blanchard dam
I’ve been off the Bay for well over a week due to some work commitments that took me north to Minneapolis, Minnesota. When this destination was first announced, some of my colleagues were disappointed because of the location. Not me. There aren’t many places I’d rather be because I know how much fun June fishing can be in that part of the country. My first stop was the Minnesota Fishing Museum. It’s located north of St. Cloud in the small town of Little Falls on the Mississippi River. That’s about a hundred miles north of Minneapolis. I’m a big fan of vintage fishing equipment so I had high hopes for the museum. I wasn’t dissapointed. You name it, they had it – everything from antique minnow buckets to classic lures to vintage outboards with even a few old fishing-themed whiskey bottles in the mix. Before we left I asked some ladies at the front desk if there was anyplace close where I could fish the Mississippi River. They told me that most people fished the lakes, but there was a place I could try not too far away.
I’ll let the video tell the story, but suffice it to say the fishing was good at Blanchard Dam. I’ve heard a lot of good stories about the Mississippi this far north, but never tried fishing here. Every strike brought a different species and I even managed to make some new friends. I even got in some rock hunting, another favorite pastime. “Cross rocks,” they call them. Staurolites that look like Maltese crosses, there are only two other places in the world where they can be found. I never would’ve known except for a fellow I met named Ringwelski. I hit it off with him right away. While it took me ten or fifteen minutes to find a single stone, he could pick them up in a matter of seconds. We fished together two evenings. He told me he owned a farm a few miles up river. Besides being a good rock hunter, he was an excellent fisherman. Read More!