By Nick Simonson
Columnist

In last week’s installment, we tied up the skirts for our mondo muskie spinner.  This week, we’ll combine them with the rest of the components to finish off a lure that will save you money and catch fish.  In order to do so, you’ll need the following components in addition to the skirts:  two 7/0 Mustad 3551 treble hooks, two 2X heavy size 4H split rings, one 12-inch long .051”-diameter spinner shaft, two spacer beads, five 9/32” nickel beads, one .31-ounce nickel body, two size 12 magnum spinner blades, two size 6 clevises and a two-inch length of heat-shrink tubing (Figure 1).
First attach a treble hook with a 4H split ring to the looped end of the spinner shaft. Next, thread the two-inch length of shrink tubing down the shaft and wiggle it into place over the looped end of the shaft, split ring and hook.  This might take some effort and a lot of wiggling, but try to get it so the split ring and loop are completely covered and the rest of the tubing is on the hook shank.  Once it is in position, shrink the tubing with the heat from the butane lighter, taking care not to melt the tubing.  This step prevents about 95 percent of lure fouling on the cast and keeps the treble riding straight during the retrieve, maximizing your chances of a positive hookset when the fish of 10,000 casts decides to strike.  After the hook is attached and secured, thread two spacer beads onto the spinner shaft (Figure 2).
The next step is to add the primary and partial skirts that we tied in Part I of this tutorial.  Thread the primary skirt onto the spinner shaft through the center of the underlying coil at the skirt’s center.  It should stack on top of the spacer beads.  The lower strands of the primary skirt should cover the spacer beads so they cannot be seen, and the strands should just reach the bottom of the treble hook.  If they don’t, remove one spacer bead; if they hang down too far, add another.  Once the primary skirt is in place, thread the partial skirt onto the spinner shaft just above the primary skirt, forming the body of the bait (Figure 3).
At this point, thread on a nickel bead and then a split ring with the second 7/0 treble hook attached to it (Figure 4).  Then, for the purposes of flash and weight, thread the lure body and the remaining beads into place (Figure 5).
Now it’s time to add some thump to the lure.  The selection of blade colors and sizes is growing rapidly each season, and there are a lot of cool patterns and colors to choose from.  Check out the selections at Rollie and Helen’s Musky Shop Barlow’s Tackle“http://www.barlowstackle.com” www.barlowstackle.com) or Lure Parts Online  www.lurepartsonline.com to find the pattern you’re looking for.  For the purposes of this bait, we’re going with dual size 12 hammered nickel blades to emit even more crazy flash and put out the beat that draws muskies in.  What’s more, the water these blades displace on the retrieve provides ample turbulence to get the flashabou skirt pulsing and flashing to help you seal the deal when a big muskie chases your offering.
Thread the bottom holes of two size 6 clevises on the spinner shaft and thread the clevises through the holes at the top of the spinner blades.  Then thread the top holes of the clevises onto the spinner shaft.  Make sure the spinner blades are situated with the curve facing the spinner shaft (Figure 6).  Slide the clevises and blades down so that they stack up tightly with the other spinner components.
To create the spinner’s eye, you will need a pair of pliers and some muscle.  Grasp the spinner shaft with a pair of round- or needle-nose pliers approximately one inch above the top clevis, with all components stacked together.  With your other hand, grab the portion of the spinner shaft extending above the pliers and bend it 270 degrees around the nose of the pliers, forming the eye of the lure (Figure 7). 
Applying a little more elbow grease, begin to wrap the tag end of the wire around the shaft below the pliers.  Make four wraps around the shaft, forming an eye that will not be bent straight by a heavyweight fish.  Using a wire cutter, clip the tag end of the shaft off, leaving a secure connection point that you can clip your leader to (Figure 8).   Your finished bait is ready to hit the water (Figure 9).  This pattern accounted for a monster my brother landed while trolling in the cool waters of opening morning of muskie season, but it really excelled when cast over cabbage and reefs in late summer when the water warmed up and the fish had the feedbag on (Figure 10). 
A commercial flashabou spinner like the one we’ve put together will cost upwards of $30.  But with a little free time you can save more than fifty percent on your muskie arsenal and learn a lot about lure making in the process.  Give it a shot this spring and try out your color and blade combinations on your favorite muskie water this summer.  Chances are, you’ll get plenty of follows on the lures you create, and undoubtedly the time will come when a toothy fish strikes your offering…in our outdoors.

