Fan Outdoors: Tommy George, Jeff Anderson, Tony Mariotti

The Captain is back and he’s joined by Tommy George, Jeff Anderson, and Tony Mariotti!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
From the fish filled Midwest lakes to the deep woods
of the North upland prairies filled with pheasants, to the
whistling wings of duck ponds. This is Saturday Morning Fan Outdoors,
your show for hunting and fishing tips, topics and conversations.
You can also send us a question or opinion by
emailing us booth at kfean dot com. Here's your host,

(00:37):
the Fans, Captain Billy Hildebrand.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Good morning Fan Outdoors. Faithful, Yes, good morning to you.
Breton knows the intro so good he can mouth every
single word of that too. I've been doing it long enough,
Yes you have, and I appreciate that. Also. It's really
nice to have somebody that's been with us for a

(01:05):
period of time. I value that more than you know.
But it is the twentieth of December, my goodness, gracious,
and tomorrow, oh tomorrow is the shortest day of the year.

(01:28):
And you know what that means, everybody. It means we
are on a steady climb to longer days and eventually
we'll be doing cabin casts again. Springs right around the corner,
is what can I say? And that means that the

(01:52):
State Fair is also right, eyja, if we can get
the spring, I'll put up with the state fair whining
about that again for a while anyway. But it is
the twentieth of December and the holiday season is upon us.
Lots of lots of gift giving, lots of kids really

(02:15):
excited about Santa's arrival, and I think that's pretty cool.
My grandkids they have the elf that is at their house,
and you know, they can't the elf will show up
in the mornings. Each morning they get to look for

(02:35):
the elf and when they can find him, they can't
touch him or he'll not come back. So it's been
really fun for him. Yesterday the elf was sitting on
the sink in the bathroom and add wrapped toilet paper
all around things, and they were pretty excited about it.

(03:00):
One morning they found him in a jar and he
fell when they one of them tried to move him
with a paper under the jar. Well, he fell on
the floor and Dad went up and picked up the
jar and the kids went crazy, you can't do that.

(03:25):
He's going to be gone, He's not going to come back.
It was it was, yeah, but they're having all of
them are having a great time with it, and it
is a really neat thing, I think, and I'm enjoying
it too, but it is special. It's nothing like we had.
But anyway, the the deer season is winding down, there

(03:49):
is a CWD hunt and if you're interested in participating
in that, I think the licenses are two fifty and
its or either ant listeer or of a buck and
you can. If you have unused tags, they can be
used too. But look at the DNR's website to get

(04:11):
the rules and how you go about doing it too,
if you are so inclined, which I'm not. But Eric
will be down there partially, partially hunting, partially working, and
that's kind of what he does and that's okay. But
if you're still in the bird hunting the state of mind,

(04:34):
and I know that Brie is just absolutely driving me berserk,
I need to get her out and that warm day
this week would have been a dynamite time. I'm just
hoping for one more really good day before the end
of the season and we need to go tramp around.
But late season pheasants, late season pheasants are it's a

(04:59):
total different bird than earlier in the year if you're
used to that, and that's when you last went late season.
Birds are survivors. They are they have gotten through most
of a season, and that being said, they have been
hunted probably pretty intensely. And that means for you, the hunter,

(05:26):
for your four legged buddy, you need to employ a
couple of other strategies. One this is my opinion, but
it comes after a lot of years of experience too,
and a lot of people, including Bob Saint Pierre agree
totally with me. But we One of the things keep

(05:48):
in mind when you pull into a public hunting area
or any area, have a tendency to get out and
some people, you know, shut the door fairly hard. That's
a kiss of death. Boy, don't do that, and from Alec,
don't do that because again, the noise is going to

(06:10):
send them scurrying. If you're going in one side of
some grasses or whatever, they're going to be coming out
the other side because they know the game, they know
how to play, and they know how to win. So
very quietly shut your door. Now. If you're used to

(06:32):
vocal commands with your dog, again, noise, no, no, you
don't want to do that. So if you're yelling at
your dog or you and your buddy are talking loud
back and forth. Yeah, probably not a real good plan.
Be quiet, Be as quiet as you can, all right.

(06:53):
And a lot of these birds, at least in Minnesota,
a lot of the birds take to the cattail areas
with the with the snow on the ground and a
lot of the grasses being laid over. Well, they aren't
a lot of birds already a few weeks ago were
bunched up, so if you find one, they may walk

(07:15):
a long time to find it. But there's a really
really good chance there could be seven or eight or
more a lot of hens, and that bodes well for
the upcoming year two, so keep that in mind. But
they are truly truly trophy birds. Now, one other thing

(07:36):
I saw it. I can't remember where I saw it now.
I saw it on social media or something I got
on my email. But when I was a number of
years ago, when I was interested in prolonging hunting season,
I wanted to learn how to do taxi or me
for myself because it would allow me to put some

(07:59):
really really nice looking birds or usually birds. There's a
cup fish I didn't care to do, but I knew
nothing about it, so I'd look in comic books and
They used to have ads in the back of comic
books that said, I can't think of the name North
American School of Taxidermy, all right, send a buck and

(08:21):
a half or whatever. Well, I bet I ordered that
three or four times, and it was the most frustrating
thing because they wanted you to initially work on a
bird like a blackbird, a small bird. That's so hard.
And now with the taxidermy there are kits out there

(08:48):
by oh, I can't think of the name of it now,
dog on it. But there are some kits that are
just hitting the market, and I will look when we
have a moment and come back and tell you. But
you can order the kit. It's got everything you need
and there will be some instructions too. But I can
tell you from my experience, if you have a friend,

(09:13):
a neighbor, or even a pro, if you approach them
and ask them for some advice, they may be willing
to help you learn. And that's what I had with
a good friend at the time. He was an excellent
taxidermist and he really really got me out of binds.

(09:35):
But the kit aspect of it, I think is crucial
and it's well worthwhile if you could learn how to
do your own birds. I guarantee you it won't be
long and people will be coming to you asking you
what you charge, how much or now you need a license.

(09:55):
So if you just do it for yourself and friends
and family, then there's no license involved. But if you're
going to advertise and you're going to do it for profit,
then you need to search into the dn R a
little bit. But taxidermy is fun occupy. If you've got
some spare time, some free time in the winter, you
can freeze the birds. Put them in plastic bags, sealed bags,

(10:21):
wrap them tight and like wrap them real tight and
lay them in the freezer. They'll come out, let them
thaw and you can skin them properly, preserve the skin,
put artificial bodies in it, the eyes, and pose them
and just let them dry and in about a week

(10:44):
you will have a finished specimen. So that's it. There's
more to it than just that. But it's really really fun.
And now they have kits available rather than trying to
figure out what you need for everything you need and
you don't need to buy a whole bunch of this
and a bunch of that and whatever. So we're going

(11:04):
to take a pause because right after this we'll take
a pause and Tommy George will be along and we're
gonna find out if Tommy has been on the ice
or if he's still searching for mermaids. I don't know,
but if he does, he has strict instructions to call me.

(11:25):
Uh huh, I would like to go meet the person,
the lady, the mermaid. Yes, anyway, we'll take a pause
and we'll be back with Tammy Tommy George next on
Fan Outdoors. We're back Fan Outdoors coming away, Billy Hilde

(11:48):
around here, Brett Blaken, We're there and our next guest. Oh,
by the way, the taxidermy placed that I was talking
about is called Mackenzie Taxidermy and they have a website.
You can go right to it. But Mackenzie Taxi me
and they have brand new kits that are just coming
out for various animals, So keep that in mind if

(12:08):
you're interested. Our next guest is a he's a pretty
much a regular Fan Outdoors and we value him too,
and we appreciate his time for always because this man
we've been on the ice together. We have we have,
he's been on the radio. He is our resident expert

(12:32):
when it comes to mermaids in Minnesota and Wisconsin. So
he joins us right now, mister Tommy George pro angler,
Tommy George, Tommy good good morning, sir, Good.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Morning, Billy, and for Brett. Also, it's going to be
a fairly nice day today again, Billy. So the fish
are biting, just to let you know. And and right
now the ice is pretty safe. So that's just on
the way.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
You know, well, is our mermaid? Are you gonna go
search and give her a just check?

