Having not making our plans early enough, we needed to get creative with our lodging, since most things were sold out, on our way to Yellowstone National Park from Minnesota through South Dakota. This made for some interesting experiences.
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Our first night in South Central SoDak was in a teepee on private property along Pepper Creek in the Pine Ridge Reservation "just off" the freeway. At least that's what the AirBnB listing mentioned. So after the Corn Palace and Wall Drug, we toured the Badlands, and made our way south toward Wounded Knee, thinking we'd get there in no time, was much further than we had thought. Our navigation began by taking us down what I'd call a field road with cattle standing in the road. Once we found a paved road, it didn't last long and turned to gravel for the rest of the route. Now this gravel is more of a sand - kind of like sandblasting sand - and we well exceeded recommended speeds, if there would have been any posted. We lost cell coverage intermittently, as we started noticing abandoned vehicles, miles between homesteads and a not a soul in sight. This all added a certain level of anxiety for the wife and myself, but not wanting to worry our two boys (7 & 12 years old), we stayed (kind of) calm, as the sun was getting awfully close to the horizon.
We finally arrived and what seemed to be an abandoned home, with a handful of men sitting around. They glared at us like they were thinking "well, well, what do we have here". My wife and I looked at each other like we needed to say our final prayers. I got out, and asked "is Charlotte here?", with no response. One man headed inside. My thought was he was going to get his rifle, but a minute later Charlotte sprung out welcoming us with a smile. All anxieties vanished, and we hastily opened the tonneau cover and tried to dust off 1/4" of dust on the luggage and Rubbermaids. Charlotte showed us our teepee and porta-potty, and we nestled into our sleeping bags, just after dusk.
I've never seen a real teepee before and I guess I expected it to be closed?! Open air below and an open entrance "door", plus open up-top, great airflow I guess. Snakes were our main concern at first, but then we heard coyotes howling. That didn't stop us from falling asleep immediately after the long day. Nothing got to us during the night, "we made it", I thought as I laid there coming out of my slumber when all of a sudden an animal jumped onto me! I was relieved to find a cute kitten looking for a new friend. We packed up and headed out shortly after.
After taking in Mount Rushmore and Devil's Tower, we made our way to a nice little guest house just south of Cody, Wyoming, a great stay compared to the previous night. While in Cody, we visited the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Cody Firearms Museum, took in a rodeo, and I had me some Rocky Mountain oysters.
We made some stops on our way through Yellowstone, but needed to make it to the Spud Drive-In over in Driggs, Idaho where we had reserved a camper which was at a drive-in theater. As we made our way through Jackson Hole on our way to Idaho, we again were pushing daylight, but got nestled in by dusk and took in a movie.
The camper was very affordable and a neat experience, and really wasn't too far from Jackson Hole, so we were able to do some hiking and sightseeing the next day in Grand Tetons National Park. We had a fabulous dinner at The Kitchen in Jackson Hole.
We headed out through Idaho on the west side of Yellowstone to may way to Old Faithful. This was a great drive, with very little traffic and we had the ability to see the mountains from another angle. Old Faithful was a first for all of us and we stayed in a hotel near Yellowstone Lake where we spotted a large bull elk the parking lot.
Next, we headed up toward the north rim where we spotted some bison along the road. Yellowstone's Grand Canyon was great - such great scenery. Well now all that camping gear we were hauling around needed to be dusted off and setup as we camped the next night. Here's where we did a bit of laundry and continued to try to clean off our luggage. Prior to this camping experience, we had camped where black bears roam, but never where grizzlies may do, we had some bear spray - but thankfully we didn't need it.
Next we drove to Gardiner, Montana to find a nice little shack to stay for the night. With a great meal at the Ironhorse Bar & Grill. The next day we toured Mammoth Springs, and headed out through Shoshone National Forest and Beartooth Pass, with plans to make it all of the way through Montana and North Dakota, to the cabin northwest of Alexandria, Minnesota. We didn't realize that the majority of Montana is identical to the scenery you'll find in North Dakota. While I appreciate wide open spaces, enough was enough and we stayed one final night in the middle of NoDak.
We had never been to Yellowstone and the amount of time it takes to get from one point to another was something I had underestimated. For our Yellowstone trip, we made sure South Dakota wasn't just a drive through state, and this trip was the inspiration for Lakes Supply Co's South Dakota Collection. We learned that instead of jumping from hotel to hotel, the variety of lodging added many unexpected experiences and memories. The over planned perfect vacation usually is not perfect. It may be surprising to find out how much better it could it be with no plan and no expectations.
Get in the car and drive.
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The 2020 spring Walleye bite has been hot to say the least. I partly attribute that to being able to be on the water much more than normal, due to the whole Covid-19 thing. My boys have been unable to play baseball, and that means no weekend tournaments.
]]>Since the Minnesota Walleye Opener, each weekend proved to be better than the last. Opening weekend produced a few eater size 'eyes, which we were ecstatic to catch. Normal openers are a bust in northern Minnesota, specifically Alexandria in my case. It's usually too early in the year to get any action – at least for the novice, weekend angler like myself.
