Even though there are a few more guests coming up for the great walleye bite we usually have in October, the 2008 season is behind us.  The season was extremely rewarding for me because there were so many predictions that folks were just going to stay home to avoid driving with the high price of gas.  We didn’t see that here at Pine Ridge Resort. Even with our rainy spring and so many people dealing with the flooding in Iowa and southern Minnesota, we still had full cabins for most of the summer.

Overall, I think it was one of the best summers, weather wise, that I remember since being here at the resort.   July and August normally have quite a few of those really hot, sticky days where even laying around in the lake doesn’t help because the lake water feels like bath water.  Didn’t happen this year.  Water temps reached a very refreshing 75* where it stayed for most of the season.

And every night, the air cooled down so that sleeping comfortably was never a problem. I think I used a blanket every night all summer long.  Past summers there were nights you didn’t even want to have any clothes on it was so muggy.  I don’t think I had anyone this summer suggest the need for air conditioners in the cabins and the one cabin that does have air conditioning rarely turned it on.

And to compliment the great weather, the fishing was probably better this year than any previous  year, with the exception of walleye fishing.  Bass fishing was tremendous.  I have posted lots of beautiful bass on the “Big Fish Pics” page of the web site.  Crappie fishing was good through out most of the year.  Lots of bigger northern were caught and released also.  A few years ago, every northern caught was about 18″ long.  Now we’re seeing fish in the upper 20″ range caught each week.

And this years September perch fishing was just great.   Everyone who came for the jumbo perch caught lots of fish 11″ up to over 13″.  An interested side to the perch fishing was the “extras” that many anglers had fishing perch.  I had several stories of large northern attacking perch on the line just at the boat.  One of my guests landed a 5.5 pound smallmouth fishing perch.  And one guest even had a muskie chomp off his perch right at the side of the boat.
Now we just have to figure out the walleye.  This past weekend, I had a large group in fishing walleye for the weekend.  Four boats went out Saturday morning and boated over 30 walleye which sounds great until you understand that only 7 of those fish were keeper size.  The others were all  under 10″.  The keepers ranged from 14″ to 18″ but there were so many small fish.

I guest that bodes well for coming years.  There is obviously a great year class in the lake that should grow to “keeper” size by next summer.

So, the end of our 17th season here at Pine Ridge Resort.  I don’t know how any resorter could ask for a more wonderful group of guests than ours.  Every year, I talk to other resorters who are so relieved that the season is over.  Not me.  Yea, it’s nice to have a bit of a break, but next May seems way to far away.  Already looking forward to the next season.

Thank you, each and every one of our wonderful guests who visited us here this summer.  Have a great year and we hope to see all of you again next summer.

One final note about the blog itself.  When I first started writing it, I was hoping that it would become a means for not only reporting on what was going on here at the resort, but also, getting feedback from guests.  Over the couple of years the blog has been up, however, there have only been two or three comments posted by guests.

So I thought no one was interested.  And, in response, I didn’t keep writing nearly as often as I had anticipated.  But I have had dozens of our guests this summer tell me how much they enjoy reading the blog and to keep writing.  So now that I know some of you are interested, I’ll try to do better in my postings.

And it wouldn’t hurt if you dropped me a line once and a while.  Take care.  Terry

For the most part, many people associate crayfish or crawdads with southern eating. But I’m here to tell you that the best eating crayfish in the country are raised right here in the fresh, very clean waters of northern Minnesota. Not by choice, really, but they are here.

The native crayfish in Minnesota waters is the small, green crayfish. However, some years ago, someone brought in a larger crayfish known locally as the rusty crayfish. It is an invasive species and is blamed for the decline of the native crayfish (a major food source for many fish), the destruction of vast weedbeds in area lakes, and the reduction in fish populations, specifically, walleye. The rusty gets almost twice as big as the green, is far more aggressive and, like all invasive species, seems to be able to move from lake to lake. Being more aggressive and bigger, they do not provide the same food resource as the green does.

