I've been fortunate to have made acquaintance with some regionally and nationally known fishing personalities such as Marv Koep, Al and Ron Lindner, Harry Van Dorn, Carl Lowrance, Virgil Ward and many more, but I'm not going to be talking about any of those famous anglers. I'm going to be talking about some great anglers who never made the headlines, never wrote a magazine article or who were never paid to endorse a rod and reel.

The two men who are primarily responsible for my lifelong fishing habit would be my grandfather, John, and my dad, Clyde. Through the mists of time, I can barely remember my first trip to West Fork Creek with both of these gentlemen and I'm told the little creek, barely 8 feet across, was where I pulled my first flopping creek chub to shore. I'm told that I was so enamored with this scaly creature that I grabbed it with both hands and clutched it the 5 miles back to our farmhouse. That little horny-headed creek chub started me on the path to lakes, rivers and ponds all over the upper Midwest.

As I grew older, small creek chubs somehow lost their allure. I was now drawn to bigger fish like carp and channel catfish; about the only freshwater fish that were available in western Iowa at the time. I have an uncle who introduced me to the finer points of catching a smooth-skinned channel catfish. Uncle Jim was renowned for his prowess when it came to chasing trail hounds and catching catfish. He turned his nose up at the lowly carp and only sought out "cats."

Uncle Jim took me to the Big Sioux River, along Iowa's western border, many times. I learned that when the car door slammed shut after we arrived at the river bank, one better have their tennis shoes on because Uncle Jim was off like he was shot out of a rifle barrel. He fished every brush pile, every deep undercut, under every overturned cottonwood tree and every place that a catfish might be hiding out. He used light line and a sliding sinker as terminal tackle. Uncle Jim invented the slip sinker rig back in the 1950s, long before it was mass produced. From him I learned to be quiet when approaching the water and how to recognize good looking water.

One of my favorite people to take fishing was my Uncle Claude. He lived in Sioux City and down in that country he fished for carp on the Floyd and Big Sioux River and occasionally on the Missouri River. Uncle Claude wasn't too picky when it came to what he was fishing for, as long as it had scales and put a bend in his fishing rod.

After I moved to northern Minnesota, Uncle Claude ventured north and I got the chance to introduce him to some real game fish. We fished Pelican Lake, the lake that Governor Pawlenty will be fishing this weekend, and Uncle Claude and I caught walleyes, bass and northern pike. One fine day while in my boat he latched on to a northern that weighed in at over 13 pounds. Not a huge fish, but a trophy northern pike in anyone's book. Uncle Claude burned two camera's full of film on that fish and he even got a special anglers award patch from a famous outdoor magazine. I think it was the highlight of his fishing career. Fishing with Uncle Claude rivaled any trip I've had with more famous anglers for just plain fun.

Yes, there will be lots of famous fisherpersons out on the water this weekend in Minnesota. Some will catch a fish and some will not. Fish really don't care if you catch them or not and as President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Before fish, all men are considered equal."

I don't know if I'll be out with the multitude this weekend or not, but I know I'll be remembering the famous fishermen that got me started and I'll be forever thankful they were there to take a kid to the water. It was a good investment of their time.

See you next time. Okay?