(ambient music) - He really liked that flagpole.

So he says, "I'll put you by the flag pole", and I said, "I'll even do one better."

I said, "I'm going to get 21 gun salute for you."

He says, "Ah you don't have to do that."

- And we weren't there more than a couple minutes and Dan hooked up with a 29 inch walleye.

- It directly contributed to my decision to pick up a camera and ultimately make the show that you're now watching.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by The Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, SafeBasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement.

Live Wide Open, the more people know about west central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - If you've ever watched the sunset at Arnesen's Rocky Point at Lake of the Woods, you've seen this flag blowing in the wind.

You may have noticed the Memorial at its base.

These are symbols that represent our freedoms and those who have fought for our rights as Americans.

- My dad and uncle constructed that and put it up.

My dad served in the merchant Marine and my uncle served in the army in the south Pacific so for their legacy, it's very important to us to honor these people.

- [Bret] This year, a new memorial was placed on the Rock Line Harbor, all part of an annual veterans event aimed at saying thanks.

(crowd applauds) - This is our sixth year of doing this.

- Yeah, it was supposed to just start with two and that ended up to be 20 and then it was 30 then it went to 40, 50 and now we're at 60 each year.

(upbeat music) - Drifting?

- Yeah.

- Good day?

- Yeah.

- Are you?

- Yeah.

- Spinners or what?

- No.

(chuckles) - Marking a lot of nice fish on the graph, which is encouraging.

- Jesse Tintes attends as a veteran who also volunteers to take other veterans out fishing.

- Oh gosh it's been, around 10 years ago our family decided to, we really enjoy taking people out fishing, especially people that maybe don't get a chance to get out fishing.

- Jesse runs an organization called Tintes Outdoors, which works with volunteer organizations to take veterans, first responders and kids fishing.

- We didn't, we didn't really think we were going to be as effective.

We thought we were trying to get out and help these, these, these veterans and you start hearing these stories of these Vietnam vets that have never talked about their time when they got back from the service.

Went into the airport bathroom and took off their uniform and threw it in the garbage and then put on civilian clothes so nobody would know that they were part of the Vietnam war.

These guys have never had a chance to tell their stories so they get out on the, these boats, away from everybody else or sitting back at the lodge and being able to talk to other veterans.

Internally you can tell that these events have changed their life.

(ambient music) - Jesse was with his wife Brandi and her father Gordy who lives near Montevideo, Minnesota.

- I'll get one.

- [Jesse] No pressure Gordy.

(chuckles) - It's neat.

You make friends, you know, get to be friends and yeah it's cool.

- He never ever talked about it.

We didn't know what he did.

- [Gordy] I was 18.

It was in 61.

- And here a few years back, when we started coming up to this event, you know, I had asked him, you now, "Why don't you ever talk about being a veteran or anything like that?"

And he says, "I didn't have a very important job.

Worked in the survival department and packed parachutes."

And I'm like, there isn't a more important job out there than packing parachutes.

You think about it, when you're packing a parachute, every single time that that, that jumper goes out it's a life or death situation because that had to been done very precise and it had to been done well too.

(ambient music) - I'm glad I did and served my country.

- That is fun when you get a walleye to fight.

(breeze howling) - [Gordy] Oh!

A nice one.

Too nice.

I don't think that's going to make it.

- 25 On the nose.

Nice job.

- [Bret] So who's this catching all the fish here in the cold?

- So I always say, we always talk...

Seriously?

(Gordy chuckles) Bret, come on.

Whose catching all the?

- This is a small one.

- That's a nice, nice sauger.

That's an eater sauger.

- What question did I ask you right before...?

- You asked me, "So who is this down here that's been catching all the fish?"

And it wasn't set up, that was like perfect timing.

(Brandi chuckles) Last night, we're getting ready to go to bed, well actually we weren't even getting ready to go to bed it was eight o'clock and she comes up to me she goes, "You know, I'm tired and catching all those fish yesterday.

I'm going to go to bed.

Can you give me an ice pack?

My shoulder really, really sore."

She loves to trash talk with our, we have three boys and.... - And that's 'cause I learned it from my dad.

- You learned it from Gordy?

Yeah, exactly.

(ambient music) - You can learn a lot from the selfless acts of volunteers like Jesse and Lance, who understand the importance of Veteran events.

- One of the things that they up at Camp Ripley is they, they pair a seasoned veteran who's served and they pair a new veteran together and it allows them to get out and talk and visit and kind of share some stories so that way those new veterans who just signed up get a chance to understand and to, to know what some of these guys have gone through.

- While the fishing event has been going on for number of years, Lance decided that this year would be a little different after meeting with one of his close friends.

- That's why he was there to say his last goodbyes.

Cause his cancer was back.

