(upbeat instrumental music) - [Bret] Get ready for another episode of Prairie Sportsman.

Join us as we head out on an exciting fall muskie fishing adventure in West Central Minnesota.

Plus, we'll take a closer look at the research being done to combat aquatic invasive species and protect our waterways.

And we'll join Nicole Zempel for a fast forage.

Hey, it's Bret Amundson.

Welcome to Prairie Sportsman.

We got another great show for you starting right now.

(upbeat instrumental music) - [Narrator] Funding for Prairie Sportsman is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

And by live wide open, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, and the members of Pioneer PBS.

(twangy rock music) - 48 degrees this morning as we get up, we're meeting Randin Olson at the lake.

We did this a couple of years ago around this time of year, I think it was about a week earlier or so, but if I remember right, it was actually colder in the morning.

I think it was thirties when we drove up to meet Randin the last time.

He fished yesterday, they caught a couple of fish, so we're looking forward to it.

Could be a pretty good day.

It's muskie fishing, so you never really know.

I haven't caught a muskie in a long time.

Dan, have you ever caught a muskie?

Dan's never caught one.

So we're gonna try to get Dan his first muskie.

See if I can catch first one in a long time.

I've never caught one over 40 inches so it'd be nice to catch a 40 and see if we can have a little bit of fun on a late September day, muskie fishing.

(twangy rock guitar music) - We're gonna drag a couple suckers and we're gonna cast as well.

Yesterday, they were eating the suckers.

They weren't moving a lot in the casting but our water temp, we dropped another two degrees overnight so I think that's gonna help.

Cold fronts are always good in the fall.

- [Bret] So we got two suckers behind the boats, some giant bobbers, how does this setup work?

- So obviously there's three of us out here.

We're gonna have one guy casting, kind of bringing fish up, covering the flats, and the suckers, we're running it down the weed edge.

So these are set up with quick strike rigs so we got a nose hook and then we got two trebles in the back.

And the way this will work is you want to set the the hook quickly but you also want to get in the right position.

So once one goes off, we'll pull the others up and we'll turn the boat and we'll chase that sucker out.

We'll get right over top of that bobber, so we got short line and we can kind of manage what the fish is doing.

So we want it to head away from us.

And then you're gonna give one heck of a hook set and hang on.

- What are we throwing?

- That is a Medusa.

I call it killer.

This is responsible for a lot of muskies over the years.

It's actually the third one.

This was one of the other ones.

We lost a tail on it yesterday.

I got three of the same bait.

These are Medusas.

It's kind of a rubber bait like a bulldog and anything like that.

And it's just gonna be a jerk, real slack jerk, real slack.

It really imitates a good dying fish.

(upbeat rock music) - [Bret] While I was casting up front, Randin was in the back monitoring the suckers on the Garmin live scope which allowed him to see if and when muskies would come check out the bait in real time.

(fishing line spurring) - Just a quick look.

It's coming back up.

That's so neat.

Just eat it.

Come on.

It is looking.

Just eat it.

(dramatic twangy music) There he just turned, coming up to look at him.

It's so cool watching him swim up like that.

Just eat it.

It's awesome and frustrating at the exact same time.

(Dan laughs) (upbeat music) - [Bret] After being teased, we finally got a taker.

- [Randin] Yep.

(fishing reel whirring) - Here we go.

We've seen four I think so far.

- Okay, so when you do set the hook, you're gonna set it like you've never set a hook before.

(mechanical beeping) I don't know, that bobber stopped moving.

- That's okay.

- We're coming back to it, I suppose, eh?

- There it's starting to move again.

- Should I closer her up then?

- Yep.

Kind of manage it.

I want you to keep a little bit of slack.

Yep.

- There you go.

- And what we'll do when we get close is we're just gonna kind of lift a little bit.

The idea here is to get 'em going away from us and you're gonna set it like you're trying to break the rod.

- All right.

(motor humming) - Go ahead and just kind of lift up on him a little.

- Okay.

- You feel him?

- Yeah.

- I want you to reel down into him.

- Okay.

- Keep going.

Go, go, go, go.

Reel til you start to feel it real heavy.

Hit it.

- Oh!

- It's okay.

It's okay.

(men laugh) - Well I gave her, I gave her.

- Keep reeling.

He's still on there.

Here I'll hold this.

(Bret laughs) Maybe.

- [Dan] Let me know if you need a third set of hands.

- There he is, right there.

All right.

(Bret laughs) - Some chaos.

- [Bret] Oh, this will work.

