We will edit so
if something does pop up.
We'll do that and we can re-answer
whatever I understand.
So I guess, let's start with the
history.
The liquids history?
Yeah, give me the background.
OK. This is your,
what generation are you?
So I'm the fourth generation,
our family owners, we've gone
through a couple different
namesakes, but it was my
great-grandmother that started the
resort.
She worked for a
guy that owned an island here on the
lake.
And she did housekeeping for
him, took care of all the services
around his place.
And he happened to own Lakewoods at
the time, too.
And after a couple of years, it's
just a small little island, he...
He's like, Anna, I want you to go
back to Lake Woods and you can take
care of my guests there.
When I want them to come out and
visit me, I'll call on you and you
get somebody to roll them out
to the island and we'll entertain
them out there and then they can
come back and they can stay with you
at Lake Woods.
And after about a year of that,
she's like well, this is silly to be
doing it just for your guests, we
should open it to the public.
And so in 1907,
she started renting to the Public
and through the years she
took over as a land contract.
And bought the resort from
the judge.
So that's how it all started,
you know, back there.
And we're working, it's gonna be 120
years here.
Great grandma Anna.
That was great.
That was my great-grandma Anna, yes.
And she eventually, she married the
engineer on the train.
And so she went from Anna Nemec to
Anna Young.
And then their daughter,
my grandmother,
she ended up taking over
and running the resort and married a
Rasmussen. And so my father was
the first Rasmuson that actually
carried through with the name,
otherwise it was changing every
generation. And so I'm the second
one.
That carried it through, so.
It's a great entrepreneurial
story of how this
started.
Sure, absolutely, yeah, you know,
at that time, you think a single
lady, she started working for
the judge, I think she was 14 or 15
years old, did that for several
years and probably by the time she
was 18 years old she was
running Lakewoods
as a single lady, her and her
sister, who was a couple years
younger.
So we're talking about an era
in which people would come up for
longer than a brief weekend.
Oh, sure.
Oh, sure, absolutely, yes.
So what was the
draw for people to come up here?
Well, at that time it was a
hunting and fishing camp.
People came up and they came up and
they hunted in the fall, they
fished.
And then I'm not sure what they did
in the winter.
They, I don't know, maybe skied
around or something,
hid from the snow.
But I think a lot of people, what
they were doing is they were
escaping the cities.
Kind of like what they do now.
They want to get out of here and get
into what we all have up in this
area. But they used to do it mainly
probably from the heat, if you can
imagine living in.
Chicago, when there were all the
horses and the
toilets ran in the streets, what
that place would smell like.
Even worse than it does today.
No offense to Chicagoans anywhere.
But it was just a great place for
them to come. They could get away
from the heat. They could away from
things. We've got Lake Superior just
north of us, a big natural air
conditioner.
And it was a good place for him to
go. They'd come up here, they could
fish, enjoy
the woods, get out into the forest,
and everything else.
Kind of what everybody does today
So, over the generations,
was there a gradual expansion
of what Lake Woods Resort offered?
You know, I'm not sure that it was.
I mean, there was always that bent
on, you know, getting people out to
what the area has to offer.
I mean that's really why it is a
destination like it is.
And you know I think that kind of
held true and that was one of the
reasons why my, you know my great
grandfather, when was approached
by the, at that time it probably
was the park service,
that they wanted to create a
national forest here.
And he's like, well sure.
You know, my guest can always use
the National Forest and everything
else. And he, you know, ended up
selling thousands of acres,
you know, to help create the
National forest for, you know, I
remember it was a nickel or a dime
or whatever it was.
It was, you know, very little money
at the time, you know, for
to, to create what
we have, help create what we have up
here. And so
I think that was always part of
what, you know, we were as Lakewoods
is getting people up here for what
the area has to offer.
So, I guess kind of the history
lesson, when did the
getting away for the hunting and
fishing shift into a family
getaway, or was that always an
element?
