“ Fishing was everything . Every dime , every spare moment was spent fishing . When we weren ’ t fishing , we talked about fishing . When we rode our bikes across town with our fishing rods across our handlebars , we looked like a motorcycle gang .”
W
Growing
We rode our bikes all over the countryside , often with fishing rods across the handlebars .
From the North Hill of Minot , we rode our bikes all the way to Old Settlers Park in Burlington just to fish . We rode our bikes to Rice Lake south of town . We fished every bend in the Mouse River running through Minot . Explored every oxbow . We caught pike , white suckers , perch , pumpkinseed sunfish , bullheads , creek chubs and a few highly desirable walleye .
As I got older , there was more water moving through the river and we began to catch more walleyes . We caught a lot of pike on a stretch of river behind Roosevelt Zoo . We really liked the coffer dam behind the old Harvey Enterprise . up fishing
A bike and a fishing rod shaped lives
The water treatment plant was often good . There were a few side channels and oxbow culverts that were really good .
We had our favorite spots up and down the river . One time we rode our bikes all the way to the Horseshoe Dam on the Des Lacs River past Burlington . We had to ride our bikes down several miles of railroad tracks to reach this dam . We rested in the shade under a bridge where the tracks crossed the river , and caught some really nice perch . When a train came , we pulled our bikes off to the side and waved at the train . The
Jason Mitchell
conductor would be blaring on the horn for miles when he saw us . The greatest discovery ever , however , was the trout pond .
East of Minot , there was a construction company with a bunch of heavy equipment . Of course , this pond was on private property , but the statute of limitations has to be up by now . There weren ’ t any signs that said “ No Trespassing ”, but fishing was so incredible that everything just seemed too good to be true . I can only guess that whoever owned the pond had stocked a bunch of rainbow trout in it .
We also caught some perch and creek chubs in this pond . This pond was tiny and full of fish .
Page 12 , Dakota Country , December 2023 www . dakotacountrymagazine . com