I spent the weekend fishing Lake of the Woods with the family.  My son Cole has been asking all year for the chance to catch an Eel Pout.  Eel pout are not in every lake so it takes a little planning to catch one.  After spending years ice fishing Lake of the Woods, the choice of lakes was easy for me.   If we were going to catch him a pout, Lake of the Woods was our best bet.  With a reported hot walleye/sauger bite going on and the chance at an Eel Pout, we decided we would take a road trip to Lake of the Woods.  So, on Friday evening we loaded up the Northern Beer Suburban and DreamShak and headed on our way.

We arrived at the Lake about Midnight and stopped in at Adrians resort to pick up some shiners and pay our road pass.  They were just closing down for the night but we made it just in time.  We then headed out on Adrians Road which is very well marked for travel.  We headed out past all other houses and then started working our way Northwest to a spot on the mud that I like to summer fish in 33 feet of water.  The ice was in very good shape and measured exactly 19.5 inches where we were.  The -7 degree temps on the lake combined with a stiff SE wind made setting up less than desirable but it didn't take long. By 1 AM we were set up with lines down and suprisingly there were a lot of fish showing up on the Humminbird.  Despite not catching any while setting up, it was good to see all the fish activity.

Cole and I woke up and started fishing at 7 AM and the action picked up very quickly.  At first it was tullibee after tullibee and then it soon switched to walleye after walleye.  The set lines were firing constantly with walleye and left very little time to jig.  We spent the entire morning rebaiting rattle reels and catching nice walleye, sometime three at a time.  I made sure I took the time to remind the kids that it doesn't get any better than this.  The action was very consistant until after lunch when it slowed a little.  But, just when it looked like the action was slowing down, we would jig up a nice walleye.  The later it got, the better the jigging bite was.  ON the day we ended up keeping our limit of nice walleye with a few sauger, perch and tullibee. But, besides the fish we kept we released a lot of walleye and sauger that were both to small and to big and on Eel Pout.

Yes, I said Eel Pout.  Cole accomplished his goal on this trip of catching an Eel Pout.  As a dad, it was a nice relief.  Eel POut are certainly hard to target this time of year so it really just becomes a matter of putting your time in, fishing deep water.  Thankfully for us, one decided to cooperate.  We thanked it with a few pictures and then sent it on its way.  It was almost like the perfect ending to a perfect day of fishing but we decided to end it in a better way.  We piled into the Northern Beer Suburban and drove into the Wigwam resort and had them fry up some of our fish.  It was so good, we ate until we were full and headed back to the comfort of the DreamShak.  Now that was the perfect ending to a perfect day!

Sunday we woke up to fishing that was much slower then Saturday.  Saturday we caught roughly 30 walleye between 16 and 22 inches with the majority between 18 and 20 inches.  On Sunday, we caught a couple nice walleye but for the most part, we kept busy with the active Tullibee again.  With the bite being significantly slower we decided to relocate our camp to Leech Lake so that we were closer to home. Leech Lake would still give us a chance to fish yet only have a 2 hour ride home in the AM, so that is what we did.

We set up in Walker Bay on Leech Lake on 14.5 inches of ice.  This was enough to drive the Northern Suburban and DreamShak on so we were able to get set up very fast.  Unforately the bite was not that great for us.  We caught a few very small walleye and lost two nicer fish on the rattle reels but that was it.  We packed up and headed home very early in the AM but once again it was a great weekend.

I just returned from the Pure Fishing Ice Summit on Mille Lacs out of McQuoids resort.  For those that are wondering what an Ice Summit is, well, I kind of was wondering the same thing as I headed up to McQuoids on Sunday.  The Pure Fishing Ice Summit was a chance for those at Pure Fishing to get together with some of their Pro Staffers to discuss product development and improvement as well as a chance for the pro staffers to meet each other and do some fishing together.  As always, with these events you always hope the fish bite and the opportunity for some good photos presents.  As it turned out both the fish and Mother Nature decided to cooperate to make this event a great time for all.

Despite what you have heard about the bad ice conditions on Mille Lacs, which do exist on parts of the lake, the ice in the South East Corner is very good for the most part.  I was able to drive my vehicle on the ice and pull my 20 ft wheel house as long as I stuck to the roads Kevin McQuoid had staked on the lake.  Kevin has roads hitting much of the good structure on the SE corner and the fishing is actually pretty darn good if you ask me.

