veloxseeker

Lost Footage of a 2017 Trip to the Boundary Waters…

The wife and I were doing some serious spring cleaning this past week and we stumbled upon an old Sony Cyber-Shot camera and on the SD card were pics from a trip I had taken with a good friend and mentor…Dennis.

The premise of this trip and all subsequent planning was based around the idea of two good friends who have led and guided multiple groups to the Boundary Waters and Quetico deciding to take a trip to relax with only two people. No itinerary, just take it easy. The caveat though was that we would shuttle in rather than paddle the 17 miles to our chosen campsite area. As you can see in the opening photo, this is what a shuttle looks like. A boat with canoes on top and gear stacked in the bow, would shuttle people to wherever their put-in locations were. By utilizing this method, it would allow us to take steaks and cold adult beverages with us! Keep in mind that he and I have been trying to put a trip like this together for over 20 years.

The week was a mix of weather. We made the shuttle ride wearing insulated jackets due to colder than normal temperatures. A hurricane down south had disrupted the weather patterns this far north. Fires in Canada blanketed the entire area with smoke. We had two days with temps in the 90’s followed by one heck of thunder storm which dumped inches of rain on us in short order. Needless to say, every fish we caught was earned due to the fishing being quite tough.

I’m what some refer to as a lazy camper. Other than fresh steaks for dinner the first night, I like things to be quick and easy so we opted for freeze dried meals so cooking times would be fast and clean up quick. I take minimal clothes and sleeping gear as well so that my pack is lighter than most. For me…less is more.

So without further words from me, I will put all of the lost pics in a Gallery format. Enjoy!

A motorized trolley to carry the boat up and over a portage

We Returned to the River…

We finally had good weather on a weekend so we made plans to fish the river for the first time in 2024.

We got up early and headed out as soon as our eyes would focus and we had a bit of coffee in us. Even Zip was excited to get out and eagerly jumped in the car.

Side note: Every year we set a goal of 50 outings and we try our hardest to at least hit that mark, but also try to go beyond that number. We have had a huge amount of rain and wind this year but to date we have managed to get out on 39 outings. Most of them were us chasing trout, crappie, perch etc. and we didn’t blog about most of those outings.

We drove through thick fog most of the way and it got worse the closer we got to the river. The temperature on our arrival @ 0617 was 59-60F.

The water was up and made wading a little difficult. Normally, Zip can wade across on his own but this time the current was too much for him and I ended up having to surge downstream a few times to retrieve him. Usually when I was trying to retrieve a stuck lure, I’d wade out and hear splashing behind me and turn to see Zip struggling in the current. He’s loyal, I’ll give him that!

Most of the fish caught were of this size

Today was a toss up on whether we should’ve worn our waders or not. Temps were cool but would warm up quite a bit throughout the day. The water was a bit cool due to all of the recent rain, but we opted to skip the waders. After an hour or so of fishing and struggling through some of the crossings, I noticed my wife had a slight shiver to her. We marked a fallen tree up ahead and headed for it. I pulled out the coffee kit that I always carry with me and brewed up a large cup of hot coffee. We snacked on some beef jerky and tied on new lures and by the time the coffee was finished, she was warm, the sun had burned off the fog and the temps were climbing.

We managed to catch a total of 42 fish for this outing with 3 being of decent size. There were however an abundance of small healthy fish in the river and every single one of those had fat bellies full of food. It was just good to get out and stretch our legs and enjoy nature and each others company. Plus, the temperature was climbing fast towards 90F and the sun was out in full force so we decided to fish our way back to the car.

Thank you for reading and hopefully we will catch you on the next one…

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the World’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.” -Norman Maclean

Update 27 April 2024…

There isn’t much new to report other than we have been chasing Crappie every chance we get. The weather has not cooperated with us too well because we have had wild temperature fluctuations and winds over 15mph with gusts over 40mph pretty consistently for the past month. Either that or its pouring rain.

We have explored some new areas and are excited for their possibilities in the near future. I did pick up a 2022 Shimano Sahara FJ C2000S spinning reel (black handle). This is the first time Shimano has put their cold forged Hagane gear in a reel at this price. Throw in a felt drag washer and this reel is actually quite good. It’s heavy for sure, but for Crappie and Bluegill it can’t be beat. Digitaka has them for around $60.00 with free shipping. I’m not a fan of the High Gear or Extra High Gear models since they tend to have more line issues than I want, but that’s just me.

