I gotta tell you about my daughter. I have three heroes in life and she’s one of mine. Were fishing for trout up on Hogback Lake. I'm hip dip in my chest waders fly fishing and my twelve year old angel is worm dunking. She yells for me so I waddle to shore and walk up the fishing platform. In her grasp is a twelve inch rainbow...

Enter the bait shop owner. One of my personal favorites. They are my kind of candy store. To me these places are better smelling than some restaurants. I can shop in these bastions of bait. I don’t garage sale or go antiquing. But if I drive down your main street and spot, so and so’s bait bucket, I’m stopping...

Some mornings I leave and it’s a bright blue sky. But I still bring my rain gear and I always wear my life jacket I never know when I will get wet. The day Ronny the rock suddenly stood up in the canoe to stretch his sore back with no warning or coordination was something I could not imagine...

My client was getting antsy. I told my self at the next river no matter what, we would get out and fish. I rounded the bend and no one was there. So I said out loud as my truck rolled to a stop. “Grab your rod and don't look back, head for the big rock” as I pointed and I almost pushed him out...

You never know who might be fishing next to you. CO Todd Langevin (Center City, MN) came across an angler without a license. The angler did not have any identification and the first two names he gave to the officer were false. Once the suspect's real name was given, it turned out he had 2 felony warrants totaling $13,000 in bail. The suspect was arrested and charged accordingly...  16 more wacky tales

Five years back I changed my opener lake. I was called a quitter for not coming back on my tenth trip to the old lake. I was just moving out of the rookie pile when I...

Windshields from last nights sleep over guests are frost covered. Some guys hair do’s look like a sci-fi film and could only be sleepy head halos. Some wish they had...

The pain in my fingers not only hurts, its burns. But I’m going to cast one more time.   Blaze orange bobber hits the water and I close the bail. Not quite dropping the rod, but I set it down quick. I rub my hands and tuck them in my squall coat pockets. It slowly helps...

I'm walking in my own yard. The family dog is romping about taking no notice of me. I survey visually my man made kingdom. The log pile I call home centered nicely by my pond. My trapping shed sits like a little brother next to my pole shed...

I wasn’t in a me, myself and I mode. But I was not expecting company either. Not one other boat on the lake. Gulls flew and I saw the occasional crow. Mrs. Mallard had her babies out for a swim. My stringer was half full, so was my growling stomach...

Tire tracks in the snow say someone else has been here recently. Boot and dog tracks leading up to the cabin tell me who. I have no reason to wonder why. He and his dog came here for the same reason my dog and I are now here.

Over the years I would see a burp sized bubble come up and think to myself, boy the lake sure is gassy today. But that never made sense. No lake I know suffers from indigestion or irritable bowel syndrome. Only now do I know it’s just a big giant fish down there makin fish words. Big bubbles equaled big fish...

You may not know this but I help out in the township where I live. I don’t just fish, fish, fish all the time. Some of the guys around my place say that’s not the case and a pastor gave up trying to make me a fisher of men. . One neighbor’s wife said I row a boat more than drive a car, but I can prove I help out...

Some folks learn to fish by reading magazines, watching videos or actually going fishing. Other folks take fancy exotic fishing vacations, hire a guide with a thick fluent accent, sip wine and dine on extravagant pasta.  They learn the fishing lingo, one mouthful at a time, so to speak...

Somewhere in those trees is more than a portage trail. The very path is the absence of trees. One foot fall at a time, in an incessant pounding of mine and yours, trod by our favorite foot gear creates and maintains the portal to which I will pass through. Me and my mind must hike this hall...