The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

I made my annual trip up to Upper Red Lake last week and for the first time in a very long time, we caught very few fish. The main reason for the dismal catch rates was the weather. We had high winds on two of the three days that we tried to fish that kept us off the water. I have an old sturdy Alumacraft boat that has been on some pretty rough water, but even for me, this was just too much.

We were trolling shad raps in about 8 feet of water and caught eight fish in about an hour. Six were small and two we kept. The issue was that when you got a fish on and removed the rod from the rod holder you had to kneel in the bottom of the boat to keep from being tipped overboard. I never felt in danger because I always wore my life jacket. It was plain and simple just too much effort to stay on the water.

In my younger days, I would have just stayed and battled it out, but fishing is now far more about a relaxing outing than maximum success. Fishing while snowing, which I have done many times, is no longer on my wish list. Fishing in high winds is also on my no-no list A few years back I purchased an inflatable life vest. When you put one of these on you cannot really tell you have a life vest on. I have worn mine into a bar after a day of fishing and couldn’t tell I was still wearing it until someone gave me a bad time for doing so.

When you submerse this vest in water it uses a CO-2 cartridge to inflate automatically. Standing in the rain will not set it off nor will waves splashing over the side of the boat. They are one size fits most and are rated for 80 pounds and over. They cost a pretty penny and come in at just a little over $100.

The other thing I love about this vest is that you can store six-eight of them in the space you could only store three of the traditional flotation vests. They are a real space saver. If you happen to fall overboard and the vest inflates you can replace the CO-2 cartridge and use the vest again. They are not a one and done product.

Every boater and angler you care about should have one of these. Most life vests are so bulky that boaters and fishermen will not even wear them. A life vest jammed in a storage compartment will not save your life. How many people do you see on the water that are not wearing a flotation vest? I would say that maybe one in 10 actually use them regularly. I can swim, but if you bang your head while falling overboard the ability to swim will not be the reason you still drown.

For my annual trip, I had just upgraded my trolling motor unit and had a friend do some fancy fish electronics magic to network my two sonars together. The weather kept me from using either of these two new toys. My boat is old and when I do get it on the water, I feel like I should have a license plate like an old collector car would have. It is a 92 boat with a 91 vintage 90 hp 3-cylinder Yamaha motor.

This old gal is just as solid as a rock and has never let me down in the 27 years I have owned it. It’s hard to justify an upgrade when the old stuff still works great. The gal at the bait shop told me she has the same one with the same motor and had the same great luck with hers that I have had. I did add a 9.9 kicker motor just as a safety precaution. If you get out on big water and end up with a problem, it’s nice to have a backup motor just to make sure you can get to a safe place.

We caught just enough fish for one meal of supper and ended up exploring several other smaller lakes in the area where the wind would not be a factor. The end result was enough smaller northern pike to make up a big batch of pickled fish.

The limit where we were fishing was 10 pike per person per day, but they all had to be shorter than 24 inches. These lakes are overpopulated with tons of small pike which results in very slow growth rates. By removing large numbers of small pike, the overall size structure of the resource is improved. We did our duty to improve the fisheries resources by removing about 15 smaller fish nobody else really wants to keep. Not every fishing trip yields big catches and the weather certainly sucked, but I was with my son and son-in-law and other great friends, so the trip was a success nonetheless.

The moral of this story is that everyone you know should wear a life jacket and an inflatable one at that. Put this item on your Christmas or birthday list for those you love and remember that time in the outdoors should be a quality outing regardless if you catch a lot of fish or not. Just be safe no matter how many times you get to yell “fish on!”

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.