Now back to Crappie. I’ve never really chased them all that much, but lately I’ve been bitten by the Crappie bug. We have scaled down some of our jigheads and plastic baits and pulled some older USDM rods off the rack to try our hand at catching them. And since we bank fish most of the time, these rods are more durable and a bit heavier and seem to work OK. They are not near as sensitive as our JDM rods, but it’s an acceptable tradeoff. RANT: don’t believe the YouTube marketing hype about “this being the latest, greatest rod” because that whole thing has been beaten to death. I see far too many channels receive a free rod from a manufacturer and they gush all over it and act like they have a sponsor they have to appease. Beware the marketing juggernaut! I have found that by digging into the forums where the old-school fisherman can still be found, you’ll see a different story with real testimonials. I’m referring specifically to a certain “ugly green rod.” But your mileage may vary.

As many of you know, we have a thing for hand crafted lures and we prefer to support craftsmanship like that. Again, over on Etsy, we ran across a Crappie jig maker by the name of Welch Jig Co. And Chris Welch ties some really nice jigs and ships fast. Prices are reasonable and the quality is there to support it.

It’s supposed to storm all weekend and has for the past two days, so we probably won’t be fishing much. I’m sure I can fiddle around in the fishing room and better organize our gear just to occupy my time. It won’t be much longer and we’ll be wading the rivers and we are excited about that. Hope everybody out there is healthy and able to fish. Until then, we’ll catch you on the next one.

Transition Time…

Locally, trout fishing season is over. Most ponds were stocked on Feb 28th for the last time so it’s been slim pickings. And as the title alludes to, we’ve shifted our focus to other species. As we transition from Winter into Spring, a new set of challenges are presented. We didn’t have much of a winter here in Oklahoma, or anything resembling a pattern of stability, sure we had some snow and some cold temperatures, but the weather fluctuated wildly so we had to pick favorable conditions that gave us the advantage.

I think we did pretty well during the Trout season by catching quite a few and we got to test out some new rods and reels as well as tackle. I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rough start to the year from the fact that I’ve managed to break four rods so far. Two were my fault but the other two still baffle me..maybe there were defects, I’m not sure.

As Spring gains momentum, we are grateful to leave the cold behind and the suffering which that entailed. Now we will have to contend with wind and rain. Oklahoma can really test ones patience! As usual we have set our goal for 50 outings and currently I am setting at 25 so I’m not too worried about meeting that goal.

We’ve been hitting various local ponds and lakes to see what was biting and have been pleasantly surprised. Neither one of us are what you’d consider “Crappie specialists” but we’ve done well in locating and catching them consistently. The Largemouth bass are starting to become more active and the various Perch species are beginning to move up into shallower waters. Right or wrong, I refuse to keep spawning fish, especially ones out of highly pressured waters.

We’ve had a lot fun so far in 2024 despite a few setbacks. Flowers are blooming, trees are beginning to leaf out and temperatures are climbing into the 70’s and 80’s here. But looking out the window, I can tell the wind is blowing with gusts into the 30mph range. We have to pick our moments and ride the ride.

See you on the next one…

Reality Check…

Last Sunday my wife and I went to one of our little local lakes and fished for a few hours. We did pretty well considering the wild weather swings we’ve had.

Our main goal was to see if the Crappie had moved up into a pre-spawn pattern. Long story short, they had not, but rather were still scattered about the lake.

I managed to catch my Personal Best Black Crappie during the process which ws pretty cool. I will post two pictures, one of a perch and the other of the Crappie so you can get an idea of the scale of the fish in the net.

Needless to say it was a great outing and we had the lake all to ourselves for the entire time we were fishing.

I went to work the next day, Monday, and was showing my co-workers a few pictures and catching up on recent events when I was informed that one of my co-workers had passed away on Sunday. It hit like a sledgehammer because nobody had thought it would happen to that guy. He was super nice, friendly and just an all-around great guy. He passed from a heart attack at home at the age of 53. Entirely too young!

It tends to hit home, especially since I’m about to turn 53 and it certainly makes you wonder and question things. There are very few guarantees in life and we must use our time wisely. Perhaps I need to change things in my life and reset my priorities? I definitely need to schedule a medical checkup since I’m notorious for not going to the doctor until it’s absolutely necessary. It was a wake-up call for all of us.

