This year we decided to do someting a bit different an therefore ventured into Wisconsin. We left on Friday and checked into a VERY nice hotel and quickly took off for the lake. We grilled on the lake and the highlight was Harepie rolling Dolan's snowmoblie and seperating his sholder. Over all this community was a B. Good hotel, fun bar near by, girly bar short drive away but there was not too many people around and fishing was not great. Harepie won the trophy with the only fish caught... an average northern on a tip up.

Mississippi River - Backwaters Poontoon Landing

Our second time keeping the trip local. This year the group was a bit smaller. Sal, Henry and Thayne could not make it. We to the Wisc side of dyke dam from Wabasha. The weather stunk! It was drizzling all day and the ice was really thin. We hit the bowling alley bar that night and then back to the hotel... another WILD night in Wabasha. Trip was ranked a B. Limpy won the fishing trophy with a bunch of small rock bass and the highlight of the trip was Dolan being woken up by the noises caused when another drunk teabags the leg of a fellow friend.

This was a trip of a life time. If a person gets the chance to participate in an outing like this at least once in their lives they are lucky. Thurs morning a chartered bus picked us up in Rochester. The bus was kickass it was VERY nice. 30 of us loaded up and headed out. We made a pickup spot in the cities and then another outside Duluth. The keg that was brought along for up at the cabin was drained by Forrest Lake and the bus driver had to empty the toilet on the side of the road. We had invited friends, family and even had an Amish guy and a fella that flew in from Tennessee who had never seen ice. This trip was GREAT! The highlight was the bus ride and the winner of the trophy was Jeff Jamez with at 28 inch Walleye and  Limpy was a second with a 36 inch huge eelpout... the guides said it was an inch smaller then the state record.

This year we made the trip bigger and badder! We headed to the MAC DADDY of all ice fishing resorts Sportsman's Lodge on the world famous walleye fishery… Lake of the Woods. This year we opened up the invitations to friends and family. We ended up with 32 fellas and caravanned to the resort. The day before a small group decided to hit Red Lake in search of huge crappies They arrived on Red in the eve on Wed and fished in their shacks overnight then rolled into Sportsman's the next day. Sportsman's was AWESOME… great food, drink, fishing, night life and we all stayed in the same house. The highlight of the trip was watching Huey get thrown onto the roof of shack number 62 and the winner of the fishing trophy went to Harepie with a very nice 30 inch Walleye and a close second was Carter with a 29 inch walleye.

We decided to go back to the dead sea and give it another shot. This time we tried the south east side of the lake. The group was a bit bigger this year so we got two shacks. As soon as we arrived Dolan dropped a line while we unpacked and WHAM he got a huge bite and very nice 29 inch walleye. We didn't catch much more from that time on except a few perch... Dolan won the trophy this year. The highlight of the trip was Harepie puking into his ice hole on the first night and then having to use the hole the rest of the weekend.

The second year we decided that this trip should be a BOYS only trip. Therefore we got the fellas together and headed to Jorden... Dolan's house. We took refuge here and Dolan made a HUGE pot of bean casserole and let it cook all day so it would be ready on our return. We hooked 3 shacks up together and the weather was awesome. Later that night it got very cold so we packed up and headed to the bar. Brett one the fishing trophy with a decent crappie. The highlight of the trip was Hairpie jumping up on stage at the bar and singing with the band... he thought he was pretty cool... the band didn't and shut off his mic... he thought he was singing...

The inaugural year of the ice fishing trip we simply packed our own gear and through the wives into the trucks and headed to Faribault. We stayed in hotels and caught no fish. The trip was fun but not a REAL ice fishing trip and don't think the women enjoyed themselves.