Portable Fish House Modification Get-Together - Sat. Aug. 6 !!!

[Matt Johnson]

Good one hanson! How a person transports their portable fish house can make a difference in how they modify it. Great point of mention!

I built a wood frame (with the help of Paul Waldowski ) that goes into my trailer hitch receiver. The wood frame will hold down my Otter Magnum Lodge just fine, which saves me from having to lift it into the bed of my truck and it also allows me to transport more than one portable fish house for when I have guide trips and such. I'll see if I can get it ready and I'll rig it up and bring it this Saturday for people to check out.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Matt Johnson]

Current and last list before the actual get together...

Matt Johnson

Paul Waldowski

Dennis Steele

hanson

Dan Thiem

Big Paulie

riverrat56

ATM

picksbigwagon

wolfman-k

woodyjd (and son)

nytelyter

Chris-Neises

CRAPPIEBAIT (and son)

H2O

JoeT

tonyjor (and girlfriend)

BDR

bassman186

Ryan V (and nephew)

wallydiver

Northland Sportsman

hawkeye43 (and sons)

Borch

CrappieTom

katofishingguy

jig n’ jerk

Moose

Looks like we've compiled a pretty good list. I'm looking forward to meeting a few new people and putting some faces with a few more of the names. And of course, I'm looking forward to chatting with familiar faces as well

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Dave]

If ya don't mind, I should be rollin' in as well slightly before 10am. My plan is to bring my Polaris Sportsman 700, rigged for ice fishin'. Also, if all goes well, I see some youth are attending and I'd like to solicit the help of all the youth anglers that attend for the assembly of an Otter Outdoor fishing shelter and some accessories. The youth can go at it, learn to work together, become friends and maybe get their dads to make plans to meet up out on the ice this season!

[Matt Johnson]

Glad to hear you're going to make it Dave! Good idea about the youth Otter assembly, that should be a good time!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Matt Johnson]

Well tomorrow's the day! I'm really looking forward to this! I'll be spending part of the day today getting things ready and then off to St. Cloud in the morning!

See everyone tomorrow!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

Will we be needing a grill for cooking up some lunch ?

I'll have my small tabletop grill,or I could strap the big one onto my trailer.Could be a lot of hungry people.

"OTTER SCHOOL" for the kids,I love it ! Good thinkin.

[Matt Johnson]

If you want to bring the grill then go ahead. That might be a little easier than getting a park grill going. But I would assume that the park has a few grills we could use if push comes to shove. Thanks!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

Oh yeah,nice gill Matt !

[H2O]

I hate to say it, but I got stuck working this weekend and won't be able to attend. Talk about a letdown. Hope to see some pics posted after the gathering.

[Dave]

All set to go here. See you guys in the morning.

[wolfman-k]

I hope to arrive around 10:30 or so, I think this will have a good turn-out! I hope to get some ideas for my Otter double-wide. See you all in the mourning.

[Matt Johnson]

Just getting a few things organized and then I'm heading up to St. Cloud! See everyone in a few hours!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Dan Thiem]

I must be the first one home.

Sure was a fun time meeting up with everyone. Also seeing so many good modifications got me thinking. Lots of great ideas. I got to see what an insulated portable looked like and I must say, very impresive.

And the icing on the cake....Mr. Steele's famous catfish fry. Thanks everybody for coming and BRING ON THE HARD WATER!!!

[woodyjdh]

First I want to thank Matt for organizing this. (And anyone else too). I was nice to meet some of you, and I too walked away with some new ideas. I appreciated the compliments on my "hole hopper" sled. Like I said, it was my first try. I unfortunately am not very good with names, (if it wasn't written in my underwear, I might not remember who I am) , but my kids helped put together a new Otter Cottage, and it seems it was the highlight for them. (And the tackle/reward for helping was a hit for them as well!) Thanks! Hopefully we could do this again, maybe sometime before winter falls, perhaps more people will be able to come then? Just a thought. Otherwise, I for one would like to see this as an annual event. Thanks to everyone I met, it was worth the trip! ~Woody

[hawkeye43]

Yes, it was good to see some of the people that a person meets here and know that they share the same passion for ice fishing. I too picked up a few new ideas to put into play for this winter.

I must also thank the cook, Dennis for the great taste of the catfish. They very good.

Also thanks to Matt for putting this together, hope to see you all out on the ice this winter. This gets a guy thinking about what needs to get done,so much to do, so little time. The ice will be here before you know it.

[Matt Johnson]

First off, wallydiver left behind a part of his Otter Small Cottage at the park. It's one of the pole extenders that goes on the front to support the canvas. Drop me an e-mail and we'll figure out a way to get it to you.

Second, I started a new topic for a recap that has some pictures and info...

Portable Fish House Modification RECAP

Check it out and feel free to provide any info, stories or pictures from the day that you'd like to add.

I also would like to ask those who provided and showed off some modified portables today to post a little info about them if you could. I provided pictures for some, so feel free to use those as referrence if you'd like.

I really appreciate everyone who showed up and made it an enjoyable event. I had a great day today! All of you are top-notch people!

And YES, this will most definitely be an annual event!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

You must understand how this is breaking my heart reading this.I was about 15-20 miles out of St.Cloud when the cell phone rings.My wife on the other end to tell me my Dad was in the Emergency room.Turns out his last stint went bad and they had to open him back up for a new one.

Now try explaing this to a VERY EAGER 5 year old boy who has been planning this trip since the first day he heard about it.(he wasn't the only one who wanted to cry)

All in all Dads going to be o.k. (again)

Really hope this get together is an annual event !

[Matt Johnson]

Greg,

Sorry to hear about your dad, I hope everything is alright. We will have more get togethers and this will be an annual event. Don't worry about, we'll all cross paths again in the future! Take care.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CRAPPIEBAIT]

Thanks Matt,he should be good to go for another 1000 miles.

I really like your panfish idea.Let me see what "Trap Attacks" I'm doing and take it from there.This would be a blast.Some good lakes listed.

[Matt Johnson]

Sounds good Greg, glad to hear your dad is OK. Maybe I'll see you on the ice this winter!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson