Journal of a Minnesota Angler

With Thanksgiving behind us, you are now allowed to start thinking about Christmas. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, so the Christmas shopping season is in full force. Therefore, I thought I would give you a few gift ideas for the avid angler in your life. In no particular order: Magnabait (magnabait.com) Cinchtie (http://www.cinchtie.com/) Finnegan’s Fly Tool (http://www.indetools.com/) Turboset (http://afdturboset.com/) Magnetic Hook Keeper (http://www.mudhole.com/Shop-Our-Catalog/Hook-Keepers/The-Catch-Magnetic-Safety-Hook-Keepers) Those... (more...)

My wife’s family has been part of the Gunflint Trail community for almost 60 years. During that time, my father-in-law has heard countless stories and been part of countless others. One of the few families that trumps my in-laws is the Brandts. Carl Brandt, Sr. and his wife, Alis, settled on the Gunflint Trail in 1931. Their family has been a fixture on the Trail ever since. One afternoon, in the winter of 1947, Old Man Brandt and his son-in-law, Emerson Morris, decided to go hunting for... (more...)

As my regular readers know, I’ve been a bit preoccupied as of late. But all that came to an end yesterday when my team competed in their regional Lego League tournament. And came in first! My all-girls team (actually 6 of them, one had to leave before we could bet her picture) got awards for robot design and best in programming. They proved they deserved those two awards by competing in a head-to-head bracketed tournament at the end of the day that included all 16 teams. They rattled off... (more...)

Winter arrived in full force in Minnesota over the weekend. Depending on where you were, 3″-8″ fell on the ground. It was a wet, heavy snow that killed the power of about 100,000 residents just in the Twin Cities alone. I spent 2 hours trying to snowblow my driveway because the snow was so wet, it would clog up the chute of my mini-snowblower every two minutes or so. But it was still better than trying to shovel the stuff. The reality of the end of the open water season in 2010 hit... (more...)

So this has been my life since my last post: Friday – work, met with a pair #1 of Lego League team Saturday – work on clean up of yard and garage for winter, met with pair #2 of Lego League team Sunday – more work on garage clean up, met with entire Lego League team Monday – work, met with a pair #2 of Lego League team And this is the rest of my week: Tuesday – work, meet with entire Lego League team Wednesday – work, meet with pair #2 of Lego League team Thursday... (more...)

When my kids (ages 10 and 5) are playing together and I have to interrupt them for something like dinner, I hear them both yell, “PAUSE!” I’ve kind of hit the pause button on my blog this week. I’ve got a lot going on right now. The thing that’s occupying most of my non-working waking hours is being coach of my daughter’s Lego League team. They compete in local tournaments and we got assigned to the early tournament, three weeks earlier than I expected. So... (more...)