5/9/08 - Minnesota walleye opener is tomorrow and the ice is just leaving many of the inland lakes.  It continues to be a cold and late spring, but hopefully we have turned the corner and the warmer weather of the past few days is here to stay.  Tofte Charters reached another milestone today when "captain in training" Katie (3 yrs old) caught her first lake trout.  She was overjoyed with the catch as she screamed "this is so cool!"  It looks like it will be very difficult to leave her on shore in the up coming years, which means I will have to get a bigger boat to make room for a first mate.  A problem I welcome whole heartedly.

4/18/08 - Spring weather has arrived with the past two days of temps in the 50's.  One week ago we received 10" of snow and winds whipping up to 60mph in gusts.  The waves on Lake Superior were a sight to see and it looked like we were headed back into winter.  Seven days later the snow is gone once again from the yard and the boat is has melted out of the snow bank.  Not long now until we will be back on the big lake.  For those of you that have been fishing with me before you probably have heard me talk about winter whitefish.  They have been my nemesis for years and I finally broke their spell this winter.  We have been enjoying some great whitefish boils lately.  April 14th was the end to the walleye season on the border lakes.  I was lucky enough to hit the ice one last time and to catch a meal of walleyes and a couple jumbo perch.  Sorry to say the ice was still close to 4' thick, almost to the handle of the arm-strong auger.  Lets hope the ice is off the inland lakes by the May walleye opener.