Ok, so many of you might know or know of, Doug Johnson. If you don't know him well, you probably think of him as an extremely successful musky guide, sometime author on musky fishing, and occassional TV appearances. Well, that's the public persona, but, even though I count him as a good friend, truth be known, Doug, since his retirement, is pretty much a fishing bum with occassional interruptions for business(deer hunting and messin around with his young grandkids).

Doug's "year" if I have it straight, goes, sturgeon fishing, up to Whitefish bay to supposably "open the cabin"(early Lake Trout bite), then smallmuth fishing with the odd walleye, northern and musky interrupting his "fun" season, then, oh yes, serious employment, musky guiding (fishing) till the fall trolling bite is over in late October, occasionally taking a break for "educational seminars"(read-Ottawa River and Lac Seoul musky trips). Of course now it is time for some business to be conducted, he has to go to the bottle store to make sure he covers his share of the supplies for fall deer hunting camp, then after whacking a few of Bambi's relatives, and before cremating those same carcasses, he has Christmas(grandkids again), and then has to close the house up in Warroad, so they can go south for Mrs Johnson's health during the worst of the winter months(read-Melton Hill musky fishing lately, but it could be Cumberland Striper fishing, or Florida fishing just as easily). That lasts a couple months and then, oops, better put it on te road,  we need to get back to Warroad to open the house (read-sturgeon are running)...

Now, lets face it, Doug really isn't much of a citizen, BUT as far as most of us members on this board goes, HE SETS A BENCHMARK WE WILL NEVER ATTAIN!!

Be that as it may, Doug's past has caught up to him it seems, and evidently he has strained the "honeydew list" to the breaking point, and this year it has finally BROKEN!!  Inside information has it that he is going to spend the winter in Warroad painting bedrooms, and doing general maintainence.  Now of course, he tries to paint a smily face on the whole thing, claiming that he used to like snowmobiling, ice fishing, and catching a few hockey games, ahem.....;)

My question is, how long can this couple last, north of the frozen Tundra, before Doug is able to "suggest" his way back south, boat in tow, and waaaaay too many fishing supplies to ever claim a business expense if he gets audited by the IRS??

Shall we start a pool?  If we do, I want Feb. 17th.  (and be careful, Mr. Johnson himself might enter, under some crazy pseudonym such as "Ted Trueblood", or even wilder, "Dick Pearson"...

BTW high temp today in Warroad, MN is -6 degrees, but...it feels like -5 degrees, so that's always a good thing, eh???;)

Doug and wildly unlikely claims/plans seem to go together. the past few years he's been saying he wasn't going to guide anymore either...and that one lasts until about the first weekend every summer and then all of a sudden it's 30 straight days guiding in October!