We started the first night set up on a Rock hump that topped out at 18 ft. Kevin suggested we set up on top with the full moon because the fish may bite all night, and for the most part they did.  We caught a quite a few small walleye in that 10-12 inch range that and a couple in the protected slot we did not keep but a bunch of nice jumbo perch found their way into the bucket.  The fishing was pretty good for the evening bite and then seemed to kick in a 1 AM again.  We took a break around 7 PM when we headed over to meet up with the rest of the group from Pure Fishing that was using Kevin's Sleeper houses.  As it turned out, one of the sleeper houses had already caught a 29 inch walleye when we arrived.

On day two we decided to pull our houses into shallow water near McQuoids resort to try to catch some big perch.  The perch bite was very good but you had to weed through some smaller fish in order to get the larger keeper size fish.  We were fishing shallow enough to site fish so that always makes it fun, especially when you see fish in the 12-13 inch range.  The  two biggest perch of the weekend were 12.5 inches and 13 inches.  These were true giants and some of the guys were also sent home with a nice meal of eater size fish.

Both Mark Courts and myself had our DreamShak's on the ice to stay mobile but the groups fishing out of Kevin McQuoids sleeper houses actually did just as good without having to move.  There were quite a few walleye in that 24-29 inch range caught by people staying in Kevin's houses with the shallow water (Less than 10 ft) being just as good as the deeper water (17-22ft).  Despite spending much of the day targeting perch in shallow water, we were able to pick up a few walleye also in these same spots.  Mark Courts and Jason Przekurat actually really got into the big walleye after I headed for home and had a great full moon night bite.

It was great to spend a couple days on the ice with some of the guys I usually fish against, as well as my tour travel partners, Kevein McQuoid, Jason Przekurat and Mark Courts.  I can promise you there was no shortage of laughing and joking around and overall fun had by all.  Thanks again to Pure Fishing for putting this event on.  Not that I need a reason to go up and fish Mille Lacs, but it was great to see some old friends and meet some new ones.  Big Thanks to Kevin  McQuoid for his hospitality and putting us on the perch and walleye.  If you are looking for safe ice and good fishing give McQuiods a call at (320) 676-8709 or email them at macs@macstwinbay.com

I got to spend New Years weekend on the ice with my family.  The kids and I packed up the DreamShak on Thursday afternoon with intension's of fishing Mille Lacs for two days and then heading up to Leech Lake.  However, after checking the ice on Mille Lacs, which was a mess,  and the forecasted winds, I opted to cancel the Mille Lacs portion of my trip and head up the the safer ice on Leech Lake.  As it turned out it was the right call.

With the change of plans we had lot of time on Leech Lake so we decided we would fish Pike, Walleye, Perch and crappies/bluegill if we could find them.  We opted to set up in very shallow water in order to focus our efforts on quality vs quantity.  The kids said they wanted to catch big fish, so that is what we did.  We started the weekend in 9 feet of water with scattered cabbage and prepared for the evening walleye bite.  Being the first big trip of the year it took me a while to get things set up and finally after sitting down to enjoy one of Northerns new 16 Ounce Honey Brown's, it wasn't even a minute and the first rattle reel started to go.  Cole jumped up and was a little over-anxious on the first bite which resulted in a miss and then another miss and then another.  It was obvious the fish weren't overly aggressive but we kept after it and adjusted our presentation some.  We were using big bait, targeting these big fish so you are going to miss a few.  But, we stuck with the program and it paid off.

On the sixth bite of the night I could feel the weight of the fish as it pulled line off the rattle reel and we waited very patiently for this one to eat.  When Cole set the hook we knew it was a good one.  I could tell he was going to need some help so I jumped in to guide the head into the hole.  On the other end of the line was Cole's personal best 27 inch walleye.  What a great start to the weekend and there was a lot of excitement in the house. 

While we did a lot of exploring outside the hard house, Jadyn kept an eye on her lines inside the house.  On day two, while I was out fishing on the ice, Jadyn battled and landed her personal best 33 inch Northern Pike.  I could hear her celebrating in the house and when I came in I found a very nice pike laying on the floor with all the rattle reel line wrapped around it.  There is NO way the fish was getting away as it literally tied itself to the line. Dad was very proud of his daughter!!