I think that was always an element,
even I know my parents or
my father when he grew up here at
the resort too, you know they always
had their guests and at that time
like I said a lot of them would come
and they'd just stay for the summer
and then maybe they were they were
school teachers or other people that
were retiring you know
kind of like what they do now to
come up here but rather than having
their own place they would come in
see a place like this and
a lot it was American plan so
they would either they could either
come and stay just.
You know, for the room, or they
could come and they'd have the meals
planned and everything else.
And we even have some of our cabins
and stuff that are still named
after, you know some of the guests,
like our magic house, there was a
guy that would stay there all
summer and he used to do you know
magic tricks for all the other
people at the resort.
And so we still have the magic house
on the property and other
ones. So, just
a really interesting way of.
We're doing that, we're, you know,
these people are long friends.
We have people that have been coming for,
even now, there's families that have
been coming over 75 years that have
staying with us, so it
really means.
And you were born into this.
I was born into this, yes.
So the day you came home from the
hospital, did they put you on the
bar, or did they help you sweep in?
There's some interesting stories
though I remember at that time, a
lot of times we would go out to
the trade shows and stuff and
through all the different cities and
we'd sign people up to stay for the
summer. That's how people found out
where to go. They would come,
they would see a brochure, talk
with some of the people and then
they're like, well that sounds like
a great place to stay.
And I got stories when I was a baby,
they used to tuck me underneath the
trade show booth and I'd sleep down
there while they were doing this.
So I grew up doing a lot other
things.
Stories of being on the counter back
in the kitchen when they're
helping with the meals and stuff on
a busy weekend or something.
Was this growing up, I mean, could
you imagine a different life,
or has this always been who you
were?
I think it's always been part of who
I was. I mean, it was great.
You know, we had, you know, for
being a small community, small town
and stuff, I got to expose to a lot
of different things. You had
different people coming up here
every weekend, you know, all
the kids and people and families and
stuff that are here having fun.
And a lot them are, you know some of
my closest friends still today that
were just guests here at the resort.
And that really makes for,
you an interesting, you
now, way to grow up.
I mean, it's just, it was fun.
I mean a lot of work, a lot stuff to
do around here, but, you know,
you hire your friends
to come and help you bag ice, you
now, when you're a kid, you to do
things. And they thought it was
fine. And I remember stories of
my dad and his, you know brothers
and sisters, they used to go on the
trash run.
They'd go around all the cabins and
picking up the trash and all the
kids would come out and they'd all
ride on the garbage truck as they
went and picked up the trash to
bring it to the dump.
I mean it was. You know, those
stories didn't start with me.
They started, you know, way back
before, and I'm sure it went on,
you know, with my
great-grandparents' kids.
So part of our story is obviously
focusing on a wall.
And this has been known as a good
wall, right?
That communication is not recent
or that's long-standing.
No, it's been a
Wale Lake.
As long as we recall, and it's
funny, we had somebody
that did some research way back,
and he was thinking, he's like, you
know, I'm not sure that that
Nemakagon was always a Wala Lake.
It might have been more, you,
know, this or that or other things,
and they were planted back in the
late 1800s or whatever it might
have, and then they kind of thrived
in the area. Not that there weren't
Wala, of course, all through this
area, but it was an thing that
he had come up with.
I'm not sure where it is, and I
don't know if there's any truth to
it, but as
long as there's been any recorded
history that we know of, this has
been a Wally Lake.
It's been a great sport fishing lake
for everything.
The Native Americans had their
villages on here,
and they fished and traveled
through this area all
the time, and that's
what we know, I guess.
So,
there was a point in time back in
the early 90s when the DNR
did some surveys here, GlyphRig did
surveys at nine walleye
per, adult walleye, per acre,
and that's three times what the
state averages right now, so that is
walleye fishery.
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, it was there was I remember
that you know as a kid and there
were a lot and this got you know
a lot of natural reproduction in
there it's got great you
know shorelines and stuff the rocky
bottoms and other things that help
make those fish thrive
in this lake.