No one has really come up with a plan on dealing with these critters. But they do have one redeeming feature. They taste great. They also trap easily so it’s easy to get a bunch together for a great treat, a crayfish boil.

Now, a lot of folks are shy about eating crayfish. Once cooked, they have to be cracked open and there is not a lot of meat in each one so it takes a few to make a meal. And, OK, I admit, it’s a bit messy and, yes, that green stuff that come out with the meat is part of the insides that normally aren’t thought of as prime fillet. But those small things aside, a pot of boiled crayfish is great eatin and makes for a fun time.

All of which brings me to the Pine Ridge Resort crayfish boil. We have been doing these boils certain weeks each year for about 5 years now. Three or four times each year, we seem to get a group in the resort who really get into the idea and so we order up a cooler full of crayfish and have a pot luck dinner with the fish as the main course.

That is, we did, until this year. Our supplier, Dan Krone, local fishing guide and jack of all trades, decided that, for the money he was charging for a boil, it just wasn’t worth his time anymore. So I have had several very disappointed groups this summer who did not get their crayfish. I tried begging Dan, I tried pleading with him but he just didn’t have the time. However, this weeks group was not to be denied and they tried the one thing I hadn’t. Bribery. Now why didn’t I think of that.

I took a lot of pictures and I’ll just post them below for you to browse through. Normally, playing with your dinner is something most parents don’t put up with. However, when you’re dinner arrives alive, well, the kids just can’t seem to put them down.

Will and Luke Pittelko and Alayna and Austin Castro

Chandra Bouma. 

Austin Pendgraft.
 

Chef Dan pulling dinner from the pot.

The Boumas and Pendgrafts

Some of you Minnesotans may have seen Dan on Ron Shara’s TV show, “Minnesota Bound”. Shara did a segment with Dan catching the crayfish on Woman Lake.

The Hoffman family.

 Steve and Sheryl Castro.

Note the garbage can beside Steve. It’s there for a reason. Steve and his brother-in-law, Steve Pittelko eat crayfish until there are no more to eat. There is only one other person in the group who eats more.

It has been a fantastic summer here in Minnesota’s north country this year.  While bad weather seems to be the norm in other parts of the country, we have been experiencing one of our most comfortable summers in our seventeen years here at the resort.  Day time temperatures in the upper 70’s to low 80’s, night time temps down in the 50’s for perfect sleeping weather and low dew points have been the order of the day all summer.

I haven’t been very good about regular postings on the Blog and I should do better.  I don’t get any feed back on the Blog from those that read it so I got to thinking it wasn’t being looked at.  However, many of our guests ask about how my leg is and comment on other items I’ve written about so I have learned that people are reading it.  I’ll try to get more consistent in my writing.  I like to post pictures on the Blog when I get them so send in photos of your time here and I’ll get some of them posted.

The resort has been full of people since mid-June.  On top of the great weather, guests have been catching fish consistently, including bass, northern, crappie, bluegill and an occasional walleye.  It seems like every evening is perfect for fishing or just sitting around the campfire.

It was our privilege this summer to have a couple of our nations hero’s here with us.  Too many of our young people have been called on to go overseas to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and it is always an honor to meet them while they are on leave or after they have returned.

Spence Johnson was here in July with his family while home on leave from Iraq.  He loved to fish and spent a lot of time on the lake.  Caught his first walleye on Woman Lake.  Spence is pictured below with his father, Spencer.  Can’t really see them well but it’s a great picture.  Spence’s Mom, Kathy, sent us the photo.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Spence as he completes his second tour in Iraq.

Jesse Armstrong has been coming to the resort with his family for 13 years now.  The first year they were here, we had several large thunderstorms that knocked out our power for a couple of hours and my favorite memory of Jesse is him trying to sell buckets of water from the lake to his family so they could flush the toilets.  He didn’t make much money.

