Where is everyone

[Neighbor_guy]

Been working a lot!!! Early start times and long days getting a couple new guys trained in to take the swing and second shifts. Then dealing with construction issues on the weekends. Hard to shoot ducks with the phone in your hand, but it starts ringing about 5am and goes until a little after 10pm 7days/week.

I am ready for the ICE!!! There is no better way to relax than looking down the hole at 8-12' of clear water and fish looking at the decoys

[mrklean]

Got a little package in the mail today cant wait to get them in the water

[MJ1657]

I like them. Ricks decoys?

[mrklean]

Yep wanted to add a couple small decoys to the mix this year

[MJ1657]

I like his stuff a lot.

[jvm1]

Nice decoys MrKlean!

[jvm1]

I spent Saturday with John Laska. Watching him create decoys sure gave me an appreciation for the carvers. I came out of it with a tremendous amount of info that I can hopefully put to use this winter when I try making one.

Also 4 new decoys to add to the box, this purple one is my favorite.

[MJ1657]

I took the windows out of my Fatfish and am having some solid material windows made and I'm taking it to a canvas shop to have a bag made. I'm tired of trying to wrestle it back in the factory bag.

[Archerysniper]

Sitting over the spear hole today, ice is finally here. One of my friends took his personal best this morning a 40-1/2" 19.1# beast of a fish.

[mrklean]

Jealous I was gonna take a drive and check a few lakes out in the metro and see how the ice is looking still a little ways away around me.

[MJ1657]

Me and Mollie went down to the ice show in Blaine and sat at the MDAA booth for awhile with Merk and his brother. Lots of positive feed back about spearing and lots of guys excited about Mille Lacs. I'm guessing it will be a zoo out there this year.

Headed out to the deer stand soon and see if we can stay warm.

[Neighbor_guy]

Spent the day in the deer stand for no reason at all yesterday. Last night repairing a burst air handler heating coil, refilling a 1000gallon boiler loop, cleaning up the resulting mess in the spaces below the leak, and coordinating the needed building automation programming to prevent it fr happening again. Today is a bit of a catch up day getting things cleaned up, laundry done, and getting things ready for the decoy show in Grand Rapids.

[Archerysniper]

Spent the day in the deer stand for no reason at all yesterday. Last night repairing a burst air handler heating coil, refilling a 1000gallon boiler loop, cleaning up the resulting mess in the spaces below the leak, and coordinating the needed building automation programming to prevent it fr happening again. Today is a bit of a catch up day getting things cleaned up, laundry done, and getting things ready for the decoy show in Grand Rapids.

When can I talk you into signing a service contract with my company

Yeah its no fun,the chiller loop blew under ground at the hospital a few weeks ago that was a huge mess trying to keep the glycol out of the pond.

[MJ1657]

Northwoods of WI hoping a couple deer wander by so we can get this done and get at spearing

[Neighbor_guy]

Spent the day with Dealer and Dorkfish. We knocked out huge amount of decoys!!! It was a crazy 12hr marathon of painting and carving.

General rule, if you have an idea for a decoy be ready to work it...

so Dorkfish had a pile of decoys to get finished up. They needed fins glued, bondo, paint etc. I also had a bunch that were in need of finishing. But to top it all off Dorkfish had an idea to make a super sized grumpy fish. So between all the other decoys, we created and finished big one.

at one point we had decoys in various stages of the game hanging from every hook and then some.

here is the biggn hanging glued up with sealer. The call was made to use a rear fin on this one, without being able to have a swim tank we went with what we knew would work.

[Neighbor_guy]

Huge lead cavity in that beast!!! But it balances perfect...

Bondo and primer...

and once the base coats were completed the stack was off to dorkfish for details and airbrushing...

[Neighbor_guy]

there was a lot of details....

In the end it was 14 decoys!!!

The monster Grumpy decoy in the back, a bunch of Dorkfish including a pair of "pink lady's" and a couple others, my decoy of the month decoys, trout and trade bait, a half a dozen grumpy decoys, and a baby dorkfish.

lets just say I thing we all have taken in enough paint fumes for everyone else!!! But a lot of fun was had by all. Now to get them in the drink and swimming.

[MJ1657]

That looks like a good days work. Very nice guys.

[KenM1987]

Brought my Mille lacs trophy to the taxidermist we measured it again and it actually came to 41 inches should look great on the wall!

[mrklean]

Pics or it didn't happen

[Orlip]

Pics or it didn't happen

+1

[KenM1987]

Why does the photo upload upside down

[KenM1987]

[MJ1657]

Very nice pike!

[KenM1987]

Thanks. This is my 3rd year spearing. Been obsessed since I dropped the spear on a pike.