We fished Sauk Lake the second weekend for the first time – a lake that was on our list for a while and home to annual Walleye tournaments. This lake inspired the Sauk Lake Collection that's in my shop. We were able to snag into a handful of Walleyes and again, by our standards, that was a success.
We were able to snag into a handful of Walleyes the following weekend, an 18.5-inch and 23-inch were boated on a lake that we haven't been able to pull a Walleye out of for 4-years!
Again, we only were able to snag 2 Walleyes, but you guessed it – they are growing! An 20-inch and 27-inch were boated on the same lake as week 3. Each have been at different locations, but we were beginning to see a pattern on this lake, which told us the first 2 weren't just a fluke.
This trip was with some buddies and we hit same lake as the previous weekend just for a couple hours before sunset and it provided a 21-incher for a buddy! The next day was dead-calm and bluebird skies. We lathered on the sunscreen and I threw on my neck gaiter to keep the sun off of my ears and neck. We decided to target a lake that I've always heard good things about, but because of busy schedules of past years, we just never spread our reach too much. The wind picked up and we nearly doubled a 25-inch and 26-inch Walleye. And on another small lake produced 9 'eyes of which the largest was 23-inches.
We were really getting the hang of it now! 18 'eyes were boated over a 3-day period, on two small lakes. My son is only 15 years old and really didn't think he'd catch a fish bigger than his personal best of 22.5-inches in his lifetime. I've been to Canada, Mille Lacs Lake, and Lake of the Woods and still haven't boated one over 27.5-inches (of which was caught on a small Minnesota lake). It was hard to believe that Zack pulled in a new personal best – a whopping 28-inches!
OK, we took a weekend off to hit some graduation parties. Week 8 was June 26-28 and technically summer, but our tactics hadn't changed. But it really gave us a challenge. It was too hot to fish during the day, and I had only caught 3 walleyes in 2 evenings and 2 mornings. Zack hadn't boated a walleye all weekend, until shorty after 10AM on Sunday as we were about ready to take a break. He snagged into another nice 28-inch, his second of the year to match his personal best!
Check out the catch-and-release here:
Check my line of lake inspired products to find your favorite lake! Don't see it? Let me know what your favorite lake is in the comments, or send me a message and I'll design one and add it to my shop!
]]>My son and I were invited to go along on a 4-night trip to Rainy Lake with a group that has been going for a few years. As a result, much of the trip was well planned out: we had a group site about 5 miles from the boat launch that included bear lockers, dry toilet, optimal tent pads, and two docks.
]]>Being a fairly new boat-owner, anxiety set in when seeing maps of the lake showing a multitude of rocks, islands, and buoys. Previously, I've only fished areas around south-central Minnesota, where most lakes have a fairly muddy or sandy bottom.
I began preparing by ensuring we had ample deep cell batteries that could last a day out on the water if trolling motors were utilized all day. I researched ways that I could charge them, from solar chargers to generators. I finally decided that a generator was the best in order to ensure a full charge, as solar may not work well if the sun was a no-show.I wasn't sure that investing in a generator I'd only use once a year was a good idea, so I borrowed a Honda 2200 from a friend that utilized it for powering his Ice Castle fish house. I was surprised that the others in the group hadn't the need for a generator. Turns out, they primarily used the main motor for trolling, and leveraged the wind for drifting.
As mentioned, there are a lot if rocks that could take out your lower unit or put a nasty hole in your bow. A trusty official Voyageurs map is worth the investment, even if you have a GPS. Reason being, the lake is massive and seeing a the map on 5-inch screen doesn't provide you that birds-eye view that's necessary to understand your route and any obstacles along the way. There are routes marked with buoys that you must travel within, unless you're in the act of going from one fishing spot to another that isn't near the route. This allows for a sort of gentlemen's highway that's shared by all. And by doing so, every fishing boat, houseboat, or sailboat isn't zipping past you while you fish – unless you're fishing right on the travel route of coarse.
A full tank of gas is ample depending on your capacity. Ours was 20-gallons, so we were good. If your capacity is less, I'd recommend bringing extra. Also, ensure your trailer bearings are in good working order, one of ours was burning up after the long drive from the Twin Cities.
The first year, we targeted smallmouth bass a bit more than walleyes. Or, we had more success finding the smallies, if I remember correctly. Being late July, the walleye hot time was nearly past. The following year, we had much better success for walleyes in June. Depending on the time of the year, minnows can be an option, but mid-summer seemed to lean crawlers or leeches.
First, I'd experiment with 5 to 6-foot snell with plain hook, and with spinners. Shorten or lengthen the snell if necessary. Jigging seemed less successful, but time of the year and skill level may play a factor as well. It seems we had less success fishing around rocks that nearly protruded out of the water (I call them dump trucks due to their size), and more success on deeper rock piles and small vegetive islands. Tip: you can shop by lake with Omnia Fishing, to guide you to all the right gear for Rainy Lake!
If you don't have spot-lock or the equivelant on your trolling motor, you may still want to bring an anchor or two. There can be some roller waves and using them instead of your trolling motor can save on battery if you need to. If space is of essence, then you could risk leaving without them, especially if you stray from the water if weather is inclement.
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