Outdoor Traditons Summer 2007

Issue 2 • Edition 2

Featured in this issue

TICKLING WEEDS FOR WALLEYES BY: DAVE CSANDA

PLUS MORE! • A Ride Through Iron Country By: Jeremy Millsop • Bow Fishing By: Bill Marchal • Invasive Species Update By: Vince Meyer • Cottingham Park By: Jake Kulju • Dr. Lund’s Natural Recipes

Read Online: www.brainerddispatch.com

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Photos provided by Bill Marchel

A face not even a mother could love. Carp are detrimental to lakes, rivers and wetlands because they stir up sediments, which reduce light penetration and thus the growth of beneficial aquatic plants.

Most butterfly pictures show the subject situated smack in the middle of the frame. Off-center images offer refreshing variety. If shooting the top of open wings or a side view, try to position the camera parallel to the wings. Or try a face-on shot to catch the eyes and antenna. Use the sun to backlight your featured insect, especially if it has white or light-colored wings. Stay aware of any unappealing aspects in the background. Simply changing your angle can eliminate litter.

Angling for a good shot

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A cool, damp summer morning just as the sun is starting to come up is ideal. In the morning, butterflies have not yet absorbed enough heat for their flight muscles to activate so stay fairly stationary until the dew burns off and their wings dry out. Their lowered level of activity levels offer you far more opportunities. Soon after sunrise, as the butterflies spread their wings wide to absorb heat and begin feeding, is an ideal time for you to approach closely — sometimes within just a few inches.

Archers in pursuit of carp must have a state fishing license. Other laws apply and potential bowfishers should read the regulations.

Properly prepared, carp can be quite tasty. Most bow shooters prefer carp soaked in brine and smoked, but all sorts of recipes exist.

Check the regulations

For proficient archers, hitting a carp cruising at close range with its back out of the water is relatively easy. But, as mentioned earlier, carp are wary and after being chased about, they seldom offer the ideal shot. More difficult is the shot at a fish two or more feet below the surface because you must take into consideration light refraction, or the bending of light, as it passes from water to air. To arrow a deep fish, you must aim low. Only experience will teach you how low to hold because in each situation the depth and angle to your target is different.

Extreme care should be taken that the line to your arrow does not become tangled before the shot. Many years ago, I shot at a fish with the line inadvertently wrapped around my left hand. With a loud snap the line broke as the arrow left the bow, but not before it sliced my hand to the bone. The scar remains today.

Timing is everything

is enlarging a picture to find a bug you hadn’t even realized was there.

Another method of practice for some people involves a faux fly. Cut a life-sized picture of a butterfly from a magazine, pin or paper clip it to a flower outside and practice shooting. Practice monitoring your shadow.

Practice finding how close you can get to the “butterfly” while still keeping it in focus.

Once out in the wild (or maybe just their gardens) some folks actually “chum up” butterflies with fruit bait. Rumor has it that the smell of overly ripe pineapples draws in eager eaters. (You may attract bees and orioles this way as well.) Others focus on mating couples.

With their minds temporarily occupied, you may be able to sneak closer that usual. Most of all, be patient.

Be patient. Be patient. Did I suggest being patient?

B I L L M A R C H E L is a wildlife and outdoors photographer and writer who lives near Fort Ripley. His work has appeared in many regional and national publications and he writes a monthly column for the Brainerd Dispatch. He can be reached at bill@billmarchel.com

The moment of truth

Welcome

30 Lund Boats on the Showroom Floor Powered

by Mercury Outboards A TRADITION OF QUALITY

Best Shot

Do you enjoy taking photos?

Do you have a favorite image of an eagle, Áower, sunset, or how about your favorite hunting partner? Here’s your chance to share it with readers of “OUTDOOR Traditions.” Send it along with a two-sentence explanation as to where, why, and how it was shot. Both could be published online and in the 50,000 copies of our new quarterly magazine, “OUTDOORS Traditions.” Each issue will have an “editor’s pick” contributed photo, including a credit line of the photographer’s name and portrait if available.

If your photo is not chosen, all appropriate images will be included on the “We Spotted” section of our website. They will be displayed there for three months, running concurrently with the season and/or until the next “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes.

Deadline for the fall edition is August 24, 2007 and winter is November 12, 2007.

The Dispatch will collect images quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter). After each issue of “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes, we will then place the images on our website.

How could I be so lucky, that the stork should drop me off many years ago to be part of a beautiful family in Nisswa, Minnesota, a land of peace and quiet recreation.

Nisswa has forests and lakes in abundance and must have been created to be that place of “quiet time” and recreation in demand by every generation.

The day the stork dropped me down the chimney, my Mother and Father were the owners and operators of a small business with only $25 in their checking account. In the midst of the depression years, I am sure they felt much more fortunate than many other struggling people at the time. As early as 1920’s and 30’s, Nisswa was a place to retreat from the world’s pressures for the busy and the wealthy who needed to rest, as well as a place to hide from lawmen by the “wild and wooly”.

Oddly enough, the horrors of world war in the late 1930’s and 1940’s were frightful years for the likes of Nisswa ad other communities in the northern land of forests and lakes. Jobs were abundant and the American work force grew rapidly. Money in pockets was plentiful. The heavy work schedule caused stress that desperately needed healing.

The land of forests and lakes provided just what the doctor ordered. For those needing peace and quiet, Nisswa was the place to be. For those who needed a fast pace of recreation to vent their stresses, Nisswa was the place to be. The land of forests and lakes was an oasis of sanity.

After WWII there was great expectation that the astounding advances in technology would certainly make life easier and more enjoyable. A relentless pursuit of “things” by the average family to make life easier and more fun seemed to become the norm. By the end of the twentieth century advances in communications and transportation has left us with our mouths wide open in awe. Yet, with all these new gadgets and toys, we realize that not all is a bed of roses. The “easy life” has our lives out of balance. To have more and more things has turned out to be unfulfilling. The selfish and greedy ownership of “things” has made man and woman in this “grand society” merrily another additional “thing”.

Many people are beginning to realize there is something missing in life irregardless of all the material possessions.

People want to stop their world, rediscover themselves, get better acquainted with their own family, and again feel the real value of being a human being, both body and soul.

Where, o where, does one find “quiet time”?

Similar to WWII, it is right here in the land of forests and lakes! Visitors used to go fishing for the fish. Now we “fish” for “quiet time” so thoroughly needed and enjoyed. To be

Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot” Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

Steve Kohls I am a photographer at the Brainerd Dispatch since 1975. I have been teaching Àne art black and white and color photography at Central Lakes College for the past 12 years. Currently I have been teaching Underwater Photography for Central Lakes College and the Minnesota School of Diving for the past 5 years. From May to November you can Ànd me at the Mineland Recreation Area either scuba diving and photographing the Àsh or enjoying the beauty of our area’s newest lakes.

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Each scale on a big carp is larger than a quarter.

Your

By: Jim Dullum

with family and friends in the boat with no TV, no radio, is priceless. The pockets of “quiet time” offer an opportunity to slow down and once again listen to the core message of life. Residents and visitors are invited to experience “quiet time” while fishing the streams and lakes, hunting the wild game, biking our miles and miles of quality trails, crosscountry skiing many kilometers of top notch groomed trails, inn-line skating safe trails, golfing 20 plus different courses, taking a walk, reading a book, reigniting a pray life. The list of “quiet time” activities and opportunities goes on and on. Residents, enjoy this paradise you live in. Visitors, on all sides of the globe, come to the land of forests and lakes, rest, meet new friends (possibly yourself), and heal. Every single month of the calendar has restful and healing value. Whether July and/or January, vacation time in the land of forests and lakes has immeasurable value for family and loved ones.

For 80 years my family has been in the marine and/or sports business as servants to those needing fun and relaxation. I have worked and witnessed the vacation trends for 65 years. My daughter, the third generation, has already spent 32 years working as a vital part of this “playground”. The world will forever need this playground and our family plans to be here a long, long time as part of the fun.

The “quiet time” we have been blessed with we wish to share with the whole world and it is free! Call the area chamber of commerce, come visit, leave your troubles with us, and go home refreshed. Who knows? You may discover a permanent home in the land of “quiet time”. No matter whom you are or where you come from. I invite you and your family to test the north land’s “quiet time”. Keep smiling!!!

the

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Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot�

Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

See page 42 for details.

Best Shot

S e r v i c e

Cover photo by Tim Bogenschutz

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SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

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Eye spy

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

These three-winged things, though, are just an introduction to the insect world. There are moths, mayflies, crickets and spiders. There are bees and beetles, wasps and ants. There are aphids, grasshoppers, katydids, cicadas, roaches, flies and all manner of other flying, crawling and creeping critters.

Move s-l-o-w-l-y toward a flighty subject. Sudden jerky motions are a no-no. If your shadow falls on the little fellow, it likely will consider you a potential predator. Insects know only half of the fight-orflight formula, try not to put yourself between the sun and the subject.

Take your first picture as you approach and continue shooting as you move in for a fly’s eye view, as your subject suddenly flitter off. The good news? Butterflies often return to the same flower or one nearby. Take lots of shots. Take lots and lots of shots. Take lots of ... you get it, right?

RP A NG

Getting down and dirty

‘Dragons & Damsels’

Though similar in appearance, the damselfly is smaller and more delicate than a dragonfly. A primary identifying factor is how it hold its wings while at rest. A dragonfly holds its wings perpendicular to its body; a damselfly holds its wings behind itself and parallel to the body. Adult “dragons and damsels� are generally found near lakes, rivers and streams and nymphs (immature bugs) live in the water.

Dragonflies have a propensity to pick a perch and stay put. They are able to fly vertically and backward, hover like helicopters and turn abruptly in the midst of flight.

Their large eyes nearly cover their heads. In fact, with their acute vision, in-flight acrobatics and reputation for hearty appetites, dragonflies are considered the most fearsome predators in the world of insects! Many damselflies also willingly pose. Their small size, however, necessitates moving in quite close and they do get edgy when folks are lurking just feet away.

A sprinkle of water onto spider webs often bring out their owners, where they may remain to pose for you. Spiders, bless them, frequently stay still much longer than many of their insect relatives.

If creepie-crawlies call to you, just roll over a rotting log. It will be a fast-paced scene once you disturb the urban underground, so be ready before you make your move. In addition to “official� insects, you’re likely to encounter brightly colored newts or salamanders, slugs, earthworms, millipedes and even some difficult-to-identify “related organisms.�

So, call a park ranger or the helpful people at the arb.

They can give you information about the best locations and times of year to “hunt� the insects you are after.

Then get out there and shoot what bugs you!

A bowďŹ shing reel should safely store the line but allow an arrow to y unimpeded toward its target. The AMS brand reel is most preferred by most archers.

A stout line connects the arrow to a bowfishing reel that is usually screwed into the stabilizer insert on the bow.

Your local archery shop owner can best advise you on the latest tackle.

Polarized sunglasses are indispensable since they allow you a better view underwater by cutting surface glare.

Also the glasses will protect your eyes should the line become tangled and the arrow comes flying back at you.

Other necessary items are a pair of chest waders if the fish are shallow or a boat if they are deep. Carp and other fish can be shot from a canoe but it’s wise to choose a more stable craft. Popular among veteran bowfishers are johnboats equipped with an elevated platform from which a foot-controlled trolling motor can be operated.

Some carp shooting rigs are quite elaborate.

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and west shores but don’t discount any shoreline, especially on calm, sunny days. In past years, I have seen even the north shore, which is virtually barren of emergent weeds, alive with spawning carp. Trophy carp, big and ugly and weighing more than 30 pounds, are taken each spring on Mille Lacs.

Rivers also can provide good bowfishing, especially during spring when the water has overflowed the banks, flooding nearby fields and meadows. Carp find these shallow, grassy areas to their liking since they are the first to warm to spawning temperatures.

You’ll quickly know if carp are actively spawning in a particular area, especially if the weather is clear and calm. The fish raise quite a ruckus and cruising carp leave huge wakes. Often, shallow grassy areas will be covered with carp eggs and the water will be murky from all their commotion.

Where to go

Carp are found in many of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. In this area, the most popular bowfishing lake is Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs — most famous for its walleyes — attracts carp-shooters as the giant fish move in to spawn. Check the shallow, weedy bays on the south

C A R O L Y N C O R B E T T is a freelance writer and editor with 12 years of experience. Carolyn currently lives in Brainerd where she writes for various local publications and creates content for web sites.

When the water warms to roughly 70 degrees, female carp that are ripe with spawn cruise the shallows, and are accompanied by one or more smaller male carp.

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Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. ®2006

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CARP ON A STRING

This is considered a backcountry camping location and should be used only by experienced canoe campers.

Around the bend, hikers will find Huntersville Forest. The campsite is a popular local swimming area and provides many trails. The area was known to Ojibwe Indians as “Hunter’s Paradise.” The multitude of whitetail deer and ruffed grouse make this apparent.

Anderson’s Crossing was founded by a pioneer homesteader on two converging Indian trails. The 113 acres give plenty of space for camping and hiking. The Butterfield rapids begin along this stretch of the river and give listeners a babbling symphony to accompany their picnics. The rapids are not severe and can be fun for swimming and wading.

On the high banks of Little White Dog, visitors are given an excellent lookout point to view the river and surrounding area. Once used by Native Americans for religious ceremonies, it was formerly called Little Round Hill.

Among the more accessible sites is Cottingham Park.

This boat landing and canoe landing has tarred road access. A hiking trail leads to the next campsite along the canoe trail and is known is for its wildflowers and birds.

Bullard Bluff Campsite is one of the more secluded campsites on the canoe route. It was once known as Hog Haven because of the many wild pigs that lived and thrived in the oak groves of the area.

Just four miles to the south are the Indian mounds.

Although camping and fires are not permitted here, it is an interesting and beautiful point of observation for hiking and resting.

At Old Wadena County Park visitors can see the site of the first farm and post office in Wadena County. The Old Red River Ox Cart Trail goes through the site. The entire area, including the Old Wadena District, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hikers and campers will find rustic camping facilities and several hiking trails.

The last of the sites on the Crow Wing Canoe Trail is McGivern Park. The river continues to Brainerd from here and into Crow Wing State Park. The site shows many signs of the struggle, including rifle pits and lookouts. Picnic tables, a small shelter and a rifle range are available to visitors.

Whether people come looking for seclusion, encounters with wildlife, the sights and sounds of migrating birds and wildflowers or the challenge of canoe camping on one of Minnesota’s finest rivers, the Crow Wing River Canoe Trail is a regional gem and area of vast historical and cultural significance.

Because of light refraction, carp below the water’s surface are not where they appear. A bowfisherman must aim low.

Note the arrow in flight.

THERE I STOOD, doing my best to imitate a tree trunk as my quarry approached. With my bow in one hand and release in the other I slowly and deliberately shifted my feet in preparation for a shot.

When my target reached a predetermined location, I drew my bow in one smooth motion and triggered the release. The arrow traveled true and the prey was mine.

The subject of this hunt was not a big whitetail buck, nor was it a deer at all. It was in fact, a lowly carp, a rather homely fish imported from Europe many years ago. And the location of that hunt was not a deep forest but a flood woodland meadow along the Mississippi River. However, as any bowfisherman will tell you, the thrill of the hunt and intensity felt at the moment of truth was diminished very little just because the quarry had huge ugly lips and scales the size of quarters.

The menial carp, besides being ugly, is also destructive. Its style of feeding, rooting around on the bottom, muddies the water of our lakes and rivers and causes algae blooms that reduces light penetration, thus destroying weed growth beneficial to waterfowl and other fish species such as bass and panfish.

The sport of bowfishing has increased in popularity in recent years because bowhunters are looking for hunting opportunities beyond the fall deer season.

It is when carp are busy perpetuating the species that

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they become most vulnerable to the archer. Carp are normally very wary but females in a spawning mood will usually be accompanied by a half dozen male suitors whose minds are on one thing, and the fish can often be approached quite easily as they pursue their underwater activities. At peak spawning time (late May to mid-June), the water can literally be boiling with carp and the fish are often heard splashing and rolling before they are seen.

Equipment list

Bowfishing requires very little equipment.

There are, however, a few essential items you will need. Besides a bow, of course, the sport requires a special arrow, generally made of solid fiberglass or solid aluminum. These heavy arrows, tipped with a barbed fishing An arrow point used for point, are needed to penetrate the water and bowfishing should be durable thick scales of large fish. and easy to operate like the

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Help Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Inspect your boat, trailer, and equipment and remove visible aquatic plants, zebra mussels, and other animals before leaving a water access.

Drain water from the bait container, livewell, bilge, and transom wells before leaving a water access.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

Spray/dry your boat, trailer, and equipment before going to another water body.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

Garpoon (above).

West

Photos provided by Bill Marchel

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Glossy_Spring

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PLUS MOR E! • Early Seas on Crap pies By: Dave • Take Your Csanda Camera for a Walk • Memory By: Carolyn Lane: The Corbett Reluctant • Dr. Lund Angler ’s Natural By: Mike Recipes Bialka

BY: BILL

MARCHEL

WOODd in this issue DUCK WATCH Feature

Issue 1

• Editio n2

Jeff Kidder

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lakes make it interesting,” John Awsumb said. “There is nothing quite like carving the fresh tracks at dawn or dusk on your favorite lake. I especially like the fact that it is so close to the Twin Cities.” And the Awsumbs are not alone because it seems like there are more water-skiers than ever during the past decade of summers on our popular lakes.

“The market has been changing for the past six or seven years,” according to Teresa Berg, manager of Martin’s Sport Shop in Nisswa. If you thought that wakeboarding and knee boarding have completely taken the place of water-skiing, you are sadly misinformed.

“The new design and shape have revitalized the sport,” said Berg. “Water-ski manufacturers mimicked a trend from snow ski makers, by changing to a style that is wider at the top and therefore less stressful on the upper body. It’s easier for kids and first-timers to get up and learn the sport,” she said. Higher-end hinged bindings also make it easier to get in and get out of the ski.

Maybe you fall into the category of those who used to ski back in the day, but gave it up because of muscle strain. “Older skiers can get back in the game with this new design.” The revolutionized shape “allows more mature skiers to ski longer and more often,” Berg said.

Manufacturers have made it better for the smaller ones too. “Kids can ski more safely now. It’s optional to have a bar to hold the skis together so they don’t crisscross and two handled ropes are also available. Young skiers will fall and often tend to keep holding onto the rope, while being dragged and risking injury. With the two-handled rope, a parent can drop the other end so the child won’t be dragged.” If those had been around when I first learned to ski, maybe I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water as I held on too long.

Perhaps you’re wondering what type of ski is best for you. Buy the equipment that is best suited to meet your needs and ability. Are you a beginner or do you have years of skiing experience? It makes a huge difference when considering an equipment purchase. Many beginners use a “combo pair” — basic skis made of wood or fiberglass. The size you use depends on your weight and the speed you prefer to ski. More experienced skiers may advance to ski “slalom” — using only one ski.

Dispatch sports writer Troy Gunderson’s four-year old daughter Noelle shows off the sun fish caught with her Barbie fishing pole at the end of the dock at grandma and grandpa’s cabin while on a weeklong summer vacation in 2006.

IS IT TRUE THAT LIFE IS BETTER AT THE LAKE? I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but when the snow turns into a distant memory and the mercury rises to the point where short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops become standard dress, my thoughts turn to the lake and my parents’ cabin.

Some people prefer to play on white sand beaches in the Bahamas. I’ll take the homemade beach and makeshift waterslide off the dock any day.

Some people like to go on chartered, deep-sea fishing expeditions. Give me a shovel, an old Folgers coffee can to collect worms and I’ve got an afternoon of catching sunnies off the end of the dock with my daughter.

Some people like the bright lights and non-stop action of Las Vegas. I prefer the snap, crackle, pop and soft illumination of a campfire and the quiet still of the evening.

Yes, my parents’ cabin is my summer oasis. It’s a small cabin on a small lake a little north of Grand Rapids and for the past four years the cabin has been summer destination No. 1 for me, my wife and two daughters.

Each summer we take a week off over the Fourth of July holiday and head north. One of the best feelings in the world is pulling into the driveway, seeing the cabin and knowing your vacation has started.

When my parents bought their summer retreat eight years ago the cabin was nothing more than an old, tiny, one-room cabin that was transplanted from a resort. For seven of those years we used an outhouse, which my mom had to sweep cobwebs and spiders out of before my wife would use. We also had to bring in drinking water since there was no running water.

Luckily, my dad is an excellent carpenter and the list of building projects for the cabin was quickly compiled.

First a screened-in porch and a deck was built. Next my dad added two bedrooms and a bathroom. A living room with a sliding glass door to the deck and windows overlooking the lake followed.

In one bedroom are bunkbeds for the grandkids and in the other room are two homemade log beds for mom and dad. There’s now running water, making the outhouse (thankfully) obsolete.

In eight short years we’ve gone from roughing it to having all the creature comforts of home, including air conditioning, a TV and a DVD player.

Of course when it comes to vacationing at the cabin, one of the most meticulously planned items is the menu. In that one week we probably eat better (and more) than we do at any other time of the summer.

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Skiing slalom is more physically demanding and there are a wide range of sizes and types available by various manufacturers.

Whether you’re just considering taking up the sport or are a seasoned semi-professional, safety should still come first. The place to start is equipment when it comes to playing it safe. Always wear a flotation device that fits properly. It’s recommended to wear a Type III U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device if at all possible. And be thankful that you live in Minnesota. Even though the winters are sometimes long and it seems like you have to wait forever before summer is here again, at least you don’t have to worry about alligators cutting in front of you when you’re out skiing the lakes.

L I S A D I C K I N S O N is a freelance writer and native of South Carolina who is eagerly anticipating her fourth sumer of outdoor recreation along the Mississippi River near Brainerd. Her passions include family, screenwriting, mountain biking, socializing, trailblazing and issues of global importance.

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6

Getting Down to the Root of the Problem

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” When fishing weedbeds for walleyes, you can beat the weeds with a variety or lures, baits and tactics; but if you can’t make your lures either slash through the outer fringe or slip between the stalks, your lure becomes entangled. There’s nothing worse than pitching into a weedbed full of walleyes and coming back with green instead of gold.

The key is to slip and slither, tickle and touch your way through the foliage without undue snagging. Or to nip and tuck just enough of the fringes to break cleanly through the outer fronds and fibers, sending your jig, crankbait or spinner exploding like a panicked minnow in flight for its life. If being a weed sneak doesn’t do it for you, then going on a tear sometimes will.

Weeds are the natural lake equivalents of wood cover in reservoirs, with one major distinction: weeds are continually changing, rather than static. They sprout, they flourish, they thicken — sometimes to a perfect degree for use by walleyes and other gamefish and sometimes growing too thick to permit fish usage. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, and fish leave for, dare we say it, greener pastures?

Some weed types grow only in the shallows.

Others sprout considerably deeper, making them better candidates for more than occasional walleye use. In most northern natural lake environments, tall stalks of leafy cabbage, and thicker, bushier fronds of coontail are your predominant weeds for walleyes.

Fish also may relate to sand grass (chara) — a low-growing carpet that sprouts both shallower and deeper than the taller, standing weed types. Emergent reeds and cane draw feeding walleyes in the shallows, and are prime fishing locales in fertile, darker-water prairie or farm-country waters.

There’s no saying that you should just fish one or two weed types just because they’re easier to fish than others. Remember — fish ‘em where they live, when they live there.

Weeds keep changing and evolving throughout the year. When they’re right, they attract plenty of baitfish and forage. When they’re not, the fish leave. By mid-fall, for example, most shallow weeds begin dying and lose their cluster and luster. When this occurs, the remaining outer stands of deepest green weeds rimming the basin become the seasonal finale of weed-related activity. It’s always THERE’S AN OLD SAYING, “If you

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T r o y

L a k e s learned it was much more pleasurable to ski on a lake in Minnesota where there was no need to worry about being bitten or eaten by “critters” in the water so I could enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors.

Skiing on the lakes “up north” is incomparable to anywhere else, according to a Twin Cities family. John and Jennifer Awsumb, and their three children, Natalie, Nico and Hannah, come up frequently from the cities to enjoy their cabin and play on the waters of Bass Lake.

Located just north of Merrifield, it is known among locals as Turkey Bass, to differentiate it from the other similarly named lakes in the area. John has fond memories of water-skiing with his family as he was growing up. His father is the late Roger Awsumb, who many may remember as “Casey Jones” from several Twin-Cities based television shows in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

“The waters of the Brainerd lakes area are a waterskier’s paradise. The abundance of quiet bays and small

T R O Y G U N D E R S O N , sports writer, may be reached at troy.gunderson@ brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5865.

Shish kabobs, steaks, hamburgers, brats and my special marinated pork chops are the usual cabin fare.

I became used to cabin living when I was younger and some of my best memories include the annual week of vacation my family took at my grandparents’ cabin, which they owned for a number of decades, on Big Lake near Cloquet.

Now that was rustic lake living. There was, of course, an outhouse and no running water. In fact the only water available was via a hand pump that we shared with the cabin next to us. And the only TV we had there was (gasp!) black and white.

When my two older brothers and I weren’t swimming we were water-skiing and tubing, or playing army on the hill behind the cabin. One of my favorite things to do was to take the small sailboat out with one of my brothers and flip it over in the middle of the lake.

We’d then have to swim around to the rudder and pull it back down in order to get the mast out of the water and the boat upright.

There was also the small fishing boat with the 6-horsepower motor we’d take out fishing. My brothers and I often headed over to the bay across the lake to fish for sunnies and one morning we caught enough keepers for a fish fry.

But my grandparents’ cabin was on American Indian land and was to be repossessed. My grandma was given until 2000 to either sell the cabin or hand it over. Sadly, she ended up selling it.

The loss of my grandparents’ cabin was one of the main reasons my parents bought theirs. They saw how many memories my brothers and I had made and they wanted a place where their grandkids could make their own memories.

Memories like watching the kids get up on skis for the first time or that first sunfish caught at the end of the dock.

Memories of the beanbag toss tournaments and all the bragging that goes along with them. And memories of our annual family get-together called Tent City in which 25 people camp out for three days of fun.

Memories of fireworks exploding over the lake at dusk on the Fourth of July or of stories told around the campfire and s’mores made with peanut butter.

So, is life truly better at the lake? You bet it is.

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Hands-on casting tactics

I enjoy fishing weed walleyes with a hands-on approach, meaning by casting to them, most of the time.

Actually, I’m casting to, working and interpreting the weed growth. By biting, walleyes let me know where, when and how I’m doing it correctly.

In most instances, I use about 6-foot-6-inch medium Shimano spinning gear spooled with 8-to 10-poundtest monofilament. The line must be soft and flexible enough to cast small lightweight lures, yet sufficiently tough and durable to withstand the continual punishment of weed contact. Berkley Tri-Maxx has sufficient power for hook-setting and fighting fish up and out of the weeds, and facilitates an upward wrist snap when I want to break my lure free from the growth. This simple yet critical maneuver makes all the difference between a clean and efficient system, and continually uprooting the jungle in frustration.

• Jigs: Lightweight round jigs are easily my favorite tactic for this approach. I can tip a 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jighead with a live minnow or softbait imitation, pitch it into the weeds, and expect to get bit if walleyes are present.

As a small open-hook jig settles onto the weeds, it hangs up just enough to help sense the type and thickness of the growth when I raise the rod tip to put a little pressure on the line. If the jig doesn’t slide free under tension, then give your rod a firm upward wrist-snap; all but the thickest, softest weeds should break, sending your jig gliding. When the jig runs out of momentum, it then slowly sinks like a wounded minnow. This panicvulnerability sequence is a real trigger in most conditions. Note, however, that it works best with lighter jigs that don’t plunge and bury in the weeds.

Some weeds, like dense coontail, may simply be too dense and spongy to fish with an open-hook jig; you consistently foul the jig and uproot the stalk, rather than being able to snap and cleanly break it. In this event, switch to a weedless jig like a Lindy Veg-E-Jig, which features a pointed nose to more easily slip between weeds; a light wire weedguard to protect the hook point; and a sufficiently stout hook to allow you to heave-ho and haul a walleye up and out of the growth.

Don’t fight walleyes down at the base of a weed clump, or you won’t get ‘em out. Stick ‘em hard, and in the first

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AT AGE 7, I learned to water-ski with my cousins back east on the Black River, not too far away from the South Carolina coast.

Those were good times, enjoying family picnics on “the hill” (as we referred to the shore), followed by a requirement by my mother to wait at least 30 minutes after eating before returning to the water. A half-hour seemed like an eternity in those days and then it was back in the water.

Occasionally there weren’t enough cousins around, so I was allowed to drive the boat that pulled a skier. When I was behind the boat, invariably there were occasions where I crossed paths with a water moccasin (species of snake) or a stealthy alligator lurking nearby in the dark water. Several years and many miles later, I

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a good idea to avoid dead or dying weed growth, and instead focus on the best available weed habitat at that stage of the season.

You can run your boat over deep weedbeds to get a good idea of their health while viewing them with your electronics or an Aqua-Vu underwater camera. But in the end, there’s no substitute for a hands-on approach.

Cast into a weedbed, interpret what you feel, and see what you bring back draped on your lure. If it’s green and healthy, not too thick yet not too thin, and lying at the right depth, it indicates a good candidate area for hosting walleyes in the weeds.

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few seconds, try to lift and move fish a few feet outside before they know what hit ‘em. Then fight them in relatively open water.

• Jig spinners: In recent years, jig spinners resembling the original Johnson Beetle Spin have experienced a rebirth in walleye circles, largely through the efforts of tournament anglers fishing weeds or shallow shoreline cover. Simply clip a small bent-wire-arm spinner onto the eye of your favorite jig, add a 3- to 4-inch softbait or livebait to spice up the combo, and work it much like a jig. The added flash and vibration, and slower drop speed due to the water resistance of the spinning blade, make it an ideal weed combo and helps minimize snags to boot. Cast it, swim it, pause it to helicopter slowly downward before pumping the rod tip and surging it upward again.

• Fancasting cranks: Despite the common fear of snagging treble hooks in weed growth, crankbaits are among your best casting lures for covering extensive weed flats. Providing, of course, that you select the proper lure shape, action and, most important, running depth to match the height and thickness of the weeds. Ideally, you want the bait to run just deep enough to brush and rustle the tops of the highest strands, hanging up only occasionally, yet not so firmly as to prevent a wrist-snap from freeing the bait. Nothing’s worse than choosing a lure that runs too deep, continually plowing the fields.

You’re far better off using a lure that runs slightly shallower; walleyes tend to hit free-running crankbaits better than bass do, although there’s no doubt that occasionally touching the cover ensures that the lure is in the fish zone.

Mimic the hatch when casting cranks for walleyes. It might be long, thin minnow imitators to match shiners, or Shad Raps to match shad or perch. In general, something narrower and subtler than you’d choose for bass.

Match lure colors and patterns to both water clarity and forage type, using something visible. It’s OK to err on the brighter side with clown or fire tiger in darker water; walleyes routinely hit shades of orange, yellow and chartreuse in low-visibility conditions.

Suspending lures like Husky Jerks are among your best baits if you can run them cleanly above the weed tops.

If not, stick to lures that float back up when paused. I like Rapala’s high-flotation balsa construction for that purpose, and for their subtle wiggles during slow, fairly steady retrieves. It’s OK to pump and pause crankbaits occasionally, but don’t overdo it. You definitely don’t have to pound and deflect them off cover when fishing for walleyes, whereas bass often prefer erratic changes of lure speed and direction.

If you need to cast lightweight balsa baits a bit farther, or rip the weed tops more effectively, switch to no-stretch Berkley FireLine. This is particularly true when casting lures along the edges of deep weedlines, or plunging them down into lanes between clumps.

Dave

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As you can see, there are many different ways to fish weeds for walleyes. I prefer hands-on casting techniques, most of the time, when the fish are up inside the weeds, extending out toward an edge. Even near a distinct edge, there are usually subtle variations like pockets and lanes, thicker or higher clumps, or changes in weed type or density that you’d otherwise miss if you didn’t probe the growth and feel them for yourself. And where a weed edge is sparse and variable, every cast is a lesson in adjustment and interpretation — moving in or out, shallower or deeper, modifying retrieves or switching lure styles. Pay attention and you’ll catch more walleyes than with a simple straightforward trolling approach.

When walleyes relate heavily to a distinct outer (deeper) weed edge, the odds begin tipping toward a livebait rigging presentation. If they’re positioned along, just inside, or slightly outside the weeds, you don’t need to waste time casting to them. Just slowly troll a bait past their noses, tickling the fringe of the weed growth from time to time to ensure you’re in the fish zone. It’s still a hands-on approach to maximize feel and interpretation; it’s just more efficient to keep your bait down there working for you 100 percent of the time.

The Brainerd lakes area is blessed with a number of Minnesota’s finest weed walleye fisheries. Large lakes like Mille Lacs, Gull, Pelican, the Whitefish Chain, North Long, Shamineau and Alexander all have large, shallow weed flats that burst into full bloom in midJune. These host plenty of walleyes that most anglers miss.

Smaller waters like South Long, Crow Wing, Platte, Sullivan, Hubert, Edward, Pine Mountain, Fish Trap, Bay, Farm Island or Serpent all host excellent stocked walleye opportunities where fishing emerging weeds play a key role in summer success. And when you head west toward Ottertail, Alexandria, Perham and Park Rapids, you enter a region of smaller fertile, stocked lakes where weed walleyes are often the predominant summer pattern. In short, if you don’t fish weeds in summer, you’re not on the fish.

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version to present a grub, minnow or shorter bait than a crawler, simply for efficiency. This is one instance where a 3- or 4-inch Gulp! Minnow or Minnow Grub definitely shines. It combines shape, color, scent, taste and action when trolled behind a No. 2 or No. 3 spinner blade. And best of all, it’s durable and will withstand the incessant tugs of both weeds and nuisance panfish.

