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4608 Tower St.
Edina, MN 55424
(612)440-7171
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Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited Monthly Newsletter
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Lake Independence
Saturday January 12, 2019
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Ladies and Gentlemen, we got it.
A fantastic club outing at Lake Independence featuring Food, Fun, and Prizes.
Details:
- The Board will organize and supply food for all. (Bring your favorite Beverage).
- We will supply bait and have equipment, including shelters for those who don't.
- President Wood said he will drill your holes.
- First Fish, Biggest Fish, Most fish Contest, Probably.
We have acquired some fantastic prizes from our sponsors to raffle, such as:
- Ice Fishing Rod & Reel combo donated by our club friend Brad Laabs. Thank You Brad!
- How about a Marcum M1 donated by Glen Lake Animal Hospital. Thank you Doc!
Did we mention we are hitting up Steve Pennaz to put us on the hot spots?
We will begin gathering around 12:00 and plan on fishing through prime time
(Show up whenever you can make it).
We look forward to seeing you all there, it should be a great success!
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Featuring Tommy Skarlis
Thursday January 3, 2019
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They say timing is everything, well our club couldn't have timed January's guest speaker any better as we welcome the hottest Professional Walleye Angler on the Masters Walleye Circuit, Tommy Skarlis.
Tommy recently closed the deal on his second consecutive MWC World Walleye Championship this October on Bays de Noc out of Escanaba, Michigan. Its the first time in 25 years that someone has won back-to-back Titles.
Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to spend the evening with Tommy!
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Special thanks to Marv Gaston and Taxidermy Unlimited for supporting our club as a Lunker Level Sponsor.
For over half a century Marv Gaston and Taxidermy Unlimited have been preserving the memories of their clients. They are one of the world's finest taxidermy studios and their creations have been awarded the "Master of Masters Award" and "Best of Show" at world competition. However their greatest rewards are the compliments they receive from their clients.
If you bagged that special buck this season and are in need for a deer mount, or caught your personal best Walleye through first ice, make sure you give Marv a call. He and his team are amazing craftsmen and there work is second to none.
Taxidermy Unlimited Contact Information
Call them at 952-890-8688
Hours Mon - Fri : 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Visit their Shop
1405 Cliff Rd E, Burnsville, MN 55337
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Happy Holidays TCWU!!
As I sit here tonight writing this to you all, I can’t believe we are 10 days from Christmas. Where did the year go? So much to do and so little time to do it, as usual. Maybe I should start my holiday shopping sometime soon?
The ice fishing season is well underway now, in spite of this recent warming weather. Remember how cold it was 1 year ago? Ice formed earlier this year for sure. I have been seeing many reports of fish being caught from this early ice and look forward to getting out soon. If any of you have pictures of your fishing adventures, be sure to send them to us on the TCWU email account or share of our Face Book page so we can show them to our members.
I want to send a big thank you again to Chip Leer for speaking at our December meeting. His presentation was very informative and his energy for ice fishing was infectious. Thanks again Chip!!
We are excited for our upcoming club ice fishing outing out on Lake Independence Saturday January 12, 2019. Please look at the announcement on the event in this newsletter for details. We have some great prizes and look forward to this group outing with everyone.
As we rocket toward the New Year I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and safe holiday season. See you all at the January 3, 2019 meeting. Come and tell us what Santa brought you, and see what Tommy Skarlis is going to teach us. I can’t wait to see you all in January.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and many big walleyes on your lines!!
Jim Wood
President of Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited
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Brad Laabs is an excellent guide based out of Detroit Lakes. He has
been fishing the Detroit Lakes area for 30+ years and has over 25 years guiding and tournament experience.
He is also an awesome custom rod builder, if you are in the market for soft or hard water fishing rods, definitely check him out. He is a great friend of the club and donates time and equipment.
You can contact Brad at:
Cell: 218- 849- 6108
Website: www.Bradlaabs.com
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Special Thanks TROPHY Level Sponsors
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Minnesota Military Youth Ice Fishing Clinic
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TWCU members mark your calendars and save the date; Sunday February 10th 2019. We will volunteer host an ice fishing event specifically for all Veterans and their family's. This will be in partnership with the Minnesota National Guard, and Clam's Ice Team. We will provide details through meetings and social media as times and locations are settled.
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Thank You LUNKER Sponsors!
