It's the Terrible at Fishing Radio show on Cold Country Radio.
Here's your fishing expert and host, Michael Rafino.
Welcome back terrible at fishing everybody.
This week's show, I am going to tell you a story.
First, we are going to talk about fishing reports.
We are doing very very well.
Locally.
Boy, the ice is getting thicker.
If you haven't figured it out, it got cold, it got snowy, it got messy.
This last week, we have great ice at all of our usual locations.
Gerber Lake, Lake of the Woods, Fish Lake, 4 Mile Lake, Diamond Lake, and all these other
wonderful little lakes.
Oh my goodness.
Great.
Good size trout are being caught at Fish Lake and Diamond Lake.
A plethora.
It's a big word.
Plethora.
Fish are being caught at Lake of the Woods and also over at Gerber.
Some of these places, like 4 Mile and Gerber, you're going to need a snowmobile to get
to.
I just haven't been plowed at last time I looked.
So we need to watch your, you know, make sure that your vehicle and your abilities is ready
for deep snow.
Now and ice.
Oh my goodness.
So it's story time.
Once upon a time, this week, terrible at fishing, thought he would try something he had never
done before.
That is to go top water and warm water fishing in sub zero weather.
And you're thinking, how is that possible?
Was this magic?
Was there a genie involved?
No.
It was just suicidal tendencies evidently.
So terrible at fishing with a buddy of his and another buddy of his thought, well, this
would be epic.
Warm water fishing in sub zero temperatures.
So how do you do that?
Well the genie out of the bottle created hot springs over in Bonanza in Springs Park.
Yes, the water there is warm.
Fishies like warm water like bass and panfish, bluegills and stuff like that.
I mean, it's exciting.
And a week ago, they were just teamed up there and they were staged and you could catch them,
you could look and see them.
But then old man winter came.
Old man winter came.
And he huffed and he puffed and he blew the snow in.
But seeing that another YouTuber actually had a great day there, terrible at fishing, said
I want to have a great day there too.
So he goes ahead and packs it up.
He puts a top water box put together, four of his best rods and him and his buddies, they
go over to Bonanza.
Yes, where is that big valley?
I'm not sure.
I think it's Bonanza.
And so they go and when he left, it was four degrees here, seven degrees here at his house.
When he gets to Bonanza, it's negative 11 degrees.
Gets to Bonanza, negative 11.
So that's okay.
He's got snow suit, but he brought his bait casters.
You need your fingertips for your bait casters.
So him and his wonderful health and horrible lungs trudge over to the river at the park.
And the springs are bubbling and the steam is rising in the park.
You can't even see the other side of the river, which isn't very far by the way, because
the steam was so, so dramatic.
And the springs are just bubbling all around you.
But you know, there's a good sign.
There's a good sign besides negative 11 degrees and you know, I can't breathe.
And you know, it's really, really, really, really cold.
And I have to have my fingertips exposed.
My fingertips still haven't recovered.
Start casting.
Nothing.
In another spot.
Nothing.
In another spot.
Nothing.
The water, the mud was icy, but it gave way.
So you're trudging through mud.
Fortunately, terrible at fishing is equipped with good boots and snowsuits.
But you remember, terrible at fishing has terrible health.
And when you breathe in negative 11 degrees of cold, it hurts.
More so if you have lung disease.
But he trudges on.
He goes down.
And then finally, the third part, person to his party shows up and he casts about five
minutes into it and he catches himself a large mouth bass.
Well, if that doesn't make terrible at fishing, feeling satisfied, it didn't.
So he runs down there.
In his spot.
I need to catch one.
He casts.
Nothing.
He casts again.
Nothing.
Again and again.
It was so cold that one of my fishing lines froze and snapped.
Yeah.
Reels were freezing.
Guides were frozen.
I had to dip an end of the warm water in order to defrost.
It was crazy cold.
But we're fishermen and fishermen love danger and challenges.
Yes, we will go.
We will stay here.
We will beat the elements.