T H E I D E A L T I M E TO

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28

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27

Weeds

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Tickling

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All the aforementioned tactics are geared to probe into and above weeds to some degree, particularly around pockets, openings and lanes. Where weeds form a dense, fairly straight and consistent edge, however, trolling may become a better option. Especially along the deep outer edge bordering a dropoff to deeper water.

The easiest way to tickle the weed fringe while trolling is to use a bullet sinker livebait rig with a short snell and weedless hook. The pointed sinker slithers between sparse stalks, the short (say, 15-inch) snell doesn’t wrap around weeds like a longer one would, and the hook point is protected from grabbing and snagging the greenery. Tip it with a leech, minnow or crawler in sparse weeds, or switch to a Power Bait or Gulp! minnow, crawler or other livebait imitator when the weeds are thick or tough enough to play havoc with livebait.

Troll slowly along with your electric motor, parallel to the weedline, moving slightly in or out of the edge, using your sense of feel to alternately touch and rub, then slip and slide back outside.

You also can use one of Lindy’s No Snagg Center Slip Sinkers for this approach. It’s more weedless than a traditional walking sinker, and will writhe between sparse weed stalks, trailing the bait along behind. Or, to fish slightly outside the fringe, switch to a regular No Snagg sinker that stands more upright and taps along bottom.

In this more open water, you have the option to use a plain hook, a weedless hook, or a floating jighead tipped with livebait. If there’s a carpet of low-lying sand grass adjacent to the taller standing weeds, a floating jighead will position your bait up above the sand grass, reducing snags while keeping the bait visible at all times.

Want more speed? Substitute a small spinner and short snell for the single hook in any of the above presentations. Most of the time, I’d go with a single hook

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When you want to keep your lures up and above cover, however, mono has more water resistance, makes lures run shallower and is usually a better choice.

• Casting slip bobbers: Sometimes, weeds are just too thick to penetrate, and you must fish above the cover or along the edges and draw fish out to the bait. The slow, dangling presentation of a slip bobber and livebait may be the answer. Floating bogs in Wisconsin and Michigan flowages are a good example; the fish tuck under the mass of buoyant vegetation, but a slip bobber leech cast to the edge and paused there may lure them out for a look-see.

Slip bobbers also are great for fishing above thick weedbeds that don’t reach the surface. The key is suspending the bait at or just above the level of the highest stalks. Cast out and let the bobber drift across potential weed flats. Pockets of hard bottom forming weed-free holes in weedbeds are prime spots. At night, anchor and fancast lighted floats across sand grass or coontail flats for walleyes cruising the shallows. The outer edges of reedbeds are candidates as well.

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When you want to keep your lures up and above cover, however, mono has more water resistance, makes lures run shallower and is usually a better choice.

• Casting slip bobbers: Sometimes, weeds are just too thick to penetrate, and you must fish above the cover or along the edges and draw fish out to the bait. The slow, dangling presentation of a slip bobber and livebait may be the answer. Floating bogs in Wisconsin and Michigan flowages are a good example; the fish tuck under the mass of buoyant vegetation, but a slip bobber leech cast to the edge and paused there may lure them out for a look-see.

Slip bobbers also are great for fishing above thick weedbeds that don’t reach the surface. The key is suspending the bait at or just above the level of the highest stalks. Cast out and let the bobber drift across potential weed flats. Pockets of hard bottom forming weed-free holes in weedbeds are prime spots. At night, anchor and fancast lighted floats across sand grass or coontail flats for walleyes cruising the shallows. The outer edges of reedbeds are candidates as well.

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version to present a grub, minnow or shorter bait than a crawler, simply for efficiency. This is one instance where a 3- or 4-inch Gulp! Minnow or Minnow Grub definitely shines. It combines shape, color, scent, taste and action when trolled behind a No. 2 or No. 3 spinner blade. And best of all, it’s durable and will withstand the incessant tugs of both weeds and nuisance panfish.

Perennial persuasion

As you can see, there are many different ways to fish weeds for walleyes. I prefer hands-on casting techniques, most of the time, when the fish are up inside the weeds, extending out toward an edge. Even near a distinct edge, there are usually subtle variations like pockets and lanes, thicker or higher clumps, or changes in weed type or density that you’d otherwise miss if you didn’t probe the growth and feel them for yourself. And where a weed edge is sparse and variable, every cast is a lesson in adjustment and interpretation — moving in or out, shallower or deeper, modifying retrieves or switching lure styles. Pay attention and you’ll catch more walleyes than with a simple straightforward trolling approach.

When walleyes relate heavily to a distinct outer (deeper) weed edge, the odds begin tipping toward a livebait rigging presentation. If they’re positioned along, just inside, or slightly outside the weeds, you don’t need to waste time casting to them. Just slowly troll a bait past their noses, tickling the fringe of the weed growth from time to time to ensure you’re in the fish zone. It’s still a hands-on approach to maximize feel and interpretation; it’s just more efficient to keep your bait down there working for you 100 percent of the time.

The Brainerd lakes area is blessed with a number of Minnesota’s finest weed walleye fisheries. Large lakes like Mille Lacs, Gull, Pelican, the Whitefish Chain, North Long, Shamineau and Alexander all have large, shallow weed flats that burst into full bloom in midJune. These host plenty of walleyes that most anglers miss.

Smaller waters like South Long, Crow Wing, Platte, Sullivan, Hubert, Edward, Pine Mountain, Fish Trap, Bay, Farm Island or Serpent all host excellent stocked walleye opportunities where fishing emerging weeds play a key role in summer success. And when you head west toward Ottertail, Alexandria, Perham and Park Rapids, you enter a region of smaller fertile, stocked lakes where weed walleyes are often the predominant summer pattern. In short, if you don’t fish weeds in summer, you’re not on the fish.

22

24th Annual Fishing Classic

Bean Hole Days and Arts & Crafts Fair

11

+ - ,!"+- After 28 years as a magazine editor and TV angler at In-Fisherman, D A V E C S A N D A recently rejoined his old friends at Lindner Media, producers of Angling Edge Television, in Baxter.

16

Hospice Charity Event

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9

7

All the aforementioned tactics are geared to probe into and above weeds to some degree, particularly around pockets, openings and lanes. Where weeds form a dense, fairly straight and consistent edge, however, trolling may become a better option. Especially along the deep outer edge bordering a dropoff to deeper water.

The easiest way to tickle the weed fringe while trolling is to use a bullet sinker livebait rig with a short snell and weedless hook. The pointed sinker slithers between sparse stalks, the short (say, 15-inch) snell doesn’t wrap around weeds like a longer one would, and the hook point is protected from grabbing and snagging the greenery. Tip it with a leech, minnow or crawler in sparse weeds, or switch to a Power Bait or Gulp! minnow, crawler or other livebait imitator when the weeds are thick or tough enough to play havoc with livebait.

Troll slowly along with your electric motor, parallel to the weedline, moving slightly in or out of the edge, using your sense of feel to alternately touch and rub, then slip and slide back outside.

You also can use one of Lindy’s No Snagg Center Slip Sinkers for this approach. It’s more weedless than a traditional walking sinker, and will writhe between sparse weed stalks, trailing the bait along behind. Or, to fish slightly outside the fringe, switch to a regular No Snagg sinker that stands more upright and taps along bottom.

In this more open water, you have the option to use a plain hook, a weedless hook, or a floating jighead tipped with livebait. If there’s a carpet of low-lying sand grass adjacent to the taller standing weeds, a floating jighead will position your bait up above the sand grass, reducing snags while keeping the bait visible at all times.

Want more speed? Substitute a small spinner and short snell for the single hook in any of the above presentations. Most of the time, I’d go with a single hook

15 Deadline for Moose Hunt Application 34th Annual Golf Classic

Bracket Race - BIR

8

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Summer

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30 Sour Grapes Marathon Cuyuna Woodtick Races

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Take a Kid Fishing Weekend June 8-10

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Pine River Duck Races

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JULY

Walleyes

28

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Weeds

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Muskie Opener NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing June 2-4

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BREAK FREE! * 5.99 Tickling

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Wednesday Night Street Drag - BIR Turtle Races

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1

FUELING

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8th Annual Show & Shine Car Show

Turtle Races

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Turtle Races Wednesday Night Street Drag - BIR

17

Turtle Races

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218-568-6995 www.wildwedge.com Issue 1

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WOODd in this issue DUCK WATCH

PLUS MOR E! • Early Seas on Crap pies By: Dave • Take Your Csanda Camera for a Walk • Memory By: Carolyn Lane: The Corbett Reluctant • Dr. Lund Angler ’s Natural By: Mike Recipes Bialka

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a good idea to avoid dead or dying weed growth, and instead focus on the best available weed habitat at that stage of the season.

You can run your boat over deep weedbeds to get a good idea of their health while viewing them with your electronics or an Aqua-Vu underwater camera. But in the end, there’s no substitute for a hands-on approach.

Cast into a weedbed, interpret what you feel, and see what you bring back draped on your lure. If it’s green and healthy, not too thick yet not too thin, and lying at the right depth, it indicates a good candidate area for hosting walleyes in the weeds.

Hands-on casting tactics

I enjoy fishing weed walleyes with a hands-on approach, meaning by casting to them, most of the time.

Actually, I’m casting to, working and interpreting the weed growth. By biting, walleyes let me know where, when and how I’m doing it correctly.

In most instances, I use about 6-foot-6-inch medium Shimano spinning gear spooled with 8-to 10-poundtest monofilament. The line must be soft and flexible enough to cast small lightweight lures, yet sufficiently tough and durable to withstand the continual punishment of weed contact. Berkley Tri-Maxx has sufficient power for hook-setting and fighting fish up and out of the weeds, and facilitates an upward wrist snap when I want to break my lure free from the growth. This simple yet critical maneuver makes all the difference between a clean and efficient system, and continually uprooting the jungle in frustration.

• Jigs: Lightweight round jigs are easily my favorite tactic for this approach. I can tip a 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jighead with a live minnow or softbait imitation, pitch it into the weeds, and expect to get bit if walleyes are present.

As a small open-hook jig settles onto the weeds, it hangs up just enough to help sense the type and thickness of the growth when I raise the rod tip to put a little pressure on the line. If the jig doesn’t slide free under tension, then give your rod a firm upward wrist-snap; all but the thickest, softest weeds should break, sending your jig gliding. When the jig runs out of momentum, it then slowly sinks like a wounded minnow. This panicvulnerability sequence is a real trigger in most conditions. Note, however, that it works best with lighter jigs that don’t plunge and bury in the weeds.

Some weeds, like dense coontail, may simply be too dense and spongy to fish with an open-hook jig; you consistently foul the jig and uproot the stalk, rather than being able to snap and cleanly break it. In this event, switch to a weedless jig like a Lindy Veg-E-Jig, which features a pointed nose to more easily slip between weeds; a light wire weedguard to protect the hook point; and a sufficiently stout hook to allow you to heave-ho and haul a walleye up and out of the growth.

Don’t fight walleyes down at the base of a weed clump, or you won’t get ‘em out. Stick ‘em hard, and in the first

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learned it was much more pleasurable to ski on a lake in Minnesota where there was no need to worry about being bitten or eaten by “critters” in the water so I could enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors.

Skiing on the lakes “up north” is incomparable to anywhere else, according to a Twin Cities family. John and Jennifer Awsumb, and their three children, Natalie, Nico and Hannah, come up frequently from the cities to enjoy their cabin and play on the waters of Bass Lake.

Located just north of Merrifield, it is known among locals as Turkey Bass, to differentiate it from the other similarly named lakes in the area. John has fond memories of water-skiing with his family as he was growing up. His father is the late Roger Awsumb, who many may remember as “Casey Jones” from several Twin-Cities based television shows in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

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AT AGE 7, I learned to water-ski with my cousins back east on the Black River, not too far away from the South Carolina coast.

Those were good times, enjoying family picnics on “the hill” (as we referred to the shore), followed by a requirement by my mother to wait at least 30 minutes after eating before returning to the water. A half-hour seemed like an eternity in those days and then it was back in the water.

Occasionally there weren’t enough cousins around, so I was allowed to drive the boat that pulled a skier. When I was behind the boat, invariably there were occasions where I crossed paths with a water moccasin (species of snake) or a stealthy alligator lurking nearby in the dark water. Several years and many miles later, I

ON THE LAKES

Shish kabobs, steaks, hamburgers, brats and my special marinated pork chops are the usual cabin fare.

I became used to cabin living when I was younger and some of my best memories include the annual week of vacation my family took at my grandparents’ cabin, which they owned for a number of decades, on Big Lake near Cloquet.

Now that was rustic lake living. There was, of course, an outhouse and no running water. In fact the only water available was via a hand pump that we shared with the cabin next to us. And the only TV we had there was (gasp!) black and white.

When my two older brothers and I weren’t swimming we were water-skiing and tubing, or playing army on the hill behind the cabin. One of my favorite things to do was to take the small sailboat out with one of my brothers and flip it over in the middle of the lake.

We’d then have to swim around to the rudder and pull it back down in order to get the mast out of the water and the boat upright.

There was also the small fishing boat with the 6-horsepower motor we’d take out fishing. My brothers and I often headed over to the bay across the lake to fish for sunnies and one morning we caught enough keepers for a fish fry.

But my grandparents’ cabin was on American Indian land and was to be repossessed. My grandma was given until 2000 to either sell the cabin or hand it over. Sadly, she ended up selling it.

The loss of my grandparents’ cabin was one of the main reasons my parents bought theirs. They saw how many memories my brothers and I had made and they wanted a place where their grandkids could make their own memories.

Memories like watching the kids get up on skis for the first time or that first sunfish caught at the end of the dock.

Memories of the beanbag toss tournaments and all the bragging that goes along with them. And memories of our annual family get-together called Tent City in which 25 people camp out for three days of fun.

Memories of fireworks exploding over the lake at dusk on the Fourth of July or of stories told around the campfire and s’mores made with peanut butter.

So, is life truly better at the lake? You bet it is.

few seconds, try to lift and move fish a few feet outside before they know what hit ‘em. Then fight them in relatively open water.

• Jig spinners: In recent years, jig spinners resembling the original Johnson Beetle Spin have experienced a rebirth in walleye circles, largely through the efforts of tournament anglers fishing weeds or shallow shoreline cover. Simply clip a small bent-wire-arm spinner onto the eye of your favorite jig, add a 3- to 4-inch softbait or livebait to spice up the combo, and work it much like a jig. The added flash and vibration, and slower drop speed due to the water resistance of the spinning blade, make it an ideal weed combo and helps minimize snags to boot. Cast it, swim it, pause it to helicopter slowly downward before pumping the rod tip and surging it upward again.

• Fancasting cranks: Despite the common fear of snagging treble hooks in weed growth, crankbaits are among your best casting lures for covering extensive weed flats. Providing, of course, that you select the proper lure shape, action and, most important, running depth to match the height and thickness of the weeds. Ideally, you want the bait to run just deep enough to brush and rustle the tops of the highest strands, hanging up only occasionally, yet not so firmly as to prevent a wrist-snap from freeing the bait. Nothing’s worse than choosing a lure that runs too deep, continually plowing the fields.

You’re far better off using a lure that runs slightly shallower; walleyes tend to hit free-running crankbaits better than bass do, although there’s no doubt that occasionally touching the cover ensures that the lure is in the fish zone.

Mimic the hatch when casting cranks for walleyes. It might be long, thin minnow imitators to match shiners, or Shad Raps to match shad or perch. In general, something narrower and subtler than you’d choose for bass.

Match lure colors and patterns to both water clarity and forage type, using something visible. It’s OK to err on the brighter side with clown or fire tiger in darker water; walleyes routinely hit shades of orange, yellow and chartreuse in low-visibility conditions.

Suspending lures like Husky Jerks are among your best baits if you can run them cleanly above the weed tops.

If not, stick to lures that float back up when paused. I like Rapala’s high-flotation balsa construction for that purpose, and for their subtle wiggles during slow, fairly steady retrieves. It’s OK to pump and pause crankbaits occasionally, but don’t overdo it. You definitely don’t have to pound and deflect them off cover when fishing for walleyes, whereas bass often prefer erratic changes of lure speed and direction.

If you need to cast lightweight balsa baits a bit farther, or rip the weed tops more effectively, switch to no-stretch Berkley FireLine. This is particularly true when casting lures along the edges of deep weedlines, or plunging them down into lanes between clumps.

Dave

Photos provided by Dave Csanda

Csanda

7

CMYK

CMYK

Getting Down to the Root of the Problem

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

i n

S u m m e r

THERE’S AN OLD SAYING, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” When fishing weedbeds for walleyes, you can beat the weeds with a variety or lures, baits and tactics; but if you can’t make your lures either slash through the outer fringe or slip between the stalks, your lure becomes entangled. There’s nothing worse than pitching into a weedbed full of walleyes and coming back with green instead of gold.

The key is to slip and slither, tickle and touch your way through the foliage without undue snagging. Or to nip and tuck just enough of the fringes to break cleanly through the outer fronds and fibers, sending your jig, crankbait or spinner exploding like a panicked minnow in flight for its life. If being a weed sneak doesn’t do it for you, then going on a tear sometimes will.

Weeds are the natural lake equivalents of wood cover in reservoirs, with one major distinction: weeds are continually changing, rather than static. They sprout, they flourish, they thicken — sometimes to a perfect degree for use by walleyes and other gamefish and sometimes growing too thick to permit fish usage. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, and fish leave for, dare we say it, greener pastures?

Some weed types grow only in the shallows.

Others sprout considerably deeper, making them better candidates for more than occasional walleye use. In most northern natural lake environments, tall stalks of leafy cabbage, and thicker, bushier fronds of coontail are your predominant weeds for walleyes.

Fish also may relate to sand grass (chara) — a low-growing carpet that sprouts both shallower and deeper than the taller, standing weed types. Emergent reeds and cane draw feeding walleyes in the shallows, and are prime fishing locales in fertile, darker-water prairie or farm-country waters.

There’s no saying that you should just fish one or two weed types just because they’re easier to fish than others. Remember — fish ‘em where they live, when they live there.

Weeds keep changing and evolving throughout the year. When they’re right, they attract plenty of baitfish and forage. When they’re not, the fish leave. By mid-fall, for example, most shallow weeds begin dying and lose their cluster and luster. When this occurs, the remaining outer stands of deepest green weeds rimming the basin become the seasonal finale of weed-related activity. It’s always

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34 M e m o r y

When my parents bought their summer retreat eight years ago the cabin was nothing more than an old, tiny, one-room cabin that was transplanted from a resort. For seven of those years we used an outhouse, which my mom had to sweep cobwebs and spiders out of before my wife would use. We also had to bring in drinking water since there was no running water.

Luckily, my dad is an excellent carpenter and the list of building projects for the cabin was quickly compiled.

First a screened-in porch and a deck was built. Next my dad added two bedrooms and a bathroom. A living room with a sliding glass door to the deck and windows overlooking the lake followed.

In one bedroom are bunkbeds for the grandkids and in the other room are two homemade log beds for mom and dad. There’s now running water, making the outhouse (thankfully) obsolete.

In eight short years we’ve gone from roughing it to having all the creature comforts of home, including air conditioning, a TV and a DVD player.

Of course when it comes to vacationing at the cabin, one of the most meticulously planned items is the menu. In that one week we probably eat better (and more) than we do at any other time of the summer.

W e e d s

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but when the snow turns into a distant memory and the mercury rises to the point where short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops become standard dress, my thoughts turn to the lake and my parents’ cabin.

Some people prefer to play on white sand beaches in the Bahamas. I’ll take the homemade beach and makeshift waterslide off the dock any day.

Some people like to go on chartered, deep-sea fishing expeditions. Give me a shovel, an old Folgers coffee can to collect worms and I’ve got an afternoon of catching sunnies off the end of the dock with my daughter.

Some people like the bright lights and non-stop action of Las Vegas. I prefer the snap, crackle, pop and soft illumination of a campfire and the quiet still of the evening.

Yes, my parents’ cabin is my summer oasis. It’s a small cabin on a small lake a little north of Grand Rapids and for the past four years the cabin has been summer destination No. 1 for me, my wife and two daughters.

Each summer we take a week off over the Fourth of July holiday and head north. One of the best feelings in the world is pulling into the driveway, seeing the cabin and knowing your vacation has started.

Skiing slalom is more physically demanding and there are a wide range of sizes and types available by various manufacturers.

Whether you’re just considering taking up the sport or are a seasoned semi-professional, safety should still come first. The place to start is equipment when it comes to playing it safe. Always wear a flotation device that fits properly. It’s recommended to wear a Type III U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device if at all possible. And be thankful that you live in Minnesota. Even though the winters are sometimes long and it seems like you have to wait forever before summer is here again, at least you don’t have to worry about alligators cutting in front of you when you’re out skiing the lakes.

L I S A D I C K I N S O N is a freelance writer and native of South Carolina who is eagerly anticipating her fourth sumer of outdoor recreation along the Mississippi River near Brainerd. Her passions include family, screenwriting, mountain biking, socializing, trailblazing and issues of global importance.

• Flooring • Window Treatments • Wall Coverings • Kitchens • Bathrooms • Custom Cabinetry Photos provided by Lisa Dickinson

T i c k l i n g

IS IT TRUE THAT LIFE IS BETTER AT THE LAKE?

6

Dispatch sports writer Troy Gunderson’s four-year old daughter Noelle shows off the sun fish caught with her Barbie fishing pole at the end of the dock at grandma and grandpa’s cabin while on a weeklong summer vacation in 2006.

lakes make it interesting,” John Awsumb said. “There is nothing quite like carving the fresh tracks at dawn or dusk on your favorite lake. I especially like the fact that it is so close to the Twin Cities.” And the Awsumbs are not alone because it seems like there are more water-skiers than ever during the past decade of summers on our popular lakes.

“The market has been changing for the past six or seven years,” according to Teresa Berg, manager of Martin’s Sport Shop in Nisswa. If you thought that wakeboarding and knee boarding have completely taken the place of water-skiing, you are sadly misinformed.

“The new design and shape have revitalized the sport,” said Berg. “Water-ski manufacturers mimicked a trend from snow ski makers, by changing to a style that is wider at the top and therefore less stressful on the upper body. It’s easier for kids and first-timers to get up and learn the sport,” she said. Higher-end hinged bindings also make it easier to get in and get out of the ski.

Maybe you fall into the category of those who used to ski back in the day, but gave it up because of muscle strain. “Older skiers can get back in the game with this new design.” The revolutionized shape “allows more mature skiers to ski longer and more often,” Berg said.

Manufacturers have made it better for the smaller ones too. “Kids can ski more safely now. It’s optional to have a bar to hold the skis together so they don’t crisscross and two handled ropes are also available. Young skiers will fall and often tend to keep holding onto the rope, while being dragged and risking injury. With the two-handled rope, a parent can drop the other end so the child won’t be dragged.” If those had been around when I first learned to ski, maybe I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water as I held on too long.

Perhaps you’re wondering what type of ski is best for you. Buy the equipment that is best suited to meet your needs and ability. Are you a beginner or do you have years of skiing experience? It makes a huge difference when considering an equipment purchase. Many beginners use a “combo pair” — basic skis made of wood or fiberglass. The size you use depends on your weight and the speed you prefer to ski. More experienced skiers may advance to ski “slalom” — using only one ski.

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Water Skiing on the Lakes .......................10 Tickling Weeds for Walleyes in Summer ...6 Welcome .....................................................3

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Equipment list

Bowfishing requires very little equipment.

There are, however, a few essential items you will need. Besides a bow, of course, the sport requires a special arrow, generally made of solid fiberglass or solid aluminum. These heavy arrows, tipped with a barbed fishing An arrow point used for point, are needed to penetrate the water and bowfishing should be durable thick scales of large fish. and easy to operate like the Garpoon (above).

Photos provided by Bill Marchel

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they become most vulnerable to the archer. Carp are normally very wary but females in a spawning mood will usually be accompanied by a half dozen male suitors whose minds are on one thing, and the fish can often be approached quite easily as they pursue their underwater activities. At peak spawning time (late May to mid-June), the water can literally be boiling with carp and the fish are often heard splashing and rolling before they are seen.

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218-575-2086 THERE I STOOD, doing my best to imitate a tree trunk as my quarry approached. With my bow in one hand and release in the other I slowly and deliberately shifted my feet in preparation for a shot.

When my target reached a predetermined location, I drew my bow in one smooth motion and triggered the release. The arrow traveled true and the prey was mine.

The subject of this hunt was not a big whitetail buck, nor was it a deer at all. It was in fact, a lowly carp, a rather homely fish imported from Europe many years ago. And the location of that hunt was not a deep forest but a flood woodland meadow along the Mississippi River. However, as any bowfisherman will tell you, the thrill of the hunt and intensity felt at the moment of truth was diminished very little just because the quarry had huge ugly lips and scales the size of quarters.

The menial carp, besides being ugly, is also destructive. Its style of feeding, rooting around on the bottom, muddies the water of our lakes and rivers and causes algae blooms that reduces light penetration, thus destroying weed growth beneficial to waterfowl and other fish species such as bass and panfish.

The sport of bowfishing has increased in popularity in recent years because bowhunters are looking for hunting opportunities beyond the fall deer season.

It is when carp are busy perpetuating the species that

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Because of light refraction, carp below the water’s surface are not where they appear. A bowfisherman must aim low.

Note the arrow in flight.

12

40 S e r v i c e

CARP ON A STRING

Continued from page 23 This is considered a backcountry camping location and should be used only by experienced canoe campers.

Around the bend, hikers will find Huntersville Forest. The campsite is a popular local swimming area and provides many trails. The area was known to Ojibwe Indians as “Hunter’s Paradise.” The multitude of whitetail deer and ruffed grouse make this apparent.

Anderson’s Crossing was founded by a pioneer homesteader on two converging Indian trails. The 113 acres give plenty of space for camping and hiking. The Butterfield rapids begin along this stretch of the river and give listeners a babbling symphony to accompany their picnics. The rapids are not severe and can be fun for swimming and wading.

On the high banks of Little White Dog, visitors are given an excellent lookout point to view the river and surrounding area. Once used by Native Americans for religious ceremonies, it was formerly called Little Round Hill.

Among the more accessible sites is Cottingham Park.

This boat landing and canoe landing has tarred road access. A hiking trail leads to the next campsite along the canoe trail and is known is for its wildflowers and birds.

Bullard Bluff Campsite is one of the more secluded campsites on the canoe route. It was once known as Hog Haven because of the many wild pigs that lived and thrived in the oak groves of the area.

Just four miles to the south are the Indian mounds.

Although camping and fires are not permitted here, it is an interesting and beautiful point of observation for hiking and resting.

At Old Wadena County Park visitors can see the site of the first farm and post office in Wadena County. The Old Red River Ox Cart Trail goes through the site. The entire area, including the Old Wadena District, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hikers and campers will find rustic camping facilities and several hiking trails.

The last of the sites on the Crow Wing Canoe Trail is McGivern Park. The river continues to Brainerd from here and into Crow Wing State Park. The site shows many signs of the struggle, including rifle pits and lookouts. Picnic tables, a small shelter and a rifle range are available to visitors.

Whether people come looking for seclusion, encounters with wildlife, the sights and sounds of migrating birds and wildflowers or the challenge of canoe camping on one of Minnesota’s finest rivers, the Crow Wing River Canoe Trail is a regional gem and area of vast historical and cultural significance.

Donahue Harley-Davidson Buell Shop of Brainerd As if you needed a reason to come by. See the latest motorcycles, MotorClothes® Merchandise and Genuine Motor Parts and Accessories, schedule your bike for service, or maybe rent a bike for the day, week, or weekend.

Donahue Harley Davidson Buell 15808 Edgewood Dr. Baxter, MN 56425 (888)-883-4434

Help Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Inspect your boat, trailer,

and equipment and remove visible aquatic plants, zebra mussels, and other animals before leaving a water access.

Drain water from the bait container, livewell, bilge, and transom wells before leaving a water access.

of unwanted bait Dispose in the trash. your boat, Spray/dry trailer, and equipment

before going to another water body.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

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Eye spy

These three-winged things, though, are just an introduction to the insect world. There are moths, mayflies, crickets and spiders. There are bees and beetles, wasps and ants. There are aphids, grasshoppers, katydids, cicadas, roaches, flies and all manner of other flying, crawling and creeping critters.

Move s-l-o-w-l-y toward a flighty subject. Sudden jerky motions are a no-no. If your shadow falls on the little fellow, it likely will consider you a potential predator. Insects know only half of the fight-orflight formula, try not to put yourself between the sun and the subject.

Take your first picture as you approach and continue shooting as you move in for a fly’s eye view, as your subject suddenly flitter off. The good news? Butterflies often return to the same flower or one nearby. Take lots of shots. Take lots and lots of shots. Take lots of ... you get it, right?

RP A NG

Getting down and dirty

‘Dragons & Damsels’

Though similar in appearance, the damselfly is smaller and more delicate than a dragonfly. A primary identifying factor is how it hold its wings while at rest. A dragonfly holds its wings perpendicular to its body; a damselfly holds its wings behind itself and parallel to the body. Adult “dragons and damsels� are generally found near lakes, rivers and streams and nymphs (immature bugs) live in the water.

Dragonflies have a propensity to pick a perch and stay put. They are able to fly vertically and backward, hover like helicopters and turn abruptly in the midst of flight.

Their large eyes nearly cover their heads. In fact, with their acute vision, in-flight acrobatics and reputation for hearty appetites, dragonflies are considered the most fearsome predators in the world of insects! Many damselflies also willingly pose. Their small size, however, necessitates moving in quite close and they do get edgy when folks are lurking just feet away.

A sprinkle of water onto spider webs often bring out their owners, where they may remain to pose for you. Spiders, bless them, frequently stay still much longer than many of their insect relatives.

If creepie-crawlies call to you, just roll over a rotting log. It will be a fast-paced scene once you disturb the urban underground, so be ready before you make your move. In addition to “official� insects, you’re likely to encounter brightly colored newts or salamanders, slugs, earthworms, millipedes and even some difficult-to-identify “related organisms.�

So, call a park ranger or the helpful people at the arb.

They can give you information about the best locations and times of year to “hunt� the insects you are after.

Then get out there and shoot what bugs you!

C A R O L Y N C O R B E T T is a free-

lance writer and editor with 12 years of experience. Carolyn currently lives in Brainerd where she writes for various local publications and creates content for web sites.

A bowďŹ shing reel should safely store the line but allow an arrow to y unimpeded toward its target. The AMS brand reel is most preferred by most archers.

A stout line connects the arrow to a bowfishing reel that is usually screwed into the stabilizer insert on the bow.

Your local archery shop owner can best advise you on the latest tackle.

Polarized sunglasses are indispensable since they allow you a better view underwater by cutting surface glare.

Also the glasses will protect your eyes should the line become tangled and the arrow comes flying back at you.

Other necessary items are a pair of chest waders if the fish are shallow or a boat if they are deep. Carp and other fish can be shot from a canoe but it’s wise to choose a more stable craft. Popular among veteran bowfishers are johnboats equipped with an elevated platform from which a foot-controlled trolling motor can be operated.

Some carp shooting rigs are quite elaborate.

and west shores but don’t discount any shoreline, especially on calm, sunny days. In past years, I have seen even the north shore, which is virtually barren of emergent weeds, alive with spawning carp. Trophy carp, big and ugly and weighing more than 30 pounds, are taken each spring on Mille Lacs.

Rivers also can provide good bowfishing, especially during spring when the water has overflowed the banks, flooding nearby fields and meadows. Carp find these shallow, grassy areas to their liking since they are the first to warm to spawning temperatures.

You’ll quickly know if carp are actively spawning in a particular area, especially if the weather is clear and calm. The fish raise quite a ruckus and cruising carp leave huge wakes. Often, shallow grassy areas will be covered with carp eggs and the water will be murky from all their commotion.

Where to go

Carp are found in many of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. In this area, the most popular bowfishing lake is Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs — most famous for its walleyes — attracts carp-shooters as the giant fish move in to spawn. Check the shallow, weedy bays on the south

When the water warms to roughly 70 degrees, female carp that are ripe with spawn cruise the shallows, and are accompanied by one or more smaller male carp.

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A face not even a mother could love. Carp are detrimental to lakes, rivers and wetlands because they stir up sediments, which reduce light penetration and thus the growth of beneficial aquatic plants.

Most butterfly pictures show the subject situated smack in the middle of the frame. Off-center images offer refreshing variety. If shooting the top of open wings or a side view, try to position the camera parallel to the wings. Or try a face-on shot to catch the eyes and antenna. Use the sun to backlight your featured insect, especially if it has white or light-colored wings. Stay aware of any unappealing aspects in the background. Simply changing your angle can eliminate litter.

Angling for a good shot

C a r o l y n

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A cool, damp summer morning just as the sun is starting to come up is ideal. In the morning, butterflies have not yet absorbed enough heat for their flight muscles to activate so stay fairly stationary until the dew burns off and their wings dry out. Their lowered level of activity levels offer you far more opportunities. Soon after sunrise, as the butterflies spread their wings wide to absorb heat and begin feeding, is an ideal time for you to approach closely — sometimes within just a few inches.

Timing is everything

Best Shot

Do you enjoy taking photos?

Do you have a favorite image of an eagle, Áower, sunset, or how about your favorite hunting partner? Here’s your chance to share it with readers of “OUTDOOR Traditions.” Send it along with a two-sentence explanation as to where, why, and how it was shot. Both could be published online and in the 50,000 copies of our new quarterly magazine, “OUTDOORS Traditions.” Each issue will have an “editor’s pick” contributed photo, including a credit line of the photographer’s name and portrait if available.

