2nd Annual Fall Frenzy - Oct 3rd, 4th and 5th

[PerchJerker]

Yep, good idea to post photos of the rigs. This is my boat on the water, don't have a photo of it on the trailer with my truck.

[John Mickish]

Thats ok, I don't have a picture of mine on the water.

[Mykal]

It looks like I will only be up for Saturday late. I will need to plan better for next year. This October looks tuff with commitments. I will have a boat full of 1st timers so I hope that first timer luck will work for my group. I will be up late so I hope to see some of you out there trolling. What is the marine band channel you guys and gals use?

Northlander, If I wasn't full up I would take you out. Next time for sure. I can't wait to try those "special cranks"

[rodmaker]

Special Cranks???? Care to share any info here???

[hanson]

Any on water reports available from last night or today's fishing??

[polarsusd81]

Hanson, not sure what happened last night but I will bring my laptop up so I can drop a report from the resort. Estimated time of departure is noon for me. Can't wait to get up there.

[rodmaker]

Tom,

Photos and an update would be great. Take care

[Paul Waldowski]

No reports as of yet.

Cjac is the only one up here, he went out this am and hasn't come back yet.

[polarsusd81]

Well I am going to be delayed a bit on coming up. I am stopping in to pick up my arctic armor suit on the way up, it will be done at 2 then I am on my way. Should be there by 4.

[rodmaker]

Paul,

I bet I'll be able to smell your taco bar down here tonight

[Team Otter]

Paul,

I bet I'll be able to smell your taco bar down here tonight

Or tomorrow morning...

[Wookiee]

HAHA!

[Northlander]

Man I wish I would have seen this earlier. I was out on Lake Superior all day. I wont be making it guys I made other plans now.

Mykal make sure you keep those babies hidden once you start pounding eyes on them. They are very very hard to find. If ya snag one up you better not break it off.

[Dhenry]

Hey Mykal, I will be up tomorrow for this falls maiden run as well. We'll be launching out of Terry's at around 6:30.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Any news on the Friday bite???

[rodmaker]

Can you share what these cranks are??? Doesn;'t hurt to have more weapons Thanks. If you don't want to say on FM call my cell. 763-639-4659

[PDOGG]

Had a great time up there nice to meet all you guys and put face with some of the names. Thanks to Paul and all the others involved in putting this together. Class act! Too bad the fish didn't cooperate just a little better!

[Paul Waldowski]

All of us here at Appeldoorn's Sunset Bay would like to thank all of the FM'ers that attended this event. I can't say enough about the people that I have met thru this site.

The bite was very tough, but the company more than made up for it.

I hope everyone enjoyed the event and everyone had a good time.

I want to thank Tony Roach for the seminar. He consistently puts his clients on fish and embodies the definition of a Professional Guide. If you would like to book a trip with him you can contact us here at the resort.

[polarsusd81]

Paul, a huge thank you to you for hosting this event. You have two very nice and helpful kids there helpin you too.

I got up there about 3:30 on Friday and jumped right in the boat with Cjac to go tool around a bit and toss for some skies. We weren't heart broken when we returned with nothing to show, but what a beautiful day on the water Friday. Caught the tail end of the seminar and then caught some dinner at the Taco bar. Great stuff again this year. After that I jumped in the boat with Pat Burch of Burch's Guide Service and Patti. We had a few issues with GPS chips for a bit as the last person to use the boat messed with the GPS. We got it working and trolled a bit, not much happening so we decided to switch up to slip floats and leeches as I had a friend getting a few just a bit north of us on them. I popped a 12" eye on that after a few minutes and that was it for the night. It got cold Friday night. When we got back to Appledoorn's it was somewheres around 28-32 degrees and the water temp was dropping.

Some others did alright on Friday night, and some had about the same results as our boat. Dave Weber (Perchjerker) and Mark Stanley went north again this year and popped 5 eyes and a smallie on the inside weedline in 4-6 f.o.w. Blueroof got a chunky 24 Friday night and some others got a few here and there.

