Jan. 1, 2021. 2020 is finally over. It was a helluva year. It wasn’t ALL bad, but it was different. Very different. Here’s an example. At about 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving, just as hints of daylight were appearing in the southeast sky, four (relatively) old men huffed and puffed their way for about half …
This was written two years ago, on D-Day. It is reposted today in rememberance of my father-in-law, Garland Crook, who left us on Memorial Day this year. D-Day. June 6, 1944. Seventy-four years ago today, my father-in-law, Garland Crook, got his feet wet — literally and figuratively — entering combat in World War II by going ashore on Normandy Beach. …
Old joke: What’s the difference between a bedtime story and a fishing story? A bedtime story starts, “Once upon a time …” A fishing story starts, “No shit, this really happened!” OK, so here we go. No shit, this really happened! It was a Pandemic Friday morning. Much like this morning, gray and dreary, and nothing on my calendar (imagine …
Bittersweet moment: dividing up my Pa’s incredible tackle box, what Jim described as the most well-appointed he had ever seen, to which I replied, “should be since it was his chief passion for almost 90 years.” My first memories of him fishing are set in an icy mountain stream near Colorado Springs, in the early 1960s. My mother would throw …
I wrote this a year ago today. I wish I could take my father-in-law, Garland Crook, fishing today. Unfortunately, his age caught up with him in the past year, and he’s now a resident of Miller Pointe Nursing home in Mandan, N.D., where at 6:30 tonight we’ll have a special program, with music and speeches and remembrances, to celebrate the …
Island Lake, located in Mahnomen County near Lengby, Minn., is a popular destination for many in northwest Minnesota. The lake offers trophy-class walleye fishing, and and panfish are also plentiful. Island Lake also boasts diverse outdoor recreational opportunitiess such as miles of snowmobiling, four-wheeler and walking trails through the woods. Grand Forks photographer Russ Hons had the opportunity to visit Island Lake recently, and here …
My brother and I were waiting for a sign from God or someone to help us make one of the most important decisions of the year, not to mention our lives: to fish or not to fish Saturday’s May Opening Day in Minnesota. The five-day forecast for northeastern Minnesota where we fish calls for you name it: rain, maybe snow, …