- Lance Peterson and Mark Bode were best friends who grew up together in Woodlake, Minnesota.

- Every time we hear the song, Who made who, AC/DC, I think of Mark every single time.

We ran out of kegger.

(group laughs) (indistinct chattering) We were drinking quite heavily.

- Lance, I didn't know that.

(group laughing) - Just where you are seeing one, you're seeing the other.

That's the way it was with bingo and he was a prankster.

So I remember when I was like 10, we were walking into the veteran's supper and they had bingo going on there and as we were checking in, they had just started that game of bingo so I knew that it was only like two or three numbers that were called and we were still in the entryway and they said, "Under the bees six", and my buddy Mark says, "Bingo!"

And the guy says, "Hold your cards folks, hold your cards, we got to bingo."

Well, there was no way they could have a bingo cause there was only three numbers drawn.

(chuckles) (ambient music) (ambient music) I said, "You know if you're going to be cremated buddy, I got a place for you", and he was really good with it and he said, "That'd be awesome"' cause he doesn't have a place.

He kind of mentioned that he really liked that flagpole.

So I said, "I'll put you by the flag pole", and I said, "I'll even do one better."

I said, "I'm going to get 21 gun salute for you."

He says, "Ah, you don't have to do that", and I said, "You deserve it."

Last year in August after he passed, I brought a stone from the Harbor home and then I asked a friend of mine to drill into it.

- [Bret] Mark's ashes were placed into the rock, along with Mark's dog tag.

(trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) - We take it for granted going out there on the lake everyday but if it wasn't for those guys, we wouldn't have that.

So, to give a little bit back, it's pretty awesome.

(ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) - Fire.

(guns firing) Aim, fire.

(guns firing) Aim, fire.

(guns firing) (trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) (trumpet playing) - On behalf of the President of the United States, United States Navy and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for Mark's honorable and faithful service.

(ambient music) ♪ Fields of plenty ♪ ♪ Far than I can see ♪ ♪ Great I was alive... ♪ - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

♪ Reaching to the sky ♪ ♪ This land we love, America.

♪ - Fair winds and following seas petty officer Bode.

Thank you for your service to this country and living a life of great distinctions.

♪ This land we love, America ♪ ♪ Oh this land we love, America ♪ ♪ Oh this land we love, America ♪ ♪ This land we love, America ♪ (ambient music) - Annual fishing trips are a tradition for a lot of people.

Now our Amundson annual fishing trip normally goes to Ontario, but because of border closures in recent years with Canada, we decided to get as close as possible and hit up that big wildlife factory in Northern Minnesota, known as Lake of the Woods.

(upbeat music) Yeah, this place will do.

Oh, I see.

You're not allowed out there.

(chuckles) Childproof locks are on.

We locked down and got to stay in one of the newest cabins at Arnesen's Rocky Point at Lake of the Woods and while we were unpacking, we were greeted by a few of the locals.

Now we're going to show you a couple of things in this episode, one, we're going to show you how we caught some big, big walleyes at Lake of the Woods.

You're going to see what it's like to deal with family on a trip like this and you'll also find out where my sense of humor comes from.

- Man, I haven't had so much fun since I kicked a nice kid with my barefoot.

(chuckles) (beep) - [Bret] Say this again.

(chuckles) - Take two.

Take 16.

- What do you want?

- Nothing.

- You can't be in the picture, you already done this.

- I'm just going to stand back here.

- Sit on and don't make faces at me.

- [Bret] We're also going to try to settle one of the biggest debates in our family's history, who has the real recipe for one of our favorite meals on these trips?

(scoffs) - I don't, you must know this though, because I was collecting all the recipes for the dumplings.

(chuckles) None of them are the same recipe.

- [Bret] (chuckles) So sit back and enjoy the annual Amundson fishing trip to Lake of the Woods.

- We got on fish right away this morning, Dan started popping little sauger into the boat immediately.

It was pretty good.

- Using bottle bouncers and spinners.

Two ounce bottom bouncers, anywhere from the gold to chartreuse, to blue, to green fire tiger blades.

I'm just pulling those at 1.1 to 1.2, 3, 4, and making contact with boat at about 28 to 30 feet of water and that's where we're finding our fish.

- And we weren't there more than a couple minutes and Dan hooked up with a 29 inch walleye.

- I got a hot tip about this spot a while ago actually and then a couple of other people reaffirm this spot.

Finally found it on a map.

No one would tell me where it was.

Finally found it on a map.

I think what we were fishing for a minute, 30 seconds I...

It was quick and hooked up, but I knew it was a big fish right away and luckily had a good, had a good net man and did a good job and it was a big fish, a lot of fun.

- [Bret] Dan wasn't the only one to have success on our first day.

- Today, I got a 29 and a half inter, which was I guess about nine and a half pounds.

