Friday, June 11, 2010

All packed and ready to go...

...on vacation! My family and Mitch's family are meeting at the Deckert's cabin on Boedigheimer lake in Ottertail county. It's 6:30 am now this friday morning. If I can get Lucas up going we'll be out of here by 7. Anita has been sick all week so Val and Genna will drive to Cambridge to help her and her family get organized while me and Lucas will get to the cabin well ahead of them and get settled in. Right now it's raining. Weather looks to be unsettled most of the time with temps in the mid-70s. Lot's of great fishing opportunities await!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Camping on the St. Croix

November 21nd of 2009 Mitch my brother died of a heart attack. So last weekend my family and his family (Anita, Matthew, Aaron, Ryan) went to the St Croix river to spread his ashes on the river, which is what he wanted, and also do some camping way upriver in a very secluded area where Mitch loved to spend much of his time camping and fishing. For the spreading of the ashes, my mom and my brother Kurt met us at the landing before our departure to spread some ashes there. I think for the most part our acute mourning over Mitch is over, although I still have a difficult time knowing that Mitch is no longer with us. I miss him dearly!

Here's Mitch's ashes. It was very dense and kind of reminded me of dry concrete mix!


Here I am spreading Mitch's ashes...


And Genna...


And my brother Kurt...


After that we headed up the river several miles. Aaron was piloting Mitch's boat while towing a rubber raft with some camping gear on it, followed by my boat. That's Valerie looking on. Anita was taking handfuls of ashes and putting 'em in the river all along the way up...


Fishing-wise, it's unpressured up there so it's usually pretty good fishing. This time we didn't catch a single walleye though. We did some shore casting, but spent most of our time anchored up and casting out river rigs with a hunk of crawler on. Here's Lucas with a catfish...


Fish on!


Ryan and smallie...


Lucas and redhorse...





Here's Lucas during our catfish outing at night. He has a fish on here...


And this is what he caught...


My catfish...











Smallie cancer?


Ryan had on a huge smallie. I'm guessing it was at least 20". He battled it for 10 minutes then lost it by the boat! Man o man, was he upset!


Lucas battles one too, though not as big...





Here's a sheephead I caught...


Aaron caught this 20" smallie right in front of out camp working the current seam on a river rig and crawler...





Genna even went out with us. but she was more interested in reading her book. She did manage a couple fish though...


And she broke one of my rods too...


Lucas was very proud of this catfish he caught on shore just below camp. It was delicious!





Now it's time for the Nygren family vacation! Friday morning my family and Mitch's family are meeting at the Deckert's (friends from church) lake cabin in Ottertail county for a whole week of relaxation and fishing, hours and hours and hours of fishing! We will return the following saturday. There are plenty of good lakes around the area and I have researched some of them for walleyes, bass, norhterns, and panfish. Weather looks to be unsettled with rain and thunderstorms possible so we'll have to deal with all that, but still, I'm sure we'll still get in lot's of fishing and good times with family.