to entice fish is by messing with size of baits rather than color. What has worked, especially on those Long Lake crappies, has been a small bug bait like Northland's Slug Bugs, and an alternative rod already tipped with a Salmo Chubby Darter, or a Rapala Jigging Rap or something similar. Live bait would be appropriate, of course.

The trick in all this seems to be keeping yourself busy. When the action slows down, don't wait for it to pick up, go out and try to change it! Now, all of what I'm about to say is working on an underlying assumption. You're ice-fishing to catch fish, not a buzz, and you have a fish flasher, and either a good set of arms or a powered auger.

Lets take a traditional approach to an old standard, the 15-25 foot structure. There will be fish all over this area, and there is no great way of telling where the fish (I'm assuming panfish in this case) will be. Now, I'm told panfish are following their forage here in the weeds, and I'm inclined to believe the experts. The old-school approach to fishing a great spot like this would be to park out a good spot between 15 and 20 feet in order to snag passers-by, staying in one place, and waiting for the fish to come to you.

Yes, you can catch fish this way, but why? Modern flashers and a good sharp hand auger (or a powered auger) will effectively allow you to troll an area. Instead of setting up camp, set up a base camp, and drill everywhere. I've done it both ways, and I assure you, this is the way to go, especially on a warmer day, or when you REALLY want to catch fish. Simply put, when the flasher stops showing fish beneath you, walk to another hole and drop down both set ups (your bugs, your Salmos, your live bait) to the bottom, and work up, watching for action. Unless you're simply looking for a chance to get away from life on shore, or happen to know of an amazing honey hole, you'll likely agree that this is the only way to go. Here's how I would approach that same spot (and yes, I really do push out 20+ holes at a time).

On bringing others out

One of my favorite things about ice-fishing has been the overall low cost involved in outfitting yourself with a spare set for a friend or two. A decent rod and reel combo will set you back 20 bucks and perform admirably for every purpose somebody who has never ice-fished before will need. Not only will companionship allow you to stay out longer, enjoy yourself more,but sometimes friends bring beer. With a nod to three specific friends I've introduced to the sport of fishing, I assure you that introducing somebody into a new outdoors sports is truly inspiring. Personally, friends are as much responsible for attempts at improvement as I am myself; I want my friends to enjoy themselves when they go out, and consistently being able to put them on fish helps to avoid the "Well-that-was-a-waste-of-time"s. Take a Kid Fishing is fantastic, but just as much can be gained with my new program, "Take a College Graduate Fishing".

That belies another point I would love to make with this blog; there are simply not enough opportunities out there for the uninitiated to enjoy the outdoors. For so many of my friends, fishing, when not something they have been introduced to as a child, is a daunting pastime. Ice-fishing has been the perfect opportunity for me to keep opportunity costs low (the major cost being a license), because I have slowly grown my own stash of used, beat-up poles that someone who has never fished is perfectly content using. There is no need for a boat, and most Minnesotans already have the necessary clothing for an extended trip on the ice, especially if I am able to bring along my little 2-man ice shelter along. I was truly surprised to see how few of my friends have gone fishing, and I'm proud to say that I've introduced at least a dozen people to fishing by taking them out on Lake Minnetonka and pulling up perch, bluegills and crappies. It never hurts to bring along some Lakemaid beer too, because on those rare occasions I can't magick up a crappie or two, there's always a 52-inch musky to be caught under the bottlecap.

Well, I have so much more to write, some pictures to share, but its getting late. I'll update this again soon!

Thank you all for reading!
~Scott

Welcome to 'Young Man and the Lake'!

Welcome to the first post of Young Man and the Lake! This blog is intended to give insight into a young upstart's adventures across Minnesota, when they happen, as they happen. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel truly inspired to write, and reflecting on the happenings of tonight itself, I know there is truly no better time than the present!

Tonight, the first night of a project I hope to continue for years, was also the Northwest Metro's 2011 Pheasant's Forever Banquet. I've attended several of these banquets, and spoken with several of the members, donors, and beneficiaries, and I'm now beginning to realize that "nothing" is preventing me from becoming like them. What do some of my common-age idols, like Ron Schara, Bill Sherck, Jim Gilbert, or Travis Frank have that I don't? Disposable income? A following? Production value? Years in the industry? Education? The ability to spin a good yarn? Well, I hope to talk to each of them in time and ask them that myself, but the one thing they have that I don't may be my saving grace in keeping this project alive; I'm no expert, but I intend to be.

This blog will catalog my journey from a mediocre outdoors weekend-warrior into what I intend to become, and extraordinary outdoorsman. I've grown up outside and have a solid backbone in fishing, hunting, and camping, but I'm an expert in nothing. I'm less than a jack, more like an eight-of-all-trades. So, come along with me as I tell you, as I learn it myself, what works and what doesn't, what Minnesota has to offer, and how to enjoy it too!

A few goals to lay out right now.
1: Update this blog at least twice a week, and at least once a week with an original outdoors-related story from the current week.
2: Tell some of my favorite stories from friends and family that have had a critical role in shaping me into what I am today, from BWCAW trips with my highschool buddies to the likely unrecognized impacts several greats from the Minnesota environmental network have had while I've been at college.
3: Test fishing, hunting, or camping techniques in order for other non-experts to see a no-nonsense, straightforward explanation of what worked... at least for me.
4. Give a place for ACTUAL experts to give suggestions on anything, be it improving my writing style, or what I should have done in order to turn a muskie follow into a strike.
5. Finally have an excuse to live a little less indoors!

Thank you all so much for going on this journey with me! Lets see where it takes me!