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Guest Speaker Re-cap Chip Leer
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Special thanks to Chip Leer our December guest speaker. Truly an amazing evening filled with awesome information and cool fishing tips. Chip kicked off the Hard Water season by sharing his ice fishing tips and tricks. He really connected with the club members, which resulted in a ton of member interaction and questions. It was a great night of fun for the club. For all of our members who couldn't make it, here is a re-cap of what you missed.
A little bite about Chip
Chip leads Fishing the Wildside, which is his marketing communications company. He works with companies within the fishing industry to communicate and connect with fishing consumers. It all began when Chip left Minneapolis in 1988 and he moved up to Lake of the Woods to begin his fishing career on Oak Island. He started out guiding, then fishing tournament circuits, and then began his media career starting with In-Fisherman. Chip shared one of his his latest initiatives participating with the Minnesota stakeholders group (Minn Fish). This group is working with the Minnesota fishing industry Clam Corp, Lund Alumacraft, Northland fishing tackle to name a few. There are 2.3 Billion dollars generated through excise taxes from the fishing industry. All of these funds are inhaled by the state and dispersed to, well everything but fishing. Their goal is to create awareness and get some money funded back to fishing. In 1988 there was wasn't an ice fishing industry. Chip loved his role at LOW but he new he had to create work for himself, if he wanted to stay up there year round. Thus he helped create Oak Island ice fishing, In his time up there he made several key connections with some of the Ice fishing innovators that helped create the industry. Greg
Clusiau, Terry Wickstrom, Dave Genz, Strike master, Clam Corp founder Dennis Clark. Chip commented that he was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
Re-Cap
Why he loves Ice Fishing
- The fastest action you will enjoy is through the ice, which makes it so enjoyable. You can master a bite because everything is under control. The ice eliminates variables such as wind, waves, current, and boat control.
How do I improve my skills?
- Know yourself, what are you good at and what do I need to improve on.
- Use fishing clubs to improve your self. What makes clubs great is you can seek out people who are good at what you need to know
- Everything Chip has learned was developed through a consortium of different fishermen. Take note of what your fishing friends are doing and be open to trying them.
How do we find the fish?
Fish activity is crammed into a short period for ice fishing, compared to open water where it is spread out longer. Put in the prep time, so you are ready for the fast action of the forty five minute bite.
- There is no secret on where to find fish. We drive to the lake, we look around and find the group of ice fishermen and that's were we go, right? Well, the first shack out there is probably on the spot. Unfortunately by the time everyone gets their shack out there, you may be 100 feet from that first house and not catch a thing. Not to say you won't catch fish in these groups but if you attack Ice fishing like you would open water you will start to have more success and fun.The best bites are the ones you find on your own.
- Understand your lake, follow the fish through the seasons. Most of us don't fish from September to first Ice. We loose track of where the fish are. If you can learn their fall pattern you will be on them on first Ice.
- All fish don't act the same way, understand the fish you are chasing.
- Fish are going to relate to food.
- Look for the lake abnormalities, such as that large boulder on the reef, or that gravel bed inside the weeds. You will have to drill holes to find them. It is much harder to find them opposed to soft water fishing. Do your home work and GPS these spots during the summer.
- When you get to a body of water map out similar fish holding spot. You will learn/pattern fish and expand your opportunity. Use paper maps so you can see the entire lake to help find these similar spots.
- At the end of the day re-cap your experience to help identify trends and improve your success.
- Do your research before fishing a new body of water. Compile information from bait shops, friends, fishing clubs.
- Remember to nail down the basics; What is biting, what are they biting on, where and when.
- First ice humps make for great ice fishing. Be safe on first ice.
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- Why we use the Pistol Grip for ice fishing. We use it for better control, feel and improved/quicker hook setting.
- Take care of your tackle. Ice fishing travel bangs up your spoons and jigs. Make or buy a box that protects your lures.
- There are different types of spoons, Lead, Brass, Heavy and light. Get yourself a 5 gallon bucket and learn the actions of each of your lures. Understand how they drop.
- Make sure you have different lure options. attraction lures, trigger lures and the little add on's that create a little change to your presentation.
- Chip coined this his AT&T, Attract Tease and Trigger.
- Buckshot rattle spoons attract, Jig Big attraction strokes to get the fish interested and get them over to you. Rip it up and let flutter. Noise is good, use a rattle spoon. we want to attract them. We want every fish within the area to come check us out.
