Busy, busy 2014

It's been a busy few weeks so far for me in 2014.  Between battling the cold, fitting in a few guide trips and preparing to head south to Florida to get the FLW Tour season started, it's been crazy around our place.  

The snow and cold weather has been relentless so far, the worst I can remember in terms of cold weather and one of the worst for snow fall in a long time.

It's not looking great for our deer population that has already been hit hard by winter over the past few years.  Our only real hope is that the weather is very nice in March so we get an early melt like we did in 2012, which will help things.  

Before I left I had a friend in to wolf hunt and he was successful on his second day of hunting.  Great job Gary on a big, beautiful wolf!  I set up a few baits and they all got hit pretty good.  Still plenty of wolves around.  

I spent quite a bit of time getting my new boat all rigged up, a new Lund 2010 Predator.  It's all set up with a Minn Kota Fortrex, Humminbird electronics, Minn Kota Talons and all are powered by Optima Batteries.  I have been running these since 2009 and have NEVER had any issues with them.  They are top notch.  The best thing is I use the same battery (A D31 model) to function as my cranking battery and power my electronics as I do for my trolling motor.  

The drive to Florida by myself earlier this week was a bull!  The first half of the way was a battle with snow, then boredom.  All told, it was nearly 3,400 KM (2,040 M) but I made it.  Weather here is not perfect, it's cool but the sun is shining and its going to start warming up.  This picture was taken in Forest Lake, MN, where I stayed at my friends place for the first night.  THANK YOU to the Minke boys for putting me up!  

The first day of fishing in Florida went pretty good.  I got out with my friend from home, Bill Godin on a small lake just south of Kissimmee, where Bill and his wife Nell have a place rented until late February.  It sure feels good to get back in the boat!  

I'm down in Florida for the next week and half before we get to start practicing on Lake Okeechobee.  I came down a little bit early because I needed to break in my new motor and get back into bass fishing mode.  As well, it was pretty easy to justify getting on the road a little early to get a break from the deep freeze!  
Happy ice fishing to my friends at home...I'll post some big bass pictures soon!

-Gussy