Journal of a Minnesota Angler

This post is a review for the third Mystery Tackle Box I received in October, 2012. See my Mystery Tackle Box review post for a full review of the service. On this last day of October, I figured I better get my review of my October Mystery Tackle Box out before the month changes over. I apologize for being a bit late with this review. I received my latest Mystery Tackle Box while I was on vacation and have been busy catching up on work and housework ever since. Once again, Mystery Tackle Box... (more...)

This post is a review for the second Mystery Tackle Box I received in September, 2012. See my Mystery Tackle Box review post for a full review of the service. When I first registered for the Mystery Tackle Box with their super duper promo, I hadn’t intended to continue the service after the first month. However, after receiving the first box, I was impressed enough to give it another month, even at full price. I was not disappointed. The first Mystery Tackle Box was good, but didn’t... (more...)

Three years ago, almost to the day, I did a review on the Hobie Mirage Pro Angler. At the time, it had just been announced at ICAST 2009 and won an award for best new product. Last year, I was contacted by the marketing manager, Ron, at HiTempo, the local Hobie dealer to try out the newest version of the fishing kayak. He said several of my complaints had been addressed. We went out one evening last June. Unfortunately, due to a job change, I didn’t get to posting the re-review and a year... (more...)

In today’s world of contextual advertising, web sites pick up on your hobbies and interests pretty quickly. Obviously, many of the ads that I see have to do with fishing. When I first saw the ads for the Mystery Tackle Box, it really didn’t peak my interest because it felt like a gimmick ad. One that was just trying to get you to click on it to bring you to a big box store site. But then I read an article on TechCrunch about the startup. It got me intrigued. I especially liked the... (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...)

Earlier this month, I was contacted by Simeon Chambers of the Replica Toy Fish company. He said he had a product that kids love and parents really appreciate. Not sure of his claim, I checked out his web site. His story was very interesting. One summer his 7 year old son asked him for a toy Northern Pike. He searched one of the big stores for 20 minutes before finally buying a fishing lure that looked like a Northern. He gave it to his son (after taking off the hooks, of course), and his son... (more...)

Every week, the Outdoor Blogger Network holds a contest and gives away some gear to its members. The catch is that you have to review any product that you win. Back in December, they gave away some really cool ice fishing equipment and I was picked as a winner for the Frabill Pro-Thermal Tip-up Combo. Unfortunately, I only had once chance to use it in December and none in January. I finally got a second chance to use it when my brother was in town recently so I now feel better about doing a review.... (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 started this blog as a fishing log of sorts to record where I fish, what I fished with, and what I caught. A few months afterward, I stumbled upon an article about fishing logs. The article said I should just do a web search for ‘fishing log’ (now why didn’t I think of that) to find free logs on the web. The first entry from Google was Fish Swami. I was very impressed with how well the site was put together. It was intuitive and easy to use. Within minutes, I was entering... (more...)