I want to keep fishing for many more years and enjoy what time I have left, and I’m sure everyone has plans until they leave this Earth.

My thoughts are scattered all over the place and we are still processing his death. I don’t want to ramble on incoherently so I will finish this post and wish Travis a fond farewell and may he rest in peace. Godspeed my Friend.

Rethinking Ajing Rods…

I have a preference for composite grips and really light rods. The downside is fragility and that’s an issue for the way I fish. Granted, Ajing rods are usually used off of a dock or sea wall with few if any obstructions and the target species isn’t a large fish.

For reference: some of my Ajing rods have a 0.6mm solid graphite tip section sporting 1mm-1.2mm guides…that’s tiny! Sensitivity is outstanding and they are phenomenal to fish for ultralight game with.

APIA Grandage Lite 61 top and TenRyu RZI-50L-4 below

However, I have recently broken two rods while at the trout pond. In both cases the tip sections snapped off midway to the top guide. I can’t say for sure why this happened but it did. I don’t think I was high sticking and in fact in one instance the rod was laying on the ground while I was tying on a swivel/snap. When I went to cast I noticed something didn’t look right and the tip section was dangling.

I can’t be too upset since I was clearly using these rods for a purpose they were never designed for and for a target species that was quite a lot larger than their intended quarry. It just rams home the point that I need a more durable rod for the type of fishing we do. I’m just not the type of angler who wants to coddle and hyper-protect my gear. Specialization can definitely have it’s pitfalls and these are highly specialized rods. Fortunately the Ajing rods were not expensive so it wasn’t painful or heart wrenching. But it was a good learning experience. And I’d rather it happen at a local trout pond instead of 4 miles down a smallmouth stream!

For me, I’m leaning back towards the TenRyu rods even though they have cork handles. I’ll gladly give up a bit of sensitivity for durability and as of yet, all of our TenRyu rods have performed flawlessly. Sometimes following a theory/concept doesn’t pan out and that’s OK and I don’t consider things like that a failure if I have learned something valuable in the process. The best lessons are often learned the hard way!

Trying To Make Up For Lost Time…

I think I’m doing OK and healing up; albeit slowly. Last night was the first night I didn’t take any pain medication and although I only managed an hour and a half of good sleep, I feel pretty good. The dull pain and burning sensation is still there but it’s manageable.

On the pain medication topic: Pain pills are hard to get these days in part due to the “opioid crisis” so I tend to use them sparingly. As long as I could take the edge off then I could manage the pain and slowly increase my threshold. With this latest episode, I only took the pain medication at bedtime as opposed to every 6 hours and to me, that’s a good thing.

Anyway, back to fishing! In January/February I managed to get a few rods that a good friend of mine was selling. The prices were phenomenal so I picked up a Palms Quattro 4-piece travel rod that I had been wanting as well as a Majorcraft fiberglass travel rod that was on my radar. I’ve been very happy with both so far. I also picked up two Yamaga Blanks Blue Current TZ Nano rods in 6ft 2in and a 6ft 10in versions. BOTH are outstanding rods that I had been interested in for quite some time. Lightly used and at a great price was a no-brainer. I’ve recently fished all 4 of them and can say it was money well spent and it helped out a friend.

The Yamaga Blanks Blue Current 62 TZ Nano. Great rod!

The Palms Quattro is a saltwater ultralight but works well for my intended purpose. that’s a 1000 size reel for scale.

For the record: I only had one rod and one reel on the purchase list for 2024. The rod arrived this past Monday and is the TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS-61LL. I bought one as a gift for my wife quite awhile ago and she was gracious enough to let me have a go with it for a round of testing. I liked it so much I decided to order myself one except they were sold out. After searching on and off for over a year, I finally managed to find one and it is now in my quiver of rods. I will say for certain that it was worth the wait! Oustanding rod for our type of fishing.

TenRyu Rayz Spectra RZS-61LL with a Stella C2000SHG reel.

So far the rod has been great…in fact all of them have caught fish so I have no complaints. We have been trying to gauge if the bass and crappie are staging for the spawn and it has been hit and miss due to the highly variable weather conditions. One day it was 84F and the next it dropped to 31F. Not enough stability yet for the fish to fully become active or to establish a reliable pattern.

