(energetic rock music) - Driving north through Minnesota, you see a lot of the same familiar sites, and so many fishing trips begin this way, but our destination is not your typical fishing destination in Minnesota.

In fact, as a Minnesotan, I need to buy what is essentially a non-resident license to fish here.

(energetic rock music) Today I'll be jumping in the boat with Darwin Sumner along with Dan Amundson and my brother Wade Amundson.

- Okay, we're heading to the wilderness here in Red Lake.

Let's go try for some crappies, some blue gills, and do some bass fishing.

- [Bret] I feel like it's always an adventure getting back to these lakes up here, Darwin.

- Yeah, this road here, I could if some days when it's really muddier, I'll just get in that rut there and fall asleep, take a nap till we get to the lake and takes us right to the lake.

(Bret laughs) Pretty rough roads.

Nobody comes back here a lot, so makes it, you know, better fishing back in our lakes and the waters.

We got about 40 lakes back in the wilderness area here, Red Lake Indian Reservation and all roads are all like this.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] After surviving the road, we decided to start off by looking for some big panfish.

- Blue gills and crappies are out here and about 14 feet of water suspended right now.

(upbeat music) (wind whooshing) (fishing rod whirring) - You get one?

- [Darwin] I don't know what yet.

Probably a big blue gill.

- [Bret] Looks like he's spinning.

Nice blue gill.

- [Darwin] Nice little chunker.

(upbeat music) (wind whooshing) It's a crappie, whoo.

- [Bret] I think it's a blue gill.

- [Darwin] Okay.

- [Bret] I haven't seen it yet though.

Yeah, based on the way it was fighting.

(sighs) Not bad at all.

On the rod my dad made me.

- [Darwin] Nice.

(air whooshing) (fishing rod whirring) (water sloshing) - Yeah.

- It's a good one?

- Small guy.

- [Bret] It's good.

- [Darwin] Small guy.

(upbeat music) - [Wade] Feels a little more sunlight.

(water sloshing) - Blue gill.

- [Bret] Jay is almost a little too light.

- [Wade] He's a nice little guy.

- [Darwin] He probably runs about eight I would say.

(fishing rod whirring) Oh, what do we got here?

Looks like one of them little tanks again.

- [Bret] It's nice one there, yeah.

- [Wade] Yeah.

- [Darwin] (laughs) four-inch gulp.

(indistinct) did go to four-inch gulp with these guys to get this hammer on them.

- [Bret] With the wind picking up, we're using an oversized presentation to get down to the fish.

Quarter ounce jigs and four inch plastics.

But it's not phasing these big blue gills.

(upbeat music) Tell me how these lakes are managed here on the reservation.

- We got a tribal DNR that manages all the lakes and test the water clarity and the law enforcement they go around, check the lakes, make sure everybody's you know, following the limits and stuff.

This year we had to put a limit on the crappies and the blue gills.

- [Bret] Lowered the limit.

- [Darwin] Yep, lowered the limit 'cause we're getting a lot more people fishing and they're getting more proficient at catching fish.

We put the limits down a five each on the crappies and the blue gills.

And the blue gills, they keep one over eight in that limit of- (Bret grunts) Ooh, there's a nice one.

(fishing rod whirring) Hopefully that's one.

Ooh, that's a ooh, that's a chunker.

- It's a good fish.

Oh, yeah.

- [Darwin] So, ones like that they're...

I don't know if that's about what over eight?

- [Bret] Eight, yeah, sure.

- [Darwin] Everybody come on a half ounce jig.

- And lowering the limits on these panfish, it's the same thing that's happening around the state of Minnesota too.

- Right, yeah.

- [Bret] As fishing is getting better and you don't need to keep a ton of these to get a good fish fry out of 'em anyway.

So get a couple for a meal put the rest back like I'm gonna do with that one right there (water sloshes) and let it grow bigger so we can keep catching these big ones.

There's some big fish in here.

- [Darwin] There's some really nice fish in here.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] Managing the pressure and reducing limits, that's how you keep a fishery sustainable and healthy.