By Lee Morris
News editor

Every presidential election season, people are encouraged and spurred, even prodded and begged, to vote. And as important as it is to do so, the chatter can turn into a comical sideshow.
Why, it’s your civic responsibility, you hear. It’s part of being an American and so, above all else, make sure you vote. Musicians and actors on TV tell you that casting your ballot is the hip thing to do.
And people buy into it, thinking that they’ve fulfilled the breadth of their civic duty by voting for the U.S. president. They haven’t.
And during every midterm election, the voting population dwindles. The celebrities get busy doing something else. People might make time for it, they might not. It seems that in some elections, democracy is less important.
But democracy doesn’t happen just every four years. It doesn’t happen only during elections. It happens every day in every county and city across this country. And it affects you more than you can probably appreciate if you don’t stop to think about it.
The tax (or lack thereof) on the price of the clothes you’re wearing and the number of teachers (or lack thereof) in your public school were the results of decisions made through the democratic process. In America, at least, democracy is everyday life (whether people participate in it or not). Democracy is our past, present and, we hope, our future.
So democracy isn’t about voting by itself. It’s also about community.
In so many ways, becoming engaged is not as important as staying engaged. Paying attention to the world and remaining informed feeds a sense of community, feeds the will of the people, feeds democracy. Journalism is the first step in this process.
Newspapers, if you read them, can introduce you to a world you would not otherwise see. A world that turns continuously and not just once every four years. Reading newspapers, I believe, is a hip thing to do.
Democracy works on another level. To return to voting, elections install leaders who, when the process works, handle good and bad situations as they arise and advance their helpful initiatives for their constituents. But being the humans we are, that process is rarely so smooth.
Government leaders sometimes make mistakes that the public should know about. Sometimes it’s an overt, accidental error, and sometimes it’s a series of hushed, purposeful errors.
Government leaders also have goals that the public should know about. The actions of government affect the people.
In any case, openness and transparency are essential to democracy. People need to be informed to be involved. And sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Starting Sunday and lasting until March 20, Sunshine Week is raising awareness about the need for open government and freedom of information. Taking part in the annual national initiative will be civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools, broadcast and online media and, of course, newspapers.
The public has a right to know about what government is doing and why. This goes for myriad reasons, including those explored above: Government leaders push ideas and sometimes make mistakes, both of which affect the public; and knowing what government is doing – all the time – makes for an active democracy, an engaged community.
Elections are only part, if an important one, of the democratic process. Meanwhile, newspapers are a constant in a successful democracy, reporting on government every day. We strive – day in, day out – to guarantee that the public has the knowledge it must have to make informed decisions and to participate.
So let in the sun. It feels good.

