Walleye Capital of the World
Baudette, “The Walleye Capital of the World.” I think that would about sum up the excitement of that town as well. Located in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota, the town sits at the border with Canada, along the Rainy River. The entrance is guarded by a statue of the “World’s Biggest Walley” and a rusting blue water tower sticks out prominently from the middle of the town.
What most people head to this area for is exactly the thing it promotes, walleye and fishing in general. There are many fishing resorts and that is what brought me there!
Up here, I’ve found that unless I am in town proper, I have no cell phone coverage. The resorts generally have no internet access. This kind of thing is wonderful if you are trying to escape civilization and get into the great outdoors. However, it is not so great if you are trying to do business, make appointments and have adopted technology as your surrogate companion and closest friend. Luckily, there was a café in town that offered an internet connection.
The biggest highlight for me was getting out onto Lake of the Woods itself. You can see Canada to your right as you pull out of the Rainy and into the Lake. We motored out and eventually met up with the fishing mob. They were fishing in about 33 feet of water, and it was like clockwork as we pulled past both of this resort's fishing boats and they each pulled up a gigantic walleye, just as we passed them, as if on cue! I was videoing. Set on my tripod the boat rocked as usually and it would have been best to be hand-held. However, for destination pieces I usually hand-hold, for property shots I have never let the camera leave the tripod. We shall see how it turns out.
To kill some of the monotony, I took myself to see Wall E in the small downtown theater. It was a nice escape from not much else to do. The restaurants were the Oriental Wok and another local diner which had an angry waitress complaining about people and old food splattered on the wall. Needless to say, the Wok saw me more than once.
Weather has been gray and windy at times and some storms have come through. Luckily, they have not interfered with my property shoots! I got nailed with some severe headache and feverish-ness the past 24 hours plus. Not one to get them, you start to think of things like, ‘man, did I get Lyme’s Disease? Oh, I don’t have time for this!” But hopefully those things will pass.
Very happy on the road, I took Highway 11 east towards International Falls. It was cool, to look out to your left and the occasional break in the trees would present the Rainy River and Canada on the other side. It was neat to think how easy it would be to get across to another country just by crossing that river. On the other side you’d see a farmstead with a big old maple leaf on one of its water towers. The river was very inviting. All the vegetation was very lush and the river itself ran right up to it. No boats were seen, just water and green.
While I would pass traffic coming from International Falls, ever so often, I saw but one car behind me in the 2 hour drive. This made it much more relaxing, easier to stop and allow the deer to cross in front of me and gave me more time to enjoy the scenery.
International Falls is known as another gateway to Canada. The Boise paper plant (second largest in the world) dominates the town with its big smoke stack complexes and giant warehouse structures. There is a downtown of old buildings converted to modern needs, but I did find one coffee house to get some work stuff done.
You can see the biggest statue of Smokey the Bear there is. Remember what a cult icon that used to be? I remember when I used to play with a bendable Smokey and my young aunt told me “You killed him!” Being too young to understand what she meant, I was very horrified. With contemporary education I know see how foolish we all were in our “Only you can prevent forest fires,” mantra. The repressions of natural fires did great harm. By interfering with that natural process we allowed forest beds to become cluttered with dead debris, smothering chance of new growth, eliminating necessary food sources for other animals and becoming tinderboxes. The jack pine, for instances, needs fires in order to melt its seed casings and disperse its seeds. But heck, Smokey was incredibly effective and it still is important to promote personal responsibility! Besides, he’s kinda cute.
Now its on to more places that not even locals have heard of!
What most people head to this area for is exactly the thing it promotes, walleye and fishing in general. There are many fishing resorts and that is what brought me there!
Up here, I’ve found that unless I am in town proper, I have no cell phone coverage. The resorts generally have no internet access. This kind of thing is wonderful if you are trying to escape civilization and get into the great outdoors. However, it is not so great if you are trying to do business, make appointments and have adopted technology as your surrogate companion and closest friend. Luckily, there was a café in town that offered an internet connection.
The biggest highlight for me was getting out onto Lake of the Woods itself. You can see Canada to your right as you pull out of the Rainy and into the Lake. We motored out and eventually met up with the fishing mob. They were fishing in about 33 feet of water, and it was like clockwork as we pulled past both of this resort's fishing boats and they each pulled up a gigantic walleye, just as we passed them, as if on cue! I was videoing. Set on my tripod the boat rocked as usually and it would have been best to be hand-held. However, for destination pieces I usually hand-hold, for property shots I have never let the camera leave the tripod. We shall see how it turns out.
To kill some of the monotony, I took myself to see Wall E in the small downtown theater. It was a nice escape from not much else to do. The restaurants were the Oriental Wok and another local diner which had an angry waitress complaining about people and old food splattered on the wall. Needless to say, the Wok saw me more than once.
Weather has been gray and windy at times and some storms have come through. Luckily, they have not interfered with my property shoots! I got nailed with some severe headache and feverish-ness the past 24 hours plus. Not one to get them, you start to think of things like, ‘man, did I get Lyme’s Disease? Oh, I don’t have time for this!” But hopefully those things will pass.
Very happy on the road, I took Highway 11 east towards International Falls. It was cool, to look out to your left and the occasional break in the trees would present the Rainy River and Canada on the other side. It was neat to think how easy it would be to get across to another country just by crossing that river. On the other side you’d see a farmstead with a big old maple leaf on one of its water towers. The river was very inviting. All the vegetation was very lush and the river itself ran right up to it. No boats were seen, just water and green.
While I would pass traffic coming from International Falls, ever so often, I saw but one car behind me in the 2 hour drive. This made it much more relaxing, easier to stop and allow the deer to cross in front of me and gave me more time to enjoy the scenery.
International Falls is known as another gateway to Canada. The Boise paper plant (second largest in the world) dominates the town with its big smoke stack complexes and giant warehouse structures. There is a downtown of old buildings converted to modern needs, but I did find one coffee house to get some work stuff done.
You can see the biggest statue of Smokey the Bear there is. Remember what a cult icon that used to be? I remember when I used to play with a bendable Smokey and my young aunt told me “You killed him!” Being too young to understand what she meant, I was very horrified. With contemporary education I know see how foolish we all were in our “Only you can prevent forest fires,” mantra. The repressions of natural fires did great harm. By interfering with that natural process we allowed forest beds to become cluttered with dead debris, smothering chance of new growth, eliminating necessary food sources for other animals and becoming tinderboxes. The jack pine, for instances, needs fires in order to melt its seed casings and disperse its seeds. But heck, Smokey was incredibly effective and it still is important to promote personal responsibility! Besides, he’s kinda cute.
Now its on to more places that not even locals have heard of!
posted by Tony's Blog at
3:44 PM
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