We will catch a cold and frostbite.
Whether it kills us or not.
So after many hours of not catching a thing and trying just about everything, I gave up.
I got skunked and I end on dummy.
One of my viewers, Connery, he was our third person on our party, the one that caught the
bass.
The one that gave me this great idea.
Last time I got skunked was with Connery.
That was the last time I got skunked.
So we go for the common denominator.
I have never, ever fished in whether that cold in my life.
Negative 11 degrees.
After many hours and going to the Mexican restaurant in Bonanza, never eaten there before, which
by the way.
Maria, the hostess there, very sweet.
And I had the chili colorado.
Very good.
Usually chili colorados just red.
It's not really spicy.
They did a good job.
It's a good chili colorado.
So that's my food preference, but I just had to hold the coffee cup.
While it hurt my fingertips and I just could not get warm.
But I got there.
It's actually an interesting spot, Springs Park in Bonanza.
It is all hot springs.
It is warm water.
Yes, there's bass there.
Not very many at the moment.
I think it's because the water had really gone down.
The ice had frozen enough around the river there that it had drawn the water out.
So it's a really good spot to fish the Bonanza Springs Park.
But I wouldn't recommend it negative 11 degrees.
I'd wait till it thaws a bit.
I really wanted to catch the warm water fishing in subzero temperature because it's an oxymoron.
I'm not saying that about me.
I think I'm more in the idiot realm of IQ, not moron.
But after that, I'm probably in the moron level of IQ.
It was really cold.
And my feet were sinking into the mud after it broke through ice.
I reached down and touched the water.
I said, oh, this is so warm.
I wanted to go swimming because I was so cold.
The water was so warm.
I've never been there before at the Springs Park.
Never fished it before.
It was a new thing.
When I was impressed, disappointed, and frozen, and my legs hurt because of all the leg work
I had to go through in order to walk through the snow, which is deep when we went.
The mud, deep.
And the water was shallow, which means a lot of snagging on rocks.
Besides that, it was a wonderful time.
In the morning, it was fun to fish for the first time with a buddy of mine and then Connery
to come along.
And it really was nice.
And then Maria over at the Mexican restaurant, I forgot the name of it.
It's the only one there.
They serve burgers there too, by the way.
I didn't have a burger.
I had the chili calarado.
And Duane had some tacos.
And he liked them.
So it was good food.
I was with Good Company.
And I got to embarrass a teenager that I knew because it was their lunch break from their
high school.
But Bonanza Springs Park.
I'd wait for the snow to melt a little bit, which ain't going to happen soon.
But I fished on the coldest day.
And I kind of wish I went ice fishing because it's warm in my shelter.
I could put that thing up and it's 70, 75 degrees in my shelter.
I'm in a t-shirt.
My fingertips are not frozen.
It's great.
So ice fishing it is.
I can't do that.
But it is a good fishing spot.
Because the water is so warm, the warm water fish are going to stay there.
Excuse me, especially this time of year.
But as the water freezes around that area, it draws the water out of the creek.
And when it draws the water out, it makes it shallower, which makes it tougher to fish.
So just so you know, that this story had a not so happy ending with pain at the fingertips,
although very good food afterwards.
And no fish caught.
I know.
That is the way the fish...
I don't get skunked hardly at all.
I'm not used to it.
I did not want to call it a day.
I was losing sensation.
I wasn't even sure if I had a left hand.
You know the nice thing about being frozen?
You could put a hook right through your finger and would not even feel it.
And you can remove it without you even feeling it.
That's a good thing about it.
The bad thing is, well, you put a hook through yourself.
I didn't do that, by the way.
Although a few hooks got close.
I couldn't feel it.
And then when I fell to rod, I couldn't retie a knot.
So fortunately I had several rods and I just go to another rod.
But try Bonanza Spring Park.
Try that warm water area.
I mean, the springs are beautiful and the water is gorgeous.
So give it a shot and stay tuned because we're going to talk about more about fishing here
this week in the next segment.