If your photo is not chosen, all appropriate images will be included on the “We Spotted” section of our website. They will be displayed there for three months, running concurrently with the season and/or until the next “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes.

Deadline for the fall edition is August 24, 2007 and winter is November 12, 2007.

The Dispatch will collect images quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter). After each issue of “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes, we will then place the images on our website.

Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot” Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

Steve Kohls I am a photographer at the Brainerd Dispatch since 1975. I have been teaching Àne art black and white and color photography at Central Lakes College for the past 12 years. Currently I have been teaching Underwater Photography for Central Lakes College and the Minnesota School of Diving for the past 5 years. From May to November you can Ànd me at the Mineland Recreation Area either scuba diving and photographing the Àsh or enjoying the beauty of our area’s newest lakes.

outdoors photographer and writer who lives near Fort Ripley. His work has appeared in many regional and national publications and he writes a monthly column for the Brainerd Dispatch. He can be reached at bill@billmarchel.com B I L L M A R C H E L is a wildlife and

is enlarging a picture to find a bug you hadn’t even realized was there.

Another method of practice for some people involves a faux fly. Cut a life-sized picture of a butterfly from a magazine, pin or paper clip it to a flower outside and practice shooting. Practice monitoring your shadow.

Practice finding how close you can get to the “butterfly” while still keeping it in focus.

Once out in the wild (or maybe just their gardens) some folks actually “chum up” butterflies with fruit bait. Rumor has it that the smell of overly ripe pineapples draws in eager eaters. (You may attract bees and orioles this way as well.) Others focus on mating couples.

With their minds temporarily occupied, you may be able to sneak closer that usual. Most of all, be patient.

Be patient. Be patient. Did I suggest being patient?

42 B e s t

Each scale on a big carp is larger than a quarter.

Archers in pursuit of carp must have a state fishing license. Other laws apply and potential bowfishers should read the regulations.

Properly prepared, carp can be quite tasty. Most bow shooters prefer carp soaked in brine and smoked, but all sorts of recipes exist.

Check the regulations

For proficient archers, hitting a carp cruising at close range with its back out of the water is relatively easy. But, as mentioned earlier, carp are wary and after being chased about, they seldom offer the ideal shot. More difficult is the shot at a fish two or more feet below the surface because you must take into consideration light refraction, or the bending of light, as it passes from water to air. To arrow a deep fish, you must aim low. Only experience will teach you how low to hold because in each situation the depth and angle to your target is different.

Extreme care should be taken that the line to your arrow does not become tangled before the shot. Many years ago, I shot at a fish with the line inadvertently wrapped around my left hand. With a loud snap the line broke as the arrow left the bow, but not before it sliced my hand to the bone. The scar remains today.

The moment of truth

Welcome

How could I be so lucky, that the stork should drop me off many years ago to be part of a beautiful family in Nisswa, Minnesota, a land of peace and quiet recreation.

Nisswa has forests and lakes in abundance and must have been created to be that place of “quiet time” and recreation in demand by every generation.

The day the stork dropped me down the chimney, my Mother and Father were the owners and operators of a small business with only $25 in their checking account. In the midst of the depression years, I am sure they felt much more fortunate than many other struggling people at the time. As early as 1920’s and 30’s, Nisswa was a place to retreat from the world’s pressures for the busy and the wealthy who needed to rest, as well as a place to hide from lawmen by the “wild and wooly”.

Oddly enough, the horrors of world war in the late 1930’s and 1940’s were frightful years for the likes of Nisswa ad other communities in the northern land of forests and lakes. Jobs were abundant and the American work force grew rapidly. Money in pockets was plentiful. The heavy work schedule caused stress that desperately needed healing.

The land of forests and lakes provided just what the doctor ordered. For those needing peace and quiet, Nisswa was the place to be. For those who needed a fast pace of recreation to vent their stresses, Nisswa was the place to be. The land of forests and lakes was an oasis of sanity.

After WWII there was great expectation that the astounding advances in technology would certainly make life easier and more enjoyable. A relentless pursuit of “things” by the average family to make life easier and more fun seemed to become the norm. By the end of the twentieth century advances in communications and transportation has left us with our mouths wide open in awe. Yet, with all these new gadgets and toys, we realize that not all is a bed of roses. The “easy life” has our lives out of balance. To have more and more things has turned out to be unfulfilling. The selfish and greedy ownership of “things” has made man and woman in this “grand society” merrily another additional “thing”.

Many people are beginning to realize there is something missing in life irregardless of all the material possessions.

People want to stop their world, rediscover themselves, get better acquainted with their own family, and again feel the real value of being a human being, both body and soul.

Where, o where, does one find “quiet time”?

Similar to WWII, it is right here in the land of forests and lakes! Visitors used to go fishing for the fish. Now we “fish” for “quiet time” so thoroughly needed and enjoyed. To be

By: Jim Dullum

with family and friends in the boat with no TV, no radio, is priceless. The pockets of “quiet time” offer an opportunity to slow down and once again listen to the core message of life. Residents and visitors are invited to experience “quiet time” while fishing the streams and lakes, hunting the wild game, biking our miles and miles of quality trails, crosscountry skiing many kilometers of top notch groomed trails, inn-line skating safe trails, golfing 20 plus different courses, taking a walk, reading a book, reigniting a pray life. The list of “quiet time” activities and opportunities goes on and on. Residents, enjoy this paradise you live in. Visitors, on all sides of the globe, come to the land of forests and lakes, rest, meet new friends (possibly yourself), and heal. Every single month of the calendar has restful and healing value. Whether July and/or January, vacation time in the land of forests and lakes has immeasurable value for family and loved ones.

For 80 years my family has been in the marine and/or sports business as servants to those needing fun and relaxation. I have worked and witnessed the vacation trends for 65 years. My daughter, the third generation, has already spent 32 years working as a vital part of this “playground”. The world will forever need this playground and our family plans to be here a long, long time as part of the fun.

The “quiet time” we have been blessed with we wish to share with the whole world and it is free! Call the area chamber of commerce, come visit, leave your troubles with us, and go home refreshed. Who knows? You may discover a permanent home in the land of “quiet time”. No matter whom you are or where you come from. I invite you and your family to test the north land’s “quiet time”. Keep smiling!!!

S h o t

CMYK

CMYK

Food

Photos provided by Carolyn Corbett 8 AM 2/20/07 10:20:3

RCHEL

this issue

Page

15

Holidays • Weddings • Anniversaries • Graduations • Birthdays

For All Your Catering Needs

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Look for the Fall 2007 Issue of Outdoor Traditions publishing on September 14th.

• Bring your cell phone — you don’t have to turn it on, but you’ll be glad you have it if you get a flat tire or a little one that can’t bike one marker farther.

• Bring a camera and/or binoculars; there are a number of absolutely picturesque spots as well as a variety of wildlife thriving along the trail — definitely worthy of a closer look or a picture.

• If you have a GPS unit, bring it. There are geo-caches all over the 371-corridor area (which, coincidentally, runs right next to the Paul Bunyan Trail for many miles).

Check out www.geocaching.com for more information.

• Snacks such as granola bars, apples, peanuts and fruit snacks are all great fuel choices that travel well.

They also can second as a great incentive to get to the next rest stop.

• Sunscreen is essential.

Apply before you leave and bring it. When you’re clipping along on your bike, the cool breeze can disguise the burn you’re receiving until it’s too late.

• Dress for the weather and pack for possibilities.

Not sure how long you’ll be gone? Then pack a light jacket. Is rain a risk? Throw some rain gear in your pack.

Chilly start? Then dress in layers with shorts underneath (the padded ones.

You won’t regret it). Sunny all day? Then sunglasses are a must, unless you want to

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Fillet the fish as yo u would a fish into sm walleye; all (herrin don t worr g size) pie adding o y about th ces. Wash ne cup of e bones. . Prepare p Cut ickling sa pieces wit a brine so lt to four h the brin lu c ti u o p n s b e o y f water. C solution a Wash off over the fi nd let sta the piece nd overnig sh s of fish a Drain, rin h t. n d soak in se and pla white vine ce in jars To two cu gar three . Prepare ps of vine to four da a pickling so g a ys. r (or if yo of wine a lution as u like to u nd one cu follows: se wine in p of vineg cooking, ar) add li use one c st of ingre up dients.

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Nature’s FOOD 22

30 S h o o t

While practice may not make perfect, it will at least help to level the playing field with these subjects that disappear at the speed of light. Given the here-and-gone movement of many insects, photographing flowers first is good practice. Try this on a windy day and you’ll understand how butterflies earned the title of “Flying Flowers.” An unexpected delight, both during this type of practice and on focused flower shoots,

Bugs are small.

Bug habitat is tick habitat.

Bugs tantalize with flittering and skittering, then scoot for safety as you squeeze the shutter. Bugs move.

They move often and they move fast. The winged versions have irregular flight patterns, maintain a large circle of safety and zoom about on the sunniest of days, through shadows and glaring sunlight. In addition, as you know only too well, many bugs only come out at dusk.

Local insects call abandoned fields, streams, tall grass along ponds and even roadsides home.

Roadsides, which may not bring to

mind a vision of bonding with nature, do facilitate hopping into your vehicle when bugs want to become “blood brothers.”

Still, though they sometimes drive us a bit buggy, insects are fun to “hunt” and fun to shoot. And the satisfaction — the wonder — when those intricate, brightly colored, larger-thanlife, alien-looking creatures upload onto your computer screen at home.

Ask yourself if you are comfortable photographing one insect in the midst of devouring another. How do you feel about hapless victims struggling in a spider’s web?

Depending on your answers, you may choose to stick to nectar-suckers.

GOOD NEWS, fellow photographers!

Bona fide members of Class Insecta are ever-so plentiful. More than 75 percent of the living creatures on this planet are insects. More insect species have been identified than all other animal groups combined. More good news for we who shoot is the diverse life cycle of insects. We can shoot bug eggs, bug pupas, bug wannabes (such as caterpillars) and full-fledged adult bugs. Given the challenges of insect photography, bugs just seem to get under some people’s skin.

SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

squint the whole way.

• Maps are necessary if you plan on straying from the main trail, even a little bit. But maps are beneficial even if you’re planning to stay on it. They can help to locate food and water sources, alternate routes, as well as assist with time estimations.

• A basic first-aid kit is always a good idea, no matter how long the ride. If there are young one’s involved, it’s crucial. Wipeouts happen, and they can never be planned or predicted. Having the essentials can make it tolerable.

• If you pack it in — pack it out. Litter is never acceptable.

Leave no trace of your passing so the next people through can enjoy it as much as you did.

And lastly, enjoy yourselves. Don’t feel you have to go a specific number of miles. Stay open to the possibilities. Enjoy the scenery and leave the rules at work where they belong. It’s supposed to be fun!

Continued from page 19

Hiking

Many of the campsites along the river are the converging points of regional and historic hiking trails.

Whether spending the day or stretching your legs after canoeing the river, spending a few hours exploring the old towns, settlements, burial sites and forests that once provided shelter and transportation for American Indians and early Minnesota settlers will be entertaining and educational. The unique location of the river gives hikers opportunity to see migrating birds, river wildlife and a diverse set of regional wildflowers. Many of the stopping points that provide hiking trails are among the foundations of early settlements. An old button factory, Indian burial mounds and Old Wadena are among some of the more curious points of interest.

Camping

While all 16 of the Crow Wing Canoe Trail’s campsites are notable, some of them have particular appeal.

The first site along the route is the Shell City Campground, near the Shell River, one of the Crow Wing’s tributaries. The site is on more than 60 acres of land, which was once the Shell City settlement. The early boomtown boasted a button factory that used clam shells from the local rivers, a hotel and a stagecoach barn. Foundations of the town and old wagon trails still remain, though wildflowers and birds are the only residents.

Farther down the river, campers will find Tree Farm Landing. The secluded, sheltered site boasts the Pasque flower and numerous other wildflowers in the 2,000acre Northwest Tree Farm. Hiking trails run through the farm, and a 20-acre campsite and picnic area provides shade and relaxation to its visitors.

At the Huntersville Township Campsite, a curious splitlevel campsite is available in the Huntersville State Forest within walking distance of the early pioneer settlement of Huntersville. This site is known for its wild berries, including blueberries. The county maintained campground and picnic area is equipped with toilets.

For the brave, Big Bend Campsite provides a remote wilderness camping facility only accessible by river.

M O L L Y R I N G is the owner of Skewed View Studio, a print and web design firm located in Pequot Lakes. She enjoys being creative, whether it involves pictures or words.

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NORTHWOODS GUIDE GREG BOHN prescribes a remedy for catching lethargic walleyes in cold water during the early spring.

Casting lures or jigs might help locate schools of fish by plucking off an active one or two. But using slip bobbers to dangle live bait in front of the walleyes can produce massive catches.

“They’ve increased my walleye catch by at least 50 percent,” said Bohn, “Mr. Slip Bobber,” who authored the book, “Master the Art of Slip Bobbering” with outdoor writer Scott Richardson. “There are many days when I wouldn’t have caught a walleye at all and wound up catching fish after fish. We fished jigs in between the slip bobbers and never caught a one on them. But we caught 25 on the bobbers.”

What’s more exciting is that a handful of tackle companies, led by Lindy Fishing Tackle, have designed prod-

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ucts for 2007 that will make slip bobberin’ so simple everyone can get in on the action.

Start with thread-style bobber stops that stay in place, will slide just enough to allow depth adjustments and don’t nick the line like other bobber stop types can.

Stick with a bright color stop knot and thread on a red glass bead so you can see it to be sure the float slides up to meet the stop every time.

Bohn helped develop the Thill Pro Series floats, which come in four sizes and in both unweighted or weighted designs. The unweighted will support more weight below it, floats higher in the water and is perfect for calmer water. The weighted version allows you to cast more easily into the wind.

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ups) in your group, and plenty of places to stop and eat or shop in the towns and cities along the trail.

If you don’t own a bike, or you’re up here vacationing and either didn’t have room or forgot them, there are places to rent. I found the following list of businesses that rent bikes at the Brained Lakes Chamber site (explorebrainerdlakes. com): • Bayside Cabins, Backus, (218) 947-3344 • Breezy Point Resort, Breezy Point, (218) 5688422 • Cragun’s Resort, Brainerd, (218) 825-2700 • Easy Riders, Brainerd, (218) 829-5516 • Trailblazer Bikes, Brainerd, (218) 829-8542 • Cycle Path & Paddle, Crosby, (218) 545-4545 I’m going to share with you some valuable tips that I’ve learned on my misadventures. I hope you can learn by reading about them: • Always wear a helmet. Studies have shown that wear-

R i n g

21

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ing a bicycle helmet can reduce head injuries by up to 85 percent. Select a helmet that fits snugly and comfortably with lots of ventilation (otherwise they make your head too hot to handle). Especially if children are present, wear a helmet yourself to set a good example.

• Depending on how comfortable your bike seat is, or how accustomed your bum is to bike riding, I would highly recommend padded bike shorts. They will make your trip (no matter how short it may be) so much more comfortable.

Words can’t describe the difference.

• Always bring plenty of water, and more than you think you’ll need. There are places to fill up along the way, but never (it seems) when you need it.

• If you have a rack to strap things to, or a basket to put things in, then you’ll be ahead of the game. Otherwise, a backpack for the remaining items is your next best option.

ON N COUNTRY 2007 NISSAN

16

HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS

placed near the landing, just one of the improvements done by the Department of Natural Resources.

Continuing through nature the riders reached the 5.5mile marker, or the end of the trail. Talk then turned to a proposed 1.5-mile addition that would link the current trail to Sagamore Lake, the southwestern tip of the recreation area. This proposal includes adding a mile east of the Croft Mine.

The plan is to run the trail through Riverton, but residents in the small community are concerned with safety issues and increased traffic.

On this day the group turned around and headed east on the trail, the wind picked up, but the relatively flat trail made for easy riding.

Birds and even a garter snake represented the area’s wildlife, but other users of the trail and recreation area have seen deer, bear and other smaller animals. Bald eagles are also a frequent sight, perched high to gaze on the lakes stocked with trout, walleye, northerns and bass.

As 11 peaceful miles of bike riding concluded it was clear the recreation area and the trail that slices through it offer countless opportunities to outdoor enthusiasts, both for economic purposes and to simply escape.

While roadblocks continue in the development of the park and the trail, it’s refreshing that an area that was once abandoned and left bare and red, has revitalized itself and could revitalize the Cuyuna Range as well.

FOLLOWING THE MISSISSIPPI SOUTH OUT OF BRAINERD TO LITTLE FALLS IS A WALK IN TWO PARKS. WITH ALL OF THE WATER-RELATED ATTRACTIONS and activities in the Brainerd

lakes area, it is easy to overlook the amenities in neighboring regions. One such place is the stretch of Mississippi River that flows south out of Brainerd to Little Falls. Bookended by two of the state’s most beautiful parks — Crow Wing and Charles A. Lindbergh, the full and blue watered river gives canoeists a broad swath of paddling country to enjoy.

Crow Wing

As the Crow Wing River enters the Mississippi, 2,781 acres of land have been set aside as a pristine state park. A site on the National Register of Historic Places, Crow Wing State Park carries the history of a Dakota Indian village, the beauty of a wilderness preserve and the recreational attraction of the Mississippi River. As the river leaves the park and heads south to its much larger destiny, its first pit stop is in Little Falls and Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

Charles A. Lindbergh

With its stone water tower, historic Work Proj-

S o u t h

o f

T o w n

ects Administration picnic shelter, fishing landing, Pike Creek canoe area and hiking trails, Charles A. Lindbergh State Park is one of the region’s best kept secrets. The coup de grace of the city, of course, is the historic home of Charles Lindbergh, the father of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh Jr. The Minnesota Historical Society maintains the home, which is right next to the park.

The 436-acre park is a quaint and relaxing area that is home to the wildlife of the river and many regional songbirds. The Little Falls area and the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh were made famous after Lindbergh flew the first trans-Atlantic solo flight.

In the not so distant past, Dakota Indians used the area and the river for settlement and transportation.

The Red River Oxcart Trail, which was a frequently used settler’s route, traveled near the park on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. The Red River Oxcart Trail is a segment of the larger Woods Trail, which went from St. Paul to Pembina, N.D. The geological history of the region, like most of Minnesota, is a story of glaciers. The park is on a till plain where deposits of clay, gravel and boulders were left by melting and retreating glaciers during the last ice

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T e d

Area amazing to me that just because we see it every day, we no longer see the beauty — and it’s breathtaking.

As soon as the weather allows me to, I ride to Nisswa.

It’s about 14 miles round trip on the Paul Bunyan trail from my house. I’m sure there are some hard-core bicyclists that would not be impressed by that ride. For me, it’s huge. Sometimes, the only way I can get my kids to join me is by having Dairy Queen as the bribe. I sometimes have to bribe myself with an iced coffee from Stonehouse Coffee (maturity is totally overrated).

The Paul Bunyan Trail is one of the most beautiful jewels of our area. No matter where you’re at in the Brainerd lakes area, the trail either goes through that town or has a tributary that connects to it. There are rest stops along the way, which are a must if you have children (or out-of-shape grown-

218-764-2524

&

S c o t t

R i c h a r d s o n

25

1-877-412-4162 www.ThisOldFarm.net

7 miles east of Brainerd,MN on State Highway 18 Ages 3 thru 17 $12.95 •18 and over $10.95 •Seniors $9.95 •Age 2 and under Free

Enjoy unlimited use all day •28 rides and attractions •30 building Pioneer Village While in Paul Bunyan Land visit our Gift Shop and our Lumberjack Cafe.

Check our website for special events including This Old Farm Show Days

Open 10 AM to 6 PM May 26 thru Labor Day

Home of the 26 ft. tall Animated Paul Bunyan

Paul Bunyan Land

The Lakes Area

Paul is waiting to greet your youngsters by name Slip Bobber Rigs, which include everything you need to fish, all pre-tied for you.

These easy to use pre-tied rigs include a barrel swivel with a larger loop at one end to prevent the swivel from getting stuck in the bobber. It is tied to a 2-foot monofilament leader and a 1/32nd or 1/16th Bobber Bug, which adds very little weight to the hook to keep your live bait in the strike zone. Another version of the rig features a Tru-Turn Hook in size 4 for minnows or size 6 for leeches and crawlers.

A red glass bead is added above the hook or Bobber Bug for even more attraction. A petite flicker blade which rides above the bead adds flash for attraction as the bait swims. A minnow or leech will trigger the flicker blade to send out even more flash to provoke a strike.

Use small rubber core sinkers or soft split shot a foot up the line to balance the rig.

Early in the year, stick with lakes with good walleye populations that offer the chance of big fish.

Look for the warmest water. Walleyes will travel miles to find water just a degree or two warmer. Focus on rock or sand bars and protected places where wind has blown warm surface water. Emerging weeds also are key.

Don’t overlook submerged wood, such as stump beds

BIKING

T E D T A K A S A K I is one of the country’s top pro walleye fisherman and a former PWT champion. Not only has Ted won many fishing tournaments, he is the CEO of Lindy Little Joe, Inc. maker of many fine fishing products.

in 8 to 10 feet of water or less, in reservoirs. Fish may be buried in the wood. A slip bobber will bring them out.

Wind is your best friend. Water can be crystal clear early in the year. The breeze cuts light penetration so the walleyes are more active. The wind also drives bobber action, the bait moves up and down and the flicker blade will turn.

Anchor near likely spots. Set the rigs so the bait rides a foot off the bottom and cast into the wind.

Let the bobber float back to the boat and beyond.

Twitch it a time or two before reeling to the boat to entice a strike if a walleye was watching it. “If you find one fish in spring, you didn’t just find one, the others are right there,” Bohn said.

tion that started work on the trail in 1998. She talked about the association’s work to make the trail a reality in 2002. She then turned to the next stages for the trail and recreation area.

One plan is the development of up to 45 miles of single track, natural surface, multi-use trails within the recreation area. Spearheading the project is Tim Wegner, regional director of the International Mountain Bike Association.

Wegner said when he first saw the recreation area he fell in love with it.

“It has everything anyone could want,” said Wegner.

“There is enough acreage that you can put in some substantial trail miles in it. There’s water and lot of other stuff to do there. It could be come a destination spot, where people spend their weekends and travel to. Right now there isn’t a place like that in Minnesota.”

The plan includes beginning to expert level trails for mountain biking, trail running and back-country skiing and snowshoeing. Smith said IMBA would design and construct the trails to last with minimal maintenance.

IMBA would also look into improving the restrooms and shower facilities and adding more of them to accommodate the increased traffic.

The IMBA had requested $125,000 from the state to be used as matching funds for a $600,000 federal transportation grant. IMBA would add an additional $250,000 to $500,000 toward the project.

That money was stalled when Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bonding bill earlier this month, which had included the funding.

“Right now the DNR is working on an environmental assessment worksheet and if we can get the money then we wait for the OK from the DNR,” said Wegner.

“It should take us about 30 months to complete. These trails are only going to be four feet wide and we don’t remove any large trees. If it’s a 2-inch tree we’ll go around it.”

The recreation area’s history with its disturbed soils and the help of the DNR has IMBA excited about using the recreation area as a training site for other trail builders in those types of conditions.

As the riders continued west, they passed a few of the cleared-out overlooks. Each gives trail users a scenic view of the recreation area and its lakes. Benches were added to many of the overlooks.

They visited the Pennington Lake landing. New blacktop and curbing was completed and a bathroom was

C o u n t r y

On the river

Once the Crow Wing River merges with the Mississippi, the Ol’ Miss begins to take on the large and rolling character that so defines it. Its widening banks and stronger current make it easy to navigate and move along at a good pace. The smooth and calm waters along this stretch of the river make it easy to observe the wildlife that depend on it. Animals such as otter, whitetail deer, beaver and raccoon all make themselves at home here. Although it is much different than the narrow winding of the Upper Mississippi, it is still considered to be part of the Mississippi Headwaters Trail, as it is within the first 420 miles of the river.

Minnesota’s eastern forests and western prairies meet at Crow Wing State Park and give way to the more open and gently rolling landscape of southern Minnesota. As the river moves south toward Little Falls a unique part of the landscape is the Ripley esker-a ridge of sediment left by glacial deposits. The

three-mile slope supports an oak savanna habitat on one side and a deciduous forest on the other.

Just below Crow Wing State Park is Fort Ripley. Built in 1848, the fort was established to maintain Indian relations. In 1930, a National Guard post was established there. And once travelers get closer to Little Falls, Belle Prairie Park offers day use for canoeists and hikers. Established by a Catholic mission, a convent and boarding school are still in operation.

This site is notable for its stand of virgin white pine.

And of course, the river is great for fishing. Muskie, walleye and smallmouth bass abound in this wide and shady stretch of water. The ubiquitous northern pike also is present.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

FATHER’S DAY SALE • JUNE 15, 16 & 17, 2007 Stop in for: FREE hotdogs & lemonade Door prizes/drawings Bows on Sale Scent-Loc Clothing Sale

Indoor/Outdoor 3D Course Range 1 Mile East of Pillager Hwy 210 • 746-4018 Authorized Matthews & Hoyt Pro Shop

Photos provided by Brainerd Dispatch/ Nels Norquist

J a k e

CMYK

I r o n

I’VE ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES to reach that runner’s high, but it’s never happened. In fact, if you ever see me running, you better start, too. There’s bound to be a big guy with a chain saw chasing me, or it might be a big mama bear, or a lean, hungry wolf, or a swarm of angry bees. Well, you get the idea.

This article isn’t about jogging (thank goodness) — it’s about biking. I’m talking leisurely biking here. You know, for fun. The exercise part is just a bonus in my opinion. Biking doesn’t feel like exercise to me. It’s simply entertainment. I can get out into nature, see lovely scenery and actually get somewhere.

The Paul Bunyan Trail is basically right outside my door. It’s not the most challenging of trails but it really is lovely to look at. For us locals, I think that sometimes, we forget why we live in the Brainerd lakes area. It’s

T a k a s a k i

T h r o u g h

Lakes

R i d e

the

RECREATION AREA, TRAIL A LINK BETWEEN CUYUNA RANGE’S PAST AND FUTURE

28 A

Biking

A RIDE THROUGH IRON A DRY, HARD WIND whipped through the red rock landscape as three bikers rode west.

Bright green leaf buds peppered birch and ironwood limbs and natural grasses were already greening, gaining on the spruce and pine needles on this late spring day.

The blacktop of the Cuyuna State Lakes Trail minimized the wind resistance as bikers trekked through the 5,000-acre Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, north of Crosby and Ironton.

Rubber tires catching on the path’s pavement replaced silence between conversations concerning the trail and recreation area, their uses and the scenery that transformed dust-filled iron ore mining pits and rock stockpiles into the natural, quiet park dotted with clear mine lakes.

The steep embankments of the 16 lakes and the clean water they protect highlight the 14-year-old recreation area, which became Minnesota’s first in 1993.

Jenny Smith, owner of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, and her husband, Brad, visit the recreation area often, either darting past five of the mine lakes the trail runs along or kayaking the waterways that connect eight small mine lakes.

On this day, 21speed Raleigh Passage 3.5 Hybrid bikes were the mode of transportation. The group tackled the 5.5 miles of trail that Jenny and Brad Smith, owners of starts at the Croft Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, Mine Historic Park rode along the Cuyuna State in Crosby and ends Lakes Trail this spring. east of Riverton. The grand design is to connect the Paul Bunyan Trail in Baxter to Aitkin.

Two trails exist. A paved one is used by bike riders, walkers, inline skaters and joggers during the summer and cross country skiers can use it in the winter, although it is ungroomed. An unpaved trail is for snowmobilers and hikers.

Smith is president of the Cuyuna Lakes Trail Associa-

20

age. Large slate boulders can be found in and around Pike Creek. One mile north of the park, the Mississippi makes its way through the former glacial plain. Like many parts of Minnesota, the area was originally forested with pine and oak. After the intensive logging of our state’s past, the forest regenerated primarily with oak and smatterings of aspen and pine.

K u l j u

17

Meyer

CMYK

kee, Ruth, Mille Lacs and Alexander lakes.

WEST OF TOWN HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS JUST WEST OF THE LAKES AREA, THE CROW WING CANOE TRAIL PROVIDES VISITORS WITH RECREATION, HISTORY AND WILDERNESS. JUST WEST OF THE BRAINERD LAKES AREA is a region of lesser-known parks, trails and riverways near Sebeka. From this area northwest of Brainerd, the Crow Wing River begins and provides Minnesotans with one of the state’s premier canoe and hiking routes. Several parks and landings are placed along the river’s route, giving visitors an opportunity to observe the history, wildlife and natural landscape of central Minnesota.

As the Crow Wing River winds its way southeast from Blueberry Bridge to its namesake merging point with the Mississippi, it creates one of Minnesota’s 19 designated canoe and boating route rivers — and it holds the designation with good reason. The Crow Wing River is regionally famous for its sense of preserved wilderness and untouched quality. Canoeing, hiking and camping along the Crow Wing gives travelers a sense of what the state looked like several hundreds of years ago.

Ossawinnamakee pulled a double in 2003, when it was found to have zebra mussels, the next invasive species to get here. The mussels, which filter nutrients from the water that otherwise would be eaten by fish and other native species, were found by a dock installer on a boat lift and dock in October of that year. DNR fisheries divers found it in Mille Lacs in 2005, and later that same year the mussels were found in Rice Lake by a 14-year old boy who had filled his minnow bucket with water from the lake.

Canoeing

The river is a popular canoe passage for more than its beauty. There are 16 public campsites located conveniently along its shores. There are no dams or portages that obstruct the river’s path. With more than 90 miles of meandering water, a family can lazily drift through a day full of picnics and sunshine, or more ambitious canoe campers can spend days camping and paddling to the Mississippi.

Those who are more interested in the wildlife and scenery than the physical challenges of the river will be rewarded by the numerous deer, bear, otter, mink and beaver that frequent the Crow Wing’s serene waters. Part of the Mississippi Flyway, the area is host to vast arrays of migrating birds and waterfowl.

From Ossawinnamakee zebra mussels got into Pelican Brook. From Rice Lake they got into the Mississippi River, where today they’re found downstream as far as Central Lakes College. Surveys conducted later this summer will determine if the river’s current has carried the invaders farther downstream.

Next up could be flowering rush. It’s already found as near as Detroit Lake and Sauk Lake. Hydrilla is as near as Indiana. Both invasives are on the DNR’s list of 10 least wanted plants. Hydrilla is the number one aquatic plant nuisance in the nation. Large, floating mats of hydrilla can completely cover the surface of a bay or shallow lake.

“We don’t have it yet and we don’t want it,” said Dan Swanson, DNR aquatic specialist in Brainerd.

Flowering rush isn’t found in many state waters, but it could become a problem if it successfully expands from Detroit Lake and other waters in Minnesota where it already exists. Flowering rush is another invasive plant

Update

SUMMER SALE!!

Continued on page 23

• Custom Splash Guards • Replacement Glass for Boat Windshields • Custom Storm Windows & Screens

SAVE 10% ON 417855

IT STARTED IN 1958 with the discovery of curly leaf pondweed in Lake Placid, an impoundment on the Crow Wing River near Pillager.

That event marked the first time an aquatic invasive plant was documented in the Brainerd lakes area. Today invasive species are household words and it seems a year doesn’t pass in which another invader makes inroads io the lakes country.

Dale E. Braddy, Executive Director.

Curly leaf pondweed was discovered in Big Trout Lake in 1961. Today it’s documented to exist in more than 700 lakes statewide (though the actual number may be triple that), a testimony to its hardiness and ability to spread.

Next up was purple loosestrife, which probably got here as an ornamental plant. As late as 1987 it still was sold as an ornamental in Wright County. The flowers are pretty, no doubt, but their ability to choke all native plants from the landscape makes loosestrife a noxious weed.

One plant can produce 2 million seeds, crowding out cattails, bulrushes and other native plants in wetlands and near lakes.

One of many gardens in the Arboretum.

Eurasian watermilfoil was first discovered in Minnesota in Lake Minnetonka in 1987. The first lake in the Brainerd area in which it was found was Bay Lake in 1991. It took root in Nelson Bay, was treated there, but spread anyway, a characteristic of the plant that has frustrated would-be controllers ever since.

Today milfoil also is found in Ossawinnama-

Riverside Elementary School build Blue Bird houses to be placed on the Arboretum grounds.

Species

High School class learns the correct way to plant trees.

Invasive

Vince

Photos provided by Northland Arboretum

Adult Education demonstration, logging done with horses.

With Mix

...and Hunting!

Banquets...

26

Arboretum

For information on upcoming events and programs, go to our website at arb@brainerd.com or call (218) 829-8770.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Become A Member!

Fouth graders learn firsthand about the value of green space from a Forester.

AS SPRING FULLY ARRIVES and summer begins, all 540 acres of the Northland Arboretum come alive. The entire acreage is an outdoor classroom for local students K through College. Come visit and see, learn about, and enjoy nature. The Arboretum is a sanctuary for a huge variety of wildlife and home of magnificent gardens.

Everyone needs to take time to smell the roses and watch a butterfly. There is not a better place to appreciate nature than the Northland Arboretum. “Take the Time!”

Meetings...

INVASIVE SPECIES UPDATE

18

V I N C E M E Y E R , outdoors editor at the Brainerd Dispatch, has worked for newspapers in Alaska, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

A former editor once told him that failed hunting and fishing trips sometimes make the best stories. As such he expects no shortage of good material.

2nd Annual Blind Wine Tasting Contest September 13, 2007 - Mark Your Calendars!

that probably got here as an ornamental.

Spiny waterfleas have been found in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and in lakes near Duluth. Bighead carp are as near as Lake Pepin in southeastern Minnesota. Silver carp, which leap from the water at the sound of an outboard motor, have been found farther downstream.