This should work.

(water splashing) - [Dan] Did we get him?

- [Randin] We got him.

(Bret laughs) - Oh yeah.

Sorry about your rod.

- That's just fine.

- Yes.

Awesome.

- That's a good one too.

(both laugh) - What did you tell me about setting the hook, Randin?

- I wanted you to break the rod.

And you're gonna set it like you're trying to break the rod.

- Oh!

- It's okay.

(both laugh) - [Dan] Yeah.

- Oh, that's awesome.

Good job.

- Yeah.

- [Randin] That's a good fish too.

- [Bret] Nice.

(upbeat rock guitar music) - First muskie in a long time.

Randin, thank you very much.

That was a fun fish to catch and doing it that way, there's so much anticipation of that hook set.

I might have gave her a little extra.

- It's okay.

- But you said to give her a little extra.

So 43 inch fish.

That was awesome.

And it's real early in the day.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- [Bret] Let's get some more.

- [Randin] Yeah.

That was beautiful fish.

- [Bret] With one fish in the boat, we decided to record an interview with Randin for the podcast Dan and I do called "Sporting Journal Radio" and we were in for a little surprise.

Then last time we tried to time it with the moon phase, and then we were playing the majors and minors and we noticed that- (fishing reel whirring) - Fish.

- Oh, fish.

- [Dan] Oh, here we go.

- All right, Dan.

Dan's up.

- Okay, so you're gonna kind of manage the line.

- Okay.

- But I want you to leave some slack in it.

- Okay.

- If that makes sense.

- Yep.

- So right now we're kind of tight.

I'm gonna get you on this side.

- Okay.

- Yep.

I don't want you to put much pressure on him.

- Yep.

- I would like to get nice and close.

There's a good chance when we get close, he's gonna go to take off.

So just be ready to slack them.

(fishing rod clicking) Hopefully this isn't a repeat.

- [Bret] Yeah, don't break the rod, Dan.

- I have no promises.

- [Randin] Are you ready?

We're gonna be getting real close.

- [Dan] Okay.

- [Randin] Okay.

Reel down and hit him.

- [Bret] Nice.

- Oh yeah.

(Dan laughs) - [Bret] Hell yeah.

- [Dan] Oh yeah.

(Bret laughs) (water splashing) Nice.

- [Bret] Got him.

There we go, in the net.

- Mid radio show.

(Bret laughs) - [Bret] Heck yeah.

- I love to fish.

- That's fun.

- [Bret] Here we go Dan, first muskie.

- [Dan] First muskie.

That's a fun fish.

- [Bret] Congratulations.

- [Dan] Heavy.

That's not a giant, but they're heavy.

They're pretty.

- [Bret] Randin, how many times do you get people their first muskie?

- A lot.

I've lost count, but there's no better thrill for me.

I think to be a guide, you gotta like to watch people catch fish and this is as good as it gets.

- [Bret] Muskies often have feeding windows and when that window is open, you wanna capitalize.

And before too long, another fish showed up on the live scope.

- Come on.

He's looking at it.

- Going back down now?

- Yeah, he's going back down now.

Nope, coming back.

- Oh, he's coming.

- He's coming pretty hard.

- [Bret] Turn ya nervous.

- [Randin] There you go.

Sucker's moving.

Now he might take it.

Oh, he's chasing it right with the boat.

Oh!

(fishing reel whirring) There he is.

- [Bret] Oh yeah.

(water splashing) He's got it.

He's got it.

- [Dan] You can just land that one, Randin.

Unless you wanna work the net.

- Ah no!

- Oh no!

(fishing reel whirring) (Randin laughs) - [Randin] That was cool.

- [Bret] Well, even the guide misses 'em sometimes.

While we would've loved to have landed that fish, it was encouraging to know our bite window was still open, giving us optimism for one more fish before our day was done.

- [Randin] Big one.

Big one.

He's staring at the motor.

There, he turned on the sucker.

That's a big one.

Got him.

Got him, got him!

- [Bret] Okay.

- [Randin] Who's gonna get him?

- [Bret] Can we move up to the front then?

- [Randin] Yep.

- We got a big one hooked up right now.

We're just gonna let him take it.

We're gonna get over the top of this fish and slam it.

I'll try not to break your rod this time, Randin.

(upbeat rock guitar music) Phew.

Bigger fish than last time.

Tried to put a good hook set into him, leaned into that fish.

That's a nice muskie right there.

We caught two early on this morning right away and then ran and missed one.

