Date: March 1, 2008
Location: Club
Air temp: mid 30s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: Buggers, Emergers
Fish landed: Skunk

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

QuickDraw
Timbo
Scooter
Xan
Coach Mcguirk(non F.A.G.)

report to follow

Christmas in Febuary

Date: Feb 24, 2008
Location: Beer Azzed Hunt Clubr
Air temp: 30s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: Hot Lead
Fish landed: 19 Pheasents 1 chucker

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

QuickDraw
Lance
Eric (non F.A.G.)
Coach Mcguirk (non F.A.G.)
Mark (non F.A.G.)
Nate (non F.A.G.)

it was a great day lotsa shooting we put out 20 pheasants and killed 19 of them, also picked up a spare chucker. the dogs did a great job. we drank a lot.

Cutty$hack Returns to Square

Date: Feb 17, 2008
Location: Square Peg Round Hole
Air temp: 30s, Really Fuckin' Windy
Water temp: ???
Hatches: Crappie Minnows
Fish landed: 3

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

QuickDraw
Naaz (non F.A.G.)

It's the Return of the Cutty$hack!

We got started about the azz crack of noon, but we were in it to win it, determined to stay till dark. We set up in a completely new spot hoping to cast the skunk off our backs. We got everything setup fairly quickly and were fishing with tip-ups in no time. It was soon after we started fishing that I realized that we did not have nearly enough Booze for an Ice fishing outing. oh well. After about an hour of fishing RobFine who had setup his shack a stone's throw away form us came over with a 13" 'bow. That was the first trout I had seen come out of that lake all winter.

About an Hour and a half into fishing I saw a nice 'bow aproach my waxie! Wow! the first keeper I had seen through my hole all winter, but he quickly took off, and a few minutes later we had a strike on one of the tip-ups, it was nothing other than a hammer handle pike.
The rest of the day we caught 3 more Hammer handles between us and had one larger pike strike. we saw a total of 3 trout all day and a few panfish, but the bite was extremely slow, a shadow of the lake it was just a year ago. I wonder what happened to make the fishing so bad on that lake. I doubt that I'll return any time soon.

Ice Breakers

Date: January 27, 2008
Location: Theodore Cleaver Memorial Creek
Air temp: high 30s
Water temp: ???
Hatches: Little black stone flies
Fish landed: 0

Present members of the Fly Anglers Guild :|: Upper Midwest Chapter, for this outing were:

Slim Shady (non member)
Booter
Xan
TP

Like most Minnesota winters, this one has sucked my balls. So far, we have been on a roller coaster ride of bitter wind chills, broken up by 2 to 6 day stretches of tolerable temps (20s+). The worst part is that as the presidential election season hits high gear, there is not a single candidate that favors wholesale nuclear destruction of Canada for sending us this cold air.

During one of our recent reprieves from sub zero temps (where it almost got up to a balmy 40 degrees), we decided to take advantage of the MN winter season.


We headed to the southeastern region to fish a creek I had never been to. The snow made walking tough, and wide swaths of one of the river's branches were still frozen over. But, it was a glorious day to not catch any fish.

TP stalking his prey

The Cleaver is a fairly narrow stream that twists and turns across the valley. It demands highly technical casts to the fish piled up in nearly still water. Needless to say, it was a quadruple skunking. The highlights of the day were Booter's massive dump at a Rochester McD's, and finding a shard of glass in my beer during our post trip meal.

Booter assuming position #3-C

Still, it is a creek I would definitely revisit later in the year, and it sure was nice to wet a line for the first time in '08.