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Attempts to control purple loosestrife, for example, have been successful. Chemical applications were tried at first, but the plant was so widespread that chemicals didn’t work.

Then about 15 years ago the Minnesota DNR, in conjunction with Cornell University, Stephen Hight and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, went to Europe and returned with galerucella, a beetle that controls purple loosestrife. Anytime a foreign species is considered for introduction to control another foreign species, biologists undertake a rigorous review of the potential effects of the foreign species being considered as a possible control agent to ensure that the agent does not damage valuable native species of their habitat.

But galerucella seems to be a success story so far. The plant-eating beetle feeds on loosestrife, raises its young on the plant, winters on the leaf litter and goes back to work the next spring.

As for curly leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil, control, not elimination, is the only option. The DNR works with lake associations in creating plans to control the weeds through the use of herbicides. Mechanical control can be effective in managing some of the problems caused by these plants.

Curly leaf pondweed has been especially troublesome because it forms buds in June that germinate in September. New plants grow under the ice during winter and do well when a lack of snowcover allows sun to penetrate the ice and work its magic on the noxious greenery below.

Recent mild, snowless winters appear to have allowed curly leaf pondweed to grow abundantly in some lakes.

To see what the DNR is doing to battle invasive species, turn to Page 67 in the Minnesota Fishing Regulations handbook. Laws have been passed in an attempt to control the spread of invasive species, and the agency has a campaign to “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers.” Also in place is a watercraft inspection program in which inspectors are trained to educate boaters on how to prevent the spread of invasives.

Locally, 15 car washes in the Brainerd area have agreed to let boaters use their stalls to wash their boats.

A thorough washing with hot water remains the single most effective way to prevent invasive species from reaching new waters.

THE ARBORETUM...

“AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM.” AND FLOATING DOCKS Boat lifts and docks, as well as our own aluminum sectional and truss roll-in docks manufactured by Lake Area Dock & Lifts. Get ready for warm weather come see our water toys!

• Custom Mirrors • Shower Doors • Store Fronts • Auto Glass

829-2881

1-800-726-8445

18441 State Hwy 371 Brainerd MN

West

Photos provided by Vince Meyer

of

Attractions

1/2 Mi. S. on Hwy 3

5 Mi. N. on Hwy 371

CROSSLAKE

BRAINERD

(218) 692-1785 1-866-692-1785

(218) 825-3874 1-888-249-0843

• Commercial Lock & Key

Town

Photos provided by Jake kulju

Jake

Kulju

19

CMYK

Vince

UPCOMING EVENTS

Become A Member!

Dale E. Braddy, Executive Director.

One of many gardens in the Arboretum.

Riverside Elementary School build Blue Bird houses to be placed on the Arboretum grounds.

High School class learns the correct way to plant trees.

Adult Education demonstration, logging done with horses.

Fouth graders learn firsthand about the value of green space from a Forester.

AS SPRING FULLY ARRIVES and summer begins, all 540 acres of the Northland Arboretum come alive. The entire acreage is an outdoor classroom for local students K through College. Come visit and see, learn about, and enjoy nature. The Arboretum is a sanctuary for a huge variety of wildlife and home of magnificent gardens.

Everyone needs to take time to smell the roses and watch a butterfly. There is not a better place to appreciate nature than the Northland Arboretum. “Take the Time!”

THE ARBORETUM...

“AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM.”

that probably got here as an ornamental.

Spiny waterfleas have been found in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and in lakes near Duluth. Bighead carp are as near as Lake Pepin in southeastern Minnesota. Silver carp, which leap from the water at the sound of an outboard motor, have been found farther downstream.

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Attempts to control purple loosestrife, for example, have been successful. Chemical applications were tried at first, but the plant was so widespread that chemicals didn’t work.

Then about 15 years ago the Minnesota DNR, in conjunction with Cornell University, Stephen Hight and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, went to Europe and returned with galerucella, a beetle that controls purple loosestrife. Anytime a foreign species is considered for introduction to control another foreign species, biologists undertake a rigorous review of the potential effects of the foreign species being considered as a possible control agent to ensure that the agent does not damage valuable native species of their habitat.

But galerucella seems to be a success story so far. The plant-eating beetle feeds on loosestrife, raises its young on the plant, winters on the leaf litter and goes back to work the next spring.

As for curly leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil, control, not elimination, is the only option. The DNR works with lake associations in creating plans to control the weeds through the use of herbicides. Mechanical control can be effective in managing some of the problems caused by these plants.

Curly leaf pondweed has been especially troublesome because it forms buds in June that germinate in September. New plants grow under the ice during winter and do well when a lack of snowcover allows sun to penetrate the ice and work its magic on the noxious greenery below.

Recent mild, snowless winters appear to have allowed curly leaf pondweed to grow abundantly in some lakes.

To see what the DNR is doing to battle invasive species, turn to Page 67 in the Minnesota Fishing Regulations handbook. Laws have been passed in an attempt to control the spread of invasive species, and the agency has a campaign to “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers.” Also in place is a watercraft inspection program in which inspectors are trained to educate boaters on how to prevent the spread of invasives.

Locally, 15 car washes in the Brainerd area have agreed to let boaters use their stalls to wash their boats.

A thorough washing with hot water remains the single most effective way to prevent invasive species from reaching new waters. kee, Ruth, Mille Lacs and Alexander lakes.

WEST OF TOWN HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS JUST WEST OF THE LAKES AREA, THE CROW WING CANOE TRAIL PROVIDES VISITORS WITH RECREATION, HISTORY AND WILDERNESS.

Ossawinnamakee pulled a double in 2003, when it was found to have zebra mussels, the next invasive species to get here. The mussels, which filter nutrients from the water that otherwise would be eaten by fish and other native species, were found by a dock installer on a boat lift and dock in October of that year. DNR fisheries divers found it in Mille Lacs in 2005, and later that same year the mussels were found in Rice Lake by a 14-year old boy who had filled his minnow bucket with water from the lake.

JUST WEST OF THE BRAINERD LAKES AREA is a region of lesser-known parks, trails and riverways near Sebeka. From this area northwest of Brainerd, the Crow Wing River begins and provides Minnesotans with one of the state’s premier canoe and hiking routes. Several parks and landings are placed along the river’s route, giving visitors an opportunity to observe the history, wildlife and natural landscape of central Minnesota.

As the Crow Wing River winds its way southeast from Blueberry Bridge to its namesake merging point with the Mississippi, it creates one of Minnesota’s 19 designated canoe and boating route rivers — and it holds the designation with good reason. The Crow Wing River is regionally famous for its sense of preserved wilderness and untouched quality. Canoeing, hiking and camping along the Crow Wing gives travelers a sense of what the state looked like several hundreds of years ago.

Canoeing

From Ossawinnamakee zebra mussels got into Pelican Brook. From Rice Lake they got into the Mississippi River, where today they’re found downstream as far as Central Lakes College. Surveys conducted later this summer will determine if the river’s current has carried the invaders farther downstream.

Next up could be flowering rush. It’s already found as near as Detroit Lake and Sauk Lake. Hydrilla is as near as Indiana. Both invasives are on the DNR’s list of 10 least wanted plants. Hydrilla is the number one aquatic plant nuisance in the nation. Large, floating mats of hydrilla can completely cover the surface of a bay or shallow lake.

“We don’t have it yet and we don’t want it,” said Dan Swanson, DNR aquatic specialist in Brainerd.

Flowering rush isn’t found in many state waters, but it could become a problem if it successfully expands from Detroit Lake and other waters in Minnesota where it already exists. Flowering rush is another invasive plant

Mix

...and Hunting!

Banquets...

Meetings...

Update

Photos provided by Vince Meyer

The river is a popular canoe passage for more than its beauty. There are 16 public campsites located conveniently along its shores. There are no dams or portages that obstruct the river’s path. With more than 90 miles of meandering water, a family can lazily drift through a day full of picnics and sunshine, or more ambitious canoe campers can spend days camping and paddling to the Mississippi.

Those who are more interested in the wildlife and scenery than the physical challenges of the river will be rewarded by the numerous deer, bear, otter, mink and beaver that frequent the Crow Wing’s serene waters. Part of the Mississippi Flyway, the area is host to vast arrays of migrating birds and waterfowl.

SUMMER SALE!!

Continued on page 23

SAVE 10% ON

• Custom Splash Guards • Replacement Glass for Boat Windshields • Custom Storm Windows & Screens

417855

With

INVASIVE SPECIES UPDATE

2nd Annual Blind Wine Tasting Contest September 13, 2007 - Mark Your Calendars!

V I N C E M E Y E R , outdoors editor at the Brainerd Dispatch, has worked for newspapers in Alaska, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

A former editor once told him that failed hunting and fishing trips sometimes make the best stories. As such he expects no shortage of good material.

Species

For information on upcoming events and programs, go to our website at arb@brainerd.com or call (218) 829-8770.

Meyer Invasive

Photos provided by Northland Arboretum

Eurasian watermilfoil was first discovered in Minnesota in Lake Minnetonka in 1987. The first lake in the Brainerd area in which it was found was Bay Lake in 1991. It took root in Nelson Bay, was treated there, but spread anyway, a characteristic of the plant that has frustrated would-be controllers ever since.

Today milfoil also is found in Ossawinnama-

Arboretum

Curly leaf pondweed was discovered in Big Trout Lake in 1961. Today it’s documented to exist in more than 700 lakes statewide (though the actual number may be triple that), a testimony to its hardiness and ability to spread.

Next up was purple loosestrife, which probably got here as an ornamental plant. As late as 1987 it still was sold as an ornamental in Wright County. The flowers are pretty, no doubt, but their ability to choke all native plants from the landscape makes loosestrife a noxious weed.

One plant can produce 2 million seeds, crowding out cattails, bulrushes and other native plants in wetlands and near lakes.

18

26

IT STARTED IN 1958 with the discovery of curly leaf pondweed in Lake Placid, an impoundment on the Crow Wing River near Pillager.

That event marked the first time an aquatic invasive plant was documented in the Brainerd lakes area. Today invasive species are household words and it seems a year doesn’t pass in which another invader makes inroads io the lakes country.

Boat lifts and docks, as well as our own aluminum sectional and truss roll-in docks manufactured by Lake Area Dock & Lifts. Get ready for warm weather come see our water toys!

• Custom Mirrors • Shower Doors

829-2881

1-800-726-8445

18441 State Hwy 371 Brainerd MN

West

of

Town

AND FLOATING DOCKS

• Store Fronts • Auto Glass

BRAINERD

CROSSLAKE

5 Mi. N. on Hwy 371

1/2 Mi. S. on Hwy 3

• Commercial Lock & Key

(218) 825-3874 1-888-249-0843

(218) 692-1785 1-866-692-1785

Attractions

Photos provided by Jake kulju

Jake

Kulju

19

T e d

T a k a s a k i

&

S c o t t

R i c h a r d s o n

25

A RIDE THROUGH IRON RECREATION AREA, TRAIL A LINK BETWEEN CUYUNA RANGE’S PAST AND FUTURE A DRY, HARD WIND whipped through the red rock landscape as three bikers rode west.

Bright green leaf buds peppered birch and ironwood limbs and natural grasses were already greening, gaining on the spruce and pine needles on this late spring day.

The blacktop of the Cuyuna State Lakes Trail minimized the wind resistance as bikers trekked through the 5,000-acre Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, north of Crosby and Ironton.

Rubber tires catching on the path’s pavement replaced silence between conversations concerning the trail and recreation area, their uses and the scenery that transformed dust-filled iron ore mining pits and rock stockpiles into the natural, quiet park dotted with clear mine lakes.

The steep embankments of the 16 lakes and the clean water they protect highlight the 14-year-old recreation area, which became Minnesota’s first in 1993.

Jenny Smith, owner of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, and her husband, Brad, visit the recreation area often, either darting past five of the mine lakes the trail runs along or kayaking the waterways that connect eight small mine lakes.

On this day, 21speed Raleigh Passage 3.5 Hybrid bikes were the mode of transportation. The group tackled the 5.5 miles of trail that Jenny and Brad Smith, owners of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, starts at the Croft Mine Historic Park rode along the Cuyuna State in Crosby and ends Lakes Trail this spring. east of Riverton. The grand design is to connect the Paul Bunyan Trail in Baxter to Aitkin.

Two trails exist. A paved one is used by bike riders, walkers, inline skaters and joggers during the summer and cross country skiers can use it in the winter, although it is ungroomed. An unpaved trail is for snowmobilers and hikers.

Smith is president of the Cuyuna Lakes Trail Associa-

tion that started work on the trail in 1998. She talked about the association’s work to make the trail a reality in 2002. She then turned to the next stages for the trail and recreation area.

One plan is the development of up to 45 miles of single track, natural surface, multi-use trails within the recreation area. Spearheading the project is Tim Wegner, regional director of the International Mountain Bike Association.

Wegner said when he first saw the recreation area he fell in love with it.

“It has everything anyone could want,” said Wegner.

“There is enough acreage that you can put in some substantial trail miles in it. There’s water and lot of other stuff to do there. It could be come a destination spot, where people spend their weekends and travel to. Right now there isn’t a place like that in Minnesota.”

The plan includes beginning to expert level trails for mountain biking, trail running and back-country skiing and snowshoeing. Smith said IMBA would design and construct the trails to last with minimal maintenance.

IMBA would also look into improving the restrooms and shower facilities and adding more of them to accommodate the increased traffic.

The IMBA had requested $125,000 from the state to be used as matching funds for a $600,000 federal transportation grant. IMBA would add an additional $250,000 to $500,000 toward the project.

That money was stalled when Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bonding bill earlier this month, which had included the funding.

“Right now the DNR is working on an environmental assessment worksheet and if we can get the money then we wait for the OK from the DNR,” said Wegner.

“It should take us about 30 months to complete. These trails are only going to be four feet wide and we don’t remove any large trees. If it’s a 2-inch tree we’ll go around it.”

The recreation area’s history with its disturbed soils and the help of the DNR has IMBA excited about using the recreation area as a training site for other trail builders in those types of conditions.

As the riders continued west, they passed a few of the cleared-out overlooks. Each gives trail users a scenic view of the recreation area and its lakes. Benches were added to many of the overlooks.

They visited the Pennington Lake landing. New blacktop and curbing was completed and a bathroom was

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Biking

amazing to me that just because we see it every day, we no longer see the beauty — and it’s breathtaking.

As soon as the weather allows me to, I ride to Nisswa.

It’s about 14 miles round trip on the Paul Bunyan trail from my house. I’m sure there are some hard-core bicyclists that would not be impressed by that ride. For me, it’s huge. Sometimes, the only way I can get my kids to join me is by having Dairy Queen as the bribe. I sometimes have to bribe myself with an iced coffee from Stonehouse Coffee (maturity is totally overrated).

The Paul Bunyan Trail is one of the most beautiful jewels of our area. No matter where you’re at in the Brainerd lakes area, the trail either goes through that town or has a tributary that connects to it. There are rest stops along the way, which are a must if you have children (or out-of-shape grown-

Paul is waiting to greet your youngsters by name top pro walleye fisherman and a former PWT champion. Not only has Ted won many fishing tournaments, he is the CEO of Lindy Little Joe, Inc. maker of many fine fishing products.

T E D T A K A S A K I is one of the country’s

in 8 to 10 feet of water or less, in reservoirs. Fish may be buried in the wood. A slip bobber will bring them out.

Wind is your best friend. Water can be crystal clear early in the year. The breeze cuts light penetration so the walleyes are more active. The wind also drives bobber action, the bait moves up and down and the flicker blade will turn.

Anchor near likely spots. Set the rigs so the bait rides a foot off the bottom and cast into the wind.

Let the bobber float back to the boat and beyond.

Twitch it a time or two before reeling to the boat to entice a strike if a walleye was watching it. “If you find one fish in spring, you didn’t just find one, the others are right there,” Bohn said.

28 A

20

I’VE ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES to reach that runner’s high, but it’s never happened. In fact, if you ever see me running, you better start, too. There’s bound to be a big guy with a chain saw chasing me, or it might be a big mama bear, or a lean, hungry wolf, or a swarm of angry bees. Well, you get the idea.

This article isn’t about jogging (thank goodness) — it’s about biking. I’m talking leisurely biking here. You know, for fun. The exercise part is just a bonus in my opinion. Biking doesn’t feel like exercise to me. It’s simply entertainment. I can get out into nature, see lovely scenery and actually get somewhere.

The Paul Bunyan Trail is basically right outside my door. It’s not the most challenging of trails but it really is lovely to look at. For us locals, I think that sometimes, we forget why we live in the Brainerd lakes area. It’s

The Lakes Area

BIKING

Slip Bobber Rigs, which include everything you need to fish, all pre-tied for you.

These easy to use pre-tied rigs include a barrel swivel with a larger loop at one end to prevent the swivel from getting stuck in the bobber. It is tied to a 2-foot monofilament leader and a 1/32nd or 1/16th Bobber Bug, which adds very little weight to the hook to keep your live bait in the strike zone. Another version of the rig features a Tru-Turn Hook in size 4 for minnows or size 6 for leeches and crawlers.

A red glass bead is added above the hook or Bobber Bug for even more attraction. A petite flicker blade which rides above the bead adds flash for attraction as the bait swims. A minnow or leech will trigger the flicker blade to send out even more flash to provoke a strike.

Use small rubber core sinkers or soft split shot a foot up the line to balance the rig.

Early in the year, stick with lakes with good walleye populations that offer the chance of big fish.

Look for the warmest water. Walleyes will travel miles to find water just a degree or two warmer. Focus on rock or sand bars and protected places where wind has blown warm surface water. Emerging weeds also are key.

Don’t overlook submerged wood, such as stump beds

age. Large slate boulders can be found in and around Pike Creek. One mile north of the park, the Mississippi makes its way through the former glacial plain. Like many parts of Minnesota, the area was originally forested with pine and oak. After the intensive logging of our state’s past, the forest regenerated primarily with oak and smatterings of aspen and pine.

On the river

Once the Crow Wing River merges with the Mississippi, the Ol’ Miss begins to take on the large and rolling character that so defines it. Its widening banks and stronger current make it easy to navigate and move along at a good pace. The smooth and calm waters along this stretch of the river make it easy to observe the wildlife that depend on it. Animals such as otter, whitetail deer, beaver and raccoon all make themselves at home here. Although it is much different than the narrow winding of the Upper Mississippi, it is still considered to be part of the Mississippi Headwaters Trail, as it is within the first 420 miles of the river.

Minnesota’s eastern forests and western prairies meet at Crow Wing State Park and give way to the more open and gently rolling landscape of southern Minnesota. As the river moves south toward Little Falls a unique part of the landscape is the Ripley esker-a ridge of sediment left by glacial deposits. The

three-mile slope supports an oak savanna habitat on one side and a deciduous forest on the other.

Just below Crow Wing State Park is Fort Ripley. Built in 1848, the fort was established to maintain Indian relations. In 1930, a National Guard post was established there. And once travelers get closer to Little Falls, Belle Prairie Park offers day use for canoeists and hikers. Established by a Catholic mission, a convent and boarding school are still in operation.

This site is notable for its stand of virgin white pine.

And of course, the river is great for fishing. Muskie, walleye and smallmouth bass abound in this wide and shady stretch of water. The ubiquitous northern pike also is present.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

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F i s h i n g

T i p s

NORTHWOODS GUIDE GREG BOHN prescribes a remedy for catching lethargic walleyes in cold water during the early spring.

Casting lures or jigs might help locate schools of fish by plucking off an active one or two. But using slip bobbers to dangle live bait in front of the walleyes can produce massive catches.

“They’ve increased my walleye catch by at least 50 percent,” said Bohn, “Mr. Slip Bobber,” who authored the book, “Master the Art of Slip Bobbering” with outdoor writer Scott Richardson. “There are many days when I wouldn’t have caught a walleye at all and wound up catching fish after fish. We fished jigs in between the slip bobbers and never caught a one on them. But we caught 25 on the bobbers.”

What’s more exciting is that a handful of tackle companies, led by Lindy Fishing Tackle, have designed prod-

ucts for 2007 that will make slip bobberin’ so simple everyone can get in on the action.

Start with thread-style bobber stops that stay in place, will slide just enough to allow depth adjustments and don’t nick the line like other bobber stop types can.

Stick with a bright color stop knot and thread on a red glass bead so you can see it to be sure the float slides up to meet the stop every time.

Bohn helped develop the Thill Pro Series floats, which come in four sizes and in both unweighted or weighted designs. The unweighted will support more weight below it, floats higher in the water and is perfect for calmer water. The weighted version allows you to cast more easily into the wind.

Most important, the Pro Series bobbers are made with a brass grommet insert to allow your line to pass through quickly without getting hung up. Or look for Pro Series

SLIP BOBBERIN’ IN SPRING

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Leave Your Boat In Good Hands... ups) in your group, and plenty of places to stop and eat or shop in the towns and cities along the trail.

If you don’t own a bike, or you’re up here vacationing and either didn’t have room or forgot them, there are places to rent. I found the following list of businesses that rent bikes at the Brained Lakes Chamber site (explorebrainerdlakes. com): • Bayside Cabins, Backus, (218) 947-3344 • Breezy Point Resort, Breezy Point, (218) 5688422 • Cragun’s Resort, Brainerd, (218) 825-2700 • Easy Riders, Brainerd, (218) 829-5516 • Trailblazer Bikes, Brainerd, (218) 829-8542 • Cycle Path & Paddle, Crosby, (218) 545-4545 I’m going to share with you some valuable tips that I’ve learned on my misadventures. I hope you can learn by reading about them: • Always wear a helmet. Studies have shown that wear-

M o l l y

R i n g

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ing a bicycle helmet can reduce head injuries by up to 85 percent. Select a helmet that fits snugly and comfortably with lots of ventilation (otherwise they make your head too hot to handle). Especially if children are present, wear a helmet yourself to set a good example.

• Depending on how comfortable your bike seat is, or how accustomed your bum is to bike riding, I would highly recommend padded bike shorts. They will make your trip (no matter how short it may be) so much more comfortable.

Words can’t describe the difference.

• Always bring plenty of water, and more than you think you’ll need. There are places to fill up along the way, but never (it seems) when you need it.

• If you have a rack to strap things to, or a basket to put things in, then you’ll be ahead of the game. Otherwise, a backpack for the remaining items is your next best option.

ON N COUNTRY 2007 NISSAN

The upgraded boat landing at Pennington Lake in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area is just one of the improvements done by the DNR.

SOUTH OF TOWN 16

HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS

FOLLOWING THE MISSISSIPPI SOUTH OUT OF BRAINERD TO LITTLE FALLS IS A WALK IN TWO PARKS. WITH ALL OF THE WATER-RELATED ATTRACTIONS and activities in the Brainerd lakes area, it is easy to overlook the amenities in neighboring regions. One such place is the stretch of Mississippi River that flows south out of Brainerd to Little Falls. Bookended by two of the state’s most beautiful parks — Crow Wing and Charles A. Lindbergh, the full and blue watered river gives canoeists a broad swath of paddling country to enjoy.

Crow Wing

As the Crow Wing River enters the Mississippi, 2,781 acres of land have been set aside as a pristine state park. A site on the National Register of Historic Places, Crow Wing State Park carries the history of a Dakota Indian village, the beauty of a wilderness preserve and the recreational attraction of the Mississippi River. As the river leaves the park and heads south to its much larger destiny, its first pit stop is in Little Falls and Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

Charles A. Lindbergh

With its stone water tower, historic Work Proj-

S o u t h

o f

T o w n

ects Administration picnic shelter, fishing landing, Pike Creek canoe area and hiking trails, Charles A. Lindbergh State Park is one of the region’s best kept secrets. The coup de grace of the city, of course, is the historic home of Charles Lindbergh, the father of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh Jr. The Minnesota Historical Society maintains the home, which is right next to the park.

The 436-acre park is a quaint and relaxing area that is home to the wildlife of the river and many regional songbirds. The Little Falls area and the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh were made famous after Lindbergh flew the first trans-Atlantic solo flight.

In the not so distant past, Dakota Indians used the area and the river for settlement and transportation.

The Red River Oxcart Trail, which was a frequently used settler’s route, traveled near the park on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. The Red River Oxcart Trail is a segment of the larger Woods Trail, which went from St. Paul to Pembina, N.D. The geological history of the region, like most of Minnesota, is a story of glaciers. The park is on a till plain where deposits of clay, gravel and boulders were left by melting and retreating glaciers during the last ice

A t t r a c t i o n s

placed near the landing, just one of the improvements done by the Department of Natural Resources.

Continuing through nature the riders reached the 5.5mile marker, or the end of the trail. Talk then turned to a proposed 1.5-mile addition that would link the current trail to Sagamore Lake, the southwestern tip of the recreation area. This proposal includes adding a mile east of the Croft Mine.

The plan is to run the trail through Riverton, but residents in the small community are concerned with safety issues and increased traffic.

On this day the group turned around and headed east on the trail, the wind picked up, but the relatively flat trail made for easy riding.

Birds and even a garter snake represented the area’s wildlife, but other users of the trail and recreation area have seen deer, bear and other smaller animals. Bald eagles are also a frequent sight, perched high to gaze on the lakes stocked with trout, walleye, northerns and bass.

As 11 peaceful miles of bike riding concluded it was clear the recreation area and the trail that slices through it offer countless opportunities to outdoor enthusiasts, both for economic purposes and to simply escape.

While roadblocks continue in the development of the park and the trail, it’s refreshing that an area that was once abandoned and left bare and red, has revitalized itself and could revitalize the Cuyuna Range as well.

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W i n g e d things

Bug barriers

GOOD NEWS, fellow photographers!

Bona fide members of Class Insecta are ever-so plentiful. More than 75 percent of the living creatures on this planet are insects. More insect species have been identified than all other animal groups combined. More good news for we who shoot is the diverse life cycle of insects. We can shoot bug eggs, bug pupas, bug wannabes (such as caterpillars) and full-fledged adult bugs. Given the challenges of insect photography, bugs just seem to get under some people’s skin.

mind a vision of bonding with nature, do facilitate hopping into your vehicle when bugs want to become “blood brothers.”

Still, though they sometimes drive us a bit buggy, insects are fun to “hunt” and fun to shoot. And the satisfaction — the wonder — when those intricate, brightly colored, larger-thanlife, alien-looking creatures upload onto your computer screen at home.

Ask yourself if you are comfortable photographing one insect in the midst of devouring another. How do you feel about hapless victims struggling in a spider’s web?

Depending on your answers, you may choose to stick to nectar-suckers.

SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

Page

15

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Look for the Fall 2007 Issue of Outdoor Traditions publishing on September 14th.

tion 2 Issue 1 • Edi

Fillet the fish a s y o u would a w fish into sm alleye; do all (herrin n t w g o rr si z adding o y e a ) b pieces. W out the bo ne cup of ash. Pre nes. Cut p ic p k a li n pieces wit re g a sa brine so lt to fou h th lu r e c tion by b u p ri s n e o f so w lu a Wash off ti te o r. Cover th n and let the st e fish p a ie n c d overnig e s o f fish and Drain, rin ht. soak in w se and pla hite c v e in in e To two cu g ja a rs r . Prepare three to ps o fo f a v u in r days. p ic e g k a li ng solutio r (or if yo of wine a u like to u n as follo nd one cu ws: se win po f e v in in e c g o a o r) king, use a d d li st of ingre one cup dients.

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While practice may not make perfect, it will at least help to level the playing field with these subjects that disappear at the speed of light. Given the here-and-gone movement of many insects, photographing flowers first is good practice. Try this on a windy day and you’ll understand how butterflies earned the title of “Flying Flowers.” An unexpected delight, both during this type of practice and on focused flower shoots,

Area

Bugs are small.

Bug habitat is tick habitat.

Bugs tantalize with flittering and skittering, then scoot for safety as you squeeze the shutter. Bugs move.

They move often and they move fast. The winged versions have irregular flight patterns, maintain a large circle of safety and zoom about on the sunniest of days, through shadows and glaring sunlight. In addition, as you know only too well, many bugs only come out at dusk.

Local insects call abandoned fields, streams, tall grass along ponds and even roadsides home.

Roadsides, which may not bring to

Food

Photos provided by Carolyn Corbett

Lakes

Y o u !

the

B u g s

Biking

View Studio, a print and web design firm located in Pequot Lakes. She enjoys being creative, whether it involves pictures or words.

W h a t

22

M O L L Y R I N G is the owner of Skewed

30 S h o o t

• Bring your cell phone — you don’t have to turn it on, but you’ll be glad you have it if you get a flat tire or a little one that can’t bike one marker farther.

• Bring a camera and/or binoculars; there are a number of absolutely picturesque spots as well as a variety of wildlife thriving along the trail — definitely worthy of a closer look or a picture.

• If you have a GPS unit, bring it. There are geo-caches all over the 371-corridor area (which, coincidentally, runs right next to the Paul Bunyan Trail for many miles).

Check out www.geocaching.com for more information.

• Snacks such as granola bars, apples, peanuts and fruit snacks are all great fuel choices that travel well.

They also can second as a great incentive to get to the next rest stop.

• Sunscreen is essential.

Apply before you leave and bring it. When you’re clipping along on your bike, the cool breeze can disguise the burn you’re receiving until it’s too late.

• Dress for the weather and pack for possibilities.

Not sure how long you’ll be gone? Then pack a light jacket. Is rain a risk? Throw some rain gear in your pack.

Chilly start? Then dress in layers with shorts underneath (the padded ones.

You won’t regret it). Sunny all day? Then sunglasses are a must, unless you want to

squint the whole way.

• Maps are necessary if you plan on straying from the main trail, even a little bit. But maps are beneficial even if you’re planning to stay on it. They can help to locate food and water sources, alternate routes, as well as assist with time estimations.

• A basic first-aid kit is always a good idea, no matter how long the ride. If there are young one’s involved, it’s crucial. Wipeouts happen, and they can never be planned or predicted. Having the essentials can make it tolerable.

• If you pack it in — pack it out. Litter is never acceptable.

Leave no trace of your passing so the next people through can enjoy it as much as you did.

And lastly, enjoy yourselves. Don’t feel you have to go a specific number of miles. Stay open to the possibilities. Enjoy the scenery and leave the rules at work where they belong. It’s supposed to be fun!

Continued from page 19

Hiking

Many of the campsites along the river are the converging points of regional and historic hiking trails.

Whether spending the day or stretching your legs after canoeing the river, spending a few hours exploring the old towns, settlements, burial sites and forests that once provided shelter and transportation for American Indians and early Minnesota settlers will be entertaining and educational. The unique location of the river gives hikers opportunity to see migrating birds, river wildlife and a diverse set of regional wildflowers. Many of the stopping points that provide hiking trails are among the foundations of early settlements. An old button factory, Indian burial mounds and Old Wadena are among some of the more curious points of interest.

Camping

While all 16 of the Crow Wing Canoe Trail’s campsites are notable, some of them have particular appeal.

The first site along the route is the Shell City Campground, near the Shell River, one of the Crow Wing’s tributaries. The site is on more than 60 acres of land, which was once the Shell City settlement. The early boomtown boasted a button factory that used clam shells from the local rivers, a hotel and a stagecoach barn. Foundations of the town and old wagon trails still remain, though wildflowers and birds are the only residents.

Farther down the river, campers will find Tree Farm Landing. The secluded, sheltered site boasts the Pasque flower and numerous other wildflowers in the 2,000acre Northwest Tree Farm. Hiking trails run through the farm, and a 20-acre campsite and picnic area provides shade and relaxation to its visitors.

At the Huntersville Township Campsite, a curious splitlevel campsite is available in the Huntersville State Forest within walking distance of the early pioneer settlement of Huntersville. This site is known for its wild berries, including blueberries. The county maintained campground and picnic area is equipped with toilets.

For the brave, Big Bend Campsite provides a remote wilderness camping facility only accessible by river.

Continued on page 33

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CMYK

W i n g e d things

Bug barriers

GOOD NEWS, fellow photographers!

Bona fide members of Class Insecta are ever-so plentiful. More than 75 percent of the living creatures on this planet are insects. More insect species have been identified than all other animal groups combined. More good news for we who shoot is the diverse life cycle of insects. We can shoot bug eggs, bug pupas, bug wannabes (such as caterpillars) and full-fledged adult bugs. Given the challenges of insect photography, bugs just seem to get under some people’s skin.

mind a vision of bonding with nature, do facilitate hopping into your vehicle when bugs want to become “blood brothers.”

Still, though they sometimes drive us a bit buggy, insects are fun to “hunt” and fun to shoot. And the satisfaction — the wonder — when those intricate, brightly colored, larger-thanlife, alien-looking creatures upload onto your computer screen at home.

Ask yourself if you are comfortable photographing one insect in the midst of devouring another. How do you feel about hapless victims struggling in a spider’s web?

Depending on your answers, you may choose to stick to nectar-suckers.

SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

Page

15

Store Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8-5:30 • Sat. 8-4:30 • Hwy. 371 S • Pine River, MN (218) 587-2228

See Us For Prepared Kabobs or Ingredients to Make Your Own

Grilling Great Ideas

Holidays • Weddings • Anniversaries • Graduations • Birthdays

For All Your Catering Needs

Remember Us

MMMMMMMMMMMM... www Read Online:

8 AM 2/20/07 10:20:3

patc .brainerddis

h.com

PLUS MORE! nda By: Dave Csa n Crappies Corbett • Early Seaso Walk By: Carolyn a Camera for r By: Mike Bialka • Take Your luctant Angle Lane: The Re • Memory es Natural Recip • Dr. Lund’s MA BY: BILL

RCHEL

Featur UCK WOOD D WATCH ed in this iss

ue

Look for the Fall 2007 Issue of Outdoor Traditions publishing on September 14th.

tion 2 Issue 1 • Edi

Fillet the fish a s y o u would a w fish into sm alleye; do all (herrin n t w g o rr si z adding o y e a ) b pieces. W out the bo ne cup of ash. Pre nes. Cut p ic p k a li n pieces wit re g a sa brine so lt to fou h th lu r e c tion by b u p ri s n e o f so w lu a Wash off ti te o r. Cover th n and let the st e fish p a ie n c d overnig e s o f fish and Drain, rin ht. soak in w se and pla hite c v e in in e To two cu g ja a rs r . Prepare three to ps o fo f a v u in r days. p ic e g k a li ng solutio r (or if yo of wine a u like to u n as follo nd one cu ws: se win po f e v in in e c g o a o r) king, use a d d li st of ingre one cup dients.