And I think that's you know
there it does receive that attention
so it might receive more pressure
and other thing for people to come
up and fish on it.
Did you fish when you were a kid?
Did you have time?
I did, we did a
fair amount of fishing.
It seemed like it was hard to
do here because the work is
always right there in the background
for you. So we used to escape
away too and get to other places
and fish some of the other lakes.
My grandfather loved to
fish too, so we'd go out with him.
My father and my
brother and sister and stuff, we'd
different places, go to Canada,
go down to the Chippewa Flow Edge up
here. I mean, this area, the Hayward
Lakes area you know, it's got...
Tons of fisheries so and
good fishing in all of them really.
So you were obviously here when
the tribes first started reasserting
their spirit.
Yes, yes I was.
I remember it.
I was a teenager at the time and
of course there was a lot of turmoil
in the area.
Like I received national attention
with the protests
and other things as that was
happening.
And you know, there's,
I guess you can always look at
things. You can look at the negative
aspect and you can also look at
positives and try to do that.
And I know that was one thing that
my father really tried to do was,
you know he saw the potential impact
and what was going on.
And tried to come up with ways of
helping solve the problems that were
coming up with those changes.
So, your mother was
making reference to this before, but
he said that Phil, your father,
but was on a council back then.
Yes. To try and start looking
at possible solutions of what can
be done.
Yeah, in fact that was one of the
things right away that he did is
he got involved and contacted
with the different tribal leaders
and stuff in the area and
came up with an idea for this fish
for the future.
And he didn't do it alone, there was
a lot of other people that were
involved with it too, but they were
all proactive and thinking hey
there's got to be some solutions to
these problems.
And you know they tried a bunch of
different things and did some other
things to help You know,
make sure that the lake maintained
its, you know, status as being a
great walleye fishery and really
fishery for all the different game
fish.
What is the significance of
wildlife?
What did it mean when they started
to decline?
Yeah you know I think that's
that's you know it's the iconic fish
that in the muskie you know
obviously people think of the north
woods you know and they think of
fishing up here they think of
walleye they think a muskie and
you know being that both of them
are in this lake you know to have
one starting to lose prominence or
something like that really did
affect people because I mean they
came up here and a lot of our guests
through the years that was the thing
you know they wanted to go out there
they wanted, to catch their you know
their dinner for the frying pan.
And, you know, muskie isn't one of
those fish. So what is it?
Well, it's the walleye.
And so the people that would come up
here, you know they wanted to, you
don't do that. We have cooking in
our units and stuff up here and they
wanna do their own little fish fry
or they come into the restaurant
here and enjoy our
fish fry that we serve them here
too.
I mean, was there a real threat that
could change the economy of
the area?
That fishing, even if it wasn't the
main driver, was enough of an
element?
Oh, absolutely.
And in fact, I think we did see it.
And, you know, there were again,
some, you know, negative aspects of,
of the, of, you know, early on
that, that started to take
prominence and, you know, it
started, you know, probably,
you know, in the 90s, mid 90s and
that where, you know, the initial
impetus for everybody working
to make, solve problems because
of that, it kind of went away
for a lot of them and still the
problems, you you know, that that
came from.
That the type of fishing, the
pressure that was still on the fish
and other ones, they started
developing later.
You know, like you said, 90s, you
know, they were, you know all these
fishes are like three times the
national or excuse me, the state
average.
But yet at the end
and in the 2000, I don't remember
when all the censuses were, all of a
sudden we're like, you now, there's
only one fish you can catch.
You know we went from having five
fish to three fish and all of
sudden they're saying, you there's
one fish and it's gotta be a slot.
You know, even to the point they
were talking that maybe you're not
going to be able to keep any
of the fish while the fishery
recovers.
And all of a sudden, boom, the
prominence comes back, that interest
comes back from the public
and the community and stuff.
They're like, hey, we really got to
do something to improve this
fishery.
Is it was around 2017
that some of those surveys showed
the absolute crash to below
state average. Sure.