Speaking of Pike, we had excellent pike fishing with many fish between 4 and 12 pounds.  For the most part the pike fishing was very, very good.  When you add in a 1 pound 15 ounce crappie Cole caught as well as the 50 or so Jumbo perch we caught, it was a great weekend.  As I said earlier, this trip was not about numbers but overall the size of everything was very good.  The smallest walleye we caught was 22 inches and the biggest was Cole's 27 incher.  I honestly can't think of a better way to spend the New Years weekend then fishing with the family.  Yes, the kids spent some time watching TV and running around on the ice but they spent most of the time fishing, learning to use the Humminbird 385ci in Ice Mode and chasing Tip-up Flags.  This of course gave dad some time to enjoy a few more Northern Beer and just relax.

As always I left the lake with a true appreciation for Leech Lake.  I am constantly amazed at the quality of fish the lake produces.  It is truly a multi-species paradise and one worth checking out if you have not.  The ice for those interested was between 12-15 inches.  I used an ATV to pull out my 20ft DreamShak but used my truck to pull it off.  The ice is clear and strong and I will be driving on from now on.

Oh and yes if you are asking did Cole where that Oregon sweatshirt all weekend, yes he did.  After he caught that big walleye the first night he thought it was lucky so he wore it all weekend.  Apparently it worked because they they looked pretty good in the Bowl game also.

I spent the weekend checking some lakes up "North" and doing some scouting for my dad who was trying to close the deal on a Muzzleloader buck yet this year.  The hunting didn't go as good as planned, thanks to the warm temps and lack of snow but the fishing was excellent.

The plan for the weekend was to only hunt the evenings to avoid pushing deer of the food plots in the mornings.  This strategy has worked well in the past for late season deer as they tend to feel more comfortable feeding during shooting hours the less they are pressured.  Once again the plan worked well Friday night as there were a lot of deer feeding early, but only one mature buck came out on the field during shooting hours.  And, if my dad had been on the field I was scouting his season would be done, because despite being a 8 pointer, it was big and mature.

Without a deer Friday night we hit the lakes on Saturday for some panfish action.  The bite was good most of the day for bluegill and crappies in 9 ft of water.  The target location was existing weed beds that were still standing so we could sight fish.  With no snow on the lakes and 10 inches of solid clear ice, the sight fishing was excellent with plenty of light penetration.  In all the fishing was excellent and we were able to keep a nice limit of bluegill for the pan.

Unfortunately the same 40 degree temps that made fishing so good did nothing for the deer hunting.  This time of year warm temps mean deer are not going to be out feeding early, and the old saying held true.  The same field I scouted the night prior was void of deer and dad did not see a deer until well after shooting hours on the walk in.  This same had a shooter buck along with 5 other bucks and 6 does and fawns the night before.  And, as trail cameras show, they showed up about 8 PM with the warm temps and bright full moon.

Speaking of trail camera pictures, the bucks are VERY active right now.  They are still chasing does hard, with a lot of fighting going on.  I had over 500 pictures of bucks fighting on camera over the last two weeks. 

For our last fishing expedition of the weekend we decided to try some spearing and tip-up fishing for pike.  I elected a lake known for its excellent pike numbers and we set up blind using our LakeMaster chip in the Humminbird 385ci.  The lake had a solid 11 inches of ice  but I could not get myself to be the first one to drive on the lake so we opted for the ATV on this trip. Before everyone had their houses set up I had a nice 29 inch pike on the ice.  The water was crystal clear so it made for great spearing and the luckily the pike were very active, which made for great tip-up fishing.  I believe I saw roughly 20 fish in the spearing hole and had 10 hit the tip-up.  Truly a great day on the ice for everyone!

My 2011 quest for a shooter buck in MN came to an end on Veterans Day 11/11/11.  Over the last couple weeks I put in a lot of time bowhunting and then Rifle hunting to get this buck and it was a challenge to say the least.  Here is a little recap of how the last two weeks went.

This year has been a real challenge for many reasons but mainly the abundance of acorns and food is making hunting in the Midwest very tough for most.  When you have an abundance of food, deer  are not forced to travel far to eat and remain very dispersed.  Because of this deer can remain hidden in extremely thick cover and their core bedding areas.  With very few deer showing up on the food plots it was hard to gauge exactly what we had for mature bucks on our property without going into their bedroom, which I really try to avoid.

