Happy New Year!

Last post for 2009...

It's a few minutes before we pass into the second decade of this century. Mona and I went out tonight to celebrate the new year. We started out with "Double Bubble" at the Washington Inn in Cecil at about quarter to five. Dinner reservations were for 6:30 (I have to add the food was great!) and we were probably home by 9:00 o'clock or so.

I just woke up on the couch with the TV still playing and I see Mona must have gone to bed. I just figured I'd say: "Happy New Year!" (Darn... missed Dick Clark again!)

Brew says: Merry Christmas

Brewster (the 65 pound lap dog) says MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody.

He's pictured here helping Mona decorate the Christmas Tree this year.

Brew doesn't help much, but he likes to supervise.

Mona Gets into the Christmas Spirit

Right around Thanksgiving or so Mona started getting into the Christmas Spirit slow but sure. Here she is finishing up with some of the ornaments on the tree this year. All that's needed to complete the job is the tinsel yet.

Note the Stockings hanging on the fireplace. They're still empty. St. Nick must have passed us by this year.

What's up with that?

WOW! What a change in the Seasons...

What a change in Seasons. The last posting was from Route Lake in September (Labor Day Week) when we had 70 Degree weather in the far North.

What a difference. Although it may not look so bad in this photo we just got 13 inches of snow dumped in our driveway. Mona used the snowblower to open up a few areas as John used the ATV.

The ATV seems to be running better since we took it to Gillet to have it tuned up. We always wanted to hit the ATV trails and head up north toward Suring or Townsend but never got around to it. Seems like there's too many things going on.

I heard there's anywhere from 6-8 inches of Ice on Shawano Lake - at least on our end and we've been seeing good numbers of fishermen on the Lake as well as a few 4-wheelers. It won't be long and the Fire N Ice racers will be running again.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (1)

This is the first group of additional photos promised a couple of months ago. Mona above sporting her (my) fishing hat from Tiger Musky Lodge on the Big Chip in Northern Wisconsin. She also caught this fine eating size walleye. The second photo shows us cruising along the shoreline while she is shooting a few pictures with the small camera. Don't let the shoreline make you think we're in shallow water in this photo. You could easily be in 40 to 60 feet of water in this situation.

My camera allowed me to take some panoramic photos. Here is one of them as we continue along the shoreline.

More shoreline shots as we slowly motor along on the left. John caught and released this Northern Pike in one of the only areas we found good weed structure. We used several different colored spinner baits to try to catch these guys.

The boat docking area is straight ahead of Mona as we decided to come to shore and take a break from fishing for a while. From the docking area we follow the timber laid sidewalk to the other side of the hill to the cabin.

The fish cleaning house down by the docking area. We didn't just use it to store our fishing gear as the next photo would suggest as Mona hauls the daily catch up to get ready for the frying pan.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (2)

Mona displays a few packs of Walleye ready for the freezer. Note the skin left on the fillet to identify the species of fish for the wardens when we go back across the border if need be. In case we couldn't catch any fish, we brought along a few meals of food to hold us over for the week. Johnsonville brats on the grill hit the spot today. Corn on the cob with plenty of butter wasn't too bad either.

Time to clean some fish. Note the can of beer on the right. That makes this job a lot more tolerable. We set the camera on timer to catch the next great photo. It looks like we're both haveing a bad hair day.

John caught and released this 30" Northern Pike in the Pike spot that we found. This is the largest fish caught and was also in the slot size for the Lake to be released. Two birds with one stone is next. We grilled up some Chicken Breast for Supper one evening with the intent of having chicken sandwiches for lunch the next day. The plan worked great as we had soup and sandwiches the next day.

Time for a cold brew and a shore lunch. Today we're going to eat some walleye so we can catch some more.

Simple Deep Fried Walleye Recipe

Mona dipped the walleye fillets in raw eggs and a little shot of beer then she breaded them with crushed saltine crackers and dropped them in frying pan with about an inch of hot oil in it. A little pinch of salt when they're done add some fried potatoes, tartar sauce, a rye bread and onion sandwich and you have the perfect Shore Lunch.

Route Lake, Ontario Fishing Trip Photos (3)

Time to Dine... The Shore Lunch was great and you can't get the fish much fresher. Glen pointed us to a few places to try for walleye and we headed out to catch some more. Note: that although Mona took this picture, she has a walleye in her left hand too.

Believe it... or not... this is another "Double" we had. Two different fish than the previous photo. John caught this Northern Pike with a jig and a minnow and we decided to keep this one to take home. We kept some from Eagle Lake, Ontario several years ago and they are good eating.

Glen took a few minutes to show us how to Fillet the Northern Pike with few bones if any. The Wisconsin DNR put out a flyer demonstrating one technique of doing it but I haven't had any luck with that way. They do it different in Canada and it seems to work better. If you're not catching fish in Route Lake, you can take your boat and roll it over these rollers a few hundred feet to a different Lake. We were satisfied with where we were on this trip.

The camera is actually on the kitchen table with the patio door open as we took this photo. We're standing on the front deck that overlooks the Lake. (Should have used a flash... but it's too late now.) The wind didn't die down too much while we were there. This particular sunset was shot during one of those rare occurances.