Brute’s Bleat

 

The Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) issue I referred to several weeks ago, which would have required all people who tow water related equipment in Minnesota to participate in a training course, apparently will be modified by the legislature. It’s too early to tell what will happen in St. Paul, but there must have been enough people putting pressure on the law’s author, Sen. Tom Saxhaug, to have them give the law another look.    .     .     Anglers who have been fishing various lakes should have a new regulations book with them as there have been some changes made. Some are new and have to do with slot sizes, some are modified and other lakes that had experimental or temporary regulations now have become permanent. The only one that could have an effect on my sunfish angling is Star Lake where a 10-fish limit is now permanent. The only good thing about the reduced limit is there will be fewer to fillet. I didn’t get out to the fishing contest Saturday on Maple Lake, but I was out there to take a look at the vintage snowmobiles which included this old-timer which looked spanking new. The exhibitor was from Buffalo and had numerous vintage snowmobiles on the lake. The most unique was the Bolens unit built in Canada  which featured two tracks under the engine and an attached sled for the driver and riders.  Ken and Margaret Paumen had four Arctic Cats at the show, too.  Their oldest was a ‘73 Panther. I thought I had a photo of John Peterson, who was decked out in an Elvis costume, complete with tiny guitar, for the Polar Plunge, but he was so far out of focus it wasn’t usable. Anyway, he made a big splash when he jumped in with two other firemen. Star Bank’s warming house was a good spot to stop which Vanna and I did briefly to get out of the wind.  Joe Rassat was one of the vendors at the derby, displaying some of the winter fishing items winter anglers need.  He was featuring the Marcum fish locators which seem to be overtaking the Vexillars in popularity.  Buffalo radio announced there were nearly 500 Northerns caught at the contest which, if correct, has to be an all-time high. All in all, I’d say the Maple Lake Property Ass’n. did a great job with the contest, which might have suffered a little in attendance because of the postponement, but still attracted a huge number of people.
*       *      *
I had a couple of good pheasant reports over the weekend. One was Pastor Culynn Curtiss at Holy Cross who spotted five roosters off County Road 7. A native of South Dakota, he didn’t think there were any left. Pam Miller’s oldest daughter, who was putting in some driver’s ed. time for a future license, had a small flock fly across the road on their way to Cosmos last Saturday.  Unfortunately, the only pheasant I saw was a road-kill hen near the Hwy. 37 and 25 intersection

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply