Arvid's Fishing Report

About a dozen years ago our school superintendent, Ralph,  introduced our area to rod building with a class in the community education program. He did that for three or four years before leaving to take a position with another school. He has since retired back here in Baudette and we have rod building classes again. We are just finishing up a class that meets once a week for four or five weeks. With ice fishing slowing it’s a good time of the year to think about building a rod for open water use. Each class has between ten and twenty students; young, old, women, men, etc. One of the first students, Dan,  to take the class years ago has made rod building into a business and now assists Ralph in teaching the class. The rods that Dan builds are beautiful; truly works of art. I’ve taken the class more than once because it gives me a good nudge to do something constructive at this time of the year. I just keep telling everybody that I’m just a slow learner and need to keep repeating the class; some truth to that.

Don and I fished the Lake last Friday. We went out of Adrian’s to the outside of Pine Island and fished in about thirty feet of water. Fishing was painfully slow. We would mark fish on the Vexilars, but they were not interested. We brought home one walleye and two sauger for six hours of fishing. We released one 23″ walleye, two tullibee and four little sauger. There were many rigs and fishermen on the ice; many of them moving around so I suspect they were not doing any better than we were.

Dan and Ralph

Ralph giving a tip on tying eyes on rod

A sample of Dan’s butt wraps.  The flags and designs are thread wraps; not in-lays.