Finally the Fishing Opener

 It was touch and go this year as too wether or not the ice would be off the lakes in time to go fishing. Turns out it was mostly off Lake of the Woods at least Rainy River was open.

So up north we went, I was lucky to be invited by my friends Mike and his son Jack and his friend Garrett. 

We got onto the river late Friday afternoon and just boated around and got the lay off the land. The river was really flowing as the water was really up and the deadheads (logs, tree branches, ect.) were everywhere. I smoked a pork butt and we had a great dinner and early to bed for the opener the next morning.

The weather on Saturday was nothing shy of terrible, rain, 25 mile and hour winds and cold. We had little success in the morning and then headed in for breakfast and to warm up. The afternoon at least the rain stopped but not the wind, however we did start to catch fish. Enough to in fact have a fish fry on Saturday night, but nowhere near as many as we wanted.

Sunday morning was not much better we caught 2 wallets and I was able to bring some home for Tracy. We did however have a great time despite the weather and we planned to go back next year! Thanks again Mike, Jack and Garrett for a great time!

On another note my friend Tom Pearson whom is a guide on Lake Mille Lacs as well as having a cabin on the lake invited Carl and I to come up and fish for a couple days and man one man fish we did.Tom is an outstanding person as well as a great fisherman and guide. He put us on incredible small mouth and it was beyond a blast. Tom's friend Al who lives on Lake Vermillion, that is another story, joined us and we could not have gad a better time. 

Next trip is scheduled for the middle of June when Kay, Billy and I will join Carl and his kids on Lake Vermillion, gas prices depending!

More to come....

Nicer fish on and happy Father’s Day!

 

The yearly father/kid fishing trip took place ON Fathers Day weekend this year. Tracy was actually calling it Mothers Day:)  A note from Tracy, before an update from Tom.

Tom, SO glad you were able to do this trip with Billy and Kay. I'm sure you were missing Jimmy. Even though you didnt get showered with presents, dont forget you are a gift to us. You humor, love, cooking, willingness to help ANYONE and your support of your friends and community is SUCH a blessing to so many. We love you beyond measure and are SO grateful for you.  Love you to the moon and back.

XOXO

T. (& the kids and dogs)

So due to the pandemic and last minute issues two years have gone by now without the Annual Peiffer/Murphy Fishing Trip! Lake Vermillon once again was the destination we were however missing Jimmy and Charlie but we marched on.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and once the camp and cabin were set and organized off we went. Saturday was super nice mid 70"s great weather and caught as usual a ton of fish. Tom had remade an awesome meal of Jerk Chicken, red beans with rice and apple fennel salad. 

Reliving previous trips around the campfire after dinner was of course epic.

Sunday morning Carl, John and Tom headed to fishing around 7:30 and were doing quite well actually Tom and John Carl was in third place. About 9:00 it started to rain and by 9:15 we could hardly see each other in the boat, it was a down pour then it starting to thunder and lightning so we had to climb onto an island and wait out the storm. We finally made it back to camp around 10:30. We had a big breakfast cleaned up from the storm and took a nap.

The Peiffer headed out at 2:00 and the Murphy's shortly after we fished together for about an hour when we had to make a quick trip back to our cabin. Billy, Kay and I found a nice cove area with rocks and sand mostly out of the sun, it was 95 degrees. To our enjoyment the fish were super active and we were going gangbusters with Kay of course leading the way. We caught walleye, perch, northern, blue gill and both large and smallmouth bass, fantastic. We also had an interesting wildlife day seeing a fawn swimming on the lake, a bald eagle and bluebird fight, an enormous beaver and Kay almost stepped out of the boat right on a huge muskie sunning itself on the rocks.

By 7:00 we were sunburned and fished out so we headed in to wait for the Peiffers, as they tend to be out long after the agreed up return time.We were super excited for dinner as Carl was making pheasant fettuccine Alfredo. Turns out they gave up fishing around 4:00 because they were not catching fish and were bummed when we showed them our stringer of fish, first time we out fished and out lasted the Peiffer's! Dinner was great more stories and S'mores rounded out the night.

Monday we slept in had a big fish fry for brunch and the Murphy's packed up and headed home.

We booked the same accommodations for next year and only hope we have Jimmy and Charlie to get the whole band back together. One of our favorite trips pf the year! More to come...

Ah… Billy ja

 As Master Ted used to say at Myungs in Toronto … ahhh… yes Billy ja.

Billy’s been having a great spring taekwondo season, including getting his 3rd degree black belt. Lots of gold, smiles and training.

Of course the black belt test was a combination of errors, nothing less can be expected 

Billy forgot he was testing, belts  came in late, we had to go to urgent care to make sure he hadn’t broken his wrist but … all’s well that ends well 

So so proud of you

Love you to bits

Mom and Dad 

Speech Speech

Brick break Brick break

28th MS 150!!

 We did it! 150 miles, Hinckley to Duluth 

100 miles of rain ☹️

Sunny skies and a great band after our ride day 1

Putting up/taking down our own tent - no glamping  this year

Ned was 13 in fundraisers and Tracy 39 - Tracy is #2 woman fundraiser though (way more men than woven ride  this ride )

Traditions like Lil Angie’s, Diane’s signs, pancakes, yearly back bend and hording snacks

We finished #2, 3 and 4 for Target day 1

Team Target crew is amazing, taco bar, our own truck (they even dried  out the tent for us), massages and chiropractor 

New tradition - CBD gummy after day 1 and scoring 3 6packs of Finnegans 

Proud of this crew 🥋💕