Journal of a Minnesota Angler

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with my buddy, Dan, who was present when I caught the biggest fish of my life. We didn’t have a boat and given all the hot weather lately, we thought our best luck for catching any fish would be in the Mississippi River. We thought the lake fish would be in deeper water that we wouldn’t be able to cast to. We decided to meet at Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul at 8:30am, but when I got there, the park was blocked off with barricades. It turns out there... (more...)

Something significant took effect here in Minnesota today. The Minnesota DNR relaxed their restrictions on the size of walleye that can be taken from Lake Mille Lacs. When the season opened, any fish between 18″ and 28″ had to be released. As of today, the limit is now 20″ to 28″. Apparently, the harvest from the lake has only been half of what is expected, so the restriction was relaxed. Two inches may not sound like much, but it’s a pretty big deal. On my recent... (more...)

A friend of mine that grew up here in Minnesota, but now lives in North Carolina sent this to me. It appears to have been making the rounds on the Internet for a while. However, I saw a wooden plaque with the same conversation at a local mom-and-pop restaurant, so it must have been around long before the Internet. If you don’t speak Minnesotan, let me know and I’ll post a translation in a few days. Ven Two Minnesoatins Meet Oop Nort On Da Lake Fichen! “Haydair.” “Lobuddy” “Benearlong?” “Cupalhours.” “Crieps,... (more...)

In all my years of fishing I’ve been lucky to have never had a hook break my skin in any part of my body. Others haven’t been so lucky. If you’ve done any amount of fishing, you know the technique to use if a hook goes into your skin beyond the barb: push it through past the barb, cut it off with a pair of pliers, then pull the hook out. However, Billy Chapman of Angler’s Inn International did a great video to show an alternative method for removing hooks. I’m skeptical... (more...)

As I mentioned in my review, the fine folks at SmarShield Sunscreen are providing a free bottle of sunscreen lotion to one of my lucky readers. They left the contest up to me and I’ve been trying to think of a clever contest to give it away. But then I realized I was overthinking it. So here is the only rule: You get one entry into the contest for every mention of this contest on the web. That includes Twitter, Facebook, your own blog, forums, and whatever else you can think of. For each... (more...)

Date: 7/5/2010 Time: 8:00am-10:30am Body of water: Bennett Lake Location: Roseville, MN Weather Conditions: sunny I defied my urge to sleep in yesterday morning by getting up at 7:30am to go fishing. For the second day in a row, I tried a lake I had never fished before. This time, I ventured to the 22 acre lake about 5 minutes from my house. I started at the pier where there was another guy going after carp. The water was so stained, you could barely see six inches below the surface of the water.... (more...)

Date: 7/4/2010 Time: 6:45pm-8:45pm Body of water: Lake Demontreville Location: Lake Elmo, MN Weather Conditions: overcast with threat of rain I took off for a new lake last night with my rod and reel, tackle, camera, a towel, swimming suit, and swim shoes. The Minnesota DNR lake map didn’t show a pier, so I decided to take Sybil Smith’s advice (bullet #9) and not be tied just to the shore. I intended to do some wading. Surprisingly, it gave me a lot more freedom than I expected. When... (more...)

A few weeks ago, the folks at SmartShield contacted me and asked me to do a review of their sunscreen. While sunscreen isn’t what you think of first when getting gear together to go fishing, it is one of the most important. So I agreed. They sent me a free bottle in the mail last week. Unfortunately, I got my bottle a week too late. If I had received it earlier, I could have brought it with me to Cincinnati and really put it to the test. That week was my first major exposure to ultraviolet... (more...)

I’ve met some really cool, interesting people since I started my fishing blog a year ago. One of them is the WalleyeGuy. He approached me about guest posting a few weeks ago and having seen the quality of his other guest posts, I had no hesitation in agreeing. If you’re a frequent reader of mine, you know that I just started learning about lindy rigs last year and have had very little success with them so far. My first real success of the technique was this weekend. However, I know... (more...)

Date: 6/26/2010 Time: 8:00am-5:30pm Body of water: Lake Mille Lacs Location: Isle, MN Weather Conditions: overcast/sunny, windy I have a confession to make. For the past year, I’ve been lying to you. You see, when you grow up in Minnesota, you can’t officially be known as a Minnesota Angler unless you’ve fished and caught a walleye out of Lake Mille Lacs, the biggest and most well known lake in the state. But I had never fished it… until yesterday. Lake Mille Lacs has a... (more...)