- Not only was it special for me to see him catch that walleye but he did it out of my boat which is his old boat.

A boat that I spent so many years going on these Amundson annual fishing trips and fishing out of and not only did those trips lay a foundation for my love of the outdoors and introduced me to the highs and lows of wildlife fishing, but it directly contributed to my decision to pick up a camera and ultimately make the show that you're now watching.

(ambient music) Our family fishing trips have taken place for most of my life and while the numbers have varied from year to year and the location changes every so often, the result was often the same, lots of laughs, a few fish and a lot of pictures.

Those pictures would be put together in a produce slideshow by our photographer cousin Scott.

- First of I enjoyed taking photographs, enjoyed the outdoors.

Capturing those images was helping to tell a story and also to be able to show our moms our trip in the end.

- [Bret] A good slideshow needs the perfect soundtrack.

Luckily we have a couple of DJs in the family.

Craig and Chad who worked for a company called, Sound Entertainment.

- When we had the idea to put these slides together in a format with music, it made a lot of sense.

- It seems like every time we started one of those slide shows, it was, I would, we would take photographs of us getting the cars ready, getting the boats ready, getting it hooked up, and there was always a song that kind of went along with that which was, King of the Road.

- There are three songs that I don't, if I hear them on the radio or wherever, TV commercial, whatever.

- Yup.

- I think of the slideshows and I guarantee, you guys probably know, I bet we could get some of the same songs.

- Convoy.

- Okay, four songs.

(everyone laughing) Yes, Convoy.

- Don't worry be happy.

- There's one of them.

King of the road.

- King of the road.

- And, Stand by me.

- Oh!

- Stand by me, that's the one I was thinking.

- I was thinking of, Hey Junior.

- Oh and Hey Junior, family tradition.

They're all from the same year I think?

- Yup, I think they are.

- I think they're all from the same slideshow but... - As soon as I hear Convoy, I picture Chad... - On the walkie talkie... - Craig standing on the corner at Grand Marais, talking into that walkie talkie, (chuckles) outside the beaver house there and... - Gil was in the phone booth talking to Shirley.

- That's right.

(everybody laughing) - [Bret] These trips were great because it was a vacation for us where we could all relax except Scott, who is working during his vacation and then finally one year he decided to relax a little bit and I don't blame him.

- I do remember bringing a smaller camera along and receiving a little bit of flack about it too?

- [Bret] Well, I decided the slideshow needed to continue.

So the following year I started taking more pictures and took over the duty of creating the slideshow.

Now, if you combined all that along with what Scott and Chad's father Gil, who was my uncle and what he did for a job, you can pretty much explain how I got interested in doing what I do now.

- My Dad was news director and anchor at WTCN TV in Minneapolis.

- I'm Gil Amundson in for... - [Narrator 2] His voice and face have spanned the decades but breaking into television was somewhat of a fluke for Gil.

- [Bret] Before his time in Minneapolis on Channel 11, Gil spent time behind the microphone on radio stations in Marshall and Duluth.

- I'm Gill Admundson and this is my boy Scott, we're going fishing and we'd like to show you some reasons why you should too.

- [Bret] Gil had a big influence on me when it came to my career choices in life and he always enjoyed these trips up North to spend time with family and go fishing in the North Woods.

(ambient music) On day two of our fishing trip, we downsized from three boats to two so we could all spend a little bit more time with each other.

Craig, Danny and I were in one boat while Wade, Dan and Ron were in the other and the fishing just kept getting better and better.

- It's my first trip to Lake of the Woods so of all the years we've been fishing as a, as a family and trips that we've taken it's first, first time to fish the big water.

I think it's pretty awesome.

- You know I know that we'd like to have a meal, you know, if we can catch enough for a meal that, that's great too, but yeah, that, that the big fish made the trip.

- [Bret] Meanwhile on the other boat, they were doing just as well.

(upbeat music) (Wade cheering) - That's a good one.

- Pretty much what we've been doing this whole trip is dragon spinners, two ounce bottom bouncers with crawlers.

Trying to work usually about 28 to 30 feet of water.

- We've had great luck.

I mean, I think Dan has put in four or five slot fish and ready, and it was really hard to get eaters because he's been doing so well with the, the bigger fish.

I think last night his first fish was 23, his second one was 22, so it's been a lot of fun.

(upbeat music) You know, they're big healthy fish I mean, they're just really fun to see them come up out of the bottom and we, you can kind of get a feel it's going to be a pretty good fish but once that thing really comes up into the net, when they look this healthy, this fat, it's really a fun trip.

(upbeat music) - Twenty seven.

- Twenty seven.

- Success on Lake of the Woods can be attributed to a slot limit that protects wildlife between 19 and a half inches and 28 inches, that has increased the length of the average female walleye from 17 inches in 1982 to 26 inches according to recent data - That's an eater.

