September, 2026

The best day of work cannot beat the worst day of fishing.  According to Minnesota DNR 29% of residents will throw in a line on a sunny, rainy, cold, hot, or any other type of day, and it really doesn’t matter if the fish are biting.  If you are going to go fishing, here are some interesting things that you might want to ponder while casting or watching a bobber.

Bluegill are the easiest to catch in Minnesota, and it’s usually the first catch of many young anglers.  Not true for me.  My first catch was probably a bullhead, but I’m originally from southern Minnesota, and there are a lot of mud lakes.  My son is too impatient, and while he has been fishing before, he hasn’t really caught one yet.  Don’t be fooled, these fish are tricky to catch, and a lot of hooks are too big for their mouths.  If the hook isn’t baited just right and if the barb isn’t tilted, the little fish can pick the hook clean and not even be heavy enough to pull down the bobber. 

The same can be said about perch.  If my first fish wasn’t a bullhead, then it may have been a perch, but it was unlikely a crappie.  Panfish are the some of the most delicious fish you will ever taste in your lifetime.  It’s something about a shore lunch with perch fried in butter and Bisquick sprinkled on top that sticks with someone for a lifetime.  I still dream about it occasionally.

October, 2026

The barn swallow is an interesting little bird, and I know there’s quite a few people out there that have been dive bombed by one when walking too close to one of their nests.  One of the apartments I used to live at had a nest right by the doorway, and they swooped down by my head to greet me each morning. 

There are a lot of facts about these little birds, and one interesting thing is that they can eat up to 850 bugs a day, and average about sixty insects an hour.  Which almost makes up for the greetings in the morning.

Another interesting thing is that they rarely stop flying to hydrate or bathe.  They fly low to the water and dip their bellies and beaks and fly away.  If you’ve seen them fly over lakes and other types of water, that makes a lot of sense.  Close to the water there’s a lot of insects to eat, and water, in a sense, acts as a napkin after they’re done with a meal.  Smaller birds are generally eaten by larger birds, and the apartment complex removed the nests and put up an owl decoy.  Depending on the decoy, this might be a viable solution, but they came back.  When I moved out the barn swallows were still there, and giving the neighbors a real phobia of birds.