This year, Jesse was here with his camera and discovered a field of Showy Lady Slipper flowers (the Minnesota State Flower).  Jesse took several pictures and two of them are below.

It took a lot longer than usual this year but the warm weather, and it’s accompanying warm water, has finally arrived. Kids are swimming, skiing and tubing. Fishing has been good to sometimes great. The cabins are full and everyone seems to be having a great time. The real hot, stuffy weather hasn’t arrived yet so it’s been a very comfortable summer.

With the extended cool weather we had in June, spawning was delayed and fishing for bluegill and bass was great all through June. Jeff Sahr found this beauty early one morning while fishing with son, Steven.

Steve went for the northern and did well, himself.

Rob Ferenz found a nice bass also. Unfortunately, the camera person was more interested in the fish than Rob.

But it was the big walleye that really got everyone’s attention late in June. Here is Rob’s brother, Steve, with a 25″ beauty.

Steve’s son-in-law Brian Wulke wasn’t to be outdone. Brian is pictured below with son, Chase.

And just last week, Glen Engel brought in a 28″ monster that he is having mounted. I have a picture of Glen and his fish and I’ll get that posted on our web site soon.

This week seems to be the week of the big northern. The Armstrong family is here for their thirteenth season and brother Kevin has the lead in the trophy hunt. He has caught and released northern of 7+ lbs and 9+ lbs. Another member of the party caught a 3+ lb walleye, about 24″. I haven’t got pictures of these yet but hopefully I’ll get some emails next week with the pictures.

Speaking of emailed pictures, Barb Knight has been trying to email me a picture of her husband, Randy, and his beautiful smallmouth bass caught a week ago on Woman Lake. I kept getting half a picture or two half’s that didn’t match. Finally, she gave up and sent me a photo by snail mail and I’ll get that posted on the web site too.

Guests are enjoying our fresh water this summer. In an earlier posting, I mentioned that we installed an iron filter this spring which has almost totally eliminated the rotten egg smell and bad taste that we were plagued with occasionally. I was sure skeptical that adding an iron filter would remove those problems but this particular one adds air to the filtration system and really works. It’s great to be able to make coffee or orange juice that doesn’t taste like something left out in the sun too long.

And, many of our guests will be happy to learn that we have finished construction of our new horseshoe pit that was demolished with the installation of the holding tank for the waste water from the fish house. Many of you missed the horseshoes last summer but they are back better than ever.

We had a great time here last week for the 4th of July. Weather was perfect and Longville puts on a great show all day long. The highlight of the day was the parade where Levi Lavallee, life long resident of the area and winner of two Gold Metals at this past Winter X-Games in snowmobiling was the Grand Marshall. Instead of just riding on a float, Levi pulled along his ramps and did flips all along the parade route on his motorcycle.

The highlight of the night is always the fireworks. For a little town, Longville puts on a fantastic fireworks display and it’s right in front of our resort. What a tremendous assortment of colors and shapes and sounds. It was a great day.

Well, since those walleyes are biting so well, I picked up some fresh crawlers this morning. Time to close this up, get it on the web and get some dinner ready so I can get out on the water. I have to go fishing once and a while so I can tell my guests where the fish are biting. It’s one of the harder parts of resorting but I find that I can deal with it. Take care.

Summer officially starts in just a few days but you would never know it walking outside our door.  I can’t remember a day when the temperature has hit 75* yet and there have been mighty few where it has even broken 70*.   I think it has rained everyday for the last two, maybe three weeks.  Nothing major like we’re seeing in southern Minnesota and Iowa but enough to make us wonder if there is still really a sun up in the sky.
Tree leaves are all green and the garden is finally growing.  The rain has gotten everything off to a good start.  Lake water levels are back to normal after being down so far last summer.  Guests don’t have to use a ladder to get from the docks down to their boats.