Saturday morning I was up early and fished with a buddy out of Agate, slip floats early then wasted a few gallons of gas trolling for a couple hours. Right about 11:30 I popped a piggie smallie on rocks near Agate. Quick pic and back she went.

When Paul said open grill, I figured it was like last year where we bring our own meat to toss on the grill and chow down. Nope, Paul had some steaks marinating when I got there Friday for cookin up Saturday afternoon. Had a hearty dinner and jumped in the boat with Sean (blueroof) and Jason (fishin4alivin) and after fueling up we made the run from Mac's to Red Door. It was a bit bumpy with a decent North wind, but we made it up there with very few broken bones. Trolled a bit and heard Dave and Mark got into some more fish, a 27" eye and a dink eelpout Mark skulled. We got into line behind them and trolled a long ways west. I hooked up on my lucky HJ-12 in orange craw and landed a 19.75" walter, Sean got a few quick pics and she went swimming. A while longer and the wind got a bit stronger, so we decided about 11:45 to head back. Thank the lord I had my Arctic Armor for the ride back, sittin in the jump seat as we jumped the waves. Made it back to Appledoorn's and had a late night bull session while Sean and Jason fried up some St. Croix Sauger. Bout 2:30 it was time to get ready for bed.

Not sure who fried up bacon in Cabin #9 this morning, but it woulda been nice to share. I woke up and searched but couldn't find anything. That is downright evil right there. Packed up, said goodbyes, and on the road home. I needed a good nap, what a weekend.

Sorry for makin it so long, but what a fun weekend. Fishing wasn't everything we hoped for, but pretty much what was expected with the tough year everyone is having. I will be the first name on the guest list next year, this is just one of those get togethers you really don't want to miss. Thanks again Paul for hosting such an awesome event.

[John Mickish]

Thanks again Paul, we had a great time. The bite was tough but nobody can complain about the weather you had ordered up! Can't wait till next year.

[wanger29]

Nice meeting all of you! Had a great time! Food was great, weather was great, fishing... well that's fishing. Hope to catch up next year, RK

[cjac]

Tough bite but a good time as expected, thanks again Paul! Walleyes will kick in soon though I'm sure, as for the muskies....to quote Pete Maina, "they suck."

Just finished cleaning out the boat and putting it all back together, it was a rough run back from the north end last night.

Now I need to see a chiropractor about putting the back in line!

Nice to meet y'all, and until the next time out.....

Chris

[rodmaker]

So did Dave win with the biggest Eye again???

[polarsusd81]

Mark got it. We didn't do signed dollars this year. I think Deitz had some influence on that last year. Oh yeah, there were some more classic Deitz blunder stories as well. Wouldn't be an FM get together without stories about Deitz.

[rodmaker]

Tom,

Congrats to Mark. Deitz is truely one of a kind. That's a good thing. A class guy!!!!!

So your Arctic Armor wa well worth the cost???. May need to start a fund for a set next year.

[riverrat56]

Nice to meet every body and put some faces to names, fishing did leave something to be desired, PDOGG managed to scrape out 3 fish in our boat, including a fat 23" but other than that it was pretty slow.

Thanks again Paul, you run a class act resort and service was top notch!

I will be making every attempt to attended next year again, maybe I'll even catch a fish...

[blueroof]

Paul, thanks for all the work putting the frenzy together, you run a mean operation! I had a great time. It was nice to meet all the good folks that made it up. I was lucky and got my lone catch out of the way early Friday so I could fully concentrate on fishing. Good luck everyone!

[Patti]

I had an amazing time!!!

For me, this weekend was about learning, meeting new people and catching fish....

What did I learn this weekend?

- how COLD it can be on Lake Mille Lacs during the first week of Oct. (actually not as bad as I expected)

- baitcasting reels are a must when trolling crank baits

- line counters or special line(can't remember the name) are a must when trolling crank baits

- people typically use rod holders for trolling

- I went fishing for jumbo perch for the first time and learned, that to some people,

they're better eating than walleye

- make sure the cap is on the bottle of peppermint schnapps when you throw it down to grab your rod because of "fish on" (sorry Paul)

- that the headache I get from cruising across the lake at 35 mph, bouncing off the waves is the same headache I get when I'm jamming at a concert (and I won't stop doing either)

- even fisherman who know lots don't always catch fish so I don't have to feel bad

And now for the fishing report... 1 northern pike - we were so surprised/annoyed that it was a pike that we didn't even bother measuring.