I entered this years deer season not knowing what we had for mature deer because I was not able to get a good sampling of trail cam pics on many of the bucks.  I was however able to identify 4 mature bucks that were using our property quite often and had my sights on one of those mature bucks.

The late October bow hunting came and went without me even seeing a mature buck. Add in the warm temps and very little rutting activity and it was tough to say the least.  When the Rifle opener rolled around we were blessed with 35 MPH winds for two days.  After the winds subsided it was advantage deer.  The deer were well aware the season was underway but due to the wind they did not move, and very few deer were killed.  Because of the conditions, I decided to focus my rifle season efforts midweek when there would be a chance a big buck would be on its feet due to the minimal hunting pressure.  On Thursday 11/10 things really got rocking and I saw 14 bucks that day, none of which were shooters.  I had a lot of confidence going into Friday 11/11/11 because of the movement on Thursday.

Friday morning started out with a small buck chasing a doe past my stand.  It was a good sign the deer were moving.  It was about 8 AM when a doe and two fawns came walking by and were standing near my stand.  These deer were not feeding so I knew they had been bumped by something.  Then at 150 yards a buck steps out in the clearing and sees the doe standing near my stand.  He immediately starts a full sprint for the doe and I had very little time to identify which buck it was.  Just before he got past my stand I stopped him and noticed the hook on the left main beam and took the shot.  It was a very tough call and the one thing I really hate about rifle hunting.  So, in the end I ended up with this 11 pointer that I had not seen since it was in velvet.  (Ironically it showed up on trail camera two days before I shot it but unfortunately I had not checked the camera or I would have had a better look at it.  That trail camera picture is below)  I knew it had really good mass but the inside spread is not what I had hoped.  But, it is dead now and isn't going to grow anymore and I am happy with it.  Unfortunately I formatted the SD card that had the good pictures on so all I am left with is my crappy cell phone pics, big mistake on my part!

My efforts now turn to SD for a deer/pheasant combo trip and then back to MN for Muzzleloader season.  My son Cole did not connect with a shooter buck so we are going to work hard to get him a nice mature deer with the muzzleloader.  I have a feeling late season muzzleloader should be excellent as there were very few mature bucks taken during the MN gun season this year because of the reasons mentioned above.

I just spent 4 days hanging in the tree and all I have to show for it is a nasty Deer Tick Bite that required some Doxycycline to prevent Lyme's Disease again.  I am not sure how those tiny little ticks even find their way through all your hunting clothes, but man do those bites hurt when you pull them off.  OK enough of that, here is my report.

Overall the temps were much warmer then I prefer for good deer movement but that really is not the issue.  The small bucks are really starting to get active and by Monday morning I saw them constantly harassing does and moving them from their bedding areas.  The small bucks are keeping the activity level in the woods at a much higher level now when compared to Friday when I first crawled into my stand.

The trail cameras show lots of activity at night and like always the mature bucks are very active throughout the night.  New scape's continue to pop up nightly and the bucks can be seen at dark harassing the does on the food plots.  I have yet to see a mature buck during daylight hours though.

The best is not far off now and that is becoming evident by the increase in buck activity during daylight hours.  In the next few days the big boys will be on their feet it looks like and the chase should be on.  There is still a lot of available food in most parts of the state which is keeping the does from having to group up on food sources and thus the deer are very spread out.  But, the best is yet to come!  Good luck to all the MN Rifle hunters this coming weekend.

I got an email from Steve in Southern Minnesota asking when I am going to start my Rut Reports for 2011.  Steve indicated he hunts in Northern Minnesota and likes to hear whats going to with the deer up North.  I guess this is a perfect time to start the rut reports for 2011 then.

Last weekend I spent 3 days in the tree watching small bucks working over scrapes and rubbing up trees.  I did not see a mature buck in all three days, although the trail cameras showed a lot of movement at night. Despite me not seeing any mature bucks, my dad and son who are hunting the same property both saw mature bucks and their observations were identical.  Both my son and dad saw mature bucks come out on food plots with mature does feeding on them and watched the buck scent check each doe.  The bucks fed for short periods but spent most of the time quickly chasing the does around and then back to feeding heavily.

