By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Thursday afternoon, July 31, proved to be a good time to catch walleye with guide Ross Hagemeister at one of the Otter Tail County’s many lakes. The weather was perfect, 74 degrees with a slight breeze.

Fishing with our guide was me, Tom Hintgen, my cousin Myron Mjelde of rural Fergus Falls and Myron’s brother-in-law Bob Landrud, a Fergus Falls native and now a resident of the Twin Cities.

Happy to see the fishermen bringing home fillets of walleye at a nearby lake cabin were Myron’s wife, Pam, and Bob’s wife, Sherry. Tom’s wife, Sharon, was also happy to see fillets enter our home in Fergus Falls.

Our late July outing on a lake in the great outdoors with our guide, Ross, proved once again that fishing is always an enjoyable experience at lakes and rivers in our area of west central Minnesota. That’s true no matter the number of fish that are caught.

This year, on July 31, we had lots of keepers. Over the years, with fishing guide Hagemeister, our fish have included a mix of walleye, crappies and bass. We of course have taken photos of individuals holding larger walleye before these large fish are released back into the bodies of water in Otter Tail County.

“I pride myself on my work ethic,” says Hagemeister on his website. “I have a belief that everybody deserves my best effort.”

The only negative thing we experienced this summer was reeling in and discovering not a fish but now and then a glob of zebra mussels, the reality of invasive species in many area lakes.

“Catching fish is fun, but the best days on the water involve something more,” Hagemeister says. “It’s the time spent together, waves splashing, the soft lake air and west central Minnesota at its finest.”