1 choppe d onion 1 sliced le m o n 2 tbls. mu stard see d 2 eggs lig h tly beaten 1 3/4 cup sugar

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Nature’s FOOD PICKLED NORTHE RN

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While practice may not make perfect, it will at least help to level the playing field with these subjects that disappear at the speed of light. Given the here-and-gone movement of many insects, photographing flowers first is good practice. Try this on a windy day and you’ll understand how butterflies earned the title of “Flying Flowers.” An unexpected delight, both during this type of practice and on focused flower shoots,

Area

Bugs are small.

Bug habitat is tick habitat.

Bugs tantalize with flittering and skittering, then scoot for safety as you squeeze the shutter. Bugs move.

They move often and they move fast. The winged versions have irregular flight patterns, maintain a large circle of safety and zoom about on the sunniest of days, through shadows and glaring sunlight. In addition, as you know only too well, many bugs only come out at dusk.

Local insects call abandoned fields, streams, tall grass along ponds and even roadsides home.

Roadsides, which may not bring to

Food

Photos provided by Carolyn Corbett

Lakes

Y o u !

the

B u g s

Biking

View Studio, a print and web design firm located in Pequot Lakes. She enjoys being creative, whether it involves pictures or words.

W h a t

22

M O L L Y R I N G is the owner of Skewed

30 S h o o t

• Bring your cell phone — you don’t have to turn it on, but you’ll be glad you have it if you get a flat tire or a little one that can’t bike one marker farther.

• Bring a camera and/or binoculars; there are a number of absolutely picturesque spots as well as a variety of wildlife thriving along the trail — definitely worthy of a closer look or a picture.

• If you have a GPS unit, bring it. There are geo-caches all over the 371-corridor area (which, coincidentally, runs right next to the Paul Bunyan Trail for many miles).

Check out www.geocaching.com for more information.

• Snacks such as granola bars, apples, peanuts and fruit snacks are all great fuel choices that travel well.

They also can second as a great incentive to get to the next rest stop.

• Sunscreen is essential.

Apply before you leave and bring it. When you’re clipping along on your bike, the cool breeze can disguise the burn you’re receiving until it’s too late.

• Dress for the weather and pack for possibilities.

Not sure how long you’ll be gone? Then pack a light jacket. Is rain a risk? Throw some rain gear in your pack.

Chilly start? Then dress in layers with shorts underneath (the padded ones.

You won’t regret it). Sunny all day? Then sunglasses are a must, unless you want to

squint the whole way.

• Maps are necessary if you plan on straying from the main trail, even a little bit. But maps are beneficial even if you’re planning to stay on it. They can help to locate food and water sources, alternate routes, as well as assist with time estimations.

• A basic first-aid kit is always a good idea, no matter how long the ride. If there are young one’s involved, it’s crucial. Wipeouts happen, and they can never be planned or predicted. Having the essentials can make it tolerable.

• If you pack it in — pack it out. Litter is never acceptable.

Leave no trace of your passing so the next people through can enjoy it as much as you did.

And lastly, enjoy yourselves. Don’t feel you have to go a specific number of miles. Stay open to the possibilities. Enjoy the scenery and leave the rules at work where they belong. It’s supposed to be fun!

Continued from page 19

Hiking

Many of the campsites along the river are the converging points of regional and historic hiking trails.

Whether spending the day or stretching your legs after canoeing the river, spending a few hours exploring the old towns, settlements, burial sites and forests that once provided shelter and transportation for American Indians and early Minnesota settlers will be entertaining and educational. The unique location of the river gives hikers opportunity to see migrating birds, river wildlife and a diverse set of regional wildflowers. Many of the stopping points that provide hiking trails are among the foundations of early settlements. An old button factory, Indian burial mounds and Old Wadena are among some of the more curious points of interest.

Camping

While all 16 of the Crow Wing Canoe Trail’s campsites are notable, some of them have particular appeal.

The first site along the route is the Shell City Campground, near the Shell River, one of the Crow Wing’s tributaries. The site is on more than 60 acres of land, which was once the Shell City settlement. The early boomtown boasted a button factory that used clam shells from the local rivers, a hotel and a stagecoach barn. Foundations of the town and old wagon trails still remain, though wildflowers and birds are the only residents.

Farther down the river, campers will find Tree Farm Landing. The secluded, sheltered site boasts the Pasque flower and numerous other wildflowers in the 2,000acre Northwest Tree Farm. Hiking trails run through the farm, and a 20-acre campsite and picnic area provides shade and relaxation to its visitors.

At the Huntersville Township Campsite, a curious splitlevel campsite is available in the Huntersville State Forest within walking distance of the early pioneer settlement of Huntersville. This site is known for its wild berries, including blueberries. The county maintained campground and picnic area is equipped with toilets.

For the brave, Big Bend Campsite provides a remote wilderness camping facility only accessible by river.

Continued on page 33

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F i s h i n g

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NORTHWOODS GUIDE GREG BOHN prescribes a remedy for catching lethargic walleyes in cold water during the early spring.

Casting lures or jigs might help locate schools of fish by plucking off an active one or two. But using slip bobbers to dangle live bait in front of the walleyes can produce massive catches.

“They’ve increased my walleye catch by at least 50 percent,” said Bohn, “Mr. Slip Bobber,” who authored the book, “Master the Art of Slip Bobbering” with outdoor writer Scott Richardson. “There are many days when I wouldn’t have caught a walleye at all and wound up catching fish after fish. We fished jigs in between the slip bobbers and never caught a one on them. But we caught 25 on the bobbers.”

What’s more exciting is that a handful of tackle companies, led by Lindy Fishing Tackle, have designed prod-

ucts for 2007 that will make slip bobberin’ so simple everyone can get in on the action.

Start with thread-style bobber stops that stay in place, will slide just enough to allow depth adjustments and don’t nick the line like other bobber stop types can.

Stick with a bright color stop knot and thread on a red glass bead so you can see it to be sure the float slides up to meet the stop every time.

Bohn helped develop the Thill Pro Series floats, which come in four sizes and in both unweighted or weighted designs. The unweighted will support more weight below it, floats higher in the water and is perfect for calmer water. The weighted version allows you to cast more easily into the wind.

Most important, the Pro Series bobbers are made with a brass grommet insert to allow your line to pass through quickly without getting hung up. Or look for Pro Series

SLIP BOBBERIN’ IN SPRING

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Leave Your Boat In Good Hands... ups) in your group, and plenty of places to stop and eat or shop in the towns and cities along the trail.

If you don’t own a bike, or you’re up here vacationing and either didn’t have room or forgot them, there are places to rent. I found the following list of businesses that rent bikes at the Brained Lakes Chamber site (explorebrainerdlakes. com): • Bayside Cabins, Backus, (218) 947-3344 • Breezy Point Resort, Breezy Point, (218) 5688422 • Cragun’s Resort, Brainerd, (218) 825-2700 • Easy Riders, Brainerd, (218) 829-5516 • Trailblazer Bikes, Brainerd, (218) 829-8542 • Cycle Path & Paddle, Crosby, (218) 545-4545 I’m going to share with you some valuable tips that I’ve learned on my misadventures. I hope you can learn by reading about them: • Always wear a helmet. Studies have shown that wear-

M o l l y

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ing a bicycle helmet can reduce head injuries by up to 85 percent. Select a helmet that fits snugly and comfortably with lots of ventilation (otherwise they make your head too hot to handle). Especially if children are present, wear a helmet yourself to set a good example.

• Depending on how comfortable your bike seat is, or how accustomed your bum is to bike riding, I would highly recommend padded bike shorts. They will make your trip (no matter how short it may be) so much more comfortable.

Words can’t describe the difference.

• Always bring plenty of water, and more than you think you’ll need. There are places to fill up along the way, but never (it seems) when you need it.

• If you have a rack to strap things to, or a basket to put things in, then you’ll be ahead of the game. Otherwise, a backpack for the remaining items is your next best option.

ON N COUNTRY 2007 NISSAN

The upgraded boat landing at Pennington Lake in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area is just one of the improvements done by the DNR.

SOUTH OF TOWN 16

HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS

FOLLOWING THE MISSISSIPPI SOUTH OUT OF BRAINERD TO LITTLE FALLS IS A WALK IN TWO PARKS. WITH ALL OF THE WATER-RELATED ATTRACTIONS and activities in the Brainerd lakes area, it is easy to overlook the amenities in neighboring regions. One such place is the stretch of Mississippi River that flows south out of Brainerd to Little Falls. Bookended by two of the state’s most beautiful parks — Crow Wing and Charles A. Lindbergh, the full and blue watered river gives canoeists a broad swath of paddling country to enjoy.

Crow Wing

As the Crow Wing River enters the Mississippi, 2,781 acres of land have been set aside as a pristine state park. A site on the National Register of Historic Places, Crow Wing State Park carries the history of a Dakota Indian village, the beauty of a wilderness preserve and the recreational attraction of the Mississippi River. As the river leaves the park and heads south to its much larger destiny, its first pit stop is in Little Falls and Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

Charles A. Lindbergh

With its stone water tower, historic Work Proj-

S o u t h

o f

T o w n

ects Administration picnic shelter, fishing landing, Pike Creek canoe area and hiking trails, Charles A. Lindbergh State Park is one of the region’s best kept secrets. The coup de grace of the city, of course, is the historic home of Charles Lindbergh, the father of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh Jr. The Minnesota Historical Society maintains the home, which is right next to the park.

The 436-acre park is a quaint and relaxing area that is home to the wildlife of the river and many regional songbirds. The Little Falls area and the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh were made famous after Lindbergh flew the first trans-Atlantic solo flight.

In the not so distant past, Dakota Indians used the area and the river for settlement and transportation.

The Red River Oxcart Trail, which was a frequently used settler’s route, traveled near the park on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. The Red River Oxcart Trail is a segment of the larger Woods Trail, which went from St. Paul to Pembina, N.D. The geological history of the region, like most of Minnesota, is a story of glaciers. The park is on a till plain where deposits of clay, gravel and boulders were left by melting and retreating glaciers during the last ice

A t t r a c t i o n s

placed near the landing, just one of the improvements done by the Department of Natural Resources.

Continuing through nature the riders reached the 5.5mile marker, or the end of the trail. Talk then turned to a proposed 1.5-mile addition that would link the current trail to Sagamore Lake, the southwestern tip of the recreation area. This proposal includes adding a mile east of the Croft Mine.

The plan is to run the trail through Riverton, but residents in the small community are concerned with safety issues and increased traffic.

On this day the group turned around and headed east on the trail, the wind picked up, but the relatively flat trail made for easy riding.

Birds and even a garter snake represented the area’s wildlife, but other users of the trail and recreation area have seen deer, bear and other smaller animals. Bald eagles are also a frequent sight, perched high to gaze on the lakes stocked with trout, walleye, northerns and bass.

As 11 peaceful miles of bike riding concluded it was clear the recreation area and the trail that slices through it offer countless opportunities to outdoor enthusiasts, both for economic purposes and to simply escape.

While roadblocks continue in the development of the park and the trail, it’s refreshing that an area that was once abandoned and left bare and red, has revitalized itself and could revitalize the Cuyuna Range as well.

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25

A RIDE THROUGH IRON RECREATION AREA, TRAIL A LINK BETWEEN CUYUNA RANGE’S PAST AND FUTURE A DRY, HARD WIND whipped through the red rock landscape as three bikers rode west.

Bright green leaf buds peppered birch and ironwood limbs and natural grasses were already greening, gaining on the spruce and pine needles on this late spring day.

The blacktop of the Cuyuna State Lakes Trail minimized the wind resistance as bikers trekked through the 5,000-acre Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, north of Crosby and Ironton.

Rubber tires catching on the path’s pavement replaced silence between conversations concerning the trail and recreation area, their uses and the scenery that transformed dust-filled iron ore mining pits and rock stockpiles into the natural, quiet park dotted with clear mine lakes.

The steep embankments of the 16 lakes and the clean water they protect highlight the 14-year-old recreation area, which became Minnesota’s first in 1993.

Jenny Smith, owner of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, and her husband, Brad, visit the recreation area often, either darting past five of the mine lakes the trail runs along or kayaking the waterways that connect eight small mine lakes.

On this day, 21speed Raleigh Passage 3.5 Hybrid bikes were the mode of transportation. The group tackled the 5.5 miles of trail that Jenny and Brad Smith, owners of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, starts at the Croft Mine Historic Park rode along the Cuyuna State in Crosby and ends Lakes Trail this spring. east of Riverton. The grand design is to connect the Paul Bunyan Trail in Baxter to Aitkin.

Two trails exist. A paved one is used by bike riders, walkers, inline skaters and joggers during the summer and cross country skiers can use it in the winter, although it is ungroomed. An unpaved trail is for snowmobilers and hikers.

Smith is president of the Cuyuna Lakes Trail Associa-

tion that started work on the trail in 1998. She talked about the association’s work to make the trail a reality in 2002. She then turned to the next stages for the trail and recreation area.

One plan is the development of up to 45 miles of single track, natural surface, multi-use trails within the recreation area. Spearheading the project is Tim Wegner, regional director of the International Mountain Bike Association.

Wegner said when he first saw the recreation area he fell in love with it.

“It has everything anyone could want,” said Wegner.

“There is enough acreage that you can put in some substantial trail miles in it. There’s water and lot of other stuff to do there. It could be come a destination spot, where people spend their weekends and travel to. Right now there isn’t a place like that in Minnesota.”

The plan includes beginning to expert level trails for mountain biking, trail running and back-country skiing and snowshoeing. Smith said IMBA would design and construct the trails to last with minimal maintenance.

IMBA would also look into improving the restrooms and shower facilities and adding more of them to accommodate the increased traffic.

The IMBA had requested $125,000 from the state to be used as matching funds for a $600,000 federal transportation grant. IMBA would add an additional $250,000 to $500,000 toward the project.

That money was stalled when Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bonding bill earlier this month, which had included the funding.

“Right now the DNR is working on an environmental assessment worksheet and if we can get the money then we wait for the OK from the DNR,” said Wegner.

“It should take us about 30 months to complete. These trails are only going to be four feet wide and we don’t remove any large trees. If it’s a 2-inch tree we’ll go around it.”

The recreation area’s history with its disturbed soils and the help of the DNR has IMBA excited about using the recreation area as a training site for other trail builders in those types of conditions.

As the riders continued west, they passed a few of the cleared-out overlooks. Each gives trail users a scenic view of the recreation area and its lakes. Benches were added to many of the overlooks.

They visited the Pennington Lake landing. New blacktop and curbing was completed and a bathroom was

C o u n t r y

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Paul Bunyan Land R i d e

Biking

amazing to me that just because we see it every day, we no longer see the beauty — and it’s breathtaking.

As soon as the weather allows me to, I ride to Nisswa.

It’s about 14 miles round trip on the Paul Bunyan trail from my house. I’m sure there are some hard-core bicyclists that would not be impressed by that ride. For me, it’s huge. Sometimes, the only way I can get my kids to join me is by having Dairy Queen as the bribe. I sometimes have to bribe myself with an iced coffee from Stonehouse Coffee (maturity is totally overrated).

The Paul Bunyan Trail is one of the most beautiful jewels of our area. No matter where you’re at in the Brainerd lakes area, the trail either goes through that town or has a tributary that connects to it. There are rest stops along the way, which are a must if you have children (or out-of-shape grown-

Paul is waiting to greet your youngsters by name top pro walleye fisherman and a former PWT champion. Not only has Ted won many fishing tournaments, he is the CEO of Lindy Little Joe, Inc. maker of many fine fishing products.

T E D T A K A S A K I is one of the country’s

in 8 to 10 feet of water or less, in reservoirs. Fish may be buried in the wood. A slip bobber will bring them out.

Wind is your best friend. Water can be crystal clear early in the year. The breeze cuts light penetration so the walleyes are more active. The wind also drives bobber action, the bait moves up and down and the flicker blade will turn.

Anchor near likely spots. Set the rigs so the bait rides a foot off the bottom and cast into the wind.

Let the bobber float back to the boat and beyond.

Twitch it a time or two before reeling to the boat to entice a strike if a walleye was watching it. “If you find one fish in spring, you didn’t just find one, the others are right there,” Bohn said.

28 A

20

I’VE ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES to reach that runner’s high, but it’s never happened. In fact, if you ever see me running, you better start, too. There’s bound to be a big guy with a chain saw chasing me, or it might be a big mama bear, or a lean, hungry wolf, or a swarm of angry bees. Well, you get the idea.

This article isn’t about jogging (thank goodness) — it’s about biking. I’m talking leisurely biking here. You know, for fun. The exercise part is just a bonus in my opinion. Biking doesn’t feel like exercise to me. It’s simply entertainment. I can get out into nature, see lovely scenery and actually get somewhere.

The Paul Bunyan Trail is basically right outside my door. It’s not the most challenging of trails but it really is lovely to look at. For us locals, I think that sometimes, we forget why we live in the Brainerd lakes area. It’s

The Lakes Area

BIKING

Slip Bobber Rigs, which include everything you need to fish, all pre-tied for you.

These easy to use pre-tied rigs include a barrel swivel with a larger loop at one end to prevent the swivel from getting stuck in the bobber. It is tied to a 2-foot monofilament leader and a 1/32nd or 1/16th Bobber Bug, which adds very little weight to the hook to keep your live bait in the strike zone. Another version of the rig features a Tru-Turn Hook in size 4 for minnows or size 6 for leeches and crawlers.

A red glass bead is added above the hook or Bobber Bug for even more attraction. A petite flicker blade which rides above the bead adds flash for attraction as the bait swims. A minnow or leech will trigger the flicker blade to send out even more flash to provoke a strike.

Use small rubber core sinkers or soft split shot a foot up the line to balance the rig.

Early in the year, stick with lakes with good walleye populations that offer the chance of big fish.

Look for the warmest water. Walleyes will travel miles to find water just a degree or two warmer. Focus on rock or sand bars and protected places where wind has blown warm surface water. Emerging weeds also are key.

Don’t overlook submerged wood, such as stump beds

age. Large slate boulders can be found in and around Pike Creek. One mile north of the park, the Mississippi makes its way through the former glacial plain. Like many parts of Minnesota, the area was originally forested with pine and oak. After the intensive logging of our state’s past, the forest regenerated primarily with oak and smatterings of aspen and pine.

On the river

Once the Crow Wing River merges with the Mississippi, the Ol’ Miss begins to take on the large and rolling character that so defines it. Its widening banks and stronger current make it easy to navigate and move along at a good pace. The smooth and calm waters along this stretch of the river make it easy to observe the wildlife that depend on it. Animals such as otter, whitetail deer, beaver and raccoon all make themselves at home here. Although it is much different than the narrow winding of the Upper Mississippi, it is still considered to be part of the Mississippi Headwaters Trail, as it is within the first 420 miles of the river.

Minnesota’s eastern forests and western prairies meet at Crow Wing State Park and give way to the more open and gently rolling landscape of southern Minnesota. As the river moves south toward Little Falls a unique part of the landscape is the Ripley esker-a ridge of sediment left by glacial deposits. The

three-mile slope supports an oak savanna habitat on one side and a deciduous forest on the other.

Just below Crow Wing State Park is Fort Ripley. Built in 1848, the fort was established to maintain Indian relations. In 1930, a National Guard post was established there. And once travelers get closer to Little Falls, Belle Prairie Park offers day use for canoeists and hikers. Established by a Catholic mission, a convent and boarding school are still in operation.

This site is notable for its stand of virgin white pine.

And of course, the river is great for fishing. Muskie, walleye and smallmouth bass abound in this wide and shady stretch of water. The ubiquitous northern pike also is present.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

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J a k e

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17

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Become A Member!

Dale E. Braddy, Executive Director.

One of many gardens in the Arboretum.

Riverside Elementary School build Blue Bird houses to be placed on the Arboretum grounds.

High School class learns the correct way to plant trees.

Adult Education demonstration, logging done with horses.

Fouth graders learn firsthand about the value of green space from a Forester.

AS SPRING FULLY ARRIVES and summer begins, all 540 acres of the Northland Arboretum come alive. The entire acreage is an outdoor classroom for local students K through College. Come visit and see, learn about, and enjoy nature. The Arboretum is a sanctuary for a huge variety of wildlife and home of magnificent gardens.

Everyone needs to take time to smell the roses and watch a butterfly. There is not a better place to appreciate nature than the Northland Arboretum. “Take the Time!”

THE ARBORETUM...

“AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM.”

that probably got here as an ornamental.

Spiny waterfleas have been found in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and in lakes near Duluth. Bighead carp are as near as Lake Pepin in southeastern Minnesota. Silver carp, which leap from the water at the sound of an outboard motor, have been found farther downstream.

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Attempts to control purple loosestrife, for example, have been successful. Chemical applications were tried at first, but the plant was so widespread that chemicals didn’t work.

Then about 15 years ago the Minnesota DNR, in conjunction with Cornell University, Stephen Hight and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, went to Europe and returned with galerucella, a beetle that controls purple loosestrife. Anytime a foreign species is considered for introduction to control another foreign species, biologists undertake a rigorous review of the potential effects of the foreign species being considered as a possible control agent to ensure that the agent does not damage valuable native species of their habitat.

But galerucella seems to be a success story so far. The plant-eating beetle feeds on loosestrife, raises its young on the plant, winters on the leaf litter and goes back to work the next spring.

As for curly leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil, control, not elimination, is the only option. The DNR works with lake associations in creating plans to control the weeds through the use of herbicides. Mechanical control can be effective in managing some of the problems caused by these plants.

Curly leaf pondweed has been especially troublesome because it forms buds in June that germinate in September. New plants grow under the ice during winter and do well when a lack of snowcover allows sun to penetrate the ice and work its magic on the noxious greenery below.

Recent mild, snowless winters appear to have allowed curly leaf pondweed to grow abundantly in some lakes.

To see what the DNR is doing to battle invasive species, turn to Page 67 in the Minnesota Fishing Regulations handbook. Laws have been passed in an attempt to control the spread of invasive species, and the agency has a campaign to “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers.” Also in place is a watercraft inspection program in which inspectors are trained to educate boaters on how to prevent the spread of invasives.

Locally, 15 car washes in the Brainerd area have agreed to let boaters use their stalls to wash their boats.

A thorough washing with hot water remains the single most effective way to prevent invasive species from reaching new waters. kee, Ruth, Mille Lacs and Alexander lakes.

WEST OF TOWN HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS JUST WEST OF THE LAKES AREA, THE CROW WING CANOE TRAIL PROVIDES VISITORS WITH RECREATION, HISTORY AND WILDERNESS.

Ossawinnamakee pulled a double in 2003, when it was found to have zebra mussels, the next invasive species to get here. The mussels, which filter nutrients from the water that otherwise would be eaten by fish and other native species, were found by a dock installer on a boat lift and dock in October of that year. DNR fisheries divers found it in Mille Lacs in 2005, and later that same year the mussels were found in Rice Lake by a 14-year old boy who had filled his minnow bucket with water from the lake.

JUST WEST OF THE BRAINERD LAKES AREA is a region of lesser-known parks, trails and riverways near Sebeka. From this area northwest of Brainerd, the Crow Wing River begins and provides Minnesotans with one of the state’s premier canoe and hiking routes. Several parks and landings are placed along the river’s route, giving visitors an opportunity to observe the history, wildlife and natural landscape of central Minnesota.

As the Crow Wing River winds its way southeast from Blueberry Bridge to its namesake merging point with the Mississippi, it creates one of Minnesota’s 19 designated canoe and boating route rivers — and it holds the designation with good reason. The Crow Wing River is regionally famous for its sense of preserved wilderness and untouched quality. Canoeing, hiking and camping along the Crow Wing gives travelers a sense of what the state looked like several hundreds of years ago.

Canoeing

From Ossawinnamakee zebra mussels got into Pelican Brook. From Rice Lake they got into the Mississippi River, where today they’re found downstream as far as Central Lakes College. Surveys conducted later this summer will determine if the river’s current has carried the invaders farther downstream.

Next up could be flowering rush. It’s already found as near as Detroit Lake and Sauk Lake. Hydrilla is as near as Indiana. Both invasives are on the DNR’s list of 10 least wanted plants. Hydrilla is the number one aquatic plant nuisance in the nation. Large, floating mats of hydrilla can completely cover the surface of a bay or shallow lake.

“We don’t have it yet and we don’t want it,” said Dan Swanson, DNR aquatic specialist in Brainerd.

Flowering rush isn’t found in many state waters, but it could become a problem if it successfully expands from Detroit Lake and other waters in Minnesota where it already exists. Flowering rush is another invasive plant

Mix

...and Hunting!

Banquets...

Meetings...

Update

Photos provided by Vince Meyer

The river is a popular canoe passage for more than its beauty. There are 16 public campsites located conveniently along its shores. There are no dams or portages that obstruct the river’s path. With more than 90 miles of meandering water, a family can lazily drift through a day full of picnics and sunshine, or more ambitious canoe campers can spend days camping and paddling to the Mississippi.

Those who are more interested in the wildlife and scenery than the physical challenges of the river will be rewarded by the numerous deer, bear, otter, mink and beaver that frequent the Crow Wing’s serene waters. Part of the Mississippi Flyway, the area is host to vast arrays of migrating birds and waterfowl.

SUMMER SALE!!

Continued on page 23

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• Custom Splash Guards • Replacement Glass for Boat Windshields • Custom Storm Windows & Screens

417855

With

INVASIVE SPECIES UPDATE

2nd Annual Blind Wine Tasting Contest September 13, 2007 - Mark Your Calendars!

V I N C E M E Y E R , outdoors editor at the Brainerd Dispatch, has worked for newspapers in Alaska, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

A former editor once told him that failed hunting and fishing trips sometimes make the best stories. As such he expects no shortage of good material.

Species

For information on upcoming events and programs, go to our website at arb@brainerd.com or call (218) 829-8770.

Meyer Invasive

Photos provided by Northland Arboretum

Eurasian watermilfoil was first discovered in Minnesota in Lake Minnetonka in 1987. The first lake in the Brainerd area in which it was found was Bay Lake in 1991. It took root in Nelson Bay, was treated there, but spread anyway, a characteristic of the plant that has frustrated would-be controllers ever since.

Today milfoil also is found in Ossawinnama-

Arboretum

Curly leaf pondweed was discovered in Big Trout Lake in 1961. Today it’s documented to exist in more than 700 lakes statewide (though the actual number may be triple that), a testimony to its hardiness and ability to spread.

Next up was purple loosestrife, which probably got here as an ornamental plant. As late as 1987 it still was sold as an ornamental in Wright County. The flowers are pretty, no doubt, but their ability to choke all native plants from the landscape makes loosestrife a noxious weed.

One plant can produce 2 million seeds, crowding out cattails, bulrushes and other native plants in wetlands and near lakes.

18

26

IT STARTED IN 1958 with the discovery of curly leaf pondweed in Lake Placid, an impoundment on the Crow Wing River near Pillager.

That event marked the first time an aquatic invasive plant was documented in the Brainerd lakes area. Today invasive species are household words and it seems a year doesn’t pass in which another invader makes inroads io the lakes country.

Boat lifts and docks, as well as our own aluminum sectional and truss roll-in docks manufactured by Lake Area Dock & Lifts. Get ready for warm weather come see our water toys!

• Custom Mirrors • Shower Doors

829-2881

1-800-726-8445

18441 State Hwy 371 Brainerd MN

West

of

Town

AND FLOATING DOCKS

• Store Fronts • Auto Glass

BRAINERD

CROSSLAKE

5 Mi. N. on Hwy 371

1/2 Mi. S. on Hwy 3

• Commercial Lock & Key

(218) 825-3874 1-888-249-0843

(218) 692-1785 1-866-692-1785

Attractions

Photos provided by Jake kulju

Jake

Kulju

19

Meyer

CMYK

kee, Ruth, Mille Lacs and Alexander lakes.

WEST OF TOWN HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS JUST WEST OF THE LAKES AREA, THE CROW WING CANOE TRAIL PROVIDES VISITORS WITH RECREATION, HISTORY AND WILDERNESS. JUST WEST OF THE BRAINERD LAKES AREA is a region of lesser-known parks, trails and riverways near Sebeka. From this area northwest of Brainerd, the Crow Wing River begins and provides Minnesotans with one of the state’s premier canoe and hiking routes. Several parks and landings are placed along the river’s route, giving visitors an opportunity to observe the history, wildlife and natural landscape of central Minnesota.

As the Crow Wing River winds its way southeast from Blueberry Bridge to its namesake merging point with the Mississippi, it creates one of Minnesota’s 19 designated canoe and boating route rivers — and it holds the designation with good reason. The Crow Wing River is regionally famous for its sense of preserved wilderness and untouched quality. Canoeing, hiking and camping along the Crow Wing gives travelers a sense of what the state looked like several hundreds of years ago.

Ossawinnamakee pulled a double in 2003, when it was found to have zebra mussels, the next invasive species to get here. The mussels, which filter nutrients from the water that otherwise would be eaten by fish and other native species, were found by a dock installer on a boat lift and dock in October of that year. DNR fisheries divers found it in Mille Lacs in 2005, and later that same year the mussels were found in Rice Lake by a 14-year old boy who had filled his minnow bucket with water from the lake.

Canoeing

The river is a popular canoe passage for more than its beauty. There are 16 public campsites located conveniently along its shores. There are no dams or portages that obstruct the river’s path. With more than 90 miles of meandering water, a family can lazily drift through a day full of picnics and sunshine, or more ambitious canoe campers can spend days camping and paddling to the Mississippi.

Those who are more interested in the wildlife and scenery than the physical challenges of the river will be rewarded by the numerous deer, bear, otter, mink and beaver that frequent the Crow Wing’s serene waters. Part of the Mississippi Flyway, the area is host to vast arrays of migrating birds and waterfowl.

From Ossawinnamakee zebra mussels got into Pelican Brook. From Rice Lake they got into the Mississippi River, where today they’re found downstream as far as Central Lakes College. Surveys conducted later this summer will determine if the river’s current has carried the invaders farther downstream.

Next up could be flowering rush. It’s already found as near as Detroit Lake and Sauk Lake. Hydrilla is as near as Indiana. Both invasives are on the DNR’s list of 10 least wanted plants. Hydrilla is the number one aquatic plant nuisance in the nation. Large, floating mats of hydrilla can completely cover the surface of a bay or shallow lake.

“We don’t have it yet and we don’t want it,” said Dan Swanson, DNR aquatic specialist in Brainerd.

Flowering rush isn’t found in many state waters, but it could become a problem if it successfully expands from Detroit Lake and other waters in Minnesota where it already exists. Flowering rush is another invasive plant

Update

SUMMER SALE!!

Continued on page 23

• Custom Splash Guards • Replacement Glass for Boat Windshields • Custom Storm Windows & Screens

SAVE 10% ON 417855

IT STARTED IN 1958 with the discovery of curly leaf pondweed in Lake Placid, an impoundment on the Crow Wing River near Pillager.

That event marked the first time an aquatic invasive plant was documented in the Brainerd lakes area. Today invasive species are household words and it seems a year doesn’t pass in which another invader makes inroads io the lakes country.

Dale E. Braddy, Executive Director.

Curly leaf pondweed was discovered in Big Trout Lake in 1961. Today it’s documented to exist in more than 700 lakes statewide (though the actual number may be triple that), a testimony to its hardiness and ability to spread.

Next up was purple loosestrife, which probably got here as an ornamental plant. As late as 1987 it still was sold as an ornamental in Wright County. The flowers are pretty, no doubt, but their ability to choke all native plants from the landscape makes loosestrife a noxious weed.

One plant can produce 2 million seeds, crowding out cattails, bulrushes and other native plants in wetlands and near lakes.

One of many gardens in the Arboretum.

Eurasian watermilfoil was first discovered in Minnesota in Lake Minnetonka in 1987. The first lake in the Brainerd area in which it was found was Bay Lake in 1991. It took root in Nelson Bay, was treated there, but spread anyway, a characteristic of the plant that has frustrated would-be controllers ever since.

Today milfoil also is found in Ossawinnama-

Riverside Elementary School build Blue Bird houses to be placed on the Arboretum grounds.

Species

High School class learns the correct way to plant trees.

Invasive

Vince

Photos provided by Northland Arboretum

Adult Education demonstration, logging done with horses.

With Mix

...and Hunting!

Banquets...

26

Arboretum

For information on upcoming events and programs, go to our website at arb@brainerd.com or call (218) 829-8770.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Become A Member!

Fouth graders learn firsthand about the value of green space from a Forester.

AS SPRING FULLY ARRIVES and summer begins, all 540 acres of the Northland Arboretum come alive. The entire acreage is an outdoor classroom for local students K through College. Come visit and see, learn about, and enjoy nature. The Arboretum is a sanctuary for a huge variety of wildlife and home of magnificent gardens.

Everyone needs to take time to smell the roses and watch a butterfly. There is not a better place to appreciate nature than the Northland Arboretum. “Take the Time!”

Meetings...