Speaker 3 (13:03):
You know, some of the guys over there drill holes
to ice dives, and I wouldn't be surprised if she
she'd show up one of these days and jump in
the ice, but I doubt it. Maybe that's spring, when
it's still early and right after ice out.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
She might be her off.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
All right now, you promised if if she shows up,
you're gonna call me.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Okay, I'm not only gonna call him in a bad heart.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Okay. So the ice is setting up pretty well. I
hear you say, yes it is, Billy.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
You know I went out last Tuesday and when it
was nice out, and uh before that it was basically
blowing snow for a few days. But uh, Anyways, Tuesday
was a beautiful day. I went over to one of
my favorite lakes right close to the house. It's it's
over by burn Park, Wisconsin. It's called Bass Lake, and

(14:02):
I ended up going there and fishing the north end
of the lake by the landing. And I just walked
out and excuse me, I could have probably taken my forewheeler,
but I didn't. I wasn't sure how fifty ice r was.
I went out. It's just a little bit drilled a
hole and I actually measured it with a ruler and

(14:23):
it was ten inches of good ice.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Ten inches, yes.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Ten inches.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
I was real surprise.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
I would have been happy with four or five, but
it was ten. So I kept and it was nice
clean ice. So I was walking around drilling holes looking
for some weeds, you know, and in the north in
the north end, there's a lots of weeds out there.
So I drilled I don't know, a dozen holes, and finally, Billy,
I drilled a hole and I saw it some green

(14:53):
weeds sticking up. I sat down there and I caught
my limited norss than an hour. It was absolutely crazy.
I was using the waxworms and a little tiny icequa
it was like it had a number twelve book on it.
And because I was pretty sure it would be sunny,
so I was in ten feet of water, I saw

(15:16):
the weeds. I just put it down. I was going
on the way down, letting it float down like five
feet deep. I had my locator on and all of
a sudden, a big crappie just come and just whack it.
And I thought, Darren Lord, thank you. In anyways, I
got that one, and I as soon as I've dropped

(15:37):
this bait down, Billy to halfway down. That's what I
wanted to mention to some of the ice anglers. Now,
this is my favorite time of the year for site fishing.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
I've talked about it before.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
It has got to be the most fun thing to
do seish. I'll tell you you can really learn a lot.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
You watch this.

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, you watch these fish come in and you see
how active they are, and especially when they're not active,
it really makes you a better angler to kind of
tease them into biting. Now, yesterday or Tuesday, when I
was out, these fish would come up and they were
just gulping it. I had no problem, but it was
still fund using it, and after I didn't really need

(16:26):
my vexellar after a while, because I knew exactly where
his fish were biting, and I'd drop it down. These
fish would come in and they were just and sometimes
if they did grab just the bait, I just dropped
the line so there was no no resistance at all,
and then I would just watch him hold it and

(16:46):
then they would.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
Suck it in.

Speaker 5 (16:47):
One more time.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
I stepped off and I had him. But one of
the keys, one of the keys to getting this fish
to bite was, like I said, I was using wax ones.
I would I would hook them act from in the
tail and then I would pinch the hair off and
then squeeze them a little bit and get some of
the juices out. And I mean, Billy, it worked like

(17:11):
a charm. It was really a lot of fun. I
just I'm so thankful. It was actually the first time
I was ault. So I'm planning on getting out probably today.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well tell me with that little tiny fly that you
were used under, jig that with the tiny, tiny hook
and catching crappies, that's that's gotta be you know, unusual.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yes, it is, Billy, You know, I I was planning
on just catching sonnies and I know these little hooks
really worked well. And uh it was it was a
a little jig. It was what a what a jig
with a little bit of of gulf on it. Really,

(17:58):
it's it's just it doesn't get me better. These fish
come in now. The studies have a good they have
a small mouth. Crappies have a big mouth. And I'm
strictly fishing crappies. I really like to use them at
it six five six hook, which is a quite.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
A bit bigger than the twelve.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
But the crappies, the crappies were so well. I had
no trouble and I had a number of rods with
me so and I didn't I probably lost one or
two crappies. And but anyways, I had luck. You billy crappies,
definitely you could use a six or even a further
And in the summertime you could use a four. But

(18:39):
in the winter I'll use a six or even an eight.
But that really helps with crappie fish and sonnies them
a little bargers.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
They like it's small.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Well, Telly, I think that a lot of people, myself included,
have a tendency to use probably too big a jig
too heavy of a and I think that's a real
common issue with an awful lot of people.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Yeah, you know, Billy, I've learned that over the years myself.
I'd mentioned that before that a real soft drop, you know,
when the jig is just floating down, super super soft
and super slow, it really triggers some of these inactive fish,

(19:28):
you know, when the fish are really active. They were
the other day. I could have probably used a much
bigger ook, but I didn't worry about it. But when
they're inactive, you watch that, especially side fishing, that's one
way you really see how these fish react to that
slow drop and you can pump it up and then

(19:49):
you just let it fall on its own, and it's
just it's just like a bug. You know, there's in
the wintertime. There's still bug hatches in a winter that
goes on. But the water was gin clear, so I
could see everything and it was It really will teach
you quite a bit about, you know, how these sticks

(20:11):
react to your bait, how they react to the drop,
and if they're really active, you can use a tungsten
jike where it really drops quick you get to the
right dep or you watch your vexlar your locator and
you see where they're at. You can get down to
a real quick But I was only fishing in the springtime.
I'm fishing pretty shallow. I was only like a ten

(20:33):
feet and that, Billy, I never had to go past five.
And I was watching these fish come in and they
were just de borrowing it. So gee, I was tickled
thinking that was a good day.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Do you stay away from other people, Tommy, because there's
a tendency for other for anglers also to go to
a crowd or if you're out there all of a
sudden and somebody sees you catching fish, you're going to
draw or at least you're gonna draw multiple anglers.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
And absolutely, Billy, all.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
The noise has got to make a difference.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Absolutely, there is guys on the lake. Uh Tuesday when
I was out and there's a number of houses and
there's some four wheelers out there, and I stick. I
totally stay away from them, Billy. All I wanted to
really find was some good green ways. That I did,

(21:29):
and that was the whole key. But now I don't
I'm like you, I don't like to go buy other fishmen,
even if they're catching fish. I want to be able
to catch my own and you know, I just but
I do definitely stay away from all the all activity
and all the noise. Like you say, it definitely makes

(21:52):
a difference.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Will you Will you actually move if somebody comes and
uh and sets up right in the same place or
just outside, just away from.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
You, billy.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
You know, I'm using my little fish traps so I
can I can put I'll put it. I bring a
small bucket, I put ice in it, or snow, I
should say. And when I catch a fish, I can
put it in there.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
If it's a keeper, I can.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Put it in there. It doesn't make any noise, So
I can really stay right where I'm at if the fish,
if the fish stay active, if they don't, you know,
if that person. Sometimes people will spook the fish away
from your spot, and I will definitely move, But if
they don't, if they don't spook and I'm still catching fish,
I'll stay right there. They don't even if people don't

(22:41):
even know that I'm catching fish because it's it's so quiet.
I don't have a radio on. I'm just the only
thing you'll hear in the winter time is my eater on.
And that's pretty quiet itself. So but no, I will
stay in a spot unless the fish quip biting, then
I'll move.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
I can't tell you the I recalled so visually and
so vividly that I'm out and I've got a two
man house. And I had that set up, and I
was driving on the lake. But I had been there
for quite a while and catching fish, and all of
a sudden, the ice started cracking out on Chisago. Actually

(23:23):
I started cracking, and I looked, and here comes a truck.
I'm thinking, oh, he's just going by. He stopped and
he couldn't have been, I don't know, fifty thirty feet
away from me.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
Stop.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
The truck got out. We're jacking bab bye Bay, Bye bye.
And this is about where we were. Yeah, over and
over and over got out with a gas auger and
the blades were dull, and it went on and on
and on and I caught nothing. Then finally I got
out and I said, hey, would you like, you know,

(23:59):
would you like some hell? And I'll drill your holes
for you? And oh, yeah, that would be pretty nice,
young man, that would be pretty nice. A young man
I ain't, but anyway, so I did. I drilled them
some holes, asked where they wanted, and then I packed
up and moved. I mean, it's just and the that

(24:19):
CA drill of mine, I mean, it just goes through
ice like butter. And it was so sick And the
best thing is it's quiet.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
The billy that's what I used Tuesday, and I was
gonna say, that's the lake you and I fish.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
Quite a bit wash. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Yeah, when you're catching all the sunnis and stuff. That
was really a street. But we got to do it
some more. But anyways, when when when you started using
that CA drill, that makes a huge difference. And you know, right,
the most recent drills now they're all electrics. Everybody's got

(25:03):
an electric which is good that the gas operated are
heavy and they're loud, and they do definitely spoke fish.
The electrics will they I've seen it spokefish a little bit,
but not near what our gas audio will do. So
and one thing about your cadrill, your blades are guaranteed

(25:26):
for life. Just remember that.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And one of the other things, Tommy, as far as
sight fishing it, I remember Bob and I were together
and he was so as well as was I amazed.
These fish, the sunfish will come in, they'll take the
bait in their mouth and they'll spit it out, and
unless you had seen it, you wouldn't have a clue

(25:48):
that they were there. I mean, it's just that in
and out. And there's been a possible way to set
the hook in time.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
If the use sitefish. You can see you can see
that so so clear. But one thing that I've noticed
over the years when a fish comes in sometimes these
fish will come in on are kind of in a
negative boat. They'll sit right at your bait and they
won't there and they're just sitting there and all of

(26:19):
a sudden, their gills will flare there, They'll they'll flare
their guilds and what they're doing is they're opening their mouths,
they flare their gills, and what they're doing the suckond
the water in and they're bringing that bait with it.
And that's why I site fish. And you when when
you see that, it's absolutely amazing how quick they do.