We’ve caught plenty of rainbow trout so far in 2024.

We even took our medium rods out to see if the sand bass were about to move up and spawn but we didn’t get any takers. It’s still a bit early I suppose.

I’m probably pushing things a bit but it’s hard for me to be inactive for any length of time. I’m definitely much more careful and am moving slower than normal but I am making progress so I’m happy. Maybe I’ll hit the trout pond this morning at first light and get one last session in before the season ends on April 1st…time will tell. Take care and see ya soon.

Back on my Feet!

These past few weeks have been hell. It took almost 2 weeks to see my doctor and getting pain medication seemed to take an act of Congress. I was essentially bedridden for 8 straight days due to intense pain. It took a full 12 days before I could actually sit in a chair for more than a minute. Once the MRI was done and the damage became known, things seemed to move a bit faster.

It is frustrating to be treated like everything is either a minor injury or it’s psychosomatic. The MRI ultimately showed that I had a serious tear in my gluteus minimus origin as well as a minor tear in my hamstring origin all located in my right hip. Speaking with an Orthopedic doctor, he really didn’t want to do surgery given its location and instead gave me a steroid injection into the hip socket. Needless to say, the pain is still there but the injection helped and I’m mobile finally and able to do things.

So the first thing I did was hit the trout pond at the crack of dawn! The weather has been weird to the say the least. One day it was 87F and the next it was 31F. That’s Oklahoma weather for you!

I did pretty well and managed to catch 8 Rainbow trout…or Pellet Pigs as we call them since they’re hatchery raised. It was good to feel the tug and hear the drag sing.

I normally do not take the trout out of the water and instead release them. But on this day there was an older gentleman who asked if he could have any trout I didn’t want so I gave him 3 which is the limit. It was 33F and I could tell he didn’t really want to get his gear out and stand there for any length of time so I obliged him.

The trout season is winding down and this pond was stocked for the last time on February 28th. We had a decent winter season all things considered. And I’m sure, like so many others, that we all are looking forward to Spring and warmer weather. See you on the next one.

Out of Commission…Temporarily

Upon return from our previous fishing excursion; I stepped onto the deck to wipe my shoes off with a boot scraper and instantly, I was on my back. The wet wood coupled with algae/lichen or whatever was enough to make me slip and fall.

The damage was two broken fingers, a wrenched shoulder and messed up hip. The fingers still look pretty bad and thankfully the shoulder has healed up well. The right hip on the other hand is very painful.

Fortunately the shoulder pain was pretty much gone by the time the hip flared up. I woke her up around 0130 on a Wednesday and asked her to drive me to the ER. She knows I have a pretty high pain threshold so she figured it was serious.

The ride to the ER was agonizing as I could not sit nor lie down. I literally stood in the examine room while they tried to work on me. They gave me a Fentanyl injection and were amazed that I was still standing there. The shot did absolutely nothing. Next up was a Dilaudid injection which took the edge off but still did not provide any relief. After being forced to lie down for a CT scan, which was not pleasant, I was back in the room and still standing. By the time the pain had eased just enough for me to finally sit on the hospital bed, the nurse came in and said the CT scan was clear and didn’t show any fractures or dislocations. Then she handed me the discharge papers with a prescription for 12 Percocet tablets. She suggested that I see an Orthopedic specialist as soon as possible.

Now…I’m not a doctor, but if Fentanyl and Dilaudid didn’t provide any relief, then what makes anyone think that Percocet was going to do anything? But that’s just me I guess.

Thankfully there was a cancellation at the Orthopedic specialists office and he could see me the next day. The 25 mile drive was excruciating but I was hoping that he might finally give me some relief. Nope. He said the CT scan wasn’t very good and only showed half of the hip but he didn’t think an x-ray, CT scan or MRI was necessary and that Motrin would help me. If the pain didn’t get better then he suggested I go to the ER again. UGH!

At this point I am really getting frustrated. I called my primary Care Physician to make an appointment. I figured I could suffer through one more day and explain everything to my doctor. Later that evening I get a cancellation notice from the doctors office and was urged to reschedule. My doctor had the flu. This all happened on February 7th and 8th by the way.

