THE LONG WINTER

We recently spent time with some of our south of the Mason Dixon Line Looper friends. When we told them what we did over New Years, well, they thought it sounded crazy. I guess when I think about it, it is a bit crazy.

With the Oddysea tucked in for the winter near Syracuse, New York. And Ross and I dry docked at home for the winter. Well, we felt the need to be back on the water. Even if it is frozen. So we headed North, along with Ross’ siblings and spouses. Destination? Baudette Minnesota. Walleye Capital of the World. Not much to do up there besides fish and cut timber.






We stayed in a cabin together, fished, ate and celebrated New Years.

We rented an ice shanty for the day. Also known as fish house, ice house, bobhouse, fish shack or probably a hundred other names. Ours was the “train house”. Now at any given time there may be between 1500 and 3000 or these houses on the lake.

So they gave us a map and pointed us in the general direction. There are plowed roads, of sorts that you follow out on the lake.  So we watched the mileage and looked for the fish house with anchors painted on it, hung a right and found the one with trains painted on it.










If you’re wondering, it is creepy to drive on the ice. It takes 4” thick ice to walk on. 6” to drive a snowmobile on, 12” for a car and 16” for a truck. I’m hoping this ice is really, really thick!!!  With the many lakes in Minnesota, vehicles do fall through. There are strict laws of about rapid removal of the vehicle, which involves divers and great expense. To the owner.














So here’s our fishing palace for the day.

It is nasty cold out today!!

I took this picture of the temp in the rear view mirror of our Suburban. And yes, that is a negative 12 degrees!!! It  dropped another few degrees after this. The shack has a heater in it so we all stayed warm.


Of course you need a hole in the ice to fish through. This is Ross’ brother, Kirk, drilling holes with a gas powered ice auger.

















You then drop your line through it and wait.

And wait.

And wait.

I waited all day. Got nothin’.









Ross’ sister, Beth, caught the whopper of the day.
She didn’t’ want to touch it though.


















The walleye has to fit in a certain size range to be a keeper. There are markings on the wall so you hold the fish up to the top line and see what number it's tail is at.  This one is in the middle slot, so too big to keep and at the same time to small. So it’s back down the hole for this one.


















Robb has his sonar going so we can see what’s happening down below. If only it could make them bite our hooks.

If the fish aren’t biting in one spot, you hook your truck up to the house, crank the wheels down and away you go to another spot.


This fool just arrived not too far from us and thinks they’re biting here. Ha!

Here is the snowplow going by keeping the road open so we can get home. It gets dark early this time of year. And especially this far north so I want to be out of here well before dark.



We all celebrated New Years Eve up at the Lodge where we were staying.

Happy New Year!!!!!