And we've talked with Mike D'Andrea,
we've talked with Greg Cliff, and
you've got to use Steven's
Point and the Opticulture Center.
What was those
first conversations like,
of getting people back together,
like, hey, you can still find a
solution and do something?
Well, I think they went back and
reexamined some of the programs that
they had that they started back in
the 80s, you know, the late 80s and
that.
You know, where we worked with the
tribes that were coming out and
exercising their rights out here to,
you know, milk the sperm, get the
eggs, raise the fry,
or even just, I mean,
even early on they were just like,
you know, let's fertilize those eggs
and let's just put them back in the
water and keep
that going. And they
took it even one step further now,
working with the tribes
up at
Red Cliff there, where they have the
fishery up there that they're
raising them. We're raising nine
inch fish and putting them back in
the lake, and we're talking tens of
thousands of fish that we put back
into the lake here.
And we're starting to see those
results.
We had guests here that
are out fishing, and they're saying,
jeez, I went out and caught 30
fish today.
You know, I mean, I haven't caught
fish like that since I, you know,
went, you know to some other
prominent place, maybe in Canada or
some of those waters where there's,
you know they have a really
significant population of walleye.
They're like, I hadn't caught a fish
like that here for a long time.
You know maybe they weren't all
giant trophies, but you
know what?
Catching fish is catching fish and
it's a lot of fun.
So, and that's really what we want
to do is people to go out there.
I don't think, you now people really
want to take home all these baskets
of fish maybe like they wanted to at
one time or another. And you know a
lot of people don't want to.
Don't clean a stinky old fish in
their place anyways and try to cook
it on the stove you know I don't
need to do that I can go to a great
restaurant that are all through the
area like here at Lakewoods and
get my walleye dinner there and you
know somebody's gonna do it expertly
prepared for me rather than you
know something that I
cook once a year when I go on
vacation so
And that is a difference between
now and 30
years ago, is that
why people fish and what
enjoyment they take from it.
It's not as focused on the harvest.
It's more of the catch and if you
put it back, that seems but
just the idea of catch and release.
Yep, that catch and release has been
popular and it's done a lot to
improve the fishing up here.
I mean, look what it did for the
muskie when people quit harvesting
the muskies and just putting them
out back in.
You know, take a picture of it, get
a reproduction done, put that
on the wall instead of, you know,
taking that fish out of the water.
And, you now, it's, it has done a
whole lot through the whole area
for improving that muskie fishery.
Now, this is your place.
If you want to catch a trophy fish,
you want come out here because that
40 plus inch muskie.
Your chances here are probably
better than just about anywhere to
catch that.
So, looking at the history of
how your resort has evolved as
well, just some of the improvements
you've done, adding a golf course,
some of those other elements, is it
a coincidence that you started
adding more amenities around the
time that the walleye started their
decline?
You know, I think that was part of
it.
You know I
don't know if this came up before
in your talks with anybody else.
But you know, the prominence
of that fishing opener.
You know? I remember when I was a
kid and I was growing up even in,
you know into the 20s.
You know into my 20s I should say.
That, you know, I mean, it was like
a week-long festival.
I mean it was wild up here and
you know people are coming and
there's a lot of excitement and
stuff in the air and you
people can't wait and the boats are
lined up and they're coming in and
they telling stories and the bars
and the restaurants and everything
is fun. The whole area is buzzing.
Add fishing opener every year.
You know, like I said, sometime in
the 2000s, maybe, you know,
it's just started.
It seemed like every week it was, or
every year it was going down a
little bit more, a little more, a
little but more for the number of
people that were coming up.
And really the last, you
now, maybe like you said, I mean, it
was before 2017,
we just, it just almost was like
a non-event. And there weren't a lot
of people that were come up here
anymore for it.
And I think, you there's a lot of
different reasons for that.
You know one, you while
I've been planted throughout the
state now. And people can go
near their homes.
They didn't have to drive all the
way to the far northern reaches of
the state to catch a walleye.
