Down to the wire

A little taste of how my weekend fishing trip went.
 

Starting the story off with last Thursday's Catfish scouting trip.

Get to the ramp which is coated with 6 inches of dry mud. No problem, start fishing, have a great couple hours, call it a day. Speaking of calling,........make a couple phone calls. One to the city of Oslo, excuse me, 4. No answer, no answer, answering machine, voicemail. Rain is in the forecast, its going to be ugly if the ramp doesnt get cleaned. 2 days go by. The ramp hasnt got any attention.



OK it rained.......and it's ugly. Make a couple more phone calls. Nobody seems to want to answer the phone. I decide to man up and take matters into my own hands. Or try to. Head to the ramp with a shovel.............hahahaha 3 scoops and I'm spent. The Red River mud is like glue. Not gonna work.

Wait a minute, I have a snow plow, that will work wont it? It would, except after putting the plow on the "new to me" pickup, I notice it sits up a few inches higher than my old pickup. The plow sits about 2 inches above the mud. At 5pm on Saturday, the night before my fishing trip with a couple from Minot, I'm starting to get nervous. I realize I can fish in Grand Forks, but I just don't want to. I need to fish MY stretch of the Red.

I make the call to my younger sister, to vent. Forgetting her boyfriend works on tractors, combines, loaders, skid steers, etc. She reminds me, and I didn't even have to ask, they were on the way with a skid steer. I tell him if he gets one lane cleaned, we'll be good and he will get a big box of venison steaks, burger, etc. After a few hours, we get one lane cleared. Its still ugly but for a vet like me, I can make it work.

I pick up my new friends from Grand Forks and we head north. They hop in the boat, I back it down, climb from the drivers seat all the way to the bed of the pickup, and into the boat. I think since I made the effort to get that ramp cleaned, nobody will mind if I leave the rig parked by the water.

The day is going great and it was worth the hassle. Except I forget since the city hasnt cleaned the ramp yet, they haven't brought down the porta-potty yet either. Bathroom time, so we load the boat, I pull it out of the water, head into town, only to find EVERYTHING is closed. Bar, cafe, C-store, nothing is open.

Well my house has a bathroom,.......so it's the only option. We are welcomed by my loving wife, daughter, and 2 dogs. My friends are dog lovers, so naturally my dogs find their way over to them. The 1 year old Springer, Lab, mutt, mix, likes to jump. I see a little blood on the chin of one of my friends. I didnt ask at first, because I didn't know if it was a pimple they popped, or what. It starts to bleed a little more, and it finally struck me that the dog's nails sliced her open. (she didnt even realize it because she was having so much fun playing with the dog.)

After getting doctored up by me, we head back out. Big fish of the day is 21 pounds and 34 inches. (Which took about 10 minutes to bring in on account of the huge log that was attached to a piece of mono (I dont fish with mono) that was stuck to the line.)



A friendly competition between the two left Dianne as the winner of the day.

Thanks for coming guys.

I tried to flip that last picture, not sure what happened.

Nice Job, Yeah the ramp looks a lil sketchy, maybe one day they will clean it off for you.

Nice to see a big ol kitty though
Looks like they were satisfied!

You need this in your pickup box for just such occasions:



You can use it to put the boat in on the muddy ramp, more importantly, get the boat back out.  You could also maybe drop the plow and move that pesky mud, though the plow might not be heavy enough to stay down.

Horsager Said:
You need this in your pickup box for just such occasions:



You can use it to put the boat in on the muddy ramp, more importantly, get the boat back out.  You could also maybe drop the plow and move that pesky mud, though the plow might not be heavy enough to stay down.

will that fit in the back of a pickup with a 6 ft box and tailgate down

Hey man!!  I don't think I'm gonna make it out there for some cattin.  May have to be a fall walleye trip.  I haven't even been able to get down and open my trailer at Deepwater yet.  Hope to do so in the next week or so.  You gonna be down for the 4th again??  If so, I will have some cold ones in the fridge for ya!!  All the whiskey you can drink too!!!!!!!!    

I have a short box superduty and it fits in there with the tailgate down.  During the summer when I take the tracks off I can put it in the box and close the tailgate.

Horsager, you mean like this? It's out West right now and I probably won't get it back till the 4th.

And solocam, yes, try really hard to make it for a trophy walleye trip. We will be at Deepwater for the weekend and I hope to be there Friday night till Monday evening. See you there for sure.

good job on the adjustments Josh. ya gotta do whatchca gotta do sometimes to make it work. seems ya did good

U got a pointer? 

Jig-em-up-Josh Said:


Horsager, you mean like this? It's out West right now and I probably won't get it back till the 4th.

And solocam, yes, try really hard to make it for a trophy walleye trip. We will be at Deepwater for the weekend and I hope to be there Friday night till Monday evening. See you there for sure.

Skager Said:
U got a pointer? 

Yep, that's Butters/Buster.

Nice work Josh.  Devils Lake wasn't a picnic either.