Fishing has been excellent except for the walleye fishing.  Lake water temps this morning were at 62*, way below where they should be at this time of the year.  Those low water temps have delayed spawning and probably extended our excellent spring fishing.  Some crappies were still be caught last week with eggs in them.  Blue gills are moving onto their nests now and we should have some great “gill” fishing for the next couple of weeks.  Now we just have to figure out what will interest the walleye.  Of course, the mayflies are  starting to hatch now so that will make it harder to catch a walleye.

Several guests have caught some very nice fish, taken pictures of them and then released them.  Everybody seems to have a camera phone so they use those for pictures. I’m waiting for some emails so I can post some new pictures here and on the web site at www.pineridgeresort.com.

So, even though it’s been a cool, rather wet start to the year, things are going well here at the resort.  Most people this time of year come more for the fishing than for playing in the water so they have been satisfied.  Now we’re supposed to have several days of sunshine with no rain.  It will be good to feel the sun again and it won’t take long for that sun to warm up the water.  Summer will get here soon and then we can complain about the heat and humidity.

On a personal note, my MRI results on my knee were better than I hoped for.  I have a badly sprained MCL (that’s medial collateral ligament for those who don’t follow the language) that needs lots of rest to heal. Like that’s going to happen before October.  The MRI also showed a microscopic crack in my shinbone on the same leg.  No idea how that happened but it also needs rest.  Good news there is that they won’t have to cast it.  So now all I have to do is convince my guests all summer long to take care of themselves so I can sit and watch movies all day while my leg gets better.  I think it’s going to take a long time to heal.

Enough for now.  The sun is shining and I’m going to get outside and soak it up before the rain comes again.

It’s been quite a while since my last posting so I’ve got a lot of ground to cover with this one.  It’s been an interesting month.  Right now, I’m very happy to have summer finally here.  For a while, I wasn’t sure we were going to have a summer.

This past month started out poorly for me.  Taking a walk during that last April snowstorm, I slipped on an icy patch and did something bad to my right knee.  Waiting for MRI results now and then have to decide about surgery.  I get around the resort OK but with a lot of caution.  It has definitely slowed me down during the very busiest part of my work year.  Projects that I really wanted to do aren’t getting done and it is extremely frustrating.

Part of the frustration comes from Donna and I just having purchased new bicycles this spring.  We both love riding and were really looking forward to getting out this summer.  Now, they just sit in the garage.

The late spring really slowed things down and concentrated all the work into a few days before guests started to arrive.  I was very fortunate to have a lot of help getting the resort ready for opening.  Most of the ice went off the lake the day my “Work Week”  people arrived to put in the docks.  We had to wait a couple of days for all the remaining ice to melt and even then, we were pushing small flows of ice away from the docks the day we installed them.

I owe all of them a lot.  I had their names of the web site for a few days but here they are again.

Al and Matt Roehl have been helping me install and remove docks for 15 years now.  Hard to thank them enough.

Craig Martinson and Rollie Stoehr have been coming for 5 years and 3 years, respectively, now, to help.  Craig actually takes a week off work to help and Rollie is retired.  Both love the early spring crappie fishing and caught some beauties this year.

Well, they said we were going to get this and we tried not to believe them, but….. As so noon on April 26, 2008, we had 8″ to10″ of new snow and it was still falling.

The concern, of course, it that April 26 is very close to May 10. And May 10 is opening of fishing season in Minnesota. In those two weeks, we have a lot to get done, not the least of which is melting all that snow and the 8″ or so of ice still floating on the lake in front of the resort. That ice was melting quite well until this storm arrived with it’s 27* temperatures. 27*, if you recall, is below the freezing point of water. So here we are, 14 days before opening of the “open water” fishing season and our lakes are still making ice. See any problems here?