Generic Ice fishing post

Well so far I've been out 3 times in the "Return of Cutty$hack" and it's bee very slow. To date this year I have only pulled one fish worth noting through the ice and even that one was really small, a hammer handle northern pulled out of square on trout opener. A quick synapse of my outings to date:

Sat, Jan 12, 2008
MN Lake trout opener
Location: Square

U.M.W.F.A.G. members in attendance:
QuickDraw

NON-F.A.G.'s:
Snatch
Coach McGuirk
Norell
M.Nally

Water Temp: 37
Well It was Ice trout opener and I had high hopes, Me and Coach went out to test the "Return of Cutty$shack" and fill our limits of trout. Coach saw one trout all day, I saw none. We had the Aqua Vu out for this excursion and ended up seeing 2 northerns and a Crappie. Very slow day. Pictures to follow (as soon as I can find my camera adapter or buy a new one)

Mon, Jan 21, 2008
Location: Holland Lake

U.M.W.F.A.G. members in attendance:
QuickDraw

NON-F.A.G.'s:
Mark

After Last week's outing I was in search for trout, but on different water this time. we set up the "Return of Cutty$hack" in about 20' of water, actually we may have been deeper but I'm guessing 20'. It wasn't long before we were on to a ton of dinkyAzz sunfish, I'm talking like 3" long, a lot of 'em. oh yea it was cold as hell out side, like -5 and windy. after fishing for an hour I looked out the window and saw 2 guys setting up a few hundred feet away, they were hand drilling holes. Since I had only fished this lake once before in the summer time, I thought I'd be friendly to the other guys and offer to cut some holes for them. So I go over to them and start up a conversation, and it's clear to me they fish this lake on a regular basis, even though they say that this is their first time. anyways I start drilling holes and the auger runs out of gas about 3" into my first hole. pretty funny. the highlight of the day came with lunch. Jambalaya with Andouille sausage from Kramarczuk's, Ham and Shrimp. pictures to follow Best Ice fishing lunch to date.

Sat, Jan 26, 2008
Location: Square

U.M.W.F.A.G. members in attendance:
QuickDraw
Scooter
Lance

NON-F.A.G.'s:
Rob
Pat
Norell
Dank
Determined to pull a 'Bow through the ice this winter. we got out on the ice around 10:30 after hitting McDonald's, and the shitty bait store. We setup in about 6'-10' of water right on the edge of a drop-off, one side of the shack was in 6' of water the other side 10'. we half drilled an extra hole in the corner of the shack for a beverage cooler(this worked out great) It wasn't long before we were Drinking shots of C.C. and talking about hanging Bob Marley posters up in the "Return of Cutty$hack", good times. It wasn't too long before Rob and Dank Showed up and I cut a series of holes for them. we dined on the finest of Jerky Products, Scooter brought some Jack Links Jalapeño flavored jerky, It was really good, and I brought some deer jerky, that was pretty good as well. we fished pretty hard all day and only managed to catch a buzz. Oh well that's ice fishing some times, we still had fun though. (Pictures to follow)

First Post of the year!!!! Hopefully the rest of the year goes better than these 3 outings.

The Doctor Is In

While we wait for the MN early season to start, I have gone to California to check on the West Coast chapter of the Fly Angler's Guild. With everything in fine order, I present you this offshoot of the "Great Gas Station Names" series (click on the pic for a larger view).

U.M.F.A.G Out West Report

Alright after typing out the acronym for the Upper Midwestern Fly Anglers' Guild in the title I have to say that it might be easy for me to draw offense since I did attend the illustrious U of M and well despite what I was told over the year's I'm not a...well anyway. But as Jazz Hands told me as we sat in the hot tub, "Bchubut...sometimes you have to pick your battles."

That said Jazzhands and I visited the Owens River which is named after the country music great Buck Owens. Well at least that's what Jazzhands told me.

Overall the two days were a success with pleasant weather, beautiful scenery and a handful of fish though nothing of real size.

On the downside it was a bit crowded at times but once they saw Jazzhands $4,000 rod and awe inspiring clothing ensemble they quickly dropped to one knee, bowed their heads and whispered 'Go Pack'. Hmmm...I wonder if that had anything to do with the Lion's complete ineptitude on T-Day.