Long winter

[Guest]

With the temps diving tonight i'm looking for any summer fishing stories to help past the time.
Trips to Canada, funny things that happened.
Tips you learned or used.
Willing to read most anything that does not mention frozen water or snow!

thanks

[friendlyfisher]

Funny story maybe not, how about sad story.

Befor I got married I used to go to Canada every spring. The walleys were great, Nice lake trout, monster pike and aggresive smallies. What more could a guy want. Every winter my wife says she doesn't care if I go the following spring, but when spring roles around its a different story. She starts laying on the guilt. You can go as long as you take us on vacation first, or If thats what you choose to do its up to you. Right now she is telling me i can go in may. What should I do when april comes and she starts with the guilt? Do I go and not feel guilty, do I go and feel guilty or should i do what I have done the past 4 years, not go and hear my wife say "I said you could go, You choose not to." Or am i not sopposed to go because I have a family now and that comes first?
Some help from you longtime married guys would be nice.

[CrappieJohn]

Why don't you try for every other year. Each year you take the family on a vacation as suggested by her and on one year you go to Canada, the next year you take your wife-no kids- somewhere special for the same length of time and go somewhere that she wants to go as well as you. That way family vaction issues are met and she at least gets a special trip( recognition) every other year and gives her as much to look forward to as you do.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
[email protected]

[Blackstarluver]

XX beats XY everytime!
God lyk!

[Guest]

Not exactly the responses I had in mind.
Try to get past the bad wife/girlfriend thing guys.

[delmuts]

i'm divorced!!so i kind know what not to do. i agree with the one post about sitting down and talking to her that what she is doing, that it isn't fair to you. second as in another post offer the every other year solution. if you approach this calmly she may listen. if you get strick about you going , you might as well pick out a lawyer . women train us over time. guilt is one of their best tools.you do have to stand up for yourself to a point. try to work toward a compromise. my $.02 worth. del

[delmuts]

ok now for open water fishing !! so far my time has been spent on cleaning and greasing reels, checking rods over. then i went over all of my lures etc. checking hook sharpness and getting rid of any with rust. my son and i went fishing below a dam near here on the cedar river sat. we didn't catch anything, but it felt good. right now i am dealing on a different boat and starting to try and sell my old one. we have a boat show here in iowa at waterloo this weekend so that should help a little too.we have been going over the bass pro catalog picking out a few things we just got to have ???? talking about muskie fishing this next year. what lures we want to try and in what areas. been doing some e-mailing to bass pro and cablas about hook size on some of their bigger jigs( both didn't give that info on the web sight ) i go out once a week ( or more !!) and hug my boat!( ok so i have got it bad) can't wait to try to repeat the sight of alex setting the hook on a good fish. the look of excitement that he had when he finally hooked his first muskie last year. i couldn't get it on film, but will remember it always. my daughter,( his twin sister) does some fishing. ( they are 17) maybe this year i can get her into one of those. for me winter is a time for me to reflect and to plan for next year. i plan on becoming semi retires at the end of this month. i will have 30 years at john deeres and don't want to do any more. i 'll take my pension and look for something part time . got to do more fishing. hope to get to minn more this year , but will have to see. does this help ?? i feel better! del

[Mark Christianson]

Oooooo
Interesting one Friendlyfisher.

I am fortunate on the other end of the spectrum. BUT, I made it VERY clear upon my first dates with my wife of today, that I am HUGE into the outdoors, and if it would bother her, we better put the brakes on the relationship immediately. Well, that was almost 15 years ago now. She gives me a partial guilt trip here and there, but I always have a comeback....
Really though, is your wife worried about you leaving her to tend kids? Is she worried about the financial impact of a trip north that you want to make?

My wife likes to always use the "expensive" trip statement. Well, I will tell you what. My trips are not expensive.
Think about this for 2 examples.
- If you go on a trip north, you cannot use food as an expense. You have to eat if you are home or away. Typically my food for a fishing trip is cheaper than at home cuz I eat like a varmint.
- If you drive north for a few hours to destination, you can't really use gas as an expense to an extent. For myself, I drive almost 40 miles each way to work. Thats 80 miles a day. If I go north a couple hundred miles for a few days, well I didn't spend much extra on gas if I were to have had to drive to work for those days.

If you go to Canada, a license is nothing. The Canadian exchange rate from what I remember costed me less than 13 american bucks for a license.

That leaves you with lodging.

Now if kids come into play, then give her a weekend pass to go up north with some friends for a weekend in exchange. She will hit the floor!

There are angles to work it out probably. At least I hope. Make her know now, that you have reservations for your fishing trip this summer, and she cannot back out on you. Put it on your calendar on the fridge. Don't let her forget.