Stay tuned after these messages, guys.
Alright, welcome back to Terrible At Fishing.
It's been, I pre-recorded this week's and I got sick.
Me going out when it was negative 11 was a really, really, really unwise thing.
I will not say stupid.
I will just say unwise.
So this weekend, we have the kite festival at Lake of the Woods during free fishing weekend
this week.
I know this weekend is free fishing weekend.
Normally I do my fishing derby during free fishing weekends but because the kite festival
it just didn't line up this year.
So please excuse my nose blowing.
So the kite festival should be beautiful.
Always is.
And there will be a lot of fishermen out on the ice too.
So don't worry about those kites.
They'll go around you.
Don't worry about it.
There's big kites too.
But I went head up to Lake of the Woods this weekend as well as other lakes.
Lake's doing really well with some tiger trout which you have to put back in Diamond Lake's
doing really well if you can get out to Gerber.
Great for that.
Now like I said in the last segment I fished the hot springs over at Bonanza.
So you can, there are some really interesting things you can do right now when it comes
to fishing.
And you don't need a license for this weekend Saturday and Sunday.
So get out there tomorrow and just have fun.
You know Bonanza is not very far away.
If you just want to go to the park there and toss it in the warm water and catch a few
fish that would be fun for the kids.
They can play in the snow and you can catch some fish.
As for Lake of the Woods you can catch some fish and above you are these 50 foot, 80 foot,
100 foot kites.
I mean how cool is that for you to enjoy this weekend?
I'm sorry.
Yesterday I went to one of my doctor's appointments and this lady was stuck in the middle of the
road on the ice in her car.
And so I parked my truck and I don't have a push bar on my truck so I'm a big guy.
I'm a human push bar.
And so I get out and I look at our tires and they are as bald as bald gets.
So I push her and get it going.
I told her I said you really have to buy some new tires.
These tires could pop at any time let alone they have zero traction on this ice.
Well hopefully if your vehicle is unsafe you can't afford new tires and don't drive
it.
It's just not worth it jeopardizing somebody else's safety because you want to get someplace.
So I would call a friend.
But yeah it's been something else this week hasn't it?
We got all this snow and then hard freeze and this hard freeze really did ice it up.
Today we even got some more snow and so it's something else.
And now on Tuesday I went to my fly fishing club meeting and it was at the Waffle Hut
every Tuesday or every second Tuesday of the month.
Second Tuesday Waffle Hut 7 o'clock is the fly fishing club.
And they had three master fly tires there this week and they were demonstrating how to
tie flies.
And everybody had fishing reports.
There was somebody from the reclamation group you know they removed the dams.
And we have Salmon in Stillhead all the way up to Kino right now in Spencer Creek 182
was the uh...cout.
So fast the return of Salmon in Stillhead.
There's really no good explanation of how these fish came so quick and found their way home.
But it is quite remarkable.
I was a pessimist.
I mean if you go to my channel I was a pessimist.
And you know it was all conjecture.
And I wasn't you know rather I'm a sort of under promise over deliver type of guy.
Well they were over promising.
But even now it now it seems like they were under promising because the Salmon is still
head are back and some have seen some of them go up to Kino fish ladder.
So that puts them you know put some in our front yard really.
Give it.
I mean I don't know just wait another year or what.
But we'll be fishing Stillhead and Salmon in the Yawana fairly soon.
And it's crazy that the dam removal has produced such great results so quick.
Even biologists are amazed by it.
They're just you know well they're tickle pink as in salmon meat.
Tickle pink.
And it is why you just got it when you're a fisherman this is exciting.
Like I said I was a pessimist and I eat my words and and you know those videos.
I leave them up there just to show you how much of a pessimist I was and how wrong I
was.
And now there are some things I was right on.
Not completely an idiot.
But without the the Link River Dam you know they're you know and you see videos and photos
of the Link River back in the 1800s and 1900s where it just dried up.
So in dry seasons there's no way Salmon or Stillhead can get past Clameth Falls or Link
Villas it was called back then.
