Made it to warroad tonight. Meet with most the vets. Had a good dinner thanks to the patch restrant. So far it seems that we have a good group. Army marines air force from mostly around the midwest. More to come tomarrow.


Esox.

well, today brings the first leg of my Operation Muskie trip. I arrived in Grand Forks, ND Thursday afternoon. Friday I was invited to fish with Clear Channel Radio in the Cats Incredible Media Tournament. My partner was local radio icon John Roberts of KJ 108. We were guided by Capt Brad Durick. John Roberts and I started off with a nice double that consisted of a pair of twin 20" cats. From there our luck has slowed, the fish were super finicky and parley hitting the baits. Capt Brad moved us contently looking for fish, we through a spread of different baits and patterns looking for the one that would work. After about 3 hours the clouds began to part and a pattern started to establish. John Roberts and I got into the biggest cats of the day a pair or 29.5" and a 30". These two fish sent us soaring past 1st place with 8 fish that measured 159 inches. The Grand Forks Herald cam in 2nd place with 5 fish the measured just over 100 inches. I tied for biggest cat and John Roberts got to give the Skunk to defending champion WDAZ. The Skunk is a conservation award that is passed to the team that comes in last.
Saturday found Mark Grunwald and Myself in a boat with Fishing Buddy member Justin and Capt Brad. This time were headed to Drayton to avoid the traffic jam that was going on with Cats incredible. This trip was mostly a scouting trip, but paid very nice dividends for us. We started north of the dam, and side imaged a few holes. We boated two but decided to check the fast water below the dam. After a quick load and unload of the boat we attempted to anchor along a break and couldn't hold position right. Immediatly we changed from the 16 to 32 pound anchor.... This move was the right one, 4 minutes after the last rod was launched Justin land a pig of a cat. after a couple pictures and some video we weighed the cat at 20lbs. From their we moved and moved often. This afterall was a scouting trip and there was work to do. 8 more locations after the next 3 hours produced some more kitties... Total for the day was 6 kitties with the 20lber being the biggest. It was a good trip for being the middle of the day with the sun pounding down.
Tomorrow I have to finish laundry and re-pack. We will make the trip to Warroad where we will have dinner with a few of our fellow veterans and begin our official trip on Monday.
Due to the fact that I am not sure if I will have reception on Oak island, I may not be able to blog again till I get back next Friday....
Esox

Just got back from hayward, Wi. Crystal, the kids, and I spent a week at www.goldenruleresort.com . It was a great week hillighted by the time I got to spend with my sisters, their families, and mom and dad. Fishing was slow for everything except panfish. they were hitting everythign and anything. A couple bass were caught and even though we threw everything we had, we never seen a muskie... On a high note, when I got home and checked my mail I had recieved my archery bear liscense... I am now on a mission to wash the families laundary, and get my clothes put asisde for my Operation muskie trip next week.


Esox

Well it has been 4 weeks... Let’s start off with Operation Muskie news, First, I finally received my new Ontario fishing license with the correct date, and it has been thrown away or misplace with the mail that was on the counter... So I have now ordered another one. Time is closing in; I fly out in 20 days, and can’t wait. I will be flying into GF and honing out with my cronies’ and old co-workers at Buffalo wild wings that night. FridayHopfully I get to participate in the Cats incredible media tournament. Friday night is the opening events which are always a blast. Saturday I might try to run up to Drayton and chase kitties at the trail race, and Saturday night is still up in the air, but walleye fishing at devils lake is leading.. Sunday is a day to re-coop and repack, Sunday night I need to be in Warroad and will meet a few of the OM guys. Monday morning we meet and have breakfast. After we drive to young’s bay landing, take boats to Oak Island and Walsh's Bay Store Camp. From that point it will be 4 days of chasing fish with teeth.....

