My trip to Red Lake (with Dogstyler)

[Fawkinnae]

Chapter One

Thursday night I could hardly sleep.

I'd managed to track down a house to rent on URL that very morning (I didn't even know houses could still be on the lake). Otherwise I had planned on bringing up my portable. I imagined I might even outfish Dogstyler, a quality angler - with a birthday coming up. But I also knew that with Dogstyler there would be surprises to deal with...

Me: Rick I got us a fish house.
DS: What time you coming up?
Me: I'm going to try to get out of here about 1:30.
DS: Oh. I was hoping you might be able to pick something up for me in Bemidji. A buddies fish house - but it won't be ready to pick up until 6 or 6:30
Me: If I leave at 1:30 I'll be up there at 5:30 - what am I supposed to do until 6:30?
DS: I'll meet you in Bemidji at the Target.
Me: O.K.

Me on the phone at Target at 5pm: I'm at Target
DS: What the ... I'll be there in 20 minutes.

I went to Target and bought him a birthday card. I came out of Target and he's already there. What the...

DS: O.K. now we have to drive to this bar. We go there have a beer. Meet two other guys and pick up a bigger portable than mine and somehow shove it in the back of my explorer.

DS: O.K. Tomorrow we have to pick up an auger at a Buddies - but it's on the way to URL.
Me: Is it really on the way?
DS: Well it's not more than a 1/2 hour out of the way - you want to have an auger right?

DS: What time do you want to get up tomorrow.
Me: If we're up by 7 we'll be ok. Set your alarm.

8:30 am Hines Minnesota
Me: Hey get up.
DS: Zzzzzzzzz

DS: I have to pack.
Me: What? You didn't pack yet.

An hour later
DS: Well here we are at the farm to pick up the auger and unload the portable we picked up last night.

Troy comes toward us from the barn accompanied by 2 pit bulls that are the size of Clydesdales. (More like Begians actually and similar in color.) I'm not kidding. DS hides in the car. I figure why bother if they want to eat us they'll tear the doors off the Explorer and eat us. No one is eaten.

We're on our way again but now we need an extension for the auger. Stop at Dr. Tackle. They have one left. We'll take it.

We arrive at Hillman's about 10:30 am. Fishing by 11.

End of chapter one (fingers cramped up).

[Fawkinnae]

I better get typing before I forget everything.

Chapter 2 (This will actually be about fishing)

We finally got around to fishing about 11am. The report was that fishing had been on the slow side. It didn't take very long and Dogstyler's had a fish on. In fact he got several and I think missed several before I caught anything. The pattern seemed to be a small wave of fish would come in from the south side (the end of the fish house Dogstyler was on) He'd get a couple bites and catch one or two walleyes and I'd get one bite sometimes two but always it would start with Dogstyler.

Typically it would be 45 minutes to an hour between flurrys. On one line I had a shrimpo (I think) and I caught almost all of my fish on it. On the other line I tried every bait know to man except maybe a Bass-o-reno. By about 9 pm we had caught probably about 12 walleyes and one tuna crappie. And we had probably missed as many.

Time to check out St. Patrick's Day in Waskish. We went to Hillman's what is it... Tall Tales Bar. Let's just say the place was hopping and it featured $1 tap beers.

We got out of there about midnight went back to our shack. Within probably 5 minutes at the most we had 2 more tuna crappies. Then nothing. Then time to sleep.

End of Chapter 2.

[Russ-Judy]

HeY " Have I missed the rest of the saga of ""Days of Our Lives"" and ""AS The World Turns!!!??" what channel did they move you too? my heart would just skip a beat if we missed the final episode!!!- - its been a long time since I have read a fine written story like yours with so much truth in it and the humor that only tell it--it reminds me of myself :) :D :o 8) ???

[Fawkinnae]

Now get a hold of yourself Russ.
The stunning climax is just around the corner.
 
The fact is I've been studying your posts for a long time and gleaning every scrap of poetry, adventure and suspense that I possibly could.

The writing bar keeps getting set higher here at MNO and I'm just trying to keep up.

[Fawkinnae]

Chapter 3

Then we woke up. It was Sunday about 7:30 am. Actually I woke. Dogstyler was still snoozin'.

I dropped a couple of lines down and it didn't take too long and I had a nice walleye. Dogstyler got up shortly after me. Then I got another walleye. Then another. The action seemed to be pretty lively on my end of the house. Dogstyler's end seemed much quieter. He suggested maybe we swap positions but I said no.

I also seemed to be hooking all of my fish (I went into a little hooking slump Saturday afternoon - thinking too hard). I think I caught about 4 walleyes.

Then my bobber went down - s l o w. I said I think this might be a crappie. I set the hook. I had him hooked. Then my other bobber went down while I was trying to reel up the first one. I set the hook and yelled for Dogstyler. "Help."

Dogstyler grabbed the rod and had the fish on for a short time but he got off. But the crafty angler dropped the line back down right away and seconds later he had a fish on. And indeed they were crappies. That gave us a total of 5.

Shortly after that things quieted down. We may have caught one more walleye. The wind picked up outside and we didn't have a bite from about 9:30 until we left at noon.

The End.

[Woody]

That's it?  Nothing else?  What the?  Just kidding bud-I sensed your excitement catching the slabs as I read-maybe it's because I've felt that same way!  Or maybe it's because you are a heckuva writer? Either way I enjoyed your "book"!  :)

[Fawkinnae]

Thanks Woody. We had a heck of a good time.

We also noticed the fish seemed to bite a little better when we were listening to Van Morrison.

Note the yoga style crappie presentation in the attached photo.

*You mean this one? (edited by me ) :

[Woody]

I like how the student learns from the master!   :ROTFLMAO:

Very nice fish my friend!

[Outdoors Junkie]

It sounded like a real, fun time.  Thanks for sharing the story yoga man!

[Russ-Judy]

"Thanks for the rest of the story Paul Harvey"    :ROTFLMAO:

[Fawkinnae]

Your Welcome Russ and Judy.

Good day.