Then, too, there are a few other things to get done. Once the ice decides to go away, we have to put in docks. That’s an all day job for six people. I have my dock crew lined up for next weekend and we have to hope the lake cooperates. My dock crew are all volunteers who give up their weekend to help get the resort ready to open. There is only one weekend left between now and opening fishing. So guests arriving for opening should bring their waders if the ice doesn’t go out soon. We’ll need to put in the docks before we can launch your boats.

We need to clean the cabins. Every spring, each cabin gets scrubbed from floor to ceiling to be ready for guests. Notice that word “scrubbed”? Scrubbing requires water. Water doesn’t flow well through pipes when the temperature is 27*. So we can’t turn on the water to the cabins until this still accumulating snow goes away and lets the ground warm up.

And there are always a host of other items to do to be ready for opener. Getting boats in the water, checking out the motors to be sure they are ready for operation, raking up the lawn, repairing various items that didn’t get worked on last fall and about a dozen other things that pop up. And that’s hoping nothing is wrong when we get into the cabins. It’s unusual not to have to fix a leaking pipe or a loose door.

So I want everyone to thing very warm thoughts for the next few days. I’ll let you know if they work.

So a week ago Friday, on April 5th, I got my new bicycle out for the first time and road a couple of miles.  That evening, Donna and I pulled out the grill and charcoaled some steaks.  The next morning, we brewed our first batch of maple syrup.

Sunday morning we woke up to 8″ of snow on the ground and it snowed the rest of the day and all night.  18″ total.  Nice April Fools joke, right?  But Mother Nature wasn’t done with us.  This past Thursday, April 10th, it started again.  8″ to 10″ more by Saturday morning.  We haven’t seen this much snow in years.  And it was heavy wet snow.  Hard to shovel and hard for the snow blower to throw.

The good and the bad of all this snow.  The good is that it’s badly needed moisture.  We figured at least 3″ of water in all that snow.  Should really bring lake levels up when (if?) it all melts.  The bad is that fishing opener is now less than 4 weeks away and there it a whole lot to do between now and then.  Things that can’t be done until the snow melts, the ground thaws out and the ice goes off the lake.  It’s going to be a close thing to get all that done by opener.

Then there is the really good.  Both these snows have been perfect “sugar snows”.  This kind of weather really starts the sap flowing in the maple trees and it’s running now.  Only tapping a few trees, we’ve already made two gallons of pure maple syrup and there will be at least two more before the weather warms later this week and stops the flow for a while.

If you’ve never had pure maple syrup, it’s a treat you have to indulge yourself in sometime.  You’ll never go back to Log Cabin or Mrs. Butterworths again.

The kids are still in New Zealand.  Last we heard was a few days ago after they got back from a 4 day ocean kayak trip.  Now I like to kayak around my little lake here but to spend 4 days in a kayak would be pretty difficult.  They had a great time, of course.

Then they hoped a train for the southern part of the southern island.  We think they had something else planned but we not sure what.  Makes us nervous.  See my previous post.

So now we just wait and see how long it takes to melt all this snow.  Normally, we put in docks the last weekend in April.  I’m thinking there will still be ice by then although the channel between Girl and Woman Lakes is open. The ice may be melting faster from the bottom then the top.  What we need right now is a string of days in the 50’s to 60’s where it doesn’t freeze at night.  And it’s hard to clean cabins until we can turn the water on.  That can’t happen until the frost goes out of the ground.   Any more unseasonal cold weather and we’re going to need ice augers to fish on opener this year.

Keep our fingers crossed and I’ll keep you posted.

Many of you know that our daughter, Leah, left last September to travel in New Zealand for a few months.  She really wanted to go out while she has no real responsibilities or attachments and visit that beautiful country.  Well, she’s still there, although she has purchased her return tickets home for early May.

She is putting off her return because our son, Evan, got wholly jealous of the fact that Leah was there and he wasn’t so he took a month’s leave of absence from his job and hopped on a plane April 1 to join her.  The two of them should have a great time together.  They plan to do a lot of ocean kayaking and traveling the country to see some really incredible sites.