Our Hayward vacation is coming up, we leave in 8 days. This one has me jonesing... I can't wait to not only see my folks, but put some hours on the lake with pops and my B-law Art. Now on to Archery Elk season: I had a scare last week tweaking my knee, doc said i may have a pin coming loose and need to start taking it easy... either way i was on crutches for a week and am now in a workout program to build my legs up. two weeks ago Aspen and I went down to the San Isabel National Forest where we will be hunting and did some scouting. We seen 30+elk, and 1 Black Bear.... stuff is starting to fall in place. I purchased a new IR4 Game camera this week and am going to drive down and stick it up this weekend.

On a side note, My boss, his wife and I have been shooting bows atleast twice a week. We He finnaly got his first Robbin Hood on monday... and at 50 yards no less....

Su just a touch mor info on operation Musky 3... The final list of Vets was released, looks like we have somebody from each branch except Coast guard... I put a post on the OM forums asking where everybody was from. So far only a few replies. Krys says she should have applied just to come up and get away from the kids...
Here is the projected guide list:
Doug Johnson: LOTW and muskie guide legend
Chad Cain: guides on Kincaid in IL and MN in the summer
Paul Klein: Central Wisco guide that spends a lot of time at LOTW
Norm Wild: Central/Northern Wisco guide spends a lot of time at LOTW
Jim Best: lives in Arizona and owns a house on LOTW-excellent LOTW muskie guide
Ed Spoerl: Central/Northern Wisco guide spends a lot of time at LOTW
Pete Maina: legend muskie guide and host of The Next Bite fishing show
Gary Parson: walleye guide and host of The Next Bite fishing show
John Gillespie: excellent guide and host of Water & Woods fishing show
Jim Murphy: incredible guide from MN with lots of LOTW experience
Tom Heneman: Wisco guide and first time he’s guiding for OM
Dick Pearson....

this is going to be azaming week of fishing... Its like the who's who of muskie greats of the past 10-20 years...

Well, I'm only 50 days away from Operation Musky 3. I now have all my ducks in a row. I got my passport and RABC pass about a month ago, but now i also have my ontario outdoors card and fishing liscnse with the correct dates on them. So since all this was in place i decided to buy my plane ticket to GF. I am going in a few days early to make sure i have time with friends and fishing buddies... and I am staying an exra day so that i can attend Kevin Z's wedding... overall, it should be a good trip coverall all bases... I still need to figure out how to schedule a trip in to go and see Matty B and Jen in Bemidji, but time will tell if there is enough time...

on a side note, I took the family up to where we wil be archery hunting now that the snow is off and we could drive up there.. I forgot how ragged the roads get and scared the be-jesus out of Krys. Over-all it was a good time, I went back last monday and watched a couple of deer, 4 does adn 2 small bucks. Also got to see a nice black bear....

This weekend we did a bit of home camping... Parked the camper in the driveway camped out... Brison doesnt get the part about not rolling around and shakking the camper... we had a good time.

I got my passport and passport card in the mail today... also got my ontario outdoors card and 8 day fishing liscense... one problem, my liscense has the wrong dates on it... now I need to call up and try and get it changed...

On a side note, my crew and I hike homestead and after wards went found a cafe with the best pie any where around... the place is called heath stone and is in callhan...

Blue bird project, Sunday 2 May 2010
Crystal, the kids and I went out to Ramah SWA today. We were joined by Rose and dan today.... Bird action on the south side was good, we saw a beautiful medowlark on the fence as we dove in. Bird house 4A has a partial nest, and two others had bit of straw and feathers in them. Alaska joined me for the walk around the dike to the north side... Up there we found a partial next with bird activity in boxes 13 and 13a. Kestrol box B had two Kestrols on it. It was the first activity we had seen at any of the kestrol boxes yet this year...

As for Operation Musky, I got my passport and RABC subbmitted about 4 weeks ago. I did get and E-mail from Jeff W asing about my shirt size and what type of bait casting reel I use. Mark got his RABC send in and ordered his Ontario fishing liscense. I still need to get that done.

As for tryign to get up the moutain to scout for archery season, it sure would be nice if the snow would finnaly give up. A week ago friday we got 14 inches, and 7 of the past 9 days it has snowed on us in some way or form...