Who do I have to thank for such a good time? Everyone!! but especially -

- Pat Burch for his wardrobe consultation, patience, the extra seat and the use of his baitcasting reel - not to mention all of his knowledge on Fri. night.

- Tom Dobbins on Fri. night for the wardrobe consultaton and insulated bibs)

- Dave and Mark for taking me out and teaching me about perch fishing on Sat. Not to mention my first "wild boat ride". Don't get rides like that with my 18hp or my dad's 25hp.

- Paul and his son Alex for taking me out Sat. night. I learned alot about the lake, the resort and fishing.

- Paul, Alex and Kirsten for their hospitality. The accommodations were fab and so was the service. The Taco Bar lived up to the hype. And the steaks!!! Man they were good...

No, I didn't catch any walleye (or perch) but fish were going to be a bonus for me....the education, company, and the hospitality more than made up for it.

Thanks again everyone!!!

[PerchJerker]

The Fall Frenzy was a lot of fun. Lots of catching up with people that I already knew, and meeting lots of new faces. Big thanks to Paul for organizing and hosting the Fall Frenzy, he really does a top-notch job and Appledoorns is a great setting for it. And the FM gang that shows up for these things are always a good bunch of people to hang out with.

The night bite was tough, nearly non-existent. We fished several spots between Barnacles and Garrison and managed to boat 6 fish on Friday and 4 fish on Saturday. There were some nice walleyes in there, a 27 incher that Mark landed shortly after we started on Satruday evening, plus a 25 incher and couple of 24 inchers, a 22, a 20, and a couple slot fish that went home with my neighbor who fished with us Friday night. Mark also landed a fat-fall-football 17 inch smallie while we were trolling on Friday night.

Our best baits were #7 and #9 shallow shad raps in firetiger and purpledescent. They're not the colors I'd expect to be best on dark nights like we had, but that shows why it's important to experiment with baits and colors.

Inside weedlines in 6 fow were the best for us. Most of our fish came from areas that had rocks and weeds mixed together and our baits banging off the rocks. We also caught a few fish out of weeds in 8 fow.

We tried perch fishing on Saturday afternoon. We were only interested in catching jumbos, we weren't looking to sort through a lot of small perch. We only caught a couple of perch, plus 1 bonus smallie. The baitfish sure seemed to be there, but not the perch.

It was a great weekend and a lot of fun, even if the fish didn't want to cooperate like we wanted. I'm already looking forward to doing it again, and hanging out with the same crowd again!

Warning --- soap-box speech on color selection coming --- I've seen this time after time after time and I'm a firm believer in it.....there should always be at least 1 firetiger bait behind the boat if there's any light at all in the sky. Mark's 27 incher came on firetiger while the moon was as high overhead as it was going to be on Saturday night, just one more example that firetiger is the most consistent color day in and day out up there in the fall. Also, there has been SOOOOOO much posting lately about the discontinuted orange craw color and how it's a "must have" at Mille Lacs, that I think that color is being over-rated. It's a good color for sure, and sometimes a great color, but it's definately not a sure thing. Conditions "should" have been perfect for that bait much of this weekend, but only 1 of our fish came on orange craw. That fish came on a #10 husky jerrk, it was the only fish we didn't catch on a shallow shad rap either night. End of soap box speech on color selection (thanks for staying)

[polarsusd81]

Yeah, a lot of that is me, but it is my lucky bait. I think it has more to do with the action of that one in particular than color but who knows. We had tiger out too. We threw everything in the box at em. We were running right at 2.0 for speed, what were the rest running? There are a lot of colors that work well under all different conditions. I just haven't found my confidence in the tiger yet, but I will. I learned a ton more this year as well. I will probably be picking up a line counter here before too long.