(chuckles) - Yeah, he can't even net it.

- It has been a pretty unbelievable afternoon out here.

You know, we came out this morning and caught some fish, caught a couple of eaters.

It's kind of slow like even this trip so far, I don't want to say it's been slow cause we've caught big fish like some of the big, some of the guys caught the biggest fish of their lives but only one or two here and there.

Today, it started off with a couple of eaters which we haven't been finding.

This afternoon though, the wind laid down, a little front moved through and we weren't quite sure how far out on the lake we wanted to go because there was still a threat of some more storms.

So we kind of, we didn't go very far and we have had some of the best wildlife fishing we've ever had with some of the biggest walleyes.

I mean, we were struggling to keep eaters.

I think we've caught one eater this afternoon and we've been pretty busy catching walleyes so yeah, it's been a good day and we're not done.

- It has been an incredible afternoon.

- [Bret] And it was about to get even better.

(wind rustling) - There it is, nice walleye.

Nice fish.

Nice fish.

(laughing) - [Bret] That's a big one.

That's a good one boys.

That's a beauty.

That's going to be upward, that might, that's going to be a 29 probably.

(wind rustling) - What do you got here Craig?

(wind rustling) - Some nice walleye.

- There's the answer.

- [Bret] Even I got a nice fish before we headed in and started heating up the oil.

- That is a healthy Lake of the Woods walleye right there ladies and gentlemen.

Woo!

Look at that guy.

Yeah.

26 inches, beautiful fish.

Thank you very much.

Good fight.

On spinners it's been a great day out here today.

- That's really good.

Excellent.

Will you get me instead of just the fish.

- (chuckles) I'm getting you and the fish, don't worry.

Don't worry you're going to be the star of the show?

Our family slideshows come a long way from the days of using office supplies for special effects.

- So we got a picture of a balloon (crickets chirping) and he literally took a hole punch and punched a hole in the slide to give it a spotlight effect (critters chirping) so the moon looked like it was swimming across the slideshow or the stream on the slideshow.

- [Bret] To showcasing our family adventure on this TV show.

- Nice.

- Nice Fish.

- We got an eater.

- The claws.

- Nice.

- [Bret] One key to fishing in any body of water is the ability to be flexible in your presentations so while we started off with two ounce bottom bouncers with a variety of colors for our spinner blades, we had switched to mostly three ounce bottom bouncers and gold blades.

- There we go, number two for the day.

You know what they say?

Gold spinner.

You can use any color you want in Lake of the Woods as long as it's gold.

We fished out on this little reef, pulling spinners, drew simple anywhere from 16 to 25 feet we were finding fish and gold, gold's kicking butt here.

Hammered gold and just dragging that 1.1 to 1.3 and you're gonna find fish.

It's simple as that.

Can't beat it.

- [Bret] We always look forward to spending time together, catching a bunch of fish and then eating well and one meal has become a constant on our trip.

- I think our family favorite is potato dumplings, pork rolls, sauerkraut and gravy.

- I made them so I can brag about them I guess.

They turned out really good.

They turned out the way I like them, nice and firm and it did get a little a wild, we did spend just about as much time cleaning up as I did cooking but you got to stay focused.

You can't have too many scotches so... - Grandma, my mother used to make those and I was the only one that got the recipe.

- There's a lot of controversy around that recipe.

Someone say grandma never wrote it down but I've got two written copies of my own.

They're in her hand so I don't know.

- Chad has the authentic recipe because he has it in grandma Babe's handwriting.

There is no controversy.

- I have the recipe in grandma's handwriting, I have it in my dad's handwriting.

She, grandma gave the recipe again to my mom and dad when they moved to Duluth or something for some reason so I have another copy.

I have a copy of aunt Jones hand, handwritten recipe.

Every one of them is different.

(chuckles) None of them are the same recipe and I don't think grandma used a recipe.

I think she just did it by hand.

The true, true outcome of those dumplings depended upon the consistency of that mixture which you could only figure out with your hands and the feel and, and that you can't write down in a recipe.

It's been kind of a contest of who makes the best dumplings from grandma.

I love them so much I actually had a paper in college that I wrote about it and did a little video and I actually brought dumplings into class to share with everyone.

- [Bret] While we've our disagreements over the years over trivial matters such as the best dumpling recipe, the tradition of our annual fishing trip remains.

A tradition started and strengthened by preserving the memory in the form of a slideshow.

(ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) - How's the camerawork going Dan?

- Hey, that's a wrap.

(laughing) - You found a new roadie.

- This is WXRP in Cincinnati.

(chuckles) (ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) (ambient music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by The Minnesota Environment and Natural resources Trust Fund, SafeBasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basement.

Live Wide Open, the more people know about west central Minnesota the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation and opportunities await.