- Now you have to trigger the bite. Slow it down, use little hops, lift and dance it, make them chase. The hardest part is getting them to commit.
- Perfect a few of each of these lures. You don't need 36 different lures, perfect just a few. Go through your gear and eliminate as much crap you don't need. Be lean and clean.
- Elongate your hook from the spoon to create more action. Use a series of split rings to make a dropper chain or try a Minnow Head hook to get some pendulum action.
- Try a single hook instead of a treble hook or a Minnow Head hook to
- How lures drop. Lead, Tungsten drops fast, Flutter spoons are brass drop slowly.
- Buoyant jigs are the "secret weapon", especially for lethargic fish. Try a drop line from a weight with a buoyant jig to adjust or add a wrinkle to your drop.
- Use plastics to adjust or slow your drop. You can combine them with live bait.
- Spend a lot of time on the water learning and understanding your electronics.
- Likes Bionic Fluorosilk. Fluorocarbon coated braid. Chip uses Fluorocarbon because it sinks and helps get you lure down to the fish.
- Glow shot jig with a whole minnow slows your drop, compared to a Glow shot with a minnow head.Uses Crank bait snaps on his jigging spoons, which adds action.
- Try Mighty Mouse jigs with 45 degree angle for a different look.
- Likes the little red blades on Swedish Pimples. Also uses small strips of deer trail tape to mimic those blades.
- Up sizes his hooks, likes them bigger and doesn't like them to bend.
Tips and comments
- Match your rods and reels to your tackle, to get your lures to work right and improve your success.
- Straight line reels are vastly improved with faster retrieves, better gears, free spools and housings that prevent line tangling. They eliminate the coil and spin that spinning reels impact on your line. Don't go cheap if you don't want issues. Chip recommends the 13 Fishing 6061 Black Betty or the FreeFall Ghost straight line reels.
- Go to Mille Lacs this winter, its going to be good.
- Chip uses Marcum LX-6 on flasher mode.
- Minnesota doesn't allow you to let anything jig for you other than a spouse.
- Social aspect of fishing is so much fun with ice fishermen. You just cant get together out in a boat. The more the merrier, big groups are an advantage to finding fish.
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Sign up for Chips Newsletter at Fishingthewildside.net. Really cool source of information, the latest trends, fishing shows and the latest from NWT. He works with a lot of anglers and loves to share the information with us through the newsletters.
Check out Chip on TV as the host of The Cabelas NWT. Shows are airing on CBS sports, Fox Sports North and several other venues. Check out the Cabelas NWT website for TV schedules and channels. He will be hosting which will be airing
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Newsletters now available on the TCWU Website
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Hey great news members,
We have made a few changes to the www.tcwalleyes.com website, which include PDF's of our past newsletters posted to the News and Newsletters tab. If you are looking for those missing Guest speaker fishing tips, well now you got them any time you need.
Click on the link below to check it out.
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Check out Target Walleye and sign up to receive weekly emails loaded with Fishing Tips, The Latest News and Cool Pics with an added touch of Fun.
Click on their logo below or go to targetwalleye.com to check out their website and see what its all about
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Chef Ben's Wildlife Kitchen
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Welcome to Chef Ben's wildlife kitchen. This month we are serving up Crispy Baked Walleye.
As we begin to catch some hard water walleyes it is also starting to get too cold for the outdoor fish fry. Time to move the fish fry inside with this easy recipe.
Bon Appétit!
Chef Ben
Crispy Baked Walleye
Ingredients:
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2 eggs
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1 tbsp. water
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1/3 cup bread crumbs
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1/3 cup instant masked potato flakes
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1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
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1 tsp. seasoned salt
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1 lemon cut into wedges
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4 walleye fillets
Directions:
1)
Preheat oven to 450° F. Grease a baking sheet
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Beat the eggs and water together in bowl until smooth, set aside
3)
Combine bread crumbs, potato flakes and Parmesan cheese in a separate bowl with the seasoned salt until evenly mixed
4)
Dip the walleye fillets into the beaten egg, then press into the bread crumb mixture to completely cover
5)
Place fillets onto the prepared baking sheet and bake until center of fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork, 15 - 20 minutes
6)
Serve fish with lemon wedges
This recipe is for two servings so add your favorite sides for a complete meal for you and a friend.
Ben Roach
Board Member of Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited
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Thank You KEEPER Sponsors!
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Thank you VALUED Club Donors
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TC Walleyes Unlimited, Inc.
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