INVASIVE SPECIES UPDATE

18

V I N C E M E Y E R , outdoors editor at the Brainerd Dispatch, has worked for newspapers in Alaska, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

A former editor once told him that failed hunting and fishing trips sometimes make the best stories. As such he expects no shortage of good material.

2nd Annual Blind Wine Tasting Contest September 13, 2007 - Mark Your Calendars!

that probably got here as an ornamental.

Spiny waterfleas have been found in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and in lakes near Duluth. Bighead carp are as near as Lake Pepin in southeastern Minnesota. Silver carp, which leap from the water at the sound of an outboard motor, have been found farther downstream.

It’s not all gloom and doom, however. Attempts to control purple loosestrife, for example, have been successful. Chemical applications were tried at first, but the plant was so widespread that chemicals didn’t work.

Then about 15 years ago the Minnesota DNR, in conjunction with Cornell University, Stephen Hight and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, went to Europe and returned with galerucella, a beetle that controls purple loosestrife. Anytime a foreign species is considered for introduction to control another foreign species, biologists undertake a rigorous review of the potential effects of the foreign species being considered as a possible control agent to ensure that the agent does not damage valuable native species of their habitat.

But galerucella seems to be a success story so far. The plant-eating beetle feeds on loosestrife, raises its young on the plant, winters on the leaf litter and goes back to work the next spring.

As for curly leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil, control, not elimination, is the only option. The DNR works with lake associations in creating plans to control the weeds through the use of herbicides. Mechanical control can be effective in managing some of the problems caused by these plants.

Curly leaf pondweed has been especially troublesome because it forms buds in June that germinate in September. New plants grow under the ice during winter and do well when a lack of snowcover allows sun to penetrate the ice and work its magic on the noxious greenery below.

Recent mild, snowless winters appear to have allowed curly leaf pondweed to grow abundantly in some lakes.

To see what the DNR is doing to battle invasive species, turn to Page 67 in the Minnesota Fishing Regulations handbook. Laws have been passed in an attempt to control the spread of invasive species, and the agency has a campaign to “Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers.” Also in place is a watercraft inspection program in which inspectors are trained to educate boaters on how to prevent the spread of invasives.

Locally, 15 car washes in the Brainerd area have agreed to let boaters use their stalls to wash their boats.

A thorough washing with hot water remains the single most effective way to prevent invasive species from reaching new waters.

THE ARBORETUM...

“AN OUTDOOR CLASSROOM.” AND FLOATING DOCKS Boat lifts and docks, as well as our own aluminum sectional and truss roll-in docks manufactured by Lake Area Dock & Lifts. Get ready for warm weather come see our water toys!

• Custom Mirrors • Shower Doors • Store Fronts • Auto Glass

829-2881

1-800-726-8445

18441 State Hwy 371 Brainerd MN

West

Photos provided by Vince Meyer

of

Attractions

1/2 Mi. S. on Hwy 3

5 Mi. N. on Hwy 371

CROSSLAKE

BRAINERD

(218) 692-1785 1-866-692-1785

(218) 825-3874 1-888-249-0843

• Commercial Lock & Key

Town

Photos provided by Jake kulju

Jake

Kulju

19

T e d

Area amazing to me that just because we see it every day, we no longer see the beauty — and it’s breathtaking.

As soon as the weather allows me to, I ride to Nisswa.

It’s about 14 miles round trip on the Paul Bunyan trail from my house. I’m sure there are some hard-core bicyclists that would not be impressed by that ride. For me, it’s huge. Sometimes, the only way I can get my kids to join me is by having Dairy Queen as the bribe. I sometimes have to bribe myself with an iced coffee from Stonehouse Coffee (maturity is totally overrated).

The Paul Bunyan Trail is one of the most beautiful jewels of our area. No matter where you’re at in the Brainerd lakes area, the trail either goes through that town or has a tributary that connects to it. There are rest stops along the way, which are a must if you have children (or out-of-shape grown-

218-764-2524

&

S c o t t

R i c h a r d s o n

25

1-877-412-4162 www.ThisOldFarm.net

7 miles east of Brainerd,MN on State Highway 18 Ages 3 thru 17 $12.95 •18 and over $10.95 •Seniors $9.95 •Age 2 and under Free

Enjoy unlimited use all day •28 rides and attractions •30 building Pioneer Village While in Paul Bunyan Land visit our Gift Shop and our Lumberjack Cafe.

Check our website for special events including This Old Farm Show Days

Open 10 AM to 6 PM May 26 thru Labor Day

Home of the 26 ft. tall Animated Paul Bunyan

Paul Bunyan Land

The Lakes Area

Paul is waiting to greet your youngsters by name Slip Bobber Rigs, which include everything you need to fish, all pre-tied for you.

These easy to use pre-tied rigs include a barrel swivel with a larger loop at one end to prevent the swivel from getting stuck in the bobber. It is tied to a 2-foot monofilament leader and a 1/32nd or 1/16th Bobber Bug, which adds very little weight to the hook to keep your live bait in the strike zone. Another version of the rig features a Tru-Turn Hook in size 4 for minnows or size 6 for leeches and crawlers.

A red glass bead is added above the hook or Bobber Bug for even more attraction. A petite flicker blade which rides above the bead adds flash for attraction as the bait swims. A minnow or leech will trigger the flicker blade to send out even more flash to provoke a strike.

Use small rubber core sinkers or soft split shot a foot up the line to balance the rig.

Early in the year, stick with lakes with good walleye populations that offer the chance of big fish.

Look for the warmest water. Walleyes will travel miles to find water just a degree or two warmer. Focus on rock or sand bars and protected places where wind has blown warm surface water. Emerging weeds also are key.

Don’t overlook submerged wood, such as stump beds

BIKING

T E D T A K A S A K I is one of the country’s top pro walleye fisherman and a former PWT champion. Not only has Ted won many fishing tournaments, he is the CEO of Lindy Little Joe, Inc. maker of many fine fishing products.

in 8 to 10 feet of water or less, in reservoirs. Fish may be buried in the wood. A slip bobber will bring them out.

Wind is your best friend. Water can be crystal clear early in the year. The breeze cuts light penetration so the walleyes are more active. The wind also drives bobber action, the bait moves up and down and the flicker blade will turn.

Anchor near likely spots. Set the rigs so the bait rides a foot off the bottom and cast into the wind.

Let the bobber float back to the boat and beyond.

Twitch it a time or two before reeling to the boat to entice a strike if a walleye was watching it. “If you find one fish in spring, you didn’t just find one, the others are right there,” Bohn said.

tion that started work on the trail in 1998. She talked about the association’s work to make the trail a reality in 2002. She then turned to the next stages for the trail and recreation area.

One plan is the development of up to 45 miles of single track, natural surface, multi-use trails within the recreation area. Spearheading the project is Tim Wegner, regional director of the International Mountain Bike Association.

Wegner said when he first saw the recreation area he fell in love with it.

“It has everything anyone could want,” said Wegner.

“There is enough acreage that you can put in some substantial trail miles in it. There’s water and lot of other stuff to do there. It could be come a destination spot, where people spend their weekends and travel to. Right now there isn’t a place like that in Minnesota.”

The plan includes beginning to expert level trails for mountain biking, trail running and back-country skiing and snowshoeing. Smith said IMBA would design and construct the trails to last with minimal maintenance.

IMBA would also look into improving the restrooms and shower facilities and adding more of them to accommodate the increased traffic.

The IMBA had requested $125,000 from the state to be used as matching funds for a $600,000 federal transportation grant. IMBA would add an additional $250,000 to $500,000 toward the project.

That money was stalled when Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bonding bill earlier this month, which had included the funding.

“Right now the DNR is working on an environmental assessment worksheet and if we can get the money then we wait for the OK from the DNR,” said Wegner.

“It should take us about 30 months to complete. These trails are only going to be four feet wide and we don’t remove any large trees. If it’s a 2-inch tree we’ll go around it.”

The recreation area’s history with its disturbed soils and the help of the DNR has IMBA excited about using the recreation area as a training site for other trail builders in those types of conditions.

As the riders continued west, they passed a few of the cleared-out overlooks. Each gives trail users a scenic view of the recreation area and its lakes. Benches were added to many of the overlooks.

They visited the Pennington Lake landing. New blacktop and curbing was completed and a bathroom was

C o u n t r y

On the river

Once the Crow Wing River merges with the Mississippi, the Ol’ Miss begins to take on the large and rolling character that so defines it. Its widening banks and stronger current make it easy to navigate and move along at a good pace. The smooth and calm waters along this stretch of the river make it easy to observe the wildlife that depend on it. Animals such as otter, whitetail deer, beaver and raccoon all make themselves at home here. Although it is much different than the narrow winding of the Upper Mississippi, it is still considered to be part of the Mississippi Headwaters Trail, as it is within the first 420 miles of the river.

Minnesota’s eastern forests and western prairies meet at Crow Wing State Park and give way to the more open and gently rolling landscape of southern Minnesota. As the river moves south toward Little Falls a unique part of the landscape is the Ripley esker-a ridge of sediment left by glacial deposits. The

three-mile slope supports an oak savanna habitat on one side and a deciduous forest on the other.

Just below Crow Wing State Park is Fort Ripley. Built in 1848, the fort was established to maintain Indian relations. In 1930, a National Guard post was established there. And once travelers get closer to Little Falls, Belle Prairie Park offers day use for canoeists and hikers. Established by a Catholic mission, a convent and boarding school are still in operation.

This site is notable for its stand of virgin white pine.

And of course, the river is great for fishing. Muskie, walleye and smallmouth bass abound in this wide and shady stretch of water. The ubiquitous northern pike also is present.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

FATHER’S DAY SALE • JUNE 15, 16 & 17, 2007 Stop in for: FREE hotdogs & lemonade Door prizes/drawings Bows on Sale Scent-Loc Clothing Sale

Indoor/Outdoor 3D Course Range 1 Mile East of Pillager Hwy 210 • 746-4018 Authorized Matthews & Hoyt Pro Shop

Photos provided by Brainerd Dispatch/ Nels Norquist

J a k e

CMYK

I r o n

I’VE ATTEMPTED SEVERAL TIMES to reach that runner’s high, but it’s never happened. In fact, if you ever see me running, you better start, too. There’s bound to be a big guy with a chain saw chasing me, or it might be a big mama bear, or a lean, hungry wolf, or a swarm of angry bees. Well, you get the idea.

This article isn’t about jogging (thank goodness) — it’s about biking. I’m talking leisurely biking here. You know, for fun. The exercise part is just a bonus in my opinion. Biking doesn’t feel like exercise to me. It’s simply entertainment. I can get out into nature, see lovely scenery and actually get somewhere.

The Paul Bunyan Trail is basically right outside my door. It’s not the most challenging of trails but it really is lovely to look at. For us locals, I think that sometimes, we forget why we live in the Brainerd lakes area. It’s

T a k a s a k i

T h r o u g h

Lakes

R i d e

the

RECREATION AREA, TRAIL A LINK BETWEEN CUYUNA RANGE’S PAST AND FUTURE

28 A

Biking

A RIDE THROUGH IRON A DRY, HARD WIND whipped through the red rock landscape as three bikers rode west.

Bright green leaf buds peppered birch and ironwood limbs and natural grasses were already greening, gaining on the spruce and pine needles on this late spring day.

The blacktop of the Cuyuna State Lakes Trail minimized the wind resistance as bikers trekked through the 5,000-acre Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, north of Crosby and Ironton.

Rubber tires catching on the path’s pavement replaced silence between conversations concerning the trail and recreation area, their uses and the scenery that transformed dust-filled iron ore mining pits and rock stockpiles into the natural, quiet park dotted with clear mine lakes.

The steep embankments of the 16 lakes and the clean water they protect highlight the 14-year-old recreation area, which became Minnesota’s first in 1993.

Jenny Smith, owner of Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, and her husband, Brad, visit the recreation area often, either darting past five of the mine lakes the trail runs along or kayaking the waterways that connect eight small mine lakes.

On this day, 21speed Raleigh Passage 3.5 Hybrid bikes were the mode of transportation. The group tackled the 5.5 miles of trail that Jenny and Brad Smith, owners of starts at the Croft Cycle Path & Paddle in Crosby, Mine Historic Park rode along the Cuyuna State in Crosby and ends Lakes Trail this spring. east of Riverton. The grand design is to connect the Paul Bunyan Trail in Baxter to Aitkin.

Two trails exist. A paved one is used by bike riders, walkers, inline skaters and joggers during the summer and cross country skiers can use it in the winter, although it is ungroomed. An unpaved trail is for snowmobilers and hikers.

Smith is president of the Cuyuna Lakes Trail Associa-

20

age. Large slate boulders can be found in and around Pike Creek. One mile north of the park, the Mississippi makes its way through the former glacial plain. Like many parts of Minnesota, the area was originally forested with pine and oak. After the intensive logging of our state’s past, the forest regenerated primarily with oak and smatterings of aspen and pine.

K u l j u

17

24

F i s h i n g

T i p s

M o l l y

Photos provided by Molly Ring

NORTHWOODS GUIDE GREG BOHN prescribes a remedy for catching lethargic walleyes in cold water during the early spring.

Casting lures or jigs might help locate schools of fish by plucking off an active one or two. But using slip bobbers to dangle live bait in front of the walleyes can produce massive catches.

“They’ve increased my walleye catch by at least 50 percent,” said Bohn, “Mr. Slip Bobber,” who authored the book, “Master the Art of Slip Bobbering” with outdoor writer Scott Richardson. “There are many days when I wouldn’t have caught a walleye at all and wound up catching fish after fish. We fished jigs in between the slip bobbers and never caught a one on them. But we caught 25 on the bobbers.”

What’s more exciting is that a handful of tackle companies, led by Lindy Fishing Tackle, have designed prod-

Pickup and Delivery • 218-825-3500 • www.thebodyworks.com

ucts for 2007 that will make slip bobberin’ so simple everyone can get in on the action.

Start with thread-style bobber stops that stay in place, will slide just enough to allow depth adjustments and don’t nick the line like other bobber stop types can.

Stick with a bright color stop knot and thread on a red glass bead so you can see it to be sure the float slides up to meet the stop every time.

Bohn helped develop the Thill Pro Series floats, which come in four sizes and in both unweighted or weighted designs. The unweighted will support more weight below it, floats higher in the water and is perfect for calmer water. The weighted version allows you to cast more easily into the wind.

Most important, the Pro Series bobbers are made with a brass grommet insert to allow your line to pass through quickly without getting hung up. Or look for Pro Series

Ours.

Leave Your Boat In Good Hands...

SLIP BOBBERIN’ IN SPRING

ups) in your group, and plenty of places to stop and eat or shop in the towns and cities along the trail.

If you don’t own a bike, or you’re up here vacationing and either didn’t have room or forgot them, there are places to rent. I found the following list of businesses that rent bikes at the Brained Lakes Chamber site (explorebrainerdlakes. com): • Bayside Cabins, Backus, (218) 947-3344 • Breezy Point Resort, Breezy Point, (218) 5688422 • Cragun’s Resort, Brainerd, (218) 825-2700 • Easy Riders, Brainerd, (218) 829-5516 • Trailblazer Bikes, Brainerd, (218) 829-8542 • Cycle Path & Paddle, Crosby, (218) 545-4545 I’m going to share with you some valuable tips that I’ve learned on my misadventures. I hope you can learn by reading about them: • Always wear a helmet. Studies have shown that wear-

R i n g

21

Hwy 371 North Brainerd/Baxter, MN 56425

• Fiberglass & Aluminum Boat Repair • Custom Graphics • Authorized “Hamby’s” Keel Guard Installer • Detail • Authorized Factory Repair Center for: Ranger, Moomba, Supra, Cobalt, Triton, Champion, Larson & Glastron Boats

ing a bicycle helmet can reduce head injuries by up to 85 percent. Select a helmet that fits snugly and comfortably with lots of ventilation (otherwise they make your head too hot to handle). Especially if children are present, wear a helmet yourself to set a good example.

• Depending on how comfortable your bike seat is, or how accustomed your bum is to bike riding, I would highly recommend padded bike shorts. They will make your trip (no matter how short it may be) so much more comfortable.

Words can’t describe the difference.

• Always bring plenty of water, and more than you think you’ll need. There are places to fill up along the way, but never (it seems) when you need it.

• If you have a rack to strap things to, or a basket to put things in, then you’ll be ahead of the game. Otherwise, a backpack for the remaining items is your next best option.

ON N COUNTRY 2007 NISSAN

16

HIKING & SCENIC DESTINATIONS

placed near the landing, just one of the improvements done by the Department of Natural Resources.

Continuing through nature the riders reached the 5.5mile marker, or the end of the trail. Talk then turned to a proposed 1.5-mile addition that would link the current trail to Sagamore Lake, the southwestern tip of the recreation area. This proposal includes adding a mile east of the Croft Mine.

The plan is to run the trail through Riverton, but residents in the small community are concerned with safety issues and increased traffic.

On this day the group turned around and headed east on the trail, the wind picked up, but the relatively flat trail made for easy riding.

Birds and even a garter snake represented the area’s wildlife, but other users of the trail and recreation area have seen deer, bear and other smaller animals. Bald eagles are also a frequent sight, perched high to gaze on the lakes stocked with trout, walleye, northerns and bass.

As 11 peaceful miles of bike riding concluded it was clear the recreation area and the trail that slices through it offer countless opportunities to outdoor enthusiasts, both for economic purposes and to simply escape.

While roadblocks continue in the development of the park and the trail, it’s refreshing that an area that was once abandoned and left bare and red, has revitalized itself and could revitalize the Cuyuna Range as well.

FOLLOWING THE MISSISSIPPI SOUTH OUT OF BRAINERD TO LITTLE FALLS IS A WALK IN TWO PARKS. WITH ALL OF THE WATER-RELATED ATTRACTIONS and activities in the Brainerd

lakes area, it is easy to overlook the amenities in neighboring regions. One such place is the stretch of Mississippi River that flows south out of Brainerd to Little Falls. Bookended by two of the state’s most beautiful parks — Crow Wing and Charles A. Lindbergh, the full and blue watered river gives canoeists a broad swath of paddling country to enjoy.

Crow Wing

As the Crow Wing River enters the Mississippi, 2,781 acres of land have been set aside as a pristine state park. A site on the National Register of Historic Places, Crow Wing State Park carries the history of a Dakota Indian village, the beauty of a wilderness preserve and the recreational attraction of the Mississippi River. As the river leaves the park and heads south to its much larger destiny, its first pit stop is in Little Falls and Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

Charles A. Lindbergh

With its stone water tower, historic Work Proj-

S o u t h

o f

T o w n

ects Administration picnic shelter, fishing landing, Pike Creek canoe area and hiking trails, Charles A. Lindbergh State Park is one of the region’s best kept secrets. The coup de grace of the city, of course, is the historic home of Charles Lindbergh, the father of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh Jr. The Minnesota Historical Society maintains the home, which is right next to the park.

The 436-acre park is a quaint and relaxing area that is home to the wildlife of the river and many regional songbirds. The Little Falls area and the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh were made famous after Lindbergh flew the first trans-Atlantic solo flight.

In the not so distant past, Dakota Indians used the area and the river for settlement and transportation.

The Red River Oxcart Trail, which was a frequently used settler’s route, traveled near the park on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. The Red River Oxcart Trail is a segment of the larger Woods Trail, which went from St. Paul to Pembina, N.D. The geological history of the region, like most of Minnesota, is a story of glaciers. The park is on a till plain where deposits of clay, gravel and boulders were left by melting and retreating glaciers during the last ice

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Photos provided by Jake Kulju

CMYK

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The upgraded boat landing at Pennington Lake in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area is just one of the improvements done by the DNR.

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Food

Photos provided by Carolyn Corbett 8 AM 2/20/07 10:20:3

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this issue

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15

Holidays • Weddings • Anniversaries • Graduations • Birthdays

For All Your Catering Needs

Remember Us

Look for the Fall 2007 Issue of Outdoor Traditions publishing on September 14th.

• Bring your cell phone — you don’t have to turn it on, but you’ll be glad you have it if you get a flat tire or a little one that can’t bike one marker farther.

• Bring a camera and/or binoculars; there are a number of absolutely picturesque spots as well as a variety of wildlife thriving along the trail — definitely worthy of a closer look or a picture.

• If you have a GPS unit, bring it. There are geo-caches all over the 371-corridor area (which, coincidentally, runs right next to the Paul Bunyan Trail for many miles).

Check out www.geocaching.com for more information.

• Snacks such as granola bars, apples, peanuts and fruit snacks are all great fuel choices that travel well.

They also can second as a great incentive to get to the next rest stop.

• Sunscreen is essential.

Apply before you leave and bring it. When you’re clipping along on your bike, the cool breeze can disguise the burn you’re receiving until it’s too late.

• Dress for the weather and pack for possibilities.

Not sure how long you’ll be gone? Then pack a light jacket. Is rain a risk? Throw some rain gear in your pack.

Chilly start? Then dress in layers with shorts underneath (the padded ones.

You won’t regret it). Sunny all day? Then sunglasses are a must, unless you want to

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Fillet the fish as yo u would a fish into sm walleye; all (herrin don t worr g size) pie adding o y about th ces. Wash ne cup of e bones. . Prepare p Cut ickling sa pieces wit a brine so lt to four h the brin lu c ti u o p n s b e o y f water. C solution a Wash off over the fi nd let sta the piece nd overnig sh s of fish a Drain, rin h t. n d soak in se and pla white vine ce in jars To two cu gar three . Prepare ps of vine to four da a pickling so g a ys. r (or if yo of wine a lution as u like to u nd one cu follows: se wine in p of vineg cooking, ar) add li use one c st of ingre up dients.

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Nature’s FOOD 22

30 S h o o t

While practice may not make perfect, it will at least help to level the playing field with these subjects that disappear at the speed of light. Given the here-and-gone movement of many insects, photographing flowers first is good practice. Try this on a windy day and you’ll understand how butterflies earned the title of “Flying Flowers.” An unexpected delight, both during this type of practice and on focused flower shoots,

Bugs are small.

Bug habitat is tick habitat.

Bugs tantalize with flittering and skittering, then scoot for safety as you squeeze the shutter. Bugs move.

They move often and they move fast. The winged versions have irregular flight patterns, maintain a large circle of safety and zoom about on the sunniest of days, through shadows and glaring sunlight. In addition, as you know only too well, many bugs only come out at dusk.

Local insects call abandoned fields, streams, tall grass along ponds and even roadsides home.

Roadsides, which may not bring to

mind a vision of bonding with nature, do facilitate hopping into your vehicle when bugs want to become “blood brothers.”

Still, though they sometimes drive us a bit buggy, insects are fun to “hunt” and fun to shoot. And the satisfaction — the wonder — when those intricate, brightly colored, larger-thanlife, alien-looking creatures upload onto your computer screen at home.

Ask yourself if you are comfortable photographing one insect in the midst of devouring another. How do you feel about hapless victims struggling in a spider’s web?

Depending on your answers, you may choose to stick to nectar-suckers.

GOOD NEWS, fellow photographers!

Bona fide members of Class Insecta are ever-so plentiful. More than 75 percent of the living creatures on this planet are insects. More insect species have been identified than all other animal groups combined. More good news for we who shoot is the diverse life cycle of insects. We can shoot bug eggs, bug pupas, bug wannabes (such as caterpillars) and full-fledged adult bugs. Given the challenges of insect photography, bugs just seem to get under some people’s skin.

SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

squint the whole way.

• Maps are necessary if you plan on straying from the main trail, even a little bit. But maps are beneficial even if you’re planning to stay on it. They can help to locate food and water sources, alternate routes, as well as assist with time estimations.

• A basic first-aid kit is always a good idea, no matter how long the ride. If there are young one’s involved, it’s crucial. Wipeouts happen, and they can never be planned or predicted. Having the essentials can make it tolerable.

• If you pack it in — pack it out. Litter is never acceptable.

Leave no trace of your passing so the next people through can enjoy it as much as you did.

And lastly, enjoy yourselves. Don’t feel you have to go a specific number of miles. Stay open to the possibilities. Enjoy the scenery and leave the rules at work where they belong. It’s supposed to be fun!

Continued from page 19

Hiking

Many of the campsites along the river are the converging points of regional and historic hiking trails.

Whether spending the day or stretching your legs after canoeing the river, spending a few hours exploring the old towns, settlements, burial sites and forests that once provided shelter and transportation for American Indians and early Minnesota settlers will be entertaining and educational. The unique location of the river gives hikers opportunity to see migrating birds, river wildlife and a diverse set of regional wildflowers. Many of the stopping points that provide hiking trails are among the foundations of early settlements. An old button factory, Indian burial mounds and Old Wadena are among some of the more curious points of interest.

Camping

While all 16 of the Crow Wing Canoe Trail’s campsites are notable, some of them have particular appeal.

The first site along the route is the Shell City Campground, near the Shell River, one of the Crow Wing’s tributaries. The site is on more than 60 acres of land, which was once the Shell City settlement. The early boomtown boasted a button factory that used clam shells from the local rivers, a hotel and a stagecoach barn. Foundations of the town and old wagon trails still remain, though wildflowers and birds are the only residents.

Farther down the river, campers will find Tree Farm Landing. The secluded, sheltered site boasts the Pasque flower and numerous other wildflowers in the 2,000acre Northwest Tree Farm. Hiking trails run through the farm, and a 20-acre campsite and picnic area provides shade and relaxation to its visitors.

At the Huntersville Township Campsite, a curious splitlevel campsite is available in the Huntersville State Forest within walking distance of the early pioneer settlement of Huntersville. This site is known for its wild berries, including blueberries. The county maintained campground and picnic area is equipped with toilets.

For the brave, Big Bend Campsite provides a remote wilderness camping facility only accessible by river.

M O L L Y R I N G is the owner of Skewed View Studio, a print and web design firm located in Pequot Lakes. She enjoys being creative, whether it involves pictures or words.

Continued on page 33

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Photos provided by Bill Marchel

A face not even a mother could love. Carp are detrimental to lakes, rivers and wetlands because they stir up sediments, which reduce light penetration and thus the growth of beneficial aquatic plants.

Most butterfly pictures show the subject situated smack in the middle of the frame. Off-center images offer refreshing variety. If shooting the top of open wings or a side view, try to position the camera parallel to the wings. Or try a face-on shot to catch the eyes and antenna. Use the sun to backlight your featured insect, especially if it has white or light-colored wings. Stay aware of any unappealing aspects in the background. Simply changing your angle can eliminate litter.

Angling for a good shot

C a r o l y n

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A cool, damp summer morning just as the sun is starting to come up is ideal. In the morning, butterflies have not yet absorbed enough heat for their flight muscles to activate so stay fairly stationary until the dew burns off and their wings dry out. Their lowered level of activity levels offer you far more opportunities. Soon after sunrise, as the butterflies spread their wings wide to absorb heat and begin feeding, is an ideal time for you to approach closely — sometimes within just a few inches.

Timing is everything

Best Shot

Do you enjoy taking photos?

Do you have a favorite image of an eagle, Áower, sunset, or how about your favorite hunting partner? Here’s your chance to share it with readers of “OUTDOOR Traditions.” Send it along with a two-sentence explanation as to where, why, and how it was shot. Both could be published online and in the 50,000 copies of our new quarterly magazine, “OUTDOORS Traditions.” Each issue will have an “editor’s pick” contributed photo, including a credit line of the photographer’s name and portrait if available.

If your photo is not chosen, all appropriate images will be included on the “We Spotted” section of our website. They will be displayed there for three months, running concurrently with the season and/or until the next “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes.

Deadline for the fall edition is August 24, 2007 and winter is November 12, 2007.

The Dispatch will collect images quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter). After each issue of “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes, we will then place the images on our website.

Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot” Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

Steve Kohls I am a photographer at the Brainerd Dispatch since 1975. I have been teaching Àne art black and white and color photography at Central Lakes College for the past 12 years. Currently I have been teaching Underwater Photography for Central Lakes College and the Minnesota School of Diving for the past 5 years. From May to November you can Ànd me at the Mineland Recreation Area either scuba diving and photographing the Àsh or enjoying the beauty of our area’s newest lakes.

outdoors photographer and writer who lives near Fort Ripley. His work has appeared in many regional and national publications and he writes a monthly column for the Brainerd Dispatch. He can be reached at bill@billmarchel.com B I L L M A R C H E L is a wildlife and

is enlarging a picture to find a bug you hadn’t even realized was there.

Another method of practice for some people involves a faux fly. Cut a life-sized picture of a butterfly from a magazine, pin or paper clip it to a flower outside and practice shooting. Practice monitoring your shadow.

Practice finding how close you can get to the “butterfly” while still keeping it in focus.

Once out in the wild (or maybe just their gardens) some folks actually “chum up” butterflies with fruit bait. Rumor has it that the smell of overly ripe pineapples draws in eager eaters. (You may attract bees and orioles this way as well.) Others focus on mating couples.

With their minds temporarily occupied, you may be able to sneak closer that usual. Most of all, be patient.

Be patient. Be patient. Did I suggest being patient?

42 B e s t

Each scale on a big carp is larger than a quarter.

Archers in pursuit of carp must have a state fishing license. Other laws apply and potential bowfishers should read the regulations.

Properly prepared, carp can be quite tasty. Most bow shooters prefer carp soaked in brine and smoked, but all sorts of recipes exist.

Check the regulations

For proficient archers, hitting a carp cruising at close range with its back out of the water is relatively easy. But, as mentioned earlier, carp are wary and after being chased about, they seldom offer the ideal shot. More difficult is the shot at a fish two or more feet below the surface because you must take into consideration light refraction, or the bending of light, as it passes from water to air. To arrow a deep fish, you must aim low. Only experience will teach you how low to hold because in each situation the depth and angle to your target is different.

Extreme care should be taken that the line to your arrow does not become tangled before the shot. Many years ago, I shot at a fish with the line inadvertently wrapped around my left hand. With a loud snap the line broke as the arrow left the bow, but not before it sliced my hand to the bone. The scar remains today.

The moment of truth

Welcome

How could I be so lucky, that the stork should drop me off many years ago to be part of a beautiful family in Nisswa, Minnesota, a land of peace and quiet recreation.

Nisswa has forests and lakes in abundance and must have been created to be that place of “quiet time” and recreation in demand by every generation.

The day the stork dropped me down the chimney, my Mother and Father were the owners and operators of a small business with only $25 in their checking account. In the midst of the depression years, I am sure they felt much more fortunate than many other struggling people at the time. As early as 1920’s and 30’s, Nisswa was a place to retreat from the world’s pressures for the busy and the wealthy who needed to rest, as well as a place to hide from lawmen by the “wild and wooly”.

Oddly enough, the horrors of world war in the late 1930’s and 1940’s were frightful years for the likes of Nisswa ad other communities in the northern land of forests and lakes. Jobs were abundant and the American work force grew rapidly. Money in pockets was plentiful. The heavy work schedule caused stress that desperately needed healing.

The land of forests and lakes provided just what the doctor ordered. For those needing peace and quiet, Nisswa was the place to be. For those who needed a fast pace of recreation to vent their stresses, Nisswa was the place to be. The land of forests and lakes was an oasis of sanity.

After WWII there was great expectation that the astounding advances in technology would certainly make life easier and more enjoyable. A relentless pursuit of “things” by the average family to make life easier and more fun seemed to become the norm. By the end of the twentieth century advances in communications and transportation has left us with our mouths wide open in awe. Yet, with all these new gadgets and toys, we realize that not all is a bed of roses. The “easy life” has our lives out of balance. To have more and more things has turned out to be unfulfilling. The selfish and greedy ownership of “things” has made man and woman in this “grand society” merrily another additional “thing”.

Many people are beginning to realize there is something missing in life irregardless of all the material possessions.

People want to stop their world, rediscover themselves, get better acquainted with their own family, and again feel the real value of being a human being, both body and soul.

Where, o where, does one find “quiet time”?

Similar to WWII, it is right here in the land of forests and lakes! Visitors used to go fishing for the fish. Now we “fish” for “quiet time” so thoroughly needed and enjoyed. To be

By: Jim Dullum

with family and friends in the boat with no TV, no radio, is priceless. The pockets of “quiet time” offer an opportunity to slow down and once again listen to the core message of life. Residents and visitors are invited to experience “quiet time” while fishing the streams and lakes, hunting the wild game, biking our miles and miles of quality trails, crosscountry skiing many kilometers of top notch groomed trails, inn-line skating safe trails, golfing 20 plus different courses, taking a walk, reading a book, reigniting a pray life. The list of “quiet time” activities and opportunities goes on and on. Residents, enjoy this paradise you live in. Visitors, on all sides of the globe, come to the land of forests and lakes, rest, meet new friends (possibly yourself), and heal. Every single month of the calendar has restful and healing value. Whether July and/or January, vacation time in the land of forests and lakes has immeasurable value for family and loved ones.

For 80 years my family has been in the marine and/or sports business as servants to those needing fun and relaxation. I have worked and witnessed the vacation trends for 65 years. My daughter, the third generation, has already spent 32 years working as a vital part of this “playground”. The world will forever need this playground and our family plans to be here a long, long time as part of the fun.

The “quiet time” we have been blessed with we wish to share with the whole world and it is free! Call the area chamber of commerce, come visit, leave your troubles with us, and go home refreshed. Who knows? You may discover a permanent home in the land of “quiet time”. No matter whom you are or where you come from. I invite you and your family to test the north land’s “quiet time”. Keep smiling!!!

S h o t

CMYK

CMYK

4

the

log

S e r v i c e

Cover photo by Tim Bogenschutz

www.brainerddispatch.com

Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot�

Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

See page 42 for details.

(218) 829-4705 Brainerd, MN 56401 506 James Street • P.O. Box 974

Best Shot

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CATHE PICEK • 855-5835

KRISTINE ROBERTS • 855-5829

KATHY BITTNER LEE • 855-5823

D i r e c t o r y 41

CARL SPECHT • 855-5873 JILL WASSON • 855-5820 DAVE WENTZEL • 855-5821

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SHOOT WHAT BUGS YOU!