They can catch some down in their
different areas and throughout all
of Wisconsin.
So I think that affected a
lot of the people having to drive so
far up here.
But then too, like you said,
maybe all of a sudden you can't catch
it. All of a suddenly you went from
five fish to one fish or
two fish and one can be over and one
could be under and all that and
people are just like,
It's just not as much fun, or maybe
there's a negative connotation
that's added to that for in people's
heads that, you know, they look at
walleye as, you know, that's that
fish I want to catch and I want
bring home, I want harvest it and
keep, you know, and all of a sudden
they say, oh, we can't.
So I think that affected a lot of
it. And now that,
you know maybe some of that stuff
has changed, people aren't really
harvesting as much as they are just
want to go out and catch that we're
going to see some resurgence in
there, especially if they can come
out and they hear like, geez, I can
catch 10, 15, 20 fish.
And a day up here, because the
fishing is so good, even if they're
not taking my water, all of a sudden
that excitement is there and we'll
see more fishermen again.
So, looking on your website, just
how you brand yourself, you talk
about when you were a kid underneath
the table of people,
at one point, this was probably
advertised as a walleye resort, or
as a place to come fish in a great
walleye fishery, and that branding
isn't really as prominent,
and it's a great relaxation,
it's family resort, it's
at least a wonderful place to spend
your time, and just like,
who you're calling to seems
to have shifted over time.
Yeah, you know, I think that's part
of it, and I think our changes as a
resort and our market and stuff has
changed a lot with, you
know, the family values and stuff
that we see in the state where,
you know, maybe like
the kid's parents
today, maybe they did some stuff
with their grandparents and did a
little fishing, but it wasn't such a
big part of why they were going and
doing things.
And all of a sudden that just didn't
carry on to their kids and so
You know, fishing is part of that
family culture has changed a lot for
people, and so it's not as
important a part of
their vacation plans and other
things. There's still some, you
know, there's still a lot of families
that are. I mean, in fact, we just
had a long-time guest comes
up muskie fishing all the time,
came up with his grandparent or his
grandfather, comes up with this
father.
He's lamenting because he's got to
leave on Wednesday this week because
work came up.
And you know he's been coming up
since, I remember him just being a
little kid coming up here.
And he's like, yeah, I'm going to
have to leave early because I can't
do it. But obviously, that family
is really important for them.
But a lot of the families now, it's
fun. We'll go out and do it, but
it's not a big part of their
vacation experience.
Just we were out of the lake for a
few hours when we were here last
time and just looking out the
windows now I mean you see the
tubes the skiers the jet skis.
You've got the big slide.
I mean, it's it's fun.
It's action It's not
Fiction since let's see if we get a
bite today
Yeah, and it depends on the time of
the day.
Like, you know, this morning, I
remember I got up, I don't
know why I get up at the sunrise, I
shouldn't have, but the dogs have to
get let out too.
And I'm sitting out on the deck and
I'm out there and I see the boats
that are out there and there's
several of them parked around the
different parts of the lake and I
know they're out fishing.
They're catching that first light
fish. They're getting out there
enjoying, you now, their pastime
before everybody else
is waking up and all those other
activities start and you'll see the
same thing here this afternoon
and this evening.
You know, some of those activities
die down, and all of the
fishermen will come out and you'll
see the lake covered with boats
again as people are fishing and
catching that last lake fish and
that usually when the strong
bite is coming on.
And it's almost like they've learned
to share the licks.
They really have.
Our lakes associations have
done a lot to help with that,
you know, protecting things.
I know there's different, you know,
policies and actions and stuff that
they do throughout the state for,
you know. Well, this time is
allocated for this, activity this
time's allocated for that.
And, you know, fortunately we don't
have to worry about that up here,
you know as of yet.
Not to say we might not in the
future, but You know,
people, people do, and they're...
They're accustomed to that, they
know everybody has their past time,
they like to do things, and there's
a lot of room out there.