We have one concern, however.  Evan loves to do anything outdoors that involves wild places, mountains, or water.  But he also has a strong sense of doing it right and being careful while enjoying the adventure.   We’re not quite sure about Leah, who seems to be a bit more on the adventurous side without quite the sense of self preservation that Evan has.  Witness the following photo:

Yes, that’s Leah jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet with some guy she met 20 minutes ago strapped to her back hoping that he has a very strong sense of responsibility and an even stronger sense of self preservation.  I didn’t learn of this adventure until we got the video of the whole flight in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  Obviously, since we got the video, the end result was good.

Except now she is trying to talk Evan into redoing the experience.  Fortunately for our peace of mind, we don’t learn of these experiences until they are over.  Like when she told us she had been scuba diving in a large tank with sharks.   Our concern now is which will win over, Leah’s somewhat overactive sense of adventure or Evan’s right-on sense of self preservation.  By the way, Evan, that is not a challenge.  We’re rooting for you.

Meanwhile, back here at the ranch, things are returning to normal after our difficult winter. We’re still waiting for the snow to melt so we can get to work outside.  Hard to believe fishing opener is only five weeks from this coming Saturday.  We need some warm air soon or we’ll be ice fishing on opener.

Say, I found a great web site for those of you who are  fed up with all those unwanted catalogs you get in the mail each week.    https://www.catalogchoice.org/login    Log on and you can tell them which catalogs to want to cancel and they’ll do it for you.  Save a tree.  Cancel those catalogs.

Time to head out and tap a few more maple trees.  The weather report sounds perfect for the next few days for a great sap run.   Can’t wait for that first taste.  Later.

A lot of you who read my blog have been to the resort and had a chance over the years to meet my father.  He loved to fish and he loved to talk about fishing and even last year when it was hard for him to walk and he couldn’t remember how to make the trolling motor work, he still wanted to be out on the lake.  When he was in his apartment in Hackensack, he talked about fishing with his neighbors and couldn’t wait until I had time to get him out on the lake again.
His last years were difficult with his disabilities and the onset of dementia.  On this past Christmas Day, he suffered a stroke that was followed by others and Dad passed away in February. We put his favorite crappie rod and $5.00 for some minnows in the coffin with him so he’d be all ready to go when he got to his last fishing hole.  This picture was taken during better times but it’s the way we all remember him.

Save a few for the rest of us, Dad.

So now it’s time to move on.  Not to forget, but to move on.  In the next few weeks, the sun will finally warm us up, the snow will melt and it will be time to get the resort ready for spring.  It’s been a long winter and I am ready for spring.

We tapped our first maple trees last week but not much sap is flowing yet.  Didn’t tap at all last year and I really miss the incredible flavor of real maple syrup.  Hopefully, next week we’ll start getting some warmer days with some sunshine.  That really brings up the sap.

There are a couple of projects planned for this spring but we are not going to be as ambitious as we were last year.  Quite a few of our guests have all ready signed up for our Work Week to help get things ready.  We need to build a new stair way down to the lake and rebuild the area in back of the fish house so we can set up the horseshoe pit again.

Probably start cleaning cabins around the middle of April.  Have to get the ground thawed out first so we can turn the water on.  One good thing about this long winter past is that we had quite a bit of snow early and it kept the frost from going too deep in the ground.  Septic systems did not freeze up this year.

Shortly after the ice goes off the lake, my dock guys will come up and we’ll get the docks back in.  That’s when I start to get excited.  Boats in the water and the crappies start biting.  Early May usually up to Memorial Day we have great crappie fishing.

Now that the season is ready to get going again, I’ll be posting more often.  I’ll let you know how that first batch of maple syrup tastes and those first of the season crappies.   Just a reminder, walleye opener is May 10th this year.  There are still cabins available for opener but the weekends after opener are almost filled up.

Take care and we’ll see you at the lake.