(26:43):
Just like you said, they suck it in and if
you don't hit it right away, they blow it out
faster than anything. So and another thing I've noticed over
the years, I have fished walleyes on malaks and we're
actually fishing down it's the bottom, and these walleyes would
come in and I mean there was walleyes coming through

(27:07):
all the time and they had What I did notice
was they weren't interested. Then all of a sudden they
would come into my bait. Their fin, their top fin
would flare up, it would stand right up, and they're
on the feed. I've noticed stuff like that. It's kind
of goofy, but that's when they started. That's when they

(27:29):
started biting. So you know, subtle things like that really
do make a difference. So stay alert with the fish,
but site fish if you can.

Speaker 5 (27:39):
Oh my god, you're just it's amazing, Tommy.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
We're gonna let you go.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
Buddy.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
We're out of time, but I thank you. And you
said you're going to be out again. Are you going
this weekend?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yes, I definitely am, Billiant. I just want to mention.
I want to say you and your family have the
merriest Christmas and Brett to I hope your families are
always happy and healthy. And I'd like to mention just
all the guys that I've worked with for over fifty
years in Local four seventeen, a bunch of good guys.

(28:15):
They're all fishermen and the ladies too. They're just they're
good people and I wish them all merry Christmas and
a wonderful New Year.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thanks Tommy again the same back to you and your family,
My friend and I. We will will be talking again
really quick, but give me a heads up if you're
still catching them too. I might maybe I'll join you.
I'm not sure, we'll see.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
I would like that.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
Thanks, Billy, you bet you.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Tommy George pro angler, Tommy George, and he loves the
fish and he is successful. Also, we will take a
pause and we'll be back with another angler, but he's
way up north and he too has been a regular
on Fan Outdoors. Not a regular, but no stranger. We'll

(29:02):
just leave it at that, okay, and mister Jeff Anderson
joins us from Bodette. Next We're back Fan Outdoors, coming

(29:24):
your way and delighted, delighted to be with you too
each and every Saturday. Really really enjoy being able to
spend time with you. And I know our guests are
exactly the same way, because everybody we talked to our
avid and really really enjoy the outdoors as yours truly does.

(29:45):
Also but you know, Brett is an Avid endorsement too,
so we're working on him. Unless that there's a golf
club in my hand, I'll go outside. You can see
if we can get a tea someplace nearby and color
your your golf wall and get it bright yellow and
whack away, buddy, No everywhere anyway. Hey, our next guest

(30:10):
is coming to us way up north, all the way
up into the Lake of the Woods area from Buddette, Minnesota.
The mister Jeff Anderson joins us right now. Jeff, good morning, sir.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
Hey, good morning to you guys.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
How are you not bad? Not bad? That's tomorrow is
the shortest day of the year, buddy, it is.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yes, I know. We we don't have much sunlight. We
get up in the dark and we go to bed
in the darker.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
The truth.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Yeah, it's just like, yeah, it's it's the middle of
well we're not quite in the winter doldrums quite yet,
but I think everybody the excitement is high for winter
and and all the fun stuff. Even with the lack
of sunlight that we that were we we lack. I
guess it.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
It really takes kind of the well, the darkness. You
go to work in the dark and you come home
in the dark, that that gets old in a very
short time. But if you're if you're enjoying yourself and
you're get you get a little bit more sleep, and
then you can get up and still be dark. But
it uh, it makes for a longer night that you

(31:22):
can get some rest too.

Speaker 5 (31:24):
Well.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
That's what keeps us on our toes here in Minnesota,
the change change of seasons. And you know, with every
change of season there's something to look forward to, which
is which is which I love? You know, I love
you know, the fall time and then of course leading
in the winter and then the spring, you know, all
the fresh rolls and you know, and of course all

(31:45):
the different quarry to chase. You know, like each season
brings brings something new, and I just think that goes
well with maybe my personality, maybe not for everybody else,
but it's something that I'm always I always just love
what what's next? What's next on the list?

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Somebody asked me not long ago, why don't you go
south for the winter, And I thought to myself, No, no,
I don't want to do that. I like the change
of seasons. Yeah, you could move south, but no, I
ain't doing that. And I mean, if if you if
you like to fish, fish ice, and if you like
open water, fish open water, but when it comes to

(32:23):
a close, you bring closer to it, and then when
it comes back around again, it's brand new. And I
love that new feeling each time and the change of seasons.
There's a lot of people that don't experience that, and
they really don't know how pleasing and how wonderful that

(32:44):
change is.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
It is. It is something really really special, especially for
you know, people who enjoy the outdoors and whether whether
it's fishing or hunting, you know, all of course there's
snowmobiling and you know skiing and and you know, snowshoe
and all the all the different things. And yeah, if
you're that active person that likes to uh likes something different,

(33:08):
we we have that here in Minnesota. And you're right,
it is some especially when we moved up north. You know,
I got as a funny little correlation is we moved
up north, and of course we moved from the center,
you know, brainer Baxter area, which has a lot of
stores and shops and a lot of things. Well, my
two beautiful girls that my wife and my daughter, you know,

(33:30):
that was a little bit of adjustment to them. But
now when we go on the road and we we
go whether it's out out for skating or hockey or fishing,
over wherever we're off to go as a family, I
tell them, boy, now when you get to go to
you know, one of these special stores, it's a special
deal now. So it's kind of kind of the same
thing with with our seasons, you know. I guess that's
how my mind works is is it's not mundane, and

(33:53):
it's always a change, and it's always something to prepare for.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
You know.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
That's one of my favorite things. And I try to
teach my kids that, you know, success in the outdoors
happens so much more before you you get on your
trip where you go out. It's it's the preparation that
comes with it and thinking of all the things and
the lures and the rods, and I need a heavyweight rod,
I need a you know, I need a lightweight rod.

(34:18):
I need a bobber rod. I need you know, a
small jig I need well, I need an extra battery
for this. I need it, you know, another headlamp just
in case this one goes out. I love that preparation
part of going on trips, and you know that's what
the change of seasons brings us. Well, you pull your
ice fishing gear down, you know, you get your auger
blades out, you get you know, you get all the
things out, and I just love to tinker in the garage.

(34:40):
And yeah, that's that. I just live for that. I
think it's it's such a special deal.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
Well, and for a lot of people from the Twin
City area going up north as the Brainerd Lakes area, yeah, sure,
but when you get people from the South. I'll never
forget when I had a principle in school when time
that came to us from Texas and he was just
an amazing man, and I be my favorite person for

(35:07):
as long as I was in education, and I wanted
to take kids ice fishing, and he said, well, he
drove a Porsche, an older Porsche, so anyway, so he was.
He wore a long black leather coat and he said, well,

(35:27):
mister Hildebrand, I'm not so sure about that. Maybe we
better go out and check this ice and see how
safe it is before we even think about this, okay,
And I said, of course, I said, Willy, let's go.
So it was after school one day, we got in
the car and drove out to Eagle Lake, which isn't
very far away, and we stopped on the access the
road let out into the ice and he says, well,

(35:49):
now where do we go? And I said, well, just
follow the road. It's okay. So he did. We got
out there and we stopped the car and I said,
I've got I've got my auger in the back. We'll
get that out and I can we can test the ice.
And he said are you sure? And I said, you know, yeah,
that's okay. So he opened the door and I saw
him stick his foot out. We're sitting on the ice

(36:11):
in his car by the way. Put his foot out
and he's tapping on the ice, and I said, it's okay,
it's not going to break. Are you sure. So the
whole concept of frozen ice, frozen water for a lot
of people is a concept that they just have difficulty

(36:32):
grasping too.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah, I mean, it's like anything when when it's new
and it's you know, you're on top of water and
and it's fun to see see those reactions for people,
especially up here in Lake the Wood, Yes, where you see.
I mean, it's a it's a highway in the mornings,
and it's a highway in the evenings. And you get out,
it's a big city. You know, there's fish houses everywhere,

(36:56):
and it's it's so great to see those reactions from
from uh, from you know, from people that have never
experienced it. And yeah, again, that's what it's all about, right,
is is to get out and experience new things and
and and of course catch a bunch of fish and
make memories and all the good things that come along
with it.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Is your ice up there? Is it setting up well?

Speaker 5 (37:19):
It is?

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yeah, we uh, you know, it changed fast. We we
had a nice warm, warm, I guess windy, uh November,
first part of November, and then you know, right a
deer season. You know that first Saturday we had the
perfect conditions. You know, it's calm, and it got really
cold and it locked things up pretty nice, and uh,

(37:43):
we we just made a good sheet of ice that
didn't move around much. And we've had cold weather since.
We got a little bit of snowfall. It actually just
melted this week and then uh, you know, and then
we got some more snow here. So so we're we're
set up pretty good. You know, the the the ice moves,

(38:03):
especially this time of year when you have eight twelve
inches of ice, you know, with with extreme weather changes,
it's it's like a big science project out there where
you know, it's it's expanding and then it's moving, and
then there's ice heaves and then there's cracks that open up,
and you know, this time of year, it's it's anytime
you're on the ice, you know, if you're new to

(38:24):
ice fishing, we always say ice is never one hundred
percent safe. It's it's smart to go out with somebody
that's experience. And usually usually when you're able to understand
how the ice moves and the cracks and how to
cross those, and it's it's much more safe, you know.
And so you just got to use that caution and

(38:45):
view with an experienced person like anything, and uh, you're
you'd be just fine. But no, our ice is it's
in great shape. And you know, I think I said
this the last few shows, like the fall fish was
so good here and and I just knew that our
fishing was going to be good right away. And we

(39:07):
had we had a group of five the other day
and they had a clicker and they had caught four
hundred and nine. Yeah, in one day. I mean a
lot of you know, of course a lot of those
are the small sagers, but that ends like mixed in
with mixed in with some really nice walleyes, and so

(39:29):
our fishing has been it's just been off the charts,
and you know that'll last for a little while here,
and then as the ice continues to grow, you know,
it's the same every year, we start going out farther
and farther out into the mud and you know, searching
for fresh schools of fish and everything else. But yeah,
it's good, it's really good right now.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well, when you go out and the roads are there,
I've always wondered, sometimes you'll get an ice heave, and
some of those heaves are pretty gigantic. But how do
how do you or the other guys on the team,
how do they navigate that? And do they cut those

(40:07):
they rerouted? Can you heal ice?

Speaker 4 (40:12):
Yeah? You know our ice team, you know, both Board
Review and Sportsmans and all the ice teams up here.
They are so amazing and we've shown some of that
on our social media. The back end work that most
people don't see, you know, the first part of the year,
what happens is you have that five six inches of ice,
and then you get a big wind blow and the
ice piles up right right across from Pine Island where

(40:35):
we cross, and so it starts with chainsaws jackhammers, because
you can't you can't bring a big machine out across
four Mile Bay. You know, we see that on social
media where people say, well, why don't you just bring
a skid steer out there with a multure or with it.
You can't do that. You can't bring You got to
do it with hand labor. So they're chiseling. They're using
chain saws, and we have these drags that we make

(40:59):
in our shop and they pull these dregs up and
down the ice to smooth it out. And then, you know,
like you said, as the ice continues to form and
we go through our seasons, there are seas that happen
and those are the most most of the time. Those
are the danger spots. And what we do is we
go in and we smooth them out. Sometimes we flood them.

(41:21):
And then we also have bridges, and we have multiple
different types of bridges. We have mats and then we
have steel bridges and they are they are so good
at it and they just again that they make it
safe for our traveling.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
And the safety I think is a really really big deal.
But for a lot of people wheelhouses or something like that.
One of the advantages I found one I was up there,
am up there, is that the houses move frequently. And
when you get into a house from say Border Viewer Sportsman's,

(41:58):
everything's set up and do you know that you're going
to be in a spot that had fish or has
fish on it or nearby that, Jeff, is it's worth
its weight in gold for somebody who doesn't fish on
a daily basis.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
It is. And you know, I'm all for you know,
to do yourselfers. Yeah, my, my, my entire life. But
there's a lot more work involved, in a lot more
variables and and what you get with a with an
experienced crew like Sportsman's and Board Ofview. Our houses don't
sit in the spot unless it's really catching fish every day.

(42:36):
They don't sit in the spot more than one or
two days, and they're they're moving them and that's you know,
that takes a full systematic approach. And and our team, well,
I mean we keep track of every house and the
number of fish that are caught out of each house
and they they can tell you the history of oh
well this this house only kept you know, eight fish

(42:58):
for the day, so we're gonna move it, you know,
And they that's how important it is to us. And
you know, like you said, the great thing is, you
just show up and you hop in our transportation. We
bring you out there. The house is pre drilled. You
don't have to deal with that when the wind is
blowing out of the Northwest and you know it's a
blizzard out there. You hop in a warm house. The

(43:20):
holes are open, you got bait, you got your rods,
and you're fishing, you know. And a lot of times
I even see with some of my buddies, they show
up and we want to go out in a snowmobile.
Well we pull up to the to the reef, and
of course you're we're always a little bit late because
of whatever might happen. Maybe maybe Bob forgot to put
in gas and the snowmobile he's got to do that

(43:42):
in the morning, and then all the things right. But
you show up and they pull their rods out, and
then they got to drill their hole. Their augurs not
working perfect, and I mean, I'm I'm usually fishing before
they even get the rod out of there there rod locker.
But no, it's simple, and it's and it's it's great

(44:02):
and and and that's what that's what makes you know,
coming up to a place like we have here, is
it just it's it's simple and you get enjoy the
actually you get to enjoy the fishing aspect of it
a lot more, you know, because like we said, the
days are short and you only get so much time
in that fish house.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
So Jeff, we have to we have to take a pause.
I've got I got a couple other comments that I
wanted to make, but then I want to get to
to fishing currently and what's going to happen in your
opinion or from your experiences too on the Big Lake?
So can you can we can you stay with us?

Speaker 4 (44:39):
Absolutely? I have a warm cup of coffee, So I'm
in a good movie.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Oh I man after my own heart. We will take
that pause and we will be back with more with
Jeff Anderson right after this. We're back, fan outors come

(45:03):
in your way. Uh huh. We are delighted to be here.
We would be my friend and guest mister Jeff Anderson
from Buddet, Minnesota with uh he works with both Sportsman's
and border View Lodges up on Lake of the Woods,
and we were talking about that too, Jeff, as we

(45:27):
went to break. One of the things I wanted to
mention was how neat it is to be able to
come in with fish and off on a limit. But
the things that you're the guys that are taking care
of you take into account. One is you could have
fish that night and your guys will tell you how many,

(45:52):
because you have to be all set for your fishing
experience the next day, and then you couldn't have it
prepared for you at very same fish that evening and
have just a feast. It's so nice.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
Well does it get any better? You caught two hours ago?
You come in, you know from the you know the
cold and the transportation. You come in, you shower that. Meanwhile,
the guides are sitting there cleaning your fish, you know, professionally,
and they bring your fish in. You tell them that
I we want to keep ten fish to eat. We

(46:35):
bring it down to the kitchen. The kitchen does a
fabulous job getting it all breaded up. They fried up
in it. You walk into the bar and restaurant, have
a nice cold beverage and have this beautiful gold and
walleye that you just caught hours ago, and you can
sit there and like you said, feast away on. I

(46:57):
mean it as much as has many walleye flays that
I eat. I it's something that doesn't get too old
at that is for sure. Is just something special about it. Yeah,
we do that all and it's uh and a lot
of people take advantage of it because it is a
it's a I mean I had considered a delicacy, right,
and especially when it's that fresh, you know, it doesn't

(47:20):
get any better.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Well, also with the with people going out and and
doing and catching fish and things like that. But they're
going to go out, they're going to catch fish, but
they also keep an account into account what you can
catch the next day and what you can keep. And
in order to be legal, they pack your fish because