Needless to say it is currently February 18th and I am out of Percocet and have been bedridden since the 9th. Sleep has been virtually impossible and I still cannot sit down. I do have a doctors appointment for Tuesday the 20th which I am seriously looking forward to. None of this makes sense to me. I am not impressed with any of the treatment I have had so far but hopefully that will change. If it wasn’t for an old tens unit we had lying around, the pain would be a lot worse than it is now. I will add that not one doctor or nurse cared one iota about my broken fingers. They never even looked at them despite me asking for them to do so.

Fingers crossed that this is nothing serious and I’ll be back on my feet soon. As always, thanks for reading.

Outing 4 February 2024…

The day started off rainy and cool but we were really wanting to hit the trout pond again. We figured with the rain, hardly anyone would be at the pond fishing, and we were right. There were a few diehards but they stayed on the floating docks under the metal roof.

We started off by throwing spoons. We tried several different colors but other than a couple of bumps, they just didn’t seem to be interested. Mrs. VeloxSeeker opted to try her Veles Handcrafted Lures and immediately got a hit and reeled in a nice rainbow.

I was lucky enough to see the hit and watch the fight while standing on the bank holding the net. It was obvious that she was onto something. And for the record…dummy me only brought spoons so I begged a Veles lure off of her.

I chose a different color scheme and it proved to be effective as well. At that point we decided to try as many different lures as we could to test out their effectiveness on trout.

She switched to the lure pictured above and was into her second trout in no time. We could see the trout swirling from time to time and occasionally one would leap 2 feet out the water chasing something, so we knew they were actively feeding.

I will digress here for a bit: I was using a Daiwa Presso ST 62ML rod which was designed for “Area Trout” fishing i.e. trout ponds. And I’m here to tell you, it was dead in the sensitivity department. I could only feel the heaviest spoon or the biggest Veles lure. It excelled in the casting department as it easily cast lures as far as you would want to. I was fortunate to even catch the trout that I did.

Shortly after catching my rainbow, the rain kicked in and she wasn’t feeling much like fishing. She offered to let me use her rod ( the lovely DreemUp Dreem Con Three 62) and I jumped at the opportunity. Four casts later and I’m into another rainbow finally. Score is 2-2!

I literally couldn’t get enough of that rod. I kept casting and managed to hook a third rainbow and the fight was on. After a short scuffle, the trout rocketed out of the water, spit the lure and gave me the “middle fin.” I was grinning from ear to ear and decided that it was a good time to leave. What a perfect ending to a 2-2 game!

Happy 3rd Anniversary of this Blog…

It is hard to believe that 3 years have gone by in regards to starting this blog. Our intent was to show and share information on gear we use, places we go and the types of fishing we do.

Analytics show that the blog had 2,862 views from 61 countries last year. As stats go, I’m sure it’s not very impressive to some, but we’re happy with it. Even if we made one person laugh or helped someone in any way…then it has been a success.

We sincerely thank each and every person who visited, liked a post or left a comment. And we hope to continue to fish, travel and have fun.

Thank you ALL!

Today Was HER Day…

We woke up to 30F and pea soup fog but the forecast said it would clear by 10AM. I’m up early every day so I was back in the fishing room getting my gear ready and changing some hooks out. And I can’t really blame her for sleeping in since the weather was cold and damp.

We finally arrived at the trout pond and it was good to see several others already out there fishing. And it didn’t take her long to hook into her first trout. It was a nice battle and she handled it perfectly.

I should take a moment to clarify something about yesterdays post. The DreemUp Dreem Con Three 62L is her rod. I was just giving it a quick test when I caught the trout yesterday. Very impressive rod and she got to experience what I was trying to explain yesterday. She REALLY enjoyed fishing with it and catching trout.

Her first trout was chunky and put up a great fight.

I managed to hook one but I gave it some slack and it slipped the barbless hook. My rod was the Soare SS Ajing S58L-S and is quite a bit stiffer with an extra fast tip…which is not ideal for trout ponds and trout fishing. Sometimes common sense is over-ruled when it comes to wanting to test out a new rod. Lesson learned.

It didn’t take long before she hooked her second trout. I reeled in and raced for the net, all too happy to help since I wasn’t catching anything but a chill. Once safely in the net it was time for me to take pictures.

Once the sun came out and the fog cleared off…the bite was over. We fished for another hour without a single hit. We didn’t even see a trout rise or swirl anywhere. At that point we decided to grab lunch and head home.

And yes…I earned a good ribbing on the ride home! Skunk Boy-that’s me!