This type of activity is very common this time of year and generally happens before the bucks start to actually chase does.  It appears we have over a week yet before the big chase begins.  I have not been on stand since Sunday night but will be back on stand for the next four days.  I have now moved all my trail cameras to scrapes or major travel routes.  I am expecting by the end of weekend we should see some chasing going on as those small 1 1/2 year old bucks continue to be on their feet almost all day.  If you use the deer vs car accidents to judge activity, I would say the deer activity is really ramping up.

This has been a challenging year for the most part as the food in the woods is very abundant, thanks to an unbelievable acorn crop.  This food abundance makes patterning deer a little tougher and getting the big ones on trail camera even harder.  But, the best time is coming and I know they are there.

I am really looking forward to the next week.  The week of bowhunting before the MN Gun Opener is alway my favorite and I am looking forward to putting some long hours in the stand.  I will try to put a report up on Saturday or Sunday to report what I am seeing for buck activity.

My favorite time of year is fast approaching. Most would assume that my tournament fishing in the summer is a great time, and it is, but nothing like the next couple months.  Tournament fishing can be stressful at times as you are required to make critical decisions daily and factor in the risk-reward of each decision you make.  As I roll into the next couple months it is really my time to relax and unwind as the only real critical decision I need to make revolve around deer stand placement and which stand to hunt with the prevailing winds.  These decisions for me are easy, and really, how can you go wrong, you are still hunting.

Before I get into hunting I should back up and talk about the tournament season though.  This year my was my first year running the Ranger 621 powered by the Evinrude E-TEC 250 HO.  The boat and motor combination performed flawlessly over the year.  Is is nice to get in your boat each morning and turn the key and you know everything is going to work.  I had that feeling all year and I knew no matter how far of a run I had to make, I would be coming back also.

While I am on the topic of equipment, I have to thank Minn Kota and Humminbird for the technology they continue to add to their Sonar/GPS combo's as well as their trolling motors.   This was my first full season running the Terrova with the i-Pilot and I have to say this was probably the biggest improvement I have ever made to my boat in one year.  The new control options I have with my boat while rigging, jigging or trolling are hard to explain but lets just say the i-pilot is a new "must have" for this guy.

A close second to the i-pilot however is Humminbird's side imaging.  I continue to be amazed by this technology.  I have been working diligently over the last two years to become familiar with the technology and to make sure I am getting the maximum benefit from it.  I now feel that side imaging is just as important as regular sonar and when paired together is  really the only way to get a feel for exactly what is going on around you.

Lastly I have to thank Northern Beer for their support over the last year.  I had a great time spreading the word about a new product on the market and got to enjoy a lot of positive  feedback from people who had never heard of the beer before.  With the new Brew House under  construction I am looking forward to bigger and better things for 2012.

So, before I roll into hunting season I want to say thanks to all my sponsors and hopefully we can work together again for another year.  With that, it is officially hunting season for this guy so I am putting the pheasants of SD on warning as well as that giant buck in Northern MN I am after.  Oh, almost forgot I have the Stillwater Harvest Festival pumpkin weigh off this weekend and THEN it will be all hunting....Tis the season!

Lets just say Lake Oahe did not turn out as planned, which tends to happen a lot in tournament fishing.  But, before I get into that I should say the the fishing on Lake Oahe is excellent right now!  Not only are there excellent numbers of walleye in the system but the size is impressive also.  The overall size of the fish is the biggest change from previous years I would say.

Prefishing for Lake Oahe was very good to say the least.  We established a good trolling bite as well as a good rigging bite in the days leading up to the tournament.  In addition, we were able to rig up some very nice fish, even on calm days.  Leading up to the tournament my confidence was high that I could pull a good finish in this tournament.

Day one of the tournament started out with 25 MPH winds and to make matters worse, I was in the first flight, which was due in at 3:00 PM.  With winds forecast to decrease over the day, I knew it was going to be tough to compete with those that got to fish until 5:00 PM on day one.  Keeping this in mind, I started out rigging on one of our big fish spots but the fish big fish did not cooperate and it became evident very quick that rigging was not the right choice in that wind.

After waisting a couple hours I elected to troll the trees and realized that I should have been doing this all morning.  In the first trolling pass we put three nice weigh fish in the box but still had room for another large fish over 20 inches.  Despite trolling and rigging the rest of the day I could not get a fish over 23 inches to put in the box so we weighed what we had.