[MT Net]

I posted this before, but I'm also anxious for the soft water season in the BWCA.

We had a great trip in the BWCA into Knife Lake. As we paddled east, Minnesota was on our right and Canada was on our left. We were towed 1/2 hour on Moose Lake to the Birch Lake portage Friday just in time for the rain and N.E. winds. 6 portages and 7-1/2 hours and 16 miles later, we canoed as far as Robbins Island on Knife. Saturday, and the rest of the week was sunny and great! Each day we saw 6 or 8 canoes pass by, basically had the whole lake to ourseleves.

(7) walleyes in the 3 to 4 pound range, (1) 6+ pound northern and a hammer handle, (3) 2.5 to 3 pound lake trout, and a few cute smallies.

The lakers and small northern were caught on the bottom at 30'+. We were dragging chartreuse spinners on heavy bottom bouncers, looking for walleyes, figuring they were at 30' deep. Ended up with a laker! Stopped and jigged a 1/2 oz. yellow jig/leech, another laker.

All the walleyes and 6 pound northern were caught off the capmsite using a leech and slipbobber rig. The bite was every evening from 8:30PM and lasted only 15 minutes. Maybe heading from one basin to the next basin?

I lost a Dr. Spoon a bottom bouncer, and a Cloe spoon, wedged in the rocks somewhere 40 feet deep. Fun trolling for those lakers and hope to do it again sometime.

The only mishap was the syrup left back home. In a pinch, pancakes with peanut butter and jelly weren't half bad...when your hungry.

And, sitting around the campfire one evening, while enjoying a few stiff belts of bourbon and peanuts in the shell, a mouse ran up the pant leg of one of the guys. What a dance, and a good laugh! The Knife Lake Two Step.

[friendlyfisher]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I think I will use a little of everything and hopefully I will end up in Canada and have a happy wife.
I'm new to this type of forum and its nice to see that i am not the only guy out there that can't wait for opener. I have it bad. You can only look and catalogs so long. I do 90% of my fishing in a pair of waders. There are alot of fish a boat can't get to. But i have had enough, this year i am buying a boat. No more tagging along with my buddies when i want to go out on the lake.

[friendlyfisher]

Thanks for the advice guys.
I think I will use a little of everything and hopefully I will end up in Canada and have a happy wife.
I'm new to this type of forum and its nice to see that i am not the only guy out there that can't wait for opener. I have it bad. You can only look and catalogs so long. I do 90% of my fishing in a pair of waders. There are alot of fish a boat can't get to. But i have had enough, this year i am buying a boat. No more tagging along with my buddies when i want to go out on the lake.

[Guest]

Sorry to hear you have to put up with that guilt stuff.....this is exactley the reason why i'll never get married!!.....no significant other should treat the other as such with the guilt thing....i for one wouldnt stand for it.....i'd go fishing every time i wanted to.....no if's ands or butts......if you have to....work some overtime or a small second job to take your wife and kids on vacation every year and then you can also fish every year.....that being said.....talk to your wife about this guilt thing and tell her why it sucks and that you dont treat her as such.....until you stand up for yourself.....she'll do it more and more and it wont be limited to just fishing.....i have 2 rules when i go out with a gal.....1)....i'm goin fishn anytime i want....even if it's 5 weekends in a row and if you get [PoorWordUsage]ed....i'm still goin!!!!!!.....2)......when it's sunday during the football season......don't ask me to go anywhere or do anything cause i'm watchin the Bears play......period!!!!!!!......sometimes you just gotta put your foot down cause women do it every chance they get!!!!!!!.......just my 2 cents.....

[Guest]

Sorry to hear you have to put up with that guilt stuff.....this is exactley the reason why i'll never get married!!.....no significant other should treat the other as such with the guilt thing....i for one wouldnt stand for it.....i'd go fishing every time i wanted to.....no if's ands or butts......if you have to....work some overtime or a small second job to take your wife and kids on vacation every year and then you can also fish every year.....that being said.....talk to your wife about this guilt thing and tell her why it sucks and that you dont treat her as such.....until you stand up for yourself.....she'll do it more and more and it wont be limited to just fishing.....i have 2 rules when i go out with a gal.....1)....i'm goin fishn anytime i want....even if it's 5 weekends in a row and if you get [PoorWordUsage]ed....i'm still goin!!!!!!.....2)......when it's sunday during the football season......don't ask me to go anywhere or do anything cause i'm watchin the Bears play......period!!!!!!!......sometimes you just gotta put your foot down cause women do it every chance they get!!!!!!!.......just my 2 cents.....