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Eye spy

These three-winged things, though, are just an introduction to the insect world. There are moths, mayflies, crickets and spiders. There are bees and beetles, wasps and ants. There are aphids, grasshoppers, katydids, cicadas, roaches, flies and all manner of other flying, crawling and creeping critters.

Move s-l-o-w-l-y toward a flighty subject. Sudden jerky motions are a no-no. If your shadow falls on the little fellow, it likely will consider you a potential predator. Insects know only half of the fight-orflight formula, try not to put yourself between the sun and the subject.

Take your first picture as you approach and continue shooting as you move in for a fly’s eye view, as your subject suddenly flitter off. The good news? Butterflies often return to the same flower or one nearby. Take lots of shots. Take lots and lots of shots. Take lots of ... you get it, right?

RP A NG

Getting down and dirty

‘Dragons & Damsels’

Though similar in appearance, the damselfly is smaller and more delicate than a dragonfly. A primary identifying factor is how it hold its wings while at rest. A dragonfly holds its wings perpendicular to its body; a damselfly holds its wings behind itself and parallel to the body. Adult “dragons and damsels� are generally found near lakes, rivers and streams and nymphs (immature bugs) live in the water.

Dragonflies have a propensity to pick a perch and stay put. They are able to fly vertically and backward, hover like helicopters and turn abruptly in the midst of flight.

Their large eyes nearly cover their heads. In fact, with their acute vision, in-flight acrobatics and reputation for hearty appetites, dragonflies are considered the most fearsome predators in the world of insects! Many damselflies also willingly pose. Their small size, however, necessitates moving in quite close and they do get edgy when folks are lurking just feet away.

A sprinkle of water onto spider webs often bring out their owners, where they may remain to pose for you. Spiders, bless them, frequently stay still much longer than many of their insect relatives.

If creepie-crawlies call to you, just roll over a rotting log. It will be a fast-paced scene once you disturb the urban underground, so be ready before you make your move. In addition to “official� insects, you’re likely to encounter brightly colored newts or salamanders, slugs, earthworms, millipedes and even some difficult-to-identify “related organisms.�

So, call a park ranger or the helpful people at the arb.

They can give you information about the best locations and times of year to “hunt� the insects you are after.

Then get out there and shoot what bugs you!

C A R O L Y N C O R B E T T is a free-

lance writer and editor with 12 years of experience. Carolyn currently lives in Brainerd where she writes for various local publications and creates content for web sites.

A bowďŹ shing reel should safely store the line but allow an arrow to y unimpeded toward its target. The AMS brand reel is most preferred by most archers.

A stout line connects the arrow to a bowfishing reel that is usually screwed into the stabilizer insert on the bow.

Your local archery shop owner can best advise you on the latest tackle.

Polarized sunglasses are indispensable since they allow you a better view underwater by cutting surface glare.

Also the glasses will protect your eyes should the line become tangled and the arrow comes flying back at you.

Other necessary items are a pair of chest waders if the fish are shallow or a boat if they are deep. Carp and other fish can be shot from a canoe but it’s wise to choose a more stable craft. Popular among veteran bowfishers are johnboats equipped with an elevated platform from which a foot-controlled trolling motor can be operated.

Some carp shooting rigs are quite elaborate.

and west shores but don’t discount any shoreline, especially on calm, sunny days. In past years, I have seen even the north shore, which is virtually barren of emergent weeds, alive with spawning carp. Trophy carp, big and ugly and weighing more than 30 pounds, are taken each spring on Mille Lacs.

Rivers also can provide good bowfishing, especially during spring when the water has overflowed the banks, flooding nearby fields and meadows. Carp find these shallow, grassy areas to their liking since they are the first to warm to spawning temperatures.

You’ll quickly know if carp are actively spawning in a particular area, especially if the weather is clear and calm. The fish raise quite a ruckus and cruising carp leave huge wakes. Often, shallow grassy areas will be covered with carp eggs and the water will be murky from all their commotion.

Where to go

Carp are found in many of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. In this area, the most popular bowfishing lake is Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs — most famous for its walleyes — attracts carp-shooters as the giant fish move in to spawn. Check the shallow, weedy bays on the south

When the water warms to roughly 70 degrees, female carp that are ripe with spawn cruise the shallows, and are accompanied by one or more smaller male carp.

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Equipment list

Bowfishing requires very little equipment.

There are, however, a few essential items you will need. Besides a bow, of course, the sport requires a special arrow, generally made of solid fiberglass or solid aluminum. These heavy arrows, tipped with a barbed fishing An arrow point used for point, are needed to penetrate the water and bowfishing should be durable thick scales of large fish. and easy to operate like the Garpoon (above).

Photos provided by Bill Marchel

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they become most vulnerable to the archer. Carp are normally very wary but females in a spawning mood will usually be accompanied by a half dozen male suitors whose minds are on one thing, and the fish can often be approached quite easily as they pursue their underwater activities. At peak spawning time (late May to mid-June), the water can literally be boiling with carp and the fish are often heard splashing and rolling before they are seen.

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218-575-2086 THERE I STOOD, doing my best to imitate a tree trunk as my quarry approached. With my bow in one hand and release in the other I slowly and deliberately shifted my feet in preparation for a shot.

When my target reached a predetermined location, I drew my bow in one smooth motion and triggered the release. The arrow traveled true and the prey was mine.

The subject of this hunt was not a big whitetail buck, nor was it a deer at all. It was in fact, a lowly carp, a rather homely fish imported from Europe many years ago. And the location of that hunt was not a deep forest but a flood woodland meadow along the Mississippi River. However, as any bowfisherman will tell you, the thrill of the hunt and intensity felt at the moment of truth was diminished very little just because the quarry had huge ugly lips and scales the size of quarters.

The menial carp, besides being ugly, is also destructive. Its style of feeding, rooting around on the bottom, muddies the water of our lakes and rivers and causes algae blooms that reduces light penetration, thus destroying weed growth beneficial to waterfowl and other fish species such as bass and panfish.

The sport of bowfishing has increased in popularity in recent years because bowhunters are looking for hunting opportunities beyond the fall deer season.

It is when carp are busy perpetuating the species that

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Because of light refraction, carp below the water’s surface are not where they appear. A bowfisherman must aim low.

Note the arrow in flight.

12

40 S e r v i c e

CARP ON A STRING

Continued from page 23 This is considered a backcountry camping location and should be used only by experienced canoe campers.

Around the bend, hikers will find Huntersville Forest. The campsite is a popular local swimming area and provides many trails. The area was known to Ojibwe Indians as “Hunter’s Paradise.” The multitude of whitetail deer and ruffed grouse make this apparent.

Anderson’s Crossing was founded by a pioneer homesteader on two converging Indian trails. The 113 acres give plenty of space for camping and hiking. The Butterfield rapids begin along this stretch of the river and give listeners a babbling symphony to accompany their picnics. The rapids are not severe and can be fun for swimming and wading.

On the high banks of Little White Dog, visitors are given an excellent lookout point to view the river and surrounding area. Once used by Native Americans for religious ceremonies, it was formerly called Little Round Hill.

Among the more accessible sites is Cottingham Park.

This boat landing and canoe landing has tarred road access. A hiking trail leads to the next campsite along the canoe trail and is known is for its wildflowers and birds.

Bullard Bluff Campsite is one of the more secluded campsites on the canoe route. It was once known as Hog Haven because of the many wild pigs that lived and thrived in the oak groves of the area.

Just four miles to the south are the Indian mounds.

Although camping and fires are not permitted here, it is an interesting and beautiful point of observation for hiking and resting.

At Old Wadena County Park visitors can see the site of the first farm and post office in Wadena County. The Old Red River Ox Cart Trail goes through the site. The entire area, including the Old Wadena District, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hikers and campers will find rustic camping facilities and several hiking trails.

The last of the sites on the Crow Wing Canoe Trail is McGivern Park. The river continues to Brainerd from here and into Crow Wing State Park. The site shows many signs of the struggle, including rifle pits and lookouts. Picnic tables, a small shelter and a rifle range are available to visitors.

Whether people come looking for seclusion, encounters with wildlife, the sights and sounds of migrating birds and wildflowers or the challenge of canoe camping on one of Minnesota’s finest rivers, the Crow Wing River Canoe Trail is a regional gem and area of vast historical and cultural significance.

Donahue Harley-Davidson Buell Shop of Brainerd As if you needed a reason to come by. See the latest motorcycles, MotorClothes® Merchandise and Genuine Motor Parts and Accessories, schedule your bike for service, or maybe rent a bike for the day, week, or weekend.

Donahue Harley Davidson Buell 15808 Edgewood Dr. Baxter, MN 56425 (888)-883-4434

Help Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers Inspect your boat, trailer,

and equipment and remove visible aquatic plants, zebra mussels, and other animals before leaving a water access.

Drain water from the bait container, livewell, bilge, and transom wells before leaving a water access.

of unwanted bait Dispose in the trash. your boat, Spray/dry trailer, and equipment

before going to another water body.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

West

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Getting Down to the Root of the Problem

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

i n

S u m m e r

THERE’S AN OLD SAYING, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” When fishing weedbeds for walleyes, you can beat the weeds with a variety or lures, baits and tactics; but if you can’t make your lures either slash through the outer fringe or slip between the stalks, your lure becomes entangled. There’s nothing worse than pitching into a weedbed full of walleyes and coming back with green instead of gold.

The key is to slip and slither, tickle and touch your way through the foliage without undue snagging. Or to nip and tuck just enough of the fringes to break cleanly through the outer fronds and fibers, sending your jig, crankbait or spinner exploding like a panicked minnow in flight for its life. If being a weed sneak doesn’t do it for you, then going on a tear sometimes will.

Weeds are the natural lake equivalents of wood cover in reservoirs, with one major distinction: weeds are continually changing, rather than static. They sprout, they flourish, they thicken — sometimes to a perfect degree for use by walleyes and other gamefish and sometimes growing too thick to permit fish usage. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, and fish leave for, dare we say it, greener pastures?

Some weed types grow only in the shallows.

Others sprout considerably deeper, making them better candidates for more than occasional walleye use. In most northern natural lake environments, tall stalks of leafy cabbage, and thicker, bushier fronds of coontail are your predominant weeds for walleyes.

Fish also may relate to sand grass (chara) — a low-growing carpet that sprouts both shallower and deeper than the taller, standing weed types. Emergent reeds and cane draw feeding walleyes in the shallows, and are prime fishing locales in fertile, darker-water prairie or farm-country waters.

There’s no saying that you should just fish one or two weed types just because they’re easier to fish than others. Remember — fish ‘em where they live, when they live there.

Weeds keep changing and evolving throughout the year. When they’re right, they attract plenty of baitfish and forage. When they’re not, the fish leave. By mid-fall, for example, most shallow weeds begin dying and lose their cluster and luster. When this occurs, the remaining outer stands of deepest green weeds rimming the basin become the seasonal finale of weed-related activity. It’s always

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D i r e c t o r y 39

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PLUS MOR E! • Early Seas on Crap pies By: Dave • Take Your Csanda Camera for a Walk • Memory By: Carolyn Lane: The Corbett Reluctant • Dr. Lund Angler ’s Natural By: Mike Recipes Bialka

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WOODd in this issue DUCK WATCH Feature

Issue 1

• Editio n2

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34 M e m o r y

When my parents bought their summer retreat eight years ago the cabin was nothing more than an old, tiny, one-room cabin that was transplanted from a resort. For seven of those years we used an outhouse, which my mom had to sweep cobwebs and spiders out of before my wife would use. We also had to bring in drinking water since there was no running water.

Luckily, my dad is an excellent carpenter and the list of building projects for the cabin was quickly compiled.

First a screened-in porch and a deck was built. Next my dad added two bedrooms and a bathroom. A living room with a sliding glass door to the deck and windows overlooking the lake followed.

In one bedroom are bunkbeds for the grandkids and in the other room are two homemade log beds for mom and dad. There’s now running water, making the outhouse (thankfully) obsolete.

In eight short years we’ve gone from roughing it to having all the creature comforts of home, including air conditioning, a TV and a DVD player.

Of course when it comes to vacationing at the cabin, one of the most meticulously planned items is the menu. In that one week we probably eat better (and more) than we do at any other time of the summer.

W e e d s

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but when the snow turns into a distant memory and the mercury rises to the point where short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops become standard dress, my thoughts turn to the lake and my parents’ cabin.

Some people prefer to play on white sand beaches in the Bahamas. I’ll take the homemade beach and makeshift waterslide off the dock any day.

Some people like to go on chartered, deep-sea fishing expeditions. Give me a shovel, an old Folgers coffee can to collect worms and I’ve got an afternoon of catching sunnies off the end of the dock with my daughter.

Some people like the bright lights and non-stop action of Las Vegas. I prefer the snap, crackle, pop and soft illumination of a campfire and the quiet still of the evening.

Yes, my parents’ cabin is my summer oasis. It’s a small cabin on a small lake a little north of Grand Rapids and for the past four years the cabin has been summer destination No. 1 for me, my wife and two daughters.

Each summer we take a week off over the Fourth of July holiday and head north. One of the best feelings in the world is pulling into the driveway, seeing the cabin and knowing your vacation has started.

Skiing slalom is more physically demanding and there are a wide range of sizes and types available by various manufacturers.

Whether you’re just considering taking up the sport or are a seasoned semi-professional, safety should still come first. The place to start is equipment when it comes to playing it safe. Always wear a flotation device that fits properly. It’s recommended to wear a Type III U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device if at all possible. And be thankful that you live in Minnesota. Even though the winters are sometimes long and it seems like you have to wait forever before summer is here again, at least you don’t have to worry about alligators cutting in front of you when you’re out skiing the lakes.

L I S A D I C K I N S O N is a freelance writer and native of South Carolina who is eagerly anticipating her fourth sumer of outdoor recreation along the Mississippi River near Brainerd. Her passions include family, screenwriting, mountain biking, socializing, trailblazing and issues of global importance.

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T i c k l i n g

IS IT TRUE THAT LIFE IS BETTER AT THE LAKE?

6

Dispatch sports writer Troy Gunderson’s four-year old daughter Noelle shows off the sun fish caught with her Barbie fishing pole at the end of the dock at grandma and grandpa’s cabin while on a weeklong summer vacation in 2006.

lakes make it interesting,” John Awsumb said. “There is nothing quite like carving the fresh tracks at dawn or dusk on your favorite lake. I especially like the fact that it is so close to the Twin Cities.” And the Awsumbs are not alone because it seems like there are more water-skiers than ever during the past decade of summers on our popular lakes.

“The market has been changing for the past six or seven years,” according to Teresa Berg, manager of Martin’s Sport Shop in Nisswa. If you thought that wakeboarding and knee boarding have completely taken the place of water-skiing, you are sadly misinformed.

“The new design and shape have revitalized the sport,” said Berg. “Water-ski manufacturers mimicked a trend from snow ski makers, by changing to a style that is wider at the top and therefore less stressful on the upper body. It’s easier for kids and first-timers to get up and learn the sport,” she said. Higher-end hinged bindings also make it easier to get in and get out of the ski.

Maybe you fall into the category of those who used to ski back in the day, but gave it up because of muscle strain. “Older skiers can get back in the game with this new design.” The revolutionized shape “allows more mature skiers to ski longer and more often,” Berg said.

Manufacturers have made it better for the smaller ones too. “Kids can ski more safely now. It’s optional to have a bar to hold the skis together so they don’t crisscross and two handled ropes are also available. Young skiers will fall and often tend to keep holding onto the rope, while being dragged and risking injury. With the two-handled rope, a parent can drop the other end so the child won’t be dragged.” If those had been around when I first learned to ski, maybe I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water as I held on too long.

Perhaps you’re wondering what type of ski is best for you. Buy the equipment that is best suited to meet your needs and ability. Are you a beginner or do you have years of skiing experience? It makes a huge difference when considering an equipment purchase. Many beginners use a “combo pair” — basic skis made of wood or fiberglass. The size you use depends on your weight and the speed you prefer to ski. More experienced skiers may advance to ski “slalom” — using only one ski.

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a good idea to avoid dead or dying weed growth, and instead focus on the best available weed habitat at that stage of the season.

You can run your boat over deep weedbeds to get a good idea of their health while viewing them with your electronics or an Aqua-Vu underwater camera. But in the end, there’s no substitute for a hands-on approach.

Cast into a weedbed, interpret what you feel, and see what you bring back draped on your lure. If it’s green and healthy, not too thick yet not too thin, and lying at the right depth, it indicates a good candidate area for hosting walleyes in the weeds.

Hands-on casting tactics

I enjoy fishing weed walleyes with a hands-on approach, meaning by casting to them, most of the time.

Actually, I’m casting to, working and interpreting the weed growth. By biting, walleyes let me know where, when and how I’m doing it correctly.

In most instances, I use about 6-foot-6-inch medium Shimano spinning gear spooled with 8-to 10-poundtest monofilament. The line must be soft and flexible enough to cast small lightweight lures, yet sufficiently tough and durable to withstand the continual punishment of weed contact. Berkley Tri-Maxx has sufficient power for hook-setting and fighting fish up and out of the weeds, and facilitates an upward wrist snap when I want to break my lure free from the growth. This simple yet critical maneuver makes all the difference between a clean and efficient system, and continually uprooting the jungle in frustration.

• Jigs: Lightweight round jigs are easily my favorite tactic for this approach. I can tip a 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jighead with a live minnow or softbait imitation, pitch it into the weeds, and expect to get bit if walleyes are present.

As a small open-hook jig settles onto the weeds, it hangs up just enough to help sense the type and thickness of the growth when I raise the rod tip to put a little pressure on the line. If the jig doesn’t slide free under tension, then give your rod a firm upward wrist-snap; all but the thickest, softest weeds should break, sending your jig gliding. When the jig runs out of momentum, it then slowly sinks like a wounded minnow. This panicvulnerability sequence is a real trigger in most conditions. Note, however, that it works best with lighter jigs that don’t plunge and bury in the weeds.

Some weeds, like dense coontail, may simply be too dense and spongy to fish with an open-hook jig; you consistently foul the jig and uproot the stalk, rather than being able to snap and cleanly break it. In this event, switch to a weedless jig like a Lindy Veg-E-Jig, which features a pointed nose to more easily slip between weeds; a light wire weedguard to protect the hook point; and a sufficiently stout hook to allow you to heave-ho and haul a walleye up and out of the growth.

Don’t fight walleyes down at the base of a weed clump, or you won’t get ‘em out. Stick ‘em hard, and in the first

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T R O Y G U N D E R S O N , sports writer,

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learned it was much more pleasurable to ski on a lake in Minnesota where there was no need to worry about being bitten or eaten by “critters” in the water so I could enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors.

Skiing on the lakes “up north” is incomparable to anywhere else, according to a Twin Cities family. John and Jennifer Awsumb, and their three children, Natalie, Nico and Hannah, come up frequently from the cities to enjoy their cabin and play on the waters of Bass Lake.

Located just north of Merrifield, it is known among locals as Turkey Bass, to differentiate it from the other similarly named lakes in the area. John has fond memories of water-skiing with his family as he was growing up. His father is the late Roger Awsumb, who many may remember as “Casey Jones” from several Twin-Cities based television shows in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

“The waters of the Brainerd lakes area are a waterskier’s paradise. The abundance of quiet bays and small

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AT AGE 7, I learned to water-ski with my cousins back east on the Black River, not too far away from the South Carolina coast.

Those were good times, enjoying family picnics on “the hill” (as we referred to the shore), followed by a requirement by my mother to wait at least 30 minutes after eating before returning to the water. A half-hour seemed like an eternity in those days and then it was back in the water.

Occasionally there weren’t enough cousins around, so I was allowed to drive the boat that pulled a skier. When I was behind the boat, invariably there were occasions where I crossed paths with a water moccasin (species of snake) or a stealthy alligator lurking nearby in the dark water. Several years and many miles later, I

ON THE LAKES

Shish kabobs, steaks, hamburgers, brats and my special marinated pork chops are the usual cabin fare.

I became used to cabin living when I was younger and some of my best memories include the annual week of vacation my family took at my grandparents’ cabin, which they owned for a number of decades, on Big Lake near Cloquet.

Now that was rustic lake living. There was, of course, an outhouse and no running water. In fact the only water available was via a hand pump that we shared with the cabin next to us. And the only TV we had there was (gasp!) black and white.

When my two older brothers and I weren’t swimming we were water-skiing and tubing, or playing army on the hill behind the cabin. One of my favorite things to do was to take the small sailboat out with one of my brothers and flip it over in the middle of the lake.

We’d then have to swim around to the rudder and pull it back down in order to get the mast out of the water and the boat upright.

There was also the small fishing boat with the 6-horsepower motor we’d take out fishing. My brothers and I often headed over to the bay across the lake to fish for sunnies and one morning we caught enough keepers for a fish fry.

But my grandparents’ cabin was on American Indian land and was to be repossessed. My grandma was given until 2000 to either sell the cabin or hand it over. Sadly, she ended up selling it.

The loss of my grandparents’ cabin was one of the main reasons my parents bought theirs. They saw how many memories my brothers and I had made and they wanted a place where their grandkids could make their own memories.

Memories like watching the kids get up on skis for the first time or that first sunfish caught at the end of the dock.

Memories of the beanbag toss tournaments and all the bragging that goes along with them. And memories of our annual family get-together called Tent City in which 25 people camp out for three days of fun.

Memories of fireworks exploding over the lake at dusk on the Fourth of July or of stories told around the campfire and s’mores made with peanut butter.

So, is life truly better at the lake? You bet it is.

few seconds, try to lift and move fish a few feet outside before they know what hit ‘em. Then fight them in relatively open water.

• Jig spinners: In recent years, jig spinners resembling the original Johnson Beetle Spin have experienced a rebirth in walleye circles, largely through the efforts of tournament anglers fishing weeds or shallow shoreline cover. Simply clip a small bent-wire-arm spinner onto the eye of your favorite jig, add a 3- to 4-inch softbait or livebait to spice up the combo, and work it much like a jig. The added flash and vibration, and slower drop speed due to the water resistance of the spinning blade, make it an ideal weed combo and helps minimize snags to boot. Cast it, swim it, pause it to helicopter slowly downward before pumping the rod tip and surging it upward again.

• Fancasting cranks: Despite the common fear of snagging treble hooks in weed growth, crankbaits are among your best casting lures for covering extensive weed flats. Providing, of course, that you select the proper lure shape, action and, most important, running depth to match the height and thickness of the weeds. Ideally, you want the bait to run just deep enough to brush and rustle the tops of the highest strands, hanging up only occasionally, yet not so firmly as to prevent a wrist-snap from freeing the bait. Nothing’s worse than choosing a lure that runs too deep, continually plowing the fields.

You’re far better off using a lure that runs slightly shallower; walleyes tend to hit free-running crankbaits better than bass do, although there’s no doubt that occasionally touching the cover ensures that the lure is in the fish zone.

Mimic the hatch when casting cranks for walleyes. It might be long, thin minnow imitators to match shiners, or Shad Raps to match shad or perch. In general, something narrower and subtler than you’d choose for bass.

Match lure colors and patterns to both water clarity and forage type, using something visible. It’s OK to err on the brighter side with clown or fire tiger in darker water; walleyes routinely hit shades of orange, yellow and chartreuse in low-visibility conditions.

Suspending lures like Husky Jerks are among your best baits if you can run them cleanly above the weed tops.

If not, stick to lures that float back up when paused. I like Rapala’s high-flotation balsa construction for that purpose, and for their subtle wiggles during slow, fairly steady retrieves. It’s OK to pump and pause crankbaits occasionally, but don’t overdo it. You definitely don’t have to pound and deflect them off cover when fishing for walleyes, whereas bass often prefer erratic changes of lure speed and direction.

If you need to cast lightweight balsa baits a bit farther, or rip the weed tops more effectively, switch to no-stretch Berkley FireLine. This is particularly true when casting lures along the edges of deep weedlines, or plunging them down into lanes between clumps.

Dave

Photos provided by Dave Csanda

Csanda

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24 17

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Rhythm of the Rails 17th Annual Log Cabin & Home Tour

26

Rhythm of the Rails Cass County Fair - Pine River

19

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27

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When you want to keep your lures up and above cover, however, mono has more water resistance, makes lures run shallower and is usually a better choice.

• Casting slip bobbers: Sometimes, weeds are just too thick to penetrate, and you must fish above the cover or along the edges and draw fish out to the bait. The slow, dangling presentation of a slip bobber and livebait may be the answer. Floating bogs in Wisconsin and Michigan flowages are a good example; the fish tuck under the mass of buoyant vegetation, but a slip bobber leech cast to the edge and paused there may lure them out for a look-see.

Slip bobbers also are great for fishing above thick weedbeds that don’t reach the surface. The key is suspending the bait at or just above the level of the highest stalks. Cast out and let the bobber drift across potential weed flats. Pockets of hard bottom forming weed-free holes in weedbeds are prime spots. At night, anchor and fancast lighted floats across sand grass or coontail flats for walleyes cruising the shallows. The outer edges of reedbeds are candidates as well.

30

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23 16

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Hands-on trolling

23

Turtle Races

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Directory D

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version to present a grub, minnow or shorter bait than a crawler, simply for efficiency. This is one instance where a 3- or 4-inch Gulp! Minnow or Minnow Grub definitely shines. It combines shape, color, scent, taste and action when trolled behind a No. 2 or No. 3 spinner blade. And best of all, it’s durable and will withstand the incessant tugs of both weeds and nuisance panfish.

Perennial persuasion

As you can see, there are many different ways to fish weeds for walleyes. I prefer hands-on casting techniques, most of the time, when the fish are up inside the weeds, extending out toward an edge. Even near a distinct edge, there are usually subtle variations like pockets and lanes, thicker or higher clumps, or changes in weed type or density that you’d otherwise miss if you didn’t probe the growth and feel them for yourself. And where a weed edge is sparse and variable, every cast is a lesson in adjustment and interpretation — moving in or out, shallower or deeper, modifying retrieves or switching lure styles. Pay attention and you’ll catch more walleyes than with a simple straightforward trolling approach.

When walleyes relate heavily to a distinct outer (deeper) weed edge, the odds begin tipping toward a livebait rigging presentation. If they’re positioned along, just inside, or slightly outside the weeds, you don’t need to waste time casting to them. Just slowly troll a bait past their noses, tickling the fringe of the weed growth from time to time to ensure you’re in the fish zone. It’s still a hands-on approach to maximize feel and interpretation; it’s just more efficient to keep your bait down there working for you 100 percent of the time.

The Brainerd lakes area is blessed with a number of Minnesota’s finest weed walleye fisheries. Large lakes like Mille Lacs, Gull, Pelican, the Whitefish Chain, North Long, Shamineau and Alexander all have large, shallow weed flats that burst into full bloom in midJune. These host plenty of walleyes that most anglers miss.

Smaller waters like South Long, Crow Wing, Platte, Sullivan, Hubert, Edward, Pine Mountain, Fish Trap, Bay, Farm Island or Serpent all host excellent stocked walleye opportunities where fishing emerging weeds play a key role in summer success. And when you head west toward Ottertail, Alexandria, Perham and Park Rapids, you enter a region of smaller fertile, stocked lakes where weed walleyes are often the predominant summer pattern. In short, if you don’t fish weeds in summer, you’re not on the fish.

22

24th Annual Fishing Classic

Bean Hole Days and Arts & Crafts Fair

11

+ - ,!"+- After 28 years as a magazine editor and TV angler at In-Fisherman, D A V E C S A N D A recently rejoined his old friends at Lindner Media, producers of Angling Edge Television, in Baxter.

16

Hospice Charity Event

10

9

7

All the aforementioned tactics are geared to probe into and above weeds to some degree, particularly around pockets, openings and lanes. Where weeds form a dense, fairly straight and consistent edge, however, trolling may become a better option. Especially along the deep outer edge bordering a dropoff to deeper water.

The easiest way to tickle the weed fringe while trolling is to use a bullet sinker livebait rig with a short snell and weedless hook. The pointed sinker slithers between sparse stalks, the short (say, 15-inch) snell doesn’t wrap around weeds like a longer one would, and the hook point is protected from grabbing and snagging the greenery. Tip it with a leech, minnow or crawler in sparse weeds, or switch to a Power Bait or Gulp! minnow, crawler or other livebait imitator when the weeds are thick or tough enough to play havoc with livebait.

Troll slowly along with your electric motor, parallel to the weedline, moving slightly in or out of the edge, using your sense of feel to alternately touch and rub, then slip and slide back outside.

You also can use one of Lindy’s No Snagg Center Slip Sinkers for this approach. It’s more weedless than a traditional walking sinker, and will writhe between sparse weed stalks, trailing the bait along behind. Or, to fish slightly outside the fringe, switch to a regular No Snagg sinker that stands more upright and taps along bottom.

In this more open water, you have the option to use a plain hook, a weedless hook, or a floating jighead tipped with livebait. If there’s a carpet of low-lying sand grass adjacent to the taller standing weeds, a floating jighead will position your bait up above the sand grass, reducing snags while keeping the bait visible at all times.

Want more speed? Substitute a small spinner and short snell for the single hook in any of the above presentations. Most of the time, I’d go with a single hook

15 Deadline for Moose Hunt Application 34th Annual Golf Classic

Bracket Race - BIR

8

6

Summer

Crosslake Fireworks

29

30 Sour Grapes Marathon Cuyuna Woodtick Races

9

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Take a Kid Fishing Weekend June 8-10

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4th of July Celebration

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JULY

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218-568-6995 www.wildwedge.com Issue 1

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Feature

WOODd in this issue DUCK WATCH

PLUS MOR E! • Early Seas on Crap pies By: Dave • Take Your Csanda Camera for a Walk • Memory By: Carolyn Lane: The Corbett Reluctant • Dr. Lund Angler ’s Natural By: Mike Recipes Bialka

Read Online:

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ainerdd

BY: BILL

MARCHEL

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Glossy_Spring 07.indd

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15 Bracket Race - BIR

8 Pleasureland RV Show & Go - BIR 33rd Annual Arts in the Park

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18 Turtle Races

Bean Hole Days and Arts & Crafts Fair

Moondance Jam - Walker

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As you can see, there are many different ways to fish weeds for walleyes. I prefer hands-on casting techniques, most of the time, when the fish are up inside the weeds, extending out toward an edge. Even near a distinct edge, there are usually subtle variations like pockets and lanes, thicker or higher clumps, or changes in weed type or density that you’d otherwise miss if you didn’t probe the growth and feel them for yourself. And where a weed edge is sparse and variable, every cast is a lesson in adjustment and interpretation — moving in or out, shallower or deeper, modifying retrieves or switching lure styles. Pay attention and you’ll catch more walleyes than with a simple straightforward trolling approach.

When walleyes relate heavily to a distinct outer (deeper) weed edge, the odds begin tipping toward a livebait rigging presentation. If they’re positioned along, just inside, or slightly outside the weeds, you don’t need to waste time casting to them. Just slowly troll a bait past their noses, tickling the fringe of the weed growth from time to time to ensure you’re in the fish zone. It’s still a hands-on approach to maximize feel and interpretation; it’s just more efficient to keep your bait down there working for you 100 percent of the time.

The Brainerd lakes area is blessed with a number of Minnesota’s finest weed walleye fisheries. Large lakes like Mille Lacs, Gull, Pelican, the Whitefish Chain, North Long, Shamineau and Alexander all have large, shallow weed flats that burst into full bloom in midJune. These host plenty of walleyes that most anglers miss.

Smaller waters like South Long, Crow Wing, Platte, Sullivan, Hubert, Edward, Pine Mountain, Fish Trap, Bay, Farm Island or Serpent all host excellent stocked walleye opportunities where fishing emerging weeds play a key role in summer success. And when you head west toward Ottertail, Alexandria, Perham and Park Rapids, you enter a region of smaller fertile, stocked lakes where weed walleyes are often the predominant summer pattern. In short, if you don’t fish weeds in summer, you’re not on the fish.

34771 US Hwy 169 Onamia, MN 56359

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320-532-4484

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GUIDE SERVICE

BOAT COVERS

Custom Upholstery & Awning Center 218-855-1096 • Custom Canvas Covers • Awning Specialist

The Finest 9 Hole Course in the Area

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Hwy 371 North to County Rd. 2. West, 1 mile

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LOOK FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE OF OUTDOOR TRADITIONS ON SEPT. 14th.

Issue 1

• Editio

Feature

WOODd in this issue DUCK WATCH

PLUS MOR E! • Early Seas on Crap pies By: Dave • Take Your Csanda Camera for a Walk • Memory By: Carolyn Lane: The Corbett Reluctant • Dr. Lund Angler ’s Natural By: Mike Recipes Bialka

Read Online:

Glossy_Spring 07.indd

1

www.br

ainerdd

ispatch

.com

Specializing in Musky Fishing the Brainerd Lakes Area 218.829.8777 218.232.6067 www.bigÀshhunt.com tim@bigÀshhunt.com

WILDWEDGE

EXPERT FURNITURE UPHOLSTERY

After 28 years as a magazine editor and TV angler at In-Fisherman, D A V E C S A N D A recently rejoined his old friends at Lindner Media, producers of Angling Edge Television, in Baxter.

BY: BILL

MARCHEL

n2

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET YOUR BUSINESS INTO OUR SERVICE DIRECTORY CALL: 218-855-5827

/VER 9EARS %XPERIENCE &OR A 'REAT &ISHING %XPERIENCE #ALL 2OYAL AT

CELL

S e r v i c e

(Con’t)

CMYK

Summer

30

Perennial persuasion

in

29

Directory D

Service

version to present a grub, minnow or shorter bait than a crawler, simply for efficiency. This is one instance where a 3- or 4-inch Gulp! Minnow or Minnow Grub definitely shines. It combines shape, color, scent, taste and action when trolled behind a No. 2 or No. 3 spinner blade. And best of all, it’s durable and will withstand the incessant tugs of both weeds and nuisance panfish.