(47:43):
the license packers take care of that. All you got
to do is go home. But the the other thing
too is they know what's going on on the lake. Now,
if people were going to be interested in giving a
gift for Christmas holiday, can they change that ahead of
time and uh and just give the gift to family

(48:07):
or friends or whatever.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
Oh, absolutely, We we do that all the time where
where we have you know, uh, people call and they
want to they want to give their relatives or you know,
do a family trip and they can come up and
or they can give us a call and and we
we put together a package for them that fits their
exact needs. And uh, they they get the package and

(48:32):
they can give it for a gift. Yeah, and if
they just go to Sportsmen's Lodges or boarder view Lodge
dot com. Both both operations offer that and we uh,
we would love we would love for that to be
a Christmas gift for for somebody that that uh, that
wants to come up and experience all the things that
we just talked about. And it's a special place up here,

(48:55):
that is for sure. And you know, we we don't
take lately. The travel comes with it, you know, that's
it's a little bit of a journey, but it's a
beautiful drive and once you get up here, it's it's
it makes the trip worth it.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
The other thing, Jeff, I'll never forget this. I'm dressed
in ice armor and we get in the actually a
little little trader and I didn't know what was going on,
but I'm getting out and we're gonna get in the trainer,
and I looked over. There's a guy in shorts and
short sleeve crawls into the trader and I have got

(49:34):
all this clothes on, and he didn't just yeah, okay,
smiles at me and smile him back, and before long
we're talking, and it turns out he was no stranger
going up, but he had come from the South and
used to that. But he's used to coming up too.
And it turns out I didn't need to have ice

(49:55):
armor on, Jeff, I didn't need that. I could have
wore blue jeans and a t shir.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Sure, that is true. I always it is always my
because I'm an over preparer. I always recommend to having
you know, at least long underwear and jeans on, just
in case something happens it's a big lake, and whether
you have a flat tire on a trailer and you
got to switch trailers, you might have to go outside
in the colds for a little bit, or you know,

(50:21):
we have a bottomer that breaks down and you know
we're twenty miles north. You know, I always say I
always be prepared. But yeah, that's the great part about it. You.
You don't have to have all the things you know
that come along with it. If you just want to
see what ice fishing is all about and want to
get and experience it, you you can just show up.

(50:43):
You just need a fishing license and a big smile
on your face. Ye. And well it's that simple. And no,
you don't need you don't have to have you know,
ice arm or bibs or anything else. You can show
up in shorts it as long as you make it
a little cold. If you got to switch trainl that
that doesn't happen, you're not outside for very long.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
All right, fishing yesterday and today an end of the
future on the lake? What's going on?

Speaker 4 (51:12):
Yeah, I mean we we had a pile of fish
that that we're up tight, you know, close to the
shoreline by Pine Island. We had a great uh river
fishing this fall. And there's a direct correlation with with
you know, the conditions of the lake with how good
our fishing is. And what I mean by that is,
you know, water clarity we had, Like I said, we

(51:35):
had really good water clarity. Low. We didn't have a
bunch of current because the water was down in this fall,
and so that set up our river fishing to be
really good in the fall, and then it just leads
into leads into our first ice fishing, our early ice fishing,
and then you know, like I said, as as the
you know, we like to stay as close as we can,

(51:57):
right because it's less travel and it's just easier on everybody, customers,
guides and equipment. But as as you know, those fish,
uh you know, get caught and beat up those schools
of fish, then we didn't we go out on the hunt.
And that's one of the things our guides love doing.
You know, they lay like going out on the hunt.
It's a big basin and those fish will spread out.

(52:20):
You either chase those schools down or you find new
schools the fish and this lake is it is, it
is just unbelievable to me. I mean the amount of
pressure that that it gets, you know, all summer and
all winter, but it continues to produce great fishing. And
that that's the Lake of the Woods is a little
bit unique in the sense that you know, the ice fishing.

(52:44):
You know, if you're going to fish walleyes on most lakes,
you know in Minnesota that that walleye bite is the
first hour morning, in the last hour, uh in the evening.
And that's just that's just what it is, because those
walleys like to bite that at those times, that's when
they're they're feeding. We have you know, the Sager bite,
and and it keeps you busy. You get a look

(53:06):
at them on the graph and and quite frankly, if
you're just looking to eat fish, that fifteen inch sager
is the one that I'm choosing to eat, you know.
And and then of course you get those those straggler
big walleys that that swims through and a lot of
times as the season progresses, they're they're the suspended ones.
So that's where electronics play play a key role. And

(53:28):
but yeah, that's that. It's it's pretty much the same
every year, how the fish move and and how they
go on. And then of course presentations, you know, it's
always we call it the one two punch, right. You
have your set line or your bobber line, and then
you have your jigging line. And sometimes that set line
is the one that's catching the fish. And then sometimes

(53:48):
they they want it aggressive. And and you've heard me
talk about you know, jigging cadence and and and the
art of triggering strikes and bites and everything else. But
for the most part, these fish on in the woods.
If they show up on the graph and you have
a you have a you know, a drop pg jig
which is one of my favorites down there for my
set line and a and a middle swimming around down there,

(54:11):
they're going to bite it.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
If you've got your own equipment or if you don't
have equipment, can if your own stuff is that is
that as suggested? Or if you need equipment, can you
get it up there?

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Yeah? Absolutely, yep. If you have your own bring it along.
If you don't, we will. We got you covered. So
we always encourage either or.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Okay, And as the as the winter goes on, what
do you do as far as the houses, do they
go further out? Do they split up? How are you
how do you handle that?

Speaker 5 (54:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (54:49):
So, typically, like I said, we're close and then we'll
get out as far as we have to go. And
there's times where it's twenty miles out and then you know,
through January and February and quite frank you know, we
get a lot of people that are waiting by the
phone and wait watching our social media for ice conditions,
and then of course they book right now and they
want to get up here on this early ice bite,

(55:10):
which for good reason. It's it's it's off the charts,
you know. And then as we get into January, we
continue to go out farther and farther. But over the
last several years, are some of our most consistent and
best fishing have come in February and so and I
just think it's because we get out in that middle
of the mud and we find these schools, because we're

(55:33):
all off by our own then because everybody's kind of
condensed now you know, we're all pretty close to each
other because just because of the ice and how it's
set up, and as the ice forms it just opens
up more acres of ice for us to explore. And
so yeah, I would if you call and you want
a week in January, it's going to be pretty tough

(55:54):
right now to find the spot. But if you can't
find a spot in January, February and even in the March,
like I said, are our most consistent, some of our
most consistent action has come in those months the last
few years.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Excellent. That's that's way cool. So when you're going further
and further out is obviously twenty miles. That's a long haul, Jeff.
How far do you have to go to get to uh,
what's the the island out there that's a destination for
a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
Well, yeah, I mean it is a it is a
long it is a long drive, right, but you know,
you get up, you get up by stair and shoals
and and you know, the big island and you know
some of our some of our places head over to
Stony you know that area, and you know, so there's there,

(56:50):
there's again, it just opens up, opens up so so
many opportunities. Once you get that a little bit thicker ice,
you can explore more. And you know, and there's a
lot of resorts up here, which is great. And we
just we just kind of all respect each other. We
all have our areas early and then as the as
the season progresses, you know, we just kind of all

(57:10):
go out on our own and we keep our pods
of fish houses together and and and go explore and
and then of course it's this whole systematic approach to
you know, our ice teams are I just I'm I'm
so impressed every year just watching how systematic they are,
and how they move the houses. This role gets moved

(57:30):
and it's like a a leap frog effect, you know.
They they have a roll of houses here and then
that's the closest one, and then they move the closest
one beyond the farthest one, and it's just this uh,
this big giant leap frog. And then sometimes we got
to move three miles, you know, to find more fish.
So we we have scouts that go out and they
look and you know, it's a tough job. You got

(57:52):
to go out and fish a little bit, but you know,
but they they enjoy doing it and and it's a
it's an a important thing, you know, to go out
and scout. You can't just move your house and I
expect to catch fish.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Yeah, Jeff, we're out of time, my friend. But I
would like to take just a moment to wish you,
your family and and all the guys up there are
very merry Merry Christmas and happy New Year or two.

Speaker 4 (58:18):
Okay, always an honor. Merry Christmas to everybody. Enjoy your families,
give them a big hug and come up here and
set the hook with that.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
There you go, Thanks Jeff, take care of buddy. Thanks guys,
that's Jeff Anderson up at Border View and Sportsman's Lodge.
And you if you haven't done that before, man, that's
a bucket list trip. It is a bucket list and
you will enjoy it. We'll take a pause and we'll
be back well right after this with more Fan Outdoors

(58:48):
for you. Okay, we'll be right back. You're listening to
Fan Outdoors coming your way, and we are delighted to

(59:11):
be traveling to you, yep, in the through the highways
and byways wherever you might be. And I'm assuming and
making a presumption that you are loving the outdoors or
you probably would be changing things right now because we do.
And our next guest is absolutely a perfect example of that.

