Helping people catch fi sh // Sauk Centre

Helping people catch fish

Zenzen fi nds joy as guide in Central Minnesota

BY SARAH COLBURN | STAFF WRITER

SAUK CENTRE – Shaun Zenzen spends more than 600 hours on the water each summer. Split between tournament fi shing and serving as a fi shing guide for Central Minnesota visitors, Zenzen said it has almost become a full-time job. “There’s no reason to drive two hours or three hours away from the cities,” he said. “In Central Minnesota there’s great fi shing … people can take fi sh home, eaters to trophy-class fi sh, you don’t have to go far.” Zenzen began dabbling in tournament fi shing in 2008 and after getting a new boat in 2010, he started getting more calls from people asking him if he’d take them out on the water. By May 2017, he said he was going out almost every Saturday and Sunday in the summer taking people on guided trips. He has a 17 and 1/2-foot blue and white Yar-Craft loaded with sponsors on the outside. The boat is completely decked out

Shaun Zenzen, tournament fi sherman and fi shing guide, catches a 29-inch walleye using a live bait rig on Cass Lake. with multiple fi sh locators and all the latest tech. When Zenzen takes clients out on the water he supplies all the equipment; all they have to bring is a phone or camera for photos and a cooler to bring home the fi sh. The people he takes on guided trips use all his tournament-grade equipment. “I don’t want them to not be successful because they don’t have good equipment,” he said. “I want them to have the best experience they can.” He typically brings people out on one of a handful of local lakes including Sauk Lake, the Alexandria Chain of Lakes, Lake Reno or Lake Minnewaska. Though many fi shermen get up before the sun to hit the water, he said tournament fi shing has taught him how to be successful hunting for fi sh throughout the day so he takes on clients whenever they want to go. He focuses mostly on catching walleye, but said some clients are after Northern. For him, taking people fi shing is about teaching them the skills. “I try to teach them how and why I’m doing

PHOTOS SUBMITTED

The Larson family poses with a large stringer of fi sh after a day on the water with guide

Shaun Zenzen. what I’m doing,” he said. “I don’t’ want them there just to take home fi sh, I want to teach them how to catch fi sh.” Oftentimes, he said, people get sucked into the next big and fl ashy thing and he said he’s done it too, but more often than not, keeping it simple provides the best results. He now makes 35 to 40 trips onto the water each summer with clients and half of them are repeat customers who go out with him every year. Most of his clients bring a child along, a spouse,

Shaun Zenzen (center) guides a group out on the water for Fishing with Vets.

a parent, a friend, or co-worker. He admittedly has a soft spot for the military veterans he brings out on the water. “When they walk away, more often than not, they are so happy and enthused they had such a good day,” he said. During the winter, Zenzen studies the maps and graphs of all his fi sh locations from the year. He updates his software and spends time looking at weed patterns, water features and things he might have overlooked. “Any little key feature that might hold fi sh,” he said. When he’s tournament fi shing, he pre-fi shes 10 spots and narrows it to fi ve locations before the tournament starts. Though that, he said, is competitive and requires a game-face; when he takes clients out to fi sh, he’s relaxed and comfortable. “I get joy out of seeing people catch nice fi sh,” he said. “People forget to go back to the basics, it’s a time-proven tactic.”