Christmas Came Early For Vikings Nation This Year

#SKOL

The Window Closes A Bit More For A-Rog

It's official #12 has been shut down for the season after the Dirty Birds erased Green Bays playoff hopes.  So Rodgers has been leading the Green and Gold for 10 years now.  Packers 5 Division Titles, Vikings 4 Division Titles in that time.  I don't mean to harsh the cheeseheads mellow, but the Vikes have to be the favorites to win the Division again next year as well.  The Packers better get with the program.  Rodgers isn't getting any younger.

The outlook for this weeks game at Lambert:

  SKOL! Vikes!!!

Vikings Thoughts

The news that Pat Elflein wasn't playing versus the Panthers was a gut punch I didn't need right before kick off.  I hadn't heard he was injured and might not play.  Rookie Center Elflein is a huge reason why the Vikings offense has been so good and balanced.  Hopefully it just a one-game injury.

Despite losing I believe the Vikes showed out as the superior team.  We had a lot of flukey unfortunate mishaps.  If our O-Line can get healthy the team should be OK and at minimum get a 1st round bye.

Looking forward to the Packers getting knocked out the playoffs this week. Skol!

I'm Still Processing The Possibilities In A State Of Semi-Disbelief

I didn't Vikings blog last week because I thought the Vikes had a more than even chance of losing the game to those Dirty Birds.  The D stepped up big time and Case was good enough yet again to get the victory.  Another minor upset last week, in my opinion, was the Sea Chickens beating the Eagles.  I can hardly believe that the Vikes are in the #1 spot in the Conference right now.  Of course, that could all come crashing down this week with a Vikes loss in Carolina, but I think we have a better than even shot at beating Cam this week; If we do that then I see it as an even to slightly better than even chance of running the table all the way to the Super Bowl if the team can remain healthy.  I don't think that is purple kool-aid talking.  Could this be the Vikings year??????????

Let's beat those Carolina cats and find out.  Skol!

What Was Your Best Fishing Moment of 2017?

Thanks to Facebook's "On This Day" feature I was reminded of a blog I did answering this same question posed by Wired2Fish back in 2010. So I thought I'd do it again for this year.  There were a lot of great moments for me to choose from in 2017.  In 2010 I gave 3 moments in answer to the question.  I've got so many standout memories from 2017 that I'm going to break it down into these categories:

Best Family Fishing Moment
Best Bass Snatcher Moment
Best Moment Fishing By Myself
Best Ice Fishing Moment

Best Family Fishing Moment:

4.05lb July 27

July 31st

 This one is a tie for me between Todd catching that toad on a frog and the morning trip we took with Mallory a few days later.

Best Bass Snatcher Moment:
It would have to be on Platte/Sullivan when this happened:

I hadn't caught anything, but pike and we were at least an hour and a half if not longer into the day at that point.  Getting that 3lber in the boat was yuge for me and my confidence.  Really got my tournament season off to a good start with that fish and my finish on Platte/Sullivan.

Best Moment Fishing By Myself:
There is a three-way tie for this one with two honorable mentions. First, is my biggest bass of the year.

5.09lbs June 29th Platte Lake SBKO (Black/White)

Second, was my second biggest 6 fish bag of the year with bonus dogfish, Avid X rod fell out of the boat, and screw falling out of my Zillion Reel.

August 30th

Third, the night the fish went nuts for the Jackel Pompadour.

June 27th

Honorable mentions go to the double on a Jerk Shad at the GOMH on the morning of The Opener and the sunrise that I witnessed that morning (click this link to see that).

17" & 15"

And also to the big one on the Shower Blows Knock Off off of the wave runner floats.

19.33" May 18th

Best Ice Fishing Moment:

17.5" Jan 22nd Rock Lake

Getting a nice bass on my first trip of the year after not having caught a bass the previous winter on Rock Lake.