We've had a few other follows and we were actually thinking about packing up and heading for the day.

We were just making a plan and Randin, you spotted this one just swimming behind the boat.

- He was just staring at the motor.

He was looking at the prop on my big motor, just sitting there.

I'm like, "what the."

I brought the sucker over there and it was game over.

- Yep.

Randin just looked at the net and said "it's 47 and a quarter."

- Three quarter.

47 and three quarter.

- 47 and three quarter.

- Yep.

- We were trying to guess how long it might be and I was like 46.

He goes, "yeah, probably there."

And then he got a better look at it, "47 and three quarter" because.

- I caught this fish yesterday.

(both laugh) Only about a half a mile that way.

- Well that tells you something too about how much these fish move around.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- Because a lot of times, you'll fish spots or memories or whatever because they don't travel too much but obviously they travel a little bit.

- [Randin] Yeah.

- And he caught it two days in a row?

- [Randin] Two days in a row.

- [Bret] Get outta here.

- [Randin] This is probably, and I'd have to look back for sure, but this is probably about the 15th, 16th time I've caught this fish in about four years.

(Bret laughs) I wish he had a phone 'cause I could call him and let him know when I'm coming out but apparently he already knows that.

(rock music) That's a fish.

- [Bret] That's a great fish.

Yeah.

Underbite, 47 and three quarters.

That was a lot of fun to catch and man, it's been a great day out here, Randin.

Unbelievable day of muskie fishing.

- This was awesome.

- I appreciate you having us out.

Thank you for cooperating.

I appreciate you like, sending a text message.

- Yeah, I do the best I can for ya.

- Not bad at all.

Of course all the credit goes to Randin for finding the fish and setting us up with the right gear and three muskies in a quick morning of fishing.

You can't beat it.

And that's why we came back to Otter Tail County.

(upbeat rock music) - [Angelique] So there are a number of different strategies with potential for controlling zebra mussels.

- Well, number one, the smell of wild garlic is unmistakable.

(gentle guitar music) - Zebra mussels in and of themselves aren't bad, but the way that they change our native ecosystems can be rapid and it can be something that our native species never recover from.

So there are a number of different strategies with potential for controlling zebra mussels.

We are investigating copper because it's one of the more promising methods.

When copper is in the water, it can be in particulate form or dissolved form.

It acts on the gill of a gilled organism.

At the gill, there are different ion receptors and copper will compete with sodium to bind to those receptors and basically, to distill it down, it will prevent the uptake of enough sodium for the organism.

And so death by copper isn't direct.

It's the effect of all of these impacts from a shortage of different ions.

I've been involved in this research since about 2019.

This research is funded by the ENRTF, lake associations, and other donations.

We've done work in Lake Minnetonka in Hennepin County and in Pelican Lake in Crow Wing County.

Every lake, every body of water is going to have different water chemistry and the unique water chemistry will affect the bioavailability of copper.

What we've been doing is measuring the water chemistries of both of those lakes using an EPA model and predicting what the appropriate dose would be for zebra mussel veligers, that's the young stage of them.

And then testing that concentration as well as some higher and lower concentrations.

And we've been doing that both in the lake and in a mobile laboratory.

We did an in-lake copper treatment in 2019 that I was involved with down in St. Albans Bay in Lake Minnetonka.

And the target concentration there was 60 parts per billion of copper, which is a very low, low concentration.

We saw very little survival and very little recruitment of young after that treatment.

And sometimes this type of treatment, the effects of this treatment will result in a net positive for the lake and sometimes they might not.

And it's important to look at what those benefits and costs are and probably make a case by case decision.

So if you have copper in the water, it can also affect native species, it can affect fish, different plants, mussels, snails.

The concentration is key for that though, it seems like zebra mussels are among the more sensitive of organisms.

Zebra mussels are much more sensitive than fish.

So it all kind of gets down to, it's like a medication, what's the appropriate dose and what are the potential side effects?

Copper-based pesticides are available on the market right now.

The challenge with this type of treatment might be getting permission.

You need to obtain permits for a copper pesticide type application.

A lot of people will buy copper sulfate and sprinkle it off the end of the dock to kill the snails, to help prevent swimmer's itch.

Some of those just off the end of the dock things would not be permitted and, you know, it's hard to control.

You can buy it at your local hardware store.

You know it is a chemical.

It affects all aquatic organisms.

And if you just have everyone dumping copper in off the end of their dock, it might not be a big deal this month or this year, but if everyone does it every month, every year, we should probably look into that and talk about it and figure out how to take better care of our lakes.

