Here's a great story that you'll all enjoy. It, unfortunately, will have no pictures, but hopefully will be entertaining enough to keep you interested enough to read on. Additionally, it is another excellent example of how God provides. How else would I be able to come home with a limit of walleye, without taking any fishing gear?
But that's giving away too much too soon. This story begins when my wife and I decided to take our eight month old daughter and go camping all across far northern Minnesota. As I had never visited a large portion of my great state, and because we wanted to stay relatively close to home (with the baby and all) we decided that camping in-state would be a great trip to take. That said, we packed up the car with all the gear (and then some) that we needed to camp for a week. Because the car was practically busting at the seams already, and because I thought I just wouldnt have the time to spend fishing, I decided to leave behind all my fishing gear. Now, if you know me and my love for fishing (which you are probably getting from this blog), you know this was an especially difficult decision, but one that I was willing to make, if nothing else, to enable me to spend more time with my family.
In any case, it turned out that we not only camped next to several wonderful lakes, but also that I would have had plenty of time to get some fishing in. The car would still have been packed tight, but it would have been worth the effort. Over the week though, we had a wonderful time, visiting all the places that I had heard about in far northern Minnesota, e.g. Lake of the Woods, Voyageurs National Park, the Rainy River, etc. One of the more fun things to do was to just drive on the forest access roads through the Beltrami Island and Pine Island National Forests. We could drive for what seemed like hours without seeing another car or person. It seems there are very few wild places like this anymore, and it is for this reason that we enjoyed it so much. But, we traveled this whole time, past many wonderful lakes, without me fishing at all.
So for our last night we had scheduled to camp at Big Bog State Campground on the eastern shore of Upper Red Lake. As it was our last night camping, and all we had left were hot dogs, we decided to go out for dinner. Upon returning to the campsite, I was in the process of getting our fire ring ready for the nights campfire when the guy from the next campsite came over and asked whether we ever cooked while camping. I replied in the affirmative, but explained the situation behind our going out to dinner that night. He then proceeded to ask me if we liked walleye. Now, I know there are people out there who might not like fish, but in my opinion, you're not much of a Minnesotan if you don't respond with an emphatic "Hell yeah!" to that question.
So of course I said yes, and this gentleman proceeds to offer me a bag of several fresh walleye fillets in order to lighten his limit, enabling him to continue fishing the next day. Since I had heard him talking about fishing while we were setting up camp, and being an intrepid and curious fisherman myself, I started gently prodding for more information on the quality of fishing and how best to go about it. My plan was to return someday to do some good fishing, and any info that I could glean at this point would just prepare me for such an eventuality. In any case, this gentleman did give me a good deal of information on how he was fishing, but then he followed it up with, "Well, would you want to just go fishing with me in the morning?" You can just imagine my feelings at this point.
In any case, my first response was an emphatic "YES!", but being the good husband that I am, I had to revise it for half a second while I checked with my wife, who (much to her credit) had no problems with me disappearing for a couple hours in the morning. Admittedly though, she did have an ulterior motive in that walleye is her all-time favorite fish to eat and there was a decent chance that we would have some more to take home if I went fishing. Anyway, I did mention to him that I didn't have any of my own fishing gear along, but he said that wouldn't be a problem as he had all the gear we would need.
After agreeing to go with him in the morning, he introduced himself as Glenn and his wife, Patsy. It turned out that they were glad that I was able to go with Glenn to fish since it allowed Patsy to sleep in a little more, as well as providing for more limits to fill (mine and my wife's). So we set a time in the morning and then proceeded to all gather around the campfire and enjoying the evening.
The next morning turned out great. Glenn and I met early and got on the lake by 6:30 a.m. We fished for probably two hours and in that time caught something like 16 walleye and at least one decent northern. More significantly and even more valuable, we talked as only men who love hunting and fishing can, and in the process became fast friends.
Once we had caught enough fish to fill all our limits, we headed in and proceeded to clean and package the fish for us to take back with us in our cooler. After doing this, Glenn and Patsy then invited both my wife and I to join them in their camper for a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. This hospitality astounded us and gave us a true experience of "Minnesota nice". I can only hope to show that I will show this same hospitality to other strangers in the future.
Anyway, we had a wonderful breakfast with them and talked for quite a while until my daughter woke and we had to commence packing the car. When we were done we said our goodbyes and headed for home, with both our limits of walleye in the cooler, despite me not having any fishing gear along on the trip.
Overall, we had a wonderful trip and visited many places that I hope to return to sooner than later. I highly recommend such a similar trip to all my readers and hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. For us though, this trip will remain poignant in our memories forever not because of the places we visited or the beautiful scenery, but instead, because of the limits that were brought home without having fishing gear in hand and above all, the generosity of strangers. I hope you all have experiences like this in your own travels.
Finally, I want to send out another thanks to Glenn and Patsy for their generosity and hospitality. Heres to hoping that we can get together and fill the freezers again someday soon!
TLaSS,
Joshua
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