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If you ice fish, you need to thank Jake Kluge….
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Ever heard of Kluge Manufacturing? One of the 2020 MN Fishing Hall of Fame inductees…. Most old timers know the name, but thought plenty could use a reminder on the role Kluges played in the hardwater world.
Basically if you use some type of an ice auger to drill a hole — instead of chiseling by hand! — you need to thank Jake Kluge aka the “father of the portable gas-powered ice auger.” He created the first working unit in 1959, a 40-ish-pound monster that can still cut holes today:
Pretty freakin’ cool.
Even crazier to me is that Jake designed a battery-powered auger 10-ish years before that! But the idea ended when he drained the 6-volt car battery before finishing the second hole….
Something else you might not know is that the K-Drill ice auger bit (designed for cordless drills) is actually named after the Kluge family. There’s a super-interesting story on its background here, and how the Kluge fam is still active in all phases of the K-Drill’s current and future designs.
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Don’t see that everyday…!
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Gonna flood you with a bunch of crazy-unique shots you probably haven’t seen anywhere else. Some eye candy, and other stuff that’ll make you go WHOOAAAAAA or WTHeck…. Enjoy!
One problem walleye fisherpeople DON’T have? We don’t need to worry about these toothy critters invading our spots…. Posted by Josh Douglas, sent to him by couple buddies fishin’ FL’s Lake Kissimmee. #GatorBait
How ’bout Sebastien François (@sebastienfishing) having to call in reinforcements to hold up all 39.75-inches [!] of that zander??? Sheesh:
It’s gettin’ frosty in northern Manitoba! Bryan Bogdan (owner of Wekusko Falls Lodge) loves to “flirt with the line” — and occasionally cross it:
You think werewolves are scary, wait ’til you see a waterwolf during a full moon. @vmchooks shot:
Sun’s out, fins out! Killer shot from @the.reel.tony.c:
Showed this pic to my fillet knife and it was out of breath just lookin’ at it. @BagleyBaits shot:
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“There’s no such thing as a routine patrol.”
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– That’s a quote from a new MeatEater series called “Ask a Warden” that’s worth a quick read + chuckle. Their newest post asks conservation officers about the craziest thing they’ve ever done to catch poachers….
My favorite comment’s from a CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife officer who staked out in a porta-potty until 2am [!] to catch a group of crappie fishermen that were 329 fish over their limit. A dang porta-potty! And not the kind you might see walking around tomorrow night:
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Everyone wins when fishing meets Halloween.
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1) Make sure you stop at any houses that carve up their pumpkins like these…. If they’re willin’ to cut Hummimbird and Minn Kota logos, they’re also probably diehard enough to pass out baits instead of candy corn:
2) Mr. Jack O’Lantern better keep his orange mitts off my Salmo Hornets:
Has anyone else noticed that for some reason darker, black-ish baits seem to catch more fish the colder the water gets??? No idea why, but I’ll keep tying ’em on.
Here’s a closer look at that “zombie” color:
Whoops. Let’s try that again:
That’s more like it.
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Fishy Halloween costumes!
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If you’ll be celebrating All Hallows Eve with the kiddos — or you’re a big kid at heart — send in those pics of your fishy Halloween costumes! Click here or on the pic below for a bunch of faves we’ve seen floating around the interwebz:
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News
1. MN: Things got heated at Mille Lacs meeting…
…where the Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee (MLFAC) met to hear from the DNR on their lake management planning process, and to review the results of the summer online survey.
Way too much interesting dialogue to quote here, so hit the link if you want.
2. MT: Not everyone in MT hates walleyes lol.
FWP considers walleye invasive, so of course they’re not managed as a native gamefish. Walleyes Unlimited would like that to change, and are sick of the species getting a bad rap in MT…said whenever other fish numbers decline, “it’s always the walleyes fault.”
3. MN: Water Gremlin gets shut down.
Over lead-poisoning threat according to this MPR News write-up:
> “…has been the focus of state enforcement action for months, most recently for tests that found a solvent was leaking out of the factory and into soil.
> “But following an inspection by state regulators over the weekend, health officials found that suspected lead dust had made its way into the homes of company employees, and into the bloodstreams of their families.”