(59:36):
He has been with us a number of times before,
and we value his time and also his expertise and
his experiences too. He is mister Tony Marriotti, a pro
staff of Shields and a pro staff member of Clam Outdoors. Tony,
Good morning.

Speaker 5 (59:56):
Sir, Good morning. How are you today?

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Not too bad, buddy, not bad at all? Is it
still winter up at your house?

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
You know, I thought we were gonna sneak away with
a few warm days and then they throw the cold
right back at us. You do got cold and snow
and lots of ice is being made.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Well, how much ice have you got so far?

Speaker 5 (01:00:16):
You know, honestly it does vary some, but I'm pretty
confidence saying, I mean, seven inches is about as little
as I found on a couple of the lakes. You know,
some of these lakes even ten to twelve inches. And
people are starting to use four wheelers, snowmobiles. Even seen
a few pickups out, which I think is a little.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 5 (01:00:35):
We are making ice.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Yeah, I'm all for making ice, but I ain't for
driving out it yet. That's you know, no, when turning
your truck into an anchor is not a good plan,
that one I'm subscribe to.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
So yeah, we are making ice, but it still varies
quite a bit, but you don't give it. A couple
more weeks and I think we'll be safe and we'll
be good to go.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
All right, you're the deer season for us has wound down.
There's not much left for you up there either, unless
it's archery.

Speaker 5 (01:01:08):
Nope, everything's kind of wound down here. You know. We
hunted out Southamba Midge. We saw a few deer, but
definitely heard the wolves and had a lot of impact
from the wolves in the area. So deer were certainly
not as plentiful. But you know, as we've said before,
it's about being out there and spending time with family
and friends, and we had a great time, even though

(01:01:29):
we are going to be eating tag soup this ward.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
Did you notice any grouse when you're out there, because
I know you will hunt grouse too.

Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
Yep, lots of grouse.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
I didn't see as many this year during the dura
grouse season. I was actually targeting them as I have
the last two I think. I mean, I think two
years ago I shot seventeen on our property and last
year was like eleven. This year I only had four
or five. But during deer season, especially after the snow flu,
we had growl us all over. I saw, you know, five,

(01:02:02):
six of them at a time in places, and so
there's definitely a few birds still around.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Well that's that's good because the cyclical nature. I don't
know if that's true or not, but everybody talks about it.
They were expecting kind of a more down season for grouse,
and it's it's not about numbers it's about, like you
said earlier, it's about the experience. And there's something about
a grouse flush that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
Oh when they jump out in front of you right
in the morning as you walk into your deer stand.
I don't care how many times you experience it. Your
heart stops and stuff a little squeal.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Oh it does. It just kind of steals your breath, buddy.
Just yeah. So house Fish and Ben.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
You know, it's been really good. We've been basically targeting
or mainly targeting pantherish, the crappies and the bluegills, which
is is what I typically do. I've only spent one
night out here for walleyes, but I'm gonna be heading
the north of the border very soon to check out
a little bit of walleye fishing. But for here, the

(01:03:07):
pan fisher king and they are being cooperative. They're just
a little bit trickier to track down right now than
they are typically this time of year.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
What why is that? Is it the time of year, Tony,
or is it something else?

Speaker 5 (01:03:22):
You know, I think it had to do it has
to do something with how the water tempts were and
you know, we kind of we kind of held off
a long time before freezing, and then we had that
snow that kind of cooled things down, and then it
started freezing, and I think the water was a lot
warmer this year than than typical when we were when
we started freezing up. And what I'm finding is a

(01:03:43):
lot of these fish that typically I can catch up
in the weeds, you know, right away, they're not quite
in the weeds yet they're still out on the deeper waters,
whether it's a basin, you know. I think we've talked
a lot about basin bikees and based fish, the fisher
in those deep holes, but they're also on some of
the weed bites where I typically find them in the weeds.
They're kind of adjacent to the weeds, still out in

(01:04:05):
deeper water I'm talking. I mean even up to thirty
five thirty seven feet where a lot of these crappies
are hanging out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Wow. I've listened to people talk in the past about
how the early in the season the fish will be
more shallow into the weeds, but then as the season
goes on, they're moving out to the basin. But then
there's another school of thought that I'm hearing more recently

(01:04:33):
about fishing the weeds, because there are people that believe
those fish are going to stay once they get there,
they're going to stay in the weeds all winter long.
I guess which one do you subscribe to? If either one,
maybe neither.

Speaker 5 (01:04:47):
You know, a kind of a combination. I think a
lot of times, once the fish are in the weeds,
both sunfish and crappies, I think they use them a lot,
especially if those weeds are healthy and they're alive. And
I do think crappies are more apt to slide out
over a basin and kind of hang out there. I
think that's a lot of times where the minnows go

(01:05:08):
and they're foraging, those where the safety of the weeds
kind of allows them to stay there as long as
they's food present, they don't really have a reason to leave.
And those are beyond the lake field that I consider
more of a weed lake, in a basin lake where
there's maybe just weeds around the edges and it turns
into a deep bowl. A lot of times I don't
think that those fish ever really get up to the
weed line. They just kind of roam that basin and

(01:05:30):
they're content for the winter to hang out there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Well, I know, if we go, and we just talked
with Jeff Anderson a little bit ago. But I know
on Lake of the Woods a lot of the times
people will lean on and fish the frozen emerald shiners.
Do you ever fish with anything like that around home
or do you ever fish with frozen bait around home?

(01:05:54):
Or is it primarily artificials.

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
I'm a primarily artificial just soft plaif or waxworms. If
it's going to be a tough fighter, I from taking
people out. I have a lot of confidence in wax rooms.
And you know, a lot of the fish I'm fishing for,
you know, they're not gonna They're probably not going to
be real excited about a great, big emerald chiner. There
are times when I'll use a crappy minnow or even
a fat head for crappies during the winter, especially later

(01:06:19):
on when when I know they're in those basins and
they're feeding heavily on minnows. Then then I will use
live minnows at times. But for the most part, we're
fortunate we can get away with soft plastics or waxworms.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
Well, what's your thought about the weather? The fronts that
come through, and they seems like they come through the
different ones are coming through every day, even this last summer.

Speaker 5 (01:06:42):
You know, there there are several trains of thought of that.
When it's cold and miserable and a big cold turn's
coming through, a lot of times I don't feel like
going out there and sitting and being miserable, especially as
I'm getting older. But you know, there are guys you
have to remember, there are guys that do this every
single day. Yeah, I have to find fish, and so
those fronts I think a lot of times they can

(01:07:05):
affect the fish, and they certainly do, but a lot
of times I think they affect the fishermen and you're
just not wanting to go out there and put in
the work or the grind that it takes to be successful.
If you're willing to do the work, I am very
confident that you can always catch fish somewhere on every
day of the week.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Well, I'm of the same ilk Tony, because if I
wake up and it's really nasty out, I'll just tell
myself self, you're just not that mad at him anymore.
It's okay, And absolutely it's supposed to be fun.

Speaker 5 (01:07:41):
But my great story was it wasn't that long ago.
I got up at four thirty and I headed out,
you know, and it was windy and the snow was
coming down, and I made it about a block from
home and turned around and I went right back to
the garage and came in. I crawled into bed and said,
it's freezing out there. And my wife said, I know,
can you believe my husband's a fishing in this stuff?

(01:08:05):
I don't know who he was talking to, but.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
It worked. Whatever it was.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
It's I just I'm I'm becoming more and more of
a fair weather fan. Seasons long, and I have got
plenty of time to get out there when the when
the weather's favorable.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
What about color? Everybody asks about color, and I don't
know if there's a consensus at all about it.

Speaker 5 (01:08:29):
Again, I think so much of this objective. I fished
with the multimbers, you know that say you have to
use the the not it's the only way you're going
to catch fish, you know, like the top throw any
color wanted, as long as the and I find that
for panfish, I tend to use white, probably more than

(01:08:51):
any other color. But there's no real scientific basis for this.
It's just what I have the most of in my
taco box. And it seems to work. If if I
can find fish, I feel like I can usually get
them to bite on something. I mean it's changed the profile,
but I think more profile or you know, uh drop,

(01:09:11):
the way that the drop does things like that, or
the fall rate, I think that depends more than color.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
To me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
I'm I'm a firm believer, Tony. And our guest is
Tony Marriotti from the Detroit Lakes Areas, which where we're talking,
and I'm a firm believer Tony in confidence, confidence in
a bait. If an angler has that, no matter open water,
on the ice or anything else. Confidence is crucial. Now

(01:09:40):
if you can have confidence a whole bunch of stuff.
But there's there's one bait that usually trips somebody's trigger.

Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
Mentally, I wholeheartedly agree, and that's what you'll find is
typically tied on my rods. It might might be a
jig that you know very few people consider it their
go to. But I like that duck bill drop. I
like the horizontal presentation versus a vertical and I have
a ton of confidence in that bait. So I do

(01:10:09):
fish it a lot, and I think, you know, other
people might not like it. The way I do, but
I just have confidence that fish are going to eat it.
It has a beautiful profile, and when it's down there,
for whatever reason, I seem to catch larger fish on
that particular profile bait.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
And that that should be a word to the wise
for listeners too, because if you're if you fish something
and with you put it on for a minute or
maybe two minutes, and then at working go to something
else by you're retying and putting something else on, or

(01:10:45):
just picking up a different rod and going to it.
But the time often you're spending doing that to make
those switches and changes are times that you potentially could
be saying fish that are coming through.

Speaker 5 (01:11:03):
Yep. And you know a lot of times we just
overthink it. You know, there is anybody in the business
better at just grinding it out than Jason Mitchell. I
fished Jason quite a bit, and there are days where
I'm strapped or I'm trying to get him on some fish,
or we're doing this, and he is one to just
grind it out and says, you know what, they're just
give them time. It's just they're going to go. Just

(01:11:25):
give it time, and he's patient. He grinds it he
has confidence in the baits we're using, and somehow it
always manages to come together. And I think it's because
he just he puts in the effort when other people
might have given up or like you said, keep switching lures,
keep moving around, keep doing things, And there's a time
and place for that. But there's also a time and

(01:11:46):
place to just know that what I'm using works. It's
just a matter of time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
Well, and Jason is the old guide in him comes
out too.

Speaker 5 (01:11:55):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
That man has guided a lot of people with a
lot of fish long before he was a media type
of person too, because he tells the story often about
being from the Devil's Lake area and his youth and
things that he has done. So it's yeah, you better
listen to listen to people that know him well or

(01:12:19):
have been with him extensively, or just listen to him.
I think that's a really big deal. So we're we're
gonna take a pause soon. But when we do, I
know you were telling me you have a trip coming up, too,
So let's take that pause and when we come back,

(01:12:40):
love to talk to you about where you're going, what
you're going to do, if you've been there, what do
you expect you? What do you bring? All those things? Okay,
perfectly wonderful. Tony Marriotti is our guest. Fan Outdoors is
our show. You are our guests too, So we will
be right back with more after this. I know our

(01:13:23):
producer is going to look for me to begin this
segment with well but all right, Well, it is the
last segment of Fan Outdoors. It's a lengthy one, but
that's always good because we enjoy being with you, and
our guest is no stranger to Fan Outdoors and no

(01:13:46):
stranger to yours truly either, because Tony Marriotti is a
veteran in the outdoors and many many pursuits, and he
has been with us for a segment. If you missed it,
you need to podcast it because it will be up
on the OOH website and you can grab that shortly
after we conclude. Tony, I know that you told me

(01:14:10):
you were and you just mentioned it too. You are
heading north of the border for Christmas? Now, what is
the the the draw to go into the Canada area
for Christmas?

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
Oh, It's one of my favorite places to be and
I was fortunate to marry a Canadian woman who typically
we've gone. We kind of do Christmas here one year
and then up in Canada and with kids being in
sports and getting busy and COVID, we haven't been back
for Christmas since twenty nineteen. Oh my, this year is

(01:14:48):
Christmas in Saskatoon. You know, it was about six seven
years ago that I went up to Tobin Lake right
before Christmas and was really fortunate to catch my four
biggest wall I ever through the ice. We got it on,
you know, on across the ice belt series and we
caught those fish and my wife warned me, if you're

(01:15:10):
not home by Christmas, I will beat you. And we
were back. So this year, the whole family's going up
and we are staying at my sister in law's boyfriend
fiance's place on Last Mountain Lake. And Last Mountain Lake
is a lot like Tobin in the fact that it's huge.
It's almost sixty I think it's sixty miles long. Oh,

(01:15:33):
and it is just a glacial lake in the middle
of Saskatchewan, where Tobin Lake's only forty five miles long,
and we managed to find some good ones there. I'm
going to be looking for the same kind of areas
on this Last Mountain Lake and we're going to try
to replicate my last big Canadian ice fishing trip.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Does is that called fishing memories, Tony?

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
I am all about fishing memories? Do? I am just
becoming more and more common my memory. My memory isn't
as good as it once was. But then the parts
I don't remember, I just fill in with what I
think they should be.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
I subscribe to that quite often more than I admit to.
When you're when you're talking about the structure you're looking for,
does it change up in the Canadian areas versus Minnesota
or versus around home?

Speaker 5 (01:16:29):
You know, not really, You're dealing usually with just much
bigger water. So what I typically am looking for is
kind of the reservoir or the main river channels where
it gets real deep water where maybe it's the it's
the you'll see the actual shipping lines or whatever. You know,
if you look at your lake maps, where where the
deepest water is. And what I do is I kind

(01:16:51):
of move off to the sides and I try to
find mud basins along the edges. And so if I
can find mud along the edges, I know a lot
of times the fish are going to be out there.
The Walleye specifically, and then you know, morning and evening
they're going to move up onto the shelves up a
little bit shallower as they chase the bait fish up
and down. And so that's kind of the program I'm

(01:17:12):
looking at right now. Is I've been just kind of
looking at lake maps. I do have some people in
the area that have given me some advice, but it's
kind of looked for the shallow water adjacent to the
deeper water and just kind of, you know, you head
your bets and get out there. I'm a big fan
of using the salted shiners there. Or actually one of
my favorite baits is that I stop at the big

(01:17:35):
box store and I buy a jar of shiners in
formelde hyde, and they stink, they aren't beautiful, but they
stay on a hook much better than a lot of
times the salties do. So I use those a lot,
and I'll just put you know, I might tear it
in half and put the body on one half, or
the tail and one half and the head on the other.

(01:17:56):
I like big jigging spoons. If I'm if I'm hunting
for fish with someone else, you know, usually one of
us will be using a jigging spoon, and another one's
using a big search lure, but like a you know,
big rip and wrap or something like that. Psycho shad
is a great bait to use up there, like those
Koi colors and just kind of rip that bait and
watch your vex Lark because when when a big Canadian

(01:18:20):
walleye comes in, it looks like nothing else does. On
a vaxlark, you will have a four inch light pink
just blob screaming up at your bait. And when it
turns pink and there's four inches wide, hang on because it's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:35):
The good one.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Well, does it have any comparison to Winnipeg, which I
know you've been on a number of times.

Speaker 5 (01:18:44):
Yes, I think the potential for big waalleyes is just
as good on a lot of these lakes I don't
know about. You know, Winnipeg seems to produce the numbers
where you can go up there and you know it's
not uncommon to get, you know, on a weekend trip
eight ten fish in that master angler range where I
think a lot of these other lakes you know you're

(01:19:05):
gonna you're gonna struggle to get a few, but the
ones you do they're just built different. They are, you know,
if you get a thirty one incher out of you know,
Tobin Lake or Last Mountain. I think they're just a
little bit thicker. They're a much darker, stained water kind
of fish rather than that that gorgeous green back with

(01:19:25):
the gold bellies. But it's all about just hunting for
the biggest fish and getting to spend some time on
the ice of family and friends, and just getting to
have a new experience.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
You does your wife's family do they enjoy fishing? Two
of them?

Speaker 5 (01:19:41):
No, they are not real active in the outdoors. But
I will say they tolerate me and will accompany me.
For example, I said, you know, really, I this is
her trip. I'm just along to be the chauffeur. She
wants to see family, so I I don't know if
I can fish well. Then brother in law calls my

(01:20:01):
wife and says, hey, you know, I think it'd be
a great time. As Tony took me out and showed
me how to catch walleyes out here, And when brother
in law asked, all of a sudden, it opens up
a whole new realm of you know, yeah, Tony should
probably go take him out and try. Little does she
know that we've been in cahoots and this is a
well thought out plan. So I get to bring my gear.

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
You are a rascal. I'm telling you that right now.