And for someone like us to come and do this, we have to buy a non... Is it a non-resident or non-reservation tag?

- [Darwin] Yeah, it's a reservation permit.

Yeah.

- Okay.

- [Darwin] And you got daily permits and you got three day permits.

- [Bret] What do you do?

- [Darwin] But you got seasonal permits too, which is for non-members it's $50 a season or $10 a day.

- And then you have to hire a guide.

- Yep, gotta be with a guide.

(upbeat music) (fishing rod whirring) (wind whooshing) - [Bret] Well that's a nice fish.

- [Wade] Oh, yeah.

Look at that one.

(laughs) - Here's what's out here.

- A sunfish.

- [Wade] Holy Darwin.

I don't think I've ever seen one that big.

Jeepers.

(upbeat music) - [Bret] Anytime you catch big blue gills that hit double digits, it's a good day.

But we weren't done yet.

- [Darwin] See how that grass comes out there?

That floating stuff?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Darwin] On a sunny like this the bass they just go camp right under there.

(playful music) Oh, (indistinct).

(fishing rod whirring) (person speaking indistinctly) - Got it.

- I missed the (indistinct).

(playful music) - I let it sit for a little longer.

- Yeah.

(people laughing) - Oh, are you kidding me?

(grunts) Cannot keep 'em hooked.

I got it.

Darwin let us have the first crack at bass, but after a dry spell it was time for him to grab the rod.

- (grunts) I've seen enough more watch.

(person speaking indistinctly) I just gotta see if there's any out here.

- [Bret] And it didn't take him long to show us how it's done.

- Oh.

(laughs) - Oh.

- Is that in northern?

- Oh.

- Oh.

- [Bret] No, oh.

(Wade laughs) It is.

(fishing rod whirring) (water sloshing) Ooh, that's a nice fish.

(person speaking indistinctly) (water sloshing) - [Darwin] Nice little bass.

- [Bret] Chunky.

- Wasn't the most striking zeroes I believe, it's called.

- And he hit that three times.

- Three times.

- You think that, you think he got 'em on?

- Yeah, I had him off the first one.

(laughs) - Yeah, Had 'em on gas back out there.

He hit it, missed it and then he hit it again.

- He's fat.

- Yeah, he's been eating these blue gills here.

All these isolated pads have a bunch of blue gills on.

We've been hearing them.

(upbeat rock music) - [Darwin] Hold on tight.

He's coming, he's coming.

- [Bret] You got em.

(Darwin grunts) (fishing rod whirring) (water sloshing) - [Darwin] Come on here.

- So, we were using frogs and then Darwin had to show us he could catch fish.

(Darwin laughs) So he caught one on a worm.

- I have a better colored worm.

- And then he switched to the frog and got one on a frog too, so - First cast, so (indistinct) - Obviously, we're doing something wrong.

Nice fish.

- Yeah, that's not bad.

(upbeat rock music) (air whooshing) - [Bret] Get him.

Oh, no.

Oh, he still got him.

There you go, Wade.

- Nice.

- Where's your neck guy?

(laughs) - Who's taking this guy - Nice.

for that one.

- Nice.

- No way.

What did you switched to, Wade?

Jig and a plastic?

- Yeah.

Nice.

- [Wade] Not a bad little fish, yeah.

(upbeat rock music) What do you say, dad's old reel comes through again.

- [Bret] Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

- [Darwin] Yeah, that's awesome.

- [Bret] So while I got to fish with a rod my dad built, Wade was fishing with a reel that also had connections to our dad.

- [Speaker 1] It was a reel that your grandfather won in a Bassmaster bass tournament when we lived down in Nevada, Missouri, like in 1977 or 1978.

(upbeat rock music) (fishing rod whirring) - Here you go.

- [Wade] Oh.

(Darwin grunts) (upbeat rock music) - [Bret] Clearly, the tribal DNR is doing something right in making the Red Lake Nation a fantastic destination for all anglers.

(upbeat rock music)