(light instrumental music) We've been doing copper-based control in aquatic systems for about a hundred years and we've started using copper with zebra mussels.

Zebra mussels directly compete with our native mussels.

Zebra mussels, unlike our natives, attach to hard surfaces including the shells of native mussels.

They will out-compete them for food, for space, and then they can encrust them so completely that they either can't burrow, they can't feed, usually they kill them.

They also directly compete with other filter feeders.

They can change the amount of particulate matter in the water column, which changes how much light filters through the water.

And so that changes the temperature of the water.

It changes where plants can grow.

It changes habitat for fish, for other species.

(dramatic instrumental music) I am not sure if this is the end all for zebra mussels.

I think it's a great potential tool.

There are negative impacts or negative effects from zebra mussels and there are negative effects from this type of treatment.

We have a lot more to learn but we know that it works.

We're just sort of refining how to do it and understand some of the potential challenges of an application.

The method seems promising.

(dramatic instrumental music) - [Narrator] Stories about research into invasive aquatic algae, plants, and animals are sponsored in part by the aquatic invasive species task forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac Qui Parle, Swift, and Big Stone counties.

We can stop aquatic hitchhikers from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill - clean in, clean out Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment, remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash.

Drain water from your boat, ballast tanks, motor, live well, and bait container.

Remove drain plugs and keep drain plugs out while transporting equipment.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

To keep live bait, drain the water and refill the bait container with bottled or tap water.

And if you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.

(upbeat twangy music) - What we have here and it's hard to see is wild meadow garlic or prairie garlic, a scrumptious edible.

The whole plant is edible and garlic, right?

You use it with everything and anything from the wild you're getting, it might be smaller in size but it is so rich in that garlic flavor.

So wild meadow garlic or prairie garlic, it is native to our prairie lands here in Minnesota.

Obviously it's threatened, like so many plants due to habitat loss.

So I am all about the sustainable harvest of anything from the wild and especially our native plant species.

So wild meadow garlic is one of the first things to pop up in the spring.

And then by early to mid-June, that's kind of a good harvest time for it and it's easier to spot than it is now because all the other grasses aren't so tall around it yet.

Today, like I said, it's a little harder to spot and we are a little bit past prime, you know, harvesting season.

But it's also a good time in that it's gone to seed so we can scatter that seed back down.

And again, back to the sustainable harvest.

I never, ever harvest all from the same area.

Stagger that harvest.

And then I also cut the root tips off and place that back in the ground.

Here we have the dried seed head and normally the stem would be green and that is, like I said, the whole plant is edible.

And so here you get all the little seeds and we are going to, and normally, during harvesting time or prime harvesting time, and then I just like to scatter that.

And so we, when we dig these up, we are as least invasive as what we can possibly be to the soil.

I don't dig a big giant hole and yank everything out.

I just loosen the soil right underneath where the bulb is going to be.

This is a really great example.

So for ID purposes, well number one, the smell of wild garlic is unmistakable.

So you're gonna get a very big dose of garlic.

And then, well even right now, as the stem, 'cause the stem is normally just a vibrant, bright green, again, you'll have the new seeds on top and then that opens up and then they'll flower.

So you have little white flowers.

And they don't all flower but, more often than not, the ones I find are flowered.

So that's how to spot them a little bit easier.

And again, that's May and early June.

And then already we're only into July and you can see they've gone to seed.

And so we're just gonna leave those here and scatter them.

And then the bulb, (Nicole exhales) that's a good garlic smell.

Earthy garlic.

So what I'm gonna do, ID purposes, you can see it's got kind of this little meshy netting, I guess, around it for lack of any better words to describe this.

And so that's a telltale IDing characteristic that you do in fact have wild garlic aside from of course that wonderful smell.

And then sustainable harvest, I am going to cut the root tendrils off and I am gonna place that right back into the ground from where it came.

And then I, again, leave no trace.

And so I'm gonna put the ground back or the soil back as best as I can.

And then you can bring this delightful little bulb of garlic, it's a little bit different, right, than our commercial garlic, but it packs a wonderful punch and a little goes a very long way.

But I like to dry these, the whole entire plant.

And then I will grind it up into a garlic powder or of course, fresh, right?

Any dishes that you would use garlic in.

So there you have it.

Prairie Meadow Wild Garlic.

(instrumental music) - [Narrator] Funding for Prairie Sportsman is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

And by Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farm, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

And by Live Wide Open, Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, and the members of Pioneer PBS.