Speaker 5 (01:20:26):
I do what. I gotta try to sneak in as
much fishing time as I can between hockey practices and
hockey games and work and everything else. And so yeah,
when I get an opportunity like this, I'm going to
hedge my bets and at least throw a couple of
rods in a ves and and maybe an augur and
some warm clothes just so I can, you know, make
sure we're set up in case, just in case.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
Yes, you never know when you're going to have to
stop on a lake is Yeah, I agree, Igue, you
gotta be prepared as always. As always, With with that
being said, when you're packing packle and you're packing rods,
what are you going to pack? What are you going
to bring?

Speaker 5 (01:21:08):
You know, plain and simple. I've got it. It's the
only rod case I've ever phone that I love and
I use. I've got a big lakewood green back rod
case and I keep that set up.

Speaker 4 (01:21:20):
Year round with all my Walleye gear.

Speaker 5 (01:21:22):
It's got my thirty sixth inch ross Robertson rods and
predator rods and reels. That's what I use for big fish.
I got, you know, heavier usually braided line. I've got
a couple of monolines, but I put on you know,
just the fire line ice and then I'll throw on
a maybe three foot floral carbon leader and I'll connect

(01:21:46):
to the barrel swivel and then it's pretty much big baits.
I've got. You know, the ribbon leech spoon is one
of my favorites because it seems like it's got a
really slow fall rate and on some days when the
fish want that, that bait can be phenomenal. Then I'll
throw in you know, like the leech spoon itself, which
is a heavier. It just has more of a straight

(01:22:07):
darting motion, you know. It's like they usually want one
or the other. If it's a nice day and the
fish are aggressive, I'll be ripping those psycho shabs as well,
So it'll just be big baits. But a lot of
up there is just you know, having the patients where
you're gonna have to sip. It's very seldom that I
drill right on top of fish right away, so it's
you know, drill eight ten holes, just kind of sit

(01:22:30):
look for a bit fish for a bit, and you know,
maybe if an hour goes by and you haven't you
fished all those holes and haven't seen anything, then go
look for another location. But when I'm starting out on
a body water like like this last mountain that I've
never been to, You've got sixty miles to traverse, I'm
gonna have to just be patient, put in some time,
and you know, usually usually we manage to stumble into

(01:22:55):
a few. So I'm hoping that that trend continues, and
I would love to come back on and about how
we did and how we actually did find fish. If
we find fish at another time, you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
Will count on that, my friend. And with with that,
does the lakes up that you will be on? Do
they beat equipment up like Winnipeg is said to do?

Speaker 5 (01:23:19):
You know, I don't see it nearly like Winnipeg. Winnipeg's
a different beast, you know, big Windy call it for
a reason. It's it's just so open and it seems
like the weather is always I mean, it comes from
the west and the northwest and there's nothing to slow
it down. Where a lot of these lakes in more

(01:23:39):
like Saskatchewan. Sure, he's got a lot of you know,
open flat country in the south, but once you kind
of get the central and northern Saskatchewan, you have you know,
a lot more tree covered and a lot more of
these these deeper lakes that seem to be down in
little holes a little bit more so you're out of
the wind. I have not sperience anything that beats up

(01:24:02):
anything like Lake Winnipeg again.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Okay, well, okay, can we come back to Minnesota and
we'll just bring you back and bring our listeners back
to because there's some things I wanted to talk about
talk about for two, people that are going to perhaps
be heading out over the holiday breaks and the Christmas
time where they're going to see family and things like that,

(01:24:24):
or just making a trip to go someplace. Considering DL
when you're considering a lake around home, what do you
consider to pick out a lake to go to an
a particular day or a particular weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:24:44):
I am looking at oh, you know, for me, I'm
looking at a lot of the stocking data. I was
on an I fish yesterday. I fished a brand new
like never been on it in my life, went out
and actually I didn't even bring a rod with me.
I simply went out with the forward facing ston and
an auger and I just started looking around, And I mean,
I've found some great areas. I don't think that most

(01:25:06):
people that are coming to this area in the winter
have the option of maybe doing a lot of research.
They're going to go to the lake that the family
that they're visiting is on or near. So then I say,
you look at the lake, you look at the lake map,
go on whatever. You can go on Google Maps, you
can go on lake finder on Minnesota DNR. But go ahead,
look at the map, and you have one of two

(01:25:29):
types of lakes. It's if the lake looks like a
big bowl or it's kind of all flat with a
couple of big bowl circles where maybe it gets down
to you know, twenty eight thirty feet thirty five feet,
But if very pronounced bowls. I'm going and looking for
crappies out there. If you don't have electronics or a
vex laarer, then I would set my line or I

(01:25:51):
drop it to the bottom, reel up to six feet
with one and reel up twelve feet with the other,
and just see where those fish are at because the
crappy should be there.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
Lake.

Speaker 2 (01:26:01):
Go ahead, good, no, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:26:03):
Oh, if you're looking at a lake and now you've
got you know, weeds, and there's areas where maybe you've
got weeds poking out and you've got deep holes, and
you've got brakes and points and all sorts of things.
Those are the lakes I consider weed bites. And then
I would be going out from the shore maybe you know,
sixty to eighty yards and drilling holes and looking down

(01:26:24):
that hole trying to see weeds. And then I would
try to find a little pocket in the weeds and
I would hunker down and fish those the weeds themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
And that's that. That's good advice, It really is, because
those pockets in the weeds, holes in the weeds are
just a magnet for fish. Because I think, Tony, I
think that people don't keep in mind enough that fish
are eating, and they think they don't eat in the

(01:26:54):
in the winter time. That's wrong. They've still got it.
They might be eating less, but they have to consume food,
and that's where the food is going to be. It's
an easier place to hunt.

Speaker 5 (01:27:07):
And it's a better place to hide from predators. That
are wanting to eat them. So, yeah, weeds are Weeds
are are key in many many lakes unless it's just
a deep bowl. Then, like I said, look at those
suspended fish, but look at the lake that you're going to,
or a lake very close to where you're at, because
in this area, you know, really in all of Minnesota,

(01:27:30):
there aren't a lot of lakes that don't hold fish
and don't pull catchable and capable fish. So pick a
lake and just get out there and do it, and
you put in a little bit of time, you will
have success.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Okay, Now, if you're bringing tackle to Grandma's house and
you want it, you're going to try to get some
fishing in. What would you bring around home around the
Detroit Lakes area or Minnesota lakes.

Speaker 5 (01:27:56):
Sure, I'm a big fan of the I use a
Jason Mitchell meat stick. Just a rod's got It's basically
a noodle tipped rod. So I would bring a light,
light rod with two or three pound tests if and
for that, I would be using a small jig, probably
tipped with either a plastic or if you haven't fished
a lot, tip it with a waxworm and don't use

(01:28:17):
a bobber. Just drop it down and just feel your line.
You'll feel when a fish comes on. If you have
a vexler or you know, something to see the fish,
it makes it a lot easier. But it certainly we
didn't have it for many years, so that's what I
would use. The other thing I'd use is maybe a
little bit stiffer rod, you know, not not like whippy
or anything, but and not like a broom handle, but

(01:28:38):
just a nice panfish rod. I might put a bobber
on that one, and you know, again three four pound tests.
Just drop it down your hole, get it to the bottom,
lift it up six heat. If you're looking for panfish,
set your bobber and jig with one rod and watch
that bobber with the other, and you know you you
will catch some fish. Not be a coppy, it might

(01:29:01):
not be a sunfish, but they're bath rooming up there
there or pike. You know, even walleyes come up and
hit those things sometimes. And so it's just getting out
there using you know, good equipment. But you certainly don't
break the bank. It's if you get out just a
couple of times in your head into Gramma's or Whoever's
just look at the information on their lake. They might
even tell you where the fish houses usually are in
the winter. And there's nothing wrong with seeing five fish

(01:29:24):
houses an area and go out and fish the general area.
Don't butt up right next to them, but you don't
head out there. And what do the people say intention anything?
And for the most part, people are very accommodating and
willing to answer and help you out.

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
Thank you, Tony, I appreciate your time. Buddy, safe travels,
Happy Merry Christmas, and I want to hear all about it.

Speaker 5 (01:29:44):
Okay, perfect Mary, Christmas, Billy, we will be in touch.
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:29:48):
That was Tony Mariotti. Hey, I want to say thank
you to our guest Tommy George, Jeff Anderson and Tony Mariotti.
Thank you for allowing us to travel for Bob Blake
Blake more my producer. I'm Billy Hillebron saying tada.