Charlie’s Haus

Im finally able to post about my fishing trip to Lake of The Woods.  It was awesome.  So relaxing, not worrying about anything except which lure to use.  I really needed that.  We stayed at Spruce Island Camp.  It was a 26 mile boat ride from the marina where we launched to our cabin.  The cabin is on an island, but it has full ammenities.  Running water, electricity, etc.  It was pretty cool actually.

Our typical day consisted of getting up around 7-7:30, eating breakfast (bacon eggs potatoes and toast,  or we would have pancakes and sausage), then out fishing until 5pm.  We would come back for supper then at around 6:30pm or so, head back out until dark.  Then back for desert, beer and some poker, then bed around midnight.  The only bad part is eating 5000 calories a day!  Seriously!  I was never hungry.  You only ate at noon so you wouldnt be too full from eating lunch later in the day for supper.  Then through in the snacks you ate while on the boat…it was crazy…but kinda funny.  For supper, 1 night each boat brings and makes supper.  One boat made homemade pizza, one made beef stew, and our boat made ribs.  The other nights we had fish.  Everything was so delicious.  For desert on the nights that the boats didnt make it, there is a guy who makes us desert, and those were all so good too.  The best part is that no matter how much or what you make, it gets split up evenly.  We had 6 guys, so if you make a 9×13 pan of eclair torte (which had to weight at least 4lbs), it gets cut into 6 pieces!  (That was one of my favorite deserts of the trip…I had to get the recipe).

The first night we were there, we got out for about 2 or so hours.  One of the guys caught a 47.5″ Musky, we were all stoked cause we thought it was gonna be a great week.  The next day, I caught my first Musky ever, a 40″er.  My boss/fishing partner Andy also got himself a 36″ Musky.  That night we learned a 48″ Musky got caught.  Pretty good luck for the start of the week.  Things kind of went downhill after that though.  I did catch a 33.5″ musky the next day, but that was the last of the muskies for awhile.  The last day we were there, 3 more were caught…one “just over 48inches” (sure it was ;D ).  We caught some nice pike (Andy had big pike honors with a 39.5″), and I even managed to catch a couple of smallmouth. 

The last day we were there, Andy and I saw/missed 8 fish.  Some were monsters too.  My problem was I never thought of using a stinger hook on my jig/shad tail setup, and they were biting just behind the hook.   It was still fun though, we had the most action out of everyone.

I cant wait to go back next year.  Im already planning on some tackle upgrades.  It would be nice to have one more rod/reel setup so that I dont have to change lures as often, and I have something different to use as a throwback lure if a fish misses.

There was 1 bad part about the trip.  The cost of things in nuckland.  A gallon of gas at our cabin was about $6.75/gallon!  A bad of potatoes was $10, and a case of bud was $40!  A little bit of sticker shock, especially considering that the exchange rate was around 1:1.  Glad we had most of what we needed before we got there.

I have the few pictures that I took up in the photo gallery.  Here is a link to them:
http://www.charliemaurice.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=172

Here is the first good pic I took of my car.  I hand washed and waxed it last night then snapped this at the park this morning before work (click the picture for full size).

Tonight we are headed to the Capital Brewery beer garden.  Its a great place to relax, drink some beer, eat some food, and listen to music.  Should be a good time.

Exactly a week from today I leave for my Canada fishing trip.  Should be a blast…cant wait.  We are headed to Lake of the Woods to do some Musky fishing.  I will also be doing some bass fishing while Im there, but maybe I will catch me a monster!

First off…sorry Aunt Patti for not updating sooner   I have been really busy this week.  Ill rewind to the beginning though.

Last weekend Mandi and I went camping at Nelson Dewey State Park.  It is one of the nicest camping places I have been to.  The bathrooms were very clean, and the campsites were very nice.  Once we got there we decided to look at the “walk in” campsites.  I think they exaggerated the walk in to them.  They said they were 1/2 to 1 mile in….I doubt the first one was more than 100 yards…lol.  They were beautiful too.  They were on the top of the bluff that overlooked the Mississippi river basin.  If we ever go back, we are definitely staying in one of those sites.  Saturday we went hiking in the morning, then tubing down the grant river.  It was pretty relaxing and fun.  It took almost 3 hours to get down, and for $10 a person, it was cheap entertainment.  Sunday we did some more hiking, then went to Stonefield.  That was Deweys estate (the state park is actually on his land).  I’m not going to give a full history lesson, but needless to say it was really cool.  They have a 1900’s town they built on part of the land with a bunch of antiques and things to read about each (for example they had a 1 room schoolhouse, a butcher shop, a furniture store/morgue).  Yeah that’s right, back then the furniture store owners were also the morticians because they built the caskets.  Pretty crazy.  We also got to see the oldest engine tractor in the world.  There are little tours you can go on too and our little old lady that showed us stuff was awesome.  She was so cute.  On the way home we swung up to Cabelas since it was only half an hour away.  Didn’t really find much to buy there, but it was pretty cool.

Monday through Wednesday, from the time I got home until about 11pm I was fixing my car up.  I fixed everything wrong with it, and put it back to stock (took out my gauges and other stuff).  Then I cleaned it all up and put it on craigslist Wednesday night.  By Thursday at 5pm it was sold.   I was kind of sad to see it go.  I really loved that car.  But I knew what car I was getting, so I was really excited.

I ended up spending more than I wanted to, but I was able to purchase my dream car.  Mandi drove me to Winona, MN (yes had to go to MN…these cars are hard to find!!!).  There I picked up my new baby.  A 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP.  Its fully loaded, and I do mean fully.  I will take some pics shortly of it and post them, but I have a new car to love.  It has a 303 HP v8 engine in it, tap shift (you push the buttons on the steering wheel to make it shift if you want manual control), Heads up display (projects speed, temp, compass, etc up on the windshield so you don’t have to look at your dash), sunroof, leather…..etc etc.  Its awesome.  Plus since its a 2007, I got the 5/100,000 mile GM power-train warranty on it.  Its a pretty interesting color too.  Stealth Metallic Grey.  Its a darker grey color, but almost looks blue.  Its pretty sweet. 

Pics of our vacation and the car to come hopefully tomorrow =D