You know, we've got 3,300 plus acres
of lake out there for people to
enjoy, and they
can absolutely do that.
So what is it about
catching a bar that makes it
so much more different than
any other type of fish?
I think it is,
like you said, you're sitting there
and you hear the stories of grandpa
and him going out and catching a
string or a fish.
Like I said, if you talk
to anybody that comes to the
Northwoods, they think Walleye fish
fry.
They think about the
Wisconsin classic fish fry
and doing these things.
It's just part of the culture of
Wisconsin.
Walleye is still that Northwood's
fish. They think of it in Canada.
They think about it here in northern
Wisconsin.
Even though you can catch it
anywhere in the state, Northern
Wisconsin is still known as
the walleye place in the states.
Talking about boy,
you sir boy
Absolutely.
How much of that is like a
key element because there's a lot of
places still the fish fry sure it's
harder and harder to find a walleye
Yeah, well, we have the walleye fish
fry every day.
In fact, we serve it for breakfast.
We serve it lunch, and we serve for
dinner. So the wallay fish fry is
absolutely a part of what Lakewood's
is.
We have for breakfast, we our
walleye breakfast comes
with eggs and hash browns and all
the rest. We got a walleye sandwich
we serve the rest of the day.
Nice big walleye filet
that's on there. We hand bread it,
put it on there, and then at night,
of course, there's always that
Friday fish fry, too.
And we serve a couple different
kinds of fish, but crusted walleye
is one of them that we have on
there. We still have our walleye fry
that we do, and
it's all of it. It's part of our
menu, and I talk to all of our
purveyors every year.
We go through a lot of effort to
make sure that, hey,
we can still get the larger size
filets and stuff that people dream
about catching when they're out
there themselves to make we have
them on the menu so they can see
that, so.
Do you think people would be
surprised to learn that a lot of
that wildland comes from Canada?
I think that's the only available...
Well that's not the only, I know
Lake Erie has a lot and there's
Leech Lake up in Northern Minnesota
and stuff where they still do some
commercial fishing for walleye.
But you know really Canada is where
it's at.
The different tribes
up there, the aborigines that they
have up in Canada, they do fish a
lot of those lakes and that's where
a lot comes from.
And that's a lot where we get it
too.
I don't know, it's not a bad thing.
I mean, we can still get the fish,
they got the natural reproduction,
and they don't have the pressure
that they have maybe down here in
the states and stuff that allows
that those fish populations
are there for you to utilize
them.
Well, that's why we can still
have a walleye dinner, because if
there was commercial pressure on
Wisconsin's walleye fisheries,
then that would be truly
unsustainable.
Yeah, absolutely.
There wouldn't be walleye
fishing, probably anywhere up there
if it's like that.
So to walk me through a little bit
of like what we're going to see
tonight in the kitchen and
you said you shopped for the
year for your walleye like you're
you're already planning out
Absolutely, so every spring and
every fall I meet with my
purveyors and we
work out pricing and quantities and
stuff like that to make sure that
we'll have the stuff on hand,
or the fish on hand.
And then we also, you know,
we plan that for our
meetings and events and groups and
things. Is that something we want to
offer to our groups and other ones
or not based on the
availability and what they think
they can get for us.
We've got to look at it as a
sustainable thing as well.
And if they're saying, well, the
harvests are down this year and
everything else, well maybe we'll
take the pressure off of some
things, but to make sure that it's
still available for those people
that are coming up here to visit,
that we have that.
I mean, I'm sure you have guessed
that part of, they come
up here for a lot of things,
but getting a wall liked in this.
Absolutely.
I remember, it was a number of years
ago now, that, you
know, they were, they're having
problems with the harvest and they
weren't getting the the size fish
that they wanted that we
could get in here and I,
God forbid, put a smaller filet
on the menu and, you know,
you would think that I was
eating right off their plates, you,
know, that the response we got and
they're like, well what happened to
this? And I said, you know, but you
know we had to explain it.
We had to put a...
