Journal of a Minnesota Angler

As I was tromping through the snow at 10:00pm (I’ll explain why in a minute), I was thinking about all the great adventures I had in 2010. And, naturally, I started to rank them in my head. Some trips well exceeded my expectations, while others could have been much better. But I had fun on all of them. I’ve learned a lot this year and hope to apply those lessons not just in fishing, but in life. So what follows is my top 5 adventures of 2010. Honorable Mention : Winter storm of 2010 I... (more...)

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...)

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...)

When I started this blog, I had no idea where it would go. While I hoped to attract a few readers here and there, what I didn’t expect was the community I would become involved in. There are some amazing bloggers out there and many of them respond to readers on a personal level. It makes blogs so much more fun to read when you can actually interact with the writers. I hope to meet some of them in person some day. Please check them out in my blogroll. The two fellow bloggers that started... (more...)

In July, 2008, Google announced that it had indexed 1 trillion pages on the world wide web. Hundreds, if not thousands, of new web sites appear every day. Most will be of no consequence. But if you are interested in fishing, or the outdoors, you will want to know about a site that launched officially today. It’s called the Outdoor Blogger Network and was started by two of my more famous outdoor blogging peers: Rebecca Garlock of The Outdooress and Joe “Wolfy” Wolf of Flowing... (more...)

A little over a month ago, I took my 5 year-old son fishing. We stopped at a local sporting goods store, picked up some wax worms, and headed to a local lake. We fished off the pier and my son caught three little sunnies in about a half hour of fishing. He loved it. He’s not afraid of touching them either (unlike The Hunter’s Wife and A Reel Lady). He had fun tossing them back.   At his grandparents’ two cabins, he loves to cast off the dock with a plug, so I can’t... (more...)

When I was up at my in-laws’ cabin, Ken and I found what could only be described as a fish highway. On one of our less successful outings, we were off the shore of one of the islands and started to head home, when we saw a couple of fish on the fish finder. As those fish moved across the screen, more fish appeared, then more, and then even more. There were at least 6 fish on the screen all the way back across the main part of the lake. Most of them were all hovering at 30-40 ft in 50-60... (more...)

I was out on the boat with Mark, casting for bass when I decided to take a rest and put my rod down. I had left the line long enough for the small, blue rattling Rapala to hang over the bow of the fishing boat and into the water. It was late in the evening and the angle of the sun going down on the horizon put a spotlight on the surface of the water right next to some lily pads not more than a few feet from the boat. A few inches under the surface of the water, I could plainly see the back of... (more...)

The Sportsman Channel held their Hunt.Fish.Feed event in Milwaukee today. It was their 7th event this year. In the article by the Milwaukee City Buzz Examiner, the Examiner posted videos from the first event in Las Vegas, and one held here in the Twin Cities. See if you can find me in the video. The Twin Cities event was unique because it was run in conjunction with Fishapalooza 2010 on Forest Lake. The tournament anglers donated their catch to the Hunt.Fish.Feed event that was held in St. Paul... (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...)