Fishing for paradise

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/05/2017 (3254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For 70 years Minnesota has been honouring the importance of its fishing resources with opening day celebrations in lake areas throughout the state.

Each year the governor of the day invites journalists from near and far to compete in a one-day tournament, called the Governor’s Fishing Opener.

Since its inception in 1948 this event has allowed Minnesota governors to celebrate the beginning of the summer tourism season. Media is provided with a professional guide or a local resident who knows the best fishing spots — meaning there’s a great chance you’ll catch a fish on this one-day tournament. While there is a fun species-by-species competition, all fish caught are released immediately after they’ve been measured.

This is current Minnesota governor Mark Dayton’s seventh time hosting the event.

With about 600,000 fishing licences sold every year, this sport is big business for the state — and recognized as such by the more than 150 journalists and broadcasters who attend the opener every year.

It is estimated nearly 500,000 fishers were on one of the almost 12,000 lakes or 111,000 kilometres of rivers and streams in Minnesota on opening day. Tourism officials claim Minnesota has more kilometres of shoreline than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.

Minnesota communities bid to host this event in hopes they can highlight the unique attributes of their region.

This year’s opener was held in Greater St. Cloud — a region that holds many surprises about its fishing facts and offers myriad other vacation possibilities. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, St. Cloud is about an hour’s drive northwest of the Twin Cities. Residents from Minneapolis and Saint Paul often choose this area for angling on the Mississippi River — it has a reputation as one of the best spots in the United States for fishing smallmouth bass.

For the non-fisher, it is also an outdoors paradise. Kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddle boards, as well as traditional power boats dot the waterways.

The Beaver Island Trail follows the route of an old railway line once used to connect Minneapolis with the nearby town of Clearwater. Along its banks biking trails have been carved to create a scenic route that follows about 10 km of the old spur line.

Travelling with a buddy from Winnipeg, we opted to travel a couple of days prior to the actual fishing portion of the event.

On our first day we played a round at the Blackberry Ridge Golf Club in Sartell, one of the cities that makes up Greater St. Cloud. We enjoyed the course so much we made a booking for the next day.

The Governor’s Fishing Opener is clearly driven by community involvement. Whoever created the structure for this annual event must have been somewhat of a visionary — recognizing that successful tourism also depends on the attitude and support of local residents.

On the day prior to the fishing opener hundreds of locals mixed with the visiting journalists for an afternoon of entertainment, food and a variety of activities for children and adults. We met a number of local citizens and it was apparent by their enthusiasm they truly appreciated the extra attention hosting the opener brings.

Brew pubs and craft breweries are all the rage in the United States and are also becoming increasingly more popular here in Canada. Greater St. Cloud is no different. We took a brewery tour with CW Outfitting, a local company.

At the beginning of the tour we learned the distinct difference between a brew pub and a craft brewery. A brew pub serves the beers it makes to its customers on-site, while a craft brewery may sell its beer to any other bars and restaurants interested in featuring its products.

One of our stops was especially interesting because of the success story it represents. The Beaver Island Brewery, taking its name from the series of islands on the Mississippi River, started as a brew pub before expanding its production to include a number of local bars. When we visited they were just days away from launching a new facility on the edge of the city and had pre-sold thousands of cases of beer to anxious merchants. In a highly competitive industry, the Beaver Island Brewery feels they have a business plan in place that will take them into the national market over the next few years.

St. Cloud is also referred to as Granite City. It was once one of the largest producers of granite in America, bringing settlers to the area when its first quarry was founded in 1868. That quarry is no longer active — and hidden by the walls of the Minnesota Correctional Facility in St. Cloud — the 2.4-km-long wall is the largest granite wall in the U.S.

While it was too early to visit the Munsinger Gardens and Clemens Gardens, this park with its six separate gardens is highly regarded and features more than a thousand varieties of roses.

For more information on the St. Cloud area, go to granitecountry.com. For more information on Minnesota travel, visit exploreminnesota.com.

Read Ron’s blog at thattravelguy.ca. Listen to Ron’s latest podcast via his website, or on demand on iTunes. pradinukr@shaw.ca.