Pete's 42 and a Sweet Mandarin Duck!

In hopes of preparing themselves for the hours of casting they have ahead of themselves, Pete and Mark decided to come out and give their arms a workout before the big trip.  They leave in a few days for some famed Wisconsin waters, but wanted to put one of the elusive 50 inchers in the boat that we have been so fortunate to catch lately.  Well, it's tough to plan on catching one over 50 each time out, but we did our best, saw a few nice sized fish, and Pete landed this nice 42 incher.  Most of the action came from Pete's bait, but Mark had an explosion on his topwater after the sun set that we will never know about.  I do however think that it was larger than a perch, and the last fish out of those weeds measured in at 50.5, so who knows.  It was a great evening on the water, who would have guessed it would have been 82 degrees at sunset on October 7th.  Thanks for the fun boys, and good luck in Wisconsin.

Look at the duck that Mike shot yesterday morning.  I'm no duck expert, but after doing some research on it, it is called a Mandarin Duck.  Native only to Asia, China, Japan and some surrounding European Countries.  There are very few of this specie in those countries, and are known to be numbered in only a few thousand worldwide.  How did it get to Carver County Minnesota????  Who the heck knows.  But it is sweet, and will look good on the log above the fireplace.  I plan on doing a bit more research on this bird, and if anybody knows anything else about this duck, please let me know and I will put it on this site fore everyone to view.  I think the MN DNR would also be interested in this rare specimen. This duck was definitely wild too, it was flying with all the other wood ducks and mallards that Mike kept on missing.  For 16 or 17 shots that you missed on that morning, you sure picked the right duck to fold up.  Well done.....Add one more to your wall of fame!