By Kayley Erlandson
Columnist

Tonight’s the night.
Anna (Amy Adams) just knows that her cardiologist boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) is going to propose to her. And it doesn’t look like she’s going to be disappointed. At dinner, Jeremy pulls out a jewelry box with a sheepish grin and hands it to his girlfriend of four years.
Anna excitedly opens the velvety box … only to find herself staring at a stupid pair of diamond earrings. Before Anna can react, Jeremy is called away to a convention in Dublin, Ireland.
Such begins the new movie “Leap Year.”
In a huff, Anna goes to vent to her father, but her dad only reminds her of a romantic Irish tradition. Every leap year on Feb. 29, Irish women can ask for their boyfriend’s hand in marriage. And they’re not to be refused.
The timing of Anna’s father’s story could not be better, since Feb. 29 is in (gasp!) three days. Believing it was meant to be, Anna takes off immediately for Dublin, but is forced to land in small Irish town due to weather. Determined to make her way to Dublin and her beloved Jeremy by Feb. 29, Anna enlists the help of scruffy bar owner, hotel manager and taxi serviceman Declan (Matthew Goode).
Despite Anna’s Irish heritage, it seems her luck gene is dormant, since her plans continually go awry in ludicrous ways as she makes her way to her destination. Declan’s car rolls into a river, Anna gets robbed by some men in a van, and she misses her train and gets muddy in the process. To top it off, Declan enjoys being right almost as much as Anna does.
Over the three-day journey, Anna does the worst thing she could do to her perfectly structured and ordered life: She begins to fall in love with Declan.
This is a typical PG-rated romantic comedy. We know what’s going to happen at the end, and “Leap Year” doesn’t bring much new to the table. The dialogue and plot twists are predictable, and the romantic relationship between Anna and Declan seems quite forced at times. The funniest parts in the movie are when Declan talks to Anna’s Louis Vuitton bag, affectionately calling it “Louie.”
However, if you’re into romantic comedies, you could do far worse than “Leap Year.” The performances by Adams and Goode are solid, despite that fact that they’re working with recycled material.
The movie was shot on location in Ireland, so there are plenty of visual delights for the eye. It is also a relatively innocent movie, which I think is the whole point of the genre. Unlike most current romantic comedies, “Leap Year” has more class than crass. This is a good movie to see for a girls’ night or a date. Anyone looking for something new can skip it.

Joe DeMasi
Columnist

I’ll never forget the first time I came to Valley City.
It was June 1995. We were booked to play a concert and do a workshop for a three-day People First conference in Grand Forks.
People First is a national organization with chapters across the country made up of adults who are differently abled. They advocate for inclusion and equal rights. The workshops at the conference focused on empowering participants, and the final night featured a concert by my group, Chris Burke with Joe and John DeMasi.
The next day, we were scheduled to drive to Valley City, perform at City Park Bandshell and stay overnight at the Wagon Wheel Inn before returning to Grand Forks to catch our return flight to New York City. Self-advocates from all over North Dakota attended, most with support staff, and the Open Door Center sent a few van loads of individuals.
Little did I know at the time how momentous and life-changing this trip would be for me. For more than five years, I had been divorced from my marriage, from which I have three kids, and was enjoying my bachelorhood and life as a touring musician. I was open for another shot at a serious relationship, but it had to be with the right woman! I had done some casual dating but nothing serious.
The day of our concert, we presented our workshop, and it was there at 3 p.m. in the afternoon that I first set eyes on the wonderful lady who would become my wife and get me to move to Valley City! Michelle Grebel was widowed for 15 months and had been working at Open Door a short time when she agreed to drive a van load of self-advocates to the conference in Grand Forks.
We met briefly at the workshop, and I was very interested to continue our conversation. I spotted her at our concert and got to spend some time with her at a dance. I was very excited to find out  she was from Valley City and that we would be doing a concert there. We agreed to meet after our show in Valley City and spent the whole evening just walking and talking.
We danced on the white bridge at 2:30 in the morning under the watchful eye of one of Valley City’s finest, who approached us just to make sure all was well! I never made it to my room at the Wagon Wheel Inn that night as we walked and talked all night and enjoyed watching the sun rise the next morning!
For the next six weeks, we had phone dates while we spent hours on the phone just talking and getting to know each other. Our first official date came six weeks later, when I flew back to Valley City to visit. We dated long-distance for two years before we finally tied the knot.
We have been happily married now for more than 12 years. I even proposed to Michelle on the white bridge we danced on that first night I spent in Valley City!
Recently finished February was the month of Valentine’s Day, and I would like to dedicate this column to the love of my life, my most wonderful wife and to the happiness we have found together.
It was the arts that brought us together. Her support and understanding of this musician’s lifestyle are truly and deeply appreciated, and I am so honored to be able to share my life with her. It was a joy for me to sing a song I wrote for her at our wedding, and I am always happy to publicly announce my love for her and share how much she means to me.
So, Sweetpea, this column is for you.
So until next time, I’ll see you from the stage!