Journal of a Minnesota Angler

On Easter Sunday, I got a call from Mark wanting to go fishing. My wife had wanted me to do some things around the house, but she (like I) was a bit exhausted from a couple of late nights. So since she wanted to lay down for a while, I got the go ahead to go. In March and April in Minnesota, the only species of fish you can “target” is panfish. Hard core anglers get out their light tackle and typically go after crappie. This was what we were after that afternoon. Mark let me use his... (more...)

When I started blogging almost 2 years ago, I thought I would be writing in a silo. I knew other bloggers were out there, but I did not expect to interact with them. Nor did I expect that they would welcome me to their community so openly. Because of this, I feel a responsibility to read and comment on blogs within that community. As such, I started a blogroll of blogs I thought were interesting. Along the way, I picked up an RSS reader and expanded my subscriptions to more than 90. I stopped... (more...)

In my last post, I gave instructions on How to Clean a Fish Whole. Now I’ll show you how to cook it. These days, it’s very simple and easy to steam a fish. Back in the day, before there was electricity, my mom had to steam fish in a Pyrex pie plate in a big ol’ pot. She had a cool tool with three prongs that opened up and pulled the pie plate out of the pot. But now, you can have a fish from fridge to table in 15 minutes flat. Just follow these easy steps: Preamble: The Ingredients... (more...)

When I was a kid, I rarely ever ate fish fillets. The fish I ate were always cleaned and cooked whole. And they were rarely dipped in batter and fried. My mom would fry up smaller panfish in a frying pan, but most of the fish were steamed. Below is a step by step tutorial on how to clean fish whole. It’s a very simple process and you’ll be surprised how much meat you’ll be able to get by steaming, frying, or grilling your whole fish. Caution: Some of the pictures in this post... (more...)

The average temp in Minnesota this time of year is around 55 degrees. But this last weekend, it hit 70 degrees F and ice out happened overday (as opposed to overnight) for many local lakes. So in keeping with the warming/melting theme, I wanted to show what happens in Yosemite this time of year. This video made the rounds several months ago. I forget where I first heard about it, but it’s worth another look even if you’ve seen it before. It’s amazing how the ice moves like a... (more...)

During the SHOT show in January, SentrySafe gave away 40 pistol safes to Twitter followers that tweeted their contest. While I don’t own a pistol, the safe looked like it could be used for much more than firearms, so I entered. To my surprise, I won one. Given my recent non-fishing related posts, I thought I would keep with the theme and do a review of the safe. I was familiar with the SentrySafe family of products as I’ve owned both the Fireproof Security File and the smaller SentrySafe... (more...)

A few months ago, a friend of mine, who is originally from the UK and whom I regularly watch Doctor Who with (yes, I’m a geek), introduced me to a UK series called River Cottage. It stars Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (herein referred to as HFW for brevity) who was a chef by trade and decided to leave the comforts of the city for country life, or “smallholding” as the Brits call it. It started with “Escape to River Cottage” in 1999 and has since blossomed into an empire... (more...)

A few months ago, a friend and neighbor introduced me to the UK series River Cottage. It’s a series about a man who left London to live in the country and raise his own food, both vegetables and animals. After watching the series, I wanted to do a review. In writing the review, I wanted to give a little of my background. And in doing so, I ended up being very self reflective in my growth of attitude of the food I eat. The post, I realized, needed to be split into two. The River Cottage... (more...)

I saw my first open water near the shore of one the bigger lakes yesterday. The ice lost its grip on shallow ponds almost a week ago. I’ve been seeing a lot of ducks hanging out on those ponds. So with ice fishing season over, it’s time once again to do an ice season review. Looking back at last year, I actually got out one day less. It felt like I got out a lot more, but I think that was just because I had a lot more action this year. Days fished: 6 Fish caught: 22 (5 perch, 17... (more...)