Scheels Community

by Pat Schlapper

On a recent ice fishing outing to a nearby body of water, my friend and I experienced some excellent midday walleye action. We ventured out at 10 a.m. with high expectations for the day ahead. It was an exhausting journey to reach our destination. We had to walk through some rough terrain and scale some extreme hills to get to our secret hole.

Upon arrival we drilled about twenty holes and started checking them with our Vexilars. We set out four tip-ups with shiner and sucker minnows, then started jigging. We both started with medium-sized jigging Rapalas.

My friend almost immediately caught a nice 19.5 inch walleye. Shortly after, I caught two smaller fish on a tip-up. From about 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., we consistently caught walleyes both jigging and on tip-ups. For some reason the fish that day seemed to really prefer the shiner minnows over the sucker minnows we also had out. The fish we caught on the jigging Rapalas hit the bait so hard that the rod almost jumped out of our hands! Once I got the hang of the jigging rap I had a blast catching fish on my light action rod.

To entice the fish to grab the bait, we were ripping the bait extremely hard three or four times in a row. This seemed to get the attention of the fish. Once we saw a fish come in our flashers we would slowly jig the bait to entice them to eat it. When a fish committed there was no question you had a bite.

My setup consisted of a 24-inch light action rod with 4-pound test line. My friend was using a slightly stiffer rod with 6-pound line. On the tip-ups we used 35-pound Dacron line with 10 flourocarbon leaders and No. 10 treble hooks.

Throughout the two hours we caught fish it seemed like the bigger fish wanted the jigging raps. We did catch some 15 to 16 inch fish on tip-ups but the two nicest ones came while jigging.

It is a common belief that walleyes are very difficult to catch during the midday hours, especially during ice fishing season. However, on this day of fishing my friend and I caught between 15 and 20 walleyes from 10 to 1 p.m. This just goes to show that if you are willing to put in the time and effort to find fish, you can catch them when other people are at home waiting for the "evening" bite.

Pat Schlapper is a fishing manager at Scheels in Eau Claire, Wisc. He is also a Scheels-sponsored tournament bass fisherman.

Rob McClanahan, former Olympic hockey player,

coaches his daughter's team at the International

Squirt tournament in Fargo, N.D.

Thirty years ago, Rob McClanahan was part of one of the most memorable and influential hockey games ever played.

Today, McClanahan shares his one-of-a-kind experiences in the game with his daughter Sara and the rest of the Squirt ‘B’ hockey team he coaches in Orono, Minn.

The squad was in Fargo for the International Squirt Tournament and Tom kindly took a few moments to recall his experience playing with the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

The 1980 team left a lasting impression in the hearts and minds of Americans when they upset the powerful Soviets – which had won every hockey gold medal since 1960 -- in an Olympic medal-round matchup in Lake Placid, N.Y. It’s a story that’s been immortalized by movies, documentaries, books, and virtually all things that are capable of recording or recounting the event.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years,” said McClanahan. “We’ve had a lot of fun with it.”

Today’s younger hockey players and fans were not around to experience the significance and hysteria surrounding the win over Russia and subsequent victory over Finland in the gold medal game.

“If you’ve never seen the documentary HBO created, I would recommend it to anybody from ages 5 to 90,” McClanahan suggests. “Watch it.

“The American psyche at the time was at an all-time low. We were aware of the excitement within the Olympic Village and Lake Placid, but we had no idea of the impact nationwide until after the Olympics were over,” McClanahan said. “It’s been a great 30-year ride. It’s hard to believe people still talk about. We’re very proud of what we did.”

The U.S. accomplished the feat under the leadership of coach Herb Brooks, the fiery general who lined up 61 exhibition games and conducted grueling practices in the five months leading up to the Games.

“To put it simply, Herb Brooks prepared any team he coached to play their very best at the most important times. That’s why, in seven years, he won three NCAA titles at Minnesota and lost in the finals another year,” said McClanahan. “He had us ready in 1980. When the opportunity presented itself, we were prepared to take advantage of it.”

Even under the tutelage of Brooks, how stacked were the odds against the United States in the game against Russia? Perhaps McClanahan’s explanation of how the team itself felt tells the story.

“You ask all 20 players on the team, if we played them 100 times, how many would we lose, and the answer would be 99,” said McClanahan, who scored five goals in the 1980 Olympics. “We just happened to win the right game.

“We had played them earlier in Madison Square Garden and we lost 10-3, and it wasn’t that close. During the Olympics, we watched them play Canada and we watched them play Finland. They had to come from behind in both those games, and they were flat.”

With one second remaining in the first period of the medal-round game, Mark Johnson of the United States – who McClanahan frequently stays in touch with to this day – scored a goal to tie the game 2-2, and once again, the Russians were struggling early.

Frustrated, Soviet coach Viktor Tinkhonov replaced goalie Vladislav Tretiak, who was considered by many to be the best in the world at the time.

“It was huge. Psychologically it was huge,” said McClanahan. “I can understand why the coach did that. He realized his team was flat, and he realized he needed to shake them up. But it also gave us a boost of confidence. Jimmy (Craig) made some great saves and we were able to weather the storm, and the rest is history.”

McClanahan concurs that Herb Brooks was truly calm and calculated under pressure -- just as is portrayed in the movies and documentaries -- especially after the U.S. scored to take a 4-3 lead with ten minutes remaining in the game.

“Herbie, in his masterful way, prepared us. And though we were outplayed that game -- I think we were outshot 12-2 in the second period alone -- we scored the right goals. They made some mistakes, we took advantage of our opportunities, and Herbie remained calm after we went up 4-3 and all he said was, ‘Play your game, play your game.’”

“It was the longest ten minutes of our lives, I guarantee you that.”