So we have some pretty exciting times ahead of us everyone.
I mean in our front yard in our yard we're going to have you know Chinook salmon and
Stillhead soon.
If that doesn't get a fisherman excited nothing will.
This is going to be fun.
Usually I've got to go to the Rogue for that.
But yeah I'm very very very excited.
Now next weekend a week from tomorrow.
I'm kind of glad I got sick this week because I don't want to be sick next week.
But a week from tomorrow the 22nd is my fishing derby.
The fishing ice fishing derby at Lake of the Woods.
And last time I held it which was two years ago when we had good ice, really good ice.
Had about a thousand people show up.
And if you're a fisherman in fairly good shape I want you to contact me at terribleatfishing2019
at gmail.com.
That's terrible at fishing all one word and it's AT you know not the symbol AT.
So terrible AT fishing.
Terrible at fishing 2019 at gmail.com.
And see if you can volunteer to help me.
I'm kind of scared because I haven't received any volunteers yet to help me drill holes.
And I have augers, power augers.
And so we'll get out there and we'll start punching holes for everybody.
And I will feed you.
Okay.
We'll get you fed and I'll probably get some nice freebies for you.
I give a lot of freebies away at the derby.
I'm trying to make sure all the kids are taken care of.
I have some really nice custom baits.
I'd be happy to make you a custom bait for bass fishing.
I'm a bass fishing guy as you guys know.
I paint and design baits.
But I'd be happy to make sure that you guys are taken care of.
It's a free event.
It's a community event.
I just need volunteers.
Just need volunteers to go out there with me.
And if you've got a fish finder, great.
I do have a fish finder several, but the one for ice fishing is a flasher.
And I usually drop it in people's holes to make sure that they know where their bait
is and where the fish are so they can catch fish.
And so we go from hole to hole to hole to hole just making sure all the kids are catching
fish.
And it's just, I mean, it's quite a time.
There's nothing more enjoyable than watching a young one catch a fish.
Whether it be through the ice or open water or rivers, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Because to that young one, catching a fish is the best moment of their life.
And you get to give that to them over and over again.
If you've got a snowmobile, bring that up.
So I'll be very, very busy during the event.
Again, a volunteer is designed to make sure people are smiling.
Sorry, guys.
That's the whole point is to make sure everybody's happy.
And if you can help me put more smiles on people's faces, that would, well, alleviate
a lot of stress.
Because there's nothing more stressful than worrying about people's happiness on the ice.
So anyway, we also, it's just going to be a fun day, you know, on the 22nd.
And it's a fishing derby.
I think we'll have some loaner rods for the children and just to use for the day.
And they will give away a lot of rods and fishing equipment and maybe some games, some
puzzles, some stuff like that.
We'll make sure, I mean, I try to make sure that everybody gets a prize.
I haven't been painting as much lately as I usually do, but I've been freezing my tail
off, but at the same time enjoying my fishing.
And you know, what do you bring to a fishing derby?
A chair and a rod.
Bring a chair and a rod.
And you will, you'll, you're just going to sit by a hole and just start pulling them
up.
That's the fun part.
We usually punch the holes on the top of the drop off and usually about a 15, 16 foot
depth is our Goldilocks depth.
And we perforate the ice all the way down the, the drop off and we get people set up
for it.
So you'll be surprised.
I will make sure as much as I can to get you guys fish.
It's the most joyous day that are the children's derby that we have in June.
So anyway, I want to thank you guys for stopping in and listening to my show this week.
I will see you guys out on the ice soon as I'm healthy enough, but definitely on the
22nd.
So you guys take care.
And this is my Corfino, terrible at fishing.
Please check me out on YouTube, on my YouTube channel.
And you will see that I am as terrible and crazy as I said.
Thank you.
That was terrible at fishing, the radio show with fishing expert Michael Rafino.
Check out terrible at fishing on YouTube and tune in next week for the next episode and
more great fishing tips.
Until then, have a great day.