Fishing Opener 2022 Reflection
My wife suggested that it would be a good idea to share what we are doing from time-to-time so that people get an understanding of what “Hermel Time” really is. I am writing about a weekend in May on July 12th, so it seems the only hard part about this venture is finding the time to stop and write things down. There is no script, there will be editing errors, and we hope it is interesting. Mainly this is here to show you that we really don’t slow down for much. Hermel Time is a thing, it is ever changing, and we love to get be busy!
As a child fishing opener was a yearly occasion that you just did not miss. As a young person I spent many hours under the bow of the boat sleeping, listening to the water splash on the aluminum, and letting the waves rock me to sleep. After the opener my dad and I did not fish a lot on a daily basis, but never, did we ever, miss the first day of fishing.
As a young adult I had continued to make fishing opener a priority. In my early twenties this consisted of many of us getting together to camp, fish, stay up late, and have a great time. I remember one particular opener looking over at my wife wife Emily, and she literally had an icicle forming on the end of her nose as the sleet and snow came from above. She is, and always will be my ride-or-die. Like I said, you just made it a priority to hit the lake on opening of fishing.
This year I was reminded of the beauty of getting on the lake the day the DNR said we were allowed. My brother-in-law was going to join us for his first Minnesota opener. He was born and raised in Iowa, loved fishing there, but had never experienced a Minnesota fishing opener. The plan was for us to meet at my cabin and decide what to do. I didn’t care where we went, what fish we were after, as long as we were on the water. The boat was ready, we had searched high and low to secure some shiners, and then it was a waiting game for the next morning. Logan arrived during the late afternoon and I could tell he was excited. He is the kind of guy that is willing to just jump into a situation and give it a try. I seriously love this about him, you can bring him anywhere and he is content just soaking it all in. When he arrived I asked him what kind of opener he wanted to experience. Honestly, it reminded me of one of those choose your adventure books. If you want to go to a super busy lake, battle the landing, deal with lots of boats, but have an decent opportunity to catch some walleye turn to page 67, BUT if you want to go to a smaller lake, likely catch less fish, yet have a more calm experience turn to page 87. After explaining this to Logan he literally said, “If we are going to do this, I say we do this!” So off to page 67 we went.
I have to be honest, this was the best opener I have experienced in a long time, for many reasons, and the fishing was only one. First of all my friend Johnny was joining us, and there has never been a time I have spent with him that I did not enjoy. Everyone needs a Johnny! Secondly, when we got to the landing at 5:30 AM it wasn’t too busy, which was nice. Additionally, when I went to start the boat it actually started. I think I learned 98% of my foul language from my father in a boat that was not running sitting stranded at a landing. We were off to a great start.
As we drove across the lake during the early morning and it was beautiful. At that moment I really didn’t care how many fish we caught, although I did hope Logan caught his first walleye. When we got to our destination there were a lot of boats, but it was manageable. We waved to a few familiar friends who were also fishing, dropped in a minnow, and not long after I boated our first fish. I was sort of shocked, surprised, and happy. You will notice not once in this post did I ever say I was good at fishing, I just said I love fishing and fishing opener. As I looked at the walleye in the bottom of the boat I couldn’t believe that we were actually doing what we came to do. It only got better moving forward. Logan and I caught many fish, my friend Jon was getting teased for catching the one of the only largemouth bass in the lake, and we were having fun. I watched Logan as he figured out how to boat walleye-after-walleye and it really made me think about how lucky we are. Before limiting out Johnny did catch a walleye or two, (which I was also secretly happy about), and we were on our way home to clean fish and prepare for a fish fry. This is not how it usually works in my world, but this day just clicked. I literally laughed out loud as I started my boat to head to the landing, hit play on my radio that had some old music on an SD card, and on came “I’m the Man” by Aloe Blacc. It felt like it was meant to be. This time when we chose the more difficult path, it worked, and man did we have fun.
