Thursday, June 30, 2011

The new chapter begins



Somewhere in this one week old tangled mess of jet black fur, puppy breath, and more love than any man should deserve lies 'DUKE", the newest addition to our clan.
Duke resides out of Tallgrass kennels in South Dakota. He is of British Lines, so he will be a much smaller dog than our beloved "Kwik", but will probably be a bit calmer also.
This kennel came highly recommended from two people that I trust. Unannounced to me, I actually pet and played with a tallgrass dog a few years ago at the Ducks unlimited world festival. It was a fantastic specimen, and very impressive in responsiveness to its owner.
So the pick up date is mid August, Kelly and I will be making the drive to go pick him up.At his age , he's obviously going to sit out this hunting season, but I will be cross training him for both the uplands and waterfowl. So next Spring and Summer will have a lot less fishing and a lot more dog training. I'm OK with that, training Kwik was a great bonding process and lots of fun.
I'll keep ya posted!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Canada, oh Canada



3 days of fishing on Lake of the woods is just about perfect.
I'm afraid that anything longer with the panoramic landscapes, excellent fishing, fresh fish Fry's for lunch everyday, and a few drinks back at the cabin every night, would pretty much spoil a guy to the thought of ever working hard again.
We had our second annual father son trip at the Fabulous Red Indian Lodge.you couldn't find people who were more accommodating in every aspect of your trip, they genuinely cared. The fishing was second only to the great wildlife watching, great guides stories, and the noon fish Fry's (which are documented on video here). We had a young wolf show himself that a captured in a terrible picture, (he was just to far and I didn't have my good camera), Eagles feeding on injured fish less than 20 feet from the boats, and otters and beavers playing just a short way away.
So many funny stories to tell, like my father questioning the validity of the Perkins waitress in Superior, that the TRULY DID NOT have cranberry orange muffins. "The great Perkins conspiracy", as it is now known created many laughs. To yours truly forgetting to actually close the clasp on my leader after watching a 3/4 ounce daredevil go a country mile directly into the water.
We had a freak DENSE fog in the middle of the day that I captured on video, the guide told us he'd been guiding for 30 years and had NEVER seen anything like it!
Many wagers took place and the winners included
BILL=biggest walleye
Paul= biggest pike
Myself= caught a pike on the ugliest most ridiculous looking bait that we all made fun of for hours prior (plus I won my dollar bet with Barry)
and of course my fathers musky on his second to last cast of the trip, what a way to end! I truly love Lake of the woods, it REALLY makes you feel alive!