Day two was calmer and I had to long day to fish.  I figured I needed to catch 16-17 pounds on day two to make up ground so I did the math in my head and calculated what I needed to keep.  My first fish of the day trolling was 23 inches and that went in the box.  After 3 hours of trolling I still had kept just one 23 incher despite catching 12 fish fish in the first 4 passes, and 4 over 20 inches.  I needed fish three fish between 18 and 20 inches and another 25 incher for a kicker.  We continued to catch fish all day both trolling and rigging but ended up having to keep a 21 and three 15-16 inchers in the last half hour, despite catching bigger fish all day.  That is the hard part about fishing a slot tournament but everyone has to deal with it.

This tournament was very disappointing for me personally as it is the end of my season and I was hoping for a much better finish.  But on a positive note my Evinrude powered Ranger made it through another year with basically no problems.  My Humminbird's performed flawlessly all year and gave me a true advantage on the water.  I rely a lot on my equipment and it is nice to run all year without any problems.  Now it is time to get ready for the hunting season as cool weather is approaching fast and there will be more Northern Beer promotions coming soon.

The third stop of the National Guard Walleye Tour at Green Bay is complete and I guess you can say it turned out how I expected it would go. While I always hope for a top ten, there are certain bodies of water that it takes a lot of luck to do well and this tournament was certainly one of them.

It is not that you have to be lucky to win on Green Bay, but it certainly does help.  Because of the long cold spring, once again the lake and fish were behind schedule.  Typically you would have a strong mud bite going as well the the big walleye up North on the rocks going and thus you would have the entire 141 boat field spread out across the bay.  This year due to the late spring the mud bite was just starting to kick in 18 miles South of take-off and it became very clear after a few days of prefishing that most of the field would be fishing this area.  It was also pretty clear that the winning fish would probably come from up North but it was to big a gamble for most that are trying to make the championship to take a Left and gamble on those fish.

Yes, we all like to fish to win these events but we also have to keep Championship points in the back of our mind while making decisions on how much we can gamble.  For me, that meant fishing the more reliable "mud" fish down South.  And, as it turned out, 95% of the field opted for the same thing by day two.  Having that many boats trolling in the same location meant each bite was going to be critical and that the bite was going to be tougher than most expected.

So with that said I headed to the mud on day one and trolled up 4 weigh fish before the bite totally shut off.  As typical of practice, the morning bite was good and then it got very tough.  Unfortately my first two fish of the morning came off at the motorand I knew that was going to hurt.  I was happy with my 4 fish but needed to drive 18 miles North to a small fish spot to put the last 20 incher in the box.  For day one I weighed 20 pounds and was in striking distance of the cut, just where you want to be.  Losing two fish in a tough bite at the boat is a real killer and for me it ended up costing about 6 to 7 pounds on day one.

Day two started off with a real flurry.  I boated 4 fish in the first trolling pass and things were looking good.  I really needed to catch that 5th big one to make a run at the top ten but unfortunately we were not able to boat another fish.  Instead of running back North toward launch early I opted to stick it out down South and try for another big fish or two and in the end it would cost me some points.  I was never able to get that 5th fish to the boat despite having it hooked up many times. To make matters worse the bumpy ride home and 80 degree water temps killed the 4 fish I had, so I took a 2 pound dead fish penalty also.  Despite the penalty and being one fish short I still ended up 60th and in the money.  Not the finish I was hoping for but when you have 95% of the field fishing one small area bad things can and do happen so I will take my check and get prepared for Lake Oahe at Pierre South Dakota, one of my favorite fisheries.

Since I did not make the top 10, I was able to fish the Nation Guard Soldiers appreciation tournament.  These events are always a lot of fun and the fishing usually ends up being pretty good and once again it proved true.  The Northern Beer boat had a good day weighing 3 walleye for just under 12 pounds.  In the end we got bumped out by National Guard Pro Bill Shimota who turned in a great 3 fish weight over 15 pounds.  Thanks again to all the soldiers for their service and especially all the guys I have been fortunate enough to share my boat with this year.

Before I close this one out, I have a few promotions coming up so if you are heading up to WeFest in Detroit Lakes, MN this week make sure you look for the Northern Beer truck and ask for a sample.  There will be plenty of Northern Beer to go around and hopefully we are done with these storms for a while and the weather cooperates!