Thing on our menu you know to kind
of let them know that hey they're
not they didn't get the
you know the larger fish and you
know in terms of
sustainability and other things
we're making adjustments to our menu
to make sure that we can continue to
have walleye in the future.
Fortunately that changed was only
a short one-year
you know occurrence and we were able
to go back to get the larger size
that we enjoy having and
and it's been that way since.
It's interesting because obviously
we've been working with UW-Stevens
Point and their Aquaculture Center.
They're part of this experiment.
There is a gentleman down in Rice
Lake who has an aquaculture center
that uses walleye in these tanks to
feed his plants.
And they're looking at what would it
take to expand that out and like one
day there might be a commercial
fishery for walleye Wisconsin.
How different would it feel if we
were like, this is Wisconsin
walleye?
Now it's Wisconsin Walleye.
Yeah, you know, fortunately, we get
an opportunity for Wisconsin
Walleyes because we can go catch
them in the lake.
But you know to offer that to our
guests and give them that true
Wisconsin experience, that would be
tremendous.
It'd be wonderful.
I could take Canadian off the menu
and put, you know, Wisconsin
Wall Eye on the menu instead of
Canadian Walleye, so I
really enjoy that.
So I look forward to that hopefully
coming up in the future.
Part of the story is we've looked at
all the different research programs,
the DNR, Glyphwik, and universities,
and all these different agencies are
putting so much effort into studying
population decline, climate
impacts, and lakes, and harvests.
There's a lot of money that goes
into this one species.
And there's a question to be asked
of like, is it worth all
the attention and all the money that
it's getting to make sure that there
are walleyes for the future, that
there are going to be walleye
opportunities for future anglers
and little kids going up and
creating.
You know, I really do.
I think it's worth, you know, every
effort because, again, if you think
of, you know, the Wisconsin culture,
you think about what really defines
people when they think about the
state and they think of vacationing
in the Northwoods and other ones, it
comes up.
And I know that the
Department of Tourism here in
Wisconsin has done different
studies, they've done different
things through the years, and it
does. It comes up time after
time after and it really does
help define us.
And so to take that effort,
to sustain that or to keep that
around, I think really is important.
And it would be if that was lost
somehow, I really think it would,
we wouldn't be as well off because
of that.
And a cropping fish fry just
doesn't have the same...
It doesn't have the same ring, but
you know, there's nothing wrong with
a crabby fish fry.
I tell you what, those are some of
the tastiest too.
So, and, but that's really what's
great about the fisheries up here.
You know, you can get all the
different fish and you know you can
go out and you can try to catch your
walleye.
Maybe you'll catch some, maybe
you'll keep them, maybe if you
won't. But a lot of times people
will say, you know what, I'd just
rather have a pan fish fry and
go out there and catch those.
I know I'm going to get them. I know,
I can plan for it rather than
waiting until you get enough or if
you're, you know feeding your family
or something like that.
And you can only catch one or two
fish.
Well, that's not enough to feed a
whole family when you go out for
fishing, but you can catch enough of
the panfish, crappie, or something
else that you know you can feed your
family if that's what your plan is,
is to have a fish fry.
So, you can do that right out here
and it makes it a great place to
come, so.
Anything else that you want to add
along these lines?
Um, you know, I don't know
that there was a whole lot more.
I don't
I think we kind of touched on some
of the history stuff, a little bit
of the fish for the future.
Before we let you go...
Some great pictures.
I mean, you got some of the pictures
and stuff. We want to have you kind of walk us
through. We'll go out there and just
have you point out some of those.
Okay. But before we wrap this
up, can I get you to say and
spell your name just so I have it
correct on my tape?
Sure.
Sure, I'm a Philip Charles Rasmussen
instead of the Philip August that
you've met before.
So I'm also a Phil, but I go by
PC, PC, and then Rasmusen,
R-A-S-M-U-S S-E-N.
All right, and title here.
I'm the owner and general manager.
Thank you so much.
You bet. That was great.