4. OH: Can fish with 3 lines starting Jan 1 2020…
…on OH’s portion of Lake Erie and the Ohio River [trollers rejoice].
5. MI: 21 million fish stocked in 2019.
Includes 3+ mil walleye fingerlings. And it’s no easy task:
> The DNR staff made 449 stocking trips to 857 stocking sites, including Great Lakes, inland lakes and rivers. Eighteen specialized stocking trucks traveled 106K miles over the course of 2,693 hours to get the job done.
They’re not just for inside permie shacks…
I had the chance to try one during late-ice last season and loved it. Soaked a fathead under one as a deadstick for crappies — while I hole hopped around it — was freakin’ awesome watching ’em take it.
Was sold out for a long time, but just got a shipment in…wouldn’t expect ’em to last long….
7. NE: Fish salvaged from Harlan County Rez.
The stilling basin (structure below a dam that slows the water before it enters a river) was drained so they could inspect the dam.
Was quite the process: Used cranes to lower boats into the 4-8′ water and spent 2 days electrofishing nearly 1,300 gamefish outta there…crane buckets then transferred the fish to hatchery trucks.
8. Recall on 200,000 Honda generators.
Involves EU2200i, EU2200i Companion and EB2200i portable generators sold mostly from Feb 2018 through Feb 2019. The recall said some units “can leak gasoline from the fuel valve, posing fire and burn hazards.” Click here to check if your serial number’s included.
9. Bro is EVERYWHERE!
Just saw the Bro Roadshow schedule — crazy he still finds time to hit the ice! Believe this is their 18th year of doing seminars and in-store product training at dozens of retail locations ‘cross the ice belt.
10. MI wants Great Lakes perch to only be gamefish.
Meaning no more commercial harvest.
11. TN: Strike King laying off 18 in Collierville.
12. Love this Sea Foam throwback.
Little background info:
> The Sea Foam story began in the 1930s, when Fred Fandrei, a salesman in the petroleum industry, wanted to spend more time fishing than fixing his outboard motor because of fuel-related problems. With the goal of finding the perfect petroleum blend, Fred created a formula that would stop fuel from going bad and help his motor run better.
> The formula became quite popular among his fishing friends. He began selling it to local fishermen in beer bottles and quart jars, naming the formula “Sea Foam” after a friend in FL called and asked for some of that “Sea Foam stuff.”
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TargetWalleye.com Highlights
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Tip of the Day
Full MidWest Outdoors write-up here, few fishy excerpts below:
> As water temps drop, walleyes and saugers will make a fall run upriver — similar to the spring run. They will locate near deeper holes…and start dropping deeper into them as the temperature drops.
> First thing to do is to locate these deep wintering holes…using a good contour map of the section of river you’re going to be fishing. If you have mapping on your GPS unit, you can locate them that way.
> When you have a narrow area where current passes through, you have an increase in the speed of the current. With the increase in speed, a washout hole will be created.
> Any time a river makes a bend, you can count on a hole being on the outside of it. When flowing water is forced to turn at a bend, the current will dig out a hole.
> Run the length [of the hole] with your electronics. You’re searching for a key depth to mark the fish on your graph. Look to see if the fish are located at the head, tail out, along the edges, or in the hole. Often, the upstream fish are most aggressive.
> If you find a bunch of active fish in a certain area of the hole, you can start to run a pattern — jump from hole to hole fishing the particular area you found them.
Keep reading here for the specific techniques Phil Piscitello uses to catch ’em.
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Meme of the Day
Being a fishing guide ain’t all glitter and sparkles:
But seriously: If you’re thinking about “making the leap” to guiding, being able to catch fish will only get you so far…. Make sure you know what you’re getting into, have a business plan and listen to what peeps like widely-respected guide Brad Hawthorne have to say:
Highly recommend hopping in the boat with Brad if you ever get the chance to. Or if you’re an ice-head, his other ride might be more your style:
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Today’s ‘Eye Candy
Still some great fall fishing left, but diggin’ this chilly teaser posted by ION Ice Augers. Well, I’m assuming it’s chilly…but that hardhouse life is lookin’ rather cozy:
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Sign up another fish-head!
If you’re forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we’ll take care of it! (We won’t sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
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