T H E I D E A L T I M E TO

Walleyes

28

for

27

Weeds

26

Tickling

25

Crow Wing County Fair

8

24

Crosslake Fireworks

*See Dealer for Details

All the aforementioned tactics are geared to probe into and above weeds to some degree, particularly around pockets, openings and lanes. Where weeds form a dense, fairly straight and consistent edge, however, trolling may become a better option. Especially along the deep outer edge bordering a dropoff to deeper water.

The easiest way to tickle the weed fringe while trolling is to use a bullet sinker livebait rig with a short snell and weedless hook. The pointed sinker slithers between sparse stalks, the short (say, 15-inch) snell doesn’t wrap around weeds like a longer one would, and the hook point is protected from grabbing and snagging the greenery. Tip it with a leech, minnow or crawler in sparse weeds, or switch to a Power Bait or Gulp! minnow, crawler or other livebait imitator when the weeds are thick or tough enough to play havoc with livebait.

Troll slowly along with your electric motor, parallel to the weedline, moving slightly in or out of the edge, using your sense of feel to alternately touch and rub, then slip and slide back outside.

You also can use one of Lindy’s No Snagg Center Slip Sinkers for this approach. It’s more weedless than a traditional walking sinker, and will writhe between sparse weed stalks, trailing the bait along behind. Or, to fish slightly outside the fringe, switch to a regular No Snagg sinker that stands more upright and taps along bottom.

In this more open water, you have the option to use a plain hook, a weedless hook, or a floating jighead tipped with livebait. If there’s a carpet of low-lying sand grass adjacent to the taller standing weeds, a floating jighead will position your bait up above the sand grass, reducing snags while keeping the bait visible at all times.

Want more speed? Substitute a small spinner and short snell for the single hook in any of the above presentations. Most of the time, I’d go with a single hook

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When you want to keep your lures up and above cover, however, mono has more water resistance, makes lures run shallower and is usually a better choice.

• Casting slip bobbers: Sometimes, weeds are just too thick to penetrate, and you must fish above the cover or along the edges and draw fish out to the bait. The slow, dangling presentation of a slip bobber and livebait may be the answer. Floating bogs in Wisconsin and Michigan flowages are a good example; the fish tuck under the mass of buoyant vegetation, but a slip bobber leech cast to the edge and paused there may lure them out for a look-see.

Slip bobbers also are great for fishing above thick weedbeds that don’t reach the surface. The key is suspending the bait at or just above the level of the highest stalks. Cast out and let the bobber drift across potential weed flats. Pockets of hard bottom forming weed-free holes in weedbeds are prime spots. At night, anchor and fancast lighted floats across sand grass or coontail flats for walleyes cruising the shallows. The outer edges of reedbeds are candidates as well.

D i r e c t o r y

37

T r o y

L a k e s learned it was much more pleasurable to ski on a lake in Minnesota where there was no need to worry about being bitten or eaten by “critters” in the water so I could enjoy the natural beauty of the outdoors.

Skiing on the lakes “up north” is incomparable to anywhere else, according to a Twin Cities family. John and Jennifer Awsumb, and their three children, Natalie, Nico and Hannah, come up frequently from the cities to enjoy their cabin and play on the waters of Bass Lake.

Located just north of Merrifield, it is known among locals as Turkey Bass, to differentiate it from the other similarly named lakes in the area. John has fond memories of water-skiing with his family as he was growing up. His father is the late Roger Awsumb, who many may remember as “Casey Jones” from several Twin-Cities based television shows in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.

“The waters of the Brainerd lakes area are a waterskier’s paradise. The abundance of quiet bays and small

T R O Y G U N D E R S O N , sports writer, may be reached at troy.gunderson@ brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5865.

Shish kabobs, steaks, hamburgers, brats and my special marinated pork chops are the usual cabin fare.

I became used to cabin living when I was younger and some of my best memories include the annual week of vacation my family took at my grandparents’ cabin, which they owned for a number of decades, on Big Lake near Cloquet.

Now that was rustic lake living. There was, of course, an outhouse and no running water. In fact the only water available was via a hand pump that we shared with the cabin next to us. And the only TV we had there was (gasp!) black and white.

When my two older brothers and I weren’t swimming we were water-skiing and tubing, or playing army on the hill behind the cabin. One of my favorite things to do was to take the small sailboat out with one of my brothers and flip it over in the middle of the lake.

We’d then have to swim around to the rudder and pull it back down in order to get the mast out of the water and the boat upright.

There was also the small fishing boat with the 6-horsepower motor we’d take out fishing. My brothers and I often headed over to the bay across the lake to fish for sunnies and one morning we caught enough keepers for a fish fry.

But my grandparents’ cabin was on American Indian land and was to be repossessed. My grandma was given until 2000 to either sell the cabin or hand it over. Sadly, she ended up selling it.

The loss of my grandparents’ cabin was one of the main reasons my parents bought theirs. They saw how many memories my brothers and I had made and they wanted a place where their grandkids could make their own memories.

Memories like watching the kids get up on skis for the first time or that first sunfish caught at the end of the dock.

Memories of the beanbag toss tournaments and all the bragging that goes along with them. And memories of our annual family get-together called Tent City in which 25 people camp out for three days of fun.

Memories of fireworks exploding over the lake at dusk on the Fourth of July or of stories told around the campfire and s’mores made with peanut butter.

So, is life truly better at the lake? You bet it is.

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Hands-on casting tactics

I enjoy fishing weed walleyes with a hands-on approach, meaning by casting to them, most of the time.

Actually, I’m casting to, working and interpreting the weed growth. By biting, walleyes let me know where, when and how I’m doing it correctly.

In most instances, I use about 6-foot-6-inch medium Shimano spinning gear spooled with 8-to 10-poundtest monofilament. The line must be soft and flexible enough to cast small lightweight lures, yet sufficiently tough and durable to withstand the continual punishment of weed contact. Berkley Tri-Maxx has sufficient power for hook-setting and fighting fish up and out of the weeds, and facilitates an upward wrist snap when I want to break my lure free from the growth. This simple yet critical maneuver makes all the difference between a clean and efficient system, and continually uprooting the jungle in frustration.

• Jigs: Lightweight round jigs are easily my favorite tactic for this approach. I can tip a 1/16- to 1/8-ounce jighead with a live minnow or softbait imitation, pitch it into the weeds, and expect to get bit if walleyes are present.

As a small open-hook jig settles onto the weeds, it hangs up just enough to help sense the type and thickness of the growth when I raise the rod tip to put a little pressure on the line. If the jig doesn’t slide free under tension, then give your rod a firm upward wrist-snap; all but the thickest, softest weeds should break, sending your jig gliding. When the jig runs out of momentum, it then slowly sinks like a wounded minnow. This panicvulnerability sequence is a real trigger in most conditions. Note, however, that it works best with lighter jigs that don’t plunge and bury in the weeds.

Some weeds, like dense coontail, may simply be too dense and spongy to fish with an open-hook jig; you consistently foul the jig and uproot the stalk, rather than being able to snap and cleanly break it. In this event, switch to a weedless jig like a Lindy Veg-E-Jig, which features a pointed nose to more easily slip between weeds; a light wire weedguard to protect the hook point; and a sufficiently stout hook to allow you to heave-ho and haul a walleye up and out of the growth.

Don’t fight walleyes down at the base of a weed clump, or you won’t get ‘em out. Stick ‘em hard, and in the first

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AT AGE 7, I learned to water-ski with my cousins back east on the Black River, not too far away from the South Carolina coast.

Those were good times, enjoying family picnics on “the hill” (as we referred to the shore), followed by a requirement by my mother to wait at least 30 minutes after eating before returning to the water. A half-hour seemed like an eternity in those days and then it was back in the water.

Occasionally there weren’t enough cousins around, so I was allowed to drive the boat that pulled a skier. When I was behind the boat, invariably there were occasions where I crossed paths with a water moccasin (species of snake) or a stealthy alligator lurking nearby in the dark water. Several years and many miles later, I

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a good idea to avoid dead or dying weed growth, and instead focus on the best available weed habitat at that stage of the season.

You can run your boat over deep weedbeds to get a good idea of their health while viewing them with your electronics or an Aqua-Vu underwater camera. But in the end, there’s no substitute for a hands-on approach.

Cast into a weedbed, interpret what you feel, and see what you bring back draped on your lure. If it’s green and healthy, not too thick yet not too thin, and lying at the right depth, it indicates a good candidate area for hosting walleyes in the weeds.

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few seconds, try to lift and move fish a few feet outside before they know what hit ‘em. Then fight them in relatively open water.

• Jig spinners: In recent years, jig spinners resembling the original Johnson Beetle Spin have experienced a rebirth in walleye circles, largely through the efforts of tournament anglers fishing weeds or shallow shoreline cover. Simply clip a small bent-wire-arm spinner onto the eye of your favorite jig, add a 3- to 4-inch softbait or livebait to spice up the combo, and work it much like a jig. The added flash and vibration, and slower drop speed due to the water resistance of the spinning blade, make it an ideal weed combo and helps minimize snags to boot. Cast it, swim it, pause it to helicopter slowly downward before pumping the rod tip and surging it upward again.

• Fancasting cranks: Despite the common fear of snagging treble hooks in weed growth, crankbaits are among your best casting lures for covering extensive weed flats. Providing, of course, that you select the proper lure shape, action and, most important, running depth to match the height and thickness of the weeds. Ideally, you want the bait to run just deep enough to brush and rustle the tops of the highest strands, hanging up only occasionally, yet not so firmly as to prevent a wrist-snap from freeing the bait. Nothing’s worse than choosing a lure that runs too deep, continually plowing the fields.

You’re far better off using a lure that runs slightly shallower; walleyes tend to hit free-running crankbaits better than bass do, although there’s no doubt that occasionally touching the cover ensures that the lure is in the fish zone.

Mimic the hatch when casting cranks for walleyes. It might be long, thin minnow imitators to match shiners, or Shad Raps to match shad or perch. In general, something narrower and subtler than you’d choose for bass.

Match lure colors and patterns to both water clarity and forage type, using something visible. It’s OK to err on the brighter side with clown or fire tiger in darker water; walleyes routinely hit shades of orange, yellow and chartreuse in low-visibility conditions.

Suspending lures like Husky Jerks are among your best baits if you can run them cleanly above the weed tops.

If not, stick to lures that float back up when paused. I like Rapala’s high-flotation balsa construction for that purpose, and for their subtle wiggles during slow, fairly steady retrieves. It’s OK to pump and pause crankbaits occasionally, but don’t overdo it. You definitely don’t have to pound and deflect them off cover when fishing for walleyes, whereas bass often prefer erratic changes of lure speed and direction.

If you need to cast lightweight balsa baits a bit farther, or rip the weed tops more effectively, switch to no-stretch Berkley FireLine. This is particularly true when casting lures along the edges of deep weedlines, or plunging them down into lanes between clumps.

Dave

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lakes make it interesting,” John Awsumb said. “There is nothing quite like carving the fresh tracks at dawn or dusk on your favorite lake. I especially like the fact that it is so close to the Twin Cities.” And the Awsumbs are not alone because it seems like there are more water-skiers than ever during the past decade of summers on our popular lakes.

“The market has been changing for the past six or seven years,” according to Teresa Berg, manager of Martin’s Sport Shop in Nisswa. If you thought that wakeboarding and knee boarding have completely taken the place of water-skiing, you are sadly misinformed.

“The new design and shape have revitalized the sport,” said Berg. “Water-ski manufacturers mimicked a trend from snow ski makers, by changing to a style that is wider at the top and therefore less stressful on the upper body. It’s easier for kids and first-timers to get up and learn the sport,” she said. Higher-end hinged bindings also make it easier to get in and get out of the ski.

Maybe you fall into the category of those who used to ski back in the day, but gave it up because of muscle strain. “Older skiers can get back in the game with this new design.” The revolutionized shape “allows more mature skiers to ski longer and more often,” Berg said.

Manufacturers have made it better for the smaller ones too. “Kids can ski more safely now. It’s optional to have a bar to hold the skis together so they don’t crisscross and two handled ropes are also available. Young skiers will fall and often tend to keep holding onto the rope, while being dragged and risking injury. With the two-handled rope, a parent can drop the other end so the child won’t be dragged.” If those had been around when I first learned to ski, maybe I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water as I held on too long.

Perhaps you’re wondering what type of ski is best for you. Buy the equipment that is best suited to meet your needs and ability. Are you a beginner or do you have years of skiing experience? It makes a huge difference when considering an equipment purchase. Many beginners use a “combo pair” — basic skis made of wood or fiberglass. The size you use depends on your weight and the speed you prefer to ski. More experienced skiers may advance to ski “slalom” — using only one ski.

Dispatch sports writer Troy Gunderson’s four-year old daughter Noelle shows off the sun fish caught with her Barbie fishing pole at the end of the dock at grandma and grandpa’s cabin while on a weeklong summer vacation in 2006.

IS IT TRUE THAT LIFE IS BETTER AT THE LAKE? I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but when the snow turns into a distant memory and the mercury rises to the point where short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops become standard dress, my thoughts turn to the lake and my parents’ cabin.

Some people prefer to play on white sand beaches in the Bahamas. I’ll take the homemade beach and makeshift waterslide off the dock any day.

Some people like to go on chartered, deep-sea fishing expeditions. Give me a shovel, an old Folgers coffee can to collect worms and I’ve got an afternoon of catching sunnies off the end of the dock with my daughter.

Some people like the bright lights and non-stop action of Las Vegas. I prefer the snap, crackle, pop and soft illumination of a campfire and the quiet still of the evening.

Yes, my parents’ cabin is my summer oasis. It’s a small cabin on a small lake a little north of Grand Rapids and for the past four years the cabin has been summer destination No. 1 for me, my wife and two daughters.

Each summer we take a week off over the Fourth of July holiday and head north. One of the best feelings in the world is pulling into the driveway, seeing the cabin and knowing your vacation has started.

When my parents bought their summer retreat eight years ago the cabin was nothing more than an old, tiny, one-room cabin that was transplanted from a resort. For seven of those years we used an outhouse, which my mom had to sweep cobwebs and spiders out of before my wife would use. We also had to bring in drinking water since there was no running water.

Luckily, my dad is an excellent carpenter and the list of building projects for the cabin was quickly compiled.

First a screened-in porch and a deck was built. Next my dad added two bedrooms and a bathroom. A living room with a sliding glass door to the deck and windows overlooking the lake followed.

In one bedroom are bunkbeds for the grandkids and in the other room are two homemade log beds for mom and dad. There’s now running water, making the outhouse (thankfully) obsolete.

In eight short years we’ve gone from roughing it to having all the creature comforts of home, including air conditioning, a TV and a DVD player.

Of course when it comes to vacationing at the cabin, one of the most meticulously planned items is the menu. In that one week we probably eat better (and more) than we do at any other time of the summer.

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Skiing slalom is more physically demanding and there are a wide range of sizes and types available by various manufacturers.

Whether you’re just considering taking up the sport or are a seasoned semi-professional, safety should still come first. The place to start is equipment when it comes to playing it safe. Always wear a flotation device that fits properly. It’s recommended to wear a Type III U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device if at all possible. And be thankful that you live in Minnesota. Even though the winters are sometimes long and it seems like you have to wait forever before summer is here again, at least you don’t have to worry about alligators cutting in front of you when you’re out skiing the lakes.

L I S A D I C K I N S O N is a freelance writer and native of South Carolina who is eagerly anticipating her fourth sumer of outdoor recreation along the Mississippi River near Brainerd. Her passions include family, screenwriting, mountain biking, socializing, trailblazing and issues of global importance.

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6

Getting Down to the Root of the Problem

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” When fishing weedbeds for walleyes, you can beat the weeds with a variety or lures, baits and tactics; but if you can’t make your lures either slash through the outer fringe or slip between the stalks, your lure becomes entangled. There’s nothing worse than pitching into a weedbed full of walleyes and coming back with green instead of gold.

The key is to slip and slither, tickle and touch your way through the foliage without undue snagging. Or to nip and tuck just enough of the fringes to break cleanly through the outer fronds and fibers, sending your jig, crankbait or spinner exploding like a panicked minnow in flight for its life. If being a weed sneak doesn’t do it for you, then going on a tear sometimes will.

Weeds are the natural lake equivalents of wood cover in reservoirs, with one major distinction: weeds are continually changing, rather than static. They sprout, they flourish, they thicken — sometimes to a perfect degree for use by walleyes and other gamefish and sometimes growing too thick to permit fish usage. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, and fish leave for, dare we say it, greener pastures?

Some weed types grow only in the shallows.

Others sprout considerably deeper, making them better candidates for more than occasional walleye use. In most northern natural lake environments, tall stalks of leafy cabbage, and thicker, bushier fronds of coontail are your predominant weeds for walleyes.

Fish also may relate to sand grass (chara) — a low-growing carpet that sprouts both shallower and deeper than the taller, standing weed types. Emergent reeds and cane draw feeding walleyes in the shallows, and are prime fishing locales in fertile, darker-water prairie or farm-country waters.

There’s no saying that you should just fish one or two weed types just because they’re easier to fish than others. Remember — fish ‘em where they live, when they live there.

Weeds keep changing and evolving throughout the year. When they’re right, they attract plenty of baitfish and forage. When they’re not, the fish leave. By mid-fall, for example, most shallow weeds begin dying and lose their cluster and luster. When this occurs, the remaining outer stands of deepest green weeds rimming the basin become the seasonal finale of weed-related activity. It’s always THERE’S AN OLD SAYING, “If you

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CARP ON A STRING

This is considered a backcountry camping location and should be used only by experienced canoe campers.

Around the bend, hikers will find Huntersville Forest. The campsite is a popular local swimming area and provides many trails. The area was known to Ojibwe Indians as “Hunter’s Paradise.” The multitude of whitetail deer and ruffed grouse make this apparent.

Anderson’s Crossing was founded by a pioneer homesteader on two converging Indian trails. The 113 acres give plenty of space for camping and hiking. The Butterfield rapids begin along this stretch of the river and give listeners a babbling symphony to accompany their picnics. The rapids are not severe and can be fun for swimming and wading.

On the high banks of Little White Dog, visitors are given an excellent lookout point to view the river and surrounding area. Once used by Native Americans for religious ceremonies, it was formerly called Little Round Hill.

Among the more accessible sites is Cottingham Park.

This boat landing and canoe landing has tarred road access. A hiking trail leads to the next campsite along the canoe trail and is known is for its wildflowers and birds.

Bullard Bluff Campsite is one of the more secluded campsites on the canoe route. It was once known as Hog Haven because of the many wild pigs that lived and thrived in the oak groves of the area.

Just four miles to the south are the Indian mounds.

Although camping and fires are not permitted here, it is an interesting and beautiful point of observation for hiking and resting.

At Old Wadena County Park visitors can see the site of the first farm and post office in Wadena County. The Old Red River Ox Cart Trail goes through the site. The entire area, including the Old Wadena District, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hikers and campers will find rustic camping facilities and several hiking trails.

The last of the sites on the Crow Wing Canoe Trail is McGivern Park. The river continues to Brainerd from here and into Crow Wing State Park. The site shows many signs of the struggle, including rifle pits and lookouts. Picnic tables, a small shelter and a rifle range are available to visitors.

Whether people come looking for seclusion, encounters with wildlife, the sights and sounds of migrating birds and wildflowers or the challenge of canoe camping on one of Minnesota’s finest rivers, the Crow Wing River Canoe Trail is a regional gem and area of vast historical and cultural significance.

Because of light refraction, carp below the water’s surface are not where they appear. A bowfisherman must aim low.

Note the arrow in flight.

THERE I STOOD, doing my best to imitate a tree trunk as my quarry approached. With my bow in one hand and release in the other I slowly and deliberately shifted my feet in preparation for a shot.

When my target reached a predetermined location, I drew my bow in one smooth motion and triggered the release. The arrow traveled true and the prey was mine.

The subject of this hunt was not a big whitetail buck, nor was it a deer at all. It was in fact, a lowly carp, a rather homely fish imported from Europe many years ago. And the location of that hunt was not a deep forest but a flood woodland meadow along the Mississippi River. However, as any bowfisherman will tell you, the thrill of the hunt and intensity felt at the moment of truth was diminished very little just because the quarry had huge ugly lips and scales the size of quarters.

The menial carp, besides being ugly, is also destructive. Its style of feeding, rooting around on the bottom, muddies the water of our lakes and rivers and causes algae blooms that reduces light penetration, thus destroying weed growth beneficial to waterfowl and other fish species such as bass and panfish.

The sport of bowfishing has increased in popularity in recent years because bowhunters are looking for hunting opportunities beyond the fall deer season.

It is when carp are busy perpetuating the species that

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they become most vulnerable to the archer. Carp are normally very wary but females in a spawning mood will usually be accompanied by a half dozen male suitors whose minds are on one thing, and the fish can often be approached quite easily as they pursue their underwater activities. At peak spawning time (late May to mid-June), the water can literally be boiling with carp and the fish are often heard splashing and rolling before they are seen.

Equipment list

Bowfishing requires very little equipment.

There are, however, a few essential items you will need. Besides a bow, of course, the sport requires a special arrow, generally made of solid fiberglass or solid aluminum. These heavy arrows, tipped with a barbed fishing An arrow point used for point, are needed to penetrate the water and bowfishing should be durable thick scales of large fish. and easy to operate like the

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Spray/dry your boat, trailer, and equipment before going to another water body.

J A C O B K U L J U is a Minnesota-based freelance writer who also writes regularly for the Voyageur Press of McGregor. Contact him at jmkulju@gmail.com.

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Eye spy

For Walleyes in Summer

TICKLING WEEDS

These three-winged things, though, are just an introduction to the insect world. There are moths, mayflies, crickets and spiders. There are bees and beetles, wasps and ants. There are aphids, grasshoppers, katydids, cicadas, roaches, flies and all manner of other flying, crawling and creeping critters.

Move s-l-o-w-l-y toward a flighty subject. Sudden jerky motions are a no-no. If your shadow falls on the little fellow, it likely will consider you a potential predator. Insects know only half of the fight-orflight formula, try not to put yourself between the sun and the subject.

Take your first picture as you approach and continue shooting as you move in for a fly’s eye view, as your subject suddenly flitter off. The good news? Butterflies often return to the same flower or one nearby. Take lots of shots. Take lots and lots of shots. Take lots of ... you get it, right?

RP A NG

Getting down and dirty

‘Dragons & Damsels’

Though similar in appearance, the damselfly is smaller and more delicate than a dragonfly. A primary identifying factor is how it hold its wings while at rest. A dragonfly holds its wings perpendicular to its body; a damselfly holds its wings behind itself and parallel to the body. Adult “dragons and damsels� are generally found near lakes, rivers and streams and nymphs (immature bugs) live in the water.

Dragonflies have a propensity to pick a perch and stay put. They are able to fly vertically and backward, hover like helicopters and turn abruptly in the midst of flight.

Their large eyes nearly cover their heads. In fact, with their acute vision, in-flight acrobatics and reputation for hearty appetites, dragonflies are considered the most fearsome predators in the world of insects! Many damselflies also willingly pose. Their small size, however, necessitates moving in quite close and they do get edgy when folks are lurking just feet away.

A sprinkle of water onto spider webs often bring out their owners, where they may remain to pose for you. Spiders, bless them, frequently stay still much longer than many of their insect relatives.

If creepie-crawlies call to you, just roll over a rotting log. It will be a fast-paced scene once you disturb the urban underground, so be ready before you make your move. In addition to “official� insects, you’re likely to encounter brightly colored newts or salamanders, slugs, earthworms, millipedes and even some difficult-to-identify “related organisms.�

So, call a park ranger or the helpful people at the arb.

They can give you information about the best locations and times of year to “hunt� the insects you are after.

Then get out there and shoot what bugs you!

A bowďŹ shing reel should safely store the line but allow an arrow to y unimpeded toward its target. The AMS brand reel is most preferred by most archers.

A stout line connects the arrow to a bowfishing reel that is usually screwed into the stabilizer insert on the bow.

Your local archery shop owner can best advise you on the latest tackle.

Polarized sunglasses are indispensable since they allow you a better view underwater by cutting surface glare.

Also the glasses will protect your eyes should the line become tangled and the arrow comes flying back at you.

Other necessary items are a pair of chest waders if the fish are shallow or a boat if they are deep. Carp and other fish can be shot from a canoe but it’s wise to choose a more stable craft. Popular among veteran bowfishers are johnboats equipped with an elevated platform from which a foot-controlled trolling motor can be operated.

Some carp shooting rigs are quite elaborate.

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and west shores but don’t discount any shoreline, especially on calm, sunny days. In past years, I have seen even the north shore, which is virtually barren of emergent weeds, alive with spawning carp. Trophy carp, big and ugly and weighing more than 30 pounds, are taken each spring on Mille Lacs.

Rivers also can provide good bowfishing, especially during spring when the water has overflowed the banks, flooding nearby fields and meadows. Carp find these shallow, grassy areas to their liking since they are the first to warm to spawning temperatures.

You’ll quickly know if carp are actively spawning in a particular area, especially if the weather is clear and calm. The fish raise quite a ruckus and cruising carp leave huge wakes. Often, shallow grassy areas will be covered with carp eggs and the water will be murky from all their commotion.

Where to go

Carp are found in many of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. In this area, the most popular bowfishing lake is Mille Lacs. Mille Lacs — most famous for its walleyes — attracts carp-shooters as the giant fish move in to spawn. Check the shallow, weedy bays on the south

C A R O L Y N C O R B E T T is a freelance writer and editor with 12 years of experience. Carolyn currently lives in Brainerd where she writes for various local publications and creates content for web sites.

When the water warms to roughly 70 degrees, female carp that are ripe with spawn cruise the shallows, and are accompanied by one or more smaller male carp.

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Photos provided by Bill Marchel

A face not even a mother could love. Carp are detrimental to lakes, rivers and wetlands because they stir up sediments, which reduce light penetration and thus the growth of beneficial aquatic plants.

Most butterfly pictures show the subject situated smack in the middle of the frame. Off-center images offer refreshing variety. If shooting the top of open wings or a side view, try to position the camera parallel to the wings. Or try a face-on shot to catch the eyes and antenna. Use the sun to backlight your featured insect, especially if it has white or light-colored wings. Stay aware of any unappealing aspects in the background. Simply changing your angle can eliminate litter.

Angling for a good shot

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A cool, damp summer morning just as the sun is starting to come up is ideal. In the morning, butterflies have not yet absorbed enough heat for their flight muscles to activate so stay fairly stationary until the dew burns off and their wings dry out. Their lowered level of activity levels offer you far more opportunities. Soon after sunrise, as the butterflies spread their wings wide to absorb heat and begin feeding, is an ideal time for you to approach closely — sometimes within just a few inches.

Archers in pursuit of carp must have a state fishing license. Other laws apply and potential bowfishers should read the regulations.

Properly prepared, carp can be quite tasty. Most bow shooters prefer carp soaked in brine and smoked, but all sorts of recipes exist.

Check the regulations

For proficient archers, hitting a carp cruising at close range with its back out of the water is relatively easy. But, as mentioned earlier, carp are wary and after being chased about, they seldom offer the ideal shot. More difficult is the shot at a fish two or more feet below the surface because you must take into consideration light refraction, or the bending of light, as it passes from water to air. To arrow a deep fish, you must aim low. Only experience will teach you how low to hold because in each situation the depth and angle to your target is different.

Extreme care should be taken that the line to your arrow does not become tangled before the shot. Many years ago, I shot at a fish with the line inadvertently wrapped around my left hand. With a loud snap the line broke as the arrow left the bow, but not before it sliced my hand to the bone. The scar remains today.

Timing is everything

is enlarging a picture to find a bug you hadn’t even realized was there.

Another method of practice for some people involves a faux fly. Cut a life-sized picture of a butterfly from a magazine, pin or paper clip it to a flower outside and practice shooting. Practice monitoring your shadow.

Practice finding how close you can get to the “butterfly” while still keeping it in focus.

Once out in the wild (or maybe just their gardens) some folks actually “chum up” butterflies with fruit bait. Rumor has it that the smell of overly ripe pineapples draws in eager eaters. (You may attract bees and orioles this way as well.) Others focus on mating couples.

With their minds temporarily occupied, you may be able to sneak closer that usual. Most of all, be patient.

Be patient. Be patient. Did I suggest being patient?

B I L L M A R C H E L is a wildlife and outdoors photographer and writer who lives near Fort Ripley. His work has appeared in many regional and national publications and he writes a monthly column for the Brainerd Dispatch. He can be reached at bill@billmarchel.com

The moment of truth

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Best Shot

Do you enjoy taking photos?

Do you have a favorite image of an eagle, Áower, sunset, or how about your favorite hunting partner? Here’s your chance to share it with readers of “OUTDOOR Traditions.” Send it along with a two-sentence explanation as to where, why, and how it was shot. Both could be published online and in the 50,000 copies of our new quarterly magazine, “OUTDOORS Traditions.” Each issue will have an “editor’s pick” contributed photo, including a credit line of the photographer’s name and portrait if available.

If your photo is not chosen, all appropriate images will be included on the “We Spotted” section of our website. They will be displayed there for three months, running concurrently with the season and/or until the next “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes.

Deadline for the fall edition is August 24, 2007 and winter is November 12, 2007.

The Dispatch will collect images quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter). After each issue of “OUTDOOR Traditions” publishes, we will then place the images on our website.

How could I be so lucky, that the stork should drop me off many years ago to be part of a beautiful family in Nisswa, Minnesota, a land of peace and quiet recreation.

Nisswa has forests and lakes in abundance and must have been created to be that place of “quiet time” and recreation in demand by every generation.

The day the stork dropped me down the chimney, my Mother and Father were the owners and operators of a small business with only $25 in their checking account. In the midst of the depression years, I am sure they felt much more fortunate than many other struggling people at the time. As early as 1920’s and 30’s, Nisswa was a place to retreat from the world’s pressures for the busy and the wealthy who needed to rest, as well as a place to hide from lawmen by the “wild and wooly”.

Oddly enough, the horrors of world war in the late 1930’s and 1940’s were frightful years for the likes of Nisswa ad other communities in the northern land of forests and lakes. Jobs were abundant and the American work force grew rapidly. Money in pockets was plentiful. The heavy work schedule caused stress that desperately needed healing.

The land of forests and lakes provided just what the doctor ordered. For those needing peace and quiet, Nisswa was the place to be. For those who needed a fast pace of recreation to vent their stresses, Nisswa was the place to be. The land of forests and lakes was an oasis of sanity.

After WWII there was great expectation that the astounding advances in technology would certainly make life easier and more enjoyable. A relentless pursuit of “things” by the average family to make life easier and more fun seemed to become the norm. By the end of the twentieth century advances in communications and transportation has left us with our mouths wide open in awe. Yet, with all these new gadgets and toys, we realize that not all is a bed of roses. The “easy life” has our lives out of balance. To have more and more things has turned out to be unfulfilling. The selfish and greedy ownership of “things” has made man and woman in this “grand society” merrily another additional “thing”.

Many people are beginning to realize there is something missing in life irregardless of all the material possessions.

People want to stop their world, rediscover themselves, get better acquainted with their own family, and again feel the real value of being a human being, both body and soul.

Where, o where, does one find “quiet time”?

Similar to WWII, it is right here in the land of forests and lakes! Visitors used to go fishing for the fish. Now we “fish” for “quiet time” so thoroughly needed and enjoyed. To be

Send a slide or print to “Your Best Shot” Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 574, Brainerd, MN 56401. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your materials returned.

Steve Kohls I am a photographer at the Brainerd Dispatch since 1975. I have been teaching Àne art black and white and color photography at Central Lakes College for the past 12 years. Currently I have been teaching Underwater Photography for Central Lakes College and the Minnesota School of Diving for the past 5 years. From May to November you can Ànd me at the Mineland Recreation Area either scuba diving and photographing the Àsh or enjoying the beauty of our area’s newest lakes.

S h o t

CMYK

42 B e s t

Each scale on a big carp is larger than a quarter.

Your

By: Jim Dullum

with family and friends in the boat with no TV, no radio, is priceless. The pockets of “quiet time” offer an opportunity to slow down and once again listen to the core message of life. Residents and visitors are invited to experience “quiet time” while fishing the streams and lakes, hunting the wild game, biking our miles and miles of quality trails, crosscountry skiing many kilometers of top notch groomed trails, inn-line skating safe trails, golfing 20 plus different courses, taking a walk, reading a book, reigniting a pray life. The list of “quiet time” activities and opportunities goes on and on. Residents, enjoy this paradise you live in. Visitors, on all sides of the globe, come to the land of forests and lakes, rest, meet new friends (possibly yourself), and heal. Every single month of the calendar has restful and healing value. Whether July and/or January, vacation time in the land of forests and lakes has immeasurable value for family and loved ones.

For 80 years my family has been in the marine and/or sports business as servants to those needing fun and relaxation. I have worked and witnessed the vacation trends for 65 years. My daughter, the third generation, has already spent 32 years working as a vital part of this “playground”. The world will forever need this playground and our family plans to be here a long, long time as part of the fun.

The “quiet time” we have been blessed with we wish to share with the whole world and it is free! Call the area chamber of commerce, come visit, leave your troubles with us, and go home refreshed. Who knows? You may discover a permanent home in the land of “quiet time”. No matter whom you are or where you come from. I invite you and your family to test the north land’s “quiet time”. Keep smiling!!!

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